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

Today, I'm bringing you another excellent rainmaking recommendation from expert Jaimie Field - "I didn't know you did that."

“Why don’t clients come back?”

Recently, I received an email from a litigation attorney from Connecticut who asked the question above. It seems that some clients of the firm who seemed happy with the work the  attorneys of the firm were doing were going elsewhere for subsequent representation. 

So I dedicate this and the next few Rainmaking Recommendations to this attorney with thanks.

Over the next few emails we will cover  the reasons why clients don’t come back and how to ensure they do:

Rainmaking Recommendation # 51:  “I didn’t know you did that”

Reason #1  Why Client’s don’t Come Back:  “I didn’t know you did that”

One of the most frequently heard reason that clients don’t come back is that they don’t know all of your (and your firms) legal capabilities.  If you have ever heard a client subsequently say:  “I didn’t know your firm did that,” you have experienced this problem.

However, one of the objections that I hear is that from the attorney  is that they told them in the initial consultation that they (or their firm) could represent the client in many different matters. 

You need to understand, when a client comes in to your office, they are usually focused on one issue; the one problem they are currently experiencing.   This causes them to truly not hear anything else but what applies to this situation.  I mean literally.   The only thing they want to hear is how you can help them with this problem; what is going to stop their pain.  Anything else you tell them will go in one ear and out the other. 

Then you, the attorney, become “tunnel-visioned” - busy schedules, other matters and clients, court, briefs, yada yada yada -  which causes you to neglect to remind them of all of your other abilities. 

This is why you need to consistently and constantly tell them over the course of the representation all of your (and your firm’s) capabilities.  After you have met them, during the course of your representation, and following the conclusion of your matter, you need to keep reminding them how you can assist them with the other matters that may come up in their lives in the future. 

Use newsletters, connect with them on Social Media sites, send personal messages, ask for feedback.   Each time you contact a current client using Rainmaking and Marketing tactics to remind them of  all that you can help them with to make their lives better, you ensure that if something comes up with which you can assist, they will remember to contact you. 

 

Rainmaking Recommendations are sent the first and third Wednesdays of the month.  They are bite size tips that when implemented will cause you to make rain. To learn more about Rainmaking, Goal Setting and Achieving the Life you want as an Attorney please contact Jaimie B. Field, Esq.  If you have missed any of the previous Rainmaking Recommendations you can find them at www.jaimiefield.com The Enlightened Rainmaker Blog

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WIth the end of the year wrap-up, and still recovering from the stitches in my finger, I'm sharing another post from my friend and rainmaking expert, Jaimie Field, esq.  In 2009, she published this post, "What Santa Claus Can Teach You About Being a Great Rainmaker." 

So without further ado...

That jolly ol’ white-bearded, chubby guy in the red velvet suit with the fur trim is a better Rainmaker than you.  While his clients, children, may not be your target market, if you acquire his characteristics and take some on his abilities to bring in new clients and make them advocates for life, you can become the Rainmaker he is.

Santa Claus is everywhere:

Turn around after Thanksgiving and you cannot help but run into Santa or his image.  He is on street corners, in malls, on TV; you just can’t help seeing the guy everywhere you go.   Everyone knows who Santa is when they see or hear about him.  

 

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Never fear, Zen readers, I have not forgotten about our Twitter tutorials! However, I had a minor mishap with an exacto knife and Christmas gifts the other night, which has left me with five stitches in my left index finger, making it rather painful to type long posts! So between all of my recent travel and my latest clumsiness, you'll have to wait just a bit longer for the latest installment.

In the meantime, I'd like to bring you another tip from my friend and Rainmaking expert, Jaimie Field of Marketing Field. You can see her previous rainmaking recommendations here or you can sign up to receive them right in your email inbox on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. I highly recommend doing that - they're always excellent!

On to her recommendation! 

