Search using our robust engine. Get the recommendations you need to get ahead.
Browse through our expansive list of legal practice areas.
Work where you are or where you’d like to be. Find where you’ll work with LawCrossing.
Use our marketplace to feature your opportunity
Start your search today
Set up your account and manage your company profile
Learn about the company before you apply
Look through and compare company profiles
Discovery salaries and scope your next job
Learn from legal expert, Harrison Barnes
Don’t just take it from us
Summary: Most law firms have websites, but many find that they do little to improve firm revenue. Achieve better results with your website by following these strategies.
Summary: How can law firm managing partners improve the profitability of their firms?
Summary: What steps can you take to ensure your firm’s reputation is as strong as possible on the internet, where anyone can leave damaging comments or remarks in a public forum?
Summary: Check out these ten tips for implementing effective marketing strategies in your firm’s business model.
Summary: Check out this list of the top 20 articles in 2015 for law firms on LawCrossing.
Summary: Learn about models of law firm leadership that encourage innovation and how to embrace creativity in your law firm.
Talent management software is gaining importance because getting and keeping good talent has become critical in corporate performance.
The use of performance appraisals as a tool to improve performance management may be overrated or misunderstood. Hard research shows performance appraisals have negative effects on employee populations more often than having positive outcomes. As a result, employers and human resources departments are having a fresh look at this essential tool of human resources management. This article takes a look at three major myths of performance appraisal that lead to its misuse.
One of the major impediments in managing people and upping productivity lies inside the mindsets of managers and employers, which in turn is a product of the cultural and literary environment of the workplace. Managers and employers are logically worried about productivity, output, resources and etcetera, because they’ve got a business to run, and maintain work processes that help run the business meet its targets.
Even though the recession, downsizing, a poor job market, and declining demand for traditional legal services and billing continues to plague the industry, law firms recognize the need to retain their top talent, and therefore the need to address issues of work-life balance. The simple fact that it seems to be an employer’s market does not deceive law firm leaders that the true nature of things has not changed – it is still an employee’s market, as far as top talent is concerned, and the cost of replacing a key attorney or employee is difficult to measure.
A recent paper authored by Laura Empson of the Cass Business School, titled “Who’s in Charge? Exploring the Leadership Dynamics in Professional Service Firms,” took a refreshing look at some of the top law firms of the world and made some interesting observations.
High-potential employees, as opposed to high-performing employees, or highly-knowledgeable employees, are exceptionally important for talent management. While there is nothing that prevents a high potential employee from being a high performer or highly knowledgeable, quite often these three are not the same. A high performer or highly knowledgeable employee may not be ready for promotion due lack of competence required at the next level up. However, high-potential employees are those who are ready to be promoted, and therefore they need to be properly managed, developed and retained.
Training is the key to creating teams, organizations, and realizing business objectives. We are no more in a world where things are predictable – successful hires are random, unless it is being done by a leading expert in a field and in a narrow field. Generally, the HR people recruit across a broad range of job functions, and truly speaking, there are very few predictors of success of an employee. The only thing that a company might do is to train people to do their jobs and orient them to company culture and objectives.
The new employee-employer relationship that is firmly in place, more so post-recession, focuses on an immediacy of things and lacks permanency. The psychological contract, unsaid things, trust, and other values like loyalty had played a role in the employee-employer relationships of the past.
Like every other company owned asset or process, the HR department would also play a role ascribed to it – and that means it would respond to expectations and try to deliver according to what it perceives its role to be.
Client newsletters are an effective method of maintaining regular client contact. Their popularity with attorneys is growing, and they are proliferating because people everywhere demand specialized news, hence the tremendous amount of special-interest publications. Successful newsletters require equal attention to content, production, and distribution.
Affinity marketing is an approach to business development wherein an attorney or firm provides significant assistance to a single nonprofit organization. It helps attorneys focus their contribution efforts for maximum impact and can provide solid business development benefits.
The time required to perform marketing activities is usually greater than expected. Further, the completion of the marketing activity does not mean that marketing is successful, because results from the activity will take even longer to return. With few exceptions, most marketing activities take weeks to complete and may take months to produce results.
Because marketing is by definition an effort that takes time, frustration grows and interest often wanes among attorneys. Typical first steps undertaken by attorneys are exactly those that take long and bring few immediate results. There are several marketing activities that require little time and can bring immediate results. If appropriate initial actions are taken, internal support for other longer-range activities grows.
The most overlooked element in successful marketing programs is the evaluation of ongoing activities. This forms the basis for taking correct action and making future programs successful. But good evaluations are possible only when clear and quantifiable objectives have been set. There Is never one reason why a client hires an attorney, so all the factors affecting the decision must be considered.