Category: Legal Marketing

May 2021 Legal Industry News Highlights: Attorney Moves, Law Firm Pro Bono Work & Innovation

We’ve returned with another edition of our legal industry news column for May. Read on for the latest news on attorney promotions, law firm recognition, pro bono work and legal technology and innovation:

Attorney Promotions & Moves

The International Financial Law Review (IFLR) recognized Blakes’ law firm partners Pamela Huff and Catherine Doyle as IFLR1000 Woman Leaders for the quality of their advice and the consistent recommendations of their clients and peers.

Ms. Huff is the head of the Blakes Restructuring & Insolvency group and advises on Canadian business law. Ms. Doyle is a leading member of Blakes’ Project & Financial Services group. Ms. Doyle has been a part of some of the most impactful infrastructure deals in Canada.

Jamie M. Ramsey joined Frost Brown Todd as the newest litigation member of the Cincinnati, Ohio office. Mr. Ramsey’s litigation experience includes breach of contract claims and trademark infringement to class action litigation. Mr. Ramsey also has experience helping clients navigate the legal framework impacting the collection, use, and protection of personal information.

“Jamie’s work with everyone from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies will provide our clients additional insight into how to manage risks to both their operations and reputations,” said Cincinnati Member-in-Charge Chris Habel. “He represents companies in both Ohio and Kentucky, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him in our Cincinnati office.”

Marjorie J. Peerce, managing partner of Ballard Spahr’s New York Office, is the new Vice President of the New York City Bar Association (NYCBA). Ms. Peerce served as Chair of the NYCBA Board of Directors since May 2020. She also formerly served as Chair of the NYCBA’s Criminal Law Committee and served on the Mass Incarceration Task Force. The NYCBA, founded in 1870, works to maintain the high ethical standards of the legal profession and includes over 150 committees.

Ms. Peerce is a founder and leader of Ballard Spahr’s Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency team, and handles high profile civil and criminal matters in state and federal courts in New York and around the US.

Adrian Cyhan joined Stubbs, Alderton and Markiles, LLP as a partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology Transactions practice. Mr. Cyhan is a patent attorney who focuses on identifying, protecting and leveraging intellectual property assets and providing related counsel and advice.

Mr. Cyhan manages intellectual property portfolios and handles intellectual property-related transactions such as joint ventures, acquisitions, and divestitures.

“I’ve known Adrian for several years and I’m thrilled we will be working together. He’s an exceptional attorney and a creative thinker. Bringing Adrian on-board reflects SA&M’s commitment to expanding our premier IP and technology law practice,” said Kevin D. DeBré, the Stubbs, Alderton and Markiles’ IP & Technology Transactions practice chair.

Law Firm Pro Bono & Philanthropy

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP attorneys Corby C. Anderson, Matthew S. DeAntonio, Erin Jane Illman, and Jonathan E. Schulz joined the 2020 class of the North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society. The attorneys each provided more than 50 hours of pro bono legal services in 2020 to North Carolinians in need.

“Our Charlotte attorneys continue to go above and beyond to provide equal access to justice for all,” said Bradley Pro Bono Counsel Tiffany Graves. “We are very proud of their commitment to the community and their well-earned recognition by the North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society.”

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings attorneys work with the Safe Alliance’s Victim Assistance/Legal Representation Program to help victims of domestic violence and the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, which helps low income residents of the Charlotte metropolitan area and west-central North Carolina.

The North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society is administered by the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center, which launched in 2016.

The American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service selected Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as an individual recipient of its 2021 Pro Bono Publico Awards. The awards are scheduled to be presented on the opening day of the 2021 ABA Annual Meeting, which runs through Aug. 10.

The Committee selected Sheppard Mullin for its actions following the death of George Floyd. The firm launched the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) project with Georgetown Law’s Innovative Policing Program, which came from an initiative to teach officers to become active bystanders and prevent misconduct in the New Orleans Police Department.

The initiative led to Sheppard Mullin successfully litigating cases in California to obtain disclosure of records of police misconduct, as well as executing a plan to manufacture and secure face shields for frontline workers in Los Angeles.

The Committee also selected Cynthia Chandler, the director of Bay Area Legal Incubator, Oakland, California, TerryAnn Howell of Nelson Mullins in Miami, Neal Manne of Susman Godfrey LLP in Houston and Rebecca Rapp of the Ascendium Education Group in Madison, Wisconsin as recipients of the 2021 Pro Bono Publico Awards.

Ms. Chandler grew the Bay Area Legal Incubator with the Alameda County Bar Association and Legal Access Alameda to help coach diverse attorneys on how to build successful, affordable law practices serving low and middle-income clients throughout California.

Ms. Howell helped launch a COVID-19 Small Business and Nonprofit Clinic with Legal Services of Greater Miami at Nelson Mullins through Lawyers for Good Government. She also volunteers alongside other Nelson Mullins attorneys at the Tenants’ Equal Justice Clinic (TEJC), a project of Legal Services of Greater Miami.

Mr. Manne dedicated 40 years of his career to high-impact pro bono work. His accomplishments include being recognized by the American College of Trial Lawyers for his pro bono work, as well as being named Attorney of the Year by Texas Lawyer. Most recently, Mr. Manne helped reform Houston’s money bail system and represented two death row exonerees.

Ms. Rapp helps increase access to areas dubbed as “legal deserts” due to a shortage of attorneys, including a project to provide legal help to technical colleges around Wisconsin. She also assists clients at legal clinics and serves on the boards and committees of several access-to-justice organizations. Ms. Rapp also testified before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on removing limitations on pro bono services.

Legal Aid Service of Broward County (LAS) and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida (CCLA) announced the recipients of their 2021 Annual Recognition Awards.

LAS and CCLA presented the awards in a series of live presentations via Facebook Live May 4–7, 2021.

The 2021 recipients include:

●               Lauren Alperstein, Esq., of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP received the Attorney of the Year Award.

●                Van Horn Law Group received the Law Firm of the Year award.

●               Ofer Shmucher, Esq. and Shera Anderson, Esq. of Shmucher Law, PL received the Spirit of Justice Award.

●               Theresa Edwards, Esq., of American Justice, P.A. received the Commitment to Justice Award.

●                Anthony J. Karrat, Esq., Executive Director of Legal Aid Service of Broward County received the Russell E. Carlisle Advocacy Award.

●               Edwin Cordova, Esq., Supervising Attorney of the Housing Unit at Legal Aid Service of Broward County received the Jacquelyn and Bruce Rogow Employee of the Year Award.

Law Firm Innovation & Technology

Winstead law firm partnered with Texas Health Catalyst at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin to support entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of developing healthcare technology products.

Winstead provides entrepreneurs with resources on legal matters such as entity formation, licensing from universities, IP strategy, funding, lease agreements, OSHA, privacy/global agreements, as well as educational programming and opportunities to meet and network with other startup professionals.

“Winstead is committed to moving healthcare technology and the latest innovations in the life sciences industry forward,” said Winstead Shareholder Lekha Gopalakrishnan. “Our collaboration with Texas Health Catalyst is intended to advance their mission of addressing unmet needs in healthcare through technology innovation.”

Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP (DHC), a New York-based commercial law and government relations firm, formed their Cannabis Practice Group to help clients navigate regulations around adult recreational marijuana in New York State. DHC’s Cannabis Practice Group builds upon DHC’s decades of experience in highly regulated and similar industries, such as New York’s wine, liquor and packaged goods industries.

“The Office of Cannabis Management will be implementing laws and regulations governing the growing and evolving cannabis industry in New York. They will be similar to those that govern entities regulated by the State Liquor Authority, and both will exist under a tiered system,” said Steve Malito, Chair of the Cannabis Practice Group. “Davidoff Hutcher & Citron is uniquely qualified to advise our clients in the cannabis space as they navigate the complexities of these regulations.”

In line with recent Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts nationwide, Schiff Hardin announced the formation of their new ESG Team to help companies develop programs and company disclosures that incorporate the many ESG principles. Amy Antoniolli leads the team along with key members Sarah Fitts, Jane Montgomery, and Katherine Walton.

“Stakeholders have made clear that corporate responsibility is not just a fad or a slogan, and industry is responding as quickly as possible,” said Ms. Antoniolli. “Schiff has seen ESG quickly become an integral part of a company’s reporting and a significant factor in successful business deals. With stakes this high, companies have the opportunity to meet ESG metrics that protect their bottom line and their reputation.”

Copyright ©2021 National Law Forum, LLC
For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLRLaw Office Management section.

Legal Marketing Campaign Measurement and Analytics: Part 8 Good2bSocial Academy

Previously, we covered module seven of Good2bSocial’s digital marketing certification, email marketing for law firms. This week, we’re diving into the final module of the course, law firm readership analytics. Good2bSocial’s Digital Marketing Certification provides legal marketers with a framework for understanding digital technologies in the context of marketing and business development for law firms and helps law firms’ assess the baseline knowledge of their staff or potential hires. The course features webinars, articles and videos on key legal marketing topics, including how to measure law firm website analytics.

To prove that legal marketing efforts and the law firm’s investment are paying off, marketing professionals should be tracking various metrics. By checking these metrics regularly, marketers will be able to determine which promotional strategies are most effective, and will have a better idea of how to refine various practices in the future.

Given the numerous ways that law firms can track analytics, it’s difficult to determine how to measure results and determine if the numbers are bad or good. Key metrics law firms should be tracking include total visits, acquisition channels, bounce rates and, most importantly, projected return on investment (ROI).

How to Track Law Firm Readership Analytics

Total visits, sessions and acquisition channels are a few examples of readership analytics for law firms to track. Total visits is a popular metric for law firms to track if they’re looking to get as many views of their thought leadership content as possible.

Readership trends to be on the lookout for include a sudden drop from week to week or a slow decline. Sudden changes may indicate that there may be a technical issue with a page, whereas a slow decline may show that the content needs to be tweaked to fit the law firm’s  target audience better.

Why are New Sessions Important?

New sessions show how many people are returning visitors or are coming to the website for the first time. Tracking new sessions provides an opportunity for legal marketers to determine their goals going forward.

If the firm is looking to improve content and create leads, return visitors are important. If firms are looking to attract new clients, they should be tracking how many new visitors they’ve been getting.

What are Acquisition Channels?

Acquisition channels are how visitors found the site’s content. The specific channels law firms should be tracking include:

  •  Direct visitors – These are people who found the site through putting the URL into their browser.
  •  Referral visitors – These visitors found the content through clicking a link from another web site or source.
  •  Social media visitors – Tracking this metric shows how many visitors found the content through links on social media sites.
  •  Organic search visitors – These visitors found the content through clicking a link on a search results page.
  • Paid search visitors – These are website visitors obtained through an ad campaign.

These different channels show the success of a law firm’s search engine optimization efforts (SEO), newsletter, and social media performance, allowing legal marketers to adjust their strategy to suit their goals.

Another thing legal marketers should pay attention to is bounce rate. The bounce rate is the percentage of site visitors who visit the site but leave without viewing another page. To lower bounce rate, try adding internal links on pages, posts and sidebars and improving navigation on the site to encourage visitors to visit multiple pages.

Leading Law Firm Web Analytics Tools

The most effective way to obtain analytics is through third party tools. There are a variety of options for legal marketers to use to help measure what is working and what isn’t in marketing campaigns. Here are a few of the most popular options:

1. Google Analytics –  Perhaps the most popular analytics tool, Google’s analytics platform provides a wealth of information useful for legal marketers, including reader behavior and page behavior.

2. SEMRush – SEMRush helps legal marketers understand and manage SEO, social media and paid traffic. It also provides information on keywords and market research.

3. Clicky – Unlike Google Analytics’ Realtime reports which are based on the last 30 minutes of event data, Clicky provides analytics in real time, which allows legal marketers to track trends in readership on an hourly standpoint. This can be helpful if firms are tracking traffic after an event, such as a webinar or conference.

4. Crazy Egg – An analytics tool from KISSmetrics co-owner Neil Patel, Crazy Egg offers tools such as readership heat maps, where visitors clicked on pages, how far users are scrolling on pages and the number of clicks.

While Google Analytics is the most popular option, the other options provide different capabilities that can compliment Google Analytics and help paint a more complete picture of how a law firm’s marketing efforts are performing.

Converting Law Firm Leads as a Measurement of Marketing Success

“Conversions,” or the number of leads that complete an action on a site, are a reflection of how well legal marketing efforts are paying off on a website.

Examples of successful conversions include adding an email address to a mailing list, scheduling an appointment for a consultation or registering for a webinar. If legal marketers want to determine how well their marketing campaigns are doing, tracking what is driving the conversion rate is one way to track what’s working and what’s not.

There are a few different kinds of conversion rates for legal marketers to track. The first place to start is the total conversion rate for a campaign. The higher the total conversion rate, the more successful a campaign is. To calculate the total conversion rate, define a time period and divide the total number of website visitors who have completed an action.

Next, campaign level conversions highlight the level of success of specific marketing campaigns. This metric can be measured through setting up a specific tracking mechanism, which can track individual traffic sources such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google. UTM tracking codes are a way to track specific campaigns. Fyi, UTM stands for Urchin tracking module. They’re snippets of code — attached to the end of a URL used to measure the effectiveness of a digital campaign.

Determining Return on Investment and Client Value

Determining return on investment is another way to gauge the success of law firm marketing campaigns. To do this, legal marketers should compare the money the firm is spending over time with the expected value of the new clients and return business the firm gains over the course of the campaign. Another facet of determining return on investment is client value. This is calculated by determining the amount of money earned from each client over the course of the relationship with the client.

After reviewing analytics and readership metrics, legal marketers should calculate cost per lead and client to determine which marketing channels are giving the firm best value for money. To calculate cost per lead, divide the cost of the marketing campaign by the total number of leads generated by the campaign.

Evaluating ROI and determining client value helps paint a more accurate picture of which legal marketing strategies work best, and how to improve moving forward.

Takeaways for Law Firms Tracking Analytics

By tracking metrics such as return on investment, lead conversion and web traffic, legal marketers are able to better understand what marketing activities work best, and which ones don’t. Understanding analytics helps provide an idea of how to refine legal marketing efforts in the future to generate more leads. Good2bSocial’s Measurement and Analytics course gives legal marketers a good foundation for success. To learn more about the Good2bSocial Academy and the law firm focused topics covered please click here.

To Read Part 1 Good2bSocial Digital Academy for Law Firms — Inbound Marketing and Client Journey Mapping, click here.

To read Part 2 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Content Marketing Strategy for Law Firms, click here.

To read Part 3 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Developing a Successful Social Media Strategy for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 4 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Paid Social Media Advertising Campaigns for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 5 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Search Engine Optimization for Law Firms, click here.

To read Part 6 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Paid Search Advertising for Law Firms, click here.

To read Part 7  Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Email Marketing for Law Firms, click here

Copyright ©2021 National Law Forum, LLC
For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLRLaw Office Management section.

Easy But Impactful Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Professional Network

It’s so easy to be forgotten today when we are not seeing each other in person on a regular basis.

That means the onus is on you to maintain relationships with your professional network with the tools you have – and right now that’s virtually.

The most compelling reason to contact someone in your professional network is to provide them with something useful — and, trust me, people really want to hear from others, especially during this very isolating time.

Your goal right now should be to keep in touch with your professional network and to provide information of value to them that enables you to showcase your expertise without being boastful or salesy.

If you do this right, you’ll never have to sell anything or use an elevator pitch. Very often an individual is retained due to word-of-mouth and referrals. And repeat business is given based on your past performance and likability. Lay the groundwork today for future success.

You may already feel your firm is doing everything it can to acquire new clients, but what strategies have you put in place to retain existing clients, and how are you interacting and communicating with them?

After all, it’s far easier and less costly to keep an existing client than to bring on a new one.

When your clients feel that you value their business, their loyalty and brand preference grow. And when they benefit from valuable advice, client service and responsiveness, they could refer their friends and colleagues to you, and become your loyal brand ambassadors.

A timely thought leadership piece covering a topic that addresses issues top of mind for your clients can be gold at a time like this, and lead to the opening of doors and opportunities.

Make sure to send it via individual email to select contacts with a personal note and send a regular email newsletter to your contacts/clients. This is the best way to reach your clients and potential clients because it goes directly to their email inboxes.

You could also write a short email note just checking in on your clients/referrals/other VIPs to see how they are navigating working from home and managing the demands of family life.

This is the time to build relationships that go beyond the perfunctory “how was your weekend” – especially when someone’s kid or dog is appearing in a Zoom and we are all revealing much more our personal lives. A short note is more than enough to let people know you care and to keep you top of mind with them.

Of course don’t forget about using LinkedIn (and other social media platforms that work for your client development) to your advantage.

It’s not enough to have a strong profile or a lot of connections – you must use the platform to share posts in order to maximize the power of LinkedIn.

Social media success can be achieved by being active and liking, sharing and commenting on posts and also creating posts of your own – these actions will help to keep you top of mind, enabling you to showcase your expertise without being boastful while allowing you to provide value to your contacts.

This could lead to new relationships or referrals or new business.

Here are a few more ideas for how to stay top of mind with your contacts in a meaningful way:

  1. Build online rapport and relationships by following people you admire on LinkedIn. Supporting others helps you build a strong network and stronger relationships.​
  2. Take the time to build compelling online content that provides prospects with valuable information on how to solve their most pressing problems possibly caused by the crisis, and then make that content available across your digital ecosystem. This is your chance to build your brand, strengthen relationships, create trust and grow demand for your services.
  3. If you are on a group Zoom happy hour or networking event, note the participant list so you can connect with each person afterwards on LinkedIn. ​
  4. Groups are a great way to expand your network on LinkedIn. They have gained traction since the pandemic and give you access to many other business professionals who are interested in the same topics as you. ​
  5. The Advanced Search tool on LinkedIn is another great way to strategically expand your network. Use LinkedIn filters to search by keyword, for example job title, location, company or school. Premium LinkedIn accounts enable you to conduct wider search parameters and saved searches.​
  6. Share posts written by others (prospects, colleagues, your company, your clients, etc.) or create a post based on something you wrote or an article you found that was interesting in a trusted news source (such as the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, a trade publication – you get the gist). Staying top of mind is the key to success on LinkedIn.
  7. Like and comment on LinkedIn posts that you think are valuable and share the posts with your connections and in groups.​
  8. Regularly share content that is valuable to your connections on social media with brief introductory text on why they should read it. Highlight a few key points in your synopsis, use the @ sign to mention anyone in the post and always use an eye-catching visual and the right hashtags to accompany your post.​ Providing status updates on a regular basis keeps you visible to your network.​
  9. Be generous by liking and sharing others’ posts and congratulate others on their successes, especially your VIP connections. While they may not be ready to hire you at this moment, they will likely be in that position in the future. When they reach that point, you will be top of mind.
  10. Make it easy for clients and prospects to connect with you by including your updated contact information on all of your social profiles and making it visible to everyone not just your connections. Also, if you list your work phone, make sure that it is being forwarded to your cell during the pandemic.

Make sure your clients and prospects don’t forget about you – especially now when we are social distancing– with information that is useful, consistent and by being thoughtful and helpful.

Copyright © 2021, Stefanie M. Marrone. All Rights Reserved.

ARTICLE BY Stefanie M. Marrone of Stefanie Marrone Consulting
For more articles on legal marketing, visit the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

“I always make it the lawyers’ idea.”

Marketer: “When I want to get the lawyers on board, I always make it their idea.”

I’ve never cared for that approach — that’s not respecting the lawyers as intelligent adults. That’s infantilizing them; it’s treating them like children whose little egos need to be soothed and pampered so they don’t throw a tantrum. I say the heck with that.

They’re smart, tough, professionals who only bestow their respect upon those who have earned it. And marketers who let others to take credit for their ideas are teaching their employers that they don’t have any good ideas of their own. That’s not demonstrating that you’re invaluable and need a big raise. Rather, you’re making yourself replaceable by someone younger, cheaper, or less experienced.

Some time ago, I was asked on a Legal Marketing Association (LMA) email group how I structure my arguments to achieve effortless buy-in of innovative ideas and initiatives with skeptical groups of lawyers and marketing committees. My fundamental point was that it all comes down to education.

As a simple example, let’s say we’d like to redesign a firm’s letterhead  to remove a long list of lawyer names. We’ve done this dozens of times for firms of all sizes, and I always follow the formula detailed below. Once I figured out this secret 25 years, I increased my professional effectiveness by 1,000%. It’s arguably the most vital lesson I teach marketers.

I think this is critical for everyone who works with lawyers to thoroughly understand.

First, as I regularly comment, “If (1) what I’m recommending is the best idea or action, and (2) I can teach lawyers what they need to know to position them to make a good decision, then (3) they should see that I’m right and agree with me.”

However, if they disagree with what I’m proposing, then either (1) I was wrong, (2) they’re stupid, or (3) I’ve failed to educate them sufficiently.  I don’t know any stupid lawyers, which means that any battles are likely caused by a poor job of educating the lawyers. And that’s our fault, not the lawyers’.

