♫ Zoom Zoom Zoom ♫

A Capoeira song performed by Jibril Serapis Bey.

When it comes to legal services, it seems that many law firms see price as the sole basis for competition.  However from a marketing perspective, price is but one of seven criteria that make up the ‘marketing mix’ for services.  Since legal services are ‘intangible economic goods’ lawyers have to sell the perceived benefits of their services and see how they match up against the needs of the clients.  All other things being equal, clients evaluate services on price.  But this assumes that you are …

♫ All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true… I was made for you

Oh yeah, well it’s true… that
I was made for you…♫

Lyrics and music by Phillip John Hanseroth, recorded by Brandi Carlile.

The beginning of September is always the start of the new year for me.  Perhaps it was so many years spent in …

♫  Get on your boots and visit the North Pole
Try every sport until you score a goal
Follow the path of a butterfly
Go to Ground Zero and do nothing but cry
We don’t know how much time left we got left in this world
This beautiful world…♫

Lyrics and music by  Nelly Furtado, Rodney Roy Jerkins, Rodney Jerkins, recorded by Nelly Furtado.

Having just returned from my summer vacation, I came across an article on Lifehack.org that struck a resonate chord deep within me.  The article is entitled: The Ultimate Bucket List: 60 Things You Should Do Before …

David Bilinsky and I are going to take our own advice about work-life balance, and will thus be taking a short summer break from our Practice Tips posts.

We will return in mid-August with our usual musings each Thursday.

Wishing all our readers a safe and happy summer.

– Garry J. Wise, Toronto (@wiselaw on Twitter)

…

Do you have wireless dead zones in your office or home where your signal weakens or even drops? Well, good news is on the way.  You can breathe immediate new life into your Wi-Fi coverage with a wireless range extender.

They come in various shapes and forms. Some plug into your electrical outlets and use your internal electrical wiring to carry signal, while others simply plug-in to your wall outlet, and connect wirelessly in a snap to your router.

We have had a difficult corner where our wireless signal has nearly always been compromised. The product I chose to solve …

♫ So go on, indulge yourself,
that’s right, kick off your shoes, put your feet up,
lean back and just enjoy the melodies.
After all, music soothes even the savage beasts.  ♫

Lyrics and Music by Dexter Holland, recorded by Offspring.

There is a time to work …and there is a time to kick back and take it easy.

We happen to be in that magical time between Canada Day and Independence Day for our cousins down south.

So our post this week is – seize the moment and take the time …to relax…to detune…to enjoy the company …

♫ Through the fire and the flames we carry on! ♫

Lyrics and music by: Herman Li, ZP Theart, Sam Totman, Vadim Pruzhaniov, recorded by Dragonforce.

Jo DeMars, of NetNeutrals (www.netneutrals.com)  spoke at the 2014 Online Dispute Resolution Forum at Hastings College of Law at the University of California in San Francisco.  This post is based on her most excellent presentation on Wednesday June 25, 2014. While her comments were presented in the context of resolving disputes that arise in e-commerce, her advice applies to virtually any consumer complaint, including client complaints …

I had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat on Monday about knowledge management with Canada’s reigning Information Diva, Connie Crosby.

The video of our discussion is embedded below:

The focus of our conversation was how Canada’s smaller law firms can utilize current knowledge management approaches to better identify, organize and access their own, valuable knowledge inventories – their precedents, checklists, document templates, research memos, and other key data.

Connie is principal of Crosby Group Consulting, a Toronto-based firm, specializing in knowledge management, information management, social media and library management. She is a law librarian, Slaw…

After much planning, and at least one eyeball fixed at all times on weather reports foreshadowing thunder, lightning, rain (and lions tigers and bears, oh my!) our Wise Law Office Backyard Retreat finally enjoyed its inaugural debut last Sunday.

I expect to have several SlawTips posts in the weeks ahead on the actual topics we discussed and the action plan that continues to emerge.

For today, I’m going to focus on the agenda, which is reproduced below.

WISE LAW OFFICE BACKYARD RETREAT AGENDA – June 8, 2014

11:00am – 11:15am – Introduction and objectives for the day (Garry)

11:15am –

♫ These are the people of Walmart
Through mark downs, roll backs, and shopping carts
These are the people of Walmart
Where we save money and shop smart only at Walmart…♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Jessica Frech.

They teach you in business school to carefully evaluate your ‘marketing mix”. When it comes to a law firm’s marketing mix, the discussion is typically centred around the 7 P’s of law firm service marketing:

• Product
• Promotion
• Place
• Price
• Physical Evidence
• People
• Processes

What is unique in North America is that there is a law firm – …