Am I going to be tested on this?

At first glance, this question is reminiscent of high school and college years, it reflects a certain laziness, a desire to make it through on minimum effort without accidentally learning anything.

However, as the vivid break-outs and keynotes of LMA 2012 are muted with time and a crowded catch-up inbox, the question is strikingly efficient: sorting through noise to distill vital information is critical in a time-sensitive environment.

• Have I followed up with new and old colleagues that I met in the halls and exhibits of the conference? 
• Did I take any actions to insight loyalty among my clients following the inspirational keynote by James Kane?
• Have I transcribed the notes I so busily scribbled while they are still legible?

I have not, thank you for asking. I wrote this blog post instead.

A brief meditation on relationships

You'd be hard-pressed to find a word more prevalent than relationships when it comes to law firm business development efforts. Relationships dominate discussions about client surveys, internal communications and  vendor agreements.

It's surprising to me, the first day into my grocery budget challenge, how much my relationship to food has changed in one day. No longer can I wander mindlessly through the store grabbing the food that strikes me at the moment. It really has to be a decision made about the value of the item. For example, will this hunk of cheese fit more than one item on the week's menu? Will the short-term benefit of eating the thing that looks really, really good in the moment sabotage my long-term goal?

For the record, one day in and I'm still on track spending only $ 15 at the store yesterday (though I did cheat slightly by starting with a full pantry!).

Time, like money, is a limited resource. It's critical to make the most of every interaction with external and internal clients lest they be taken for granted like the overripe banana that looked tasty at the time, but I just didn't get a chance to use.

Don't Get Buzzed- Create Buzz. Advent Calendar- Day 1

In honor of all those little doors being opened to reveal chocolate treasures for good girls and boys this month, here is a similar version for the business development focused attorneys amongst us.

DAY ONE: Don't use Holiday Parties to Get Buzzed, use them to CREATE BUZZ

By all means, share in the good cheer and attend holiday parties thrown by your firm, clients and associations you frequent. But this year, attend the party with business development, and only business development in mind. You wouldn't accept a drink at a job interview, so don't make a bee-line for the bar at holiday parties. If you do, opt for a sparkling water or soda in lieu of a libation. Think about the person, or people you want to meet at these events before you attend and seek them out, sober and ready to talk business. Make the buzz about you and your practice. Think of it this way: a good business development buzz lasts longer than one night!

A Modest Proposal

Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group released its Midyear Report which found that Law Firm expenses are outpacing revenue gains (178 surveyed of which 134 are AmLaw 200) . Reasons for expenses varied, "Some firms increased their operating expenses because they commenced long-overdue infrastructure projects. Many saw a notable increase in compensation expenses, due to spring bonuses.

This approach (spring bonuses in the face of a mediocre economy) contrasts with the every-man article, "How to Make Money When Economy is Failing" in which a man takes the rentrepreneurial approach to shoring up his finances, exchanging time with pieces of his life for money. He rents out his home, appliances, even his dog to. "...make a little extra scratch on the side for our daughter’s college savings, or a remote-control pool shark".

While the running a large business and running a single-family home are vastly different in complexity, it's interesting to consider how differently firms might be run if economic austerity were taken to heart. For example, this is a holiday weekend and many law offices are locked up tight  and vacant. How much money could a major law firm rack up by renting their conference room art to a wealthy family whose home is in a little need of sprucing up? Or that leather couch sitting unused in the lobby? Or the reception area with the killer view as the site of a small private event?

The Challenge of Defining Value: "It's $ 6 a month. It's a Latte."

To Steve Swasey, Netflix vice president of corporate communications, the $6 increase facing existing customers is an economic decision. I agree that Netflix, in his words "...went from being an ultra-extremely good value to an extremely good value," with the announcement of an increase for existing customers to continue receiving DVDs on-demand and by mail. His response, however, misses the emotional connection of many early-adopters who've been singing the praises of Netflix over the last ten years. These subscribers have generated an immeasurable amount of free publicity and, more valuable, personal referrals to the Netflix brand. Was an economic model that grandfathered these early-adopters or broke it to them more gently even on the table? Perhaps it would have averted the movement to drop the service altogether inspiring articles like, The Best Netflix Alternatives.

The Netflix saga underscores the last word in ACC's journey to define value in professional services, they don't call it the ACC Value CHALLENGE because of the way it rolls of the tongue.

Want a free lunch? Take this quiz.

This post from Al Ries, Long Slogans Are Absolutely, Positively More Effective Than Short Ones, got me thinking about Law Firm taglines and slogans....I didn't have to think very long. I bet a gift certificate for lunch to your favorite restaurant (first person to correctly respond) that you won't be able to identify the law firms who currently utilize the following slogans (from the September issue of The American Lawyer). I haven't invested in a virtual proctor so I trust that you won't blatantly cheat by going through the magazine page by page! 

