top of page

Workshops and Retreats

Courting Laterals - Tools to Distinguish the Firm in Competitive Hiring Situations

Who Should Attend:

  • Hiring Professionals

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

Laterals with competitive practices are constantly being courted by other firms. Once they’ve decided to make a move, you’d better move fast to convince them that your firm is dedicated to supporting their move. This workshop is for law firm professionals charged with assuring laterals have a smooth integration into the firm. That process starts long before the candidate has even decided to make the move to your firm.

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to use integration plan proposals to incentivize laterals considering multiple offers

  • Various tools you can use to make sure the laterals collect materials and exits the firm smoothly.

  • How to plan cross selling opportunities, manage the recruiting process and assure your firm's investment. 

Money Ball Laterals – Building Lateral Recruiting Success Using Benchmarking, Best Practices and Process Management

Who Should Attend:

  • Hiring Professionals

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

Studies indicate that as much as two thirds of lateral hires don’t work out either in terms if the number of clients they bring or in the length of time they stay at the firm. Frankly, lateral hiring as a growth strategy is anything but a sure fire way to grow the firm. Recent study into the performance of lateral hires indicate there are numerous ways to improve the firm’s odds of success. This workshop presents the findings of the largest study on lateral hiring performance and the lessons learned from interviews with dozens of hiring partners. The workshop goes through each phase of the recruiting process and identifies the key performance indicators to benchmark and what to improve to build a higher return on your investment into your lateral recruiting program.

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to conduct a thorough assessment of the performance of your recruiting program

  • How to benchmark the key performance indicators of your recruiting efforts

  • Learn what phases of the lateral recruiting cycle make the most impact on your competitive performance

Evaluating Lateral Partner Value – Conducting Client Book Due Diligence on Candidate Laterals

Who Should Attend:

  • Hiring Professionals

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

Decision to move with a lateral candidate to a new firm or stay put with the incumbent firm is a complex decision with both known and unknown factors influencing the decision. Short of speaking directly with the client about their intentions, predicting the likelihood of a client moving some or all of their matters is dependent upon the candidate's perceptions and understanding of the company, internal company forces, timing and, yes, luck.  However, there are conditions which can be observed which clarify the obstacles and, as such, can improve the accuracy of client mobility projections. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to ask questions that reveal the true dynamics of client relationships and gain the intelligence to predict whether or not a client will move with the lateral.

What You’ll Learn:

  • 25+ indicators of client mobility and how they affect move likelihood

  • Questioning techniques to use in candidate interviews

  • How to find the hidden problems in Lateral Partner Questionnaire answers

Decision-Strategy SellingHow to Become a Trusted Adviser Before the Decision to Hire

Who Should Attend:

  • Attorneys

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

Selling methods depend upon where the buyer is in their buying decision process. Buyers who have decided to seek solutions to their legal problems can act decisively to hire counsel. But legal challenges which have consequences for different parts of the company have implications which make the buying decision process more cumbersome and less certain.

Decision-Strategy Selling™ is an evolution in modern sales methods that expands the conventional understanding of the buying-selling process and teaches lawyers how to use the most effective business development strategies for the company’s unique situation. It introduces new questioning skills and new assessment tools which significantly improve the lawyer's ability to expedite engagement opportunities. It was designed specifically for the unique needs of the transactional lawyer.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why current selling processes fall short in some situations and what you can do about it

  • The three selling roles and when to use each role in the buying decision cycle

  • The Buying Cycle and why assessing where in the cycle the prospect is before selling is critically important to sales success. 

But I Don’t Want a Haircut! - Strategies for Resisting and Reducing Rate Discounts Requests

Who Should Attend:

  • Attorneys

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

Giving discounts aren’t a cost of doing business. They are a cost of not knowing how to resist discount requests effectively. In this workshop, your lawyers will learn practical strategies to resist rate discount requests, how to reduce the amount of the discount when resisting is not an option and how to to offer alternatives based on client motivations that produce win-win engagement negotiations.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Discount resistance strategies

  • Discount reduction negotiation strategies

  • Alternative Fee Arrangement (AFAs) strategies and how to know discover which strategy best meets the needs of the client.

Building Business Acumen – How to Understanding Your Client's Business using Business models, Financial Analysis, Business Research and Interviewing Techniques

Who Should Attend:

  • Attorneys

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

  • Library Staff

Clients often complain that outside counsel simply don't understand their business. This presentation provides a survey of the key principles of business management, operations and strategy and presents strategies attorneys can use to quickly understand the company's business model. The presentation handouts include a questioning process to quickly understand a client's business, the key financial ratios to understand a company’s financial health and effective strategies and resources for learning more about your client's business.

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to evaluate your client’s business using the Business Model Canvas

  • How to use basic financial ratios and Industry KPIs to analyze the health of the business

  • How to understand the culture of your client’s business and speak their language

  • How to use free research sources to identify key data about your client’s business

Pitch Perfect Presentations – Advanced Techniques to Win Client Presentations and Competitions

Who Should Attend:

  • Attorneys

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

  • Library Staff

Only about one third of client presentations end in a new engagement. Learn how to win the majority of your client pitches by preparing better, identifying hidden selection criteria, formulating an effective pitch strategy and delivering a powerful pitch. You’ll also learn how to conduct post pitch interviews, identify future work opportunities and identify the ways that you can improve your pitch performance.

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to prepare for the pitch, develop an effective pitch strategy and choose the best pitch team

  • How to conduct pre-pitch interviews and identify the hidden selection criteria

  • How to use subtle persuasion techniques to manage pitch conversations and overcome concerns

The Art of Planning and Execution - Planning and Focusing Your Business Development Initiatives

Who Should Attend:

  • Attorneys

  • Law Firm Leaders

  • Marketing Staff

  • Library Staff

Those that fail to plan, plan to fail. The adage is true. But a plan won't build your practice unless it is the right plan, for the right purpose and it can be easily executed. In this workshop, you'll learn about different types of plans, how to set achievable goals and how they can be used to manage the marketing of your practice. You’ll also learn how to identify the most profitable target markets and target prospects for your practice. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to research and develop strategy and tactics for different types of plans including practice development plans, business development plans, marketing plans, client development plans and industry group plans.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Learn the types of research and data required for different types of plans

  • How to set goals and objectives and put them into actionable plans

  • Learn how to develop a selling strategy, a unique value proposition and how to adjust them for different audiences and target prospects.

  • Learn how to identify your sales philosophy and integrate it throughout each stage of the selling process.

bottom of page