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

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.

For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Pavla Prikrylova of PETERKA & PARTNERS v.o.s. in the Czech Republic.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Our law firm, PETERKA & PARTNERS, operating in five countries (Czech and Slovak Republics, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia), is a full service firm advising clients in all main areas of commercial law (mainly in M&A, insolvency and restructuring, real estate, banking and finance and litigation). Myself, I specialize in real estate and M&A transactions.

Who would be your typical client?
Mid-size to large foreign corporation seeking advice with its investment in one or more countries in the CEE region or a local company seeking a lawyer with personalized and business approach, rendering a results-oriented service, very often involving cross-border and tax issues.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
That we always try to be flexible in finding business-driven legal solutions, we strive for maximum efficiency and high quality service and we work for being a real business partner and sometimes also a lead to our clients.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
An acquisition of a group of real estate assets for development of a commercial building comprising offices and shops, where in the middle of the rather complicated acquisition process, the 100 years flood came to Prague and the acquisition of the land had to be completely restructured due to the consequences of the flooding and the new requirements imposed by the city authorities.  Very challenging both from legal and personal perspectives.

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
When I could call our client and say, the contract was finally concluded after almost a year of tough negotiating and a year later, the client invited me to a celebration of completing the carcassing of a shopping mall.

What do you do when you're not practicing law?
I enjoy skiing in winter, cycling in summer, travelling and reading - but all these activities are now a little bit at the back stage while all other activities I can do with my 1,5 year old son have priority.

What would surprise people most about you?
Probably that I am a great dance fan and can dance the majority of ballroom dances, Argentinean tango and salsa.

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
My first ILN meeting in Seattle, where all the people gave me a very friendly and warm welcome and the Gala evening in Paul Allen's music hall. It surpassed my expectations.

What career would you have chosen if you weren't a lawyer?
A ballet dancer.

If a movie were made out of your life, who would you want to play you?
Meryl Streep.

How would you like to be remembered?
As honest, fair-minded and sensible towards others.

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Last week, a marketing manager posted a question to the Legal Marketing Association’s internal listserv – she wanted to know if there was a way to upload her attorneys’ bios to LinkedIn without them having to do it themselves.  I was both surprised and disappointed to see someone in legal marketing ask this, because she’s missing the point of social media and as a result, not able to help the lawyers at her firm understand and use it for their benefit. 

My response to her was the following:

“Unfortunately, I'm not going to give you the answer you're probably looking for.  Because LinkedIn is not just a directory of attorneys, I don't think posting all of the members of your firm is a great idea.  The key to social networking is engagement, whether you're using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Martindale-Hubbell Connected.  For LinkedIn to be effective for your firm, the attorneys need to be involved directly - posting their own information on their profiles, and then staying actively engaged by linking up with colleagues, former classmates, clients and friends and then sharing information with them like articles/blog posts they're writing, seeing what those people are up to and commenting on it, joining relevant groups and participating in them by answering questions, posting articles they think are useful, etc.  

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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. 

For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Henning von Lillienskjold of DAHL Law Firm in Denmark.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Dahl is a full service, business law firm with specialists in all areas of business law.

Who would be your typical client?
Mid-sized and large companies from Denmark and northern Europe.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
That I am commercial in my approach to giving advice and deliver on time.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
My most challenging case was a large transaction involving 140 entities and where the buyer backed off on the day of signing.

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
Every time a deal is closed and my advice has added value to the client - other than just drafting documents.

What do you do when you're not practicing law?
I like skiing and sailing (I have competed in many of the major sailboat classes) and otherwise, I relax in my summer cottage with my family.

What would surprise people most about you?
Probably that I can play the trumpet or that I know how to repair a car engine.

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
My most memorable ILN experience is my first meeting in N.Y. and the dinner we had at Ellis Island.

What career would you have chosen if you weren't a lawyer?
I think it would have been some kind of engineering.

If a movie were made out of your life, who would you want to play you?
Jim Carrey :)

How would you like to be remembered?
Honest and trustworthy.

