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

Here at Zen I've decided to start a weekly post called "Ask Friday!" where I'll take a reader question and answer it.  You can leave your questions in the comments for any post, if you'd like, or message me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Today's question comes from Larry Bodine, of Larry Bodine Marketing, who asks "What tips do you have to motivate lawyers to do business development?" 

My number one tip to motivate lawyers is to share success stories.  I've found that showing how other lawyers have gotten business through various types of business development activities give attorneys the comfort that someone has tried it before, and they've been successful.

But it's not always enough for me to be the one sharing these stories - it's often more helpful to get the attorney who's been successful to do the sharing.  For example, as you know I'm a big fan of social media.  I give presentations to our attorneys at each of our Annual & Regional Conferences, and recently, my presentations have focused on social media.

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At the LMA Conference in Orlando, there were over 1,100 attendees. We were inundated with tips, new ideas, new products, networking opportunities, and more.  It's often hard to distill the entire conference into a few takeaways to bring back to the office and act on.

To get at some of the valuable nuggets from the conference, I asked ILN legal marketer, Morgan Leigh Horvitz, Manager of Client Relations for member firm Beirne, Maynard & Parsons LLP in Houston to comment on her key takeaways and the most valuable session.

What was your key takeaway from the LMA Annual Conference?

Morgan: The first was to spend some time looking at our website on mobile devices, and trying to make our mobile site user-friendly and re-design it to help people who are looking for specific information while on-the-go.

Another was the need to really differentiate ourselves in our proposal-writing and client service. With legal spending by companies not increasing much, the competition  is going to be much more stiff.  

My third key takeaway was to work on our marketing materials. Clients are less interested in all of the details about the firm, and more interested in what the firm can do for them. Win records, brief and useful information about the firm, and how the firm can service the client (solve problems creatively, save money through efficiency) need to be highlighted.

Which session did you find most valuable and why? 

Morgan: I found the "Breaking the Brochureware Approach" pre-conference session to be the most helpful.  We looked at how clients view websites and marketing materials, what they are looking for, and how we can meet their informational needs while promoting and differentiating the firm.

Other LMA attendees - what are your key takeaways? Which sessions did you find the most valuable? 

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Although I did attend a morning session on Wednesday on client retention, it ended up being a bit of a vendor commercial - and not for something I felt I wanted to endorse on Zen. So instead, we're jumping right ahead to Maximized Marketing: Budget Boundaries and Successful Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized firms.

The session was a bit introductory, but with over half the room saying that they were new to legal marketing, it made sense. Plus, it was a good refresher for the rest of us, and great to hear what a Managing Partner had to add to the session.

The session included Marguerite Downey, Director of Communications & Client Services for Adduci Mastriani & Schaumberg LLP and Patricia A. Harris, Esq., Managing Partner for Zetlin & De Chiara LLP.

Not only was most of the room new to legal marketing, but the majority of the audience also served as the sole marketer at their firm.  Although this can present difficulties, as the speakers pointed out, having a committee of one isn't such a bad thing!  They also said that you can leverage limited resources efficiently with creative solutions at a smaller firm. 

Patricia introduced herself by saying that she has something in common with the marketers in the room - "No one wants us in their office." This got a laugh out of everyone before we jumped into their presentation.

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A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to have the opportunity for an interview with Natalie Huha, of Just Engage, "a company dedicated to servicing the Legal and Professional Services markets promoting and educating on how social media is redefining current and future client communications."  She wanted to talk to me about my thoughts on social media in the legal profession, and in part one of the five-part interview, we discussed the question "What do you commonly hear from attorneys regarding their social media philosophies?"

Natalie's comments and the interview can be found here and here, and I've embedded the video below if you'd like to see the interview.  
 

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The last session of the day on Tuesday was "The Path to World Class - Exploring the Attributes that Distinguish Top-Tier Legal Marketing & Business Development Teams." After a long day at the conference, this session was going to have to be very interesting to hold our attention - and it was!