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During this holiday season, we can easily get caught up in the hustle and bustle of trying to find the right gift, baking as many cookies as possible, and saying yes to every party invitation we receive.  But recently, I've seen a lot of posts about gratitude and how to spend the holiday season helping others, and that reminds me of what I like best about Christmas (which is what I celebrate; for you, it may be something else!) - slowing down and thinking about what I'm really thankful for as this year winds up. 

Of course, there are many things in my personal life that I'm thankful for - the birth of my newest niece, and becoming her godmother, getting to spend so much time with my nieces that the oldest one gives me hugs for no reason, welcoming a new puppy into my home, which had the extra effect of calming my older dog's anxiety, having a roof over my head, food in my home, and a job to go to every day. 

But there are also some professional blessings I'd like to take a moment to share with you today - and I'd love to hear about your gratitude lists in the comments! 

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I've been preparing for (and am now away for) our 2011 Regional Meeting of the Americas here in Newport Beach.  I'll be writing more on that soon, but while I'm otherwise engaged, I wanted to share with you an email that I got this morning from my friend and Rainmaking expert, Jaimie Field of Marketing Field. You can see her previous rainmaking recommendations here or you can sign up to receive them right in your email inbox on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. I highly recommend doing that - they're always excellent!

On to her recommendation! 

 

Rainmaking Recommendation #46:  The Reasons You aren’t becoming a Rainmaker

There are only two reasons why you aren’t becoming a Rainmaker.

1.        You don’t know what to do

If this is the case there are many things you can do:

·         Take a class,

·         Read a book,

·         Ask a mentor,

·         Hire a Rainmaking Coach

And

2.       You aren’t doing the things you need to do on a constant and consistent basis.

As with many of my clients, I suspect this is the main reason. 

If this is the case there are things you can do:

• Create a plan and stick to it,
• Schedule your rainmaking activities and make them inviolable appointments

with and for yourself.

 

Rainmaking requires that you are constantly doing the things you need to do to create relationships with others and turning those relationships into new business. 

 

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For this week's Ask Friday! we welcome guest poster, Cordell Parvin.  I've gotten to know Cordell through Twitter, and have been fortunate to see the excellent advice he has for lawyers through webinars and his upcoming video coaching series.  

According to his website, "Cordell Parvin has practiced law for more than 36 years. He has developed a highly successful national construction law practice. During his career, Cordell has been a rainmaker and taught, mentored and coached young lawyers on their careers, work-life balance and rainmaking. Cordell also has been a Practice Group Leader and worked with other Practice Groups helping them to develop their business plans and strategies."

Today's Ask Friday! question is "What separates super achievers from achievers?"  Huge thanks to Cordell for guest posting this week! 

"A few weeks ago I spoke to a group of first year lawyers during their orientation. As I neared completion of my presentation I asked for questions. One young lawyer asked a thought provoking question: “What is the difference between lawyers who are superstars compared to lawyers who are stars?”

"In my career I have been blessed to work with some really outstanding lawyers. I have also had the opportunity to witness differences between the super achieving lawyers and those successful lawyers who do not reach that status. Here’s my take on the differences.

 

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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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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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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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It's that time again - time for the 2011 Legal Marketing Association's Annual Conference. This year, it will be in Orlando, Florida and after the winter we've had, I couldn't be happier about it! 

But it's not all sun and fun - there's a lot of work, and valuable networking too.  

I'm posting a list of the sessions I'll be attending - I'll be tweeting from each and blogging a re-cap of each session as well.  To follow along with the Twitter stream, you can check out the #LMA11 hashtag - that aggregates all of the tweets that contain that hashtag - you can follow me on Twitter, or you can follow Laura Gutierrez or Heather Morse's Twitter lists.

And if you're attending the conference, and you're not on my list, please let me know! 

On to the sessions (all times are local to Orlando. Florida)...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
9:00 - 10:30: Keynote Event: Disney's Approach to Business Excellence

11:00 - 12:15: Improving Visibility: Effectively Leveraging Social Media as a Business Development & Marketing Tool - Concrete Examples of What's Acceptable, and What's Working

2:15 - 3:30: Managing Client Retention and Value: Using Client Feedback to Create Truly Meaningful Client Experiences and Deliver Greater Value

4:15 - 5:30: Honing Your Leadership Skills: The Path to World Class - Exploring the Attributes that Distinguish Top-tier Legal Marketing and Business Development Teams

Wednesday, April 6, 2011
9:00 - 10:00: General Session - Achieving Greater Collaboration  - What you need to know to get to a win-win relationship with your clients (General Counsel Session)

10:45 - 12:00: Honing Your Leadership Skills: Elevating the Marketing and Business Development Function: Law Firm Leadership Panel

1:45 - 3:00: Improving Visibility: Maximized Marketing: Budget Boundaries and Successful Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized Firms

Looks like there will be a lot of value at this conference, so keep your eyes out for our tweets and blog posts!

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During our recent 2011 Asia Pacific Regional Meeting in Hanoi, I gave a presentation on five hot tips for client and business development.  These are all things that are familiar to the lawyers in our group, and probably all of you as well, but because they're important, I felt they bear repeating.

Five Hot Tips

1. Treat Your Clients as King: Your clients deserve to be treated like royalty. Deliver WOW to your clients by meeting their needs, not yours. Clients want to know what you can do for them, and the steps they need to follow to take action. Give them these things in a clear, easily understandable way, and you will undoubtedly find "favor with the king."
    
2. Spread Ideas and Move People...Through Social Media: It can sound like a lot of what is out there is just noise.  But you can be out there, sharing your message.  Think like your clients and provide them with the message that is most useful to them.  You're not using social media to talk at people - you're there to talk with them. 
   
   When using social media, listen first and never stop listening. Be authentic and vulnerable, share stories with your audience, ask questions, provide value for free (yes, for free!), and engage with them. 

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Yesterday, one of my favorite Twitter people posted that her daughter had said "this is the best day of my life. We went to the park, we're going to mcdonalds, I found a penny. The best day of my life."

She's 5, but she's already been through a lot, dealing with a very scary brain tumor last year.  And she got me thinking - the best days of my life really have been about the little things.  

Sure, graduating from college was exciting, buying my first house was exciting (well, more nerve-wracking and expensive than exciting), but were they the "best" days of my life? 

Nah.  

Those have been about the little things - the first time I heard my two-year old niece say my name. (Superbowl Sunday, if you're wondering - she said "Okay Wizzy" - close enough).  Every time my dog comes racing over to see me like I'm his favorite person in the world (I am). My sister trusting me enough to be the first person to watch my niece overnight. An email from my best friend saying how much I mean to her. My niece wanting me to carry her in for ice cream, and squeezing me extra tight when my sister said "M loves her Aunt Lindsay."  Those are some of my best days.

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Now that we've covered "the good" of the Superbowl commercials, let's talk about the bad and the ugly...and what can be learned from them.

We'll start with one of the more controversial series of spots...

Groupon

Save the Whales

This is the less tacky of the spots, though giving the idea that although it's nice to save the whales, it's better to save money is still missing the humor mark.  But in the next spot...

Tibet

Some people seemed to think this one was funny, while others were offended.  I tend not to be too thin-skinned, but I did agree that this was a mistake.  I was surprised that after the Kenneth Cole debacle this week that they decided to go through with these spots, even considering the financial cost of them.  

Now, Groupon did clarify the thought process behind the commercials with this post. And while I think it's great that they suggest people donate money to the causes they were parodying, the spots were still a tasteless mistake.  The lesson here is that humor is something you have to be careful with - what one person might find funny, a lot of others might not.  You've got to know and understand your audience.

Secondarily, I'm not sure how well the ads actually reinforce Groupon's product.  I'm a big fan of Groupon, but I've had a lot of trouble describing to friends and family what they're all about.  I don't think I'm the only one.  Their commercials could have broken that down a bit better.  I think they were a fail all around.  

For a great explanation that delves into this a bit further, check out Liz Strauss' post "Groupon Super Bowl Ad: When Being Clever Offends and How to Win One for Tibet"

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Okay, I admit it. I love commercials.  

