Five Strategies for an Effective Law Firm Retreat

The current economic climate has every law firm and practice group focusing on how to maximize resources, reduce costs and optimize partner performance. A recent article in the Wisconsin Law Journal titled, Firm retreats: Business over Pleasure highlights the changes law firms are making in traditional law firm retreats to focus on efficiency and cut costs.

The following are five strategies every law firm, can implement to increase the effectiveness and ROI for annual retreats.

1. Start with a clear understanding on what the purpose of the retreat is, what do you want to achieve as a result of the retreat? What will be different? Why is this a good time to hold the retreat? And most important what do you want to make sure is accomplished by the end of the retreat?
2. Spend time upfront understanding the critical issues and key success factors. Interview the partners or retreat participants in advance to learn what they believe are the most important critical issues and key success factors for the firm or practice group. Interview clients and referral sources to bring their perspective into the retreat. Summarize your findings into a report to provide a foundation for dialogue in the retreat.
3. Provide each participant with an agenda, summary of critical issues and required preparation for the retreat. The retreat is the time to engage each member to understand the perspectives of others. Proper preparation allows for more meaningful dialogue and results in stronger buy in from all participants.
4. Create a safe environment for unfiltered dialogue in the retreat. Communication and understanding leads to shared purpose and vision among participants. Firms and groups can achieve exponential growth by having a shared purpose and vision.
5. Follow up on the goals and initiatives defined in the retreat. Communicate the results to the entire firm and hold participants accountable for agreed upon action items.

One of the most effective strategies you can implement for optimizing your firm or practice groups performance is to take a step back from day to day client work and bring your team together for a focused retreat that results in moving your firm or group towards your most important goals. This can be achieved through clarity of goals, proper planning, effective communication, accountability and follow up.

Law Firm Strategic Planning- Why Do I Need Mission, Vision and Values?

By Elizabeth Ferris

Recently I wrote an article about the importance of developing a unified vision for helping an law firm or organization to achieve accelerated and profitable growth. A lawyer from London who read the article asked, “what is the difference between vision, mission and values, what does each component do and why do you need all of them?”

The terms mission, vision and values have become over used words and often are confused with old fashion strategic planning retreats where hours and even days are spent word-smithing a mission statement that is never looked at again. Many times the words are interchanged causing more confusion over the benefit for creating a mission, vision and value statement. Read more

Maximize Your Family Law Marketing Efforts On The “Select Few.”

By Elizabeth Ferris

“He that is everywhere is nowhere.”  Thomas Fuller

One of the best ways you can accelerate the growth of your practice is to focus your marketing efforts on the select few who will bring you the maximum return on your time and financial investment. The statement, “you can’t be all things to all people” is important to remember as you build a family law practice that is fulfilling and financially profitable.

Applying the 80/20 rule or the “Pareto principle” to your practice is an essential strategy for accelerating your practice. The principle states that 80 percent of results flow from 20 percent of causes. This means if you concentrate your marketing efforts on the 20 percent of clients who bring you 80 percent of your desired results, you will increase your opportunity for achieving growth goals faster and with less work.

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Five Characteristics of Successful Family Law Practitioners

By Elizabeth Ferris

Why are some practitioners successfully building their family law practice while other practitioners struggle to attract desirable clients and are frequently concerned about, “where the next case will come from?”

 I have been consulting with law firms, family lawyers, mediators and collaborative law practitioners across North America and Europe for the past 9 years and have observed the characteristics of highly successful practitioners.

The five characteristics I’ve found consistent with every successful family law practitioner include commitment, competence, community, communication and exceptional client value.

Successful family law practitioners:

#1 Know what they want, believe in their vision and are committed to achieving their vision. Commitment is defined as “The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action.” The first step in building a strong practice is having a clear idea of what you want, internalizing the value for achieving this goal and committing to the “action” to realize your goal.

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” -Peter F. Drucker

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Building A Successful Law Practice Starts With Vision

By Elizabeth Ferris

As I work with law firms, family lawyers and collaborative professionals to grow their practice, I have learned that one of the most significant challenges you face is how to build (market) your practice while serving clients and maintaining a profitable practice.

How do you build a desirable practice and manage your cases?

Growing a desired practice begins with a conscious awareness of what you want your practice to look like and then creating a plan to achieve your goals.

The greatest waste of time is to do an activity without a focus on what is important, this focus comes from clarity about your practice vision. Read more

How To Attract Desirable Clients To Your Family Law Practice

By Elizabeth Ferris

One of the most important strategies to grow your practice is to master how you communicate the value of your services to potential clients. Creating a core message is the foundation for all marketing and communication activities and is essential to growing a family law practice.

Why have a core message?

A core message sets you apart from other professionals and communicates the value of what you do and who your services are directed towards. It is how you attract desirable clients to your practice. Having a strong core message means you are able to clearly articulate what you do so anybody hearing or seeing your message will understand what you do  and how it relates to their specific goal or problem. Read more