business development for attorneys – Seckler Legal Recruiting and Coaching

It’s Never Too Late to Renew Your College Ties

November 14, 2021 by SeckAdmin

A couple of weeks ago, I had a great Zoom reunion with friends from college who I hadn’t seen in almost 4 decades. We had gotten to know each other through our involvement with NYPIRG (the New York Public Interest Research Group). We worked on a wide mix of social justice issues; but the effort I am most proud of was our collective work to pass the Bottle Bill, requiring bottle deposits in New York State. In this photo, I am seen singing some protest song (no idea what it was), on a march from Binghamton to Syracuse in support of the bill (we weren’t protesting the Vietnam War or climate change, but hopefully, our work had some small positive impact on the planet).

The reunion, which included my friends Doug Berman, Jeff Oliver, and Sam Ziegler (who I think took this picture) was a great trip down memory lane. It was also a reminder, that reconnecting with

“Mindlessness” is the Key to Marketing Success

January 5, 2021January 4, 2021 by SeckAdmin

If you want to grow your law practice, having a good strategy is important. Figuring out who are your ideal clients and what are the ideal matters you want to work on is an important first step in building a marketing plan. Creating a niche practice area is an important way to ensure that you have differentiated yourself from the competition. Mapping out who are your key referral sources and how you can build relationships with these referral sources is essential. The process of coming up with a marketing plan is anything but mindless. A scattershot approach that lacks focus is far less likely to be effective.

But once you have a strategy and you move to implementation, it is important to shift gears. Successful execution requires consistency. Short bursts of activity followed by long breaks where you just focus on billable work, is not a good way to keep your name top of mind with your network. Since it is hard to predict when your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources will hear about a legal problem that you might be able to solve, slow and steady wins the race.

Shear willpower is unlikely to ensure that you will have the consistency you need to remain visible. Given the time pressures on most

Business Development in 2021 with the Law Firm Success Group [on the C2C podcast]

January 4, 2021 by SeckAdmin

The New Year is finally here and without getting into it, let’s just say that many of us are happy to welcome 2021. A new year brings hope, a chance for a new beginning, and if you are in private practice, a great opportunity to ramp up your marketing and business development. In the latest episode of the C2C Podcast, I speak with Alay Yajnik, award-winning business coach and founder of Law Firm Success Group. Alay’s firm helps law firms owners across the country make more money, get better clients, and take more vacations. I’ve already appeared as a guest on his podcast the Lawyer Business Advantage. Alay and I discuss

Finding Your Niche-My Interview on the Lawyer Business Advantage Podcast

December 14, 2020 by SeckAdmin

I was recently a guest on Alay Yanjnik’s Lawyer Business Advantage Podcast. Like me, Alay is an experienced attorney coach and an active member of the ProVisors business network. We spoke about business development for lawyers, the importance of developing a niche, some of the career related coaching that I do and a number of other related

Getting to Know (Like and Trust) You

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 by SeckAdmin

Earlier this year, I participated in a speed networking exercise through my business networking group ProVisors. The mantra at ProVisors is Know Like Trust Refer. This exercise was one of the many ways we have invested time in ProVisors meetings in trying to learn more about each other so we can get to know each other on a professional and personal level.

The goal, of course, is to get to know each other in a way that makes us feel comfortable giving referrals. While most of us seek out competent professionals when someone we know have a need that we cannot fulfill, in truth, it is much easier to identify someone we like and who we trust.

Since by definition, a competent professional has a skill set that we lack, often our decision to make a referral is not based on our professional assessment of that individual’s skill. Do we really know that someone is a good CPA if the Internal

How to Build a Life Sciences Practice in a New City [on the C2C podcast]

September 15, 2020August 30, 2020 by SeckAdmin

How do you move to a new city and build a law practice? Do what Dave Dykeman has done over the last 20 years. Dave is Co-Managing Partner of the Boston Office of Greenberg Traurig where he also Co-Chairs the firm’s Global Life Sciences & Medical Technology Group. In the latest episode of the Counsel to Counsel Podcast, Dave and I talk about building a niche IP practice in medical devices and other technologies. He describes how his early marketing efforts yielded great results over time.

Building A Book of Business During COVI9-19 and Beyond [Zoom cast]

August 26, 2020July 23, 2020 by SeckAdmin

AALAM’s Law Firm and Solo and Small Firm Committees is offering this program to provide insights into how to build a book of business in the age of social distancing. This Zoom cast will feature a marketing coach and a legal recruiter, who will offer fresh perspectives on business and career development. Learn the ins and outs of business development and tips on effective marketing from seasoned panelists, Stephen Seckler of Seckler Legal Recruiting and Coaching and Marc Zwetchkenbaum of Marc Z Legal Staffing. The panel will be moderated by AALAM’s own Jason Chan.

Getting the Most From Networking Meetings and Troikas [podcast]

July 19, 2020 by SeckAdmin

In the latest episode of the Counsel to Counsel podcast, I speak with Steve Fretzin, a premier business coach, trainer, and speaker on business development. Steve focuses on the legal industry but comes with experience in other industries as well. Steve and I discuss the importance of networking in building a professional services practice, how you can get more out of your networking meetings, and how to do this in a time of social distancing.

The ability to generate work has never been more important for lawyers and other professionals. We are in a recession right now and adapting to the demands of the marketplace is critical. But knowing what services your clients want is only a starting point. A good business plan requires a healthy mix of marketing (or reputation building activities) and business development (or relationship building activities). For lawyers and other professionals, it is the second leg, the relationship building, that is more challenging to master.

Attorneys come out of law school knowing something about a broad cross section of legal subjects. Law school graduates enter the workforce knowing how and do legal research and write briefs. While clinics and internships help aspiring lawyers to start

What a Deadly Virus Teaches Us About Business Development

July 7, 2020 by SeckAdmin

Since the start of the year, we’ve learned a lot from COVID-19 about how disease spreads. While it is hard to see beyond the toll that the pandemic is taking on our health and on our economy, I’ve been looking for the silver linings and the lessons we can learn. In the future, I’ll look back nostalgically on this time and remember the months I was able to have dinners with my three adult children who are all living with us.

I’ve also realized that the coronavirus has something to teach us about business development and the importance of building a network. In the case of the coronavirus, building that network is clearly a bad thing. In the case of business development, building a network is essential for success.

While COVID-19 spreads from individual to individual, we know that it can spread more quickly when groups of people come together; and it can spread exponentially faster when large groups of people are congregated indoors and near each other.

So how is this relevant to business development and business relationship building? The short answer is that it is better to know more people than fewer people. Your referrals will grow more quickly if you know more people and if you deepen your relationship with those people.

Building Business Relationships in a Time of Social Distancing–webinar transcript

February 28, 2021May 21, 2020 by SeckAdmin

I recently presented a Webinar at The Boston Bar Association: Building Business Relationships in a Time of Social Distancing. I now have a transcript of my remarks which you can read here. If you would like a copy of my slides or the resources that were circulated after the webinar, please email me.