For the next 48 hours Paula Black will be offering an impressive opportunity to anyone who purchases “The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide To Creating A Marketing Habit in 21 Days.” Readers who purchase the book will receive “The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit,” a compilation of advice from more than 30 of the most sought-after experts in the legal arena (including myself!). Click here for details.

The Business of Law now available

The Business of Law 2009, authored by Ron Pol and Ashley Balls, with contributions from David Maister and Professor Stephen Mayson, provides an in-depth analysis of the trends affecting the legal sector in New Zealand. I believe this report will not only provoke debate about the shape and future of the legal industry in New Zealand, but also stimulate better business practice in the legal profession generally. This is a 'must read' for anyone operating in the legal sector in New Zealand. To order your copy, click here.

Year in review

How quickly the year has gone! Here are some of the highlights (and lowpoints!) It started off for me in London after my mother was taken ill at Christmas and admitted to hospital. Fortunately after several weeks, she made a remarkable recovery and is in much better health this Christmas! Long may it continue.

In February I visited a law firm client in Christchurch, the first of several visits there in 2007. In March, I was able to attend the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival and listen to many fabulous artists including one of my long term favourites, Larry Carlton.
In April I paid my first ever visit to Lisbon to address a law conference for a UK law group on the topic of 'Pricing Strategies'. After an enjoyable trip to California and New Zealand on the way home, I returned to Portugal to discover the translated version of my latest book 'Why Entrepreneurs Eat Should Eat Bananas' had made the top ten best selling business book list in that country. After giving the keynote at a conference on Entrepreneurship in Lisbon, I returned to Australia. The Dalai Lama visited in June and I was one of 12,000 odd to attend his talk in Brisbane.In July, my partner Sue and I drove up the east coast of Australia to Port Douglas and back. A round-trip of 4,500kms. Quite a trip but large parts of the trip were uneventful. The town of 1770 stands out as the highlight. In August, I launched this blog! In September, after addressing the NZ Mortgage Brokers Annual Conference in Rotorua, I hosted the Future Firm Forum in Ohakune New Zealand. About a dozen people attended what turned out to be an outstanding event thanks to the contributions of various facilitators including Gerry Riskin. The event will be repeated next year. Not for the first time, Sue and I were charmed by Ohakune and so we decided that towards the end of the year and over the summer period we would move across to New Zealand for the summer. Before then in October, here were a couple of major conferences to 'MC' in Australia. After a client visit to Melbourne in November, it was time to pack up and leave for New Zealand. So, here we are standing at the foot of volcanic Mt Ruapehu on a beautiful sunny December day! Wishing all clients, lawyers, law firms and visitors to my blog a happy festive season!

Want to create an extraordinary practice?

Stunning location, log fires, great food, New Zealand wines, and fantastic ideas from people like Gerry Riskin and Ron Pol to develop your practice. Sounds too good to be true? Read on.

Nurture + Support + Flexibility = Advantage

A flexible, supportive working environment is the number one factor that voters (predominantly from Australia and New Zealand) considered to give them a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining the best people to their firms according our recent on-line talent survey. Of course, if all firms consider that to be the source of their advantage, then one might argue that there is, in fact, little to differentiate one firm from another and so no advantage is actually gained! However it is encouraging to see more firms placing value on having lawyers with a life on their team!

For firms that are not focussing on developing a flexible, supportive workplace, the following comment from one voter may act as sufficient incentive:

"The principal of this firm is clueless about how to manage or retain people. I am the senior lawyer here and am leaving shortly and happily. The management practices at this firm involve bullying, devaluing and denigrating staff in a way that is very arguably a breach of OH&S/professional misconduct."

Thanks to all those subscribers who took the time to vote.