LinkedIn...or Chained Down

I've never been interested in horoscopes. However, as a June baby I have picked up some elementary understanding of the Gemini- twin or two faces. By their nature, legal marketers must adapt personality traits commonly ascribed to Geminis - the ability to move back and forth between the forces of law firm marketing strategy and the business development of individual attorneys.
Last night I had a great conversation about LinkedIn specifically and social media in general. What are the best practices for legal marketers to optimize their individual attorneys' online profiles while meeting the overall strategic goals of the law firm? Should attorneys focus on their expertise and specialities or will this pigeon-hole them and subvert the firm's cross-selling efforts?
I will revisit these issues in future posts. Taking a look at your LinkedIn Profile is a good place to start.

R. Hewitt Pate succeeds Charles James as Chevron Legal Executive

From the New York Times.

Advertising in a crowded market, 14 years later

1996: Two years before Goolge was founded, while Twitter and Facebook were in elementary school, WIRED Magazine published a couple of stories, Beyond the Banner and Reclaim the Deadzone While the vehicles for these conversations have changed dramatically (replace banner ad and microsite with SEO, blogging, social media) the questions remain the same...what's the best way to connect with potential clients in a crowded market?
The answer is unique to each firm and marketer but the ad on page 23 might offer some clues, the tagline from the previous page reads, "Go through life with less baggage".  Sticking to a core strategy seems to be working for Apple.

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...

Billing Roundup

Kraft Foods Free Market Award given to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
The firm cut legal costs not by introducing alternative billing, not by arbitrarily offering a discount to cut the bottom line, rather they found, "easy, common sense ways to reduce" the bill by "moving matters around to different offices in various cities".

Pfizer Legal Alliance
A group of 19 law firms that receive a flat annual fee for all the work completed over the entire year for the company. The Alliance took roots in 2004 when then GC Allen Waxman reduced the companies outside lineup by 80 percent to 39 firms in a program called Pfizer Partnering Program. It was, "designed to find a mutually agreeable way to promote strategic thinking and give the client predictability and stability". It's not about discounts but building better long-term relationships with outside counsel says GC Amy Schulman.

Levi Strauss has one law firm, Orrick.
Orrick partner Johnson-McKewan uses the words"open and flexible" and "trust" to describe the multimillion dollar arrangement between her firm and Levi Stauss where Orrick now handles all of the company's legal work worldwide in exchange for a fixed yearly fee paid in monthly increments (Townsend and Townsend and Crew continues brand protection work).

Law Firm initiated alternative
Smithline Jha's monthly subscription model delivers predictability to clients. For the monthly subscription model to work it has to be a practice area that is steady, Smithline Jha specializes in IP Licensing for software and Internet companies. In-house counsel and private practice attorneys agree that this model will not work for litigation. In the words of the firm, "The net effect was we got so much closer to our clients" -who doesn't want that?

There is no one-size fits all solution to billing arrangements. But there is a requirement for any creative agreement: LISTEN to your clients!

24-7 Brochure

Today's The Recorder roundtable "How to Win My Business" featured in-house counsel
Seth Jaffe- SVP and General Counsel Williams-Sonoma Inc., Brett Fletcher- VP & General Counsel Gilead Sciences, Inc and Joseph Catalano- SVP & Chief Litigation Counsel Union Bank.

One of the actionable items that resonates with me 4 hours post-event is communication. Of course communication between outside lawyer and in-house counsel (responsiveness, openness about how a matter is going and billing, etc.) but also the way that a law firm communicates with its clients. Seth Jaffe (who likes lists by the way) included the importance of a firm's website as a way to get noticed on a firm's short-list. It's crucial for law firms to maintain an accurate picture of their firm's capabilities online. I grabbed a couple recent articles on the topic to make sure your "website brain" keeps at it:
Master of your Domain Name- Is it time to bring web maintenance in-house?
Law Firm Websites that Work- various perspectives from ABA Journal
You can get my quick takeaways of the roundtable discussion on Twitter @pryplewski

Sending the bill, Getting the Business and Keeping the Women

A general overview of legal industry billing standards, a non-beauty contest from Kraft (it's all about the numbers!) and Canada struggles with renention issues too...all in a day's reading for the legal marketer.