Associations Books

A very worthwhile book for anyone involved in law firm recruitment and/or management. The authors have included "real life" examples of the issues law firms and lawyers struggle and deal with on a daily basis and provide helpful solutions and strategies in retaining and motivating top talent. The "Best Strategies" section at the end of each chapter is clear, concise and useful.

Filled with quotes from both personnel experts and lawyers, and broken into brief and logical chapters, "Keeping Good Lawyers" is a quick read on the issues and strategies related to attorney retention. Putting the onus on both the firm and the individual lawyer for ensuring job satisfaction, "Keeping Good Lawyers" includes myriad "Best Practices," from the strategic (e.g., creating a work environment that is fun) to the tactical (e.g., having lawyers "on call" to cover for each other after hours or on vacations). Every firm is likely to find activities that will fit the culture while improving recruiting, hiring or retention efforts.

I just bought this book from the National Kitchen and Bath Association website for $50 and the bookstore at my college sells it for $74. It is listed on Amazon for $121. Why the discrepancy in price?

Whoever would like to get this book: Be aware that this is
not a simple book. It is like a college textbook.It is very
technical. If you are building your own home and are not
knowledgable about kitchen details, and you are able to
have a professional kitchen designer design your kitchen,
by all means leave it up to them. But, if you are learning to
be an architect, or interior designer, or kitchen specialist,
or are simply fascinated by kitchen design, OR live outside
the U.S. when professional kitchen designers do not exist and
you want to be ABSOLUTELY SURE that the kitchen is properly
designed, this book is for you. It is the most comprehensive,
most wonderful book on the market (I must have bought half a
dozen other books) It's not enough to know about the kitchen triangle,
you have to know how long each leg has to be, how far a cooktop
must be from a window, how must space must be left on each
side of a stove top, sink, etc. (the only problem is, convincing your architect that you know what you're talking about).
In any case, good luck and enjoy the book.

This book is many things - 2 books in one; a hothouse of numberless surveys; sourcebook for further research. It is factual, dark, frightening, compelling, objective, a must-read. It is hopeful, optimistic, wholesome.

It has one focus, and direction - the community of lawyers - a breed that others love to hate; the subject of unending ridicule, hatred, and pungent humour; ambulance chasers, cold, aseptic; masculine, competitive, commercial.

Are we all so? What makes us so? Why this universal dislike? Diacoff has a terrible task on hand. And she comes out with flying colours.

She shortlists 3 emerging problems - (1)a lack of "professionalism" - frequent complaints of incivility, discourtesy, "Rambo-style" litigation, unethical behaviour, poor conduct of lawyers and judges; (2) low public opinion of lawyers and the legal profession; and (3) low levels of job satisfaction, and mental well-being among lawyers, distress, alcoholism, and substance abuse.

Diacoff's solution? Comprehensive lawyering that looks as much to pyschological needs, emotions, and relations with others as to rights, duties, and obligations. Again on the force of all-round research, she suggests 10 vectors of this "change-movement". All seek to prevent litigation, encourage collaborative approach to problem-solving, aim at the "well-being" of all parties, interdisciplinary, allows them to share power equally, allows the lawyer to function in harmony with her morals and beliefs. These vectors include preventive law, procedural justice, problem-solving courts, restorative justice.

Professor Daicoff has written an important and pivotal book in "Lawyer. Know Thyself." This book really has two audiences, the legal profession and the rest of us. She has managed to present a very scholarly work in a manner that the lay can easily understand and appreciate. She identifies three critical themes of the American legal system as is presently practiced, i. e. low level of integrity of lawyers and judges, low public opinion of the profession, and low level of job satisfaction. She has presented this work with a very human and distressing vignette of a fictional lawyer in the preface, a very readable body of the book (peppered with lawyer jokes), and voluminous notes at the end of each chapter. These notes are conveniently left out of the main text and allow one to read through without interruption. Yet, the notes reveal not only the depth of the research, which is profound, but also therein is a second book for the educators and scholars. The notes commonly include Professor Daicoff's comments and opinions of the cited work. There is a final chapter suggesting a "cure" for this malady. She suggests a Comprehensive Law Movement encompassing ten vectors of compassionate and humanizing forces.

