generations in workplace Jonathan Fitzgarrald and I were asked to contribute our thoughts on the generations at work for the Greater Chicago Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrator’s magazine. While our initial research and conversations in regards to the generational divide in law firms dealt with lawyers and their clients, our focus in this turns internal in regards to how law firms manage the different generations, recruit and retail lawyers, AND continue to build vibrant practices.

For the first time in history, there are four generations in the workforce—Silent, Boomer, GenX and GenY. The different mentalities, preferences, and motivations among the generations has introduced some unchartered opportunities and challenges. According to a recent Altman Weil study entitled Law Firms in Transitions, “Effectively planning the retirement of Baby Boomer partners is critical and must be resolved in the next 3 to 5 years. The timing is not flexible, and, if unaddressed, the cost in lost revenue and client relationships could be devastating.” Savvy legal administrators who understand the different generational markers and who customize their responses accordingly will benefit from a harmonious and successful working environment. A lack of generational understanding results in internal strife, increased turnover and loss of business.

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small fish bigger bowl It’s been an interesting year. Law firm merger. Sports dude started doing his thing for a local radio station. My oldest kid began driver’s training. The youngest turned 13. And I changed jobs. We’re juggling new schedules, new attitudes, and new expectations. I’ve had a new culture, new people, and new personalities to which I’ve had to acclimate. And now the holidays are in full swing. This has brought on a lot of stress, and it was a tough few weeks for me on all fronts: work, family, HOA, and those pesky Girl Scouts (and we’re still a month away from the beginning of Girl Scout Cookie season). Thank goodness for good friends and good colleagues. I’m pretty much on the other side, and now I can reflect on it all. I’ve been doing this legal marketing thing for a long time. It will soon be 18 years since I was hired at JMBM (when the last M stood for Marmaro). I’d already been in the work force for 10 years, and my skill set fit what Frank Moon was looking for in an assistant manager, and I excelled. I’ve had a “few” legal marketing jobs since then. I have had many opportunities for growth from within these firms, and through my service positions in LMA. Life has also provided me many opportunities to grow. This has just been one of those growing years.  Continue Reading My year of opportunities for growth

Survey-BannerFor the past few years I have been heavily involved in LMA’s Technology Committee, first as the board liaison, and for the past two years as the co-chair. My term comes to an end at the end of this year and I would like to end this round of service (because you know there will be more) by hearing from my fellow in-house legal marketers. You do not need to be an LMA member to take the survey. The Technology Committee is committed to preparing two reports based on your experiences in order to help our peers across the legal marketing industry. This isn’t about reviewing a product or vendor, but about our experience as we roll out a new marketing technology product, or how we’re starting to make sense of all that data that our firms are capturing. Continue Reading Calling All In-House Legal Marketers: Survey Says …

Blawg100WebBadgeHeidi Klum’s tag on her long-running show is “In fashion, one day you are in, the next you are out.” For those of us who blog on and about the legal industry and practice of law, the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 is the list to make. For the third year running my blog, The Legal Watercooler, has made the list. As a law school never-was, my parents are very thankful to the ABA for this honor. As I renewed my URL for $9.99 this morning, I couldn’t help but chuckle that my blog was certainly a lot less expensive than going to law school, and has brought my parents many more opportunities to brag about me. I would be remiss if I did not thank all my readers and fans, and to all who inspire me to take fingers to keyboard. I started this blog at the urging and encouragement of my friend Jayne Navarre, and it really brought the purpose of my professional life full circle. She was my first follow on Twitter, and I want to be just like her when I grow up. I love the legal industry and I am an opinionated person. The Legal Watercooler began as I needed a place to have a conversation. And conversations we have had, and will continue to have.

cropped-11149468_10153176009878926_9114104145154145142_n1.jpgI remember taking my first Myers-Briggs assessment way back when. I was an ENTJ. The “E” completely confused me. I hated people. I preferred to be alone. Ugh. I had to be an introvert. Right? Wrong.

Fast forward 20 years and I have completely come into my extroversion (is that a word?). I get my energy from being around others. And, more than anything, I get my work energy from the LMA Annual Conference.

Transitioning to a new firm this year has really taxed my mental energy. I have so many ideas swirling around my head every day. There are so many things to do, and many more possibilities as well. I have a great support team back in the office to help me process, wade through my ideas, help me to decide what’s a go, and what’s a no-go.

Continue Reading I don’t need to zone out, I need to zone in.

pauseWell. It’s been a little busy this pre-holiday season as my department is deep in holiday cards, holiday gifts, budgets, business plans, oh my. But this little diddy of a headline caught my eye in today’s Los Angeles Daily Journal (our local legal rag) and I didn’t want to just add it to my “someday” pile for future blog posts:

Defendants sue law firm over ‘defamatory’ release

I don’t even have to quote the article for you to get the gist. Continue Reading Hold that press release: Are you proofing for defamation?

