MiLawyer Podcast

The Legal Trends Report collects legal industry data and uses it to determine how law firms can improve their business. From the NEXT Conference 2018, hosts Rob Mathis, Samantha Meinke, and Laurence Colletti talk to Clio CEO Jack Newton about 2018 Legal Trends Report and what it reflects about the legal industry. They discuss the data that’s included in the report and how attorneys can use this information to improve the business side of their practice.

There’s a lot more to running a lean law firm than just cutting costs. Hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Larry Port about what it means to be a lean law firm, addressing common misconceptions and the core ideas that make the system successful. These include constantly striving for perfection, measuring success, and removing bottlenecks, to name a few.

While both can benefit a practice, lawyers often get marketing and business development confused. Hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to John Reed about essential marketing strategies for lawyers and how marketing differs from business development. They discuss important marketing and business development activities that are important depending on your practice areas. Stay tuned for tips on using social media like Linkedin, building a blog, and whether or not TV commercials are a viable investment.

Lawyers are often seen as protectors, helping others recover and attain justice after trauma. But even protectors need help sometimes. Hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Shawn Healy about the prevalence of depression in the legal profession, why it’s so common, and how to address depression before it reaches a crisis point. They discuss overcoming the legal industry stigma that sees mental illness as weakness and the difference between sadness and clinical depression.

For lawyers managing their own firm, being successful involves more than ordering people around. Hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Andrew Elowitt about the qualities of a successful law firm manager such as handling employee frustration and communicating goals and expectations well. They also discuss the challenges involved in managing superstar employees and how this differs from other employees.

Hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Patrick Krill about anxiety and substance abuse within the legal profession including relevant studies and resources for both lawyers and employers that help cultivate wellbeing in the workplace. They also discuss the common issue of lawyers and law students being unwilling to ask for help and what the industry can do as a whole to address this issue.

JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Lea Ann Sterling about her experience starting a successful law firm before practice management tools became popular. She discusses the importance of getting advice from reliable experts about things like technology and bookkeeping and how to find such help. She also shares the tools she uses to maintain a successful practice, like surveys that measure customer satisfaction and marketing videos.

For lawyers struggling with addiction, stigmas, lack of support, and the fear of consequences can make the situation seem hopeless. In this episode of On Balance, hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Brian Cuban about what you can do about addiction both as a lawyer and as an employer. He explains that it’s about handling the problem of addiction before you have to deal with its consequences. They also discuss how vital it is to have peer support when you’re struggling with wellness issues and how sometimes stigmas can get in the way of a full recovery. Brian Cuban the younger brother of Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, is a Dallas based attorney, author and addiction recovery advocate.

Your firm has finally invested in new technology but that’s only half the battle. In order to actually save time and energy, you need to train your firm's employees to use the technology correctly, whether it's Microsoft Office, Adobe, or even an internal software service. In this episode of On Balance, hosts JoAnn Hathaway and Tish Vincent talk to Casey Flaherty about why investing in proper training is an essential part of investing in new technology. Casey recalls his own experiences working with firms’ adoption and productivity problems and discusses what beneficial training actually looks like in practice. Casey Flaherty is well-known for creating the Legal Technology Audit (LTA), a test of basic technological proficiency for lawyers and in-house corporate departments.

In an effort to increase efficiency and improve the service of trial courts, technological advances are being implemented in the state of Michigan. One of these advances is the introduction of e-filing which will allow litigants to electronically file documents without having to travel to a courthouse. In this episode of On Balance, host Tish Vincent talks to Mary Roush and David Leasure about the statewide e-filing initiative that the state is working on with ImageSoft in order to bring e-filing to the Michigan Courts. Together, they discuss the benefits of e-filing, how they chose ImageSoft, and how the software works. Mary Roush is the project manager of the statewide e-filing initiative. David Leasure is the product owner of TrueFiling, a product of ImageSoft.