The quote, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard,” has been attributed to actors throughout centuries. Comedy can help make the hard topic of death, funerals, and estate planning easier to discuss. Lately, I’ve been screening a number of comedy films with scenes related to funerals or death. As I speak to groups on getting the […]

Many attorneys struggle when it comes to figuring out how to boost profits in this often challenging business climate. So we decided to put together a call that will dive deeper into the five major areas that can have the most immediate impact on your profit and the three common mistakes that are most often […]

The estate of Anna Nicole Smith recently lost its claim in the U.S. Supreme Court. A narrowly divided court decided 5-4 that the bankruptcy court exceeded its jurisdiction by awarding Anna Nicole Smith $475 million. The Court determined that the bankruptcy court did not have the jurisdiction to try what amounted to a probate case. […]

Last month, I wrote about how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun enforcing HIPAA by imposing large financial penalties against healthcare providers for HIPAA violations. (In the first case, a healthcare provider received a $4.3 million civil penalty for failing to provide timely personal health information to patients upon their request; […]

To many lawyers, marketing a law practice is collection of dark arts, where the focus is on a confusing array of the latest tactics. This kind of approach is bound to fail and waste a lot of money in the process. Because attorneys are often a logical group, I thought I’d offer some strategic step-by-step […]

The practice of law and estate planning has changed a great deal over the past several decades. The “unified credit” arrived on the scene and then gave way to the “applicable exclusion” and increased from $600,000 to today’s $5 million. In addition to the changes in the law itself, the physical practice of law has […]

For as long as professionals have been using social educational or dinner seminars to get in front of a consistent flow of qualified prospects there has been a persistent myth through the years: “People don’t go to seminars during the summer.” FALSE: Good marketers listen to consumers and base their approach on data, behaviors and […]

My last post talked about the fact that we, as business owners, can’t and shouldn’t do it all. In order to grow a thriving law firm, you have to: Identify the best and highest use of your time and move toward making that the focus of the bulk of your time at the office, and […]

One of the topics on the agenda at the Academy’s recent Summit in New Orleans was how to avoid malpractice litigation. All too often, when there’s a malpractice claim, there’s an ethics claim as well. An ethical violation serves as strong evidence against an attorney in a malpractice action. Of course, it’s best to avoid […]

Dealing with law firms and their software for 30 years has put me in a unique position to sift through a variety of solutions to any number of IT or software related problems that law offices find themselves facing. Once such problem has been making sure that both backups are working properly. We absolutely insist […]