I can explain something to marketers in two minutes that takes me an hour-long presentation with 50-100 PPT slides to explain to lawyers. Most marketers and administrators come from a similar vantage, experience, and frame of reference — we start generally on the same page, and we’re open to new ideas.  Lawyers are not especially open, they don’t know much about marketing, and they have an exceptionally skeptical thought process.

That’s not a criticism, it’s many marketers’ personal experiences in marketing committee meetings. As marketers, we spend 8 hours a DAY thinking about marketing — our lawyers may not spend 8 hours a YEAR.  We exhaustively research every variable before recommending a particular course of action to the marketing committee. Why should we expect lawyers to be able make an intelligent, educated, and correct decision the first time we throw it at them? 

Regardless, in spite of their lack of information and education on any particular topic, if the lawyers are asked, they’ll always have an opinion.  And once they voice that opinion in front of others, it’s very difficult to persuade them to change it. So before we allow them to subconsciously formulate that opinion, we must get them to buy into our view on the topic.

Here’s how I do that:

First, I do not lead with the conclusion. That is, I do not open with a general topic sentence using the classic journalistic style, something like “I think we should remove the names from our letterhead,” If I do that, they’ll disagree and pick me apart. They’ll identify 100 reasons why that’s a dumb idea, for example:

  • “We’ve always done it this way!”
  • “Everyone does it this way.”
  • “My clients like seeing my name near the top!”
  • “It’s more traditional, it’s classier.”
  • “It shows how big we are.”
  • “We don’t want people unknowingly calling our associates.” Etc.

I can never let that argument start.

Once it does, I’ve already lost. I’m done. It’s dead.  Even though I may be 100% right, once they start piling on with “And here’s another reason you’re wrong!” it’s too late. I spent a lot of my early years in marketing losing important debates with my lawyers even though what I was advocating was right. In a free-flowing debate, they’ll win. They love arguing and they won’t stop until you give up, because from their experience they’re right and you’re wrong. So we must first provide them the information required to position them to make a well-informed decision.

Instead, I might start by quickly discussing design trends in the legal marketplace, what the leading firms are doing (discussing firms they’d aspire to become).  I show actual examples of beautiful design from competing local firms (you can get them from your printing company), that don’t have the lawyers’ names on them.

I’ll validate that what they currently have was the right answer at the time it was created, that it looked absolutely beautiful. That is, I’m never suggesting that the original design was bad or poorly conceived, simply that since then, design has changed — as it always does over time. I might mention other obvious types of designs that have changed since the time this letterhead was created, i.e. it’s not just the firm’s letterhead — men were wearing three-piece suits, suspenders, and yellow ties, while women lawyers wore stiff, poofy hair and dresses with shoulder pads rather than the more open and casual approach we have today. Design changes have been spurred by the clean lines of Apple and the Internet. The business culture is less formal than it was back then and today’s design reflects that.

That is, I create hard evidence in support of my argument.

I might provide highlighted copies of any articles and blog posts that I can find that discuss and support the removal of names from the letterhead.  I pull relevant quotes from articles, blog posts.  

I’ll ask a friendly engraving or printing company how many of the past 25 letterhead re-designs they’ve printed have included all the lawyers names, and quote them. I’d ask a client/friend which design they prefer and provide the results, e.g. “I think having the lawyers’ names along the margin looks silly, and alphabetizing them implies that the most-senior lawyers have giant egos. At my company, we want to show our younger employees that we value them.” Lawyers are persuaded by client quotes. Note, whatever I’m advocating, I make a persuasive, logical evidence-based case for change. This helps the lawyers think “Huh, that makes sense. I never thought about it that way.”

I’d print out a sample letter on the current letterhead, then paste that same text into one of the printing company samples that have larger margins because they don’t have all the cluttering names on them, and show them how much more content fits on the new style — fewer two-page letters.

THEN, after they’re fully educated about this topic (this should take 15-20 minutes), NOW I can suggest that I’d like to update the firm’s letterhead to the same type of modern layout that all the top firms are using. At this point, they have learned why what they have isn’t good any more. They may have walked into the meeting loving their stationery, but 20 short minutes later, I’ve taught them to hate it, in a friendly, educational, interesting, and highly professional way, and lawyers love learning new things.

This is the structure I use when pitching anything — e.g. a new brand or website.  I recommend that all marketers and administrators use it regardless of what we are seeking their agreement to — whether it’s a new piece of technology we want to purchase, a marketing-training program or other initiative we want to launch, a new employee to hire, or a big raise or bonus.

One added benefit of doing it this way is that we don’t have to “make it the lawyers’ idea.” I want marketers to make it YOUR idea. It’s a GOOD idea, it’s the RIGHT idea, and we are gradually teaching the lawyers that we are high-quality professionals whose ideas and efforts they should respect and trust. We’re not winging it, we’re approaching our decisions with a thoughtful, well-researched process and methodology that they can understand and respect, just like they’d have done it themselves if they were in our shoes. Lawyers appreciate that.

At least that’s how I approach it, and it’s served me well in conversations with lawyers and marketing committees for 25 years.

What do you think? What works for you? Do you have a different perspective?

© 2021 Fishman Marketing

ARTICLE BY Ross Fishman of Fishman Marketing, Inc.
For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Relationships Creating Commerce: How to Get the Most Out of Professional Networking and Referral Groups

Since in-person networking opportunities, such as industry conferences, are almost non-existent during the coronavirus pandemic, professional networking and referral groups are gaining popularity and becoming the go-to choice for creating referral relationships for lawyers. The format, makeup and style of the groups may vary, but the overall concept and purpose are the same: Grow your network, obtain new clients and bring in more revenue.

If you are thinking of joining a professional referral network, there are a few best practices, factors and concepts to keep in mind.

Your Circle of Trust

We all know it takes time to build your network the old-fashioned organic way — attending networking events, speaking at conferences and just meeting people over time. However, joining a professional networking and referral group will accelerate the growth of your network in three ways.

  • Joining the group expands your network immediately, since these groups typically have 20 to 30 members.
  • Those 20 to 30 people in the group are trusted advisors to their clients. As a fellow group member, they come to know you as someone they can trust. If their clients have a need that you can fulfill, your cohort will not hesitate to refer you. You can think of it as having 20 to 30 salespeople working on your behalf in the market.
  • Practicing the law of reciprocity is an accelerator. For every introduction you provide to your fellow members to help grow their networks, you can anticipate the boomerang effect because the person you gave to will want to return your gift in kind.

Selecting the Right Group

Several group options are available; joining the one that’s right for you is key to gaining value for your time and investment. Most professional networking groups have a monthly membership fee that, for the most part, is comparable, so don’t plan on distinguishing based on cost. There are four other factors to consider when you are deciding which group to choose.

Ask about the selection process — not only whom the group recruits, but how. For example, in an invitation-only process, you must attend a meeting first and if there is a mutual fit, the group extends an invitation for you to join. Consider how the group fills its rosters. Does it vet member candidates to ensure they have extensive tenure within their practice areas? Does it require that groups are curated with a mix of focuses to maximize cross-referrals?

