Building Your Book

Are you stuck at a firm that doesn’t encourage your business development? Are you not gaining the experience you hoped for? Learn what your options are in this article. READ MORE >

Some of the most effective ways you can generate business as an attorney involve connecting with your clients in a variety of ways. Learn more in this article. READ MORE >

• Law firm compensation can come in many forms.
• They can be raises or come in the form of holiday bonuses.
• Still, law firm compensation has changed within the last 15 years.
• Find out now what those changes are.

Summary: Learn more about the history of law firm partner compensation and how partners are compensated in law firms today in this article.

There has been considerable change in law firm partner compensation systems over the past 15 years and two basic systems exist today – subjective systems and lockstep systems – according to a recent white paper. U.S. law firms overwhelmingly use subjective systems in which committees allocate compensation based on a number of factors, the most important of which is client origination. READ MORE >

With clear and proven insights on rainmaking, business plans, lateral moves and more, BCG’s Comprehensive Guide for Law Firm Partners is a must-have resource. READ MORE >

Learn five effective strategies law firm partners can use to get business and clients in today’s modern legal landscape. READ MORE >

In order to ensure a bright future, new law firm partners should make these three critical investments in their career. READ MORE >

Question: I am a partner who is looking to move to another firm. Can you provide some basic guidance as to how I should estimate my portable business?
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Question: I’m a senior associate, and my firm wants me to start marketing and getting business for the firm. However, I feel it is more important to focus on my legal practice, and bill lots of hours. Learning marketing seems like a low priority - after all, it isn’t billable. I didn’t choose law just to end up doing sales. Besides, a high biller has job security, right? READ MORE >

What is the secret to building a book of business? Why do some partners succeed in developing work, while others, who appear to have everything going for them, are unable to get off the ground? The intangible factors are very important. They include self-discipline, gumption, interpersonal finesse, and a willingness to risk. Setting aside the intangibles and issues that vary from firm to firm, such as billing rates and how matters are credited, to begin, the focus has to be on a number of core ingredients that are required and need to be adjusted on an ongoing basis: READ MORE >

In difficult economic times, the knee-jerk reaction of many partners is to hunker down and hold on for dear life to the clients they already have. Smart partners, however, will use the weakening economy as a stepping stone to increase their books of business — perhaps dramatically — by deepening personal and business relationships with existing clients and, more importantly, seizing upon opportunities with new clients. These partners will emerge from the economic slowdown atop the heap, while the overly-cautious partners will miss critical opportunities to grow their client bases. READ MORE >

Let me get this out of the way: the very best way for an attorney to acquire business is through relationships. This would include family, friends, and family friends. As a young attorney placement recruiter, I placed a visit to the Beverly Hills office of Finley, Kumble, Manley et al. based in NYC. Marshal Manley was the resident partner in charge. I met with him in his beautiful, spacious office there on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. His office and his demeanor reminded me of the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas. During our brief meeting, I said to Mr. Manley: ''Mr. Manley, what does it take for an associate to make partner at your firm?'' Marshal Manley said: ''Ted, tell who his father is!'' READ MORE >

On Friday, May 21, 1999, Dr. Harry Keshet led an informative workshop on how to develop business. He opened the presentation by going around the room and asking participants how much contact they have with their clients. He commented that it is rare for associates to have their own clients. He also indicated that firms are generally not set up to give origination credit to an associate who does generate business (i.e. either from new clients or from existing clients.) But he emphasized the importance of laying a foundation so that business can be generated in a three to five-year time frame. READ MORE >

Years ago, while representing a client in an M&A deal as the head of the ERISA group at the now-defunct Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar PC, Carol C. Brown was intrigued to learn that the lawyer on the other side of the deal was from a boutique whose sole focus was the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Today, Brown and former Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC employee practice group head C. Stephen Parker Jr. have their own ERISA boutique, Parker & Brown PC in Boston. READ MORE >

If you are a senior associate, Of Counsel, or partner, how important is portable business when making a move to another law firm? Most junior to mid-level associates are told to concentrate on developing their skill sets so they can become great attorneys. So, you put your head down, do good work, learn from the senior associates and partners, get good year-end reviews, and you feel you are learning and growing as an attorney. Before you know it, you're a senior associate, respected by your peers and performing well on all work given to you. From this point, there are three things that can happen if you want to stay in a law firm environment: (1) you leave your firm, (2) you are promoted to Of Counsel at your present firm, or (3) you become a partner at your present firm. We will analyze whether portable business is important in all three scenarios: READ MORE >

Selling legal services is all about relationship building. Since legal consumers hire attorneys who they trust (either directly or because someone they trust has made a referral), it is not difficult to see that building relationships is the best way to build a law practice. READ MORE >