How effective is your law firm at welcoming clients? Is your office more likely to make them feel at home or scare them away? We look at several ways you can make your office friendlier and more comfortable for the most important people at your firm — your clients.

When Meldon Ellis returned to Vancouver to practise law in 2003 after running an online gaming company in Antigua for a few years, he was unsure about where to take his career. “I was stuck,” he says. “I needed to brainstorm about how to resume my career in law.” He set up his own firm at the beginning of 2004 with a single file, but his biggest challenge was staying motivated.

Despite the fact that most lawyers bill by the hour, we don’t really sell time; we sell a service at a fixed fee. Our goal should be providing value, defined as advice that gives solutions to our clients. In the end, the client’s perception of value really determines whether the price we charge is reasonable for the service provided. Price is the marketplace’s barometer for telling you how it values your service.

There seems to be an increasing need, expectation and emphasis on civility in our legal practice - - by our fellow lawyers, clients and the public. There is also an expectation, a demand by clients that from the beginning of their file we advocate fully, forcefully, fearlessly and sometimes fiercely on their behalf.

How can you become an indispensable source of value to your clients? Here's a simple and implementable blueprint for success.

Small firms find the competitive advantage through client service

During the course of your career, you will encounter opposing counsel who will frustrate you. Perhaps they are overly argumentative, fail to follow through on their promises to provide certain documents, file motion after amended complaint after pre-response discovery request after motion, or are simply poor practitioners.

The actual writing phase begins when you prepare a first draft. At that point you are merely trying to record your ideas.

Finding the right activities is critical to sustaining a business development plan. Playing to your strengths will catapult you to success like nothing else. 

When you’re starting out as a lawyer and developing your practice, you quickly discover that you need people – people to turn to for advice, people who can help develop your skills, people you can represent. But how do you find these people while still managing to bill 2,000 hours?