Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices : Gerry Riskin : Edge International

If your firm has offices in the Great Lakes Region (or is thinking of expanding into it) there is an unprecedented and unmatched comprehensive analysis available: “2010 Legal Market Analysis Great Lakes Region”

The report contains:

• 115 pages of detailed factual competitive intelligence
• 126 charts, graphs and illustrations
• 8 States and 10 Metropolitan Areas
• Information on 215 law offices

Cities included:

• Chicago
• Milwaukee
• Detroit
• Indianapolis
• Cincinnati
• Minneapolis
• Columbus
• Buffalo
• Cleveland
• Pittsburgh

I think this is a fantastic deal.  If your firm tried to pull this together on your own, you’d spent months and tens of thousands worth of time doing your due diligence which would include analyzing the firms, clients and economics of the region.  I expected the price would be around $7,500 but it offered at $2,995

I was also impressed by the Guarantee of Satisfaction - if your firm is disappointed (you won't be) you can pull the trigger on the guarantee.

For many leaders, the most important and imponderable question relates to the timing of the recovery — one of the elements of this report is

• “Prognosis for timing and extent of legal market economic recovery”

My enthusiasm for The “2010 Legal Market Analysis Great Lakes Region” is based on these simple premises:

1. The team that created it has many decades of law firm experience
2. The sources of data are impeccable
3. Ed Wesemann (architect of this publication) is a truly gifted analyst and law specialist

The downloadable prospectus including full Table of Contents will give you an idea as to how well organized this work is.

At the very least, this analysis is an important reality check.  Many firms have skewed views of their own markets based on prejudices or outdated data that tends to stick in the minds of firm leaders.

Here is an excerpt from the free  downloadable prospectus showing the nature of the contents of the report:

A detailed competitive analysis for each city providing:

• Comparative reputation within the specific legal market
• Detailed descriptions of competitive situations
• 2010 depth counts of lawyers in the local office and firm-wide

An accurate and up-to-date economic analysis of each metro area including:

• Projections of the growth of key drivers that affect the legal market
• Prognosis for timing and extent of legal market economic recovery
• 2010 Assessment of stability of leading industries and top employers

Assessment of demographic, businesses and market data for each state and metro area including:

• Size of legal markets
• Business friendliness, job growth, cost of doing business and other important indicators
• Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) Analysis for large firm legal practice in each metro area

Download the prospectus and see for yourself.

Note:  I know the people behind this initiative very well but want to make it clear that I have absolutely no financial interest in their venture — I am posting this based on receiving a review copy. I believe this is an extraordinary offering and far more valuable than its price would reflect.




    

   
 

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(The video is 8 minutes - watch at least the first full minute then more if it grabs you)

Law firm leaders

You don't need to embrace social media or love technology or even be a gadget freak to have a peak at how we'll all read magazines and papers soon… I thought a second reason to show you this was to have you think about the publications your firm produces from articles to brochures.

I am not suggesting you blaze the trail but you had better have your design team monitor the progress of this technology and make it available to you as soon as it is affordable.

Gerry

PS  I will be asking our own team to look hard at this for future versions or our Edge International Review which will be published soon.

SOURCE: Digital Magazines: Bonnier Mag+ Prototype excerpt:

This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future, presented by our design partners at BERG.

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PUNCHLINE: If Social Media matters, then it matters to law firms because everything that matters to society in general must matter to law firms sooner or later.  Watch this and make your own decision.

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I am asked frequently why some lawyers create such amazing rapport with their clients.  Much of this stems from the art of the first impression .  The first client interaction is more about not making a bad impression than it is making a good one.

Here are 7 first client interaction blunders that virtually guarantee you won’t develop healthy client rapport:

1. Talking only about yourself
2. Revealing too much
3. Not listening
4. Not looking your best
5. Trying to be cool or aloof
6. Not being yourself
7. Not listening to your gut

CONFESSION:  I stole these! …from genius (he denies it) Brad Isaac who invented Achieve-IT software, known as the Breakthrough Goal Setting Method.

He actually posted 10 First Date Blunders That Blow It Every Time on his Achieve-IT blog and I thought, hmmm, can we learn (transpose from one context to another).

You will note that there were 10 in his post and seven in mine –  as for the three I left out, I thought two were not relevant and thought better of including the third, they were:

1. Going someplace where you can’t talk
2. Bringing friends along
3. Having sex or being too sexual

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:  Why would unappealing behavior in social situations be any more appealing in professional situations.

By the way, Brad's blog has some very interesting posts - check it out!

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What happens when a JD and a Psychiatrist join forces to explore the connection between neuroscience and conflict resolution?

You get Brains on Purpose which according to Stephanie West Allen, will look at how the field of neuroscience can inform the practice of conflict resolution.

You may already be familiar with Stephanie West Allen from her blog: Idealawg.

For more information about the collaborators for Brains on Purpose, click on their pictures.

Also, check out their schedule of events to see when they may be in your neck of the woods.

 
Stephanie West Allen

 
Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz

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As a Managing Partner (or other member of the senior management of your firm), it is extremely important that you look beyond the incestuous offerings from inside the legal profession. Internal thinking sometimes has us gazing at our own navels.  If you want a glimpse of the outside world but in a way that is extremely time efficient, suggestica may be the answer.

Today at 8:00 AM PST, suggestica launched both the suggestics web site and the suggestica blog.

You can sign up for a newsletter at the web site and if you do not have an RSS aggregator you can sign up for an email alert at the blog.

Knowing the genius of the people who are behind this site, (including Rajesh Setty), I am optimistic that the "suggestions" from "suggestica" will be highly valuable to you as a thought leader in the legal profession.

You might start with Rajesh Setty's blog post called Paradox of Choice for Books which will link you to a fabulous free pdf download containing fascinating research by Barry Schwartz.

The other people you see referenced at suggestica will either be people you have heard of (like Oprah Winfrey) or people whom you should know, if you don't already (like New York Times Columnist and prolific author, Thomas L. Friedman).

Punchline:   Look outside our legal profession for catalysts for thought and the learnings that can be translated back into our profession for great benefit.  As a leader you want to keep it fresh and keep it powerful.

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Metaphors and analogies help us understand and apply principles. In his post, "Market as Hospitals Do", Larry Bodine demonstrates the art.

Punchline: Transcending our context ignites our imagination - use this phenomenon with your colleagues and watch them find the magic that tries so hard to hide inside them.

Thank you, Larry Bodine, for the reminder.

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Take a look; Seth may be onto something - he may have indeed offered us a way of referring to the behavior of some of the members of most law firms. Besides, I love physics and the use of its principles as metaphors for things that are otherwise extremely hard to describe.

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