Law Office Management Archives - Page 33 of 57

May 28th – NAWL Pipeline to Equity Partnership Program, Chicago

The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) and Chicago’s Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law are joining forces to help usher the next generation of women law firm leaders into place with a program entitled Pipeline to Equity Partnership (P2P). The program will be held at Loyola University Law School from 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, followed by a networking reception. P2P is aimed at women on the brink of equity partnership, in either a one-tier or two-tier law firm system. This is the third presentation of NAWL’s P2P program nationwide, and its first time in Chicago.

The P2P program is an attempt to move the dial on the numbers of women in law firm leadership by offering a forum to identify and discuss challenges women face as they reach for the top.

The P2P program will begin with a luncheon presentation from Andrea (“Andie”) Kramer, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery. Andie Kramer is well known as a longtime motivating force in the effort to both advance more women to leadership roles and equity partnership in law firms and to ensure that women are fairly compensated along the way. She is a founding member of McDermott’s Diversity Committee, and chair of the Gender Diversity Sub-committee. Andie previously served on both the Firm’s Management and Compensation Committees.

The P2P program will continue with facilitated roundtable group discussion of multiple issue-based scenarios that women face in their journey towards equity partnership. Discussion will focus on real world experiences such as the departure of a young partner’s sponsor, the loss of previous opportunities for business pitches, handling ethical issues that used to be handled by superiors, the reluctance of a new partner’s colleague to address a client conflict, flexibility and perception of work ethic, or perhaps the overloading of a new partner with uncredited firm administration.

The scenarios will be familiar to attendees and presenters, and will offer an opportunity for both a unique, peer-to-peer discussion and the counsel and perspective of a resource panel of distinguished women law firm leaders, who will offer their counsel and advice. The panel consisting of law firm leaders, managing partners, and general counsel includes Susie L. Lees, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Allstate Insurance Company, Jennifer A. Kennedy, Managing Partner of Chicago office, Locke Lord LLP, Amy B. Manning, Managing Partner of Chicago office, McGuireWoods LLP, and Angelea Ulum, Co-Chair, Partnership Promotion Committee, Mayer Brown LLP. The panel will be moderated by Margo O’Donnell, President of the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law and Shareholder at Vedder Price, and Maureen M. Reid, President of Maureen M. Reid, LLC and a co-founder of the P2P program.The resource panel will offer advice for handling the scenarios discussed in the roundtables and will answer attendees’ questions about navigating the way to equity partnership.

Program participants will leave the program with a much better sense of what roadblocks may exist on the path to equity partnership and how to overcome them. Those interested in registering for the P2P Program can get all of the information and register at http://www.nawl.org/p/cm/ld/&fid=168.

LMA P3 Conference – The Practice Innovation Conference, June 12-13, Chicago, IL

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the LMA P3 Conference to be held in Chicago June 12-13, 2014.

When

Thursday – Friday, June 12-13, 2014

Where

Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile
633 N. Saint Clair St.
Chicago, IL 60611

Dig deeper into project management, pricing and process improvement.

The 2013 LMA P3 Conference set the bar high with fantastic breakout sessions, partner presentations and networking opportunities, but this year’s conference looks even more promising.

Join us for P3 – The Practice Innovation Conference, where pricing, project management, and practice innovation experts will discuss the use of various tactics to explore solutions to real issues face by law firms today.

This execution-focused conference will have attendees roll up their sleeves and collectively work out solutions. Click here to view the full conference schedule.

There is still time to register! Register now!

May 28, 2014 – Pipeline to Equity Partnership – National Association of Women Lawyers

On May 28^th, 2014 the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) andChicago’s Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law are joining forces to help usher the next generation of women law firm leaders into place with a program entitled Pipeline to Equity Partnership (P2P). The program will be held at Loyola University Law School from 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, followed by a networking reception. P2P is aimed at women on the brink of equity partnership, in either a one-tier or two-tier law firm system. This is the third presentation of NAWL’s P2P program nationwide, and its first time in Chicago.

