Author: Linda Donnelly

Once someone contacts your law firm, everything — from the receptionist’s demeanor to the conference room decor — can affect whether that person will sign on as a client. So does your practice project a welcoming image or are you sending a different message to prospective clients? Until new clients sign on that dotted line, they… Continue reading Best Practices Law Firm Telephone Etiquette

Sooner or later, every lawyer in solo or small firm practice asks themselves whether they should create a law firm website — or how long they can put it off. Given all the unknowns — cost, scope, disruption — they may wonder whether launching a law firm website is really necessary, especially if they already… Continue reading Five Benefits of Launching a Law Firm Website 

LinkedIn Profile News – How To Stand Out in Four Simple Steps This is how to update your LinkedIn profile. Your business relies on virtual connections so a dull profile won’t cut it. Many professionals dismiss LinkedIn as a “boring” social network. They simply put a photo of themselves on their profiles and a nondescriptive… Continue reading How to “Stand Out” in your LinkedIn Profile

Building a sustainable law practice that depends solely on referrals isn’t easy. It takes years of cultivating relationships and requires that you set a clear purpose for your firm, provide outstanding client service and show your appreciation for every referral that comes your way. Stopping the Big Google Ads Spend My road to building a… Continue reading Want to Use Referrals to Build Your Practice? Focus on 3 Types of Relationships

How do you break through the noisy attention economy and get the right people to take notice? Seize the initiative. In today’s world, in which worldwide distribution of content across the internet is largely free, the biggest personal brands are being built by going directly to the people. That’s as true for artists breaking through… Continue reading How to Build a Powerful Personal Brand in the Attention Economy

Lots of articles teach interviewees how to manage an interview, what questions the interviewee can expect, and the glib answer that is supposed to show off the interviewee in the best light. One of the problems with the interview process is that, indeed, these questions are the ones prospective employers are asking and interviewees are… Continue reading The Best Interview Question and Answer

Although the Supreme Court on Monday passed on hearing the case of a woman who accuses Facebook of facilitating and benefiting from child sex trafficking, Justice Clarence Thomas said that the immunity afforded to online platforms should be revisited under the right circumstances. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a case… Continue reading High Court Declines To Hear Facebook Sex Trafficking Case

Casting aside Ethicon’s “broad-spectrum attack on the judgment,” the 7th US Circuit Court upheld a $20 million verdict to a woman who was permanently injured by the company’s Prolift pelvic mesh device. Ethicon appealed in Barbara Kaiser v. Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon, Inc., No. 18-2944. An Indiana state jury had awarded $35 million to… Continue reading 7th Circuit Upholds $20 Million Verdict Against Ethicon in Pelvic Mesh Case

Ten years into the nationwide litigation over talcum powder, Johnson & Johnson is bleeding billions of dollars in settlements, legal fees, jury verdicts, and stock valuation. The company faces 15,299 cases nationwide in federal court, but all of the action so far has been in state courts. The U.S. Justice Department started a criminal investigation… Continue reading Attacking and Lying, Johnson & Johnson is Battered by Talcum Powder – Cancer Litigation

Among the recent documents unsealed in court indicates that in May 1974, an official at Johnson & Johnson’s Windsor mine in Vermont recommended “the use of citric acid in the depression of chrysotile asbestos” from talc extracted from the site. “The use of these systems is strongly urged by this writer to provide protection against… Continue reading How Johnson & Johnson Hid Asbestos In J&J Baby Powder Products For Over 40 Years

The breadth of legal advice we offer clients varies enormously among the many subfields of law. If we’re retained to represent a family in its purchase of a house, whatever we might see or intuit about the family’s dynamics is beside the point. We are present to advise on the real estate transaction, period. But… Continue reading How To Know if a Client is Suffering

Assuming you’re not a corporate restructuring lawyer, you may have a bit of extra time on your hands in the weeks, or perhaps months, to come as the economy continues to hibernate. You’ve likely heard mixed messages about whether you should be engaging in business development activities during this global pandemic. My take is that,… Continue reading 30 Day Business Development Plan During the COVID Crisis

It wasn’t so long ago that someone shopping for a lawyer would have a conversation across a desk, share details about the legal issue, and not be protected by the lawyer’s confidentiality obligation if this “prospective client” did not ultimately engage the lawyer. However, in 2002, the American Bar Association added Rule 1.18 to its… Continue reading Remote Client Intake: Limiting the Risks While Expanding AccessHow do we avoid conflicts in times o

While much of the world stopped last year, depositions didn’t. Cases forged ahead and lawyers scrambled to establish new ways of taking depositions and handling proceedings that, for decades, had been routine. As we emerge out of the pandemic, many of the pivots intended as bandages for uncertain times will become permanent changes to the… Continue reading Top 5 Tips: Taking Depositions in a Post-Pandemic World

Ways to keep working on long-term marketing goals even when your plate is full. Now that we’re coming out of the pandemic, many lawyers are slammed. During my coaching calls, I often hear things like, “I was too busy to do much last month,” “It’s just a really crazy time for me” or “I couldn’t… Continue reading Marketing When You’re Too Busy for Marketing

Facing a busier than ever week ahead? Use these steps to figure out how to prioritize when you are overwhelmed. Here’s my week: I have three transactions closing on Friday and I need to work on them all right now. One is not more important than the other. I have two articles due today by… Continue reading How to Prioritize When Everything Is Urgent and Important

Why is it that so many lawyer presentations suffer from “hanging fragmentitis”? Here’s how to stop yourself from constantly editing, restarting and revising out loud. When we speak, why do we so often fail to finish our sentences? Linguists must know the answer to this question, but I am at a loss. All I’m sure… Continue reading Better Presentations: How to Stop ‘Rough-Drafting’ and Learn to Speak with Precision

According to the ABA Profile of the Legal Profession 2020, nearly 20% of lawyers suffer from anxiety. Lawyers struggle with anxiety at levels substantially higher than the general population and other highly educated professionals. It is important for law firms and firm leaders to “lead the way” for attorney well-being by creating a culture that… Continue reading Five Ways to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

When you think of organizational skills for lawyers, you probably think first of the physical things: an uncluttered office, pristine case files, and the ability to find exactly what you’re looking for exactly when you need it. But critical organizational skills also include time management, strategic planning, the ability to set priorities, and self-care. Here… Continue reading 5 Organizational Skills for Lawyers

Marketing staff compensation. The first wave of law firm marketers were often high-performing administrative staff. They lacked respect, authority and the compensation they deserved — still true in many firms today. However, a talent war has pushed salaries for in-house marketers up 20% since pre-Covid times, recently cracking the $1 million mark. DEI. Years ago,… Continue reading Law Firm Marketing Regulation: What’s Hot and What’s Not

In December 2021, Dave Ries, a frequent co-presenter with the authors, wrote an excellent summary of the cybersecurity portion of the ABA’s 2021 Legal Technology Survey Report. Perhaps the most striking statistic is that 25% of the survey’s respondents reported that their law firm had been breached at some time. Clearly, law firms are an… Continue reading Cybersecurity Trends: 25% of Law Firms Have Been Breached

Talc injury claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson‘s talc unit told a New Jersey bankruptcy judge Monday that the company filed for bankruptcy as a litigation strategy after getting hit with more than 38,000 personal injury suits, and that the case should be tossed on bad faith grounds. During the opening… Continue reading Talc Claimants Argue Bad Faith In J&J Unit’s Ch. 11 Trial