In the 90 or so days spanning the months of March, April and May (2015), we’ve published upwards of 70 posts. It’s always interesting to see what posts resonate with the legal community, so what follows below is a summary of the top 10 posts for the last three months.
It’s worth noting the analysis is driven by reader clicks as measured with Google Analytics. Law firm marketers might be interested to see, the most shared articles on social media are not always the most read.
1. 4 Takeaways from the #LMA15 Panel of GC [LMA Recap]. A panel of three GCs addressed the largest ever audience at the Legal Marketing Association’s (LMA) annual conference and this post summarizes the session. It provides a legal department view of value, pricing, law firm panel consolidation and the ongoing analysis of whether to take work in-house or send projects to outside counsel. For additional analysis on trends in corporate legal, be sure to check out the latest CounselLink Enterprise Legal Management Trend Report.
2. 10 Tips for Improving Law Firm Invoicing and Billing. As the title suggests, this post curates ten tips for law firm invoicing from well-known speakers, presenters and authors who are frequently seen and heard in the legal space.
3. Do Small Law Firms Need Policies and Procedures? Attorney Penn Dodson was one of several practitioners who contributed to an eBook on 15 ideas for getting a jumpstart on 2015. The eBook can be downloaded at no cost, with registration, or readers can peruse some of the other contributions on this blog, which we’ve published as a series.
4. 7 Winning BD Techniques Law Firms can Adopt from other Models. How do other professional service organizations approach business development – and what lessons can law firms replicate for benefit? This post is another summary of another excellent session stemming from the LMA conference.
5. A List of 15 People that Can Make or Break a Law Firm. Amid a dynamic landscape for legal services, Darryl Cross makes the case for focusing law firm business development on a smaller and more thoughtful list of people.
6. Law Day Infographic: Brief History of the Magna Carta. Law Day has come and gone, but the Magna Carta is still celebrating eight centuries since being carved in stone. Its influence can be seen today in the documents of a modern democracy. This infographic has been tagged with a Creative Commons license, so feel free to share or republish with attribution. Those interested can also grab embed code or download a PDF copy from the Business of Law SlideShare account.
7. 6 Consistent Corporate Legal Trends in Data, Staffing and Spend. Trends tend to ebb and flow, but there are several we’ve heard consistently both directly from our corporate legal clients and observe in $18 billion worth of invoice data. Here’s a look at six such trends which seem to stand steady in recent history.
8. A Law Firm CMO is the Voice of the Market. This interview with Amy Fowler, chief marketing and business development officer with Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC, is a must read for law firm marketing and business development types. She has a tenured history in large law and sharp insights well worth consideration.
9. Benchmarking Corporate Legal Department Maturity. Some of our strategy folks molded the data and experience gain from working with clients into a corporate legal maturity model for driving operational efficiency. Also see the results that can be gained from improving corporate legal maturity: 3 Outcomes of Improving Legal Department Operations.
10. Metrics Strengthen Inside and Outside Counsel Relationships. Measuring legal results shouldn’t be a barrier between corporate legal and outside counsel – to the contrary, metrics will strengthen a relationship according to D. Casey Flaherty. Mr. Flaherty was also the key note speaker at our annual CounselLink customer conference and a summary of his presentation can be found here: Legal Fee Lessons Corporate Legal can take from Henry Ford.
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10 LexisNexis Tech Releases You Might Have Missed
For those that are not aware, LexisNexis has steadily consolidated U.S. software and technology businesses into a single division based in Raleigh, NC. The “About Us” page provides a little more background and links to specific solutions.
Here’s an at-a-glance recap of the announcements published by the division over the last 90 days or so.
1. Enhancements to early case assessment tools. “These latest enhancements allow eDiscovery teams to simply group searches into different sets, create customized names for each search set, and more efficiently manage multiple searches simultaneously.”
2. LexisNexis sponsors, competes, and volunteers at IRONMAN. “Competing in an event like this is a great analogy for leadership because succeeding in a race or in business both center on mental preparation and the willpower to see things through.”
3. Big law flexes, wrestles IP litigation market share. “The findings also indicate a new level of adaptability amid a competitive market for legal work. Moreover, Big Law isn’t taking this space by brute force, but rather by focusing on right-sizing staffing on corporate client accounts.”
4. Practice management and API level integration to calendars. “The Firm Manager product makes synchronization easier and more reliable by leveraging a new integration technology for the Microsoft® Outlook and Microsoft Office 365™ calendars.”
5. Meet the attorney who wrote the book on law practice software. This guide to PCLaw® software “serves as a comprehensive reference guide filled with exceptionally detailed chapters that will offer tips and techniques” for both newcomers and veterans to practice management software.
6. “Best of The National Law Journal” Readers Rankings. Some of our products were named the “best” in a recent survey of readers: The LexisNexis® CaseMap® Suite and the LexisNexis Firm Manager® solution.
7. Fewer clicks, more efficiency, better cases. [The] “new version of itsTextMap® transcript management software, which features a simplified design and navigation that delivers significant time savings for litigation professionals.”
8. More efficient invoicing for small law. “The Firm Manager product is an all-in-one online solution for small law firm practice management that powers front and back-office firm operations. The new functionality is designed to enable law firms to get their bills out faster, reducing the time, and expense firms spend preparing monthly invoices.”
9. LexisNexis Managed Technology Services Obtains ISO 9001 Cert. “Achieving ISO 9001:2008 certification is an important milestone for LexisNexis because it provides our customers with independent validation that we have state-of-the-art quality management systems and processes.”
Also see:
- 5 Benefits of the Hosted Model for Litigation Support
- 6 Key Ingredients to a Law Firm Data Security Plan
10. Corporate Legal Maturity Model; Improve Operational Efficiency. “The legal department maturity model will provide corporate legal departments with benchmarks as to where it stands in the maturity cycle and what needs to be done to move it up the curve.”
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News releases published by the LexisNexis software and technology division can also be obtained in real time via RSS.
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A Study in Futility: Rising Legal Rates, Falling Realization
Photo credits: Flickr, Hilary Perkins (CC BY-SA 2.0)