Tag: LMA

The Evolution of Legal Marketing

Reflections from the past and top tips for the future

The close of each year naturally encourages reflection, evaluation and fresh perspective. As 2019 draws to an end, it’s enlightening to look back on developments and innovation in legal marketing from not only the past year, but also over the past several decades.

After the 1977 decision in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, in which the Supreme Court held that attorney advertising was a form of commercial speech protected by the First Amendment, restrictions on lawyer marketing diminished significantly. Today, according to the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) – Bloomberg Law Joint Survey Report, 62% of law firm respondents said their firms were increasing emphasis on business development and marketing initiatives. Further, 41% of attorneys reported hiring or increasing marketing staff as one of the top new investments over the past two years, and 63% said the continued investment showed not just in headcount but also in budgets that are projected to increase in the coming years.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing Sally J. Schmidt, an esteemed founder and first president of what is now the LMA (National Association of Law Firm Marketing Administrators, or NALFMA, at the time), speak about her legal marketing journey and about the organization’s very first meeting in 1985. The event drew 15 marketing directors from across the country. Schmidt’s audience laughed as she recalled that several of the early members were not permitted to disclose the firms they represented because, at the time, law firm partners felt legal marketing carried a stigma and was somehow frowned upon. Some were worried that firm secrets would be shared and others thought that a firm conducting proactive marketing might earn a scarlet badge of shame in the industry.

My, how times have changed! Today, the LMA has more than 4,000 members in 33 countries, and unites industry specialists from firms of every size. The community of consultants, vendors, lawyers, marketers from other professions and students encourages camaraderie, connectivity, support and sharing of knowledge.

Schmidt, who has published numerous books about legal business development and client relations, proceeded to guide her captivated audience through a variety of prompts that encouraged candid and even therapeutic dialogue about challenges, successes and epiphanies of individual legal marketers from their own professional journeys.

In her book Marketing the Law Firm: Business Development Techniques, Schmidt writes:

If you mention the word “marketing” to attorneys, it conjures up a wide and disparate range of reactions. Marketing is related to such positive aspects of the practice as client satisfaction, client retention and lawyer training. At the same time, it is associated with activities considered distasteful by many attorneys, such as selling, television advertising or direct mail … One of the great myths in the legal industry is that marketing is a new phenomenon. In its emerging formal and institutional state, perhaps so, but marketing activities have been performed in every successful law firm throughout the ages. Only the techniques and level of sophistication have changed. A close look reveals that the traditional marketing activities of corporate America are being performed in the law firm setting.

As the legal industry continues to evolve, so too must those who support the success of each law firm, both big and small. Here are some top tips that will ensure success and continued progress as you and your colleagues enter the new year.

  1. Listen and learn — Take the time to listen attentively and glean insights from those around you. Listen to your colleagues, to your attorney clients and to their clients. Many of the smartest minds work in the legal industry, and a fresh perspective is invaluable. No matter how many years of experience your résumé boasts, seeking the input and opinion of respected colleagues and acquaintances is always worthwhile. Accept feedback with an open mind and make an effort to get to know, and genuinely connect with, those around you. Even individuals who don’t work in your department will have something meaningful to share.
  2. Unlock your “Yes, and” — Second City Works, the professional services arm of the world-famous comedy theater and improvisation school Second City, teaches the practice of “Yes, And.” They challenge professionals to designate time specifically for exchanging ideas and brainstorming freely, without judgment and without rejection. This practice can lead to great discoveries and a whole new mindset when it comes to tackling workplace challenges and driving innovation — in legal marketing, in client service and in life.
  3. Set goals — Goals are truly the roadmap of your career. Getting lost is unavoidable if you don’t take the time to identify and chart short- and long-term goals for yourself, your team, your practice and your firm. Further, it’s affirming to look back and celebrate goals that you achieved and to renew or adjust goals that are still in progress.
  4. Ask “why?” — All too often, we do what we do because it’s what we’ve always been doing. The best legal professionals have the wherewithal to ask “why?” It’s helpful to question your own habits and your routine. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Where can you make changes that would be beneficial?
  5. Be positive — Every occupation has highs and lows, as well as pros and cons, but those who maintain an unwavering positive outlook prove to be resilient, successful and immune to burnout. Embrace challenges and growing pains, and reframe anything negative as positive every chance you get.
  6. Keep the big picture in mind — Sometimes we can get so bogged down in our day-to-day routines that it’s hard to step back for an accurate perspective. Today’s greatest legal visionaries strike a balance between the macro and micro components of this field. Preserve a big-picture outlook by using all resources available, delegating well and remaining abreast of trends.