So much so that when I ordered the DVR service with my cable, I wasn't sure I would fast forward through them.  (Don't worry, I do)

Not all commercials, of course.  I just love the well done ones.  Like the Old Spice campaign - but that also combined my love of social media, so I'm a bit biased.

So for me, although I really enjoy football, the Superbowl is really about the commercials - they are the best of the best in advertising - at least, they're supposed to be.  If you're paying $3 million for a commercial spot, it should be the best work your company can get.  

What does this have to do with legal marketing? I'm not a huge fan of legal commercials, I must admit.  But I think there are solid marketing lessons to be learned from my favorites.  

And from the bad commercials - let's be honest, there were more than a couple of those last night!

So without further ado....

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I've been debating whether or not I wanted to jump on the bandwagon and address yesterday's social media debacle with Kenneth Cole.  If you're not familiar with what happened, both Nancy Myrland and Gini Dietrich wrote great posts that also recap it here and here.

I decided that I did want to add my two cents - I was certainly dismayed by Cole's tweet yesterday, though not surprised.  If you've driven down the FDR in Manhattan over the last ten years, you've seen his snarky political billboards on the side of the road.  Why I think non-politicians shouldn't use their power and money to push their political philosophies on the rest of us is a whole other post, but I thought Cole really stuck his foot in his mouth yesterday.

As Nancy mentioned in her post, he needs some serious crisis communications work - we had a speaker on this very topic back in 2007, so I thought I'd dig through my conference report archives and share some of his wisdom with you.  Although I'm particularly disgusted by what Cole said yesterday, social media and other gaffes can happen to the best of us, and we need to know what to do if we're in the same situation.

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If you love shoes like I do, you're familiar with Zappos.com, the online shoe and clothing shop. Since it was founded in 1999, it has grown to be the largest online shoe store.  How did they do it? Largely, in thanks to their CEO, Tony Hsieh.  According to their website: 

In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million.

He then joined us [Zappos] as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, where he helped us grow from almost no sales to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, while simultaneously making Fortune magazines annual Best Companies to Work For list. In November 2009, Zappos.com, Inc. was acquired by Amazon.com in a deal valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

 Not too shabby, huh?

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Last week, the ILN hosted our 2010 Regional Meeting of the Americas in Houston, Texas.  I'll be putting up some posts this week re-capping some of the sessions, but I thought I'd start today with my recommendations for what to do when you get home from a conference.

At our meetings, although the business sessions are very valuable, the key is relationships - our members rely on their relationships for both referral work and collaboration.  And these relationships don't have to take a hiatus just because you're back at work.  So what should you do once you get home?

1. Reach out: At our conferences, we provide both a delegate & companion listing, and a listing of delegates with their photos.  It's a great idea to go through these during and after the conference, make notes of who you met and what you talked about, and take a few minutes to email them once you're back in the office to let them know you enjoyed meeting with them.  If appropriate, you can arrange a phone call to continue a conversation that you were having during the conference.
    
2. Connect via social media: We talked a lot about social media at this conference, and I've found that it's an excellent way to keep in touch once you return home.  The easiest thing to do is check on LinkedIn for the other attendees and connect with them.  That way, you can keep up with their activity more regularly.  For ILN members, we also recommend joining our LinkedIn group so that they can continue to interact with their colleagues online.
   
   Facebook and Twitter are good options as well - do a quick search for the attendees on these platforms if you're using them and are comfortable connecting professionally on them.  
    
3. Check your calendar: One of the things we recommend to our members is meeting with ILN attorneys when they're visiting another member firm's city.  When you return from a conference, it's a great time to take a quick look at your calendar for the next few months and see where you'll be traveling.  Check these cities against the list of the people you met at the conference, and drop them a quick email to arrange to have lunch or coffee.

Does anyone have any additional tips for what has worked for them after attending a conference? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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Dear readers, I have not forgotten about you, but with our European Regional Meeting fast approaching, I've been concentrating on those details and not on my blogging.  However, I have been reading some excellent posts from colleagues recently, which I wanted to share with you.  So grab a cup of coffee and take a read!

