SC Small Firm.com

Archive for the ‘Career Building’ Category

Let me make this perfectly clear: your business card says a lot about you. When I open the desk drawer with my Rolodex and piles of rubber-banded cards, it’s like pulling open a drawer of memories. (It also reminds me that I need to scan them with my Fujitsu ScanSnap and save them with CardMinder.)

In some cultures, it is considered correct business politesse to hold the card presented to you with both hands, observe it, and comment, before putting it carefully in your wallet.

I have my own rules for business cards, to wit:
• Make sure someone can read your card easily without glasses or a magnifying glass (the “over age 40” rule).
• If you use your domain name in your email address, make sure you also have a web page with that domain name.
• Send two business cards to each client at the close of your case and ask them to refer you business.
• Whenever you give your card, give three (one for that person and two for friends).
• Use both sides of the card – include your practice areas on one side, a map to your office, or a piece of advice.
• Make it unique and easy to spot.

Making your card unique and easy to spot is tricky in the rather conservative field of lawyering. You want the impression you make to be favorable, so keep that in mind before you get too wild and crazy. And if inexpensive business cards are what you seek, the Internet is a good place to go. Try Vistaprint, but don’t forget to give your local supplier a chance to compete.

Tech vendors! Four speakers from this year’s ABA TECHSHOW! A white tablecloth luncheon! CLE specifically for small firms! Prizes!

I just returned from the Marriott on Main Street in Columbia, where I viewed the location of our 2011 Solo & Small Firm CLE and Annual Meeting to be held September 23. It is going to be great! We will have two ballrooms for our simultaneous CLE tracks – one track for technology for small firms and the other for law office management. For the plenary sessions on ethics and Tips, the hotel will combine the rooms by taking out the center wall. The speakers are experts in practice management and technology, and we will have a sprinkle of South Carolina lawyers speaking and doing product demonstrations.

Just outside the ballrooms, in the common area, we have space for 15 tech and office vendors, whom we are busy contacting. We are approaching vendors who will be of particular interest to small firms. We’ll have the breakfast out in the vendor area, so be sure to come early that day. For lunch, we will stroll through the vendor area to a separate ballroom set up for our seated affair. It will be an opportunity to see one another as well as mingle with the speakers and vendors.  And there will be prize drawings!

The Marriott looks great since its remodeling. Since you do want to get there early, you can stay at the hotel at the special rate of $129, or stay at any of the other excellent hotels nearby. The meeting is on Friday, and the next day is a home football game for Carolina (vs. Vanderbilt).

Last year’s Hot Tips seminar was a warm-up to this much larger CLE and meeting. We believe it will be something really fun and very special. Mark your calendar and save your pennies!

Are you having challenges marketing your firm? Many lawyers feel that most referrals come from other lawyers.  If you are a South Carolina Bar member practicing alone or in a firm with five or fewer lawyers, include yourself in the Solo and Small Firm Section’s Solo and Small Firm Practice Area Directory. The Directory is accessible from the Section’s homepage, www.scbar.org/solo and contains practice area information about fellow small firm lawyers in South Carolina. Because the Directory is cross-referenced by both practice area and geographical area, finding a lawyer is quick and simple. The Directory can be viewed online or downloaded and saved as a PDF file. The PDF also contains information for how to print the Directory so that it looks like a book. For inclusion in the directory, small firm lawyers must complete a brief online survey. Questions may be directed to Courtney Kennaday, Practice Management Advisor and Solo and Small Firm Section liaison, at pmap@scbar.org.

One of my favorite funny movie lines of all time comes from 1956′s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers“. Our hero is running for his life. His voice-over narration is (deadpan): “I had known fear before, but never fear like that.” The understatement cracks me up every time.

I was somehow reminded of this line when reading the introduction of a new book dealing with bad times in law practices.  Lawyers have seen tough times before, but never quite this tough.  How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times by Sharon Nelson, Jim Calloway and Ross Kodner has just been released by ABA books. Need a pep talk with a heaping helping of practical advice? This book is a 212-page cookbook for making lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking. As anyone who has seen these well-known authors and speakers would expect, the advice is delivered with compassion, common sense and a dose of humor. Most of the advice is geared to those in small firms, those recently laid off, and those struggling to find jobs. There are tips on getting clients to pay, finding a new job on the Internet, alternative billing , and resume writing. The last section of the book is devoted solely to using technology to practice better, cheaper and faster than before.  For lawyers experiencing the worst of what the economy has dealt, this book is a lifeline. Purchase your own copy, or check it out from the Bar lending library.

Fellow Practice Management Advisor, Linda Oligschlaeger,  of the Missouri Bar, recently published 15 Recession-Response Tips for Small Firm Lawyers in the ABA Law Practice magazine. These tips are now available online.

#6 is “Look at the resources offered by your bar association.” The SC Bar was one of the first nationwide to launch a web resource for lawyers dealing with a down economy. If you haven’t already, visit the Career Counsel pages.