The panel was moderated by Joe Calve of Morrison Foerster and featured Geoffrey Goldberg of Lowenstein Sandler, Anne Malloy Tucker of Goodwin Procter, and Barbara Sessions of Winston & Strawn.

The panel was designed to be a nuts and bolts tutorial that we could put into action when we got back to the office.  The panelists suggested that rock climbing by your fingernails is an apt analogy to what marketers do, so we'd need all the help we could get.

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As I attended my sixth LMA Conference last week, it occurred to me that I couldn't believe how fast my time in the legal profession has gone! But it also occurred to me that there may be many people out there attending their first conference, or just starting out in the legal or professional services fields, who never got any lessons in college about how to act in a business environment.

This week, I heard someone say during a session that if you're going to be "Debbie Gossip" as a marketing professional, it will be difficult to gain the trust of your lawyers and as such, difficult to get the respect needed to get a seat at the table. I think the younger generation in the workforce (and at 31, I include myself in that) has a lot of enthusiasm, talent and incredible ideas. But sometimes we lack the professional polish that can get those ideas implemented. So I wanted to offer up some advice on what I've learned in my six and a half years in legal marketing - some of these things might seem silly or overly conservative, but they will help you stand out for your work instead of for a less professional reason:

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After lunch, I headed to "Using Client Feedback to Create Truly Meaningful Client Experiences and Deliver Greater Value" - a session that proved to have some fabulous tips. The panel was moderated by Julie Meyers of Burns White and featured Ronna Cross, from Patton Boggs, James Perkins of Procopio, Cory Hargreaves & Savitch, Jennifer Skiver, Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, and Tara Weintritt of Miles and Stockbridge.

Best Practices

The panel began by sharing their best practices for starting a client feedback program:

• Get a promise from the firm leadership that they understand that the feedback is critical and they're willing to take action.
• Know your firm's culture going into this - what's the best approach? 
• Get everyone involved and figure out what success looks like.

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You may not be surprised to learn that during the 2011 Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference, I attended the session on Effectively Leveraging Social Media as a Business Development & Marketing Tool. And it was definitely a valuable session.  

The panel was moderated by Josh Fruchter, Principal at eLawMarketing, and featured Melanie Green, Director of Business Development & Marketing at Baker Daniels, Andrea Stimmel, Business Development Director, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, and Russell Thomas, Director of Media & Public Relations at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

The panel began by asking who in the room worked at a firm that was tweeting, had a Facebook page, a LinkedIn profile, or blogs - the majority of the room was in this category.  Law firms lean more towards LinkedIn than Facebook based on the show of hands in the room, though a few of those on Twitter said they felt Facebook had value as well.  

The panel had crowdsourced questions from the attendees in advance of the session through the LMA Conference's LinkedIn group, and the panel was built around this.  

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As you know if you've been following my Twitter stream, or checking Zen in the last couple of months, last week, I attended the Legal Marketing Association's Annual Conference in Orlando.

Tuesday morning, the conference business sessions officially kicked off with our keynote from Jeff Williford from the Disney Institute, who talked about Disney's Approach to Business Excellence.  When he began by telling us that he'd be speaking for 90 minutes, I think the audience was worried, but the presentation was so engaging and informative that the time really flew.  And although his presentation was about how Disney creates a truly magical experience here, there were a lot of parallels for the legal industry - we're also a service industry after all!  Any of the particularly important points that relate to law firms will be in bold throughout the post.

He told the audience that Disney employs more than 60,000 people from 65 countries, with 10% of those being interns, and warned us that his presentation on Disney's approach to business excellence would be like drinking water from a firehose. But he did say that Walt Disney reminded everyone in 1955 that "it all started with a mouse."

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Dear Twitter, how I love you.

Okay, you all know that I love social media, and I fully support people using it, blah, blah, blah.

But it's not just some new tool that I'm excited about using and have jumped on the bandwagon for. It can be incredibly useful professionally. That was particularly clear to me this week.

I started in my current position six and a half years ago, and went to my first LMA conference in 2005. I was a shy young thing because I knew NOBODY and I hadn't even participated in any of the local chapter's events. I was terrified I'd end up just wandering to and from conference sessions like a ghost and not meeting anyone.

Of course, that didn't happen. I met some lovely ladies, had dinner and lunch with them a couple of times, and enjoyed their company. But other than a few sporadic emails after that which eventually died off, that was it.

Fast forward to 2011, when I attended my 6th LMA conference - what a difference! For the first time, I was actually looking forward to conference - not that the sessions aren't always valuable, but I've been so intimidated over the years by the networking side of things that I had trouble enjoying myself. Not so this year.

Over the last three years, I've developed a network of LMA friends and colleagues through Twitter - our online conversations happen on a regular basis throughout the year, both about professional and personal topics. Many of those I've met through Twitter have subsequently become friends on Facebook, where we share much more of our personal lives and deepen our relationships.

As a result, we're talking before the conference and making plans, we're talking during the conference - about the sessions, about meeting for meals, about meeting those on Twitter we don't know in person yet, about where we're sitting, what we're thinking, the questions we might have - and we're talking after the conference - sharing posts, sharing articles, continuing the new and old relationships and friendships we've found in LMA. Even those who weren't able to attend the conference got the most valuable tidbits via the tweetstream and will share in the blog posts that re-cap the event.

How valuable is that?

Through Twitter, I've met marketing professionals at all different levels - some new to legal marketing, some with years of marketing experience - and they inspire me, introduce me to other people in the industry, help me on projects, ask and answer questions, and make me feel cherished and supported. For the first time at an LMA conference, I didn't eat alone once - and many of you know that some of the best networking happens during mealtime.

So I'm grateful to Twitter for enriching my conference experience - I've gained professional colleagues (as someone who works alone most of the time, that is invaluable), but I've also gained lifelong friends. Some people may still not understand Twitter or think it valuable, but it can really enrich a conference experience, and make your membership in an organization incredibly worthwhile and rewarding.

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During the LMA's opening session on Wednesday, we were treated to a great client panel on achieving greater collaboration - what you need to know to get a win-win relationship with your clients.  On the panel were Stephen Kaplan, the Senior Vice President & General Counsel for Connextions, Inc., Jeff Novak, the General Counsel for AOL Paid Services, and John Lewis Jr., the Senior Managing Counsel-Litigation for The Coca-Cola Company,

They gave us a lot of incredibly valuable feedback, which I'd like to share with you.  To qualify - at the end of the session, they did say that this wasn't to be taken as the "rules" for dealing with all general counsel.  The idea is for this to open a dialogue with your clients and get you thinking about how you can better service them.

Main Points from the GC's

• Don't treat all clients the same - that's like being a therapist and treating all of your patients the same.
• The GCs were amazed by how infrequently firms will come to them and ask how they are measured internally and what success looks like for them - doing this can differentiate you.
• It's your job as lawyers to make your clients look good.
• Find un-met needs for your clients - this is a different value proposition than that offered by your competitors
• Realization rates can go up when you can help the in-house counsel meet their legal spending budget.
• Client service should be very personal, tailored to the individual just as much as the institution.
• Firms that know the secret to cost containment in their own firms should be able to help General Counsel apply those principles in their department.
• When a client comes to your firm and you can divine that they're in need, that's an opportunity for the firm to embed a partnership.
• Meeting their needs transcends the vendor relationship and makes you a partner.
• Learn how to self-select - you can't be all things to all people.  It's difficult to discern any self-selection from the pitches that they get.  One of them recently got a pitch from a company that was obviously conflicted and should have self-selected.
• There is lots of buzz around AFA's - but not everyone is positioned to do this. A value relationship is one where you have value to deliver.

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