Over at Nancy Myrland's Myrland Marketing, she's been talking about some important messages:

• In "Sales is Not a Dirty Word," Nancy reminds us to be our "client's advisor, their mentor, their solution to a problem, and sometimes even their friend." 
   
• In "You Are Who You Are. I Am Who I Am," she addresses a lot of the recent bashing we've seen by blog commenters and people on Twitter and encourages us all to embrace each other's differences with a little respect - great message.

At the Legal Watercooler, Heather Morse has been using Mad Men to teach some valuable lessons about legal marketing - even if you're not a Mad Men viewer (which I'm not, but I love a series that connects television with business), her posts offer great points:

• In "Mad Men, Lawyers, and Legal Marketing," Heather advises lawyers that it's "YOUR job to turn YOUR success into new BUSINESS," just as senior partner Bertram Cooper from Mad Men tells Don Draper "Turning creative success into business is your work."  
   
• In "Mad Men, Lawyers, and Client Relations," she points out that we're all a personality type and "By better understanding how we personally process and receive information, and by learning how to identify how others do the same, we best communicate and work with one another."

 

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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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For my last session of the conference, I attended "The Digial Firm 2015 - The Changing Face of Professional Services Marketing Communications," with opening remarks from Anthony Green, President of Concep, moderated by Dwain Thomas, Managing Director of Concep, and panelists Susan M. Snyder, Senior Consultant at Hay Group, Jodie Kaminsky, Vice President of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and Royal Simpkins, Firmwide Communications Manager at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP.  The panel looked at new marketing channels and how they impact marketing professionals in a fee earning environment.  When the room was polled, we learned that a lot of the audience is using social media in their communications mix.  Jeannette McGarr wondered on Twitter what her attorneys would say about social media becoming the norm in firms. 

The panelists went into three case studies of firms using digital strategy with Concep, starting with J.P. Morgan.  They needed a reduction in cost, which for them, meant getting away from paper. They were looking for both strategic and tactical recommendations to help them to migrate their current contact strategies to digital, and used their competition to convince naysayers to get into social/digital communication tools.  It took 2-3 years for them  to switch entirely to digital communications, and now their marketing plans are much more integrated with digital media and have the same messages across platforms.  At the start of this process, they had 15 different databases, and have since merged all of them.  When all data repositories begin to communicate, the power is exponential for intelligence and relationship management. 

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My second session on Thursday, March 11, 2010 was "Examining the Current Use of Alternative Fee Arrangements," with presenters Lindley J. Brenza, a partner at Barlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP and Reed S. Oslan, P.C., a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and moderator Gabriel Miller, general counsel at Sokolove Law.  Because this is a hot topic in the legal industry, the session was well-attended and spawned some interesting conversation.

Oslan started by saying that Kirkland & Ellis have been doing a lot of alternative billing, and believe there will be even more in the future.  Brenza agreed, saying that at his firm, they do nothing by the hour anymore for new matters.  To clarify for everyone, they put up a graphic of the four types of legal fees - hourly, fixed, contingent and hybrid.  Brenza said that his firm doesn't do hybrid billing arrangements, because they are too problematic.  Interestingly, he added that the ABA considers non-hourly billing more ethically sound and client-focused than hourly billing.  The panel agreed that because of financial constraints in this economy, clients are willing to take more risks with their lawyers on how fees are structured - this was borne out in the general counsel panel the following day by clients who admitted to being reticent to use alternative fee arrangements, but felt pressured to find the most economically efficient way to handle legal work. 

One of the panelists pointed out that despite the industry's seeming fear of moving away from the billable hour, hourly billing rates have only been around for the last sixty years.  When they took an informal poll of the room, most of those present were from firms doing some type of non-hourly billing.  Oslan said that it has taken his firm some time to get comfortable with the idea of alternative fees, and observed that clients aren't always ready to take that route.  Brenza agreed and said that although his firm does work entirely on an alternative fee basis, clients come to them for their skill, and not their fee schemes, and it often takes some time for them to become comfortable with it.  But at heart, the panel said that basically, clients want less expense and more certainty.  Law firms can't say that their work is too unique for a budget - it may be a leap of faith to handle work on an alternative fee basis, but other vendors are already doing it.