NAWL has conducted an annual survey of Am Law 200 law firms since 2005 in an effort to measure the progress in the percentage of women equity partners in law firms. NAWL’S annual Report on the Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms has established the fact that those numbers have stagnated for years between 15% and 17% despite women graduating from law school at equal rates for decades. The P2P program is an attempt to move the dial on the numbers of women in law firm leadership by offering a forum to identify and discuss challenges women face as they reach for the top.

Innovate, Embrace Change, Don't Fear Failure: Takeaways from LMA (Legal Marketing Association) Annual Conference

One message rang true at this year’s LMA Annual Conference: innovation and change are requirements for success. Change may be scary but innovative firms stand out from the rest. At times they may fail, but these failures serve to make firms stronger, not weaker.

Build Unusual Partnerships

Look at Cinnabon’s President Kat Cole, who gave the keynote address this year. When market share started to dip for Cinnabon, she boldly partnered with Pinnacle Vodka, and with competitors like Pillsbury and, Dunkin’ Donuts. These unusual collaborations helped to dramatically grow revenue to over one billion dollars annually for the company. She not only had to take a risk but she also had to convince management to do the same if they were to expand the brand and business. Yet, for her, being innovative was a necessity, not an option. If she didn’t do it, someone else would have. She credits her success to understanding how the business got started and what sets it apart from competitors. This formed the basis for her collaborative partnerships which proved hugely successful.

Work with Multiple Generations

Change has also come to impact law firms simply by the fact that multiple generations are now present in the market. The most senior partners are not retiring. A generational rift exists both within law firms and between law firms and their target clients. While the senior and boomer generations still hold the majority of power within the firms, clients and prospects are frequently fitting into the Generation X demographic. The different generations have completely separate expectations, motivations and desires, some of which are diametrically opposed. Understanding those generational differences and reshaping our internal cultures and power dynamics will be a key to retaining talent and attracting new business.

Help Grow Your Clients Business

Providing excellent legal work is a given. But clients expect their lawyers to understand their business, to help them mitigate their business risks, and to come up with ideas to help them generate revenue. Clients expect to see their attorneys at the same industry conferences they attend – speaking, networking and making recommendations.

The General Counsel panelists reported they have to do more with less money and time. One way lawyers can help is to personally forward client alerts and draw the GC’s attention to a specific section (e.g., see “bullet point 3”) — instead of making them read through the entire article. The GC panelists also agreed that the articles talking about the law itself are not helpful; talk about how the law affects the client or prospect’s business. Co-authoring articles with clients was another suggestion – it makes them look good and brings the relationship closer as well.

Innovate

The pre-conference CMO Summit focused on innovation, i.e., new products and services. Jordan Furlong of Edge International and Law21.ca led an interactive discussion on using research and development to establish a competitive edge in the legal industry. What are some of the new products and services, or yet-to-be-developed possibilities that lawyers could offer? A variety of apps and toolkits, a virtual general counsel set-up or client hot-line, a mobile or shared workforce to reduce overhead, and more…the key being to identify the needs of industries and clients, and respond to those needs innovatively.

Many other topics were covered at the conference but the overarching theme is that those who innovate and embrace change will be the ones to find the most success. Step out on a ledge and don’t be afraid to fail – you will find greater success and learn more than those who just watch from the window!

Article By:

Susanne L. Mandel

Ioana G. Good

Of:

Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A.

How LinkedIn Publishing Could Kill The Law Blog

For one brief, bright, shining moment in the history of mass human communication, everyone had the ability to talk to everyone else and no corporate gatekeeper was not in control. In that moment — after the mass media no longer decided whose message would get through and before the social networks truly took over — you could hear and choose to listen to anyone who had something real to say.

It might be time to say goodbye to all that. But that goodbye comes in the form of a great opportunity for you to distribute your legal content to a huge business audience. LinkedIn has become a content aggregator, one that boasts the power of 275 million business people. LinkedIn is a social network where two-thirds of corporate general counsel go to gather business information on an at least weekly basis. Publishing a very timely and relevant piece of legal content on LinkedIn’s publishing platform can get you more qualified business eyeballs than you dreamed possible, and more comments than you’ve ever seen on your blog in a month of Sundays.

