Total Attorneys

This will be great, I thought. I will be able to jump into work right away, no commuting delay and get more done because I won’t have the normal office distractions. Well that’s kind of how it happened. The day began with grabbing breakfast and coffee, then I settled into my desk, opened up my laptop and email… and that’s where I stayed. I spent the whole day returning every email in record time, jumping up to eat, walk the dogs or look at the stack of projects I was supposed to get done that day, but couldn’t because I was buried in email. Then my significant other got home. Wow you are home early; let’s get some dinner. Just like that the day ended, and I got my first lesson in how much discipline I would need to actually get work done at home.

When someone in your area searches online for an attorney, you want your site to show up.Optimizing your site to rank well in the search engines (search engine optimization [SEO]) can be a time-consuming process. However, as a local professional, you have the chance to show up in local search results for some phrases, such as “St. Louis criminal defense lawyer” or “Seattle divorce attorney”.

Last week, Chelsey Lambert hosted another edition of Total Expert Radio that featured Alan Klevan, attorney and law practice management expert. During this show, they discussed a topic that is very relevant to attorneys during the holiday season: Out-of-Office Management Tips. Alan decided to change the way he worked after a legal practice management consultant told him, “The law is going to be there forever, but your family is only going to be there once.” Instead of chaining yourself to the office and desk, Alan and Chelsey shared tools and systems that will help you practice law from virtually anywhere in the world.

At this time of year, we all want to be generous but often it is hard to know where to start. At Total Attorneys, we encourage our employees to impact the lives of others through Total Impact. Total Impact offers something for everyone, from volunteer opportunities and charitable events to organizing fundraisers for projects that are close to the hearts of our clients, employees and friends. This month, Total Impact challenged our employees to take part in Total Attorney’s 31 Days of Giving by setting up a calendar filled with 31 days of goodwill ideas, one for each day of December.

Thank you everyone for your support, your business and your friendship in 2010. We and all of our employees wish you, your families and your staffs a warm, safe and wonderful holiday season. Watch our holiday greeting video below.

Join Total Attorneys this Friday at 12:00pm Central on Total Expert Radio for an informative interview with Alan Klevan on ways to manage your law firm when you are out of the office.

Klevan is a principal at Klevan & Klevan, LLP, and he is the creator of Law Practice Strategies, a legal consulting firm dedicated to assisting attorneys move towards building a more efficient and profitable law practice. In August of 2009, the American Bar Association’s General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division awarded him the “Solo and Small Firm Trainer of the Year Award.”

During this free broadcast, callers will have the opportunity to speak to Klevan live on-air and get answers to their questions. Call in by dialing (347) 857-1419 or visit the show online here. For more information on this show and others visit the Total Expert Radio page.

Last month, CEO Ed Scanlan talked with our Virtual Law Office Technology team about new developments in the works at Total Attorneys. Thanks to a great response, the discussion continues to below:

Last week I handed the reins over to Chelsey Lambert to host an episode of Total Expert Radio. While I didn’t get to listen in live, I did get a chance to enjoy the archived recording. This episode was on Holiday Law Practice Strategies, and it featured Donna Seyle, an expert in freelance lawyering, virtual practice and law practice management. This was a great episode for Chelsey to host since she is Total Attorney’s Virtual Law Office Enabler, and she and Donna were able to give our listeners many tips on how to balance the practice of law with other obligations during the holiday season.

Holidays provide one of the rare times of the year when attorneys in traditional practices get to leave their offices, but they need the tools to allow them to walk out of the office without feeling business will collapse while they are enjoying a child’s holiday pageant or visiting friends at a party.

According to Donna Seyle, attorneys can practice law anywhere they have access to a secure internet connection. At Total Attorneys, we agree and often help attorneys create virtual office solutions for their entire practice, but brick-and-mortar attorneys can also benefit from virtual solutions during the holidays.

Here are some of the other tools and tips suggested during the show:

• Use a virtual receptionist to manage calls and messages while the office is empty.
• Set up auto-responses to notify clients when you will be responding to emails and phone calls.
• Manage your time in short increments to get both work and holiday tasks. Chelsey suggested using the Pomodoro technique.
• Use your down time during the holidays to research ways to make your business more efficient. Generally there is a technology out there that can help you streamline your business.
• Give your clients reasonable expectations during the holidays by sending them a proactive email that explains how and when you will be working during the holidays.
• Avoid scheduling court dates and meetings on days when you have holiday plans with friends and family.
• Take advantage of opportunities to grow your practice by networking and making connections at parties. You just might find a new referral standing under the mistletoe in that Santa hat.

For more great tips, listen to the full show here, and join us this Monday and Tuesday for a Power Chat on Security in the Cloud, featuring Total Attorneys’ David Dahl and Clio’s Jack Newton.

People sometimes ask me how I think Total Attorneys differs from other companies that provide services to law firms. One difference: we begin by thinking about what the consumers of legal services want.  How do they want their legal needs met?  What constitutes an exceptional experience for them?  By thinking about the needs of consumers, Total Attorneys is in the best position to meet the needs of law firms because they are one in the same: once you have an understanding of how consumers want their legal services delivered, products and services can be developed to help attorneys better meet these needs.

The paradigm is shifting in the legal space, where the business models that worked yesterday are no longer applicable today.  In big law, corporate clients are asking for different ways of having services delivered to them.  They are no longer willing to pay $400 an hour for a junior associate to make copies.  We’re now seeing this in the consumer space and with smaller law firms, where consumers are demanding different models to receive legal services, whether that takes the form of unbundling, fixed-fee pricing, or delivering services online. 

This is not something to be afraid of.  It’s the opposite: it represents one of the largest opportunities for firms who adapt to the changing marketplace to have a distinct competitive advantage.  This is evidenced by the large firms that are servicing corporate clients in different consumer-demanded ways, such as Axiom, which delivers unbundled services online at cheaper costs to corporate clients.  Small, consumer-serving law firms that operate like Axiom will be just as successful.

The best thing Total Attorneys can do for its law firm customers is give them the tools they need to not only be relevant in this changing landscape, but to thrive in it.  Our obsession with how consumers want their legal needs met gives our law firm customers a definite advantage over law firms that continue to do business as usual.  Total Attorneys strives to position its law firm customers to be the first place the “new legal consumer” will look to for legal services in the future.

What trends in consumer demand are you seeing at your practice?  Are consumers requesting to conduct business online?  Are their expectations different from consumers of the past?

Please join Total Attorneys this Friday, November 12 at 12pm Central for the November edition of Total Expert Radio: Holiday Law Practice Strategies. This show will be hosted by Chelsey Lambert, our own Virtual Law Office Technology Enabler, and the featured guest will be Donna Seyle, an expert in law practice management, virtual law platforms and legal marketing. During this show, Chelsey and Donna will provide listeners with tips on how to manage your law practice during the holidays. Listen to the show here or call in by dialing (347) 857-1419. Callers will have the opportunity to join on air and ask questions during the show. For more information on this show and others, visit the Total Expert Radio page.