New ABA book focuses on location-based marketing for solo and small firm lawyers
Just published by the American Bar Association, "Own the Map: Marketing Your Law Firm's Address Online" by Conrad Saam highlights marketing tactics that successful law firms employ to capitalize on the convenience of location.
With the proliferation of smartphones, people are searching for "pizza restaurants near me," "ATMs near me" and, yes, even "divorce lawyer near me." It's time for attorneys and law firm marketers to understand that office location in relation to prospective clients is an asset that must be leveraged to maximize effectiveness across all marketing efforts.
Nearly half the people who seek legal counsel choose a lawyer based primarily on where that attorney is located. If done well, marketing campaigns - including search engine optimization, pay-per-click, remarketing, email and social media - employ a precise local facet. Precision location targeting through these channels transforms advertising costs into marketing investments. "Own the Map" takes a detailed trip into the mind of the prospective legal customer. And in the legal industry, that customer is almost always local.
Saam is founder and president of Mockingbird Marketing, an online marketing agency focused exclusively on the legal sector. He is a Google Small Business Advisor and the author of "The FindLaw Jailbreak Guide." He also has held various positions for ABA Law Practice Division marketing committees.
New ABA book helps lawyers stay up to date on legal innovation
Just published by the American Bar Association, "The Simple Guide to Legal Innovation: Basics Every Lawyer Should Know" by Lucy Endel Bassli provides a guide to the changing legal ecosystem. The legal industry is changing and there are lessons to be learned from those who have lived it. This new title offers practical tips on how to modernize the delivery of legal services.
Although it can be difficult to keep up with fast-moving legal innovation, with some updated vocabulary and a few real examples lawyers can learn to wow their clients. "The Simple Guide to Legal Innovation" provides details on the:
- Legal ecosystem
- Rise of legal operations (or legal ops)
- Top innovation concepts lawyers need to know
By providing bite-sized lessons on topics that every practicing lawyer should be familiar with, this book will keep attorneys from getting left behind.
Bassli is an attorney and a former assistant general counsel of legal operations and contracting at Microsoft, where she redefined how legal work is done and created one of the first managed service engagements with a law firm. Bassli was tapped to teach Legal Operations for Suffolk University Law School's Legal Innovation & Technology Certificate Program. She also has a partnership with Dentons, the world's largest law firm, to deliver legal operations consulting to corporate legal departments.
New ABA book helps lawyers make lasting changes to their firm and profit margins
Recently published by the American Bar Association, "Smarter Pricing, Smarter Profit Second Edition" by Stuart J. T. Dodds seeks to provide lawyers with an easy-to-read roadmap that guides them through the steps to improving their law firm's existing pricing and legal project management capability, as well as the overall profit contribution.
"Smarter Pricing, Smarter Profit" addresses the full commercial spectrum of winning and engagement, from the initial setting of price, to client negotiation, delivery of services and review of performance.
This one-of-a-kind resource is centered around Dodds' "Set-Get-Manage-Review" framework, which has successfully been implemented at major international law firms. But what makes this book so unique is that the author has been at the forefront of legal pricing and legal project management initiatives and was one of the first specialist "pricing directors" supporting a major law firm.
"Smarter Pricing" is the first book of its kind to provide a comprehensive, structured and clear approach to addressing the increasingly complex pricing and delivery challenges in legal services. It is essential reading for anyone tasked with ensuring law firm profitability to understand what actions they and their colleagues can take to help assess, manage and enhance overall profitability.
Dodds is co-founder and principal of Positive Pricing, which provides pricing and project management strategy and implementation advice to the world's leading professional services firms. He has more than 25 years of professional services experience and was one of the first pricing and project management directors in the legal industry. Dodds is an accredited Certified Pricing Professional, Accredited Legal Pricing Professional and Accredited Legal Project Manager.
New ABA book helps female lawyers amplify their voice in and out of the courtroom
Just published by the American Bar Association, "Her Voice in Law: A Structured Program for Lasting Vocal Transformation" by Rena Cook and Laurie Koller provides an in-depth training course for the female attorney who wants to have more vocal power. This book will help women build instant trust and rapport and have authentic command in all legal situations, including trial work.
"Her Voice" provides a deep dive into various aspects of voice and presentation, including breath, resonance, articulation and inflection for maximum impact on the jury. Its five sections - Tuning Your Instrument, Catching Their Interest, Catching Their Heart, Amplifying Through Body Language and Gesture, and Applying Voice to Everyday Legal Situations - provide a training model that yields lasting results for attorneys who desire a wider range of storytelling skills to strengthen their success in and out of the courtroom.
Cook, professor emerita at the University of Oklahoma, is a speaker, author, and voice, speech, confidence and presentation coach. She is the founder of Vocal Authority, a training consultancy that assists lawyers who want to use their voice in more commanding and authentic ways. She is also the author of "Empower Your Voice: For Women in Business, Politics and Life" and "Voice and the Young Actor."
Koller has tried more than 100 cases in state and federal courts with several verdicts over $1 million. She is co-founder of the Women Trial Lawyers' Collective, which sponsors retreats for women lawyers focused on mindfulness and voice. Koller is also a member of the board of advisors for the National Crime Victim Bar Association and is currently president of the Oklahoma Association for Justice.
ABA book helps lawyers develop their own distinct writing style
Just published by the American Bar Association, "The Modern Rules of Style, Second Edition" is a pocket-sized guide that will help anyone improve their writing. Author Paul Marx gives readers the fundamental skills they need before putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Lawyers write every day, but often they do not have a sense of style. They put what they have to say down on paper - but without distinction. This essential handbook will change all that. It provides examples of the good, the bad and the questionable through journalistic and narrative formatting. Marx details the proper use of parallelism, em dashes, semicolons, colons, modifiers, similes and noun clauses. In addition to explaining grammar rules, he also illustrates how sentence structure, repetition and word choice can impact writing style.
Small and foundational changes can help make writing more focused, enjoyable and interesting. A great resource for lawyers and all students of self-help, "The Modern Rules of Style, Second Edition" belongs on any bookshelf already home to "The Elements of Style."
Marx is the author of "Utopia in America" and "Jim Rouse: Capitalist/Idealist" and editor of "Modern and Classical Essayists" and "Twelve Short Story Writers." He has published articles in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Yankee and elsewhere. Currently, he is professor emeritus of English at the University of New Haven, where he teaches non-fiction writing.
Published: Fri, Apr 10, 2020