You should also ask about the attendance policy. Make certain the required time commitment is a fit, because it’s important for presence to be a priority. You need your fellow members to attend consistently and participate actively to truly refer each other. The group should meet monthly at a minimum, and should also create opportunities for fellow members to network in smaller groups between monthly meetings.

Consider the broader networking opportunities the group offers. How large is the total network? How does it create opportunities to meet geographically distant members? Does it offer affinity or subgroups? There is added value to your membership if you can network regionally or nationally as well.

Finally, research the makeup and history of the organization itself. Does it have a credible story to tell about its members and opportunities? Does it have a strong onboarding program and proven systems for how members meet and create commerce? Does the organization have a tenured support staff? Another key benefit is if the organization provides a platform to share thought leadership, news and accomplishments, as well as a community board to ask for needed introductions and referrals.

The Perfect Combo Creates the Ideal Referral Source

Some professional referral networking groups have a specific formula or membership mix that encompasses a broad range of practices or professions. Such groups usually allow just one representative or member from each area. While all of your fellow members are potential referral sources, a handful will naturally complement each other and lend themselves to creating opportunities to cross-sell and cross-serve the same client. A best practice is to focus on these particular relationships within your group. Meet with these complementary professionals often and discuss creative strategies to create combined offerings for each other’s clients.

If you expect to gain quality, be sure to educate your fellow members about your ideal client and referral. Be sure that your fellow members know and understand where your ideal client can be found, and how your ideal client typically finds you. Let your group know about where your target-rich audiences are, the most common reasons you are retained and the kinds of problems you solve.

The Law of Reciprocity

One business development strategy that will always harvest results is to fulfill a need for the person you’re trying to gain something from. Regardless of what it is (an introduction, a recommendation, a referral, expanding your current work, or gaining new business or a new client), your only focus and approach should be that of a giver, not a taker. Members who grow their businesses from group relationships do so because they focus on giving referrals, as opposed to seeking referrals.

The “giving” doesn’t always have to be a referral. It can be a recommendation, a solution to a problem or a shared idea. The law of reciprocity will always work because the receiver naturally wants to return your “gift” in kind.

Bottom Line: Trusted Advisors Create Commerce

Other best practices of professional networking are obvious: Attend your group meetings regularly and participate actively. Consider providing educational training and thought leadership to the group as well as serving on leadership committees or boards.

The benefits of a professional referral network are far-reaching. Winning one new matter or client will pay for your membership. There is also more juice for the squeeze, since the time you commit to membership is actually minimal compared to other business development activities, especially those that involve cold networking, such as sending unsolicited emails or social media invitations. You also enhance your own value to your clients because you have an ever-expanding network of trusted advisors and referrals to tap into.

In a world where you should never underestimate the power of a relationship, professional networking and referral groups will play a key role in the number and quality of relationships you cultivate. As long as opportunities to meet in person remain limited, these resources will only increase in value for everyone.

© Copyright 2008-2021, Jaffe Associates

ARTICLE BY Glennie J. Green of Jaffe
For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Email Marketing for Law Firms: Good2bSocial Digital Certification Part 7

Continuing the National Law Review’s overview of the Good2bSocial digital marketing certification, this week we look to Email Marketing for law firms. Email Marketing is a critical element of law firm digital marketing, and the Good2bSocial Digital Marketing Certification provides an overview of key principles such as Email Segmentation, A/B Testing and Email Marketing Drip Campaigns. Kevin Vermeulen Good2bSocial’s COO:, “There is a natural sense of urgency that tends to accompany the legal field that marketers can take advantage of with email marketing.”

HowEmail Marketing Benefits your Law Firm

Email Marketing, if done correctly, can be a great way to stay top of mind as a regular presence in your client’s and potential client’s inbox, and a consistent source of leads.  Modern life requires close attention to email, so if you can build a list that is engaged, and if you provide useful content, your law firm’s email marketing program will become a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. Refining your email marketing strategy to increase your open rate helps stretch your digital marketing dollars and increases your ROI.

Some basic things to consider when putting together an email campaign:

  1. Make sure your email template displays well on mobile.  Mobile is a huge factor in email opens, so make sure your email looks good no matter what device your subscriber is using.
  2. Images:  Less is more.  An email with too many images can negatively impact your click-through rate and often takes too much time to download or may become truncated.
  3. Be strategic about when you hit “send.”  Research indicates mid-morning is the best, but it’s also important to consider the day of the week.
  4. Using the recipient’s name in the subject line or the body of the email can drastically increase click-thru rates.

Email List Segmentation: Give Your Email Subscribers What They Want:

Providing your subscribers with content they find useful and appealing should be a cornerstone strategy of your email marketing program. If your subscribers are finding your content helpful, they are more likely to be engaged, forward your emails to others, not report you as spam, and ultimately look to you as an expert resource–and then service provider.  To accomplish this goal, dividing your email list into segments is a good way to target your content to appeal to the right audience.

Options abound for email segmentation, so starting small can make the process manageable and still yield results.

Ways to Segment Your Email Lists to Reach the Right Audience:

  1. How did they sign up?  If they were looking for information on a particular topic or area, crafting a list or related lists based on the subscriber’s expressed interest is a reasonable inference.
  2. Where is the subscriber on the buyer’s journey?  This can provide clues into what kind of information they may find useful.
  3. How engaged is the subscriber?  Are they opening your emails consistently?  If not, pelting them with every email you send is not a way to increase engagement. For low-engaged subscribers, perhaps send a reminder campaign of their options, so they can more efficiently tailor their preferences to their needs.
  4. Where is the subscriber located?  Some clients or potential clients may be interested in regional information–relevant to their geographic area..

The Importance of A/B Testing or Split Testing in Email Marketing.

A/B Testing involves creating two different versions of the same email, sending out both, and comparing the results in terms of clicks and responses to extrapolate the variations that are more effective for your audience. Many email marketing programs provide for A/B testing, and provide the analytic data you need to make an informed decision about results.  It’s important to test on a large email list, to ensure the data you garner is significant, and weave the takeaways into your email design strategy.

Email Marketing is highly dependent on context, so looking at pre-existing information can give your law firm insight into what areas to A/B test, to funnel results into recommendations that can have a broad impact.  Some areas you can A/B test are:

  • Subject line
  • Layout design–one column or two columns?
  • Body text
  • Closing text
  • Images
  • Personalization

It’s important to A/B test one variable at a time, so you can clearly identify what is responsible for the differences in the results.  It’s important to start at a point that makes sense for the situation; for example, if you are seeing low open rates, start with the subject line.  The open rate, the click-through rate, and the conversation rate are metrics most often used to evaluate the results.  If changing the layout design results in a higher click-through rate, that is a change you might want to consider incorporating across your emails.

A/B testing is important to keep your email marketing fresh, and responsive to the interests of your subscribers.

How Email Marketing Drip Campaigns Help Your Law Firm.

Email Marketing Drip campaigns are a way to send crafted messages to each segment of your email audience to stay top of mind, deliver helpful information, and nurture professional relationships.

Drip Campaigns pick up where email segmentation left off.  Identifying a segment–and then creating triggers–either action triggers or demographic triggers that kick off a domino effect.  In many instances, this can be automated, making the work involved more supervisory–and less labor-intensive.  For example, you have a group of prospects segmented by how they signed up–and you send them emails that provide them with options–so if they click on a specific link, it indicates an interest or preference, transferring that contact into a different bucket–so they are sent content based on that preference.

Email drip campaigns are highly customizable and require strategic thinking about your client persona and Client Journey Mapping for law firms.  The Good2bSocial Digital Marketing Certification provides resources to help law firm marketers look at their audience, and help design a customizable program for them.  Kevin Vermeulen, COO of Good2bSocial:

“It can be a tedious and time-consuming process to get a drip email campaign put together, but because of the hyper-efficient and automated targeting, the results are well worth it. It may take days or weeks to get everything exactly where you want it, but once it’s working, you’ll have something that can run for months or years, completely automated, constantly working to bring your firm new clients, and ultimately more revenue.”

Email Marketing Big Picture Campaigns

It’s important to make sure any email marketing campaign your firm does complies with all relevant privacy legislation and regulations.  For example, the GDPR in Europe, the CCPA and CPRA in California, and Virginia’s latest data protection legislation, and more states, countries and regions are drafting new legislation at a rapid pace.  Additionally, there is always the possibility of a comprehensive federal law on privacy that would impact email marketing efforts.

To Read Part 1 Good2bSocial Digital Academy for Law Firms — Inbound Marketing and Client Journey Mapping, click here.

To read Part 2 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Content Marketing Strategy for Law Firms, click here.

To read Part 3 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Developing a Successful Social Media Strategy for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 4 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Paid Social Media Advertising Campaigns for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 5 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Search Engine Optimization for Law Firms, click here.

Stay tuned for more details on the topics and  key takeaways included in the other modules of the Good2bSocial Academy.

Copyright ©2021 National Law Forum, LLC

ARTICLE BY Eilene Spear of The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC
For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

In-Person Client Meetings and COVID-19

A fellow attorney just circulated a poll to his friends asking, “Are you starting to meet with your clients in person?” If you are restarting in-person meetings with your clients, consider whether you are in a jurisdiction that mandates contact tracing and whether that conflicts with your duty to maintain a client’s confidential information confidential.

Every jurisdiction has adopted some form of ABA Model Rule 1.6, Confidentiality of Information. It provides in part that:

(a) A lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation or the disclosure is permitted by paragraph (b).

The mere fact that a person has consulted an attorney can be in itself confidential information. One obvious example is a famous celebrity visiting a divorce attorney.

The problematic situation arises if you learn that the client has COVID after an in-person meeting. Alternatively, what if you learn after the meeting that you have COVID? In jurisdictions that require contact tracing disclosure, or even for public policy and health considerations, you may need to disclose your client’s identity to contact tracing authorities. As an attorney, you should take a moment to learn the contact tracing and public health reporting laws in your jurisdiction. For example, right now, I understand that there is a tracing program in Massachusetts, but disclosure is voluntary, not legally required. This may change.

The easy answer to this dilemma is to discuss the issue before meeting a client in person. Model Rule 1.6 permits the disclosure of otherwise confidential client information with informed consent, so you should inform the client about contact tracing so the client can decide whether to meet in person or remotely.

The hard answer arises if you have not had this conversation. Absent informed consent from a client to disclose their identity to contract tracers, Model Rule 1.6 does permit – but does not require – disclosure to comply with a statutory requirement for contact tracing:

(b) A lawyer may reveal information relating to the representation of a client to the extent the lawyer reasonably believes necessary: . . . (6) to comply with other law or a court order . . .

While the ethical rules may permit you to comply with a statutory requirement to disclose your client’s identity in a COVID tracing situation, such a unilateral decision to make disclosure may not be good for your attorney-client business relationship.

In conclusion, you should seriously consider discussing the possibility of contact tracing disclosure obligations before meeting with a client in-person.

© 2021 SHERIN AND LODGEN LLP

ARTICLE BY Edward S. Cheng of Sherin and Lodgen LLP
For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

How to Elevate Your Law Firm Brand

You can have the best law firm in the world, but if no one knows you exist, you will not attract business. Marketing your law firm is incredibly important because you need to constantly broadcast your firm’s messaging, offering, and identity. You want to establish yourself as the go-to law firm of the community. Even by attempting new marketing strategies for lawyers, you are outpacing most of your peers.

However, most solo attorneys and small law firms are not taking an intentional marketing approach and instead engage in “random acts of marketing.” The American Bar Association states the majority of small law firms do not have a strategic marketing plan in place.

This behavior is self-sabotaging as it is critical for law firms to stay relevant in the legal community and firmly establish their brand voice and marketing plan.

Overall, lawyers have an incredible opportunity to network and expand their brand in a world that has seemingly gone virtual. To grow your practice, you need to experiment with new marketing strategies and mediums. After all, if you do not market your services, how would anyone know your services are available?

This article will cover some ideas on how to determine what your brand identity is and how to elevate it through marketing tactics.

Be Crystal Clear on Your Law Firm’s Brand Identity

A law firm should establish the message they want their clients to remember them for. Start by asking yourself the following:

  • What is the identity of our law firm?
  • What are the values of our law firm?
  • What makes our law firm unique from competitors?
  • What makes our legal services different from other firms?

It is often said in marketing, “People do not buy from businesses; they buy from people.” Answer these questions to establish your unique perspective and differentiator, and then move onto executing traditional marketing tactics for lawyers.

6 Ways to Elevate Your Legal Brand with Marketing Tactics

Potential clients are looking for lawyers who are good at what they do, helpful to the people they serve, and that show strong leadership skills and community commitment. Marketing is a holistic tool that helps the best attorneys become more visible to their clients and in the legal community, which grows their reputation, increases their referrals, and grows their practice.

  1. Utilize Snail Mail.

Striking the right balance between traditional and digital advertising is tough; however, traditional media still has tremendous value for law firms, and its utilization continually carries an air of authority and prestige. Direct mail  is not dead, and in fact, postcards outperform other mediums, leading to a response rate of 42%. Creating personalized postcards that have a unique touch also increases the likelihood your potential clients will respond. You can include an incentive such as first-time client deals, a free consultation, or a local resource list.

  1.  Radio Still Wins

The majority of the Americans are still tuning into the radio; 90% of adults ages 18 to 30, 94% of adults ages 35 to 49, and 91% of adults over 50 years old are listening to their local radio station, making it the leading platform for reach in the US.

Additionally, radio audiences are also becoming more diverse. 45 million Latinos and 35 million Black Americans are tuning in monthly.

Radio advertising also offers the unique advantage of a high frequency, meaning how many times the average person hears your ad over the course of a week. It can take your customer seven times to hear about your legal service before they take action. Radio provides many opportunities to get in front of your community again and again. It is scientifically proven that a person needs to hear an ad about three to four times per week to achieve maximum effectiveness.

  1. Embrace Virtual Networking Sessions

As the legal community is a relationship-based industry, in-person activities historically laid the foundation for the most powerful marketing strategies. However, COVID-19 brought those activities to a grinding halt, pausing almost all face-to-face marketing opportunities for law firms.

