Practice Guide
The Practice Guide section of FindLaw’s Law Firm Management Center provides free resources dedicated to operational and risk management issues encountered by solo and small law firm practices. Business issues such as Disaster Preparedness, Malpractice Insurance, Client Relations and Practice News are critically important to the success and survival of your law practice. Risk management limits business liability exposure and can put your practice on the road to recovery in the event of a disaster. Staying current on the news, events and trends in your practice area allow you to keep ahead of the competition. Managing the client relationship is a core issue and challenge for any law practice. As a small business owner, you need to understand these issues well enough to make informed decisions that impact your law practice. Browse, read, and share FindLaw’s free collection of articles, news and tips that make up the Practice Guide.
Practice Guide
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State of the Legal Profession: Client Driven Innovation
Innovation in the legal services industry is frequently driven by client demand. Over the years, large corporate clients, in particular, have had a substantial impact on the way law firms handle core matters, such as billing and staffing. Recently, large clients have established new varieties of financial and practical requirements that legal service providers must meet.
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Answers to Common Legal Malpractice Insurance Questions
Before you consider buying malpractice insurance, it is important to understand the basics of insurance.
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Negotiating Better Results for Your Law Firm’s Clients
For a number of years I have been doing research into how one's behaviors at the negotiation table affects financial and other outcomes. For lawyers who negotiate on their clients' behalf day in and day out, understanding this connection could be highly beneficial, or failing to notice it, highly detrimental.
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Thinking About Law Firm Risk Management
If you're a good lawyer, you won't get sued for malpractice. This belief may be comforting, but it's a myth. Good (and bad) lawyers get sued. There is no simple way to predict if your client will sue you for malpractice. In fact, risk management begins as soon as a person becomes a potential client.
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Team Conflict Management
Watching fireworks light up a summer sky awakens the wonder in us all. When fireworks light up a conference room and team members are ready to explode, it can be the true test of your project management and leadership skills.
Practice Guide Articles
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Attorney Malpractice and the Unintended Client Relationship
You've been there a thousand times. Someone finds out your a lawyer and has a "quick legal question" for you. While you want to be helpful, you also don't want to expose yourself to malpractice or create an unintended client relationship. This article focuses on how unintended client relationships can be formed and the best way to navigate through those murky waters.
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Best Practices: Solicit and Respond to Client Feedback
What is the single most effective marketing strategy a law firm can implement? Without exception, the answer is, "Ask your clients for feedback and respond to what they say." It's just that simple.
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Report: Law Firm Women’s Initiatives Lack Strategy and Funding
Most law firms do have women's initiative programs, however, the NAWL Survey concludes that they lack strategy that is tied to the specific goals of advancement and retention, and they are woefully underfunded. This article addresses the survey's findings which could help to improve your firm's initiatives and strategies.
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Tax Deductions for Lawyers Providing Pro Bono Services
Explores whether a lawyer's provision of pro bono legal services is a charitable contribution that is deductible from gross income on the federal tax return.
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Use Legal Project Management to Stop Financial Leakage
As more and more clients are pushing their firms to reduce fees and/or offer alternative fee arrangements, firms need to know exactly what their costs are to ensure profitability firm-wide. This includes "recoverable" firm expenses, which are not always actually captured or recovered and other "firm" (or internal) expenses that may be related to specific clients.
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