How One Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Almost Lost a Valuable Attorney-Client
One of our CLNC® pros shares how losing sight of her business plan almost cost her a valuable attorney-client and what she did to come back even stronger.
Tag: attorney-clients
Does Your Email Address Market You as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant?
Everything is marketing. This is a business principle every successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant knows and applies to every part of their CLNC® business. When I say everything you do is marketing, that even includes your email address.
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Know to Tell’em, Tell’em again and then Tell’em What You Told Them
Successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know that one of the tricks to effectively communicating with attorney-clients is to recognize the different forms of communication necessary to get a point across. One of the best methods I’ve found is this: explain the issue in plain English, then explain it again using an example and finally, explain how the example illustrates the point you just made twice.
Ask Vickie: How Carefully Do Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Need to Proof Revised Contracts?
When proofing a revised draft of a contract for my CLNC® business, do I really need to read it word for word?
What a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Can Learn from a New York Book Publisher
I was negotiating a contract with my publisher, Wiley Publishing Company, to update and revise my book Inside Every Woman. They sent me the first draft of their contract as a PDF, which for most people is an un-editable document format. Normally, this is actually a pretty good strategy when negotiating a contract as most recipients will simply sign and return the contract. It can also serve as an intimidating take it or leave it message.
Why Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Can’t Go Back to 1961
One of my favorite Broadway musicals is Jersey Boys. I’ve seen it five times and have had the pleasure of sharing it with many friends. Two of the lead characters, Frankie Valle and Bob Gaudio strike a deal to collaborate and share everything 50/50. They sealed their deal with a “Jersey Contract” – also known as a handshake. This happened in 1961, early in the group’s history – a time which brought us many, many hit songs including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.” Their Jersey Contract thrives today, as does a bond of friendship between these powerful musical talents.
I recently entered into a Jersey Contract with the owner of a company. I’ve known him for a long time and always felt we had a bond that transcended business. I was thinking we’d be like Frankie Valle and Bob Gaudio.
I always joke that I like to break the rules and here I was, violating one of my own, which is to have a contract in every business relationship. Questions and issues that should have been covered in a contract came up and needed to be resolved.
Are You Sucking Up to Your Attorney-Clients Just a Little Too Much?
My staff at LegalNurse.com are strong, opinionated and sometimes even mouthy – just the way I like them. When we hire a new employee I sometimes notice that at first they’re reluctant to give an opinion that’s different from the majority of the outspoken. They are often a little slow to speak up and when they do it’s obvious they’re just tagging onto the others. It’s like the new person is afraid to get off the fence and jump down onto either side until they know what side everybody else is on. Here in Texas, if you’re sitting on a fence in a pasture full of longhorn cattle that may be a good idea. But when you’re in my conference room, it’s not a tactic for success with me or with the rest of the staff.
When Your Attorney-Client Asks You the Time, Don’t Tell Him How to Build a Watch
Over the years I’ve run into students at my CLNC® Certification Programs who can’t easily answer a simple question. When you ask them what time it is, they proceed to tell you how to build a watch before they can say “It’s 11:15.” When this happens I want to shout, “Objection, non-responsive!” in the middle of a long, obviously rambling answer that has nothing to do with what I’ve asked them. I’m sure you all know someone like this. Hopefully that person’s not you.
The ability to “answer the question asked” is a quality successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants must possess. Attorneys are crazy-busy people and don’t have the time to listen to unnecessary details or rambling communications. Attorneys are like the police on the old Dragnet TV series: they want “The facts ma’am, just the facts.” The next time you’re in an interview with an attorney-prospect and he says “Tell me about yourself” he’s not asking you to regurgitate your autobiography; he really wants to know what you’re going to do to help him win his cases.
If you veer off, even just occasionally, start today to retrain the way you think.
Social Media and the Feel-Good Addiction for Legal Nurse Consultants
We all love social media. For example, I use Facebook to communicate to all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and aspiring CLNC consultants. I love reading details of your lives and seeing the fun photos you post. One Certified Legal Nurse Consultant told me that what she loves most about Facebook is that she never has to worry about keeping up with her friends’ email addresses – because their Facebook address never changes. If she’s on Facebook, she’s always in touch with them. This is really a radical form of communication and allows connection with more and more people, including attorneys, who are joining Facebook every day.
Are You Providing Service or Anticipating Service as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant?
I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels during my travels. Everything from Ramadas to Mandarin Orientals with more than a few Hiltons, Hyatts, Marriotts and the occasional Peninsula in between. As a result I’ve become quite jaded concerning hotel services. On a recent trip to Austin, Texas, I was stunned by the service at our hotel, the Four Seasons. The staff did much more than just meet requests, they seemed to anticipate every need. It started with the bellman who offered to find additional luggage stands. Then it was the waiter who, after I asked for the check and told him we needed to get to the airport, he offered to call a cab for us.
