Tag: Law Offce Management

The Value of Having an In-House E-Discovery Process

Marcus Evans

Having an end-to-end process in place for electronic discovery (e-discovery) and litigation management is critical, says Raquel Tamez, Principal/Deputy General Counsel, Litigation, Computer Sciences Corporation and speaker at the marcus evans Chief Litigation Officer Summit Fall 2013. Even if outside counsel and multiple service providers are involved, Chief Litigation Officers (CLOs) need to have a process, identify the various stakeholders, and determine and define their respective responsibilities. According to Tamez, that is the best approach to take.

How should CLOs approach e-discovery?

It is different for each company. There are opportunities for cost savings if companies can bring some of the data collection and processing in-house, but not every company has that capability or the appropriate litigation profile to justify the time and expense of doing so.

Nevertheless, CLOs should have a “process” in place whether entirely outsourced or entirely in-house or a hybrid. Having an end-to-end process for e-discovery is critical. CLOs may be inclined to simply hand-off the e-discovery function to its outside counsel who, in turn, utilize various service providers with different data processing capabilities and various document review platforms. There is a lack of efficiency and cost effectiveness with this hand-off approach. The better approach is for the CLO to have a robust, documented, end-to-end e-discovery process and “playbook” that outside counsel is required to follow. The process, ideally, should identify the CLO’s exclusive, full-service e-discovery service provider or at a minimum a list of service providers that have been vetted by the CLO’s legal staff and the company’s IT personnel. CLOs will, necessarily, have to invest time and some money to create and build out the process. These front-end costs will result in significant cost-savings in the long-run.

What is the next step? How does this lead to cost savings?

The key to cost-savings here is to have a repeatable process and not an ad hoc approach where the wheel must be reinvented every time a piece of litigation or an investigation is initiated. If the e-discovery process is well-executed, all relevant stakeholders, will know what to do, when do it, how to do it, and who to go to if any doubt. The transparency in the process leads to defensibility and ultimately, savings in both time and monies.

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Third-Party Litigation Funding Comes of Age

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Law firm Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are on the front line of client development, and thus have an unobstructed view of how the legal market for complex litigation is developing. As budget pressures continue to weigh on corporate general counsel, the need for law firms to adjust their pricing to secure new clients is clearly being felt – some firms are now hiring specialty personnel to focus solely on the question of proper pricing. CMOs are thus actively speaking the lingua franca of today’s latest fee structures – from RFPs to AFAs and discounted fees.

Given this, it is surprising to discover that many otherwise business savvy CMOs know little about the emergence of commercial litigation finance. While some are keenly aware of the new industry’s progress – and eager to share their involvement in the funding of multiple cases – others are seemingly unfamiliar with the advent of specialist funding companies and the business development opportunities that they could present for them.

In fairness, due to the often confidential nature of commercial litigation finance, the commercial litigation finance industry has been somewhat constrained in publicizing itself. One example of this is at a recent conference I sat next to the sharp CMO of a top firm who asked me what litigation finance did and what company I worked for. I explained to him that we financed legal fees in multi-million dollar cases, and that we had recently funded a case involving his own firm!

At its most basic level, litigation finance is very straightforward. A third-party funds legal fees and expenses associated with a litigation or arbitration, in return for a portion of the ultimate proceeds (settlement or judgment), if any. Importantly, the funding is typically “non-recourse”, meaning that if there is no recovery for the plaintiff, the litigation financier receives no fee.

Claimants have historically found ways to fund their cases – with available capital, through a bank loan, or by agreeing to a contingency fee with their attorney. What has changed recently is the emergence of specialty finance companies that limit their work to the financing of litigation. These firms – which first appeared in Australia a decade ago, and are now active in the United Kingdom and the United States.  They typically invest in large-scale and complex commercial litigation, with investments (and thus legal fees) on the order of several million dollars.

Not all cases are appropriate for litigation financing, and certain criteria must be met as part of a careful due diligence process. Four considerations include:

  1. the merits of the claim – the case must stand a very strong chance of success on the law and facts;
  2. the ratio of costs/proceeds – the ratio of legal fees (and other costs) must be in proper proportion to the expected proceeds (to allow for reasonable costs associated with financing – typically a ratio of at least 1:4 is required);
  3. the duration of the proceedings – as the cost of financing will usually be related to the time the case takes to resolve (given the time value of money), notice must be paid to the expected length of the case; and
  4. the enforceability of judgment – it must be clear at the outset that, if the claim is successful, the plaintiff will be able to collect its judgment from the defendant.

Once an investment is made, litigation financiers are careful as to their involvement in a given case. Important rules of legal ethics are respected so that the funder does not interfere with case strategy, settlement decisions, or the attorney-client relationship. And, as mentioned above, the financing is typically kept confidential between the parties.

