About Jennifer Price: As Director of the Member Services, Membership Recruiting and Marketing departments, Ms. Price works with the Practice Building Consultants and the Member Service Coordinators to assure that qualified attorneys become Members of the Academy and that existing Members receive the full membership benefits.

Jennifer also works closely with each Academy department to guarantee that all Members are kept abreast of the latest products and services. She provides counseling and advice to members on proper implementation of existing programs and troubleshoots situations as they arise. She is also deeply involved in the various staff training programs offered by the Academy, as well as overseeing and assisting in the recruitment of new members. Jennifer uses her extensive management background to offer members solid advice on effectively meeting the challenges of managing their individual law offices. Jennifer consults with members on their financial statements, hiring practices and staffing, office and marketing procedures.

American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys
Notes by:
Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services

For the 16 years that I have helped organize the Boot Camp at the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, it has never ceased to amaze me that our new Member prospects have the opportunity to work with some of the brightest estate planning minds in the country.

Because most of the Academy's Membership have been Members over 10 years, I consider many close friends of mine and certainly friends of each other and it is exciting to see how they view Member candidates who attend our Boot Camps as potential friends and not competitors!

I think the magic I've seen in these attorneys comes from a combination of the fact that these estate planning attorneys, by and large, enjoy their work and if they're good at it, they enjoy their lives too - PLUS - the geographic exclusivity guaranteed by the Academy - makes it safe for them to share everything from financials to marketing tools to document clauses with new Members. This means that even the newest Member is bestowed with unbelievable knowledge that, otherwise, would have be learned only over decades, if at all!

These veteran Members have also really made themselves available to hang out with the Boot Camp candidates who are deciding whether to join the ranks of the Academy membership. These new member candidates are pretty familiar at this point with most of the names they'll soon see on the Academy's online Forum, where all of the Members swap ideas and share war stories.

So, as a tool to help prospective Members decide to come to the next Academy Boot Camp, I have summarized the major points of the October, 2009 "Summit" that was held by the Academy in 2009 in San Diego, California.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009: The law firm owners and key staff people who were able to get here are enjoying the sumptuous and comfortable Coronado Marriott and seem a little in awe and overwhelmed with all the ideas they're preparing to put into practice when they get home.

Without being here, this description may not really be able to "ring your bell" and that is why we are such advocates of Michael Gerber's Entrepreneurial Myth philosophy of "working ON your business... not just IN it." Mr. Gerber argues that:

"Success waits for no one."

"You can continue doing what you've always done and hope that things turn out differently this time; or choose to make success happen."

"You can be the attorney you've always wanted to be."

"You can build a world-class law firm that is a systems-based, turnkey business."

"And, you can create a law firm that runs without you so you can spend your time on the important things, like living."

Being able to stop and see what you have created and to refocus on what you still want to create really cannot be done by yourself over lunch in your conference room. Getting away and dousing yourself with ideas and analysis and plans for the future you can specifically see - is the first step to actually making something different show up in your law practice, in the morale of your staff, in your bottom line and how you are able to live your own life.

 Just a FEW of the Five-Star Strategies that caused the pens to flurry today included:

• The head start to success is in the PLANNING. There are specific ways to plan as a business owner and leader and we delved into that discussion utilizing many real-life examples and then completed pertinent exercises so those here can complete their own strategic and marketing plans before they get off the plane and back to their offices.
  
  
• The real secret to success was also covered - it's all about EXECUTION. All the great planning in the world can be done perfectly and without delegating and setting the stage with structures and systems that allow the owner and staff to EXECUTE. In such cases, there is only accidental success that cannot stand the stress of a changing economy.  Looking closely at how many CEO and Attorney responsibilities each owner has and how many NON-CEO and NON-ATTORNEY responsibilities keep that attorney from actually getting where they want to be - is always an eye-opening discovery!
  
  
• SYSTEMS clear the decks for progress. Without having systems and procedures for everything from answering the phone to signing a document... everything in the firm is running on a hope and a prayer that employees will remember all of the steps AND the way they look and act on behalf of the firm - and doing this every time. It's not possible. Think about your own practice - 9 times out of 10, if a problem crops up, it's not going to be a "people problem" it's probably going to be a "system problem" that a frustrated staff person is struggling to handle. If a system for every single thing that took place in your office existed, imagine how productive and how personable your staff would be and imagine what a transformational experience it would be for your clients!
  
  
• MARKETING, PRESENTING AND RETAINING - is a lot to pack into a couple of hours... but really, what good does it do to have great systems, fabulous people and incredible delegation skills if you have nobody to talk to. THEN what good does it do to have people to talk to but you do all the talking and end up not retaining as many new clients as you could be? This segment of the first Boot Camp day made the time away from the office worth the entire trips for everyone in attendance!

After our first day of training came to an end early yesterday evening, we took all of our guests to a wonderful restaurant on the harbor to soak up the atmosphere and chat in a relaxed way about roadblocks they think they may have or opportunities some felt like they just discovered throughout the day.

Thursday, October 8, 2009:  Boot Camp, Day Two has always been my favorite day! We started the day out having breakfast with our Boot Camp participants and launched right into the finale for that training. The hot topics we spent a lot of time on included:

• Client consultation system. Without having a "system" for how consultations are handled, a lot of opportunities are missed because either the client isn't retained at all or some of the issues are left undiscovered and unaddressed. It is the number one area that can have the most immediate impact on a law firm's bottom line. The attendees' participation and amazement was incredible.
  
  
• Technology systems. No firm can possibly keep current without proper technology tied to the marketing and production systems. This session didn't just include our CounselPro Software for document and database control, but also the "garbage in / garbage out" emphasis, staff training and systems challenges to ensure that all of the input is always the same no matter who's entering it. With proper technology you can market based on WHAT'S WORKING and pull reports to ensure you don't market in the same ways or places that didn't work in the past.
  
  
• Signing Meetings. Here's a touchy one: we always get groans and doubts from someone on this one! Walking through how the attorney should not be doing the signing meeting (but rather... meeting with NEW clients) but an amazing, dynamic, patient and friendly representative of firm's values and culture - your "signing paralegal" - should be conducting this meeting. That person will be signing all client calls - not the attorney!
  
  
• "The rest of the story..." The remainder of the training involved identifying ancillary businesses, staying in communication with clients and generating referrals. The "relationship business" that estate planners are in is a critical perspective to bring to the implementation of all these systems!

Our Boot Camp guests got to join the rest of the membership for our now famous, "Member Meeting." Every Thursday of our Summit launches with everyone greeting each other and catching up on how things are going in all the law firms around the country, then a status of Academy programs and a key note speaker. This Thursday was no exception - Chris Crowley, author of "Younger Next Year" was a homerun. In addition to writing about his passion for life and the secrets to aging with zest and great health... he's an attorney who happens to be a fabulous speaker!

For those of you who can see yourself trying on these new concepts and looking at your practice with new eyes for a new future, send us your contact information so we can put you on a waiting list for an upcoming conference call where we will be discussing the details about how YOU can attend our next Boot Camp in Boston on April 28th!

By expressing your desire for this additional scoop-we'll send you a recording of our ASSET PROTECTION session and materials from the Fall Summit that took place in San Diego last October!