That being said, the panel agreed that the discussion over alternative fees is actually a lot bigger than the demand for them.  There are a lot of downsides to discounts, which the attorneys don't always consider as part of alternative billing.  Oslan pointed out that most firms are pyramid-shaped, with the majority of the lawyers being associates, and billable hours are rewarded.  These types of firms can't easily do alternative fees.  Firms built for non-hourly billing are structured differently - more diamond shaped with the greatest number of attorneys being experienced partners.  To be able to do alternative billing at a firm shaped like this, the partners doing it must be supported by the firm. 

The key takeaway from this presentation was that although the demand for alternative billing arrangements isn't as high as it's hyped to be, clients are looking for less expense and more certainty in their billing and firms will have to be able to adapt to best service their clients. 

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For the first session of the day, I was in Track One - the Business of Law: Recovery: Refocusing the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership to Maximize Profitability.  Presenting was Harris E. Berenson, Esq., the Assistant Vice President/Chief Counsel for Liberty Mutual and Senior Counsel for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.  His presentation focused on the idea that inside and outside counsel have a partnership, and he started by saying that a partnership, at its core, is nothing more than a relationship.  However, although this is a simple concept, the challenge comes when trying to execute it.  Relationships, both personal and professional, must be built on trust, support, consideration, respect, caring and the mutuality of responsibility.  Inside counsel are looking for a long-term partnership - similar to what people are looking for in a relationship as they get older.  They don't want someone who just wants to be "on the list;" they want a true business partner who knows their business and understands industry issues.  Because of this, they'll often go with their gut instinct and recommendations from trusted friends and colleagues.  Berenson said when looking for outside counsel, he checks with his counterparts, industry peers, and internal teams - when later asked, he emphasized that he does not look at directories and rankings lists for outside counsel and said "they don't matter."   

Once the decision is made to work together though, how do both sides get the most out of the relationship?  Berenson said there needs to be a "mutuality of expectations."  As an example, he said that if the client needs the firm to be available 24/7, the firm needs to be able to articulate how they will do that, not just that they can.  He said there must be "mutual hand-holding," similar to being in a romantic relationship, but he clarified that by "hand-holding," he didn't mean constantly taking people to lunch or asking for their business, but showing the client that you're a valuable business partner.  He also said that lawyers should show their clients that they can do what they said they could do, to suit up and show up, and to keep their promises.  Berenson said that each side comes with their own baggage, and it's up to each side to figure out what that is, and how they can learn from each other. 

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During the first morning session of the conference, the attendees were treated to a presentation by Andrew Zolli, founder of Z+ Partners, curator of PopTech, and exploration fellow at National Geographic.  His Z+ Partners bio says: 

"Andrew Zolli is an expert in global foresight and innovation, studying the complex trends at the intersection of technology, sustainability and global society that are shaping our future. His firm, Z + Partners, helps senior leaders at some of the world's preeminent companies, institutions and governments see, understand and respond to complex change. Andrew is alsothe Curator of Pop!Tech, the renowned thought leadership forum and social innovation network. Andrew serves as a Fellow of the National Geographic Society, where he is leading development of a global initiative to envision new scenarios for a sustainable world in 2030 and beyond. He was also recently named the first Business and Society Fellow of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship."

In a presentation that was "engaging, clever [and] funny," according to Lance Godard, Zolli focused on future trends affecting us both personally and professionally.  Using demographics as evidence, he showed the audience that by 2025, there will be more elderly people and children at the same time than ever before in history.  Additionally, the "Boomers" will be in the workforce even longer, which will cause "intergenerational chafing" between them and Generation X.  Those who were born after 1970 are likely to take care of their mothers longer than their mothers took care of them.  We are also seeing a shift in education, with statistics showing that the most educated man in the United States is 56, while the most educated woman is 28.  These ambitious women are having a hard time finding ambitious men, and there are more single women buying homes. 

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I just got back from the Legal Marketing Association's Annual Conference and I'm still trying to process the whirlwind of sessions and networking opportunities that I was able to be a part of.  I'll post a series of re-caps from the individual sessions over the next few days, but I wanted to start with my feelings about the conference as a whole.  For me, the main theme of this conference was relationships.  Perhaps I'm biased to look for that as a theme, since that's an essential part of our ILN conferences, but I was struck by how important it was during LMA10.

One of the things that's been drilled into me during client panels since I joined the ILN five and a half years ago is that "clients hire lawyers, not law firms," essentially saying that it's all about relationships.  This was backed up once again by the client panel on Friday morning when the panelists talked about how important chemistry is when choosing a lawyer to hire.  But this principle doesn't just apply to law firms - everyone makes purchasing decisions based on chemistry.  For example, if I'm looking for a new web designer for our group's website, I'm going to want to work with someone I trust, someone who understands my personality and how I work, as well as what I want to communicate through the site.  If I'm interviewing people for that work, I'm already going to weed out anyone I think doesn't have the appropriate skills, so it's assumed that the finalists will all be talented.  So it comes down to chemistry - who can I work with?  That applies both in my personal and my professional life and I've talked to others who feel the same, so when working with my own clients, I always try to think about how I would want to be approached. 

But why wait until you need to hire someone to network and form relationships with people in your own industry?  I have gained and continue to gain so much from the relationships I have formed with other talented, passionate people in the legal marketing industry and last week's conference showed me that very clearly.  Social media also played a large role in enhancing my experience, and was best explained by Heather Milligan over on her blog.  By connecting with people through social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and then taking those relationships offline by meeting my contacts in person, I am able to build friendships that inspire me professionally, support me personally, and give me a collective expertise to draw on among people I already trust. 

I've come away with a lot of good ideas and excitement about future projects thanks to the LMA conference and the people I interacted with there.  But overwhelmingly for me, my greatest takeaway was about the relationships - whether you're connecting online through social media, in person at a conference or cocktail party, or over the phone, it's all about engaging people and finding that right chemistry.  Not only can it lead to business (and it doesn't have to), but it enhances my life in many other intangible ways.  Nancy Myrland's video about connecting with legal marketing Twitter contacts does a great job of summing this up. 

I'll also mention that relationship-building doesn't end when you get back on the plane to come home - you've got to continue to connect and follow up with the new contacts that you've made.  Heather talked about that today and has some great tips for what to do when you return from a conference.

**(Photo from Nancy Myrland)

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As I prepare for next week's Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference, I'm revisiting the list of sessions I'll be at and tweeting from.  Heather Milligan over at The Legal Watercooler will be posting a list of which attendees will be tweeting from which sessions if you'd like to follow a certain "tweep" (as people who tweet are referred to) or session.  I'll be attending the following sessions (all times are local to Denver, Colorado) and you can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/lindsaygriffith:

Thursday, March 11, 2010
9:00 - 10:30am: Keynote Event
11:15am - 12:45pm: a) Recovery: Refocusing the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership to Maximize Profitability and b) Examing the Current Use of Alternative Fee Arrangements
2:30 - 3:30pm: Leveraging Social Networking - Real World Applications of Web 2.0 That Have Led to New Business
4:00 - 5:30pm: Social Media Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized Law Firms

Friday, March 12, 2010
9:00 - 10:00am: Creating and Implementing a Sales and Business Development Culture in Your Firm
11:30am - 1:00pm a) Managing Your Professional Reputation and b) The Digial Firm 2015

I'll also be attending the general session on Friday, "What We Love Most About Our Lawyers - A Client Panel" and may tweet from there as well.  In addition, I'll follow up my tweets with posts about the sessions, so if you prefer not to jump into the twitter stream, you can see the re-caps here.

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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 fourth webinar, How to Increase Results from Speaking, Writing, and Networking, took place on April 29, 2009. Jim described the session: "For some lawyers, speaking, writing and networking are very successful marketing techniques. Other lawyers give speeches, write articles, and/or go to networking meetings, but never seem to get enough business from them. This presentation will review how the most successful rainmakers use audience targeting, follow-up, and other tactics to increase results."

Some of the highlights from the session included:

* Jim started off by letting the audience know that these tactics are not for everyone. He said that the best sales people understand their strengths, and find the right fit, so he encouraged the audience to focus their limited marketing time on their strengths.

* Speaking: In terms of speaking, Jim emphasized the importance of choosing a specialized topic that has business potential. Once a topic has been chosen, it is essential to find the right audience. Jim discussed the process for doing this, as well as how to gain a speaking invitation. In terms of writing speeches, he encouraged the audience to follow emerging business trends and to keep folders with articles, quotes, and data to draw from. If speakers and writers do this consistently, they will always have source material to draw from. He added that these source materials can also be used as excuses to build relationships with contacts. Jim also went into detail on tips for the actual speech, as well as how to effectively follow up. He said that although speeches won't directly generate business, they can help to build relationships.

* Writing: Similar to speaking, Jim said it was important to find the right publications to target. He gave tips on how to do this, as well as how draft a query letter. He went into a list of the types of articles that are more attractive for publications, and therefore, more likely to be accepted. In addition to writing for publications, publishing a white paper on their firm's website or association websites is another way to attract attention through writing. Jim also listed blogs as another means of publication, but cautioned that he thinks these are overdone by lawyers. He also discussed how it is possible to network while writing, saying that authors can call people to interview and follow up with them with a draft, as well as using published articles to keep in touch with clients and prospects.

* Networking: Jim started by giving the audience Bob Burg's (of "Endless Referrals") Golden Rule of Networking, which is that "Clients do business with people they know, like and trust." He said that if you help others succeed, they will help you. Networking takes patience and perseverance, and case be a time waster if it's done with the wrong people. Jim then discussed how the audience could consider their personal network, and gave some advice for how to make the most of a networking meeting. He also spoke a little about having an "elevator speech," including its definition, the goals, how to develop one, and testing it.

* Jim ended with a few comments about social networking, listing some of the many options available. He felt that there are some powerful tools out there, but there is a need for caution.

The webinar recording and materials for this fourth session are available to ILN member firms at a low cost- please contact me for more information.

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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 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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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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It's that time of year again - time to head to the Legal Marketing Association's Annual Conference. This year's theme "Change...Now What?" is particularly appropriate for the challenges that we're all facing in the current economy. According to Peter Vieth's article in Virginia Lawyers Weekly, "the slump in the economy has led to the increased use of social media" and we at the ILN have found that social media is a valuable way to support our members with almost no financial investment. Just last Friday, we learned that a referral we received and facilitated through Twitter had resulted in a very happy referree and a file for our member firm in the UAE. To continue to learn how to best leverage social media tools, I'll be attending LMA sessions focusing on social media, along with a few others, and then tweeting and posting recaps. You can follow along on what other LMA attendees are saying about the conference on Twitter as well.

Taking a page from LMA member Heather Milligan's blog, here's a list of the breakout sessions I'll be attending:

Thursday
- Conference Sponsorship Trends: 2008
- Thought Leadership: The New Frontier of Strategic Marketing

Friday
- Emergence & Benefit of Social Networking for Legal Professionals
- Legal Transformation Study - Your 20/20 Vision of the Future

I'll also be attending speeches by keynote speakers James Carville & Mary Matalin, and featured speakers Peter Sheahan and Arianna Huffington, in addition to networking with some of the best minds in the legal marketing community.

Of particular note for ILN members, on Thursday, the LMA will hold their annual Your Honor Awards. This year, our ILNBriefs cartoons are nominated as a finalist in the Internal Communications Category, so stay tuned for the results of the awards ceremony!

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