Given the challenge of drawing in new clients, law firm CMOs must leverage every available advantage. In several business development scenarios, the prospect of litigation finance can help:

  • Fee negotiations – in situations where a client would prefer to work with a given firm – but the client will not (or cannot) pay the firm’s standard hourly fees – financing can be used to pay such fees and allow the case to proceed;
  • Alternative to contingency fee – in situations where a firm is asked to act on a contingency fee basis, a litigation financier can step in to provide a similar result: the firm receives its standard hourly fees, paid for by the funder, which in turn only receives compensation in the event of a “win” (sometimes referred to as a “synthetic contingency”);
  • RFP (request for proposal) – in situations where an RFP has been issued by a potential client, a firm’s response may be better received if it makes proper mention of litigation finance as an innovative variation to AFA (alternative fee arrangements); and
  • Fee “fatigue” – in situations where an existing client involved in extended litigation has begun to express concern regarding mounting fees (perhaps on the eve of trial), litigation finance can offer immediate cash-flow relief and allow the firm to receive its full fees.

In short, litigation finance can offer law firm CMOs (and anyone involved in legal business development) a new tool with which to hammer out difficult pricing issues and fee structures for big-ticket litigation.

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Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Conference Recap: Pricing, Profitability and the Role of Legal Marketing

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How do you measure success? Ask a lawyer and she may say, “By the number of hours I bill.” Ask a marketer and he may answer, “By the number of clients my firm has.” Ask an economist and he will tell you, “By how profitable we are.”

As we’ve seen in recent years, a firm can have a long list of clients and/or bill a staggering number of hours, but it won’t necessarily stop them from going under. However, this much is true: a profitable firm is a successful firm. In the LMA Annual Conference session titled, “Pricing, Profitability, and the Role of Marketing,” panelists Toby Brown, director of strategic pricing and analytics at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and Colleen Nihil, firm-wide director of project management at Dechert LLP, explained how a long list of clients and/or billing a large number of hours can actually lower profits.

Toby and Colleen went on to explain why legal marketers need to understand profitability and law firm economics, in general. As one of the four “P’s” of marketing (along with product, promotion and place), pricing is well-within our realm, yet is often overlooked. They further illustrated how we can use this internal law firm knowledge to our advantage in winning and keeping clients.

A major part of the discussion was geared towards how to create value-based billing for a client. Why do clients want it? What makes a client a good candidate for this arrangement? What type of research should be done? How should it be handled internally within the firm? Each question was addressed plainly:

Why do clients want a value-based billing arrangement?

Many prefer this to the classic hours-based arrangement simply because it provides an element of predictability. Clearly, all clients want cost-savings and efficiency. However, the panelists advised that the firm should first have a conversation with the client about setting up a new pricing arrangement. Understanding what the client wants and why they want it should guide the firm when setting up a new agreement.

What makes a client a good candidate for this arrangement?

Obviously, a client with very predictable legal needs is the best client for a value-based billing arrangement. However, many clients could be eligible if enough good, solid research is conducted, which leads to the next question:

What type of research should be done?

Research on the client’s past history with the firm is imperative in order to decide if it is eligible for value-based billing and what a reasonable and fair pricing structure will look like. Two approaches were discussed:

Bottom-Up

  1. Compare and contrast the client against other similar clients at the firm – size, revenue, industry, etc.
  2. Pull benchmarking data: What services does the firm provide to client? How much does each matter cost? Is there any outlying data?
  3. Don’t look at just historic data, but also look at how the firm can drive down costs. Think about using zero-based budgeting for this process.
  4. Build out the matter. Look at what strategy will be taken on the matter and figure out the firm’s value.
  5. Model the matter based on different types of rate structures (fixed-fee and other alternative fee arrangements)
  6. This approach will require the firm to categorize matters better in order to ensure reliable benchmarking.

Top-Down

  1. Start from an estimated figure for the matter.
  2. Create a scoping conversation, asking the questions: What will double the figure? What will make it shrink? What is the likelihood of…? Determine the cost of the matter, not the price.

How should value-based billing be handled internally within the firm?

Toby and Colleen stressed the importance of educating attorneys on profitability and its four drivers:

  1. Rates
  2. Realization (percentage of money collected versus standard billing rate)
  3. Productivity (number of billed hours per time-keeper, per year)
  4. Leverage (amount of non-partner work versus partner work performed)

Once attorneys learn how profitability works, they can begin to structure their matters in a way to increase profitability (rather than hours or simple revenue). However, some attorneys learn how to “game the system” which can lead to unhealthy profitability; this is something that should be monitored. Toby directed the audience to his paper, “The Four Horsemen of Law Firm Profitability,” which dives deeper into law firm economics.

Toby and Colleen summed up their presentation in three bullet points:

  • Focus on the work that you can have the biggest impact on
  • Understand your clients’ pain points
  • Make sure you have this information before responding to an RFP.

