Communication with clients is the best guarantee of a successful engagement. Lawyers have a consistent tendency to focus on the task at hand, without communicating to the client what they are doing. The lawyer may be doing a great job with documents, the court, or the opposing party, but the client is never told.

Plain language is language that is clear and understandable – and as simple as the situation allows. Legal language that is plain poses special challenges, but is not impossible. Clearer, simpler writing – stripped of complexity but not of style – will also help to improve your client relations.

The articles that I’ve been privileged to share with you often draw inspiration from a common source: my work as a coach. I coach attorneys on how to make their practices better and more profitable, providing advice based on years of experience and years "in the field" as a practicing lawyer.

Client relations training, not firm branding, is a law practice's best marketing tactic.

It's the latest talk in law firm boardrooms and at executive retreats. Everyone agrees that a good culture is crucial to a successful firm, but no one can really identify it, describe it, or explain its relation to profitability. Until now.

To achieve a successful law firm, its members need a fundamental reason for working together. Lawyers who physically share the same office environment should share common goals and agreement on how to achieve them. Lack of such an outlook, sooner or later, means the dissolution of the firm in its current form when one or more lawyers decide, “I no longer want to work here.”

What do you do with clients who put your competence in doubt, who lie, who don't pay their bills or who demand the impossible?

Leadership can be practised at all levels of a firm, because cultural change comes from being open to initiatives at all levels. Here's a blueprint for negotiating the dilemmas and opportunities of women and leadership.

Over the years, law firm have learned that quality service alone isn’t enough to attract and retain clients. Now, delivering quality merely gets you in the door. The new focus is on client retention.

Law firms keep jacking up their associate salary packages in desperate attempts to keep their young lawyers from flying the coop. But the more money they throw at associates, the faster they leave. Why? Simply put, law firms don't understand what associates really want in a law firm.