The law can be difficult when you feel alone in the trenches of it. Surprisingly, the isolation you feel doesn’t always get easier as you mature and grow in your practice. Instead, overtime, it can increase and leave you feeling at a loss, despite all the “wins” you experience.

Whether it be a sounding board for your ideas, a safe space to vent, or someone to celebrate your wins with you, having someone on your side can make a huge difference. That third party take perspective on what your success means, as well as a historic understanding of what you have overcome to be where you are right now, can prove invaluable over time.

Long story short, if you are feeling lost, alone, or stuck in your law practice, it may be time for you to get a mentor or a performance coach.

With a mentor coach, new attorneys or associates, as well as experienced attorneys transitioning into new practice areas, can get guidance on how to establish themselves. What do you need to know? Where do you find the local, federal, and state law for your new practice area? What systems will you need to put in place to set yourself up for success? How will your team help with the transition? Do you have ideas on how to expand your market in this new practice area? These are things that you can discuss and work through with a mentor coach.

A performance coach, alternatively, can be a great help to attorneys who are established and have the knowledge, but seem to be getting stuck somewhere. Something is not working as it should. This could relate to issues with revenue streams, staffing, or systems the firm has in place or does not have in place but should. The goal of working with a performance coach is to break through the roadblocks and fulfill the potential of the firm and those that work there.

With both a mentor coach and a performance coach, you get that sounding board you have been looking for and you have someone on your side that will help tackle the challenges, as well as help identify them, and also help you celebrate your victories. Learning to celebrate success can be an important part of coaching as well. When you take the time to celebrate your successes, you are modeling something important for your staff. They will, in turn, feel free and encouraged to celebrate success as well. This is just one way a coach can help you create a firm culture that people want to be a part of and stay a part of.

Whether you are looking for a mentor coach or a performance coach, Practice42 has your back. Our coaching programs are specially designed to meet your needs and help you work through your challenges so you can reach your full practice potential. Let us help you grow and succeed! Call us to schedule a free Strategy Session at 850-933-5072 or fill out our Contact Us Form and we will call you!

We are now in a digital law practice era where there are rapid technological advances which can be overwhelming for many. There are new products that are released everyday, on top of the information that follows. Whether you stay up on the latest news sources or testing new products, you may think you are never going to cover it all.

You will not.

No one can.

And let us start by reassuring you. It is alright.

It is so easy to become lost in the vast world of information and products that we often forget what is truly best for us and our team. Once we see or hear something new that worked for someone else, we want to run with it. We want it to work immediately, and easily.

Often, we launch this new idea with no forethought. There is no time for discussion, second opinions, or taking a moment to consider if it is right for the practice. Of course, there is nothing wrong with getting recommendations from others. There is nothing wrong with “throwing something up” but, you know as well as we do, this strategy can be fraught with challenges. Just because the process or software or shiny new distraction was a success story for one firm, does not mean it will be a success story for all.

We can learn from others while also taking into consideration that it is going to most likely be a different journey. Keep an open mind about differing opinions, whether they are from referrals, colleagues, or clients. You will find as you listen that many will think one product or service may be significantly better than another. Take the time to think about the key question that drives our law practices:

What do you need and what do you not need from a product or service you are considering?

This will then allow you to narrow down exactly what you are looking for in a new digital law practice era where almost anything is attainable.

Here at Practice42, we can help you find the bottlenecks in your practice areas, find processes that are right for you, and attain goals you thought were not possible. So, while there are many considerations to think about, you do not have to do it alone! Let us help! Call us at 850-933-5072 or fill out our contact us form to schedule a complimentary Strategy Session.

Are you one of the many people who want to learn how to use Adobe in their law practice management, but just don’t know how? The numerous features that Adobe has makes it very appealing to the customer, but it also makes it a complicated tool to learn quickly. Teaching yourself and your law practice Adobe without any assistance can be a daunting (see multi-hour) task. The good news? There are a great quantity of resources, support and community forums out there for you to get the most out of Adobe, even from the company itself on the Adobe Support website.

Looking for law practice management enhancements to add? Adobe offers multiple products; InDesign for design work, PhotoShop for your photos, and Document Cloud (DC) for your workflow, just to name a few. You can license one or multiple products in your office. Specifically in this article, we are discussing getting started and the use of Adobe DC.

Here are our 9 Law Practice Management Best Practice Tips to help you gain a better understanding of how to use Adobe and its most versatile tools.

1. Take time to learn. Accept the fact that learning how to effortlessly use Adobe will not happen overnight!  Any new skill takes practice, and the same is true for using Adobe. It will take several times to learn each tool and master it correctly. Be prepared that the product may update as well, requiring a realignment on your end when that happens.

2. Break the learning into pieces. All of the Adobe products have feature after feature after feature, all layered on top of each other. This is excellent news for your office efficiency and productivity but can be a hard learning curve initially. Instead of tackling the whole software at one time, create miniature goals for yourself. Make a list of the key features that drew you to the program and decide which one you want to add each week. Set aside an hour or two each week to work with the software until you are comfortable using it every day.

3. Learn the integration from Microsoft Word to Adobe Pro. For professional offices, being able to save a word processing document into a PDF is essential. It is also important to be able to take a document out of PDF format and into a word processing format. Keep in mind, word processing isn’t the only Adobe exporting feature. You can also export to picture files, Excel and other file types you need in your office. To start, make sure both software programs on your computer recognize each other and then try the functionality out.

4. Don’t forget security.  You may not want to send or use an unsecure PDF. Adobe DC has security functions that allow you to set password, control user access and lock the original PDF. Using the Publishing Sensitive Information feature is a tool you want to become familiar with and then decide how you and your team will use it in your office.

5. Learn to create a document ready for e-signature. One of the best features of Adobe DC is the ability to create a document that is ready to sign. After you have exported your document from your word processor into Adobe, you can use Adobe Sign to prepare it for signature. Adobe intuitively fills in the signature boxes for you within the tool.

6. Master the Pen Tool. The Pen Tool allows you to create many different designs and graphics but for attorneys you can also use it to write, comment and highlight important parts of an Adobe document. This multi-purpose tool is a good one to learn from the start.

7. You can edit PDFs in Adobe as well. (This is a different part of Adobe, it is called Acrobat DC) Through Adobe you can add text boxes, remove language you do not want and edit text within your PDF. This can make your PDFs more useful and comprehensive in your practice. Learn more by clicking this link.

8. Learn to save your documents. One of the most fundamental parts of using Adobe is knowing how to save your documents. After all, you don’t want to spend hours of time just to find out it saved to your computer incorrectly and is unable to be viewed. When saving your document, you need to make sure you save it as the correct file type. For example, you do not want to save a .doc as a .pdf. Make sure you pay attention to these details and train your team.

9. Use it anywhere! Gone are the days when you or your employees need to be tethered to a desk. Adobe DC can be used across multiple-devices including tablets and smartphones. Decide how this feature can best support your practice and train your team. When using a tool like this, don’t forget to address device security in your technology procedures manual.

There are so many resources and tutorials out there for beginners using Adobe. If you don’t master something within the first week, keep trying and push yourself, and you will succeed. Remember, at the end of the day, you hold the keys to your own success! Need helping getting started? Give us a call at 850-933-5072 or email us at yourpractice@practice42.com.

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