As several members of Women Owned Law reflected on their operational and marketing activities in 2023, they identified successful efforts that they plan to continue in the year ahead.

Take note and consider which of these will work for your firm or your solo practice.

Networking

To begin, evaluate your approach to networking. Erica DyReyes changed her marketing activities “to spend more time cultivating my long-term work relationships, as I have found most of my work has come from work of mouth of former co-workers and clients who already trust me so there is a greater return on investment.” Her practice at Employee Relations Consulting focuses on civility in the workplace and is based in Haddonfield, NJ.

Matrimonial attorney Wendy Samuelson reported “After the pandemic, I re-started having more lunch dates with other professionals. That’s the best way to really get to know someone, and find out how you can be a resource to them. In 2024,I will plan out my one-on-one get togethers so that my calendar is consistently filled with once a week meetings.” Samuelson Hause is based in Garden City, NY.

Similarly, Stephanie Tsacoumis said “I placed renewed emphasis on in-person networking. The personal touch can make a difference!” Tsacoumis serves clients as outside general counsel at Pebble Beach Associates in Washington, DC.

Michelle Wade offered a different take on networking in the new year. “I will continue to expand my networking with people who are junior to me in the industry in which I practice. When starting my career, everyone was senior to me or at my level, so I networked with them. As my career advanced, I realized that my next referral could come from someone new to the industry. Do not wait until referral sources start retiring. Start a broader networking reach now to keep a steady flow of referral sources throughout your career.” Wade’s firm, Jetstream Aviation Law, is in the Kansas City area, KS and focuses on the purchase and sale of private aircraft.

Assistance, Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

On the operational front, assistance, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can alleviate a busy professional’s workload and thereby free up more time for working with clients and generating new matters.

Here’s how Erin Andersen lightened her load. “I handed more tasks off to my assistant, including calendar management, pitch deck creation and weekly client check-ins. The offboarding of these tasks has significantly saved me more time and therefore increased profitability in my business.” Andersen is a hiring specialist, certified culture consultant and LinkedIn strategist at Your Brand Networker in New York City.

Consider engaging a specialist for a short-term project. DyReyes decided to “outsource the creation and design of template PowerPoints for presentations, along with my other firm documents using Fiver, a website for independent contractors. I have found Fiver has elevated my content at a very affordable price and an extremely quick turnaround time.”

Aim for diversity when hiring your team. Until recently, Samuelson had an all-women staff. “I hired two males this year, a paralegal and an associate. The associate is 65 years old, and is outperforming the younger associates, and has a better attitude and work ethic. Having this gender diversity allows us to hear different opinions, and help us better serve our divorcing clients. I will keep an open mind about hiring in the future, especially older attorneys.”

Automation at your firm may take several paths. In Chicago, employment attorney Kristen Prinz leads The Prinz Law Firm. “Our firm increased automations and communication between software. Legal matters are now created automatically in our case management software when we enter certain commands into our customer relationship management system. We hope to more fully automate the intake process by integrating more text fields from one system to another and enabling our systems to automatically create and send a retainer agreement.”

Additionally, Prinz noted “We have tested an AI-powered chatbot on our website to aid our intake process. It has helped us grab more information from potential clients up front, helping to streamline our process. We will keep refining its knowledge base and responses.”

Jessica Shpall Rosen has found other uses of artificial intelligence. “I’ve used generative AI for coming up with content ideas for social media posts, summarizing notes from conferences (not client-related) and drafting outlines for speaking opportunities. I’ve been learning about other uses as well. Because I lead a learning community for in-house lawyers on AI, I’ve been exploring how the technology works, business use cases and potential risks, so I can continue to show value to my community and clients as they grapple with AI adoption.” Rosen practices business employment law at Greenwald Doherty and is based in New York City.

Managing Attention and Time

For Kimberly Rice, attention management is key. “I use the off button. When in creation mode, whether that be new document development or preparing for a meeting/call/coaching session, I turn off all sounds from all devices. I literally place my phone somewhere away from my desk to allow me to focus 100% on the task at hand. I’ve learned (and it has been scientifically proven) that multi-tasking is an unproductive habit. Accordingly, I now can focus on one task at a time, complete it or move it forward, before tackling the next to-do on my daily project list.” Rice is a business accelerator and coach at Changemakers in Cherry Hill, NJ.

As for my own public relations and marketing communications practice, “I now use an online scheduling website for meetings. I block out the mornings to get my work done and I only take appointments in the afternoons. (Of course, I schedule meetings in the morning when clients request them.) This gives me solid blocks of time to perform uninterrupted client work or attend breakfast networking meetings.” Falk Communications and Research is located in New York City.

Finally, the end of the year is the perfect time to review your finances and your rates. Tsacoumis “recalibrated the firm’s hourly rates and alternative fee arrangements, with a view toward conveying value, while fairly compensating for attentive, top-notch legal services.”

Take a closer look at your networking, managing time and attention and your use of assistants, automation and AI. You may contact your colleagues to learn more about these best practices as you ramp up to thrive in 2024.