However, Zoom usage soared from 10 million daily meeting participants back in December 2019 to over 300 million in April 2020. There are endless opportunities to get involved with networking. Search for areas in your legal specialty for speaking opportunities, mentorships, or even just a monthly meetup. Take advantage of the new ability to catch up and network with multiple people a day, from the comfort of your home office, without having to drive around town.

  1. Email Marketing is Powerful

Email marketing is still one of the most popular traditional marketing practices. Over half of the world’s population uses email every day, and 54% of email is read on a mobile device. Also, email marketing continues to deliver one of the strongest returns on investment, with every $1 spent averaging an ROI of $42.

Building out monthly newsletters and embracing consistent email communication is key in staying top of mind with your community.

  1. Collaborate with Fellow Attorneys in Your Area

I often advise legal professionals to capitalize on developing an attorney-to-attorney referral network. Instead of seeing local law firms as competition, it is essential to create a reciprocal relationship among ten to twelve attorneys that practice in non-competing areas. Develop authentic relationships with your peers, and you will find that more business will come your way, making collaborative advertising one of the most affordable forms of marketing.

Even though you can’t grab dinner or coffee, there are many ways to stay connected with other local attorneys virtually, including the following:

  • Consistently engaging with their LinkedIn posts, offering congratulations on a hard-won case, or simply adding your insight to their thought leadership.
  • Not forgetting milestones such as birthdays or work anniversaries – for your fellow local lawyers building their business, their fifth-year anniversary of starting their firm is an emotional milestone for them. Send a handwritten congratulations card or a special treat to their office.
  • Staying connected on inside jokes, sending a funny gift through the mail, or shooting over an email that references a great time you had together in the past.

  1. Billboard Advertising Offers High Frequency and Familiarity 

Billboard advertising utilizes local awareness and promotes your law firm to a broad range of your local community. Like radio ads, billboard advertising offers a high frequency, meaning your potential customers are driving or walking by your signage every day, becoming more and more familiar with your face and brand name.

This familiarity breeds comfort; studies show that brand familiarity is the most rudimentary form of consumer knowledge and increases your customer’s likelihood of seeking out your services when they need legal help. This continued exposure builds trust and establishes your image as the go-to attorney in your area.

Elevate Your Brand Through Trusted Marketing Strategies for Lawyers

As a lawyer, you first need to establish what you and your firm stand for. Create a solid brand identity that guides your usage of traditional marketing strategies. Put pen to paper on your vision and know how impactful you can be in your community, which directly leads to your firm’s branding. Once this is created and solidified, experiment with trusted traditional marketing strategies like postcards, email, billboards, radio, and virtual networking sessions, and you will find that marketing your business was well worth the investment.

© 2021 Denver Legal Marketing LLC
For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

 

A Lawyers Spring Cleaning Guide to Decluttering the Intake Process

Spring is upon us and what better time than now for lawyers to clean up a process that can sometimes get messy —  the client intake process. Client intake is a pivotal step in converting those hard-earned leads to customers and can leave a lasting impression on your law firm. It’s important to periodically look at what is and is not working in your own firm’s intake process.

Prospective clients will be evaluating your professionalism, skill, personality, and customer service from this moment forward. Not only is it important for lawyers to ask the right questions so they may decide on the best approach to a case, but lawyers additionally need to consider the client experience.

Your prospective client is also interviewing you, wasting time shuffling through paperwork or unorganized files looks unprofessional and could be the difference in winning over that client or not. Keeping this in mind, don’t waste the client’s time with a slow intake process. A streamlined, clutter-free client intake is a win-win, let’s go over some tips in this guide.

Ask yourself the right questions

When thinking about client intake, lawyers should think about themselves first. It may be an odd concept but it will ultimately save you and the client time. The key is to ask enough screening questions to evaluate if the client will be a good fit. To do this, lawyers need to determine their ideal client and have a good understanding of the services their firm can realistically offer.

When evaluating what questions to ask the client, lawyers should consider the following:

  1. What key information do I need for this case?
  2. What is my timeframe?
  3. What type of cases can I take on?
  4. Are there other recommendations I can make if I can’t assist the client?

The answers to these questions will be different for each lawyer but they should get you thinking about what information you will need during client intake. Clients will appreciate lawyers who have a firm understanding of their capabilities and services instead of stretching the truth just to sign a client on board.

Automate your client intake

The easiest way to clean up your client intake is to streamline it with automated forms. Automated forms allow lawyers and their team to easily access and distribute forms to the client without having to jump on the phone or come into the office. This is even more important now that virtual or hybrid offices are here to stay.

Platforms like PracticePanther allow lawyers to create customizable client intake templates that are easily interchangeable and responsive. Implementing automated forms will:

Reduce non-billable hours

Client intake can be time-consuming for busy lawyers. Allowing clients to independently fill out their information will save you time and resources that could be allocated towards managing other aspects of your practice.

Eliminate human error

If your firm is using a paper client intake form or filling out the form on behalf of the client, mistakes can be made. This isn’t to say that you or your team are doing poor work – human error is sometimes inevitable. Transitioning away from paper to an automated form will greatly reduce the potential for human error and increase data accuracy.

Improve the client experience

Accessibility is an important aspect of the client experience. Having the option for the client to fill out the form anytime, anywhere will increase the likelihood they will complete it and in a timely manner. PracticePanther forms were made with this in mind and can be used across all mobile devices.

Provide multiple client intake funnels

Your firm’s marketing strategy should always include multiple client intake funnels. This will increase your online visibility to prospective clients and offer them options to choose platforms they are comfortable with. Whether a potential client is coming from social media, landing pages, ads, or a review website, the intake process should be uniform.

Taking this into account, it’s important to ensure all members of your team are familiar with the intake process and have easy access to the proper forms. Client intake should be a team effort (if your firm is large enough to handle it) especially when prospective clients can come from any platform, at any time. If you operate a solo firm, automating client intake through multiple channels ensures that customer service doesn’t suffer.

Keep it simple

If there’s one thing lawyers want more of, it’s time. Adopting processes and software that offer a “set it and forget it” approach will allow lawyers to focus their time on assisting clients. By using this guide, you’ll be on your way to a tidy intake of clients for seasons to come.

© Copyright 2021 PracticePanther

 

ARTICLE BY Kamron Sanders of PracticePanther
For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

 

Legal Industry News Update: Women’s History and Achievement, Legal Industry Innovation and Professional Moves

We’re back with another edition of our latest legal and consulting industry news column, focusing on women’s history and achievement in the legal industry, coronavirus legal innovations and professional moves. Read on for all the latest updates:

Legal Industry Professional Moves

Legal operations veteran Bob Taylor joined Deloitte Legal Business Services team as a managing director based in Boston. Taylor will focus on business of law and legal department transformation at Deloitte Tax.

Mr.Taylor has 25 years of experience as senior corporate counsel and manager at Liberty Mutual  in the company’s legal operations function.

Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), joined Manatt, Phelps & Phillips as an advisor in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kirch was the president and CEO of AAMC from 2006 to 2019 and prior to his tenure at the AAMC, Dr. Kirch served as dean, university senior vice president and academic health system leader of two medical institutions: the Medical College of Georgia and the Pennsylvania State University Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. At Manett, Dr. Kirch will work with the firm to enhance its healthcare policy and legal practice with the nation’s leading academic health care institutions.

