Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute

By Ned Daze

Ned Daze and Lee Rosen speak to aspiring entrepreneurial and tenured law professionals on law practice management, marketing, technology and finance, increasing your revenues and helping you implement... more

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FAQs about Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute:

How many episodes does Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute have?

The podcast currently has 687 episodes available.

Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute episodes:

April 27, 2017 Podcast: The Nobody Else Can Do It Disease
"I am the only one who can __________." (Fill in the blank.)

You're the consult hero with a 90% retention rate. Your strategy has created insanely low acquisition costs.

You hang onto your role in the firm because it makes you feel good. You've created success. You're the secret ingredient that sets your practice apart from the rest.

I have no doubt that you're the rock star you've built yourself out to be, but you're also the piece that's holding you and your firm back.

It happens to all of us. We persevere and create a growing business when others around us retreat to the shelter of someone else's name. Our egos makes us believe we're irreplaceable.

The unflattering reality is that you need to replace your task-based role in the firm if you want more than you have now. It's time to let go and grow to new levels.

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20min
April 21, 2017 15 Painful Moments of Running a Law Practice (and How to Feel Better)
There are moments of great joy in the practice of law.
There’s joy when we win. There’s joy when we lose, as long as we gave it our best shot.
There’s also joy when we know we made a difference in the life of someone who needed help. Being a lawyer can be pretty awesome sometimes.
Many lawyers experience these moments of joy without running their own law practice. Running a practice can be challenging and painful. It’s not for everyone.
When times are good, they’re often really good. They are high-five-slapping, fist-bumping good. The adrenaline highs are intense, especially if you work for a litigation or transactional firm, or a firm navigating a course through bureaucracy.
Sometimes, practicing law is even better than what they show on TV. The people aren’t usually as attractive, but the taste of victory can be very sweet.
But don’t get me wrong: Running a law practice is not all rainbows and sunshine. Sometimes it’s dark clouds and disappointment. Sometimes it’s depressing and demoralizing.
When you feel down, defeated, and unsure if you should continue, remember that you aren’t alone.
Running a practice is hard for all of us from time to time. We’re good at hiding it, though, aren’t we? We’re good at keeping it all under wraps. We’re good at keeping our emotions private, but that doesn't mean we don't feel the distress, the unhappiness, and the tension percolating under the surface.
Lawyers are good at looking good while feeling bad. We're good at appearing detached, objective and neutral. We're trained to deconstruct, disconnect and analyze. We smile pleasantly as the world around us unravels. "Thank you, Your Honor," we say, with a smile, as our objection is overruled.
We tend to assume it’s just us. We see other lawyers who look good and smile big, and assume they feel great. We worry that we’re the only ones who feel stressed or depressed.
But we aren’t alone.
No matter how charmed the life of the lawyer down the hall may appear, that's not always reality.
Our unwillingness and inability to show pain to others, to be open and vulnerable, doesn't mean we don't feel it. The lawyer down the hall, and the one down the block, and the one sixty stories above all feel that pain sometimes.
Often that pain isn’t fleeting, either. It can linger. Sometimes it just won't relent. Many of us don't feel as positive about our work as we would like.
The Most Painful Moments of Running a Practice
As you run your practice and serve your clients, you’ll endure plenty of moments that trigger unhappiness.
Some moments are small. Some are big. All are painful to a greater or lesser degree. Some allow for quick recoveries. Some take a while to banish. Some pain will linger long after its trigger has passed.
I’ve been lucky to skip a few, but I’ve also experienced many of them.
Today I want to run through the list of the most painful moments of running a law practice.
1. You're not in charge
We start our own practices, in part, to take control over our lives. Owning a business is supposed to create freedom, right? We want to set our own schedules, take time away whenever we please, and make our own decisions with regard to how much we work.
But then the moment comes when we cancel the family trip, skip the special meal, or disappoint the loved one on that special day. Our schedules aren’t in our control. Reality strikes the moment we realize that we aren’t in charge.
It’s painful, but we accept it. We accept that other parties (clients, judges, other attorneys, etc.) have a great deal of control over our time. We want to believe that we’re calling the shots, but that first awareness of our lack of control can be shocking.
2. The client hired another lawyer
The initial consultation went well. You really clicked with that client. She seemed ready …
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27min
April 20, 2017 Podcast: 11 Steps For Success
Of the lawyers who are driven by growth, there are two types:

The roamers who constantly change firms, practice areas, geographic areas, and business strategies, always shifting gears before anything can stick.
The steadfast who have clear goals, and persistently and systematically work toward them every day. They never change just for the sake of change.

At this point in my life, I'm someone who gets to embrace novelty. I buy a new phone twice a year. I travel the world and never stay in the same place for more than a month.

I may seem like a roamer, but that's only because of the years I have spent observing successful lawyers and steadfastly grinding toward my goals.

The surest way to achieve success is to envision your goals and persist. In today's podcast, I discuss how to become one of the steadfast.

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...more
21min
April 12, 2017 Podcast: The Nobody Else Can Do It Disease
Do you find yourself thinking "I am the only one who can... (fill in the blank)"?

