The Gritty Virtual Assistant

Interview With Mark Merenda

My interview this month is with Mark Merenda, marketing expert to the legal profession and principal of Smart Marketing. And Mr. Merenda really is an expert. He's been providing marketing consultant service and expertise to the legal profession since 1994.

One of my favorite bits of Merenda wisdom really drives home the purpose and benefit of marketing with absolute clarity, not only for attorneys, but for any service provider:

"Branding and Image are frustrating topics for attorneys since they cost money and show no measurable rate of return. (Nobody ever says 'I hired you because of your brochure.') Yet, branding and image are terribly important, for two reasons: 1) Your product is invisible, and when the product is invisible, the package is the product, and 2) your clients are not qualified to judge your services. They can’t tell the difference between an A-plus attorney and a C-minus attorney. They are going to have to make up their minds on some other basis. Nothing will affect them more than appearances. (Plus, a dirty little secret: having a sophisticated image will allow you to charge more.)"

Recently, Mr. Merenda graciously gave me a bit of his time to direct me in a project I am working on. I consider him brilliant, of course. Why else would I want to do an interview with him?

Tell us a bit about yourself and your marketing practice. What is your background and what fueled your interest in the marketing field?

In my first professional life, which lasted about 15 years, I was a journalist with daily newspapers in major metro markets like Boston and Miami. I spent five years at The New York Times Company. One of the highlight

Interview With Ed Poll, Law Practice Business Coach

This month I had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Poll of LawBiz Management Company.

Thank you for spending some quality time with us. Let's dive right in, shall we? One of the things that I quickly realized in working with attorneys and helping them manage their offices and administrative work is that a law practice is still a business, and should have the same concerns as any other with regard to customer service, marketing and operating smartly and efficiently--especially when it is a solo or small practice firm. This is why I was so pleased to be introduced to you, and to learn that this is exactly what you help legal professionals with. Tell us about your services and how you consult with attorneys in those areas.

LawBiz is focused on helping lawyers be more effective with their clients, more efficient and more profitable. In other words, we help improve the performance of lawyers with whom we work.

We do this by providing a full service offering. Having originally come from the manufacturing sector, I believe in a full service or full product model of doing business. That means that there is something that I do that should serve many lawyers, whether than be a book or audio product with practical guides or coaching or consulting projects involving development and implementation of major change.

Consulting includes creating and organizing retreats or conferences and speaking engagements where the client is seeking to emphasize a particular attribute such as better client relationships, profitability or strategic planning. For retreats, I work with the client to develop the agenda, create white papers and assist the client's retreat team in the presentation of these white papers; these papers are designed to stimulate discussion and develop firm consensus.

Both the coaching and the consulting are veyr intense, and have led to major changes for my clients over the years. In most cases, when working with individual lawyers, the net result is translated into increased revenue by five or six figures, increased profits and/or decreased stress.

Unlike the legal profession from which I cam, having practiced 25 years, I guarantee the results of my engagement. This means that I must regularly and often check in with my clients to make sure that they perceive they are receiving value fro our process.

Are there certain groups of attorneys you work with, or can any attorney benefit from your services?

Most lawyers can benefit from working with a coach. However, the lawyers whom I coach seem to come from the ranks of sole practitioners, small firm practitioners (usually the partners) and associates in larger firms who seek to increase their book of business and their visibility within their firm to achieve and attain the partner level.

The consulting practice usually is appreciated most by small to mid-size law firms who understand the value that I bring to the table, are able to take advantage of my experience both in the legal practice as well as the manufacturing arena--in other words, they know that I understand business, professional service business and the legal profession.

What kinds of outcomes can they expect?

My clients seek to increase their revenues, attain partnership level, reduce their stress and/or better handle the strains they are experiencing from too much work with too little time to achieve what they would like to achieve.

What has contributed to your success in both coaching and consulting?

First, I think it's experience. I've been on all sides of the table including being a general counsel in a major corporate environment, being a sole practitioner, being an associate and partner in a mid-size firm, being a government prosecutor, as well as now having coached and consulted with law firms for the past 15 years.

In addition to the foregoing, I have taught at the university level on how to start and run your own business. Being with entrepreneurs in many different industries has helped me be more sensitive to the needs of clients interacting with lawyers.

Second, it is obvious to me from the comments made to me by my clients that my experience as a lawyer goes a long way in helping them not only believe me, but accept my advice. They have said to me on many occasions that their previous coach "just didn't understand the requirements of lawyers." With my background in law and in business, I am able to understand where to draw the line vis-a-vis the rules of professional conduct. Some advice given by marketing people cross the line without their knowing it. I do not cross the line and consciously approach the line only with the consent of my client.

What's new with LawBiz?

We just released our very first Special Report, entitled "Business Competency for Lawyers" A LawBiz Management Special Report." This will be the first in a series of special reports designed to address the business side of the practice of law; in other words--the business of law.

In addition to our publication, we have been asked to provide several workshops and keynote addreses around the country including Minnesota, Boston and South Carolina in the next couple of months.

Thanks, Ed. I like to end my interviews on an informal note, so just for fun, give us a bit of Ed Poll trivia.

I ride my bike as often as I can. I've ridden the route of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. Great roads and countryside. And the mountains are absolutely awesome!

Historically, one of my heroes is Ben Franklin. He has been regarded as America's first entrepreneur. In fact, that's the title of a recent book. He was able to gather people together collaboratively in a variety of industries, do pro bono work, and with all that, still had time to participate and be a very key player in the development of the new nation. He set the standard for our post office, establishing goals and principles that still exist today such as delivering 99% of the mail within 24 hours. He believed in education, and helped establish a major university in Pennsylvania. The list goes on and on.

For modern-day heroes, I'd have to say John Wooden of UCLA basketball fame, who not only coached a major sports program, he taught his players about life. Perhaps his most important contributions occurred after he retired at the age of 65. In the last 30 years, he has been a major force teaching young people and business executives about values, about the need for skills and the need for focus in addressing how to live a good life, a successful life.

To Contact Ed Poll:

LawBiz Management Company Edward Poll & Associates, Inc. 421 Howland Canal Venice, California 90291-4619 Order (800) 837-5880 Phone (310) 827-5415 Fax (310) 578-1769 Email edpoll@lawbiz.com Web http://www.lawbiz.com/

Interview with Lisa Solomon, Esq., Legal Research and Writing

As some of you may know, I recently rediscovered my passion for the legal world.

Since getting back into the game, I’ve been having all kinds of interesting discussions with attorneys and others in the legal profession.

And a lightbulb went off, and I thought why not turn some of these conversations into a monthly interview. As a paralegal and Virtual Legal Assistant, I’m always looking for services and products that might be useful to my clients, and thought my audience should find them of interest as well.

I recently met an interesting and very tech-savvy attorney online by the name of Lisa Solomon of Lisa Solomon, Esq., Legal Research and Writing. In her practice, she focuses on legal research and writing (obviously). With her husband, Mark, she is also a partner in The Billable Hour Company, a site that sells stylish clocks and watches that keep time in tenths of an hour for that special attorney in your life. (Too clever!)

I had a chance to ask Lisa some questions about her practice. Here’s our interview.

Hi, Lisa. So tell my readers a little about yourself and your background.

I'm originally from Chicago, but came east to attend Brandeis University (class of 1990) and New York University School of Law (class of 1993). After graduating from law school, I practiced civil litigation at a New York City firm for two years. I believed that disputes among the partners would eventually destroy the firm, so I took a position with Lexis/Nexis training law students in the New York City area. At the same time, I began working on a telecommuting basis for a small Boston-based firm (where I had worked as a paralegal during college), helping them with their insurance coverage work and making court appearances in connection with some New York cases they were handling. That brought me to 1996.

You’ve been focusing on legal research and writing since 1996. I find that most people start off somewhere else, and their passion eventually leads them to the place their heart and talents are most at home with. Is that the case with you, and what led you to this path?

By 1996 Mark and I were married and ready to start a family. However, because Mark is also a lawyer, I needed a job that would let me control my time so that I had the flexibility for family responsibilities.

I knew that the only way to have the control I needed was to start my own practice. I also wanted to work from home because I knew that would help foster the control and flexibility I sought. I had always enjoyed doing research and writing, and I was good at it, so I decided to start a practice focused exclusively on legal research and writing.

Luckily, by the mid-90s, the technology for online research and document transmission by e-mail was in place and gaining wider acceptance. The availability of online research meant that I could work at any hour of the day or night from my home office, which met my goal of having flexible work hours.

The ability to e-mail word processing documents to my clients allowed them to edit briefs I drafted without having to first type them into their system, and allowed me to send cases to them for review without tying up their fax machines for hours on end.

The fates cooperated with the technology: the Boston firm asked me to expand the work I did for them, and my husband helped me spread the word among colleagues that I was available to help them if they needed a last minute motion or a focused appellate brief drafted.

In view of technology advances, have you found there is a greater or lesser degree of demand these days for legal research and writing services.

While outsourcing legal research and writing projects is not a new concept, the popularity of outsourcing is exploding for a few reasons.

First, technological innovations (such as the growing prevalence of high-speed internet connections) continue to foster both my ability to get work done efficiently and the receptiveness of other lawyers to the concept of outsourcing.

For example, when I first started my practice, I had to drag a number of my clients kicking and screaming into the internet age; now, almost all my clients are very comfortable with technology.

Second, the fact that so many people now work remotely in so many industries has made lawyers more comfortable in an outsourcing relationship.

Are there specific areas of law that you concentrate on in your work?

I do research and writing in all civil areas, from contract disputes, to personal injury matters, from employment discrimination to matrimonial litigation, and everything in between.

How does your service benefit other attorneys? What problems does it solve?