• One Among Many.
• High Resolution.
• Leading in business law.
• Canadian Lawyers.
• Asia Specific.
• Labor Lawyers.
• Intellectual Property law isn’t just something we do…it’s all we do.
• Critical matters. Critical thinking.
• Choose ______
• The international law firm with seriously local knowledge.
• There’s really no difference between law firms.
• Employment & Labor Law Specialists.

 

 

Super Best Top Attorney Under 40

Next time your attorneys lobby for your help in making the Attorney List/Ranking du jour...ask them to complete a quick (and easy!) homework assignment. For the next two weeks, ask them to take note of all the plaques, window stickers and logos on the walls, windows and menus of the restaurants they patronize. Do they visit these restaurants because of the rankings? Do the rankings in any way enhance the flavor or improve the ambiance of the establishments? Can you distinguish one list from the other (ie SF Weekly / Yelp / Zagat / Michelen...)?

While this excercise will not prevent the tide of inquiries to a marketer's inbox, it might give you brainstorming fodder.

What about Law Firm Secret Shoppers?

We all know about Client Interviews... an effective and underutilized tool that allows law firms to receive marketing intlligence directly from their clients. Let's take it one step further and consider law firm secret shoppers, primarily a consumer-based marketing tool. Would your law firm benefit from implementing such a program?

Watching The Doctor, a film based on the non-fiction book A Taste of My Own Medicine, I couldn't help but wonder how attorneys would feel if they called upon their own services. Would their opinions of their partnership/receptionist/billing practices/response time change in any way? Over the course of the movie The Doctor's perception of his very own hospital changes in subtle and profound ways as a direct result of his personal experience with billing and insurance, lack of privacy/humanity in hospital rooms, and malpractice (big and small).

In order to see the world through another man's eyes, it is often necessary to first walk in his shoes.

Gross Law Firm Happiness

Vermont is hosting a conference on Gross National Happiness adapted from the efforts in Bhutan which got me thinking...what if law firms measured their performance on a Gross National Happiness scale rather than profits per partner? The American Lawyer's A-List touches on this notion but it's a very superficial touch and ignores all of the small-mid size firms that probably do a better job of it. Here are brief notes adapted for firms to The 9 Dimensions of Gross National Happiness below to get the juices flowing.

How does your job measure up?

1) PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING Assesses the degree of satisfaction and optimism in individual life. A high degree of satisfaction can build morale within the firm and encourage a greater level of participation in the community and with clients (free PR). Psychologically satisfied attorneys are more likely to spread the good word about their firm (think recruiting) and deliver higher quality service (ideally you want to keep the client satisfied!). Firms can impact this dimension with efforts like a structured mentor program, employing a diverse work force (affinity programs), and regular pro bono efforts.

2) HEALTH Measures the effectiveness of health policies, with criteria such as self-rated health, disability, patterns of risk behavior, exercise, sleep, nutrition, etc. Examples might include: office pantry supplied with healthy options instead of sweets and caffeine, internal meetings built around healthy activities- for example, I know of a small firm that conducts its partner retreats while hiking.

3) USE OF TIME The use of time is one of the most significant factors in quality of life, especially time for recreation and socializing with family and friends. A balanced management of time is evaluated, including time spent in traffic jams, at work, in educational activities, etc. Work-life balance is a well-worn topic in law firm culture. Consider efforts like working remotely, implementing bring your child to work day and vital maternity/paternity programs.

4) COMMUNITY VITALITY Focuses on relationships and interactions in communities. Again, pro bono efforts, association activity, etc. The key is a top-down approach to these efforts so that everyone in the firm understands that these activities are important to the firm's management.
5) EDUCATION Takes into account several factors such as participation in formal and informal education, development of skills and capabilities, involvement in children’s education, values education, environmental education, etc.

6) CULTURE Evaluates local traditions, festivals, core values, participation in cultural events, opportunities to develop artistic skills, and discrimination due to religion, race or gender.

7) ENVIRONMENT Measures the perception of citizens about the quality of their water, air, soil, forest cover, biodiversity, etc. The indicators include access to green areas, system of waste management, etc.

8) GOVERNANCE Assesses how the population views the government, the media, the judiciary, the electoral system, and the police, in terms of responsibility, honesty and transparency. It also measures involvement of citizens in community decisions and political processes. Is management approachable? Are the mentor/protegee pairs successful? Is the leadership strong?

9) STANDARD OF LIVING Evaluates individual and family income, financial security, the level of debt, employment security, the quality of housing, etc.

Law Firm Marketing Ideas for the taking...

AKA me on a Friday afternoon with too much caffeine.

Take a cue from this Maestro Home Center ad and do some guerilla style client interviews. Ask the clients waiting patiently in your lobby...or those just leaving a partner's office their thoughts on the firm's service.

