Dr. Bill Saleebey discusses the finer points of moving a law practice 22 minutes, 34 seconds 5.2MB

Our topic today is on smartly moving your law office.

Most of us don't appreciate the finer points of moving furniture, boxes of files, computers and all the other paraphernalia that makes up a typical law office... while not losing billable hours!

Dr. Bill Saleebey provides some clues to achieving a successful move in this interview with Ed.

Couple his words of wisdom with Chapter 36 of Ed's best selling book, The Attorney & Law Firm Guide to The Business of Law (2nd ed.), and you will be assured of success!

Dale H. Tincher, CEO of ConsultWebs.com talks with Ed about search engine optimization 24 minutes, 50 seconds 5.8MB

Dale H. Tincher, CEO of ConsultWebs.com, a web design company for law firms, talks with Ed about SEO, search engine optimization. They talk about how SEO can help produce increased revenues for law firms and some of the interplay between social media and SEO.

Cookie Lewis Discusses Law Library Audits 22 minutes, 28 seconds 5.3MB

What is a library audit, and how can law firms save huge sums of money by conducting such an audit? Cookie Lewis, M.S.L.S. is president of Askinfomania, a legal and business research firm, who conducts such audits. As a legal information strategist, she works with law firms to maximize their return on investment in their library resources and other law library management issues. In her interview with Ed, she discusses such audits, why law firms should consider having one, and how law firms can save many dollars of overhead with the right audit results.

Maurice Vincent discusses litigation support outsourcing services 26 minutes, 33 seconds 6.2MB

Maurice Vincent is the CEO of In-House Litigation Support Services which provides a full suite of Attorney services and litigation support that allows law firms and internal counsel to outsource these areas cost effectively. This type of service allows law firms to focus on their core competencies. Maurice, in our interview, first defines the term, "litigation support," and then describes what litigation support providers should be doing for law firms. Ed draws from Maurice how law firms can save money and better serve their clients while using this "out-sourced" service.

Derek Flower discusses the new Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 17 minutes, 00 seconds 3.9MB

Derek Flower is Senior Account Manager for Fujitsu's Imaging Products Group.

He talks with Ed again, this time about the new ScanSnap S1500. This, according to Ed, is one of the best tools lawyers can have within their immediate reach. And the cost belies the benefits the ScanSnap delivers.

Listen to Ed and Derek discuss the benefits of this latest entry from Fujitsu.

Maridee F. Edwards discusses civility with Ed. 30 minutes, 05 seconds 7.1MB

Maridee F. Edwards is an attorney and mediator in the area of professional licensing and ethics matters in Jefferson City, Missouri. She is former Bar counsel for the Missouri Bar and speaks with Ed about civility in the profession.

There has been a recent fervor about teaching lawyers "civility" when dealing with other counsel and adverse parties. Aren't these the principles we should have learned at our mother's (and father's) knees, but somehow seem not to have learned? Are more influenced by "everything is fair in love and war," believing that the adversary system, by definition, is akin to war?

Therefore, everything the lawyer does is "fair" as long as not prohibited by some code. With the fallout in the economy and corresponding pressure on the legal community, is this becoming more acute?

Is the legal profession guilty of misconduct or rather merely reflective of what is happening in the rest of our society?

Maridee and Ed elaborate on this issue and what lawyers need to do in order to both effectively represent clients and stay away from violating rules of professional conduct.

Darryl Cross of LexisNexis discusses differences between marketing and selling. 22 minutes, 24 seconds 5.3MB

Darryl Cross is the Vice President of Client Profitability for LexisNexis. In this position, he reviews the marketing efforts of many lawyers and law firms. After all, it's marketing... and selling... that creates the revenue from which profitability will result. Darryl discusses with Ed the differences between marketing and selling... and why lawyers either fear or hate to sell their professional services. Darryl and Ed also discuss several easy ways in which reluctant lawyers can be more effective and thus thrive in this downturned economy.

Stephanie L. Kimbro talks with Ed about virtual law offices. 22 minutes, 32 seconds 5.3MB

Stephanie L. Kimbro is an attorney in Wilmington, NC. She talks about the virtual law office and her role as a "virtual" attorney. This is different than a virtual assistant. Listen and learn how you can adopt some of the aspects of the virtual law office in your practice during these tough economic times.

Patrick Lamb, talks about pressures on legal fees resulting from the financial crisis 20 minutes, 32 seconds 4.8MB

Patrick Lamb, partner in the Valorem Law Group of Chicago, IL, is a leader in the national discussion concerning value billing. In today's conversation, Patrick talks about short-term and long-term pressures on legal fees resulting from the financial crisis facing our country. Patrick and Ed also discuss the impact that those pressures will have on lawyers' compensation.

Rick Borstein, talks with Ed about new products from Adobe 29 minutes, 28 seconds 6.9MB

Rick Borstein is the Business Development Manager of the Legal Market for Adobe Systems, Inc. He talks with Ed about all the differnt versions Adobe Acrobat 9 and their associated features. He also discusses Acrobat.com for file sharing and collaboration.

For those who want to learn more about Adobe's products after listening to this interview, you go to Rick's blog, at www.adobe.com/go/acrolaw.

Karl Robe, talks with Ed about public relations and image. 22 minutes, 09 seconds 5.1MB

Karl Robe, APR, possesses 15 years experience, during which he has counseled c-level executives from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups in business-to-business, public affairs and leadership communications. As an author, presenter and coach on a multitude of communications topics, his insights have appeared in The Strategist, Cris Manager, Wisconsin Law Journal and numerous other venues. Karl has achieved an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), certifying a candidate's knowledge of public relations practice, communications, theory, management science and ethics.

Tom O'Leary, talks with Ed about leveraging the Internet to increase revenue 23 minutes, 46 seconds 5.6MB

Tom O'Leary is the owner of The Attorneys ATM, a marketing and advertising firm based in Cincinnati, OH and the author of How to Dominate Google, Yahoo and MSN. In the past decade, he has assisted more than 400 small and medium sized businesses with their marketing strategies, with a focus on leveraging the Internet to increase revenue.

Click here to download your free copy of How To Dominate Google, Yahoo And Msn.

Tom Kane, talks with Ed about importance of conducting client interviews 23 minutes, 48 seconds 5.5MB

Tom is a former practicing lawyer, who spent more than 22 years as a marketing person for law firms, both in-house and as a consultant. He is the author of LegalMarketingBlog.com, which has enjoyed a No.2 ranking for legal marketing on Google and Yahoo for more than two years. His last in-house position was as Chief Marketing Officer for a large national law firm.

Stewart Levine, talks to Ed about Collaboration and Conflict Resolution 24 minutes, 14 seconds 5.6MB

Stewart Levine, author of Getting to Resolution and his latest work, Collaboration 2.0, talks about the benefits of collaboration, the higher heights that can be reached through collaboration, and the use of technology to aid this process. Among other comments, Stewart talks about 7 requirements for effective collaboration – it is important for lawyers to learn collaboration and to use this skill appropriately.

Bruce Callow, talks about the "dashboard" concept 16 minutes, 44 seconds 6.9MB

Bruce Callow a CPA and partner in the Seattle, WA accounting firm of Clothier & Head talks about the "dashboard." His comments were made to the Financial Core Group of the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association. His comments identify the new "dashboard" concept of having important financial metrics for a law firm displayed in an easy to understand format. Bruce discussed the most meaningful law firm financial measurements and how to show them to law firm management.

Mike Downey, attorney with Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in St. Louis, MO talks about Alternative fees: Another way to have the fee conversation with your prospective client 27 minutes, 24 seconds 6.4MB

Mike Downey is an attorney with Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in St. Louis, MO. He recently spoke to several members of the Finance Core Group, Law Practice Management Section, American Bar Association, about the reasons for and some ethical considerations of alternative legal fees. His comments were well-spoken and directly on target for lawyers who have client responsibilities in negotiating fees before the inception of legal work.

Jay Larock, Director of Product Management for Corel WordPerfect Office talks about the new WordPerfect 19 minutes, 15 seconds 4.4MB

Corel WordPerfect Office Suite X4 is here. Jay Larock, Director of Product Management for Corel WordPerfect Office, is interviewed by Ed, talking about the latest version of WordPerfect's Office Suite. Several important features have been added. Ed specifically addresses the WordPerfect improvements, their outstanding word processing application.

Mark Britton talks about the Avvo lawyer rating system 41 minutes, 17 seconds 9.7MB

Mark Britton is the founder and CEO of Avvo, Inc. He was interviewed by Ed concerning the novel approach to rating lawyers. Mark talks about the objectives of Avvo: to help consumers enter the legal community with confidence, to help lawyers differentiate themselves and increase their revenues. They do this, in part, by rating lawyers by three separate modalities: Peer review; Client review; and Avvo review. Avvo is now moving beyond just rating lawyers into providing information to consumers. Listen to this interview and learn about the new rating methodology that will envelope most lawyers in the near future.

Anthony E. Davis, partner of Hinshaw & Culbertson and co-author of Risk Management: Survival Tools for Law Firms, Second Edition, talks about risk m$ 31 minutes, 02 seconds 7.1MB

Anthony E. Davis is a partner of Hinshaw & Culbertson and co-author of Risk Management: Survival Tools for Law Firms, Second Edition. He focuses his practice on risk management and professional responsibility. Anthony talked recently with the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management's Finance Core Group. His comments highlight the importance of the intake process to create the right dialogue with clients and a collaborative relationship, the most effective modality to serve clients best. Ed moderated the presentation.

Patrick Lamb, partner in the Valorem Law Group 29 minutes, 57 seconds 6.9MB

Patrick Lamb is well-known Chichago-based attorney. He is a partner in the Valorem Law Group. Listen as Patrick and Ed discuss Value Billing.

Derek Flower, Senior Account Manager for Fujitsu Products of America, Inc. 15 minutes, 36 seconds 3.7MB

Derek Flower is Senior Account Manager for Fujitsu Products of America, Inc.

He talks with Ed about ScanSnap's standard model, S510, and their new mobile model S300. As Ed noted, the ScanSnap is a "must have" for most legal practitioners.

Gretchen Neels, founder of Neels & Company - Strategic Business Communication, based in Boston 19 minutes, 06 seconds 4.5MB

Gretchen Neels and Ed talk about the new "civility" movement in the legal profession and how the 3, sometimes 4, generations of lawyers in the same workplace need to become more aware of their differences in order to remain profitable and provide expected client services.

Gretchen is the founder of Neels & Company - Strategic Business Communication, based in Boston. In addition to providing consulting and training in the areas of Recruiting and Retention, Networking, and Business Etiquette to professional services firms, Gretchen lends substantial expertise in the area of Generational Harmony. She is the author of Business Etiquette 101: 30 Absolutely, Never Evers for Business, Dining & First Impressions; Business Etiquette 102: 30 Certainly, Always Guidelines for Interviewing, Networking & Meetings, and Cultural Detective - Generational Harmony.

Ed Interviews Michael Korn, Financial Representative of National Financial Network, LLC 19 minutes, 55 seconds 4.7MB

Michael Korn is a financial representative of National Financial Network, LLC, in New York City. He was a small business owner before entering the financial services field several years ago. Now Michael specializes in working with small business owners and law firms to set up health plans and employee benefit programs -- as well as helping owners and senior management build, protect, and manage wealth.

Interview with Alexis Martin Neely 17 minutes, 51 seconds 4.1MB

Alexis Martin Neely is a graduate of a major university law school, first in her class, clerked for a judge in the 11th circuit and then joined a major, prestigious law firm. But, her real-life experiences in the law didn't match her original expectations. Our interview addresses what those expectations and experiences were. What should a lawyer do who no longer likes to practice law? Alexis has advice for lawyers in this position. Law is a loving, caring, and helping profession. Why don't some clients understand this? Listen to Alexis. As we start the new year, it is good to review these questions and answers.

Andy Birol, business growth consultant and author of The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth 16 minutes, 57 seconds 4.0MB

Andy Birol is a business growth consultant and author of The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth (CareerPress, 2006); he has advised over 350 business owners and is an expert contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week, among others. He discusses how attorneys can best impact the business clients they advise and how the attorney can best work together with the client's team of consultants and other experts.

After listening to Andy's interview, contact Ed with any additional questions you'd like to have Andy address in a future interview.

Peter Brusso Interviews Ed Poll at CA Bar

Peter Brusso, CEO of Infocard.cc, works with service businesses to create small CD-ROM business cards. He interviewed Ed at Ed's State Bar of California annual conference booth in September, 2007. Peter is also CEO of podcastingforlawyers.com.

In this first interview Ed discusses the importance of a business plan. "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Interview 1
13 minutes, 50 seconds
3.2MB

In this second interview Ed discusses the power of coaching and mentoring and the importance of learning how to run a business.

Interview 2
11 minutes, 28 seconds
2.7MB

Jim Arden talks about Internet Security 24 minutes, 42 seconds 5.8MB

Jim Arden, a California litigating attorney who focuses on attorney malpractice and legal ethics, discusses the issues of computer security. Technology is a great tool that allows us to be more effective and more efficient. Along the way, however, we can have our tools corrupted. Jim Arden delineates some of the problems with wireless computers in our current environment. Jim asks questions such as: Will your refrigerator be the transmitter of a virus to your computer network? (Did you ever think this was possible?) What security protection will you need this year? Is virus protection, spyware and firewalls enough? Listen to Jim Arden for the answers... and more.

Debbie Epstein, founder and principal or Flex-Time Lawyers LLC 25 minutes, 35 seconds 6.0MB

In this interview, Ed speaks with Debbie Epstein about diversity in the law firm with specific focus on gender issues. Debbie is the founder and principal of Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, who helps law firms address gender issues -- specifically, how to retain women in their ranks. Women, in many of the top ranked law schools, comprise more than 50% of the graduating classes, and have for quite a few years. Yet, this percentage is not reflected as law firm partners, management or committee members. What is the reason for this and why is it important?

Thom Singer, author of Some Assembly Required, 2nd edition. and The ABC's of Networking 22 minutes, 01 seconds 5.2MB

Thom Singer, author of Some Assembly Required, 2nd edition. and The ABC's of Networking, is Ed's guest today. In this fast-paced interview they discuss practice development techniques and increasing your connections by using networking principles.

Scott Simmonds, Insurance Consultant for Buyers 33 minutes, 47 seconds 7.9MB

Today Ed Interviews Scott Simmonds, an insurance consultant for buyers and lawyers. Scott talks about common mistakes that lawyers make when buying both general business and professional liability insurance. He also provides some key clues on how to improve not only your purchasing power but also your coverage.

Scott was a general agent for 20 years and has consulted with buyers for the last 7. While he works out of Maine, his consulting is national in scope.

Listen now for ideas on how to reduce your overhead and increase your protection.

Rick Borstein, Business Development Manager of the Legal Market for Adobe Systems, Inc. 18 minutes, 52 seconds 4.4MB

Once again Ed has the pleasure of interviewing Rick Borstein. Rick is the Business Development Manager of the Legal Market for Adobe Systems, Inc. Among other topics, they discuss the search element of Adobe Acrobat®.

Carol Fritz, Partner in Offshore Services for Lawyers -- based in Philadelphia, PA. 07 minutes, 03 seconds 4.0MB

They discuss offshore legal work.

Mimi Donaldson, Co-author of Bless Your Stress: It Means You're Still Alive! 20 minutes, 39 seconds 4.8MB

Russ Ruffolo, Asset Recovery and Recycling Coordinator of MRK Group LTD Recycling Electronic Equipment 14 minutes, 21 seconds 3.4MB

Russ Ruffolo is the Asset Recovery and Recycling Coordinator of MRK Group LTD in Elgin, Illinois. Though based in Elgin, his company's focus is national. Russ will talk about recycling electronic equipment. In California alone, 6,000 computers become obsolete daily! And 680 million computers will become obsolete within the next few years! What happens to them? Russ will discuss the importance of recycling, the methods of recycling and what to look for.

Donna Payne, President and Founder of Payne Consulting Group Microsoft Office 2007 for Lawyers 25 minutes, 27 seconds 6.0MB

Donna Payne is president and founder of Payne Consulting Group, a training and development company headquartered in Seattle, WA. She and the company have authored 12 books on Microsoft Office including the best-selling series: Word for Law Firms and Excel for Law Firms. She was an original member of the Microsoft Legal Advisory Counsel and is a frequent speaker at legal and technical conferences.

Donna discusses with Ed the new Microsoft Office 2007 and the dramatic differences between this edition and all of Microsoft's previous formats.

This edition is truly a remarkable switch in format that will require users to pay attention.

Peter Lowey, Senior Counsel and former Managing Partner of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP Challenge of Building a Law Firm 19 minutes, 7 seconds 4.5MB

Ed Interviews Peter Loewy, Senior Counsel and former Managing Partner of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP. Peter talks about the challenges he faced in building his West Coast practice from one lawyer (himself) to a staff of over 70 lawyers and 400 staff in just 20 years!

Today, the Fragomen firm is recognized as the preeminent player in the immigration field, representing major corporate players around the world.

Listen now and learn techniques that you can apply for your own practice growth.

Zafar Khan, RPost Registered E-mails 21 minutes, 24 seconds 5.0MB

Ed Poll interviewes Zafar Khan, chief executive officer of RPost, a new electronic registered mail system that allows you to both certify receipt of mail by the recipient as well as the contents of the attachments. Not even the U.S. Postal service can do the latter. It's the next best thing to having someone watch the recipient read your post. And, the best part, you don't even have to sign up for the service, just pay for the post as you use it. Listen for more details as Ed interviews Zafar.

Holly M. O’Neill, Talking Business Outsourced Legal Transcription 14 minutes, 47 seconds 3.4MB

In this week's podcast, Ed Interviews Holly O’Neill. She is the principal of Talking Business, a company focusing on marketing strategies, focus groups, branding and brainstorming for new products and services.

Don Garrison, Quik Sek Outsourced Legal Transcription 14 minutes, 41 seconds 3.4MB

In today's podcast, Ed interviews Don Garrison of Quik Sek, a virtual dictation service. He discusses how his company uses "outsourcing" to help lawyers deal with increased secretarial needs. He talks about the company's technology to help lawyers deal with forgotten or never-learned dictation skills needed to use his service. Listen now to this interesting conversation.

Winston Marsh, Australia-based Speaker and Marketing Guru "Make more money... HEAPS more money!" - Part 2 28 minutes, 04 seconds 6.7MB

In this podcast, Ed continues the interview with Australian-based Winston Marsh. Winston is a professional speaker and a marketing guru who helps businesses make more money ... heaps more money. This segment continues by shedding light on his unique 2 x 2 x 2 formula to substantially increase your revenue.

An important lesson from Winston is that the work we do is what fuels our dreams. He suggests that we must live our life in a way that achieves our dreams before they carry us off, not after. That may be a great reason to listen to Winston again - to achieve greater success sooner so we have the wherewithal to achieve those dreams.

Winston Marsh, Australia-based Speaker and Marketing Guru "Make more money... HEAPS more money!" - Part 1 27 minutes, 40 seconds 6.5MB

Winston Marsh, a professional speaker based in Australia, is a marketing guru who helps businesses make more money ... heaps more money. In this first half of this fascinating interview, Winston addresses his distinctive license plate that helps him remember a key rule in marketing; as well as his unique formula for substantially increasing your revenue. You'll hardly be able to wait for next week for the second half.

Donald A. Downey, Executive Director of minisoft Worldwide 25 minutes, 12 seconds 5.9MB

Donald A. Downey, Executive Director of minisoft Worldwide, is interviewed by Ed Poll about collecting both WIP and AR. Don suggests that WIP (work in progress) that is not quickly converted into AR (accounts receivable) becomes sediment that needs to be cleared out.

Where the law firm uses the accrual method of accounting, there is an economic motivation to clear it out; where the law firm is a cash basis taxpayer, there is little motivation to do so ... but the law firm merely fools itself into thinking that there is still value in the amount that isn't quickly converted to an account receivable and then paid by the client.

Listen now to the full interview.

Norm Thomas, Director of Business Development for Microsoft Professional Services Solutions 23 minutes, 21 seconds 5.5MB

Ed interviewed Norm Thomas, Director of Business Development for Microsoft Professional Services Solutions. Norm starts the discussion with Microsoft's approach to developing solutions while using its platforms and applications.

He then continues to discuss specific applications to help improve the efficiency of lawyers, and concludes with a sneak preview of their presentations at the forthcoming LegalTech Show in New York.

Ed starts his interview by asking Norm to clarify his role with Microsoft.

Rick Borstein, Business Development Manager for the Legal Community for Abobe Systems, Inc. 21 minutes, 0 seconds 4.9MB

This week, Ed interviews Rick Borstein, Business Development Manager for the Legal Community for Abobe Systems, Inc. Rick discusses The new version of Adobe Acrobat^® and how new features are of special interest to lawyers.