These points fed into their overarching message, “It’s not what you do, it’s what you choose not to do.” In the end, increasing profitability and implementing value-based billing arrangements come down to trust and communication between the firm and client. Once those two pillars are established, a new pricing agreement can easily be built with the two parties coming from places of understanding and a mutual interest in success.

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Are You Falling Down on Following Up?

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Of all the marketing initiatives that are critical for lawyers to commit to, the most basic and seemingly obvious is the “sin” of omission – – the failure to follow up.

We have worked with lawyers who have spent innumerable hours and thousands of dollars chasing after new clients and prospects but have largely been unsuccessful in retentions because of a gap in their business development process: following up.

Do any of these example ring familiar:

  • A very sociable corporate partner attended numerous networking events a month, engaged easily with others attending, handed out business cards, but rarely received calls or new clients as a result. Because of her frustration, she curtailed her networking activities and short-circuited this important business development action step.
  • A New York labor and employment boutique law firm hosted an annual educational program which featured leaders in the field and attracted high level CFOs and HR professionals to the event. They received high marks on all aspects of the events but few, if any, calls from prospects.  Members of the disappointed team deemed the effort a “failure” and asserted that seminars don’t “work” to get new clients.
  •  The managing partner of a Connecticut firm received a referral from a trusted client who was searching for new counsel in this attorney’s “sweet spot” of legal practice.  The partner attended a prospective client interview in which he thoroughly espoused all the ways his firm could save this prospect’s firm significant amounts of money, given the specific legal issues at stake.  Day after day, the managing partner didn’t receive a call or email to discuss retention and getting started.  Why did this prospect waste his time was the only thought the frustrated managing partner ruminated upon.

While each of these examples highlight effective marketing initiatives (targeted networking; educational seminars; in-person client interviews), they all share the same flawed result: lack of follow up and planning.

A Follow-Up Re-Do

As part of the business development process, lawyers must recognize and integrate into their “SOP” (standard operating procedures), action steps that extend beyond “showing up.”  By leaving out the planning and following up components, lawyers are short circuiting the process, leaving money on the table, and becoming more cynical that marketing actually “works”, however one defines that.

To examine the first example above, the more effective steps of action would have been:

  • Request an event registration list so that the lawyer could have identified several targeted folks “of interest” to seek out and engage.  It would be very effective to gather some background information (a quick Google search) about the target companies to make conversations more meaningful.
  • With a little research in hand, the lawyer arrives to the networking event with a plan of who she plans to engage, who she intends to connect, and how she will spend the next several hours.  This is work, not an opportunity to have a few free drinks and yuk it up with firm colleagues whom she sees every day.
  • Practicing effective networking techniques, this sociable lawyer knows that it is essential to be more “interested” than “interesting”, so she exercises active listening techniques by asking open-ended questions of her networking partners to learn more about their businesses and challenges.  From this, she receives a number of “high impact” business cards which she will use to follow up after the event.

The steps described above take very little investment of time, but will yield a very different experience which can lead directly to a new client retention or, at minimum, a new business connection for referrals.

Contrasting the legal profession with corporate America in developing new business, one only has to examine the models of each.  Corporate America devotes billions of dollars every year to “sales and marketing”, to the process of cultivating and nurturing new prospect relationships leading to a “sale”.  The typical sales process may involve innumerable “follow ups” before a sale is actually consummated.

The legal profession historically has played a reactive role wherein new clients (new sales) seek out the law firm to engage them.  It is unwise in these ultra competitive times and a poor business model to continue this practice.  If lawyers are the ones seeking new business or even additional work from existing clients, the obligation falls upon them to pursue it and continue to make contacts until they are  directed otherwise.  (Remember, studies show that it takes at least 7-10 “touches” to become top-of-mind with clients and prospects).

Difference Faces of Follow Up

Though follow up can take many different approaches, the overall non-negotiable component involves any action step which provokes the other party (existing client, prospect, etc.) to want to continue contact with you. You are focused on cultivating and nurturing a relationships which will ultimately be mutually beneficial and add value.

A few examples of effective follow up include:

  • Brief thank you emails following an event (networking, educational programs, or entertainment).
  • Handwritten notes of congratulations for personal or business accomplishments.
  • Links to a relevant news article in which your contact would benefit.
  • Personal visits to a client’s work site to deliver a work product.
  • Invitations to social events, professional organization programs, or business workshops.

The more lawyers engage in marketing initiatives, the most important task to remember is to plan appropriately before taking any action what the follow-up steps will be, who will take them, and in what time frame. Treat this component of the business development process as you would a client obligation and coordinate your calendar with all parties involved.  It is in this step that the revenue will be found, the meaningful business relationships will be established and robust practices will be built.

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How Today’s Top Law Firms Design Office Space for Efficiency

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Technological advancements and the recovering economy are indeed changing the needs of today’s workforce as well as the need for improved efficiency in commercial office space. To date, much of the focus from experts has put a great emphasis on trends such as collaborative workstations and virtual office space. However, as Senior Vice President of a national real estate firm and leasing agent of the tallest office tower in Florida which is home to 415,000 square feet of law firm tenants (eight of those firms currently listed on the 2013 Am Law 200), I’ve noticed that top law firms are incorporating more modern, efficient designs geared towards costs savings and collaboration, taking a different approach than creative-focused companies.

With employees and clients in mind, law firms are navigating the delicate balance of blending efficient design and modernizing with elements that permit confidentiality for face-to-face client meetings. As a result, efficiency for law firms does not translate to the open work workstations that have become popular at other companies. Instead, it is exemplified in clustered conference rooms situated near the main lobby or entrance. By not having clients walk through the extended hallways of a law firm to get to a partner’s corner office, firms can opt for more modest, cost effective office space.

Rather than open workstations and offices that are more popular in the creative sectors, law firms are not ready to tear down the walls altogether, as there are sensitive and private conversations to be had which cannot take place in an open room on high-top tables. Instead, more firms are incorporating glass for large windows and perimeter walls into office design which not only promotes connectivity but also offsets the impact of the overall shrinking of individual office space.

The generational gap within the modern workplace has impacted design planning as well. From the increased use of technology, to paperless filing to online law libraries, the structure of offices has shifted virtually. In many companies, this has led to the reduced need for support staff such as administrative assistants, downgrading the ratio that was once 3 lawyers to 1 assistant to about 7 to 1.  Some of the larger firms are even centralizing support staff in a neutral, less metropolitan city to reduce the cost of having teams of such personnel at every location.

To offset the individualized working existence as a result of a more technologically advanced workplace, connectivity is essential. This is achieved through creating purposeful in-house amenities, such as in-house cafeterias, lounges complete with baristas and TV monitors, and Wi-Fi throughout to allow for movement.

While the office space needs of professional service firms are quite different from those of other businesses, law firms still aim to be on-trend for employees and clients as well as relevant in an ever-changing society. Some traditional elements specific to the highly professional nature of the law industry still remain the same, but changes including reducing staff in particular locations, making sure there is less non-usable square footage, and maximizing the use of space are major results of the economy that have led to the current design trends and emphasis toward more efficient law offices.

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A Review of Legal Technology and Innovation: Leopard Solutions

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In review is Leopard Solutions, provider of an online legal technology service that compiles, tracks and delivers a wealth of information about law firms and attorneys across the country.

History Behind the Technology and Origins in Legal Recruiting

Leopard Solutions is the brainchild of Laura Leopard, an actress turned legal recruiter turned Founder and CEO of the Leopard Solutions system. The origin of the system initially occurred in the midst of her acting career, when Ms. Leopard worked as a cold caller for legal recruiters and discovered a severe lack of accessible information. At that point, Ms. Leopard first conceived of the Leopard List, the premier informational database offered by Leopard Solutions, now one among other such systems featured. From a simple Excel spreadsheet that contained the Leopard List, Ms. Leopard eventually developed an innovative online resource for the legal community.

Intelligence Programs and Strategic Data Directed Towards the Legal Community

Leopard Solutions offers comprehensive and strategic data captured in various intelligence programs directed towards different sectors of the legal community, including law firms, legal recruiters and law students. These are ‘live databases” which are updated on a weekly basis. Firmscape, their law firm intelligence program, is updated any time new data becomes available. For instance, if new salary information becomes available or a new office is opened, it can be immediately added to the program.)  On the day I spoke with Ms. Leopard, the system monitored a total of 183 new associates joining law firms, 71 practitioners being promoted to partner status and 86 partners leaving their firm positions.

The Leopard List: Attorney Database & Lateral Recruitment Tool

Among these databases is the Leopard List, which houses information across the spectrum of attorneys, including partners, counsels and associates, from over 1600 law firms in 23 U.S. markets. Attorneys can be searched by their practice area, JD year, law school, states admitted to practice and more. Moreover, a click of the practitioner’s name conveniently yields his or her law firm attorney profile and users can search these biographies by keyword. The Leopard staff is assigned to read and manually peruse each individual law firm attorney profile to verify all of the information stored in the system. This “personal touch” extends to any gaps of information– Leopard has been known to reach out to the firm for details if need be.

In addition, the system reveals an attorney’s  “professional history” that tracks any change in the practitioner’s status, including lateral employment moves and promotions within the firm, moves from previous law firms and name changes. In other words, no need for a Google search– Leopard hand-delivers the nuts and bolts.

Firmscape: Law Firm Intelligence

Firmscape serves as another example of Leopard successfully consolidating and analyzing information, in this instance by capturing a big-picture view of the legal industry. To say Firmscape collects a snapshot of the legal industry is an understatement- rather, this system showcases the evolution of the industry. Perhaps most helpful to legal recruiters, Firmscape sizes up the top law firms in the country and their starting salaries, practitioner lateral moves, and growth in practicing areas, among other aspects. Like the Leopard List, Firmscape is easily navigated and can be mined for reports on specific variables, such as practice area, specialty, firm history and promotion record.

