Posts Tagged: "Business"

We must communicate effectively to be helpful. If the client isn’t listening because our delivery is ineffective or off-putting, it doesn’t matter that our legal opinion was brilliant because they will not be listening. Every interaction counts. Here are 13 tips to improve client communications.

Great lawyer managers spend time to master the skills required for the job, and being a lawyer manager requires more leadership skill than legal knowledge. Great leaders know how to motivate people to achieve goals over a sustained period. This requires understanding each team member’s legal abilities and motivators… Managing a team of lawyers who are brighter and more educated on a topic than the manager can be difficult. It takes a manager with a lot of self-confidence to feel secure. Yet, the best legal managers always seek to hire lawyers who are smarter and more knowledgeable about certain topics.

There can be no dispute that the level of business startup activity has been on the decline in the United States over the past few decades. So alarming is the downward trend that publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and others have tackled the issue in depth. Inc. Magazine has even asked whether entrepreneurship in America is dead? Still, a disturbing counter-factual narrative seems to be taking hold inside the Beltway, and on Capitol Hill. Despite all research and data to the contrary, some are actually saying that startups are on the rise, and then using carefully selected and tortured data points to claim that patent reforms are the reason for the rise in startups, and more patent reforms are needed.

With December here, it really ’tis the season to be jolly’, and with that, many employers indulge in the festive merriment with an annual tradition; the office Christmas party. The afternoon ‘Out of Office’ goes on, the sparkly attire comes out and, many an ear drum is burst as teams of Mariah aficionados compete to hit those harmonic high notes. Karaoke-keen or not, the office Christmas party is the perfect opportunity for employers to thank employees for their contributions over the last year, to bond, share a drink and relax into the holiday season. However, with a glass quickly turning into a bottle, the party can be (and often is) a recipe for disaster that creates consequences extending far beyond the next-day hangover. With many employers well underway in their planning of this year’s Christmas party, we provide a 5-point guide highlighting the steps that can be taken to help avoid any HR headaches.

Being an effective law legal group leader whether in a corporation, a law firm or the Government, requires specific skills.   Leading teams to accomplish goals under stressful circumstances requires these skills and a team commitment… An excellent leader recognizes that they rise or fall with the team.   To be successful, we all need to have the best team working with us.   When we promote people, they feel valued and appreciated.   Making people feel appreciated is the #1 motivator and its free!… The performance of the team, rather than individuals, is the most important measure.   Yet, pressures can take us away from the team approach if we don’t consciously focus on it.

The 7 deadly sins are lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, greed, anger and pride. In business, these deadly sins are not particularly a negative, at least when moderated or channeled constructively, and I dare say that anyone successful in the business world relies on a number of these so-called deadly sins, either consciously or subconsciously, in order to motivate themselves to achieve more. Allow me to explain…

Do you sometimes feel unsure of yourself when speaking to a client or making a presentation?   Anyone who answered no is not being honest.   We all feel insecure at certain times; that is human.   It is impossible to know everything or anticipate every possible question.  You can be more effective with clients and colleagues if you follow a few simple rules when dealing with situations where you are not 100% certain.

Do you feel fatigued by the long hours, demanding clients and little sleep?   At points in our careers, many lawyers feel like they don’t have a life and that their work defines them.   This is understandable given the demands of the job and the high fees clients pay for legal services.   Yet, you must find ways to recharge and maintain your momentum for the work… Successful people stay focused and attack the challenge at hand, while enjoying family, friends and their surroundings. This is difficult to achieve if you are too tired and bored with your job. You can develop ways to supercharge your career and make certain that you are on the path to continued success and happiness for the long-term.

Law firm partners are no longer safe in their positions once they attain equity partnership.   That security is a thing of the past.   If you are a law firm partner, I provide below 7 questions that you can answer that will help you determine if you are about to be de-equitized. This article discusses how to determine whether you are at risk of losing your partnership interest and if so, some steps to strengthen your position.   My next article will give you ways to protect yourself should you be in a situation where your equity partnership share could be taken away.

Giving a lawyer a critique of their work can be difficult. Yet, you cannot improve lawyer performance or achieve quality work product goals without providing feedback. In this article, I will share with you some of the things that I have learned about giving effective feedback in my years of managing lawyers with staff sizes ranging from 10 to over 2,000.

Raytheon, Nokia and Ericsson all filed briefs with the Federal Circuit encouraging the court to decline the Cray mandamus on a motion to transfer from EDTX… Cray is asking the Federal Circuit to decide two issues: did the Eastern Texas court err in holding that a “regular and established place of business” need not be a physical presence; and did the district court err in determining that the residence of a single work-from-home employee constitutes a “regular and established place of business” of his employer.

While engaging in a manner most likely to lead to success is critical for any company, it is even more important for toy entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, all too frequently costly mistakes are made. Here are five mistakes that I see toy companies make far too often… One of the ultimate ironies is that many toy companies spend most of the time coming up with the perfect name for their company but then don’t take the necessary steps to secure that name. Usually, companies either fail to run a trademark search or wait too long to file the trademark. The best time to discover a trademark issue for your name of choice is at the outset because any conflict can easily be resolved by picking a new name; and trust me while that may not seem desirable in the long run it will save you a lot of time and money.

While many, if not most, enterprises have instituted, and are executing, an IP strategy of some sort, an important question should be considered: Is the IP strategy optimal, such that its execution extracts maximum value from company technology? Some corporate IP strategies may seem sound in theory, but in practice they are (a) selectively or inconsistently applied within or across projects, (b) incompatible with how teams actually work, (c) relatively narrow in how they perceive innovation, and (d) distracting to innovators and IP practitioners while consuming enormous resources. Ultimately, the return on IP investment of such strategies may be questionable. However, enterprises that periodically take a step back to reflect on their current IP strategies, and recalibrate them if appropriate, are likely to derive the greatest possible value from IP.

Join me on Thursday, January 26, 2017, at 12pm ET for a free webinar discussion that will focus on decision making for dealmakers. This free webinar will approach this material first from the lens of the dealmaker who needs to know that they have all the relevant information necessary to confidently assess value and close a deal. We will ask, and answer, the question about which information can prove to be most useful and why. We will then pivot the discussion to bring in data experts to discuss how they work to find that information and deliver it as actionable intelligence so that good decisions are made with good data.

Everyone in the world today has habits that hinder some part of their everyday life. From personal relationships to the work place, bad habits are formed every day. In the professional world, however, it is important for employees to understand how their bad habits are affecting those around them. Bad habits in the work place can lead to a bad reputation, being overlooked for promotion or even loss of employment. It is important to be conscience of bad habits and work hard to break them before they negatively impact your career. Of course, as with so much in life, identification of a problem, or in this case a bad habit, is the first step. Below a list of 7 particularly bad personal habits that can ruin your professional life.