business development

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When lawyers talk about Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs) they usually want to know: 1) Which one works?, and 2) What is the number? When I get this “silver bullet” question, I always reply with the same answer. There is no silver bullet AFA – the real secret of AFAs is talking to the client. This

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We’ve all got our heroes…Mom, Dad, or a teacher in High School are traditional ones, but how about in your profession? Who are the heroes in your profession that have changed how you look at your profession? Perhaps it isn’t even a person, but maybe some event or act from a group of people that…

Mark Herrmann at ATL, wrote an excellent piece on “Is blogging a useful business development tool?” I thoroughly enjoyed the piece, but take issue with a core aspect of his thesis. He notes that “Blogging can be very rewarding in many different ways, but it will create only a very few (if any) serious

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I recently had the privilege of participating in a mentoring session given by a senior partner in my firm.  This partner is a consummate rainmaker and he was sharing how he approaches finding opportunities.  In essence, he is always looking for opportunities to make connections with people.  He talked about making the effort to provide

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Over lunch Greg and I were watching a new waiter be trained in how to best serve diner clients. The Mentor was giving constant feedback to the Trainee. At one point the Trainee had just walked past a table when the Mentor asked if the customers at the table needed more water. The trainee responded:

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As I like to say to my colleagues, making partner at a law firm is no longer the guaranteed “tenured-like” position. In the not so distant past, if an associate was able to make partner and through the good-old-boy network find some sizeable clients, he could count on sitting back and enjoying the fruits of…