Don't trust your associates to conduct initial consultations? Is your refined sense of organization preventing you from filling the empty operations position? Do you find yourself controlling trial cases?

You may be infected with the "Nobody Else Can Do It" disease.

It's time to let go and level up. Free yourself from debilitating time-loss and shift your focus to higher level business growth with this podcast.

Pull yourself out of the day-to-day muck that slows overall law firm growth and start managing a smarter, more efficient law firm.

*This podcast is intended to cure the "Nobody Else Can Do It" disease. Take once during infection and whenever symptoms reoccur for a stronger, faster-growing practice. Hit play to begin your first dose and experience freedom.

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...more
20min
April 07, 2017 10 Tips for Getting Quality Clients
I started out solo feeling desperate. I was scared. I needed money for food, shelter, clothing, and the ridiculously expensive car I wanted to buy.
My lust for a fancy car was exacerbated when I was standing in the cold, filling up my Honda Civic in early February near downtown Raleigh.
A lawyer I knew pulled into the service station in his Jaguar. As he filled up his fancy car he mumbled “Still driving one of those?” What a prick.
That story isn’t essential to my point. I tell it because I’m still angry at that guy and I like to vent.
Back to reality…
I had just started my solo career. I had been working alone for nearly two months. I was concerned about cash. I was feeling the pressure, not sleeping well, and worrying about whether leaving my job at a firm had been a good decision.
(Note to readers: Suddenly quitting your job without a plan is stressful and should be avoided if possible. Sadly, I lack impulse control. Storming out is great in your fantasies, but it’s usually impractical. But oh my god, it feels so good for a moment.)
My first year was rocky. I took bad cases that year. I took on clients no one else would take. There was a reason the other lawyers wouldn’t represent these folks. The other lawyers were smarter than me.
I got mired in crap. I had more work and less money than I needed. Crappy cases, on behalf of clients who can’t/won’t pay, are abundant. There’s no magic to staying busy as a new solo operation. You just take on the work you shouldn’t have accepted.
If you stand on the sidewalk with an empty garbage bag and ask people for their trash, they'll fill that bag right up. That was the system I used to manage and market my practice: Arms open, ready to catch people’s trash. It worked like a charm, because that's what I got: trash.
As time passed, I stayed busy with garbage cases. My calendar was full, but my bank account was still empty. Needless to say, the situation was sub-optimal. I needed a change.
Like everyone else, I still had those ongoing needs for food, shelter, clothing (at that point I’d met one of those custom suit Tom James guys), and I still wanted to upgrade my Honda Civic, which was the size of today’s Honda Fit.
It was time to figure out how to fix the problem.
I sat down on a rock (okay, it was a fake leather chair, not a rock - I was trying to cast myself as a deep thinker) and realized that the other lawyers might be onto something.
Maybe it was time to stop taking unsavory clients? Maybe it was time to investigate what else those succesful lawyers were doing as well. I wasn’t sure that I wanted a Jaguar, but I thought I’d look really nice in a Lexus.
That’s when I began work on my list of techniques to find better clients. Over the years, I’ve refined my approach. Today, I’ll pass my ideas along to you so you can free up some time on your calendar and increase the balance in your bank account.
1. Don’t accept castoffs
There's a big difference between referrals you receive because you're the first choice, and castoffs you get from other lawyers who are rejecting those clients and sending them to you.
They're just trying to get this crazy person off the phone. Giving out your number means they can hang up faster.
You’ve probably been advised to ask other lawyers to send you their extra business when they’re too busy. Sounds like good marketing, right?
Maybe that works for someone, somewhere, but in my experience, other lawyers will only send you the crap they don’t want. It’s rare that a lawyer will send you an “A” case when they’re busy. They’ll usually find a way to fit that “A” into the schedule. The same goes for “B” and “C” clients.
Most of the time, they’ll just send you the “D” and “F” clients. That’s reality. Most lawyers want to keep the decent clients. Even if they’re busy, …
...more
23min
April 06, 2017 Podcast: 11 Tips for the Older Digital Nomad
Living and working from the road is one of the best decisions my wife and I have ever made–it's an incredibly rewarding experience.

The dramatic change wasn't something we jumped into unprepared. We scoured niche blogs, became Reddit users and spent hours preparing ourselves for the many lifestyle adjustments we were about to take. But, in all of our research there was one glaring shortcoming–it was written by young people.

As part of an older crowd–as much as I may not feel it–we knew some of the issues we were going to come up against hadn't been experienced by our prolific blog writers.

That's where this podcast comes in. It's the real-world supplement to what you'll read on other sites (for us old folks).

Keep preparing and I hope we cross paths out on the road.

