Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

Everybody hates to lose. If you avoid tough cases just because you might not win, you are doing a disservice to your client and yourself, and you are missing an opportunity to learn important lessons and build your character. Join John and Erich in this candid encore discussion on how to handle a loss with less pain and more gain. Reset your attitude and you’ll discover it’s not win or lose. It’s win or learn.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marketing’s not free. Is yours working? Conrad and Gyi dig into marketing attribution and how to ensure you’re spending wisely. Rand Fishkin’s new article claims “attribution is a boondoggle” and you should trust your gut, not a fancy attribution system (especially if you’re a smaller office). So, what’s going on? Can software track your marketing end-to-end process, from Google Ads to paying client?So, how do you avoid throwing your marketing money into a black hole? Learn the 6-ish best tips for measuring marketing effectiveness. Tracking client journeys, client acquisition costs, and your marketing performance matters; do it like a marketing professional does. Plus: they get into the specter of “Dark Social” — driving demand by leveraging social media and the “network effect” to build your brand.In the Legal Trends Report by Clio, did you know law firms with increasing revenue are 46% more likely to use client intake and client relationship management (CRM) solutions. How do online forms and intake processes figure in?The News There’s new investment into LinkSquares and the recent acquisition of WealthCounsel and ElderCounsel Scorpion brings back its founder as CEO CallRail’s take on Google Analytics 4 (psst, if you use an agency, ask if it’s keeping up with the new Google Analytics and preparing for the changes)  Special thanks to our sponsors Alert Communications, LawYaw, Posh Virtual Receptionists, and Clio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experts discuss how consumer debt lawsuits have come to dominate civil courts at the expense of low-income Americans on the latest episode of LSC's “Talk Justice" podcast. Erika Rickard, project director for civil legal system modernization at the Pew Charitable Trust Arielle Levinson-Waldman, founding president of Tzedek DC George Simons, founder and CEO of SoloSuit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Christopher T. Anderson meets with lawyers from around the country to discuss issues they are currently facing in their practices. Featured on this episode: How do I format my invoices so they convey value? How can I better teach systems to my team? What should I do when a job candidate has a few red flags? What is the most efficient way to have my virtual assistant write out processes and procedures?  Special thanks to our sponsors LawClerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you start a new firm, you will always be met with uncertainty. Of course, you have a plan of how you want to run your firm, but there are many variables that can attempt to throw it off course. So, how do you navigate it?That’s what we’re talking about in this episode with Jeremy Widder, a criminal defense lawyer practicing in Southern Maryland.Jeremy started his solo practice in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, and he shares about how this helped his firm become more innovative.He uses technology to automate and simplify as much of his practice as possible, while still providing top-notch legal representation and client service.Jeremy gives listeners actionable tips on: [3:00] How to navigate external circumstances that impact a new business idea [5:00] Figuring out a strategy in the midst of a global pandemic [10:40] Why it’s so important for a new firm to know where its business is coming from [15:15] Jeremy’s system for asking for Google reviews from past and current clients [19:25] The impact branding has on your ideal client [23:20] The lessons Jeremy learned by starting up his firm in the face of uncertainty [36:30] Why burnout and working around the clock doesn’t work anymore Resources mentioned in this episode:The Small Firm Roadmap by Aaron Street and Sam GloverConnect with Jeremy here: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook https://www.widderlaw.com    Connect with me Instagram Pinterest Facebook Twitter Karin on Twitter Karin on LinkedIn Conroy Creative Counsel on Facebook https://conroycreativecounsel.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Succession planning is critical for ensuring the protection of lawyers, clients, and the public; but does every lawyer need a plan? Molly Ranns and JoAnn Hathaway talk with Alecia Chandler about how to figure out what type of plan you need and the resources available on the State Bar of Michigan’s website. Check out the Planning Ahead Handbook, as well as many other checklists and forms designed to help you create a comprehensive plan for your law firm. Alecia Chandler is Professional Responsibility Programs Director for the State Bar of Michigan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time to be honest with yourself. Are you, quite possibly, wasting other people’s time with meandering, life-sucking meetings? Or, is your inbox full of languishing emails, much to the frustration of your coworkers? Dennis and Tom certainly hope not, but, just to be safe, they’ve got a whole show devoted to helping you understand the nuances of both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration modalities. Learn how to pick the right tools for each scenario and curate purposeful, effective communication with coworkers and clients.Later on, the guys share their personal recommendations for improving the VR experience for those with prescription glasses. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends.Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions.Special thanks to our sponsors, Posh Virtual Receptionists, Clio, and Colonial Surety Company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Everett talks with Lawyerist Lab coach and finance expert, Bernadette Harris, about law firm expenses, when it’s okay to spend money on your business, and when debt might even be a good thing. If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, get the first chapter right now for free!Thanks to LawPay, MyCase, and Posh Virtual Receptionists for sponsoring this episode. Check out the winners of this year’s Best Law Firm Websites contest! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

US News and World Report released its annual law school rankings last week and delivered chaos upon the legal world, dropping Harvard from its top three perch. As we break down some key insights from the rankings, we remind everyone not to get too hung up on these numbers. Speaking of numbers that lawyers should get hung up on, it looks like a lawyer screw up cost a bank around $600M so that's not great. And speaking of being the opposite of great, unhinged text messages from Ginni Thomas raise questions about the fitness of Clarence Thomas to serve on the Supreme Court. Don't worry, no one will end up doing anything about it.Special thanks to our sponsor, Posh Virtual Receptionists, LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August 2020, contract attorney Laura Frederick accepted a challenge: Post to LinkedIn once a day, every day, for a month. Frederick thought she might be able to keep up a string of several days in a row. Instead, her daily posts became a way to connect with colleagues, build business, create a brand identity, and have a social lifeline during the isolation of the pandemic. A selection of those posts also found their way into her self-published book, Practical Tips on How to Contract: Techniques and Tactics from an Ex-BigLaw and Ex-Tesla Commercial Contracts Lawyer.Frederick says that she's never been the sort of person who enjoyed the cocktail party circuit way of rainmaking. When she launched her own law practice after years of working in BigLaw and as an in-house attorney for companies including Tesla, she relied for the first year entirely on referrals. But the connections she was able to make through LinkedIn has rapidly expanded opportunities for her legal practice and for her training and skill-development company, How to Contract.Frederick tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles that one of her driving motivations for posting daily tips to LinkedIn has been her desire to pass along knowledge gained over the course of her career to younger attorneys. When she was a beginning attorney in the 1990s, she says she gained tremendously by being able to shadow more experienced attorneys at her firm, learning at the side of longtime contract attorneys. The same opportunities are not available now, particularly when so many young attorneys are launching their own solo or small firm practices. She hopes that both Practical Tips on How to Contract and her continuing daily posts to LinkedIn–she's now written more than 400–can help fill that gap. She adds that engaging with her commenters has also taught her lessons that improved her own legal work. In this episode, Frederick talks about the practical steps to building a brand and self-publishing; how she expanded into creating legal cartoons; and what it was like to be an attorney for Tesla. Special thanks to our sponsor, Posh Virtual Receptionists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices