We’re a bit slow on the draw in posting a “most read” post for September, but rest assured, it’s not out of idleness! The fall is typically a busy season for product announcements, including new software releases for the LexisNexis® PCLaw® and Firm Manager® products, for example:
- LexisNexis Releases PCLaw 14 Featuring Batch Email Billing
- LexisNexis Firm Manager Provides Small Law Firms with More Powerful…
There are several more software releases for other products in the works for later this month and early next month. For anyone interested in receiving news releases from the LexisNexis software division as they happen, you can subscribe via RSS here.
Most Read On the Business of Law Blog
The top 10 posts – as determined by unique page views – for September are:
1. Infographic Friday: Trends Shaping the Legal Industry. What are the trends driving the legal industry today? Survey says: client demands, GCs, specialization and virtual law are the top four trends.
2. Law Firms that Discount have more Past Due Clients. Should law firms discount or not – this survey said “not.” If enjoy this post, we’d recommend clicking over Lawyerist afterwards to check out an infographic summarizing this billing survey and an excellent blog post on the pros and cons of discounting. Separately, The Rainmaking Institute’s Stephen Fairley also had a very interesting take in blog post titled, Why Aren’t Lawyers Getting Paid? In it he writes, “It’s really hard to believe that four out of 10 clients are financial hardship cases. But if these survey results are accurate, then law firms have a huge disconnect in one or more of these critical functions.” He lists marketing, sales and business processes as critical functions.
3. Eight Things Lawyers Say they Would Change about Billing. Some of the most interesting insights from surveys come from the qualitative comments. This post summarizes what lawyers have to say about law firm billing in their own words. One attorney wrote, “I would love not to have to bill clients at all.”
4. Three Notable Examples of Big Law IT Innovation. From IT dashboards to project management, these three legal technology initiatives are standout examples of big law IT innovation.
5. Preview Friday: LexisNexis goes to Hollywood. So this happened: Actress Jamie Lee Curtis mentions LexisNexis in a preview for the HBO series Veronica Mars.
6. Forty Customer Product Reviews on LexisNexis PCLaw. Some of our customers have been using the PCLaw program for upwards of 20 years. We’re very grateful for the loyalty and in commemoration of the new PCLaw 14 product, we posted a roundup of recent comments we’ve received from bona fide customers. We’d also like to give a shout out to two of our certified independent consultants who offered strong points of view on the new version of the software:
- Optiable: PCLaw 14 Radically Changed the Way We Email Bills
- Time & Cents: PCLaw v14 – Save time in Emailing Invoices and more
7. Analyst Research: The ROI of Law Firm Practice Management. David Houlihan of Blue Hill Research published an excellent resource for small law firms building a business case and understanding the ROI of law firm practice management. Separately the firm published an excellent multi-part series on law firms and strategic IT that’s a worthwhile read.
8. Infographic Friday: The Enduring Legal Dress Code Debate. The legal dress code is usually a heated debate but a survey suggests lawyers may be leaning towards conservative dress.
9. Five Considerations Making a Tech Change in a Law Firm. Technology implementation is arguably just as much about culture as it is technical details. In this post our own Amy Kosey dips into a wealth of experience to provide these considerations.
10. FiveTakeaways from a Large Law Reinvention Strategy. Client focus, experimentation and specialization are among the initiatives one large law firm is undertaking to reinvent itself.
10 Legal Links for Lawyers that Aren’t our Own
New this month, we’re adding 10 links to blog posts are articles we did not write, but shared in September and that drew engagement from the legal community on social media. We’re measuring that engagement in clicks as measured using Bitly.
The 10 links we shared that drew the most engagement are as follows:
- 3 Geeks and a Law Blog: The Exponential Law Firm – Part 1
- Corporate Counsel: 3 E-discovery Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore
- ABA Journal: How are lawyers viewed by the public?
- LawVision: When Law Firm Selling is Like Working Out
- Law and Innovation: “Netflix” My Law Firm
- Columbus CEO: Legal industry moves away from billable hour to AFAs
- Inside Counsel: 7 steps to serving as both lawyer and business counselor
- ABA Legal Rebels: Attorneys who can address clients’ operational problems…
- SeytLines: Why a Computer Won’t Replace Law Firm Associates Tomorrow
- Lawyerist: How to Ask Another Attorney for Help
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Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a shout out to Mike Lipps who leads the software division here in Raleigh. Mr. Lipps was named by the Raleigh-based Triangle Business Journal as a top tech executive. Earlier this year Mr. Lipps penned a contributed article published in Law360 which we later republished on these pages: Legal Industry Evolution: Back To Business.
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