Why is this book important for "the rest of us?" Not only will the majority of Americans have a direct need for lawyers, but also lawyers dominate our government, influence our businesses, and set a moral level for our society. This is a pivotal time for change in lawyering and "Lawyer, Know Thyself" is a clarion call for all of us.

Having been directly involved in selling as well as training others to sell and market professional services (accounting and consulting) for over twenty years, I can say that Flannery's book is far and away the best and only guide to the art you will ever need.

Rather than wax on about its concise format, practical and effective tools, techniques and insights, I'll just say this: ignore this guide at your peril. What if your competitors have read it and you haven't?

This book should be required reading in law school and tested for on the bar exam.

Well done Mr. Flannery.

"In this wonderful book, Bill Flannery, who changed the legal marketplace forever, does what he's been doing so effectively throughout his extraordinary career--he teaches lawyers how to sell. How can you build your firm's business without it?"
Richard S. Levick, Esq., President and CEO, Levick Strategic Communications

"A must-read for all lawyers seeking to establish enduring client relationships that are both financially and professionally rewarding. In this book, Bill Flannery distills much of the wisdom he imparts in his renowned, high-voltage training workshops into an easy-to-follow action plan that can help every lawyer enhance his or her business development capabilities and confidence. The book also provides meaningful direction to firms about setting marketing and business priorities and creating a client-focused business development culture in their organizations."
Wendy L. Bernero, Chief Marketing Officer, Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison

"Soul music had James Brown, the 'Godfather of Soul.' Law firms have Bill Flannery, a true pioneer in business development for our industry. The Field Guide provides a comprehensive road map for business development strategy. Like the best soul sound, the Field Guide's straightforward prose will resonate with your lawyers."
Kathleen H. Hilton, Director of Client Services, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

"Bill Flannery's business development techniques and strategies have transformed the way in which the people in our firm think of business development and client service. Even our most recalcitrant critics of business development activities have been converted. Bill's techniques have become such an integral part of the way we provide service and communicate with clients and potential clients that we have turned his name into a verb, as in 'Let's Flannerize the known world.' His Lawyer's Field Guide should be on every lawyer's desk."
Keith B. Simmons, Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

"Not only helps every lawyer overcome their business development fears, but also lays out an effective systematic approach that will help them grow their practice and deepen their professional satisfaction. A skill and confidence builder."
Ronald M. Shapiro, Attorney, and co-author of Bullies, Tyrants, and Impossible People

"A concise and practical guide for relationship and business development that transcends any professional group. I recommend this guide as required reading for all business managers and professionals."
Vince Lambiase, former CEO of Winchell's Donuts, EZCorp, and founder of VA Lambiase & Company

"Bill Flannery has effectively captured the essence of the 'art of the deal.' It's compelling, coordinated, connected and communicates the message with punch. It's an essential tool for every lawyer."
Pike Powers, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP

"Essential reading for any lawyer interested in winning and retaining clients over the long term. Bill Flannery is the undisputed leader in the field of helping lawyers improve their business development capabilities, and this book deftly combines field-tested, practical advice with deep insight about the nature of the relationship between lawyer and client that he has developed over several decades. Destined to become the standard by which all other books on this topic will be judged."
Logan Chandler, Partner, The Strategic Offsites Group, Boston, Massachusetts

"Bill Flannery's business development methodology has helped our lawyers turn listening and client service skills into business development prowess. Bill's Field Guide walks you through his method step by step and holds nothing back."
Jane S. Roberts, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

This book is fantastic. It gave me so many ideas for the re-design of my own Web site. It's written in plain English. Every lawyer should read this book and get going on the Internet's superhighway!

Now in a thoroughly updated second edition, The Lawyer's Guide To Marketing on the Internet is a practical introduction to getting the most out of the Internet, and collaboratively written by Gregory H. Siskind, Deborah McMurray, Richard P. Klau for professional attorneys. Individual chapters address designing a professional web site, ethical issues online, developing an internet marketing plan, optimum use of e-mail, and a great deal more. Highly recommended for lawyers and paralegals everywhere, The Lawyer's Guide To Marketing On The Internet is an indispensable guide for making the most out of internet opportunities as affecting the development of a successful legal practice.

It is no wonder that the author has enjoyed such a high level of professional respect.Ms.Abbotts clarity and wisdom will benefit all readers.This is a little jewel.

