What if you were asked to design a complete continuing legal education program about a very important topic where you thought you knew a fair amount about the topic? Well, here’s mine – Tools for Tomorrow’s Lawyers — and you are welcome to attend, either in person or via webcast November 12, 2014 at the
Alternative Billing Comes to Main Street
I was very pleased to have been interviewed for the cover story of the October 2014 Illinois Bar Journal titled Alternative Billing Comes to Main Street. Patrick Lamb of Valorem Law Group in Chicago, the author of the recently released Alternative Fees for Litigators and their Clients (American Bar Association, 2014) is also interviewed, as
What is Your Job Description?
The Law Practice Magazine Sept/Oct 2014 issue is out and 
the theme is law firm Finance.
As always. there is lots of good content, including Starting a Financial Relationship With Your Client- Packaging your fee agreement with an eye toward client relations, written by my colleague and friend Peter Roberts.
My Practice Management Advice
Fee Agreements for Lawyers
Jared Correia had a nice piece on AttorneyatWork.com today entitled Fee Tale: This Is Not Your Father’s Engagement Agreement in which he outlines some "upgrades" to attorney-client fee agreements that perhaps have not be reviewed or refreshed for a number of years. He links to some other well-written articles and of course, as Jared often
Alternative Fee Arrangements is the Subject of Digital Edge Podcast
For the Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology podcast this month, Sharon Nelson and I took on the weighty subject of billable hours and alternative fee arrangements (AFA's.) Since I co-authored Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour with Mark Robertson, it is a topic I am always happy to discuss.
From Departing Employees to the Digital Edge to Diversity
What do all of those things have in common? They were all featured topics in the April 2010 edition of Law Practice Today.
Sharon Nelson and I posted our 30th Digtal Edge: Lawyers and Technology podcast "ABA TECHSHOW – It's a Wrap." There have been other post-TECHSHOW articles and blog posts. But Sharon and
The Billable Hour Debate: August 24, 2009
On Monday, August 24th, the debate about alternatives to the billiable hour got even more high profile as articles appeared about the topic in both the Wall Street Journal and Corporate Counsel. I received Corporate Counsel in the morning mail and soon thereafter my inbox received notices of the WSJ feature from a discussion
Recession-proofing Your Firm
Ron Baker is a true expert on the billing methods and profitability of professional services firms. He's written numerous books on alternative billing and is a speaker in high demand. Every single lawyer in private practice should read his recent essay on Recession-proofing Your Firm. Stories of law firm layoffs are in the l
Hourly Billing Talk Leaves a Bad Taste
A blog post from the Greatest American Lawyer blog made me chuckle and it might make you think. The webinar topic was law firm profitability and GAL wanted to talk about alternatives to hourly billing. What he didn't anticipate was his unease in discussing hourly billing at all. Read his interesting post.
One of the