Jeremy Hammond Once again the First Amendment, as it applies to lawyers, is under attack. The First Amendment! The one that says speech is protected from being abridged by the government. That one. Here it is, in case you forgot:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

14th Amendment. Bla bla. Equal protection. Applies to the states. Yet, here we are again, a government body is telling lawyers that they cannot speak freely. Did anyone in Ohio read Bates v. State Bar of Arizona? We’re not talking about misleading language (which is a violation of any false advertising law), but handing out a brochure or pamphlet with your contact information, or having a Q&A after a CLE. Continue Reading The First Amendment should apply to everyone, even lawyers in Ohio

The LMA Technology Conference kicks off today in San Francisco, and I can’t be there. We have a big client event tomorrow night, and today is all about the final steps for preparation. What to do? What to do? Set my Tweetdeck columns, that’s what’s to do. Through the wonders of technology, and a hashtag, #LMATech, I can listen in and really not miss too much. Here’s what my screen looks like on my second monitor today: Tweetdeck As you can see, I’m following two separate hashtags, one for legal marketing in general (#LMAMkt) and the other for the conference (#LMATech). The other two columns are lists of people. The top LMA folks I follow, and then a larger group of people and companies within the legal marketing space. By following the hashtags today, I will stay on top of the current trends and what’s happening in those two areas of interest today; and by following the people, I will learn a little bit more about them outside of our common interest. The hashtags will also allow me to identify people to add to my lists to increase my network. Come on, didn’t you want to know what Adrian Dayton wore for Halloween?

Social Media
(Photo: Adrian Dayton)

next big thing Today’s the day. Dot LAW (.law) is released. Should you run out and spend $200+ to reserve your firm’s spot? Guest poster Igor Ilyinsky breaks it down for us.

Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Ilyinsky, Founder, FirmWise
Have you ever felt like you missed the big wave on some business opportunity? For me, as a techy, that’s a daily feeling as I watch kids become billionaires off of silly apps and websites. This all started for me when I was a kid myself, in 1997, a junior in college with nothing but time. As the internet geek I was, I used to spend that time trying to look up random domain names on Network Solutions to see if they were available for purchase (not that I actually had the thirty five bucks per year to register them). I recall stumbling on the availability of “business.com” thinking it was a meaningless domain name (this is 1997 mind you). Imagine my dismay when I learned that someone who purchased it only a few months later flipped it for $7.5 Million in just two years. Still, the business of squatting on a domain seemed very seedy for me to get involved (at least that’s what I told myself). Fast forward to 2015. The ICANN (look it up) has announced that the “.law” gTLD (again, Google it) will be available for sale, throwing lawyers and legal marketers all over the world into a frenzy. Do we buy a domain? Is this the next internet gold rush? Not so fast! Gone are the days when it cost $35 to buy a domain (actually they were free before 1995, then they started charging at $50/yr, then dropped to $35 two years later, and now they are pretty much free again with the hosting of a website). These days getting in early on a premium gTLD can cost you tens of thousands of dollars, plus a lot of headaches as the new registration system works itself out. Specifically, according to Minds + Machines, the company that owns the “.law” extension, you’ll need to pay a premium of $12,500 per domain to get first dibs (source: https://join.law/). However, if you’re willing to wait a few days, the price will go down. After 5 days, the cost for access is only $125, and if you wait one whole week, there is no additional price beyond the actual yearly registration of the domain. Oh, you thought the $12,500 includes the registration fees? Silly! Those vary depending on who you choose as your registrar, and what their “cut” will be. You see, in order to get that highly coveted domain you want, your registrar must be the first to request it the exact moment it goes on sale (Noon ET on Monday the 12th). In order to assure that someone will be at the ready to do this for you, your paperwork must be prepared well in advance, and it’ll cost you a pretty penny. One registrar I spoke to tacked on almost $3000 in additional fees for a Monday request. What if you don’t get the domain you want? No worries, you get your money back, minus a “we tried our best” fee which in most cases was only $50-$100. There’s a list of accredited registrars, not including their pricing, on this page: http://nic.law/registrars/ (note: the “Sunrise” period already ended last month, Monday opens the “General Availability” period, also known as the landrush). So is it worth it? Continue Reading Thinking of buying a .LAW domain today? Think again.

For those who do not know me, or do not know me well, I must warn you, I process externally. If you happen to sit outside my door, or down the hall, you have been warned and know what to expect when I have “that” look in my eye.

One of the reasons I started this blog is that I had just left Pillsbury for a much, much smaller boutique. What I didn’t count on was losing my peers, especially my office administrator who had such great wisdom to share. This blog allowed me a place to refine my ideas.

At heart, I am a writer and a communicator. My head is constantly filled with words and ideas moving at great speeds. Without the ability to refine my ideas I cannot craft messages, and forget sounding credible.

The ability to communicate and communicate well is the foundation of my livelihood. It is my reputation. It is what differentiates me from you.

Coming from a gal who reads grammar books for fun, I am never satisfied; I can always learn more, and refine my craft.

One of the few newsletters that actually comes to my inbox is WordRake‘s Writing Tips. And I actually read it.

Today’s tip was a reminder to watch for ins and ofs and I wanted to share it with you:

… ins and ofs prance through our writing, dosey doe in and out of our sentences, then duck and hide among gatherings of words that mean nothing. They are drawn to the absurd and unnecessary, and we hardly notice them nestled there.

There are great examples throughout the post, so definitely click and read on the tip.

Ins and ofs, for the most part, are fillers and add no real value to what you are trying to convey. In a world where words are real estate, and the currency is the reader’s time, we need to edit, edit, edit.

In short, watch your ps and qs, and your ins and ofs.