PSM President and Founder, Terrie S. Wheeler is proud to introduce a new service called CLE Connect™ | Ethical Marketing CLEs On-Demand.
In mid-August, Terrie S. Wheeler launched a new service for Minnesota lawyers called CLE Connect. The online educational platform is designed to help attorneys grow their practice while earning CLE ethics credit.
After working as an in-house marketing director at big-name Minneapolis law firms for over 12 years, Terrie decided to start her own business in 1997, PSM Marketing, Inc. Since then, she has worked with hundreds of law firms across the nation to deliver outsourced legal marketing and marketing coaching services. Early in her career, Terrie realized that law schools don’t teach business or marketing skills. Many lawyers think “marketing” is synonymous with paying big money for billboards or online ads. This couldn’t be further from the truth. CLE Connect provides the foundational knowledge every lawyer should know in order to successfully market their practice.
Terrie recently concluded a six-year term serving on the Minnesota Lawyers Board of Professional Responsibility (for the past two years, she served as Vice Chair of the board). This experience solidified her belief that most lawyers lack basic marketing skills, which can actually get them in trouble—even disbarred. Knowing how to ethically market your law practice is absolutely crucial. Terrie created CLE Connect to address this need.
The CLE Connect website is fully responsive, which means you can even stream your video lesson on-the-go using your smartphone or tablet.
Who is the Ideal CLE Connect Student?
CLE Connect is relevant for lawyers at every stage of their career. Whether you’ve recently graduated law school or you’re planning an exit strategy, CLE Connect has pertinent strategies to prepare you for the next stage of your career.
From a practical standpoint, CLE Connect is an on-demand educational platform. That means you can access our courses anywhere you have an internet connection. Our site is fully responsive, which means you can even stream your video lesson on-the-go using your smartphone or tablet. The ideal CLE Connect student is driven, able to step outside their comfort zone, and willing to invest in the growth of their practice. We offer courses for individual attorneys or bulk course packages for larger firms.
We are launching with six courses comprised of on-demand video lessons, support materials (such as tools, tip sheets, and checklists), and access to an online marketing discussion forum. Each course takes about 1 hour to complete and is approved for 1 ethics credit in Minnesota. CLE Connect courses are $49.99 each. Students can save 15% by purchasing a two-course bundle, or 20% by purchasing our six-course Mega Bundle. Our site is structured for individual attorneys, but we do offer firm-wide course packages upon request.
What Courses Do You Offer?
We are starting out with six different courses (approved for 1 credit each):
- The Rules Related to Ethical Marketing in Minnesota: As you know, lawyers in Minnesota are governed by the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct. This course focuses on the most important Rules related to marketing your practice, and offers pragmatic tips for compliance with each.
- Developing an Ethical Marketing Plan: This course will show you how to develop an ethically sound, results-oriented marketing plan – one you will actually be motivated to implement! We want this course to provide you with a proven outline from which you can create your personal (and ethical) marketing plan.
- Identify and Build an Ethical Niche: How many lawyers are in Minnesota? The answer is almost 30,000. So how do you differentiate your style, approach and experience? By focusing on what you do best. Take this course and learn how to develop and ethically promote a solid niche for your practice.
- Using Your Website to Ethically Generate Business: In today’s digitally savvy marketplace, your website plays a more important role than ever in conveying the right first impression for your practice. Learn how to ethically maximize your website to generate more business.
- Ethical Marketing Strategies for Lawyers: You’re busy and need to maximize your marketing time. That’s why this course was created. In this course, you’ll learn the top marketing strategies to ethically build your practice. Every recommendation has been tried and tested and has been deemed high impact and low cost.
- The Ethics of Social Media: Everyone seems to be capitalizing on the power of social media – even lawyers! In this course, you will learn how to apply the Rules of Professional Responsibility when you’re posting, liking, sharing, responding, and friending!
About Terrie S. Wheeler
For the past 25+ years, Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC has dedicated herself to helping lawyers ethically market their law practices. In January 2018, Terrie ended her six-year term as a Minnesota Supreme Court appointee to the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, most recently serving as Vice Chair of the Board. For over 20 years Terrie has operated Professional Marketing Services, LLC (PSM), delivering outsourced marketing department and individual marketing coaching services to lawyers and law firms across the country. Terrie has combined her many years of ethics experience with over 20 years of legal industry marketing consulting experience and, in August 2018, launched CLE Connect™ | Ethical Marketing CLEs On-Demand.
Terrie received her Master of Arts Degree, summa cum laude, from the Graduate School of Business, University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree, magna cum laude, from Concordia University in St. Paul, MN. After spending 12 years as an in-house marketing director in three Minnesota-based law firms, Terrie founded PSM Marketing, a legal industry outsourced marketing and marketing coaching company in 1997. Terrie has been a regular columnist for Attorney At Law Magazine since 2014.