Law Talk Radio

This is Texas Law Talk Radio. My name is Nick Augustine and in this program, we are focused on law enforcement and first responders who can benefit from tactical fitness and strength training. I am here with personal fitness trainer, Jay Dial from Body Force Fit; law enforcement tactics instructor Robbie Allmon from P2 Concepts; and retired law enforcement officer and founder of the Cops 4 Cops Te...

What the SCOTUS same-sex marriage decision means to your Texas law practice, with Attorney, Ross B. Russell, of Hampton & Associates, P.C. in Fort Worth, Texas Topics covered on this show: 1. Nature of the SCOTUS Holding 2. Community Property Laws 3. Wills and Estate Planning 4. Adoption and Child Custody 5. Employee Benefits and Insurance 6. Religious Exemption Limitations 7. Amish Bus Driver...

Constitutional background and arguments over same sex marriage, with Attorney, Ross B. Russell, of Hampton & Associates, P.C. in Fort Worth, Texas. Topics covered on this show: Introducing Ross Russell and brief background;Same sex marriage (SSM), decisions in Texas, 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court;Identify and explain levels of scrutiny and process in deciding constitutional issues;Cur...

Episode 48 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine There is an element of anticipation when we schedule to attend a networking event when you know some good people who are going to be there. Attending the events are fun too, and often include food and drinks. It’s not so bad to get caught up in the social aspect of it all, but we all intend to get down to business. Today...

Episode 47 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Most of us attend some regularly scheduled networking events and social mixers. Have you considered hosting your own event? People who invite their business friends and colleagues to these types of events are perceived as influencers. You can host an event on your own or with others to increase the invitation list. Once...

Episode 46 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine While technology frequently changes, some things remain the same. People still look for lawyers and more of them are accessing attorney websites on mobile devices while others are still using their desktop at home or work. With so many ways to connect it is important to keep in touch with potential clients and let them k...

Episode 45 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine When you only get one chance to make a first impression, your business card can help you look good and help new people remember you. There are a few keys to designing and selecting a business card that suits you and your brand well. Consider what we want people to do with our business cards and what we should do with the...

Episode 44 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Let’s get back to the basics of social and business interactions and focus on following up with people we want to know, like and build trust. Too often people act like robots by going to events, giving a canned speech about themselves to another person, giving away their business cards and asking for others. Many bring t...

Episode 43 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Take a look at your copyright notice on your website. If none of the copy has changed, thus requiring a copyright update, ask yourself why. While sections of your website best known by the search engines should not be changed, there are other areas where you might have added new services or changed the way you describe a...

Episode 42 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Referrals are the best source of business for many lawyers. When someone we know, like and trust gives out our name to an individual looking for our services, and there is already an endorsement, we are more likely to earn business from the prospective client. Referrals can come from current and past clients, but also fr...

Episode 41 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine What happens if you encounter a temporary medical condition and you cannot make it to court? Will your law partners step up in court and handle your cases? What happens if you are a sole practitioner and have no law partners to handle your cases? Having some standard emergency motions to continue your cases is one thing,...

Episode 40 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine As we all wind down to celebrate New Years and reflect on our profits and losses in 2014 we also have an opportunity to start fresh and new in 2015. It might sound cliche but the concept of starting new allows us to accept and embrace positive change. This New Years Eve we take a look at some last minute thoughts on gett...

Episode 39 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine We have all been hearing about content marketing for a while now. Today Nick and Jim explain in further detail how you can spot content development opportunities, syndicate content and repurpose it over time. We will also talk about how you can drive more traffic to your website and boost your SEO through social media. A...

Episode 38 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Hear ye, hear ye! Please allow yourself the time to learn 25 ways to make sure you are going to get more clients in 2015. In the next 30 minutes our friend and colleague, Jim Thompson, will fire off a list of great tips that you and your office staff can start implementing today! You all have clients who match up well an...

Episode 37 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine It is that time of year again. We are in the slow stretch into the holidays and it seems like everyone is gone on vacation. While many people do take time off around the end of the year, business is slower too, making this a good time to focus on marketing plans for the new year. When we create systems for managing our c...

Episode 36 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine There are several common mistakes lawyers make in attracting clients. The most common pitfall is the failure to encourage referrals. But simply knowing you want referrals doesn’t do the job. Jim takes us through several steps we can take to let people know they may refer clients to us as we work at changing our referral...

Texas trademark lawyer Tamera H. Bennett shares tips for marketing and branding firms who want to avoid trademark pitfalls and lawsuits. Topics covered in our 30 minute interview: Tell us a little about yourself and why you chose to practice trademark law;Describe a typical client and the trademark services your firm provides;For marketing and branding firms, what are some trademark pitfalls? What...

Episode 35 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Attorneys may not directly solicit clients, however, public and group speaking events are encouraged to make people in communities aware of how and when to hire a lawyer. Live speaking events and online presentations give your audience a chance to get to know you so if the need arises they can call on you for direct assi...

Relationship management takes time and effort. When you work at it and develop long-term relationships with people you know, like and trust, you become the person whose call someone will surely answer when they need a favor or a referral. Why is it we are good at meeting new people but not converting them to trusted allies in business? Today we take a closer look at reconnecting with clients and f...

Episode 33 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Making a marketing plan and sticking to it! It is easy enough to agree to engage in more marketing activities, but when it comes down to it, many often fail to follow through with the plan. There are several things we can all do to make it easier to stick to our goals and stay on track long enough to see the results. Res...

Episode 32 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Budgets, law firm marketing and business development. Why are lawyers so bad at running their firms like successful businesses? One major flaw in the business of law is taking all the net proceeds as profit and zeroing out the year without building a marketing budget and reserve. Many say five percent of projected annual...

Episode 31 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine How are you tracking the activity responding to your marketing? Creating new systems to track the source of people calling you can also lead to capturing emails of people interested in staying in touch through the monthly newsletter. The more you know about how people are finding information about you, the better you can...

Episode 30 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Learn the top mistakes lawyers make in marketing their practices. Law firm marketing is not frequently taught in law school, but how to not directly solicit a client sure is. Without a background in marketing and business development it is too easy to just hop on the bandwagon with everyone else. Learn some pitfalls to a...

Episode 29 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine Learn why attorneys benefit from having video on their website. We will cover a few basics to know about website video. Covering some do’s and don'ts of video marketing. Using videos into your social media sites as well can help people get to know, like and trust you. About this weekly show: Referrals are the lifeblood o...

Episode 28 of Building Your Law Practice with Jim Thompson and Nick Augustine The deadly assumptions that will kill a lawyers marketing efforts. How can we tell when our marketing efforts are working? As our business increases, can we take a break from marketing? Are we leaving money on the table or missing new business? Learn from other people and their mistakes as we share them on this program....