—Audio Tapes Now Available—

The 21st Annual Conference & Workshops on
Law Firm Management & Economics
was held on March 27 and 28, 2008
in Washington, DC

Obtain more detailed information about the 21st Annual Conference here.

You are welcome to access and download Joel A. Rose’s articles on the following subjects:

• Retreats and Strategic Planning
• Governance
• Compensation Issues
• Increasing Profitability and other Economic Issues
• Law Firm Administrators; Marketing
• Mergers
• Partner Issues

New articles are added regularly, so please continue to access our website.

Managing Partners and members of Executive Committees in law firms of all sizes and specialties across the United States and Canada have retained Joel A. Rose to recommend on methods and procedures to:

• Improve Law Firm Organization and Long Range Planning 
  
• Recommend on Lawyer Compensation Plans 
  
• Enhance the Economics of the Firm and its Practice Areas 
  
• Plan and Facilitate Retreats and Other Meetings 
  
• Recommend on the Feasibility of Mergers and Acquisitions of Firms and Lateral Hires 
  
• Recruit Managerial Personnel 
  
• Streamline Financial and Administrative Systems 
  
• Recommend Career Development Programs - Professional and Administrative Staffs 
  
• Practice Development  
  
• Educational Programs

Improve Law Firm Organization and Long Range Planning

• Firm governance, administrative and financial management
• Management of practice areas
• Strategic planning and marketing of legal service studies
• Retreats and other meetings
• Total quality management
• Mergers, other offices, and problems of growth
• Computer models for projected growth (contraction)

Recommend on Lawyer Compensation Plans

• Assessing current plans in light of the firm's objectives
• The most appropriate compensation criteria and weighting
• Methods for administering subjective, objective and combination systems
• Implementing and administering partner and associate evaluation plans

Enhance the Economics of the Firm and its Practice Areas

• Lawyers' earning plans and income expectations
• Capital requirements and evaluation of proprietary interests
• Evaluation of economic results by lawyer, firm, fields of law, office and clients
• Fees and billing policies
• Alternative billing arrangements
• Comparative analyses of income and disbursements; planning for profit, containment of overhead and projected growth (contraction)
• Methods for addressing cash flow problems

Plan and Facilitate Retreats and Other Meetings

• Identify priorities of the firm and individual/groups of partners and other discussion issues designed to improve communications
• Prepare agendas and retreat workbooks about strategic and financial planning, governance, lawyer compensation, practice management and marketing, retirement planning, etc.
• Facilitate discussions to achieve consensus
• Identify current and anticipated trends and describe how successful firms deal with them
• Recommend alternative management and economic practices tailored to your firm's immediate and long-term needs
• Prepare Follow-up Reports
• Assist in the Implementation of Agreed Upon Policies and Procedures

Recommend Feasibility of Mergers/Acquisitions of Law Firms/Lateral Hires

• How law firms may become more desirable merger candidates
• Feasibility studies about potential mergers/acquisitions
• Identifying and evaluating target firms
• Merger strategies and negotiating techniques
• Integrating the merged firms

Recruit Managerial Personnel

• Managing Attorneys
• Executive Directors
• Directors of Administration
• Office Administrators

Streamline Financial and Administrative Systems

• Controls for client matters and attorney workloads
• Time and money records and cost controls
• Bookkeeping, accounting and alternative billiing
• Utilization of financial and management information
• Filing, indexing and retrieval of information and docket controls
• Records retention and retrieval of prior work product
• Library

Recommend Career Development Programs - Professional and Administrative Staffs

• Salaries and other compensation
• Methods of evaluation and training
• Recruiting practices
• Progression to partner/shareholder/principal

Practice Development

• Marketing plans
• Role of the marketing committee/"Marketing Czar"
• Conduct client surveys
• Client and workload analysis
• Cross-selling of services to existing and potential clients
• Enhancing synergism among and between practice areas, teams and departments

Educational Programs

• Custom Designed In-house Educational Programs that address the specific requirements of law firms
  • Motivating Attorneys to Improve Their Billings and Collections
  • Compensation Systems that Reward Attorneys and Motivate them to Achieve Firm Objectives
  • Partner Withdrawal, Retirement, Disability and Death
  • Planning and Implementing Strategic and Business Development Plans
  • Law Firm Leadership and How to Get it
  • Changing Firm Culture
  • Improving the Firm's Revenue Stream and Managing Cash Flow
  • Succession Planning for Administrative and Substantive Management, and Clients
  • Growth Strategies: Merger, Acquisition, Incrementally or Combination

     Joel A. Rose is a Certified Management Consultant and President of Joel A. Rose & Associates, Inc., management consultants to the legal profession. The firm, national in scope, is headquartered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

     Mr. Rose received a B.S. from New York University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He has extensive experience consulting with private law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies. Mr. Rose performs and directs consulting assignments in law firm management and organization, strategic and financial planning, lawyer compensation, the feasibility of mergers and acquisitions and marketing of legal services. He has extensive experience planning and conducting retreats and special expertise resolving problems among and between lawyers. He has been a lecturer for the American Bar Association, the American Lawyer Seminar on Law Firm Management and Leadership, the New York State Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Florida Bar Association, the Minnesota Bar Association, the Practice Law Institute, and many other state and local bar associations. He is a member of the advisory board of Law Office Economics and Management and the board of Law Department Management Advisors.

     Mr. Rose is a guest columnist on Law Office Management and Economics for the New York Law Journal and has had numerous articles published in the National Law Journal, Washington DC Legal Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Legal Management, Law Office Economics and Management, The Practical Lawyer, the Prentice-Hall Manual for Managing the Law Office and other state and local bar association journals. Mr. Rose is a contributing author of the book, Model Partnership Agreements for New York Law Firms, published by the New York State Bar Association and of the monograph The Quality Pursuit, Assuring Standards in the Practice of Law, published by the American Bar Association. Mr. Rose is the coordinator of the Annual Conference & Workshops on Law Firm Management & Economics. For five years, Mr. Rose Chaired The Acquisition and Merger Committee and Co-Chaired the Large and Extra-Large Firm Interest Group of the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association. He is a member of the National Panel of the American Arbitration Association, the Economics Section of the New York Bar Association, and an associate member of the American Bar Association. Mr. Rose is a fellow in the College of Law Practice Management and is listed in Who's Who in America.

     Busy lawyers frequently put off the chore of finding solutions to difficult management and economic problems because of the pressure of clients' affairs or their lack of knowledge about the subject. Thus, inadequate or inappropriate organization and systems, and poor administrative procedures continue to exist for long periods of time at the expense of lawyers' income and welfare.

     As specialists in law firm management and economics, our consultants can identify the most appropriate and cost-effective solutions to management and economic problems confronting your law firm that are consistent with the culture and values which have guided its operations. Our extensive experience in this field enables us to effect improvement rapidly and with the least demand on the valuable time of your partners.

     If your firm has organizational or economic problems which we can help to solve, or if you could benefit from an objective appraisal of your firm's operations, please contact Joel A. Rose, without obligation, to determine how we may be of service. Recent client references about our work will be provided, as desired.

     As a courtesy to our clients and friends, Joel A. Rose & Associates, Inc. provides information about current issues affecting the management and economics of law firms.

     You may obtain, without charge or obligation, copies of current articles on the following subjects:

RETREATS AND STRATEGIC PLANNING:

Retreating in Order to Advance

Fifteen Tips for Enhancing Harmony and Synergy Among Attorneys

Reconciling Different Outlooks

Strategic Planning: A Necessity in Today's Environment

Developing and Implementing Strategic Plans that Differentiate Your Firm from the Competition

Planning the Successful Retreat

What Will the Business of Law be Like for Midsize Firms in the Next Five (5) Years?

Strategies to be Developed by Mid-sized Law Firms to Deal With the Growing Competition of Multi-Skilled Resources of Larger Firms

Retreats Let Firms Face Themselves

Strategies for Planning a Retreat

Planning a Retreat to Tackle a Problem

Writing a Statement that Conveys the Firm's Mission

Planning and Conducting Retreats

A Four-Step Formula for Strategic Planning

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GOVERNANCE:

Is Your Firm's Culture an Asset or a Liability?

Formulating a Management Plan for Your Firm's Success

Partnering Requires Careful Balancing

Planning the Orderly Succession of Firm Management

The Managing Partner's Duties on the Practice's Administrative Side

Partner Business Plans as a Planning Tool

Tips for Creating a Partner's Customized Model and Plan

Defining the Role and Development of a New Managing Partner

Alliances: The Kin and Kinship of a Law Practice

Warning Signs of Partners’ Real or Perceived Problems with a Firm’s Culture and/or Management Practices and What To Do About It

A Managing Partner's Checklist

Orderly Succession of Firm Management

Dealing With the "Leadership Vacuum" in Law Firm Management

Training For Lawyer Management

Choosing a Method of Governance

Culture Oftentimes Determines A Firm's Success

The Will to Manage: Formulating a Plan to Succeed

Symptoms of Poor Management

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COMPENSATION ISSUES:

How Does Escalating Compensation Fit in With Today's Firm Economics?

The Distribution of Law Firm Profits

Creative Strategies to Cope with Higher Associate Compensation

Components of Compensation Systems in Successful Firms

Newer Trends in Determining the Most Appropriate Partner Compensation System for Your Firm and Standards to Assess Partner Performance

Dealing with Tensions Surrounding Partner Compensation

How Does Associate Compensation Fit in with Today's Law Firm Economics?

A Checklist for Your Compensation Concerns

The Problems With "Permanent" Origination Credit

Performance Criteria for Partner Compensation

Sharing Origination and Cross-Selling Credit

Administering Partner Compensation Systems

Partner Compensation Plans: A Primer

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INCREASING PROFITABILITY AND OTHER ECONOMIC ISSUES:

Coping with the Economic Downturn

How to Make Profitable Use of Associates

Implementing an Alternative Billing Program

Applying Practice Management Principles in Mid-Sized Firms

Mid-size Firms: Key Trends Affecting Competitiveness and Profitability

How to Teach Your Lawyers Billing and Collection Skills

Utilizing Financial and Management Reports to Enhance Revenue and Profitability

Profitability Techniques Other than more Hours and Higher Rates

Strategies to Enhance Cash Flow

Ten Ways to Increase Firm Profitability

How to Identify Barriers to Profitability

Motivating Lawyers to Bill and Collect

Firm Capitalization

Strategic Options for "Increasing The Pie"

Determining the Value of a Lawyer's Practice

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LAW FIRM ADMINISTRATORS:

Management Skills and Personal Characteristics Possessed by the 'Irreplaceable' Administrator

Why Hire Professional Managers?

How to Get the Most Out of Administrators

Guidelines for a Legal Administrator's Success

Employing an Office Administrator

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MARKETING:

DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGIES: Existing, Former and Potential Clients

Tailoring a Firm for Value-Added Marketing

Clients' Silent Dissatisfaction Is Bad for a Firm's Business: Conducting Client Surveys

Transitioning a Firm's Client Base in Six Steps

Building and Keeping a Client Referral Base

Planning for Business Development and Growth

How Adding Value Can Enhance Profits

Planning the Orderly Succession of Clients

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MERGERS:

Acquisition of a Foreclosure Practice: Does It Make Sense?

Making Merged Firms Work as One

A Primer on Due Diligence for the Joining of Laterals

A Well Planned Merger

How to Evaluate a Candidate for a Merger

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PARTNER ISSUES:

Maintaining Motivation For Attorneys in a Law Firm

A Difficult Partner Calls for Tact and Action

Re-Engineering Under-Utilized Partners to a Firm's Benefit

Building Allegiance of Junior-Status Lawyers

How to Develop Strong Factors of Leadership

Recruiting & Retaining Associates

Practice Management Takes Hold in Mid-Size Firms

Six Strategies for Transitioning a Firm's Client Base From Senior to Other Partners

Avoiding a Terrible Cost: What Partners Can Learn From Associates About Retaining Top Quality Associates

Motivating Lawyers to Stay with Your Firm

The Making of a Partner

Managing Partners Must Address ‘The State of the Firm’

The Generational Mix

How a Firm Can Deal With a Difficult Partner

Motivating Attorneys to Accomplish Objectives

Re-Making Low-Output Partners

Admitting New Partners

Criteria for Progression to Partnership

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