Abacus Payment Exchange (APX) is a proprietary tool that has been built from the ground up and engineered exclusively for law firms. If queried, most law firms would point to March of 2020 as the point in time that everything changed.  Not that you need to hear this again, but this was when the coronavirus pandemic began to shut down modern life in a truly disruptive way. Since then, it seems like we’ve all been living in a “Twilight Zone” episode. But the ongoing pandemic sped up some societal trends that were already occurring before its arrival.  For example, the convenience economy was already here; the pandemic just super-charged it. You were shopping on Amazon before; now, you do it for just about everything. You were streaming movies before; now, there are umpteen streaming services, and you’re sitting on your couch instead of going to the movies. And when was the last time you held physical cash in your hand? It’s been a while, right? Consumers pay for everything via online transactions. Yet, many lawyers still only offer the ability to pay via check or (preferably) bags of cash. While channeling Saul Goodman may work on your streaming service, it doesn’t hold water in real life. And, lawyers who talk about how their clients actually prefer cash or check payments create a self-fulfilling prophecy: because those are likely the only payment options they offer.  Make epayments available, and almost everyone will select that option, as they do in literally every other aspect of their lives. Balance Forward: Introducing Abacus Payment Exchange (APX) AbacusNext recognizes the value of epayments to law firms, which tend to get paid more and more quickly when utilizing that option, even accounting for payment processing fees. To that end, the company has launched its proprietary Abacus

The benefits of living your life and building your practice in the service of others. Being of service is at the heart of a business trend known as servant leadership. It’s a phrase we’re hearing a lot about these days, yet the principles are as old as the ages. The term, however, was first coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in a 1970 essay, “The Servant as Leader.” Since then, dozens of books and articles have been painstakingly composed on the topic — explaining, dissecting and advising on what servant leadership is and how to implement it. So, what is servant leadership? Servant leadership is a management style in which you lead by placing the needs of your team first. Given the fear and uncertainty surrounding managing hybrid work and holding onto talent through “the great resignation,” it’s no wonder that law firm owners are rethinking their leadership style. In theory, servant leadership is something most of us may already be incorporating not just in our law practices but in our daily lives. We are leading with the “humble and willing” concept that we are first and foremost the servant. The optimal and expected result of this philosophy is that by interacting with others (in this case, our clients and staff) with a natural inclination to serve, we build trust and garner inevitable respect. Strong Foundation Greenleaf laid out a fairly straightforward concept: “Caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built.” These are profound words and yet most of us have experienced the opposite of what those words encapsulate — namely, the managers who act as bullies, the egocentrics, or the tyrants who enjoy domination over their staff’s daily lives. It’s an artificial sense of power

Here are a few reasons to make building your network a priority early in your legal career.  I spent the first four years of my legal career at a “just keep your head down and do good work” law firm where billable work rained down on everyone. It’s all I focused on. There seemed to be little incentive to do otherwise. And it may have been fine if all I wanted was to work at one law firm my entire career. Twenty years later, after many twists and turns in my career, it’s easy to see the illogic of my thinking. Of course, I should have focused on building my network, not just billable hours, from day one. It’s something every associate, no matter how junior, should prioritize. After all, there is nothing more powerful than a strong network. Short-Term Thinking Leads to Delayed Network Building For a law firm associate, the primary return on investment from high billable hours is fairly obvious: an increase in compensation. At the same time, it’s often fleeting. The benefits of a powerful network, on the other hand, are lasting — and far more valuable in the long run — because building a practice is nearly impossible without a network of allies. But here’s the rub: The ROI from a network, like that of a monetary investment, takes time to compound. So you can’t wait until you need a network to build one because a network must be nurtured. If you try to build a network in a hurry, it will come across as transactional — you looking for something but not in a position to give anything in return. Here are a few of the reasons to make building your network a priority: We are in an era of plentiful work and a

Law students and young lawyers often ask more seasoned lawyers what it takes to be a great lawyer. There are lots of answers to that difficult question, though admittedly, it may depend on who you ask, how long they’ve been practicing, and their practice area. For me, an often overlooked answer is the competency of being intellectually curious and asking questions. Being intellectually curious is a skill that can easily set baby lawyers apart from their contemporaries. This Common Faulty Presumption Can Stunt Your Growth as a New Lawyer Most new lawyers tend to lean hard into exuding only confidence and capability. As a result, they feel that asking questions is somehow out of bounds because it is presumed to be seen as stupidity. This faulty presumption makes it hard for young lawyers to ask clarifying questions or “why” questions when given an assignment because they are afraid to look like they don’t know what they’re doing. Rather, when given a new assignment, baby lawyers tend to furiously write copious notes, receiving the assignment as “marching orders,” only to take them to their office, close their door, and expend a lot of energy and stress trying to figure out, first, what their actual assignment is, and then second, how to execute in the time allotted. There can be a similar pattern when turning work product in, where young lawyers simply submit their work and don’t ask questions or for feedback. Or when they are given feedback, they sit quietly and nod profusely, eager to show that they “get” it, even if they don’t. This pattern tends to repeat itself over the first year or two and can be quite stunting to a young lawyer’s growth. The All-Important “Why” What’s missing in this common pattern is the competency of intellectual curiosity