Insights

Legal directories and awards are a key pillar of any good strategic communications plan for your law firm. But with so many outlets running an ever-growing list of surveys and submissions, how do you make the best use of limited resources and pursue honors that actually have value? There are three major categories of lists and recognitions: surveys, submissions and pay-to-play. Surveys: The major legal industry and business information publishers (ALM, Law360,...

As we all now know, many law firms that embraced remote work during the pandemic and then made unsuccessful attempts to gently coax their employees back to in-person work are now instituting return-to-office (RTO) “mandates with teeth.”

Firm lawyers often find these mandates mystifying because...

Expecting law firm leaders to demonstrate a strong “executive presence” isn’t new. What’s changing is the definition of executive presence — and the skills you need to demonstrate it.

Traditionally, leaders who exhibited executive presence were those with the hard-to-define quality of “gravitas.” (In practice, this word often was synonymous with “male.”) Solid communication skills as well as looking and dressing the...

Love it or hate it, public speaking is a need-to-have skill in the legal profession. Presenting at client events, CLE seminars, and industry conferences is key to effective business development and marketing. It’s a skill that comes easier to some — we’re looking at you, extroverts! — than others. (Don’t worry, introverts, we’re not looking at you!) But anyone can develop and master public speaking. First, a pro tip if you genuinely dislike public speaking: Untangle your social...

The concept of “inclusion” often gets flattened into a shorthand for things like the language firms use around gender or sponsoring firm events that do not take place at country clubs — both very important considerations, by the way — but true inclusion means so much more. The time of year is a good time to revisit this striking