Other Intelligence Programs for the Legal Community

Other systems include Leopard Reporting, which gives an overview of all the law firms in the system (currently 1666); Leopard Job Search, which monitors 655 law firms twice a day for job postings; Leopard Solutions for Law School, which offers law firm resource tools to law students; the Leopard Job Board, geared towards both legal recruiters and applicants; and Leopard Solutions Hot Spot, which aggregates all national news available for the firms amassed in the database.

A Technological Model for Timely, Interactive and Dynamic Data

Perhaps most notable about Leopard Solutions is the absence of any parallel technology in the market. The company’s model of keeping law firms under its radar and going to long lengths to obtain searchable data distinguishes it from other models which rely exclusively on web crawlers or press for information. In addition, Leopard’s model reaches far beyond displaying data but permits the viewer to target and interact with the information though reports and keyword searches. Finally, the company aims to stay reactionary, current and attuned with the needs of the market. Ms. Leopard often relies on clients’ counsel to further develop their system. A cutting-edge product, Leopard Solutions keeps up with the fluctuating legal landscape with its efficiency and accuracy.

Growing Client Accounts With Tablet Apps (TBC)

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“We Need An App!” This has been a consistent cry from partners in law firms around the world over the past few years. Unfortunately those who were tasked with this jumped a little too quickly without understanding their audience and the purpose of an app. In most cases, apps were built that essentially reflected content that could be found on the corporate website and were launched in haste – without being updated regularly or adding any value. These apps were not ‘sticky’ and gave the target audience little reason to return. The results of these experiments were costly apps that failed to truly connect with the targeted audience. As business development tools these were a fail, but at least these initiatives were a start in exploring how firms can adopt mobile as tool and channel. But how can law firms harness the power of the tablet?

The growth in tablet technology for the enterprise is truly explosive. Research by digital ad agency Vertic, predicts enterprise tablet adoption will grow by almost 50% per year and by 2015 mobile app development projects will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1! These are facts that can’t be ignored by professional services firms and mobile is now well and truly on the agenda. However, most firms’ initial mobile strategies have been focused on client adoption, when the focus should be business adoption. Your most captive and receptive audience is your own workforce, let’s equip them with mobile tools that empower them to engage effectively with clients and generate new revenue opportunities.

Law firms produce substantial amounts of marketing and business development collateral but much of it is inaccessible, out of date or not in easily consumed formats. Tablet technology is rapidly changing how proprietary marketing and business development content is shared and leveraged to internal and external audiences.

Forward thinking firms have recognized this and are placing mobile high on the agenda and revising their strategies, or formulating one if they haven’t before. One part of the puzzle is the device strategy – how to secure, deploy and manage smartphones and tablets (both personal and firm-owned devices). The other piece is the application strategy – deciding on the enterprise apps that are most relevant for achieving the firm’s objectives and what mobile platforms these need to cater for (iOS, Blackberry, Android etc.). IT teams will push for firms to adopt enterprise apps that mobilize internal processes and improving efficiencies. However, there should be a higher priority whilst the competitive window is open, which is using enterprise tablet apps as tools for growing client accounts and acquiring new clients. We are calling this ‘business development enablement’.

In the age of the internet, most firm-wide marketing collateral is stored as electronic files in difficult to access and immobilized intranets or file storage systems. These are hardly encouraging for an attorney who is trying to prepare and rally their team for a big business development meeting with a key client. If they are out of the office it is even more difficult to access and share the right information. Many still use their own personal decks or carry with them the printed materials that the firm has produced –  which is often out of date the day. Even though many partners prefer print, they are high cost and low usage, or ‘low viewage’ to be more accurate. Your target audiences are now much more likely to consume content on a mobile device than print. Your firm’s business development and marketing content – brochures, case studies, client briefings, press releases and deal memorandums– must be mobilized. Fee earners need to be able to access collateral quickly and easily on the devices where they are both consuming and sharing marketing content.

So why should your firm deploy an enterprise tablet apps for marketing and business development enablement?

Fee earners can access knowledge outside their area of expertise

Most fee earners are experts in a particular area of the law and may not be able to confidently convey the firm’s experience or track record in other areas, where potential opportunities may arise within an existing client. A tablet app empowers a fee earner to quickly access relevant collateral with a couple of swipes, so opportunities are captured at the time they arise.

Have everyone singing from the same hymn sheet

Using a centrally managed and distributed app ensures the whole client facing organization is using consistent and up-to-date collateral that has been made available by marketing, business development and knowledge teams.

A Branded Experience

Your firm-branded app will produce a positive and focused brand experience for both user and client. An app is a concentrated place with no distractions and also brings stagnant collateral to life by giving it an extra dimension that cannot be achieved using printed or static web pages.