The legal world is fast-paced, fascinating and ever-changing, and the story of legal marketing is sure to continue with twists, turns, innovations and new heights. Whether you’re a legal marketing veteran of 30 years or just stepping into your first legal marketing role, you are on a professional journey that’s entirely unique to you. Whatever your piece in the legal puzzle, now is the opportune time to plot your own strategy for blazing a trail in the legal marketing evolution.

© Copyright 2008-2019, Jaffe Associates

For more in Legal Marketing, see the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

How Plaintiff Firms Can Make Names for Themselves in a Crowded Landscape

The competitive landscape for plaintiff lawyers is perhaps more challenging than any other area of law. The market seems to get more crowded every day, and the fight for clients is fierce. Moreover, plaintiff lawyers often have to overcome the unsavory, ambulance-chasing reputation inaccurately associated with this practice. With all of these obstacles, establishing your marketing strategy can seem like an uphill battle.

Yet, even in this difficult atmosphere, it’s possible for plaintiff firms to stand out from the rest. This was the topic of “David vs. Goliath: The Competitive World of Plaintiff Firm Marketing,” a session at this year’s Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference. Speakers Pamela Foster, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Howie Sacks & Henry LLP; Danelsy Medrano, Marketing Manager at Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig LLP; Adrian Dayton, Founder of ClearView Social Inc.; and Erin Watson, Director of Communications and Marketing at Motley Rice LLC discussed best practices and lessons learned from their years as legal marketers for plaintiff firms. We recapped the session on our LMA Conference webinar and broke down their strategies into three areas:

Use Marketing 101: Differentiation

There are lots of firms that do plaintiff work, from auto accidents to slip and falls to medical malpractice. A quick Google search can tell you as much. So, when compared to all the other firms out there, what makes you different? It could be that you’ve been doing it the longest, that you’re more hands-on than anyone else or that your firm is all women. It doesn’t matter what makes you different; it only matters that you know what that differentiation is and then market it.

This is marketing 101, because you can’t communicate a message without understanding exactly what you bring to the table. Being clear and focused in your message not only resonates better with prospective clients, but it also makes your marketing budget go further, too. Truly understanding what makes you unique will make the rest of your marketing strategy fall into place and differentiate you in the minds of prospects.

Go Beyond SEO

A decade ago, it was possible to write a few blog posts with keywords and do reasonably well in search rankings. That’s no longer the case. Online marketing has gotten more complex and detailed, and it takes expertise to do it well. Today’s legal marketers need to understand much more than SEO; they also need to understand syndication, what kind of content ranks high and which algorithm changes can upend their approach.

Especially in plaintiff law, where the landscape is crowded and firms need to rank high to survive, DIY search marketing doesn’t cut it. Whether you have an in-house marketing team or hire an outside agency to help, you need to be sure that the person in charge of your search strategy is a true expert.

It’s true that investing in good marketers and digital strategy can be costly, but the return on investment is just too good to pass up. Digital marketing offers so much insight and opportunity for measurement. Where are your clients coming from? What search terms are they using to find you? Once clients do find you, where are they losing interest—or where are they making contact? Digital tools can help you find the answers to these questions and track clients at every stage of the decision-making process.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Plaintiff lawyers know better than anyone that the best time to seize an opportunity is before anyone else does. The same goes for your marketing. Rather than waiting for things to come down the pipeline, anticipate and identify where they’re coming from before your competitors do. It’s all about being proactive rather than reactive.  When you’re ahead of the curve you’re at an advantage, at least for a little while—and that time can make all the difference.

Click here to watch our LMA Annual Conference Webinar Recap.

© 2019 Berbay Marketing & Public Relations

For more in legal marketing, see the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

2018 LMA Tech West Conference

Registration is open for the 2018 LMA Tech West Conference on January 31 –February 1, 2018 at the Hotel Nikko. This premier marketing technology educational event will bring together more than 300 marketing and business development professionals from across the country for a day and a half of innovative programming and networking.

Through a variety of session formats, including hands-on workshops, roundtable discussions, TED Talks and panel presentations, LMA Tech West is where some of the most innovative thinkers in our industry provide examples, inspiration and takeaways that attendees of all levels can apply to the challenges and opportunities we face in our roles, in our organizations and in the industry.

 

Keynote Speaker – Scott Brinker

We are very excited to have Scott Brinker as the keynote speaker for the 2018 LMATech West conference. Scott is an expert on marketing technology and how it is changing marketing strategy, management and culture. He is the editor of the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog and the author of Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative, which aims to help marketers at all levels — even those with no technical background or inclination — adapt marketing management to the wild and wonderful whirlwind of a world now dominated by software. Learn more about Scott.

2018 LMA Tech West Conference at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco

Registration is open for the 2018 LMA Tech West Conference on January 31 –February 1, 2018 at the Hotel Nikko. This premier marketing technology educational event will bring together more than 300 marketing and business development professionals from across the country for a day and a half of innovative programming and networking.

LMA Tech West Ad Square

Through a variety of session formats, including hands-on workshops, roundtable discussions, TED Talks and panel presentations, LMA Tech West is where some of the most innovative thinkers in our industry provide examples, inspiration and takeaways that attendees of all levels can apply to the challenges and opportunities we face in our roles, in our organizations and in the industry.

The programming for the 2018 conference will include the latest trends and issues affecting the legal marketing technology landscape in all stages of the legal sales cycle in areas such as social media, big data, artificial intelligence, experience management/lead management, CRM, web site, SEO, content marketing video, marketing automation and much more!

Learn more about the LMA Tech West Conference Agenda.

Collaboration That Works: 2017 LMA Technology Conference Midwest

The event will be held on September 25th and 26th at the University Club of Chicago. Check out more about this years Technology Conference Midwest and LMA!

 

The National Law Review is proud to be this year’s Metabyte Sponsor!

2017 Legal Marketing Technology Conference Midwest

The Legal Marketing Technology Conferences are the largest conferences dedicated to technologies that law firm professionals use to identify, attract and support clients. They provide the premier forum to learn from and network with thought leaders and colleagues. The National Law Review is proud to be one of this years Megabyte Sponsor’s!

This year’s LMATech Midwest conference theme is Collaboration That Works.

The event will be held on September 25th and 26th at the University Club of Chicago.

 

 

For more information on this years conference go to: https://www.legalmarketing.org/page/midwest-tech-2017

#LMA17: Twitter Recap of the Rise of the Legal Marketing Technologist

LMA17 Twitter recapThis year’s Legal Marketing Association Annual conference featured a new pre-conference program: Rise of the Legal Marketing Technologist.

The session is designed for looking at a lot of the big picture issues legal marketers face such as artificial intelligence, as well as provide practical advice and tools to help navigate today’s ever changing marketing technology landscape. Here is the National Law Review’s a recap of the Twitter commentary for the day:

The Future is Now: Scaling Expertise with Cognitive Computing

The Ethics of Data-Driven Legal Marketing

Marketing Automation: How to Build a Platform that Nurture Prospects and Clients

Design Thinking Workshop

Re-architecting Law Firms’ Data Sources

Stay tuned for more Twitter coverage from the 2017 LMA Annual Conference!

Part 2: Influencing the Client Experience – Takeaways from LMA Capital's Half Day Program

On October 29th, a record number of legal marketers attended LMA Capital’s half day program to discuss how to best influence the client experience. Part one discussed how marketers can address a few major concerns of clients: how the firm can add value to the representation, how a firm can build a strong client team to address issues like credit and succession planning, and how to grow client relationships through better scoping and budgeting. This part will wrap up the final three TED-style talks for the program.

Communication and Managing Expectations – Exceed Their Expectations Every Time: How to Communicate with Clients in Good Times and Bad

Mary Panetta, of Blank Rome LLP, took to the podium in her talk about managing client expectations. Understanding the goal of why you are at the table is crucial to understanding client’s expectations. Sometimes the goal of litigation isn’t always to win, sometimes it’s to acquire the client, or to settle. Ms. Panetta emphasized that it’s important to make no assumptions about what the clients goals are; always ask. If partners are not involved in connecting on a daily basis with the clients to find out what is going on at the company, the client is not going to feel like the firm understands their needs and they are not going to come back with return business. Another key point Ms. Panetta hit on is that it’s important to tell the truth about everything, including budgets. For the firm, it’s important to monitor the budget aggressively and if there is an issue or potential overage on the horizon, share the information with the client early and without alarm. Marketers can help the firm’s lawyers in the process as well by understanding what’s at stake and helping deliver the news to the client either by scripting a dialogue or being present when the call needs to be made. Clients are much more amenable to scope changes when they are appropriately notified and walked through what happened. Also, in this market, there is potential for the client to seek out other services that may cut into the work that the law firm does. Ms. Panetta advises firms to embrace these inevitable market disruptors and present them to your client as a collaborative process. This may be counterintuitive to the firm’s bottom line, however, partnering with a disruptor is a way the firm can bring value to the client and builds vast amounts of goodwill.

Affinity Group Initiatives – Developing Client Relationships Through Affinity Groups

When it comes to working with affinity groups in the firm, Dawn Afanador, of Gibbons P.C., reminded the audience that the groups are still client focused. The Women’s Initiative at her firm is focused on educating women and their clients, give back to the community and their client’s causes, mentor their women and their clients, and provide networking opportunities for women and their clients. Ms. Afanador has found that their women’s initiative to be one of their best client relationship building programs. Rather than focus on having bigger events with high attendance, her firm scaled back the size of the events and narrowly focused on areas of law that address their key client’s needs. The intimacy of the smaller programs, such as focused roundtables, succeeded in helping client engagement and presented opportunities for cross marketing. Firm groups also have an opportunity to help their clients with initiatives they may not be able to achieve on their own. For example, a company might want to get more involved in meaningful pro bono work, but has a small legal department and limited resources. The firm’s pro bono group would be able to collaborate with the client to help them further their pro bono initiative by providing them with support and training. Affinity groups can also add value to networking opportunities: people don’t have time to simply network anymore, so providing programs where your in-house team can learn something and network with others is invaluable. When starting an initiative, it’s important to have some small wins to generate excitement about the initiative. As the initiative grows, don’t be afraid to evolve the program based on client’s needs and feedback from folks internally.

Complacency and Responsiveness – Using Innovation to Motivate and Empower Attorneys and Connect with Clients

To round-out the TED-talks, Jennifer Castleberry of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, discussed how her firm uses innovation to motivate and empower attorneys and connect with clients. Her firm has created an innovation initiative, DWT De Novo, that focuses on technology, process improvement and people. When they began the program in 2013, they started by first listening to the client’s pain points, which eventually led to the appointment of a chief innovation partner that promoted the initiative at all of their offices. On this roadshow, they worked with people in the firm to solicit their pain points so they can figure out how best to create an initiative that is focused on addressing everyone’s concerns. In response to these concerns, the firm was able to create several tools that are designed to help placate client concerns. For example, their team developed a template for attorneys to summarize, for the client, how the firm has added value, in some ways that aren’t apparent to them. Attorney’s customize this to their clients so they get a clear picture of their relationship with the firm. They also spent a lot of time listening to what client’s wanted in a client dashboard, and used their input to create a “dashboard of the future”. Their dashboard includes realtime matter tracking, financials, as well as curated pieces that are specific to the client using the dashboard. These tools were designed specifically to provide efficient, transparent, and cost-effective legal services for their clients.

Following the TED talks, the audience broke-out into discussion tables where each table was tasked with coming up with five action items specific to a particular TED talk, and we all came together in the end to share the action items.  Firms should rally their teams to create their own action items so that they are able to better address the myriad of client concerns. Considering these major areas of concern, adding value, credit, succession planning, billing and budgets, communication, managing expectations, and responsiveness, is crucial to creating a positive client experience.

Article By Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

Copyright ©2015 National Law Forum, LLC

Part 2: Influencing the Client Experience – Takeaways from LMA Capital’s Half Day Program

On October 29th, a record number of legal marketers attended LMA Capital’s half day program to discuss how to best influence the client experience. Part one discussed how marketers can address a few major concerns of clients: how the firm can add value to the representation, how a firm can build a strong client team to address issues like credit and succession planning, and how to grow client relationships through better scoping and budgeting. This part will wrap up the final three TED-style talks for the program.

Communication and Managing Expectations – Exceed Their Expectations Every Time: How to Communicate with Clients in Good Times and Bad

Mary Panetta, of Blank Rome LLP, took to the podium in her talk about managing client expectations. Understanding the goal of why you are at the table is crucial to understanding client’s expectations. Sometimes the goal of litigation isn’t always to win, sometimes it’s to acquire the client, or to settle. Ms. Panetta emphasized that it’s important to make no assumptions about what the clients goals are; always ask. If partners are not involved in connecting on a daily basis with the clients to find out what is going on at the company, the client is not going to feel like the firm understands their needs and they are not going to come back with return business. Another key point Ms. Panetta hit on is that it’s important to tell the truth about everything, including budgets. For the firm, it’s important to monitor the budget aggressively and if there is an issue or potential overage on the horizon, share the information with the client early and without alarm. Marketers can help the firm’s lawyers in the process as well by understanding what’s at stake and helping deliver the news to the client either by scripting a dialogue or being present when the call needs to be made. Clients are much more amenable to scope changes when they are appropriately notified and walked through what happened. Also, in this market, there is potential for the client to seek out other services that may cut into the work that the law firm does. Ms. Panetta advises firms to embrace these inevitable market disruptors and present them to your client as a collaborative process. This may be counterintuitive to the firm’s bottom line, however, partnering with a disruptor is a way the firm can bring value to the client and builds vast amounts of goodwill.

Affinity Group Initiatives – Developing Client Relationships Through Affinity Groups

When it comes to working with affinity groups in the firm, Dawn Afanador, of Gibbons P.C., reminded the audience that the groups are still client focused. The Women’s Initiative at her firm is focused on educating women and their clients, give back to the community and their client’s causes, mentor their women and their clients, and provide networking opportunities for women and their clients. Ms. Afanador has found that their women’s initiative to be one of their best client relationship building programs. Rather than focus on having bigger events with high attendance, her firm scaled back the size of the events and narrowly focused on areas of law that address their key client’s needs. The intimacy of the smaller programs, such as focused roundtables, succeeded in helping client engagement and presented opportunities for cross marketing. Firm groups also have an opportunity to help their clients with initiatives they may not be able to achieve on their own. For example, a company might want to get more involved in meaningful pro bono work, but has a small legal department and limited resources. The firm’s pro bono group would be able to collaborate with the client to help them further their pro bono initiative by providing them with support and training. Affinity groups can also add value to networking opportunities: people don’t have time to simply network anymore, so providing programs where your in-house team can learn something and network with others is invaluable. When starting an initiative, it’s important to have some small wins to generate excitement about the initiative. As the initiative grows, don’t be afraid to evolve the program based on client’s needs and feedback from folks internally.

Complacency and Responsiveness – Using Innovation to Motivate and Empower Attorneys and Connect with Clients

To round-out the TED-talks, Jennifer Castleberry of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, discussed how her firm uses innovation to motivate and empower attorneys and connect with clients. Her firm has created an innovation initiative, DWT De Novo, that focuses on technology, process improvement and people. When they began the program in 2013, they started by first listening to the client’s pain points, which eventually led to the appointment of a chief innovation partner that promoted the initiative at all of their offices. On this roadshow, they worked with people in the firm to solicit their pain points so they can figure out how best to create an initiative that is focused on addressing everyone’s concerns. In response to these concerns, the firm was able to create several tools that are designed to help placate client concerns. For example, their team developed a template for attorneys to summarize, for the client, how the firm has added value, in some ways that aren’t apparent to them. Attorney’s customize this to their clients so they get a clear picture of their relationship with the firm. They also spent a lot of time listening to what client’s wanted in a client dashboard, and used their input to create a “dashboard of the future”. Their dashboard includes realtime matter tracking, financials, as well as curated pieces that are specific to the client using the dashboard. These tools were designed specifically to provide efficient, transparent, and cost-effective legal services for their clients.

Following the TED talks, the audience broke-out into discussion tables where each table was tasked with coming up with five action items specific to a particular TED talk, and we all came together in the end to share the action items.  Firms should rally their teams to create their own action items so that they are able to better address the myriad of client concerns. Considering these major areas of concern, adding value, credit, succession planning, billing and budgets, communication, managing expectations, and responsiveness, is crucial to creating a positive client experience.

Article By Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

Copyright ©2015 National Law Forum, LLC

Influencing the Client Experience – Takeaways from LMA Capital's Half Day Program Part 1

The LMA Capital group brought together a record number of legal marketers in the D.C. area on Wednesday, October 29th to discuss how best to positively influence the client experience and foster lasting relationships between their firms and clients. Tara Weintritt, partner at Wicker Park Group, kicked off the program by setting the scene for attendees. In the past, law firms focused on touting their experience and success in handling particular matters. However, Tara elaborated that smart, capable, intelligent lawyers are baseline characteristics. Clients want to know how you can help them and what it’s like to work with you. After speaking with over 1,500 in-house counsel, the folks at Wicker Park Group have been able to identify seven major areas of concern that are consistently at the forefront of these decision-makers’ minds: adding value, credit, succession planning, billing and budgets, communication, managing expectations, and responsiveness. Tara provided direct quotes from actual client interviews as an introduction to attendees, but six thought leaders in the legal marketing industry gave in-depth (but brief!) TED-style talks to really drill down to the heart of why these are concerns for clients, and what can be done to address these concerns.

Adding Value –  Creating a Culture of Strategic Business Intelligence

Gina Lynch, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, kicked off the first TED talk. Clients want to know how you can add value to the relationship that does not show up on the billing report. This is where competitive intelligence teams are valuable in influencing the client experience. Firms must go above and beyond the requisite skills required for establishing the business relationship, which are thorough writing and analysis skills. The firm counterpart must demonstrate that he or she can understand the complex research.  CI teams must fully understand the work the client does. Ms. Lynch elaborated, “they need to be able to talk like your client, act like your client”. It not enough to present a report to the client. They want to know how this is relevant to them, what their competitors are doing and what their long-term strategy might be. Ms. Lynch also advocates for the CI team to be outside of the marketing department so it can be involved in all aspects of the firm’s relationship with the client: intake/pitch, research, knowledge management and retention. This circles back to the notion that it’s critical to understand the work the client does. Finally, the relationship should be client-focused! This is a no-brainer as members of the team should be living in the client’s world so it can play offense when a problem comes up. If a CI team is strategically informed, it can spot opportunities for growth (or damage control) when a new situation arises.

Credit and Succession Planning – Creating Strong Client and Industry Teams for the Long Term

Ms. Weintritt, at the start, elaborated that a major concern clients have is not being involved in or more aware of transitions within the firm. Tara Derby, of Reed Smith LLP, in the next TED talk, discussed how to mitigate this concern, and ultimately develop a long-term, successful relationship with the client by creating strong client teams. A successful client team will be focused on leadership, collaboration, a proactive and intuitive approach, and strategic client engagement. There are two things that need to be accomplished in order to build a strong client team: 1) the right client relationship leader must be selected, and 2) he or she needs to work hand in hand with the key account manager, or client relationship driver. This leader needs to be organized, efficient, client-facing and engaging. It’s important that the correct leader and team be in place or else service provided to the client will be only mediocre. Teams are only effective when there is a high level of collaboration across the firm, but people that are part of the team need to make a positive impact on the client. Strong client teams are proactive, not reactive, and to do so requires the team to know the client’s needs, culture, and ultimately how they think. Clients will feel understood and listened too because the relationship is 100% centered around their needs.

Billing and Budgets – Doing Your Homework: Strengthening and Growing Client Relationships Through Better Scoping, Budgeting and Risk Assessment

Since the major shift if the legal industry a few years ago, clients have been more cost conscious. As Melissa Prince, of Ballard Spahr, elaborated in her TED talk, the quality of the work matters less than the value the work provides the client. In terms of cost-effectiveness, clients want transparency in the budgeting process and improved budget forecasting, more than the lowest cost. In terms of scoping, it’s important to develop the client relationship to understand the client’s goals and business objects. This means speaking to the client about their needs before the scoping process. The key thing is to put everything in writing: matter phases, tasks, expected deliverables, proposed timelines and deadlines, responsible time keepers, etc. It’s also key to identify assumptions, that is, to identify what is and what is not going to be included in the matter. In terms of budgeting, use historic financial data to identify ways to improve efficiency. The budget should also be documented in writing as specifically as possible. It should include metrics such as hours work, type of work, who will be completing the task, identifies different hourly rates, and outlines low and high estimates, as well as start and end dates. To preserve a positive client relationship, any overages that arise should be communicated as early as possible. Properly managing their expectations for the scope and budget of the representation will help improve the firm’s efficiency, but also deepen their relationship with the client.

Stay tuned for part 2 of LMA Capital’s Half Day Program.

Article By Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC