Practice Development eCourses

Learn the Fundamentals of Business Development   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

Learn about practice positioning and competitive advantage, how to effectively market your practice, build client loyalty, make it more profitable and ensure your marketing and sales initiatives are efficient and productive.

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Understand How to Position Your Practice

• Understand Your Market Position Using The Practice Maturity Model

• Strategic Importance and Competitive Rivalry 

• Price Sensitivity in Legal Services

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Learn How to Create and Communicate Competitive Advantage

• The Power of Differentiation 

• Practice Differentiation Strategies 

• Unique Value Propositions (UVP)

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Learn How to Deepen the Loyalty of Clients 

• The Client Embedding Process 

• Determine Your Client Value Position 

• Defining Value and Building Trust 

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Learn How to Manage a Profitable Practice 

• Fundamentals of Revenue, Compensation, and Profitability 

• Billing Rates, Utilization, and Realization 

• Leverage, Lawyer Growth, and Expense Control

• Forces Affecting Law Firm Growth

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Learn the Basics of Marketing, Sales, and Service Strategy

• The Marketing and Sales Cycle 

• Marketing Strategies and Techniques 

• Sales Strategies and Techniques 

• Service Strategies and Techniques

• Marketing Strategy 

 

Build a Powerful Network of Connections   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

Legal Services is a relationship business. Learn how to build a powerful network of connections that consistently generates work. Here, you’ll learn to build a master contact list, prioritize connections, make new connections, and reach out to others.

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Learn How to Create a Master List of Prospects and Connections 

• The Power of a Strong Network 

• Creating a Master List of Connections

• Knowing Who You Know 

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Learn How to Go From Master List to Power Connector

• The Purpose of a Power Network 

• Selecting Weak Connections For Your Power Network 

 

Learn How to Build Network Value

• Adopting a Giving Mindset 

• Ways to Provide Value to Your Network 

• Principles and Discipline to Build Network Value 

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Learn How to Develop an Outreach Discipline 

• Using the Outreach Calculator

• Determining Outreach Objectives 

• Planning Outreach Conversations 

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Outreach Communication Strategies​

• It's Time to Connect to Your Power Network 

• Staying in Touch with Weak Connections 

• Reaching Out to People You Don't Know  

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Build a Powerful Practice Specialty Niche   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

Learn the importance of developing a niche for your law practice, and how to identify, develop and market your specialty practice. 

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Learn How to Choose a Practice Niche 

• The Benefits of Niche Differentiation 

• The Practice Differentiation Pyramid 

• Beginning to Find Your Focus 

• Finding Your Focus 

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Learn the Best Differentiation Strategies for Your Practice

• Practice Innovation 

• Client Focus 

• Process Improvement 

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Learn How to Prove and Promote Your Niche Expertise 

• Integrated Marketing 

• Avoiding Practice Dissonance 

• Proving and Promoting Niche Expertise 

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Writing for Clients   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

This course provides detailed advice and numerous practical tips and techniques to produce clear, concise, and engaging legal writing that will impress both clients, senior colleagues, and supervisors. The modules focus on client-focused legal writing and what it means in practice for individual and corporate clients.

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Client-Focused Legal Writing

• Good and Not-So-Good Legal Writing

• The Client Perspective

• Before you write: The helicopter view

• Before you write: The audience

• Before you write: Scope, budget & deadlines

• Before you write: The outline

 

The Lawyer and the Architect

• Structuring the facts

• Structuring the Issues

• Structuring the discussion (part 1)

• Structuring the discussion (part 2)

• Structuring Your Conclusions (Part 1)

• Structuring your conclusions (part 2)

 

Writing Like a Twenty-First Century Lawyer

• Legal Writing and the Zombie Apocalypse

• Replace Latin with English

• Avoid Archaic Language

• Delete Unnecessary Words

• Prefer Verbs over Nouns

• Cite and Footnote Wisely

 

Writing Clearer Sentences

• Manage Your Sentence Length

• Start and Finish Strongly

• Prefer the Active over the Passive

• Watch Your Word Choice

• Avoid Parentheticals and Double Negatives

• Use Lists Well

 

Writing to Engage

• Lawyers, Clients, and Robots

• Designations and Other Engagement Barriers

• Linking Backwards to Move Forwards

• Writing Perfect Paragraphs

• Opening Well

• Closing meaningfully

 

Revising, Editing, and Proofreading

• Revising, Editing, Proofreading, and Trust

• Revision and recursion

• Editing with focus

• Gender-inclusive language

• Proofreading in practice

• Legal writing and email

 

Delegation and Supervision Essentials   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

This course will teach essential skills and techniques to help you delegate effectively, strengthen your relationships with junior lawyers and staff, and get exactly what you need every time.

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The Business Side of Delegation

• Lawyers, Law Firms, and Delegation

• Key Concepts in Delegation

• Delegator or Terminator?

• The Delegation Dilemma

• Delegation and Risk

 

Delegation in Action

• Preparing to Delegate

• Delegating Authority

• Delegation and Supervision

• The IDEAL Delegation Framework (Part 1)

• The IDEAL Delegation Framework (Part 2)

• The IDEAL Delegation Framework (Part 3)

 

Successful Supervision

• Supervision in Focus

• Proactive Supervision

• The Communication Connection (Part 1)

• The Communication Connection (Part 2)

• Strategies for Reviewing Work

• Delegation, Supervision, and Persuasion

 

Time and Workload Management   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

Time and workload management is essential to the success and the sanity of every lawyer. This course will show you how to take control of the limited number of hours you have to get everything done and defeat the most common “time-thieves.”

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Taking Control of Your Time

• Deciding to Take Control

• The Time Paradox

• A Matter of Priority

• A Question of Scope

• Powerful To-Do Lists

• Time and Energy

 

Defeating the Time Robbers

• Strengthening Your Focus

• Controlling Interruptions

• Winning the Email Battle

• The Procrastination Trap

• Delegate or Die

• Managing Competing Priorities

 

Staying in Control

• Passing the Stress Test

• Finding the Right Balance

• Beating Burnout

• Building Your Resilience

• Making it Stick

 

Negotiation Essentials   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

Negotiations play a crucial role in every lawyer’s life. Yet, negotiation is a skill that many lawyers find difficult to master. In this course, we’ll show you why that is, and provide you with the tools to help you prepare for and manage negotiations of all kinds.

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Before you Negotiate

• Lawyers and Negotiation

• The Impact of Style

• Identifying Positions, Investigating Interests

• Brainstorming Options, Weighing Up Alternatives

• Reading Relationships, Assessing Commitments

• Making Plans

 

The Negotiation and Beyond

• Getting Started

• Listening and Questioning

• Exploring Possibilities

• Stepping Back

• Bargaining and Persuading

• Committing and Closing

 

Next-level Negotiation

• Negotiating with the Sharks

• Managing Multiple Parties

• Negotiating Across Cultures

• Dealing with Emotions

• Ethics in Negotiation

 

Feedback that Works   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

Feedback is crucial to develop lawyers and serve clients well, which makes it an essential skill for any lawyer who supervises others. In this course, you’ll learn how to give and receive constructive and motivating feedback.

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Feedback Fundamentals

• The Power of Feedback

• The Challenge of Feedback

• Principles of Effective Feedback

• A Feedback Framework

• Essential Feedback Skills

 

Feedback with Minimal Stress

• Preparing to Give Feedback

• Delivering Corrective Feedback

• Managing Difficult Reactions

• Positive Feedback in Real Time

• Getting Agile with Feedback

• Making Feedback Work

 

Focused Feedback   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

• Feedback to the Stars

• The Feedback Lifeline

• Feedback Up and Across

• When Feedback Lasts Forever

• Feedback Across Cultures

• Feedback Every Day

 

Managing Upwards   (click on the title to watch the introductory course video)

The relation you have with your direct supervisor and other senior lawyers at your firm are probably the most important relationships of your associate career. Learn how to ensure that those relationships are as strong as they can possibly be, and how to overcome the challenges that many associates face in managing those relationships. We’ll also show you how to communicate effectively with senior lawyers at the firm, and in a way that enhances your professional reputation, how to navigate some of the more difficult relationship challenges that associates face.

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The Secrets of Managing Upwards

• Onward and Upwards

• The Price of Power

• Credibility, Part 1

• Credibility, Part 2

• Reflecting Upwards

• A Model of Influence

 

Communicating Upwards

• Accommodating Social Styles (Part 1)

• Accommodating Social Styles (Part 2)

• Confidence and Communication

• Managing Expectations

• Presenting Problems

• Finding Feedback

 

Overcoming Challenges

• Micromanagers and Bullies

• Deadlines and Multiple Work Providers

• The Disagreement Dilemma

• Dealing with Your Dark Side

• Staying Resilient

• Monitoring your Relationships​