Access marketing or business development collateral, anywhere, any time

An enterprise app for business development can store and present any digital asset that the firm has produced. Documents, presentations, video and audio can all be consumed, shared and even presented over a coffee or on a screen, in a client-facing meeting. A tablet enterprise app with a well design user experiences also requires little or no training for fee earners and business development teams, meaning user adoption is rapid.

Collaboration around clients, matters and opportunities

Apps can be rolled out to multiple devices across the firm, allowing fee earners and business development teams to all share and collaborate around client meetings and opportunities.

Gain a competitive advantage through innovation

Impression is everything. Using the latest mobile technology and software can enhance the face-to-face engagement with a client or prospect and subsequently improves the perception of, not just the individual expert, but the firm itself. Even though a firm’s reputation may rely on history, using a tablet and enterprise app to market, demonstrates that a firm is progressive, innovative and employing technology to deliver results.

Are you behind or ahead?

There is a vast contrast between where law firm are with their mobile strategy. One major  AMLAW 100 firm purchased iPads for its entire 1,000 strong workforce back in 2011. This was bold move back then but this was real foresight, as the firm now understands the usage of these devices for the enterprise, and not to just be more efficient, but to consume and share information and knowledge both internally and externally. For those of you who are reading this and are a little concerned that your firm is behind in its pursuit of mobile, consider this – I met with a senior marketing executive of a Global AMLaw20 firm in the latter half of 2012. When I asked if they were considering their mobile strategy, I was told in no uncertain terms “that we are at least three years away from looking into mobile”.

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Avvo Releases Online Marketing Playbook for Attorneys

consumer_colorlogoWhitepaper provides practical legal marketing guidance for solo to mid-sized firm lawyers

Seattle, Wash – May 16, 2013 – Avvo, Inc., the web’s largest expert-only legal Q&A forum, directory and legal marketplace (http://www.avvo.com/), today released The Online Marketing Playbook for Attorneys: A practical guide to the digital tools and strategies that can grow your practice. The more than 30 page whitepaper offers solo to mid-sized  firm lawyers a thorough and step-by-step resource to navigate the complexities of online marketing, including how to define a target audience, website design best practices, search engine optimization and how to choose the right marketing channels.

“This whitepaper covers the legal marketing topics that attorneys have asked us about the most, including the ins and outs of Google Authorship, keyword targeting and mobile website optimization,” said Leigh McMillan, vice president of marketing, Avvo, Inc. “The playbook, which includes content relevant for beginners to seasoned legal marketers, is a follow-up to our recent 4th annual Lawyernomics conference, where a record number of attendees learned how to grow their practice online from experts at companies such as Twitter, Yelp and Avvo, as well as from marketing-savvy attorneys.”

Availability

The free whitepaper is available for download here: http://ignite.avvo.com/whitepapers/attorney-online-marketing-strategy-ebook.html

About Avvo, Inc.

Avvo is the web’s largest legal Q&A forum, directory and legal marketplace (http://www.avvo.com), connecting hundreds of thousands of consumers and lawyers every month.  In Avvo’s Q&A forum consumers can get free legal advice 24/7 from more than 125,000 participating lawyers, and Avvo’s directory provides comprehensive profiles, client reviews, peer endorsements and the industry-recognized Avvo Rating for more than 95 percent of all lawyers in the U.S.  The Avvo Legal Marketplace, currently available for traffic tickets and divorce cases, revolutionizes how consumers find and hire an attorney. In addition, Avvo helps lawyers grow their business with Avvo Ignite, a cloud-based marketing platform and website solution designed specifically for attorneys. Founded in 2007, Avvo is privately held with funding from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Ignition Partners.

Avvo and Avvo Ignite are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avvo, Inc.

 

Improving the Return on Investment of Your Legal Marketing Dollars

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At the end of April, Avvo hosted its “Lawyernomics” conference.  Some 300 lawyers from across the country assembled at the Bellagio in Las Vegas to hear from speakers from a variety of disciplines and communications platforms (including representatives from Avvo, Twitter and Yelp).  Although a wealth of information was shared, there was a broad, tactical theme that permeated the entire program:  Improving return on a firm’s business development investment.

Choosing Your Investments Wisely

For an industry that pays so much to get in front of consumers, lawyers are often poor at converting interested consumers into paying clients.  Similarly, even those firms investing heavily in numerous forms of advertising – online and traditional – usually don’t have a clear picture of which of those advertising channels are effective.  They’re left to “go by gut” when choosing whether to continue investing in an advertising campaign.

The lowest-hanging fruit in this area is establishing systems for following up with client inquiries.  It should be simple, but far too many firms don’t have adequate processes in place to ensure that consumer inquiries are immediately followed up on.  With the likelihood of making contact with someone who leaves a message plummeting within minutes of their reaching out, establishing a follow-up system is critical.  Doing so involves a mix of “rules and tools.”  The “rules” are business processes established and monitored to ensure that phones are covered, calls are answered, and inquiries get an immediate response.  The “tools” can be as simple as an excel spreadsheet tracking inbound inquiries to as sophisticated as powerful Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) systems such as Salesforce or Avvo Ignite.