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On Wednesday, May 12th, I was fortunate enough to attend a couple of sessions at American Lawyer Media's Law Firm Marketing and Business Development Leadership Forum. The ILN was a marketing partner for the event, and I spoke on a panel called "Going, Going...Global? The Worldwide Marketing for Legal Services." Unfortunately, I have not yet mastered the art of tweeting from a panel I'm participating in (and so don't have comprehensive notes for a re-cap), but the first session of the morning on the changing nature of in-house and outside counsel relationships was full of great takeaways for law firms and their marketing departments.  If you're interested in the full list of tweets from the conference, you can check out the #LCMO hashtag transcript.

On the panel were:

• ILN member, Martin Beirne, founding and managing partner of Beirne Maynard & Parsons LLP in Texas ,
• Anne Chwat, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Burger King Corporation,
• Kenneth Handal, Former Executive VP and General Counsel and Head of Global Risk and Compliance for CA, Inc (retired),
• Bob Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer for Greenberg Traurig, LLP, and
• Moderator Anthony Paonita, Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Counsel Magazine.

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Last night, I caught the end of Neil Cavuto's show, when he told a story that made me think - he said that he was shopping for a Mother's Day gift and went into a store.  Both the store owner and his wife came over to him within the first few minutes to see if they could assist him with finding a gift to purchase.  He told them both politely that he preferred to look by himself, that he didn't have anything in mind, but was in a hurry, so he wished to be left alone.  They did so, but only for a minute.

As soon as he picked something up to look at it, they both immediately came over to him again, giving him information he hadn't asked for, insisting that the gift he was looking at must be what he wanted, and continuing to badger him.  He again asked them to let him look for the gift in private, and they continued to ask him what he was looking for and let him know that the gifts in the section he was standing in could all be mailed.  As he was getting more and more exasperated, his phone rang. It was his daughter in the store next door, saying that she had found a gift.  So he walked out of the first store, leaving the patrons in shock.  His message was that "no one is listening." 

That message got me thinking:

• Are we guilty of the same thing?
• Do we bother our clients or potential clients with information that they've asked not to receive?
• Do we help them when they need it and let them be when they want some solitude?
• What is our customer service experience really like for them - are we overbearing, like these store owners?
• Or are we facilitators, business partners, trusted advisors?
• Do we insist that we know what's best for them, without finding out what it is that they really want and need?
• Does that ultimately push them away?

I think Cavuto's message is a good reminder that part of being great at our jobs, whether as legal marketers, as attorneys, or in any other field, is really listening to our clients, their needs, and even the underlying needs and wants they have that they might not be expressing. Ask yourself today, are you listening?

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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.

For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Michael Samuel of Miller Samuel LLP in Scotland.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
A bespoke niche practice offering quality and specific services to clients at competitive rates.

Who would be your typical client?
Not easy to categorise, but we like to act for successful business entrepreneurs, medium to high net worth individuals, and for quoted and unquoted companies.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
We would like clients, potential and otherwise, to know that we care primarily about their needs and requirements, and that this is a fundamental part of our philosophy.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
I deal with private clients. My most challenging case some years ago was when I was able to achieve a result favourable to my clients, in a question of succession to an Estate, contrary to the opinion of the foremost legal authority. Simply put, he said, "you can't do it!" Well, we did it!!!!!

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
I was appointed Dean of our local Faculty for three years in 2005 - the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow (its proper Title). It has 2,000 members. What was important is you can't apply for the job - you are asked by your peers. I looked upon this as kind of a legal Oscar.

What do you do when you're not practicing law?
I read as much as I can, play tennis as much as the weather permits, watch soccer, and of course, there are many family commitments.

What would surprise people most about you?
I am as old as I am.

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
I have wonderful memories, but hosting the European Meeting some years ago at Loch Lomond has to be the best of these. The stunned faces of the delegates and companions that cold grey misty Friday night at Stirling Castle when the pipers and dancers emerged from the swirling mist to put on their display was unforgettable.

What career would you have chosen if you weren't a lawyer?
I think my father earmarked me as a lawyer from birth.  He was a dentist. I qualified at 21, so there wasn't much time to think about anything else. I've not really come across another career in that time which I think I might have preferred.

If a movie were made out of your life, who would you want to play you?
Billy Connolly (joking perhaps, but at least he has a sense of humour).

How would you like to be remembered?
Not for a long time!!!!!

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