Outsourcing legal research and writing services benefits the attorneys who hire me in a number of ways. One primary reason attorneys outsource legal research and writing projects is time. Unfortunately, lawyers are not always in control of their own schedules. Outsourcing enables attorneys to weather particularly busy periods without having to hire an employee or face time pressures that lead to attorney stress and burnout.

Outsourcing legal research and writing on a project-by-project basis is cost-effective for attorneys and firms. Hiring an associate requires a significant investment in both time and money. When attorneys outsource legal research and writing projects, they pay only for the time it takes to complete the project, but when they hire an employee, they immediately add to their fixed expenses.

An attorney's practice may be busy enough to benefit from project-based outsourcing, but not busy enough to not support another employee. Working with an independent contractor also avoids other downsides of hiring an employee: for example, hiring an employee adds to a firm's administrative burdens and leads to an increase in malpractice rates.

In fact, outsourcing legal research and writing projects can help a firm's bottom line. With one exception, all of the bar associations that have addressed the issue - including the ABA - have determined that an attorney may charge the client a premium or reasonable measure of profit in excess of the research and writing provider's cost to the attorney, as long as the total charges to the client are reasonable. (The sole exception is the Maryland Bar Association, which did not give any reason or cite any rule in support of its position).

Regardless of whether or not the hiring attorney chooses to charge the client more than the attorney pays for legal research and writing services, outsourcing is still cost-effective for the client, since even a rate that includes a reasonable profit to the hiring attorney will generally be less than the hiring attorney's own hourly rate.

Some lawyers don't have ready access to research materials they might need for a particular project; since research and writing is all I do, I have a very broad Westlaw subscription and have access to and experience with various other databases as well.

Finally, some lawyers simply like doing "outside" work - such as trials, depositions and client meetings - more than "inside" work, such as legal research and writing. Outsourcing frees them to do those tasks that they find most personally and professionally rewarding.

What “mechanics” so to speak, or processes, are involved in accomplishing a project for a client? Can it all be done off-site and remotely, perhaps without ever having to meet in person?

A client or potential client will contact me by e-mail or telephone and describe the project they would like me to work on. If the project doesn't involve drafting papers for a motion or appeal, that first contact might be sufficient for me to get started (after I have determined the scope of the project and the deadlines involved).

If the facts are complicated, or if I'm going to be working on a motion or appeal, the hiring attorney will e-mail, fax, overnight or mail me the documents I need to get started (for example, the motion papers we must respond to or the contract at issue).

Once the work is done, I deliver the results to the hiring attorney in whatever format the attorney prefers. For a short, research-only project, the attorney might just want me to e-mail the cases I have located; for a more involved drafting project, we might e-mail draft briefs back and forth many times before the brief is finalized.

All of my work is done "offsite," i.e. not in the office of the attorney who has hired me. I have worked for some clients for years before meeting them in person; some I have never met in person. Recently, I did a project involving New York law for a New York-licensed attorney in Singapore: because of the time difference, we never spoke to each other, and communicated solely by e-mail.

Who are your clients, and are your services limited to a particular geographical area?

My clients are sole practitioners and lawyers in small firms from around the country. In fact, I have clients from as far away as Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands. On the other end of the spectrum, I have clients who are so close that I run into them at the dry cleaners and my daughter's school functions.

Who is a good referral for you?

Any sole practitioner or small-firm lawyer who needs assistance with a legal research or writing project in any civil area could potentially benefit from working with me.

The attorney should feel comfortable delegating work to others. The attorney should also be willing to engage in a dialogue about the strengths and weaknesses of the client's case. Sometimes the research I perform reveals that the client's position is weak; alternatively, it may identify additional available arguments, theories of recovery, or defenses. I always share these developments with the hiring attorney.

I was so delighted when I came across The Billable Hour Company. (And what a small world that I would eventually converse with one of the creators without at first realizing it.) These timepieces are just too perfect a gift for those special attorneys in our lives. How did you and your husband come up with the idea?

Actually, the design was Mark's idea. We often joke around to relieve stress, and Mark is a master of "riffing" on a subject. We were talking about work one day, and Mark said that lawyers should have watches marked in tenths of an hour. I said, "hey, I think that might work."

We did some research and saw that there was nothing even remotely like the design we envisioned. Within two months of that initial conversation, we launched our website, and we've gotten fantastic feedback on our products.

Thanks for spending your time here with my readers. Just for fun, I'd like to end our interview with a personal question. Tell us something fun or interesting that you do in your leisure time.

From April through October, weekends usually find me foraging for wild edible foods, including mushrooms. I'm member of the Connecticut Westchester Mycological Association, and also frequently go on foraging tours led by "Wildman" Steve Brill. In fact, I'm so interested in foraging that my family gave me a special cake for my birthday last fall. Foraging is good exercise and gets me out of the house, and I enjoy cooking up what I have found.

For more information, visit Lisa’s website at http://www.questionoflaw.net/. Lisa can be contacted at Lisa@QuestionOfLaw.net or by calling 914-674-8573.