Measuring Marketing Channel’s Effectiveness

Having a good system for contact and customer management is key to calculating marketing channel effectiveness. Used diligently, the CRM tools of such a system will tell the firm where each inquiry originates from (its website, a search marketing campaign, the Yellow Pages, etc.). Over a period of months, the firm will then be able to tell the rate at which those inquiries turn into actual clients. This may show, for example, that while a conference sponsorship is driving a lot of calls, such contacts become clients at a far lower rate than the smaller number of calls and appointments generated from a webinar. When all marketing platforms are matched up, the most successful ones should stand out for future business development projections and budget reviews.

By layering the cost of these marketing initiatives on the number of clients generated, a firm can get a very clear picture of the return on investment of each channel (i.e., what it costs to generate a client).  That information allows the firm to identify those channels where it can profitably increase its marketing investment – and those that it needs to cut loose.

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Women Lawyers Must Also ‘Lean In’ to Realize Their Career Dreams

After spending nearly two decades working in law firms, I have witnessed and experienced enough discrimination and recrimination to know from the front row the many challenges women lawyers face in law firms today.

Still a Way to Go

According to a 2012 National Association for Law Placement (NALP) survey on the demographics of equity, we should not be surprised to learn that 64% of male partners are equity partners while 47% of both women and minority partners were equity partners, a differential of 17 to18 percentage points. More dramatically perhaps, among equity partners, about 85% are men, 15% are women, and fewer than 5% are racial/ethnic minorities. (The minority figures include both men and women, so the three figures add to more than 100%.)

Among non-equity partners, the respective figures are 73% men, 27% women, and 8% racial/ethnic minorities. Finally, among all partners, the equity/non-equity split is about 61%/39%. Just over half of partners are male equity partners; just over 9% were women equity partners; and almost 3% are minority equity partners.

What these stats may convey to us is: 1) Caucasian males remain in the power seats; 2) women lawyers must step it up if we are committed to making a measurable advancement in their careers and quality of work environments.

Despite these figures, the ranks of women lawyers also must claim their role as well with not “leaning in” (Sheryl Sandberg reference intended) to clear the path for power and advancement in their legal careers.

In Sheryl’s book, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” she says that we women are hindered by barriers erected by ourselves, as well as society (read law firms). “We hold ourselves back in ways big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in,” she says, pointing out that women tend to internalize lifelong negative messages that say it is wrong to be outspoken, aggressive, more powerful than men. “We lower our expectations of what we can achieve,” she says. “We compromise our career goals … Compared to our male colleagues, fewer of us aspire to senior positions.”

Compound these troubling realities with the well-known fact that law school curriculum does not appropriately prepare law students in the business of law or how to build and grow a client base, and women lawyers have their work cut out for them, as we sometimes say.

Difficult, no doubt, but possible nonetheless.

Reality Check

Recognizing that women must prove themselves to a far greater extent than men do (2011 Kinsey Report noted that men are promoted on potential while women are promoted based upon past accomplishments), I suggest women learn from this and advance in spite of it.

Striving to be a “glass-half-full” individual, I know for sure that attitude is everything.

Assess your mindset toward building a prosperous practice to check your “atty tude” before taking the first action.

Do you believe in what you are doing? Are you resentful that you are placed in “selling situations”? Do you begrudgingly attend networking events? And, when there, do you not use the time productively? You are not alone.What we see very often is that women law­yers frequently behave from a position of fear, not confidence. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard, “I’m not good at xxxx,” I could buy an island in the Pacific somewhere. The question is not whether you are “good” or “bad” at any particular behavior or action, but rather whether you are willingto work at it.

This reminds me of a great quote byHenry Ford: “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”  It’s all in the attitude.

Leverage Your Strengths

As a gender, women are hardwired to cultivate and nurture relationships. We are born for relationships. Leverage this strength to turn everyday contacts into powerful business and client connections.

In our everyday lives, we constantly encounter people who may be in a position or have a connection to help us. The only way we will know is to engage…ask openended questions, offer to help, to connect, to listen. It’s really that simple. This is what we do each and every day for our partners, for our children, for our parents, and now is not too soon to take ahold of this natural ability of connecting to propel your legal career.

From a traditional business development perspective, consider the state of your network – how and how often do you get and stay in touch. Is our contact database organized, categorized and current? Do you have systems to implement and support our continual connecting efforts? Anything short of an “absolutely” and we suggest seeking out resources to check this off the “must-do” list of critical business development initiatives.

In contrast to the old cliché that lawyers must “eat what they kill”, I challenge you to adapt a “give to get” mentality. As you attack the crucial elements of building a prosperous practice with fervor, do so by discovering an attitude of abundance by sharing your skills and expertise. Be willing to “lift as you climb”, to reference a favorite phrase. Women so often regard each other as rivals instead of colleagues on similar journeys. Those women lawyers who take the time to help out a junior associate as she is finding her sea legs will find much more pleasure in a sometimes otherwise mundane work day or contract review or deposition preparation.