With the entrance of LinkedIn to the content aggregation world, your blog might start to look like a ghost town. Publishing that blog post on LinkedIn generates views, shares and likes that have the power to outstrip what your blog delivers. This is where the people are, and they no longer have to click through on a shortened link – the article is right there on LinkedIn for them to review. If your goal is to have your content read by relevant audiences (and it has to be), then you must master publishing on LinkedIn, National Law Review, JDSupra, and possibly Mondaq and Lexology. And by doing so, you might kill your own blog. Its either that or let that your content die of loneliness.

This trend has more implications than I can explore in a single blog post, the most important of which are:

What does this mean for your Google juice? Blog posts done right mean that you are providing an answer to the most pressing questions your potential clients are asking of search engines. Now, will the answer to those pressing questions lead those potential clients to your articles on LinkedIn rather than to your blog?
If your article, published on LinkedIn, shows up in Google or Bing search results, will potential clients find the information they need to choose you as a lawyer on LinkedIn? Will your LinkedIn profile be what it should be? How’s your LinkedIn company page? Because those two things just got a lot more important!

I loved it when a law blog was a destination, but I’m a modern girl, and I think this is the next wave. What was originally called blogging has recently been re-named content creation because it is about the writing, not about publishing it to your blog. So I suggest you get onto the content aggregators and join me in a lament for the brief moment that was all about blawgs. We loved them, but it’s time to expand our thinking.

Article By:

Amy L. Knapp

Of:

Knapp Marketing

Google+ Is (Walking) Dead? Or Simply Changing?

In response to the grievous reports of Google+’s death last week, a famous misquote from Mark Twain comes to mind: “It appears the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

In late April, a bold headline was turning heads: Google+ Is Walking Dead. The article made some pretty strong claims regarding Google’s struggling social network in response to Vic Gundotra’s announcement that he would be leaving the company. Mr. Gundotra was Google’s Vice President of Social and head of Google+.

This left online marketers with several questions: What will become of authorship? How will this affect Google search? Will this change Google+’s YouTube integration? What about the time and money we have put in to growing our Circles, engaging in Community discussions and posting content?

Once you delve a little deeper and look past the pessimistic headlines, things are not as grim as they appear. Apparently, Google+ is not dead (not even “walking dead”). However, there may be changes on the horizon—which should be nothing new for veteran Google+ users and online marketers.

How Does Google+ Fit In to the Google Brand?

Google+ has never truly competed with Facebook or Twitter. But look at it from a different angle. Google’s social network provided a way to tie together Google’s disparate services while establishing a clear identity of each user. This helps Google provide better search results and sell better targeted ads by better tracking and consolidating user data.

“Google+ is really two things: an identity layer that tracks and connects all of Google’s products and a social sharing app,” says JR Oakes, the Director of Search Marketing at Consultwebs. “I think we will see a movement towards individual teams (Android, Maps, Gmail) just leveraging the identity layer to add value to the products from the standpoint of what makes the product better instead of what makes G+ better.”

The Facts

Many Google employees have taken to Google+ to address these rumors and provide facts.

Yonatan Zunger, Google+ Chief Architect, denied the death of Google+, saying that “this entire TechCrunch article is bollocks.” He also confirmed that Dave Desbris will be the new head of Google+, which suggests the company currently has no plans for dismantling the social network.

In response to a Google+ post, Chris Lang asked Moritz Tolxdorff, Google’s Consumer Operations and Community Manager, to confirm if anyone on the Google+ team had been moved to Android. Tolxdorff responded, “No one is moving anywhere. Everything will stay as it is.”

In light of these public responses, marketers can breathe a sigh of relief—at least for the moment.

Responding to Possible Changes

Even though powerful voices of Google have spoken on this issue, online marketers know that anything can change in the blink of an eye. With a new head of Google+ on the way, we can likely expect to see some changes, even if minor.

Let’s take a look at a timeline of major changes and gradual integration that has occurred through the years:

Google+ is heavily integrated into several of Google’s most popular products: Local, YouTube, Gmail and last but definitely not least, search. The slightest change could create a ripple that affects all of these. I think that is what scared marketers the most.

The best way to respond to situations like this is logically and in the best interest of your business and clients. This is not the first time rumors have panicked the online marketing world. Does anyone remember when the buzz was that Facebook would soon be a paid service? This eventually led to the company’s slogan, “It’s free and always will be.”

It is crucial to respond quickly to changes, but only changes that are validated. Responding too quickly to false claims can result in missed opportunities and wasted time and money. It is best to relax, keep your eyes open for confirmed changes and respond accordingly.

Online marketing best practices are going to change. That is something we have to accept. What makes our jobs challenging (and interesting!) is keeping up with these changes, adapting new best practices and staying ahead of the curve. Whether it is a Google algorithm update, changes to Social Media sites or a change in popular tech devices, we must be vigilant and respond accordingly.

Article By:

Kenneth Harris

Of:

Consultwebs.com, Inc.

5 Things to Tell Prospects That Will Turn Them Into Clients

Have you been looking for the “magic words” to tell prospects that will turn them into clients? My experience in teaching lead conversion techniques to thousands of attorneys over the last decade shows that you need to focus your messaging to prospects on these five areas:

1. Tell them what you can do for them. At the end of the day, clients are only interested in what you can do for them. Your job is to tell them what your service can do for them personally and remember- they do not want to spend time looking for the answer. The answer to this question must be one of the first things your clients see on your website and in your firm-wide communications. If your clients are going to remember you, you must first answer the question “What’s in it for them?”

2. Tell them what makes you different. For every service you provide there are many other attorneys who can provide the same services. So what can a client get from you that they cannot get from anyone else? Perhaps it is your credibility or the creative way you bring solutions to your clients. You must determine what differentiates your firm from anyone else and market that point.

3. Tell them you understand their pain. The most effective way to ensure a lasting impact on your clients is to communicate with them on an emotional level. You must find their “pain.” What is it about their business, life, family, time, or environment that is causing pain? Are they not working or working too much? Is their business growing too fast or too slow? Is their family falling apart? Do they have a hard time tracking their employees? Find their pain and communicate with them on an emotional level about how you can help heal their pain and make their business, life, family, time or environment pleasurable.

4. Tell them the benefits of working with you.  Features are what your service does. Benefits are why your client needs your service. For every feature you have, you must tell your client what the benefit is. Is your firm better, faster, guaranteed or more personal? Will your service create more clients, decrease turnover, or increase profit margins? These are all great features, but you must tell your clients how this benefits them specifically.

5. Tell them why it’s safe to hire you.  Many of our clients work at small law firms that have services similar to those at larger, more established firms. Why should your potential client buy your service over the big firm’s service? While no one can predict the future of your firm, the savvy small firm recognizes the need to develop creative ways to reduce the risk of their clients in working with them. How could you lower the risk of your clients if they are concerned about working with a solo practitioner or a small law firm?

Article By:

Stephen Fairley

Of:

The Rainmaker Institute

Study Shows Smaller Law Firms Value Big Picture Approach to Marketing

Marketing has become a critical function of all law firms, big and small. Large law firms (over 200 attorneys) tend to have vast resources that can be devoted to all marketing aspects, while small to midsize firms (40-200 attorneys) must be more creative in the ways that they utilize their marketing resources, in order to maximize the benefits of their efforts. J. Johnson Executive Search, Inc., commissioned a study, conducted by ALM Legal Intelligence, in order to examine the marketing trends of those small and midsized firms and show how marketing departments’ efforts help their firms gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

A group of 90 legal marketing professionals were surveyed via web between November 18, 2013 and December 18, 2013. Professionals from small law firms (40-75 attorneys) made up 42% of the 90, while the other 58% was comprised of professionals from midsize law firms (76 or more attorneys). Part one of this two-part article will discuss how small to midsized firms are valuing marketing departments and dedicating their resources to marketing efforts in a concentrated and consistent manner. Part two will discuss the shift in the way that small and midsized firms conduct their marketing activities in order to remain competitive in our current economy; the results showing that smaller law firms do have a big picture approach to marketing.

Dedicated Marketing Functions Have Become the Norm

Ninety-percent of the firms surveyed had at least one dedicated staff member responsible for their marketing efforts, such as business development, practice development, marketing, communications, and public relations activities. Smaller firms have naturally lower budgets and resources, but according to the study, are on target to mirror larger firm marketing structures.

The ideal is to have one marketing professional for every ten attorneys at the firm. Eighty-one percent of the small firms surveyed had 1-4 dedicated marketing professionals, 48% of midsized firms have 1-4 people, and 47% of midsized firms had five or more marketing professionals on staff. In this delicate economic climate, more firms are focusing on the importance of having a marketing initiative, simply because previously used methods no longer suffice.

Additionally, the overall firm resources devoted to marketing have grown to reflect the increasing importance of marketing roles in the law firm. Forty-four percent of the firms surveyed had increased their marketing budget from 2012 to 2013.

From “Nice to Have” to “Must Have” Team Members

Traditionally, attorneys were responsible for their own rainmaking activities and the development of a dedicated marketing department may have been seen as threatening to the process and responsibilities of attorneys. Now more than ever, firm management has requested that attorneys spend more time on client development efforts, which can conflict with an attorney’s need/want to bill time. This is where having a marketing team can be crucial for their attorneys.

Two-thirds of respondents in the study confirmed that the marketing department is an important factor in winning the firm business. For smaller firms, marketing is an evenmore critical factor in the win by greater than a 3-to-1 margin. Gone are the days where corporate counsel will hire a firm simply from how they rank in publications. Winning business is predicated on building relationships.

For example, the marketing team at Porter Hedges, a smaller firm out of Houston, Texas, helped coordinate a marketing plan that gets the managing partner out in front of the clients and introduces the clients to the attorneys in the trenches. Their marketing department was able to coordinate and execute a program where clients were able to feel valued. The marketing group is also responsible for organizing client events, so that their firm has a presence among potential clients. On the whole, Porter Hedges is distinguishable from their competitors because of the emphasis they make on client connection. Developing these relationships would have been more difficult to coordinate without a dedicated marketing team.

Justification for Marketing Efforts

The firms surveyed have seen their marketing efforts pay off in several ways. In total, 82% of respondents saw a growth in their law firm and 79% saw client retention as a direct consequence of marketing efforts. There are also several other areas of success, such as an increased image or awareness of the firm in the marketplace (80% of respondents experienced this), and an increase in the firm’s competitive advantage over their competitors (64%).

This study shows that the perceived (and actual) importance of marketing departments has steadily risen over the years. Smaller and midsized firms are recognizing the value of marketing departments and investing in them because of the increased need to remain competitive with their larger brethren.

Stay tuned for part two, where I will discuss exactly what small and midsized firms have been focusing their marketing efforts on and how effective they have been.

Article By:

Nicole Angeline Cudiamat

Of:

The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

New ALM Report Says Small Firms Investing in Big Marketing

A new report from ALM Legal Intelligence entitled, Small Firms, Big Marketing reveals that small and mid-sized law firms (40-200 attorneys) have upped their investments in marketing because of a belief that effective marketing is mandatory for a firm to succeed.

ALM Legal Marketing

The survey was commissioned by J. Johnson Executive Search, Inc., and relies on data collected from 90 small and midsized firms in the U.S – 42% of responses were from firms with 40-75 attorneys and 58% were from firms of more than 76 attorneys.

Some key findings from the survey:

90% of responding firms said they had a dedicated marketing team in place
75% said marketing was critical to winning new business
54% use marketing for research and client feedback
Marketing is key not only for obtaining new clients but also for retaining existing clients
75% of firm management says marketing is a critical piece in winning new business
Spending on outsourced marketing functions increased 44% in 2013 and is expected to rise in 2014

Firms justify their investment in marketing in the following ways:

ALM Reporting Marketing

The firms surveyed found these 10 marketing tactics to be the most effective for their firms:

marketing

The full report is available free for download here.

Article By:

Stephen Fairley

Of:

The Rainmaker Institute

The Best ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) American Conference Giveaways. Part One

I like to wander Exhibit Halls to see what grabs my attention, and evaluate the law firms’ booths and tchotchkes. Below is a collection of some of my favorite giveaways. Most were the typical low-end crap — cheap logo’d pens, hard candy, miscellaneous squishy or light-up doo-dads. But some of the freebies were more creatively branded or executed. I’ll write 2-3 posts summarizing those that caught my attention.

**Part One, below, is dedicated to geographically focused messages, implicitly “If you need a firm in [location] remember [our firm].” A simple, straightforward marketing theme.**

I attend so many conferences every year that I rarely shlep home the swag. But for ACC’s particularly target-rich environment of clients and prospects, the law firms went the extra mile to capture the clients’ attention. I actually squeezed a number of them into Bird & Bird’s handy, environmentally friendly cloth bag.

Swag bag

Initially, some of the hottest items were Meritas’s simple but clever luggage tags:

Meritas is an international law firm network, so a travel theme made sense. Some tags were pre-printed, others were written by Tanna Moore, Kim Heinrich and the Meritas gang, e.g. “Hands off or I’ll call my lawyer.” Frankly, I was slightly concerned that the tags’ sayings might be perceived as too cute, but the incredibly high demand for them proved me wrong. You could see attendees surreptitiously walking past the booth many times over two days, seeking to complete their collection. We were able to swap these coveted tags for other booths’ giveaways. I have a few tags on my roller bag and they actually generate a lot of conversation.

Most booths are happy to pass out their promotional items. That’s the point, after all — get your logo’d materials in the hands of targeted attendees. And most don’t want to drag all the leftover goodies back home anyway. But some supremely confident firms make you really work for them.

The best example of this was Blakes’ coveted Canadian wool hats. With new designs every year, some in-house counsel said that they look forward to collecting them each year. Great quality, useful, impossible to discard, and well-branded both with the firm name and implicit connection to their Canada brand, it’s effective marketing from every angle. Even better, CMO Alison Jeffrey wouldn’t give them up easily, greatly increasing the demand. My family and I have been sharing them throughout this miserable 2014 Chicago winter.

Another firm, Stikeman Elliott also played up their Canadian connection with an adorable, plush beaver wearing a red logo’d t-shirt. The children of many ACC members are playing with these.

Canada

Migrating south to Louisiana, I also liked the Kean Miller’s Cajun cooking collection. They offered Cajun spices, étouffée mix, a cookbook of KM employees’ favorite recipes, and a wooden spoon/spatula that my wife is currently using. Of course, you can’t go wrong with Mardi Gras beads. Every item is useful, branded, and memorably connected to their Baton Rouge/NOLA locations. BTW, I’ve already used up the delicious private-labeled KM hot sauce, Steve Boutwell. Just sayin’….

Cooking set

Even farther south, all the way to Brazil, Demarest Advogados leveraged Brazil’s “beach” connection with a high-quality folding mat, complete with inflatable pillow. These were also very popular, with passersby trying to sneak two or more as they strolled passed the booth.

swag bag

In short – an effective, well-considered collection.

More examples, from high-tech videos to low-tech oven mitts, will be shown Part Two.

Article By:

Ross Fishman

Of:

Fishman Marketing, Inc.

Category: Law Office Management

May 28th – NAWL Pipeline to Equity Partnership Program, Chicago

Like this:

LMA P3 Conference – The Practice Innovation Conference, June 12-13, Chicago, IL

Like this:

May 28, 2014 – Pipeline to Equity Partnership – National Association of Women Lawyers

Like this: