I have been asked to speak at many firm retreats over the years since I left my law firm. I have talked about a wide variety of topics ranging from strategic planning, marketing and client development, cross-selling, attorney development and blogging/social media.
What is on the agenda of your next firm retreat? A few months ago, my colleague and friend Dr. Cynthia Pladziewicz blogged: How to Improve Your Next Strategic Planning Retreat. I like the ideas she discussed on using surveys.
Here are some retreat ideas I found while researching for something else:
- Business Succession.
- Firm, practice group and individual lawyer planning.
- What works-What do the top lawyers in our firm do to attract, retain and expand relationships with clients.
- Alliances and partnerships with other professional services providers.
- Alternative fee arrangements.
- New services development- What will be new service areas over the next 5 years?
- Client Service: What can we do better?
- Firm Website: How can we make ours different (better) than every other firm website?
- Virtual offices: Do they make sense?
- Institutionalize clients-How can the firm convert individual lawyers’ clients into firm clients.
There is nothing earthshaking or novel in the agenda items above. What is interesting is those were the agenda items I helped create for my old law firm’s 2000 shareholder retreat. They seem to be still good topics in 2014.
Have you prepared the agenda for your 2014 retreat?