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...more
20min
March 31, 2017 How to Get the Feedback You Need Without Getting Electrocuted
When I was six years old, I hammered two long nails through a piece of wood. Both nails poked through the other side by a few inches. I didn’t hammer them down completely, so each nail’s head was a bit exposed.
Then I took an old appliance from the garage and cut off the power cord. I left the plug on one end and exposed the two wires on the other end. Carefully, I wrapped a wire around the tip of each nail and covered the exposed portions with electrical tape.
My hotdog cooker was ready.
I laid a hotdog between the two nail heads and plugged my contraption into an outlet. I let the power surge until the hotdog’s skin blistered. It was delicious and I was proud!
(Honestly, it’s a miracle I’m alive. I could have killed myself with electricity. If a six-year-old did that today the parents would be locked up. Times have changed.)
The entirety of my hotdog project, from inception to conclusion, lasted less than an hour. There was no question that I’d done the job well. I had tangible results proving that my work had been successful.
Life as a lawyer is different. We don’t get the comforting feedback of a warm hotdog that we can slap in a bun and enjoy with mustard, relish and a little sauerkraut.
Our work lacks quick, reliable feedback. It takes a long time to know whether we’ve done a good job. And when we do get feedback, it’s not always particularly clear.
I long for the days of warm hotdogs and clear feedback.
Truthfully, it could be worse.
Some work, like that of venture capitalists, involves even more uncertainty. They invest in an early stage company, then wait years (sometimes decades!) for the company to go public, get sold, or fail. They make new investment decisions constantly, but rarely have feedback from their recent decisions. It takes years of experience for them to learn whether their earlier actions were fruitful.
Let’s go back to food for a moment. Instead of hotdogs, let’s discuss people on the other side of the feedback spectrum: Restaurant wait staff.
Waiters get lots of feedback if they work for tips (which is pretty standard in America). At the end of each meal, the tip tells a waiter how they performed.
A good tip encourages the waiter to repeat the performance. A bad tip indicates that some changes are required. A waiter will close this feedback loop many times in a single shift. The feedback, in this case, is fast and furious.
Smart waiters use these feedback loops to learn their trade quickly. They’re able to tweak their approach each night until, within a few weeks, they’re collecting maximum tips (that is to say, no performance on their end would create higher tip values). The feedback gives them the opportunity to learn quickly, earn more, and use their knowledge to maximize their earnings with carefully targeted actions.
Lawyers are somewhere in the middle
You don’t get feedback as quickly as a waiter does, but you can get it far quicker than a venture capitalist.
Most lawyers get feedback in several forms:
1. Upset Clients
An upset client is a painful form of feedback. But it doesn’t come quickly. Most clients suffer in silence because they rely on you. You hold their solution in your hands, so they avoid any actions or words that would alienate you or discourage you from doing a good job.
Upset clients hold back and only complain when they’re ready to explode, or when you've finished the case. It's tough to get them to give feedback early.
2. The Partner
If you’re an associate in a firm, you probably get feedback from the boss. But that’s not always the case and many associates are left to fend for themselves.
Feedback is essential to learning. You want to know what you did right so you can repeat it. You want to know what you did wrong so you can avoid it. Associates have every right to request and …
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14min
March 30, 2017 Podcast: 10 Tips to Dramatically Upgrade the Client Experience
Globetrotting, we've learned that there are two types of travelers: the adventurers and the bubble-seeking folks.

Inside the bubble, it's safe. Travel guides tell them where to go, the comforts of home surround them, and they're led to scenic wonders and the best restaurants.

In many cases, your clients want to be in the bubble. They're afraid. They want easy, hassle-free conclusions. You are their travel guide. You need to keep them in the bubble, shield them from the harsh realities, and be their barrier.

Recognize the difference between your clients who aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty and those who want you to be their guardian. Treat them accordingly, and you'll deliver an incredible experience that comes full circle with new client referrals.

Here are 10 tips to keeping your clients inside the bubble that they want to be inside.

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19min
March 23, 2017 Podcast: 6 Things I Wish I’d Learned the Easy Way

Many of us have learned difficult lessons through the school of hard knocks. We believe everyone else is wrong and we're right...until we burn ourselves.

I'm not against innovation. The best lawyers go against the mainstream train of thought, and the last thing you want to be is a carbon copy of the indistinguishable lawyer down the block.

That said, we have to be willing to listen and receptive to experienced wisdom. Some things, even when they feel successful, are outweighed by the negatives.

In a way, these six lessons---ones I wish I'd learned the easy way---go against the norm of lawyerly operation. Here they are.

No matter how grand your ambitions, save yourself the grief and put yourself on the right track.

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...more
15min
March 23, 2017 Podcast: 6 Things I Wish I'd Learned the Easy Way
Many of us have learned difficult lessons through the school of hard knocks. We believe everyone else is wrong and we're right...until we burn ourselves.
I'm not against innovation. The best lawyers go against the mainstream train of thought, and the last thing you want to be is a carbon copy of the indistinguishable lawyer down the block.
That said, we have to be willing to listen and receptive to experienced wisdom. Some things, even when they feelsuccessful, are outweighed by the negatives.
In a way, these six lessons---ones I wish I'd learned the easy way---go against the norm of lawyerly operation. Here they are.
No matter how grand your ambitions, save yourself the grief and put yourself on the right track.
Listen in Browser | Download MP3 | Subscribe in iTunes

...more
16min

FAQs about Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute:

How many episodes does Your Law Firm - from Rosen Institute have?

The podcast currently has 687 episodes available.

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