“Innovation and transformation are our guiding principles as we advise our clients and help them navigate today’s new economy,” said Donna L. Wilson, Manatt’s CEO and Managing Partner. “Darrell’s impressive background and commitment to being an agent of change embody this ethos, making him an ideal fit to our integrated legal and consulting platform.”

Carlos M. Velazquez was named Senior Counsel at  Ditchik & Ditchik, PLLC. Mr. Velazquez brings 50 years of New York real estate tax litigation experience, advising NYC real estate developers, landlords and hoteliers on the particular ecosystem of New York real estate and will serve in a leadership capacity at the firm alongside Managing Partner Joel Ditchik and Partner Steven Tishco.

“Ditchik & Ditchik’s approach to this niche field of law is unmatched. I am delighted to join its established group of pioneering tax certiorari lawyers,” said Mr. Velazquez. “I look forward to applying my experience and skills to serve the firm’s impressive client base.”

Managing Partner, Joel Ditchik, expressed confidence in the contribution Mr. Velazquez will make to the firm, saying that  “Carlos will not only offer astute leadership to our attorneys, but will continue to grow our firm’s capabilities across the full range of property tax law services to our loyal clientele.”

Legal Industry Innovation

Documate, a San Francisco-based legal software provider, received the 2021 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access from the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services  (ABA). Documate increases access to legal services for those of modest means through its platform that allows attorneys to easily automate documents, principally through its “no-code” platform that allows attorneys to create tools to expand their service offerings without the need to hire a software developer. Documate software is used by courts, legal aid organizations as well as private attorneys.

Another initiative recognized by the  ABA with a Louis M. Brown Select Award includes COVID H.E.L.P. Illinois, a pandemic-inspired free to use tool designed to help anyone in Illinois with legal problems related to the pandemic which was created by a group of Illinois legal aid programs, including CARPLS Legal Aid, Illinois Legal Aid Online, Legal Aid Chicago, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance, Prairie State Legal Services, Westside Justice Center, and others and was funded through a grant from the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.

The awards are scheduled to be presented at the ABA Annual Meeting August 4 – 10, 2021.

Thomson Reuters is introducing improvements to HighQ, 3E and Marketplace. The new version of Thomson Reuters HighQ has over 60 new features for enhanced workflow collaboration.  HighQ and 3E help corporate and government legal departments, as well as law firms, deliver customer-driven enhancements and customizations, improving project management, contract management and managing critical files with more flexibility.

“Over the past year, our customers have relied on HighQ to improve their productivity and serve their clients at the highest level, all at a time of unparalleled disruption,” said Chris Kitchener, vice president, Product Management for Thomson Reuters HighQ. “Version 5.5 brings new features and tools to multiple use cases, with significant enhancements to the legal project management and contract lifecycle management capabilities. Additionally, much of the work done to this point has laid a strong foundation for what is yet to come for HighQ this year, anchored by significant upgrades and key product integrations.”

Thomson Reuters Marketplace allows users to find and test solutions to extend the functionality of existing products for legal and tax professionals. Marketplace offers over 120 add-on enhancements and integrations across 18 categories ranging from contract / document management and automation and CRM / business development tools to timekeeping and billing integrations.

“We anticipate further cloud adoption and acceleration in the digitization of how legal work gets done,” Fischer said. “Through our content-driven technology, we are continuing to innovate and deliver products and new features, focusing on customer input to really move the dial on connectedness and productivity, so legal professionals can make the most of their new skills and implement technologies that create a competitive advantage.”

The American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR) has developed an integrated smart videoconferencing technology platform to provide a seamless virtual arbitration experience which is helpful with current social distancing rules and travel restrictions.

The camera system is a hands-free system, where up to seven cameras can be positioned around the room.  The cameras are activated by the voice of the speaker.  The recording capabilities are built-in, so proceedings are easily archived.  All participants, whether present or are completely remote, can easily engage.

Michael A. Marra, the VP of AAA ICDR’s Construction Division said that “COVID19 has changed everything, but no matter how long social distancing and other pandemic rules remain in effect, or what the post-pandemic reality looks like, the AAA-ICDR is positioned to ensure people receive uninterrupted ADR services even if not everyone involved can be in the same room or venue.”

Women’s History & Achievement

Stradley Ronon Associate Aliza S. Dominey was selected for the 100 Women in Finance’s Washington D.C. Education Committee where she plans philanthropy, peer engagement and educational events to help progress the careers of women in the financial services industry.

At Stradley Ronon, Ms. Dominey counsels investment companies and private funds on regulatory, compliance and transactional issues, in addition to reviewing registration statements, proxy solicitation materials and researching various securities and corporate law issues; and preparing board materials.

100 Women in Finance has nearly 20,000 registered members and works to strengthen the global finance industry by empowering women to achieve their professional potential at each career stage.

Eve Howard, Global Head of Capital Markets at Hogan Lovells, was selected as a member of the DirectWomen Board Institute class 2020-2021.  General Counsel of Fortune 500 companies, senior partners of law firms, and lawyers from private equity and government are selected after a thorough selection process, and attend the DirectWomen Board Institute, taught by CEOs, C-suite executives, and directors of public companies.

Since its inception, more than 215 women have participated in the Board Institute, and more than a third of the Board Institute’s alumnae have been elected to serve as directors of major companies, including Tesla, Inc., Visa Inc., The TJX Companies, Inc., Valero Energy Corporation, Party City Holdco Inc., Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., and many others.

Ms. Howard, a partner at Hogan Lovell’s Washington D.C office, and Global Head of the firm’s Capital Markets practice has more than 30 years of experience structuring and negotiating complex corporate transactions and serving as a trusted advisor to public company clients. Howard has also served on Hogan Lovells’ International Management Committee.

Per Howard:

“I am honored to be selected to participate in DirectWomen Board Institute’s prestigious program. DirectWomen aims to increase the representation of women lawyers on corporate boards and serves as a great opportunity for those with a wide range of business knowledge and experience in their industries to bring that expertise to the boardroom.”

The Board Institute will be held in New York in October 2021.

Jacquelyn E. Stone, a partner with decades of experience advising clients on government relations, regulatory and immigration matters at McGuireWoods, won the Phoebe P. Hall Mentorship Award from the Metro Richmond Women’s Bar Association (MRWBA).

Ms. Stone is based in Richmond, VA and has worked as a mentor with several organizations, focusing on helping the next generation succeed in the legal industry, including Just the Beginning—A pipeline organization to create opportunities for underrepresented groups to pursue legal career and Partnership for the Future, a college prep and workforce development program for Richmond area high school students.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award from the Metro Richmond Women’s Bar Association,” said Stone. “It’s important for me to be a mentor, to share my experiences and help others on their path to personal and professional success.”

Ms. Stone was the first African-American woman to be named a partner at a major Virginia law firm, and she was also is the first African American to serve on McGuireWoods’ Board of Partners. At McGuireWoods, she created the Diversity & Inclusion Committee in 2006 and served as its chair until 2017.

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ARTICLE BY Eilene Spear,  Rachel Popa and Hanna Taylor of The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC
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