LeftFoot - Fresh Conversations on the Business of Law

Nicole chats with Peter Aziz, Founder and Managing Partner, Peter Aziz Associates.

Strengths/habits that have led to success: If you don’t know the answer ask, people want to help.

Growth strategy: Best form of advertising is a client you already represented, treat clients right so they will refer you.

Tactical best practices: Peter introduces himself, gives out cards and does an email follow-up. The Internet and social media have made the world smaller.

Success story: Gave a driver in Texas his card, the driver gave it to a CEO of a large company who is now his largest client.

Advice you’d give to someone starting out: Map your professional identity, so people know your purpose.

Enjoy about work: Doing something for a client they didn’t think could be done.

Last word: If you don’t know how to do something ask. If you still can’t do it, hire someone to figure it out.

22: Seize the Kairotic Moment - Law Firms Have to Think Like Businesses

Nicole chats with Ajay Raju, Executive Chairman/CEO, Dilworth Paxson, LLP

Ajay talks about how all great law firms are built at the intersection of relationship, value and judgement.

Strengths/habits that lead to success: Provide counsel vs. focusing on the delivery of legal work.

Growth strategy: Technology is changing the way law is practiced. Clients want value. Act offensively – create profit while embracing an environment of disruption.

Tactical best practices: Quality starts with the finest lawyers doing the best work possible then a niche or value prop that makes you and your firm unique.

Success story: White shoe firm absorbs change with enthusiasm.

Millennial, Mobile, Global: Millennial professionals have a native fluency with technology and are impatient. They are best equipped to take advantage of how technology and innovation will transition the industry.

Last word: Working with new concepts and in new industries has created excitement and energized the firm - you feel it in the hallways.

Nicole chats with Aaron Ross, best selling author and founder of Predictable Revenue.com. Check out his latest book, From Impossible to Inevitable.

All growth uses the same principals: including professional services.

Nailing a niche: where you’re truly unique from others.

Become a specialist: approach the market with a specialty. It’s about focus: who needs you and will pay for your services.

Real growth: comes when you get business from people who’ve never heard of you. They have a need in your ‘niche’. Build a system beyond your current network.

Doing great work is not enough: you can learn how to grow your business, but you can’t hide. You need to do it over and over as long as it takes until it works.

Grit: will separate the people who double or triple their income versus those who grow 5% per year.

From Impossible to Inevitable: Frustration is part of it. If you’re not sobbing in a corner or pounding on the floor at some point your probably not doing new things and pushing yourself.

Nicole chats with Danny Ertel, lawyer; founding partner of Vantage Partners; and Senior Researcher at the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Learn what we’re solving for what’s important to both parties - what each is trying to accomplish or avoid.

Negotiation frustration: games and false fronts meant to throw off a negotiation. When a negotiator is a messenger with a demand vs. a party with a vested interest.

Avoid the haggle: Pricing high and leaving ‘room’ for a concession. It teaches the client not to trust the first thing you say.

Scope and fee changes: Should be managed together as part of an ongoing decision making discussion versus tabled for the end of the project. It’s about leverage.

Historical data lead to portfolio pricing success: 5 plus year relationship provided significant experience and revealed patterns within the organization’s matters. Certain cases were sortable by criteria and could be categorized for pricing and staffing efficiencies.

Under pressure to reduce write-offs the firm required disciplined preparation before a negotiation, which allowed for creative problem solving; stronger controls on scope and scope management with regular client check-ins; and end of project – full debriefs.

BATNA – Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement: what we’ll do if we don’t reach an agreement. For professionals it measures opportunity cost using profitability and strength of relationship.

Nicole chats with (name, title, company): Steven Horowitz, a partner at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton

Strengths/habits that have led to success: Listen and be aware that clients with similar business issues may have different interpretations of a successful outcome.

Growth strategy: There is a great deal of randomness in acquiring clients including being in the right place at the right time.

Tactical best practices: Build on the strengths of your firm and use them as an entree for cross selling.

Success Factor: Law firms are organized by specialty while clients are unlikely to make intellectual boundaries. Lawyers and law firms that are intellectually flexible can most effectively respond to the client business problem or goal.

What Steven enjoys about his work: Helping young lawyers learn what the client cares about and where they can compromise.

Last word: To build a relationship opt-in to verbal communication - it’s difficult to develop a relationship by email.

Nicole chats with Paige Zandri, Attorney Network Director at Priori Legal

Being prepared and practicing: is Paige’s personal success habit.

Tactical best practice is logging notes: Remembering the small details that make a difference and build trust.

Do quarterly 360s: In a high growth business; look at your own work as if you’re evaluating a team member.

Legal tech has influenced significant change: Ethics rules and the rules of professional conduct require that lawyers know how to use technology and show competency.

Technology can trim fixed and embedded costs: A savings that can be passed on.

Create a scalable market presence: using technology to be high touch while remaining primarily remote.

Trial and error: was necessary to limit and define who to go after and who to turn away.

Work for the Room - Double Your Listening and You’ll Double Your Revenue:

Nicole chats with Mark Maraia, author of Rainmaking Made Simple and Relationships Are Everything!

Brief intro: A pioneer in combining coaching with training in the legal profession, Mark has worked with thousands of lawyers field-testing his ideas.

Technology’s role in networking: Approach meetings thoughtfully - use the tools you have to gain insight and ask interesting high-energy questions.

Invoices advertise: Invoices create an opportunity for a business discussion on value.

Be genuinely interested: Lawyers who think like entrepreneurs provide value to their clients.

On networking: Put people together for their mutual benefit.

Target and Tailor -

Control Business Development and You Control Your Career:

Nicole chats with Ian Turvill, CMO, Freeborn & Peters, LLP.

Brief Intro: You’re not selling to people, you’re not selling yourself, you’re demonstrating your capabilities.

Habits that lead to success: Persistence – without being overbearing.

Growth strategy: Understand your client as a business person and understand the challenges within their business.

Tactical best practices: Niche and get the business for which you’re best suited.

Millennial, Mobile, Global: Do great work; maintain the connections you made in law school; pick a niche and build a reputation and intellectual capital in that niche.

Last word: If you’re passive around biz development you’ll never have control.

You’ll Hear ‘No’ a lot! Nicole chats with David Kaprielian, a Principal, with Mercer.  Growth strategy: Ensure current clients are solid. You want to grow not just fill gaps with new business. Tactical best practices: With strong technical skills you can rely on yourself to look at information and make decisions. It’s important to have…

Nicole chats with Marcia Wagner, President and Founder, The Wagner Law Group.

Strengths/habits that have led to success: Boldness - not being afraid to succeed; and subject matter expertise - being detail oriented.

Growth strategy: It’s about being a thought leader, being on the cutting edge of trends – reaching out and having people reach out to hear how to proceed.

Tactical best practices: A lawyer will always have his or her own way of growing their business. It’s more art than science.

Success story: Survival. Necessity drove the need to look for growth opportunities where the money was. They became extraordinarily expert in a specific area related to their core competency.

Pricing Strategies: Clients are reasonable. Stick to your word on pricing, and budgets. If the client wants to work with your firm, work to get the cost reasonable so that all parties are satisfied.

Innovation in the Legal Profession: The Wagner Law Group is asking for and receiving payment for thought leadership. Lawyers you’re supposed to be at the forefront of legal development. What’s innovative is monetizing this activity.

Millennial, Mobile, Global: The elements of a successful business are ageless and timeless. Don’t recreate the wheel - look at what’s been done and build on it.

Last word: The Internet and technology are tools; the underlying project and goal has never changed. Do and be the best you can personally and professionally.