Blog | Page 2 of 37 | Jeremy W. Richter

02 Apr

The Second Quarter: How Are Your 2019 Goals Progressing?

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Practice Management

In early November of 2018, I finalized my 2019 goals. I committed them to paper in the moleskin notebook that I've carried everywhere since August of 2016. But before we jump into talking about 2019, I want to give you evidence that setting goals matters. Looking to the past for evidence of success When I bought my moleskin notebook, two of my earliest entries pertained to goals for my law practice for 2017 and goals for this blog for the last five months of 2016 and for 2017. I had launched the blog in June 2016, and up until August,...

26 Mar

You Are Expendable … Unless You Develop Business Relationships

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Client Management

During a recent conversation with a partner at a law firm, he said to me, "I was never the kind of associate that anyone said, 'We can't lose that guy.'" In fact, most associates never have that said about about them. Most associates are pretty replaceable, even good associates. Good associates deliver solid work-product, meet their billable requirements, and don't make waves. But there are thousands, even tens of thousands of young lawyers who can do those things. So what do you have to do to become non-expendable, or at least the closest thing to it in the legal industry?...

19 Mar

Do You Know Your Lawyer Mentoring Tree?

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Practice Management

Much is made of coaching trees that derive from assistant coaches who have worked for prominent head coaches. The success or failure of the coaches that branch out after having worked under a particular head coach can bear significantly on the legacy of the head coach. Consider the former coach of the Green Bay Packers, Mike Holmgren. Two well regarded head coaches were once assistants under Holmgren: Andy Reid and Jon Gruden. Reid's teams are perennial playoff contenders, and Gruden has won a Super Bowl. Each of those guys also has a coaching tree. John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera, and Doug...

16 Mar

[Appearance] Interview on the Happy Lawyer Project

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Civil Litigation

Okeoma Moronu recently had me on her podcast "The Happy Lawyer Project" to discuss time management and productivity, making yourself indispensable within your law firm, influential books that I've read in the past year, and of course, my new book, Stop Putting Out Fires. You can listen to the interview wherever you normally listen to podcasts or at Okeoma's website.

12 Feb

Mini-Reviews on the Books I Read in 2018

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Reading & Writing

I consumed about 40 books last year. I say consumed rather than read because about 2/3 of them were via audiobook, and some people draw a distinction between reading and listening to books. Nevertheless, below are the books I read last year and a sentence or two about what I thought of them. For the last 15 years, I've kept a 4-star rating system for every book I've read, so I've included that here for some additional context. I hope you find this enjoyable and it gives you some ideas for future reading. Robert Olmstead’s Far Bright Star (***): A...

05 Feb

Make Your Own Opportunity

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Practice Management

Five Mile Creek is stalked by a yellow crowned night heron. Every morning she fishes there for crawfish, wading its waters looking for a good spot. One morning, I took my camera so I could watch her more closely. This is what I saw. The heron perched on a submerged rock and waited, watching. For long minutes, she stood motionless. Water bugs and leaves floated past her. A school of minnows swam by. Still she stood there, statuesque. Abruptly, she plunged her head through the surface of the creek. Just as quickly she pulled herself upright with a crawfish wriggling...

29 Jan

Business Relationships and Courting Potential Clients

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Client Management

How do you think it would be received if the first time you met someone you planted a kiss right on their mouth and began to assume that you were in a dating relationship? Likely not very well. Why then do we treat business relationships any different? Let me tell you a story About a year ago I was at an insurance defense conference where I and other lawyers went to dinner with some potential new clients. We had a nice meal. We talked about the business in various states where the potential clients had work. The lawyers talked about...

22 Jan

Why Lawyers Should Be Doing Content Marketing

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Client Management

Lawyers should be doing content marketing as a means of providing value and building up trust equity with clients/potential clients, as well as exhibiting your expertise. If you're not engaging in content marketing to enable clients to find you and so you can answer their questions, here's a primer about what content marketing is, what's it's not, and how to do it well. What is content marketing? Maybe you’ve heard of content marketing before, and maybe you have’t. So for the sake of making sure we are speaking a common language, I want to provide a definition. The Content Marketing...

15 Jan

Can Email Batching Increase Your Productivity?

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Case Management

Once a month, I send out an email to the folks who subscribe to my email list. A few months ago, I noticed a particular auto-responder that I got from one of the lawyers who subscribes to the list: I only check my email twice each day. My goal is to reply to yours within one business day of receipt. If you need a quicker reply, please contact my office manager at [email address]. If you are a client please log into MyCase using your login credentials and send me a message there, and please remember to copy...

08 Jan

Be Brave about [Fill in the Blank]

Posted by Jeremy W. Richter Practice Management

I was sitting in my four-year-old's room finishing up the square knot on his muslin-blanket-turned-superhero-cape. He looked at me with a twinkle and said, "Let's play the jumping game!" I put my hands on the ground palms down and assumed the posture of a silverback gorilla. Jack climbed onto my back, perched on my shoulders, and started counting. "One. Two. Three. GO!!!" He launched himself as far as his little legs will push him and landed with a rolling crash, cape fluttering behind him. As only a small child can after such a collision, Jack popped up. His grin was...