Find a creative way to Sponsor a Tweet (ie announcing a great win for a client or thanking clients for their business)...or simply make sure your firm has a Twitter profile. You'll be ahead of the law firm pack.

Make up a cool T-Shirt representing an interesting aspect of your firm and give them to attorneys, clients and staff. People love T-shirt.

Piping Hot Buckets of Greasy Fried Marketing

It wasn’t the usual collection of PETA Protesters and their stomach-turning illustrations of animal abuse that caught my eye while passing the neighborhood KFC this morning. The Colonel’s marketing elves must have visited overnight and trimmed the window-front in a bright display of pink buckets…apparently KFC and Susan G. Komen have teamed up to raise money and awareness to the fight against breast cancer.

I am all for brands joining for mutual benefit. I am all for supporting the fight against breast cancer. But doesn’t this partnership seem a little out of balance? I don’t know of any studies that show a line between eating fried chicken and getting breast cancer…but I do know that being healthy and eating a consistent diet of fast-food (especially fried food) don’t go hand in hand. Will the number of pink buckets (0.50 cents a pop) they sell offset the number of clogged arteries? Do you think the people from the American Heart Association are happy with this partnership?

My point, and the connection to law firm marketing, is that as marketers we have a responsibility to remain true to our company’s cause. In this case, KFC is remaining true to their job of selling buckets of fried chicken---someone who might have visited Burger King could be swayed to grab a pink bucket instead. But it seems that the marketers at Susan G. Komen are failing their community by raising money for one part of the body at the expense of another.

Law firms (and marketers) make similar mistakes when marketing things like diversity, women’s initiatives and alternative billing…I mean if it were as great as the ads make it out to be, there wouldn’t be a problem (see the March issue of The American Lawyer for a snapshot of Diversity at big firms).

Happiness is Business Development

Something is in the air....call it change, discipline, follow up or commitment.

Check out: This new book Switch: How to Change things When Change is Hard  For real-time applications, read today's blog post from Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project. Think about ways you can apply these deceptively simple tactics to your marketing and business development strategy.

As a sales professional, I can promise you that the best thing you can do to motivate yourself to make sales is to sell something. See item number 6.

What Would Law Firms Do

What would you do if you had to bring in 10 new clients in the next 6 months or else...[enter your own awful scenario here or choose a Hollywood Favorite- the rabbit gets it - the world ends - the Grinch wins]

Woud Law Firms start selling instead of hiding sales behind marketing and business development?
Woud Attorneys pick up the phone to call clients? or would they still be too busy.
Would Sernior Partners go on client interviews?
Would law firms stop reading reports, wondering about and dancing around the edges of social media or would they jump in and try it?

Disaster Planning...not the Earthquake kind

I attended a Safety Committee meeting at my son's school last week and realized that there are so many things around us that we don't care about...until we do. Until the next big earthquake hits the school, it's ok that the emergency supplies aren't fully organized. Until someone gets sick from the leaky pipes, it's just an inconvenience and mess to clean up. Until a child is unaccounted for, there are more important administrative duties than visitor and volunteer passes.

Marketing works the same way. When times are good and clients are calling, it's ok to postpone the website redesign or push off that lunch with an old friend. If an attorney is busy with the actual practice of law, and the time-sheets are flush, how can you justify devoting valuable time attending a non-billable networking event or writing an article to get your name out.

Adapted to Law Firm Marketing from FEMA's Preparedness Guide
You plan only once, and are able to apply your plan to all types of hazards.

• Get informed about hazards and emergencies that may affect you and your family. Where does your business come from now, how will this change in the next year?

• Develop an emergency plan. Work with your marketing staff to create a personal plan and make sure you are doing your part to pitch in for the firm's.
• Collect and assemble disaster supplies kit. Learn about yourself and the type of marketing that suits your personality. Not everyone can work a room or maintain a blog. 

• Learn where to seek shelter from all types of hazards. Network: have wide range of people in your network that can help you get business, find a new job, take work that doesn't fit in your area of expertise.

• Identify the community warning systems and evacuation routes. Stay on top of industry news and information.

• Include in your plan required information from community and school plans. Attend association meetings, stay in touch with law school peers and other firms alum to develop a referral network

• Practice and maintain your plan. Amen.

Attorney Coaching à la Tolstoy

An adaptation of Tolstoy's short story, "Three Questions was recently released as a beautifully rendered children's book. It got me thinking, how might the story apply to attorney coaching?

The Busy Attorney and Three Questions (an adaptation)

A busy attorney wanted to fulfill the commitment to marketing his practice. But every time he considered undertaking a marketing effort, he was quickly overwhelmed because he didn’t know when was the right time to begin; who were the right people to listen to and above all what was the most important thing to do, in order that he would never fail in any business development activity he might undertake.

He realized that these questions were blocking his success so the busy attorney sought the advice of every consultant and website and colleagues he could find. Many, many educated and experienced people spoke with the attorney but everyone answered the questions differently. Some advised him to work for three months on a business plan before undertaking any effort- in this way he would be more educated. Some advised him to hire a team of experts and outsource the work so that it would be efficient and inexpensive and still others advised him to take to the internet and trust social media to answer his questions.

Finding little solace in the range of advice, the attorney felt more confused than ever and sought out the advice of a rainmaker from a firm across the country who had come to the city on a business visit. The busy attorney took the train downtown to the exhibit hall where the sage rainmaker was setting up his booth. When the busy attorney arrived he found the elderly rainmaker sweating and struggling to set up a booth by himself. The busy attorney approached the rainmaker’s booth and said, “I have come to visit you to find answers to three questions: How can I learn to do the right thing at the right time? Who are the people I most need? And, what affairs are the most important and need my first attention?

The rainmaker listened to the attorney but answered nothing. He just opened another box and commenced work on his booth. “You look tired”, said the busy attorney. “Let me have a hand at setting this booth up for you”. The rainmaker obliged. When the booth was nearly completed, the busy attorney walked to the lobby of the convention center to find the rainmaker seated at a café chatting with a small group of people. As the busy attorney approached the group, he realized that the rainmaker was talking with colleagues from his law school days. The busy attorney approached the group and instantly struck up a conversation and rekindled relationships he had lost with his fellow alumni.

Later that afternoon as the busy attorney and rainmaker were heading back to add final touches to the booth, the attorney posed the three questions to the rainmaker again and begged of him to answer. The rainmaker took a deep breath to speak but instead of answering quickly turned and shook hands with a an executive who was approaching them from across the room. The executive greeted the two and she and the rainmaker fell into a discussion of an important employment case she was dealing with. The executive mentioned that she was in desperate need of an expert in this area. Employment law was the busy attorney’s specialty and he had just successfully closed a case with strong correlations to the situation the executive was describing. He enthusiastically spoke up and volunteered his services.

As they took leave of the executive, the young attorney broached the three questions again. The rainmaker replied, “Don’t you see! If you had not helped me to set up the booth you wouldn’t have stayed long enough to meet your college buddies. So the most important time was when you were setting up the booth; and I was the most important man and to for me good was your most important business. Afterwards, when we were walking back to the booth, the most important time was when you spoke up about your specialty and if you had not walked back to the booth with me you wouldn’t have met the executive so she was the most important person and to speak up was the most important business.

(From the original) “Remember then: there is only one time that is important—Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary person (client/colleague) is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life”.

Lady Gaga...future law firm CMO?

Great post from Church of the Customer blog on the ways that Lady Gaga actively cultivates her fan base. There is plenty of opportunity for law firms to incorporate these techniques into their marketing strategy and create loyal clients...a Tribe


1. Give fans a name (or take on the name they call you)
The first example that comes to mind is Morrison Foerster adopting MoFo in their marketing efforts.

2. Make it about something bigger than you
Law Firms are often the first to step up to the plate and donate funds in a crisis and have a long history of supporting their communities (stable economy = steady legal work). This is headed in the right direction but try considering ways that you can incorporate this spirit into your everyday work culture not just in times of need or when the sponsorship committee comes calling.

3. Develop shared symbols
Sponsoring industry events is a dry example of how you can accomplish this goal...but when you attend be creative! Engage your clients. Make the trip to your exhibit booth worth their while. Anybody can slap a brand on a chotchke...understand the industry and needs of your customers so that you can anticipate matters related to their business and speak their language

4. Make your customers feel like rock stars
Think about the last time you felt like a rock star: did you get the best seat in the house and the most knowledgeable server at a restaurant? did your partner make you breakfast in bed or a customer service rep go out of the way to insure your grandma got her Christmas package in time despite your last minute efforts? What did it feel like? Now think about ways you can make that happen for your clients? Hint: Sometimes all it takes is listening

5. Leverage social media
Legal Marketing is plagued with social media discussions. At the end of the day what matters most is how you use the tools that are available and if your efforts are sustainable. If Twitter doesn't feel right to you, then invest time and energy optimizing your website or revitalizing your blog.

SF Outlook for February: Cloudy with a Chance of More Law Firms

Three new law firms added SF to their list of office locations in February:
Greenberg Traurig, Downey Brand and Morris Polich & Purdy.

The common denominator is opportunistic growth. Each firm took on laterals rather then re-planting their own attorneys (GT took attorneys from Weil, Gotshal and Quinn Emanuel; DB took attorney from Paul Hastings; MPP took attorneys from Carroll Burdick)

The regional firms said that it was a response to client requests and that they are able to offer lower rates to their current clients that do business in SF. All firms are looking to build out their new offices in the coming months.

And February isn't over yet...