Make Your Network Work For You

As much as you cannot develop a prosperous practice without cultivating solid relationships, it is imperative that you define your network and craft an actionable plan to:

  1. Get and stay connected with former classmates; co-workers (past and present); non-client referral sources; clients (past and present); qualified prospects; professional contacts, etc.
  2. Attend with the intention of joining and becoming involved in targeted networking opportunities. Dependent upon your area of practice and the profile of your “perfect client”, you want to get and stay in front of those individuals who are in a position to retain you. To truly gain a firm understanding of who these folks are may require some research and professional guidance (another topic for another day).
  3. Raise your visibility and profile in front of the aforementioned “qualified target prospects”.

New Rules

Productive systems can be a savior to building a healthy practice wherein to organize and track your connections. They result from targeted networking and the ongoing steps one must take to consistently stay in front of your targeted audience.

The “new rule” of building a healthy practice is to accept that networking is NOT an event but a lifestyle. Clients may be right in front of you but if you are not looking (and more importantly, paying attention) for them, a successful practice may become elusive.

As my clients will attest, I continuously teach the imperative of developing a “marketing mindset” – – to pay attention to your environment, to others around you (even at your daughter’s ballet class or son’s Little League practice) and to always have your radar on high alert for prospective opportunities. Not just client inquiry or retention opportunities but strategic alliance and partnership opportunities. We do this by actively listening for business and legal problems in every day conversations of ours and those around us. This is a skill which requires discipline to develop and perfect. Believe me when I say, opportunities abound IF we are actively looking for them.

Design a Business Development Plan “That Works” For You

While women lawyers must work a bit smarter and harder than their male counterparts, the basics of business development apply to all. If you fail to plan, you are, in effect, planning to fail.

Craft your business development blueprint, a map, if you will, by capturing your specific action steps in a written plan. There is no magic to this document or even what it actually looks like, but make no mistake, you will see a measurable difference in developing a strong practice by creating and effectively implementing a written business development plan.

As you correctly guessed, this exercise requires some thoughtful consideration and gaining clarity of your career dreams and goals. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but the quickest path would be to:

  1. Define your target audience (outline a visual picture of whom you want to attract)
  2. Find out where these targets go during and after work hours
  3. Outline steps to get on these targets’ radar and to achieve “top-of-mind” awareness

For the sake of the length of this article, I have skipped many of the details but the points above can be considered a part of your broad business development plan.

Clarity is key. To reference the late Steve Jobs, “The world is very noisy so we must be very clear about what we want people to know about us.”

One defining element that separates a business development plan that “works” from one that does not is this– your commitment to turning interactions into transactions by:

  • Having a written plan.
  • Accessing your resources (all and often).
  • Concisely communicating your needs. Do not be reticent in voicing what you need professionally.
  • Executing your devised plan to help accomplish your career dreams and goals.
  • Follow up, follow up, follow up with every person you encounter who may have a business need that you or someone in your network can help fulfill.

Too many times in my legal marketing career have I heard lawyers complain, “I tried public speaking and it really does not ‘work’ for me”; “Networking is not my cup of tea. I have better things to do than to attend an event at which I know so few people”.

My reaction is usually the same: Building a prosperous practice is not a “one-hit wonder”, meaning that no one action will win the day. In addition to being clear of what you are endeavoring to achieve, you also must you be committed to the process.

Anatomy of a Successful Business Development Plan

Essentially, there are two parallel tracks to a successful business development plan and attracting quality clients: through relationship and reputation-enhancing marketing tactics. These tactics may include public speaking and targeted networking, but also will involve:

  • Building a robust online presence (aka website, social media development).
  • Devising an aggressive public relations effort to raise your profile and visibility.
  • Getting involved in a professional/community/government association, among others.

Once you have taken the requisite steps to:1) Clarify your career dreams and goals; 2) Address your limiting internal barriers; 3) Define your network; 4) Develop a written business development plan; 5) Embrace and leverage your natural relationship builder, it is time to become the conductor of your business-development orchestra, ( journey).  Actively allow others to help you, to connect you with others who may be useful in achieving your professional goals. Relax and enjoy the actual process of getting and staying connected, of learning more about your clients’ industries, of being of service to others.

Relish in your unique ability to connect with others and your hard-earned legal skills to be the rocket boosters to your fulfilling and rewarding legal career. There is but one secret sauce to business development success and realizing your career dreams:

Consistent, persistent massive amounts of action over a prolonged period of time.

That’s it, in a nutshell.

Conclusion

As women, we’ve always had to fight harder, be more resilient, and press more than some of our counterparts. While the professional landscape is creeping forward slowly, let us forge on to meet our professional goals.

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