The Artificial Lawyer reports that a group of smaller firms in Austria – most with fewer than 100 lawyers – are applying a “business incubator” approach to the technological growth of their legal practices. Smaller law firms often do not have the time and money necessary to accelerate their firms’ technological expertise. But The Artificial Lawyer reports that “By pooling resources between seven firms, and then bringing in the support of local universities and other bodies, [Austrian…

Earlier this summer, the Lord Mayor of the City of London reminded those gathered for the City’s annual judges’ dinner that ‘The Law Society has found that adoption of technology amongst UK legal firms remains limited, meaning that the capabilities and benefits of these technologies are yet to be fully harnessed.” Peter Estlin noted that while many firms have begun to adopt new technology in specific areas, more was needed. “We must ensure our legal sector matches…

I was recently honoured to find Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices on a list of “13 blogs legal marketers should follow.” The list was compiled by Steven Gallo, content-marketing manager at Reputation Ink – a content marketing and public relations agency for legal and B2B companies – and writer/editor at the InkSights blog. Gallo argues that “if you want to be a better legal marketer and produce results that get noticed by your supervising attorneys, don’t stop learning. Stay…

In his most recent Pinkcast, Daniel H. Pink says, “Intellectual humility is in short supply today. And that is a big big problem.” He defines intellectual humility as “the willingness to recognize that what you think, what you believe, might be wrong.” In the video, Pink poses four questions from a book he admires by Warren Berger: The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead. These are…

In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Barbara Z. Larson and Cirrus Foroughi share 2017 Gallup Poll and 2018 US Census data indicating that about 40 percent of U.S. employees work from home at least some of the time, and that about 5 percent work exclusively from home. The trend toward “work from home” (WFA) agreements between businesses and their employees is clearly on the rise. The authors…

Note: This article first appeared in the August, 2019 issue of Edge International Communiqué (EIC).* 1. Substantive Practice Gone are the days when some level of specialization in an area could sustain a practice over a lawyer’s lifetime. Things are changing too fast and new competitors will emerge – some of them not even law firms. In the meantime, what you can do is think about the future of both your practice area and the clients…

One of my tech clients has his sales team subscribe to sales educator and coach Andy Paul. Paul identifies the following attributes as essential human sales skills: authenticity connection rapport empathy context insights and relationships Substantive knowledge and skill are the conditions we normally think of as precedent for being allowed to serve clients. Do your firm’s communications with clients also exemplify essential human sales skills? I believe that these skills lead to: Client satisfaction Client appreciation Prompt…