The latest issue of Edge International Communiqué is now available online. I am pleased to be associated with the wisdom and insight into legal practice that this publication offers to its subscribers every month, as the Edge International partners contribute their particular knowledge and expertise on a rotating basis.

My contribution this month focuses on business metrics, and how they can be used to attain optimum results for law-firm practices.

Clients often ask us to help specific individual lawyers to enhance their revenues and their rates of client attraction and retention.

It became clear to me long ago that unless some sort of meaningful metrics were put in place, assessing the return on investment to the law firm for such assistance would be couched in anecdotal evidence only.

There is a great temptation to set objectives in terms of billable hours, receipts, numbers of clients attracted, overall billings, supervised billings, and on and on… but these are only part of the story.

The most powerful metric is the contrast between the current and historic performance of an individual.

My article, entitled "Structuring Business Development Metrics for Optimum Results,” includes concrete suggestions for implementing metrics on an individual basis, and guidance on how to measure rate of change.

Highlights from the August 2012 issue of Edge International Communiqué also include Chris Bull’s thoughts on how law firms can combine legal process management with legal process improvement to create impressive results, and Doug Richardson’s list of ten ways in which the Edge Cultural Assessment can help your firm with its strategic planning.

I invite you to check out the August issue here.