Ida Abbott's new book addresses one of the toughest issues facing law firms today. She makes a clear case for mentoring and its benefits. Beyond that, she outlines the pros and cons of various approaches to mentoring. Mentoring structures often falter because the firms don't know how to create and preserve productive mentoring relationships. This practical and organized manual makes that task easier.

The book gives responsibility to both mentor and mentee. This relatively new idea allows a young attorney to seek different mentors for different needs. Ms. Abbot also stresses the importance of keeping such relationships voluntary.

As a consultant, I found her analysis of the challenges facing women and minorities extremely valuable. She faces these complex issues head-on and gives practical advice based on her experience as an attorney.

My field is communication training, so I was delighted to find a recommended core training curriculum. She details the "soft" skills necessary to help attorneys to manage, delegate and give performance feedback to their junior associates.

Leadership Capacity For Lasting School Improvement by Linda Lambert (Professor Emeritus and Founder of the Center for Educational Leadership at California State University - Heyward), brings together real-life experiences and the experience-based wisdom of educators around the world to present and illustrate the five major prerequisites for high leadership capacity, as well as offering in-depth advice on the complex task of leading an education institution. Individual chapters directly address the changing role of the principle, parents as leaders, district leadership, major participation patterns and more, in this excellent and highly informative resource ideal for anyone charged with a role of leadership responsibility in the corridors of academia.

This book is written for practising school leaders. It offers guidance in fine tuning whole-school cultural change, a topic that practitioners have handled intuitively and singularly for ages.

The intellectual modelling that underwrites Lambert's book are the Leadership Capacity Matrices For the readers of my vintage, it is good to see useful variants of Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Theory of Leadership model. Instead of plotting task behaviour against relationship behaviour that Hersey and Blanchard used, Lambert has used degrees of participation and the degree of leadership skill on the axes.

Seeking Quadrant 4.
Clearly quadrant 4 is the outcome that school leaders seek- High on participation and high leadership skill. The pointers are:
1. Principal, teachers, parents and students as skilful leaders.
2. Shared vision resulting in program coherence.
3. Inquiry-based use of data to inform decisions and practice.
4. Broad involvement, collaboration, and collective responsibility reflected in roles and actions.
5. Reflective practice that leads consistently to innovation.
6. High or steadily improving student achievement.

The role of the school leader can often be a lonely task and there is a dearth of material which actually guides school leaders through aspects of change that articulate, finesse and embed intentions.

For me this is a timely and practical book.

I used this book for my graduate class and it is teacher friendly with wonderful suggestions to help intergrate the school staff and parents(community) into becoming a literate community to have a successful school. I also help the reading professional set up the program.

This is an excellent book. I am currently taking a graduate level course with the authors of this book and they really tell it like it is in the schools. They provide you with the information a future reading specialist needs to know in an easy to read and understand format. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great follow-up to the Process-Experiential book "Facilitating Emotional Change". Well written, and user-friendly, this manual helps to make this approach usable. A therapy book that isn't too theory oriented, which is refreshing.

I would highly recommend it.

This book is a great first read for anyone interested in emotion-focused therapy or experiential therapies in general. It could also be a good read for more intermediate to advanced therapists newer to this area of therapy. It gives some good background on humanistic approaches to therapy and how this approach fits into the larger therapy landscape. The book does a good job of giving just enough theory to tie together the very practical and accessible style in which it is written. Highly recommended. There are suggestions for many further readings at the end of each chapter, which is a useful resource for those looking to delve deeper.

I bought your new book and read it this evening...thanks...I took the position as media supervisor of 42 schools in August ..the collections were in such sad shape, the average age of nonfiction was 1992.
Long story short, I have worked hard this year using virtual library collections and online database to bring equity of resources to the students and teachers...and at our media meeting in May, we talked about on-going weeding and inventory as an important part collection development and in ocnnecting kids with the right information.
In trying to guide them as they go into the new year I found that I had questions of my own...and I was so surprised to see that the very book I needed was written by two of the people who really know this business from ground up!
I am going to order it for all of our specialists and give it to them at the August meeting.
Again, thanks...this HUGE job of mine...suddenly got a little smaller.

LESS IS MORE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WEEDING SCHOOL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS is for professional school librarians seeking a specific routine for weeding. All the basics are here; from getting started and understanding philosophy to breaking down weeding criteria by Dewey Numbers and using automation tools. School librarians - particularly newcomers to the profession - will find it filled with tips.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch