Zen & The Art of Legal Networking : Lawyers & Attorneys in an International Legal Network for Relationships & Referrals

In coordination with Jim Hassett of LegalBizDev, the ILN put together a series of five educational webinars available to member firms on a monthly basis. Jim is the founder of LegalBizDev, which helps lawyers to develop new business by applying best practices from other law firms and professions through coaching, webinars and workshops, retreats and much more. Jim comes highly recommended by the Legal Marketing Association, who regularly relies on his expertise for their conferences and webinars. More information about working with Jim and his colleagues can be found on their website.

The third webinar, How to Find New Clients: From Prospecting to Closing, took place on March 25, 2009. Jim described the session: "This presentation will describe how to address the challenge of finding new clients. The basic principles are simple: you must meet the right people and advance the relationships. This presentation will describe best practices for referrals, cross-selling, networking, and publicity, and emphasize the importance of developing systematic processes to assure consistent followup."

Some of the highlights from the session included:

* Jim observed that finding new clients is the hardest thing someone can do in a suit. So he said that in order to maximize success, they need to do the right things in the right way. He emphasized that above all else, persistence matters.

* To start, Jim broke business development down into two types: current clients, which he had addressed the previous week, and new clients. For new clients, he said that some lawyers would be better at bringing in new clients than others, and firms should support those who are successful. He said that bringing in new client is more difficult and harder to evaluate than bringing in new business from current clients. However, he added that bringing in new clients is critical to long-term success, while working with current clients is critical to short-term success.

* Jim focused on five main points during his presentation: the challenge of new clients, meeting the right people, advancing the relationships, closing the deal, and what the lawyers should do.

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In coordination with Jim Hassett of LegalBizDev, the ILN put together a series of five educational webinars available to member firms on a monthly basis. Jim is the founder of LegalBizDev, which helps lawyers to develop new business by applying best practices from other law firms and professions through coaching, webinars and workshops, retreats and much more. Jim comes highly recommended by the Legal Marketing Association, who regularly relies on his expertise for their conferences and webinars. More information about working with Jim and his colleagues can be found on their website.

The second webinar, How to Protect and Increase Business with Current Clients, took place on February 25, 2009. Jim described the session: "Although lawyers equate marketing with finding new clients, marketing experts agree that the best place to start marketing is with the clients you already have. Relationships with current clients are especially critical in the current economy with threats to your practice coming from two directions: from hungry competitors trying to steal your clients, and from budget cut-backs by the loyal clients who remain. This presentation will describe how to protect and increase business by assuring that current clients perceive you as a trusted advisor who is providing high value."

Some of the highlights from the session include:

*Everything attorneys need to know about business development could be summed up in seven words: Meet the right people, advance the relationships.

* In the case of current clients, Jim said that the attorneys already know the right people. He went on to cover three points, emphasizing that client satisfaction is urgent, asking how satisfied the audience's clients are, and calling them to action.

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Staffan Michelson of Hellström in Stockholm, Sweden. Staffan has been a part of the ILN since 1994, and is certainly one of the reasons we're able to say that the ILN is a place "where lawyers become friends."

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In coordination with Jim Hassett of LegalBizDev, the ILN put together a series of five educational webinars available to member firms on a monthly basis, starting in January of 2009. Jim is the founder of LegalBizDev, which helps lawyers to develop new business by applying best practices from other law firms and professions through coaching, webinars and workshops, retreats and much more. Jim comes highly recommended by the Legal Marketing Association, who regularly relies on his expertise for their conferences and webinars. More information about working with Jim and his colleagues can be found on their website.

The first webinar, Six Ways to Increase Results from Your Limited Marketing Time, took place on January 28, 2009. Jim described the session: "Lawyers never seem to have enough time for marketing. This presentation will help lawyers save time by developing new business more efficiently. We will review the research on what works in legal marketing to help you focus on the individual tactics that are most likely to produce immediate and practical results for your practice, your personality and your schedule, starting with prioritizing marketing activities by applying six key principles: Start with current clients, listen, plan advances, focus on personal strengths, work with others, and build the right relationships."

Some of the highlights from the session include:

* The legal profession is changing, but not only because of the economic crisis, and it's getting harder to develop new business. This is evidenced by there being a number of new marketing techniques that were not around twenty years ago.

* Lawyers have greater challenges for business development than sales people because of their limited time. This is especially true for litigators and Jim pointed out that while marketing principles are the same, tactics may differ. He said that litigators will focus more on referral sources than current clients and that visibility and reputation may be more important than relationships.

* Jim used examples and book recommendations to illustrate the six ways to increase results from limited marketing time:

• Current clients: This topic is so important that it will be the focus of the second webinar.
• Listen: Experts suggest listening 50-80% of the time and Jim offered some practical tips for how to improve listening skills.
• Plan Your Advances: Jim explained that 90% of sales calls in a successful sales process (one that results in new business) do not result in a successful sale. They simply advance the relationship. So Jim emphasized that when planning a meeting, attorneys should figure out what's the best thing they can do to bring them closer to getting a piece of new business. He defined an "advance" as "an action that moves the sale forward."
• Personal Strengths: Jim talked about the stereotypes that people hold about what makes a good salesperson, and said that people with different personalities can be successful in business development. The key is understanding their strengths and finding the right fit.
• Work with Others: In order to provide accountability, Jim recommended forming a group with a few other lawyers who care about business development. The group can meet once a week or once a month, go over their to-do lists, and create some friendly competition to achieve the action items developed. Jim also supported working with a business development coach.
• The Right Relationships: When developing business, it's important to focus on the right relationships. Jim said that all lawyers should develop a quick business plan - he emphasized that a plan was necessary to avoid engaging in "Random Acts of Lunch," but that lawyers shouldn't spend too much time planning and not taking action. To do this, lawyers need to define their niche, meet the right people, and qualify their prospects to determine if they will buy, if they'll buy soon, and whether they'll buy from them. Jim also recommended reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" for common sense advice on how to interact with people in a new way.

* Jim summed up by encouraging the attorneys to prioritize their marketing activities relentlessly, so that they can make the most of their marketing time.

The webinar recording and materials for this first session are available to ILN member firms at no charge - please contact me for more information.

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For our second interview, we chose the ILN's new Chairman, Peter Altieri, of Epstein Becker & Green. Peter is a member of the firm's litigation and labor and employment practices, representing clients in a myriad of services. The ILN is very excited to welcome him as our new Chairman and Peter's active participation in the Network over the past eighteen years, most recently as a member of the Board of Directors, has made him uniquely qualified for the role.

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Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network.

Our first interview subject was an easy choice - Lowell Lifschultz is the head of the Corporate & Securities department at Epstein, Becker & Green. Twenty-one years ago, he founded the International Lawyers Network, and has since served as its Chairman before recently stepping down at the 2009 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. As Chairman and Founder, Lowell is the backbone and lifeblood of the organization and has molded it to become not only a distinguished group of professionals, but also a close-knit group that feels more like a family.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
It's a corporate business practice.

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