Posted in Law Firm Client Service, Law Firms, Leadership, Legal, Legal Marketing, Relationship Development

Lawyers: What Makes You Worth Talking About?

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Lawyers know better than most people that words matter – after all, who knows better than a contract lawyer that a nuanced clause can make or break a deal?

But who knows better than your marketing team that “marketing” is a four-letter word?

It shouldn’t be – and I’ll explain why in a moment.

But how many of you (raise your hands) think of marketing as something that some group in your office does once in a while?

How many of you think of marketing as brochures and advertisements?

How many of you think marketers are just people who ask you for money and then put pretty logos together or make sure you have enough business cards?

Okay, put your  hands down. I’ve got news for you – marketing is everything you do. Continue Reading

Posted in Lawyer Interviews

ILN-terviews: Arthur Li, Lee and Li

By Lindsay Griffiths on

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, Arthur Li of our member firm Lee and Li in Taiwan, China.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
I am a general practitioner, especially focused in IP-related matters.

Who would be your typical client?
Those who seek assistance to enter the Taiwanese market.  Continue Reading

Posted in Rainmaking Recommendations

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: Using Social Listening/Monitoring to Build Your Book of Business – Part 1

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Are you using social media to its fullest ability to help you in business development? Learn how using social listening can help you to build your book of business in Jaimie Field’s latest post.

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Have you ever thought about using social monitoring to build your book of business?

Social monitoring/listening is using tools, like Google Alerts, Social Mention, Talkwalker, Mention (to name a scant few) to monitor what is on the internet based on specific queries that you set up. Many of them are free of charge or offer a freemium version (a less robust form of the program with minimum features of the version for which they would make you pay). Continue Reading

Posted in Firm of the Month

ILN Firm of the Month – Ferrari Pedeferri Boni Studio Legale Associato, Milan, Italy!

By Lindsay Griffiths on

We are proud to announce our latest firm of the month,  Ferrari Pedeferri Boni Studio Legale Associato , Milan, Italy!
Ferrari Pedeferri Boni is an independent Italian law firm that handles legal issues of business law. They strive for excellence in their services and are proud to meet the highest international standards of the legal profession. Their clients are entrepreneurs and executives, Italian and foreigners, and their philosophy is to take a pragmatic and business-oriented approach when assisting them. They regularly handle cross-border and international transactions and litigation cases. Over the years, they have garnered significant expertise in international market and have developed a trusted network of professionals that they put at the disposal of their clients when needed.

Continue Reading

Posted in Legal Marketing

What Does it Mean to Develop Your Personal Brand?

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of participating in the inaugural New York City event for She Breaks the Law, a network of women leaders founded by Priya Lele, Christie Guimond and Nicky Leijtens. The group brings together women in the legal industry who are “breaking the mould and challenging the norm in the world of law. Our members come from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, from female founders of disruptive start-ups to general counsel to innovation leaders in traditional law firms. They all have one thing in common: they are leading the change in the way that legal services are delivered.” Over the past two months since the soft launch, the group has grown to over 1,000 members, and officially launched with their London event last week.

At the New York event, as in London, in addition to general networking, we had structured “networking circles” – ours focused on legal tech and how we use it, the power of networking in the legal industry, legal design, and personal branding. I had the opportunity to chair the personal branding sessions, and it led to some thoughtful and interesting conversations around the idea of what it really means to develop your personal brand. Continue Reading

Posted in Law Firm Client Service, Law Firms, Relationship Development

You Can’t Delegate Relationship Development – Lessons From Taylor Swift

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Last week, we talked about channeling your inner Taylor Swift to connect with your clients – it seems silly, but no one understands her client base and instill rabid loyalty better than Taylor, and isn’t that all something we’d love to emulate with our own clients?

We may not have her reputation (see what I did there?), but that doesn’t mean we can’t practice some of her tactics in our own relationship development efforts with similar success. One of the things she’s got down pat is knowing when to engage directly.  Continue Reading

Posted in Legal Marketing, Rainmaking Recommendations

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: Are you Glossophobic?

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Today’s rainmaking recommendation from expert and trainer, Jaimie Field, deals with a topic that is familiar to me – glossophobia, or the fear of standing up in front of a crowd. Is this something you suffer from? Read on…

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Does the thought of standing up in front of a crowd scare you to death?  Would you rather have a root canal? This is called glossophobia and I’ll tell you something you may not know – even some of the biggest stars get scared about going out on stage.

Now, I love having an audience.  I have ever since I can remember.  After my first career choice at the age of 6 was shot down (I wanted to be a professional tambourine player like Val from Josie and the Pussycats – the 1970s cartoon), I decided I wanted to be a musical theater star. So I attended a theater camp in upstate New York called Stagedoor Manor.  While there, I realized that compared to these amazingly talented kids, I was mediocre and unless Bob Fosse saw me walking down the street and decided he had to have me star in his new show, I was going to be a chorus girl for life.  Nothing wrong with that, but I wanted more.  Continue Reading

Posted in Law Firm Client Service, Law Firms, Relationship Development

Channel Your Inner Taylor Swift & Connect to Your Clients

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Taylor Swift is my favorite client relationship genius.

That may seem a bit strange, but when you drill down into the brilliant marketing and business development machine that she is, you’ll agree that there are a few things that Taylor does that create rabid loyalty among her fans – and I mean rabid.

Before you start asking what Tay-tay and her music have to do with the law, first, ask yourself what it would feel like to have your clients feel the same way about you as Taylor’s fans feel about her? What if your clients trusted you so implicitly that they never took their business to anyone else? What if they called you first before making a business decision, because you’re their trusted adviser? What if your clients lined up every time you wrote or spoke, because they knew what you had to say was that valuable? Continue Reading

Posted in Law Firms, Leadership

Great Leaders Think Outside the Box

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Lawyers, don’t panic – this isn’t as scary as it sounds.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop on leadership that encouraged some out-of-the-box thinking – the session integrated improv techniques into various business applications. I hate anything that feels like an icebreaker (I prefer routine and structure), so I was already pre-programmed to prefer sitting in a conference room listening to a speaker than to engage in improv.

But I was pleasantly surprised – and while some of the tips seemed silly at first (or may not work for every situation), I could definitely see the benefits of incorporating them.

Two of my favorites were “Yes, and…” and applauding all ideas.  Continue Reading

Posted in Rainmaking Recommendations

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: A Rainmaking Exercise (Literally)

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Rainmaking trainer and expert, Jaimie Field, is bringing us another solid tip for business development today, and it’s about exercise! She mentions me in here – not by name, but I’m the one who ran the Paris marathon this weekend – but that’s not the only reason I’m sharing this post. I’ll add to her comments that exercise is a great tool for business development, not just for the reasons she outlines below, but also because it gives you opportunities to connect to potential business contacts. Running with my lawyers enables a different group of people to network as we explore a new city – you may find that joining your local gym exposes you to potential clients or referral sources, or your weekly squash game is something that you can play with a new client. Rather than meeting for drinks, you meet for a round of golf or a new running route. Train for a race with a client or potential client, and it could change your whole relationship. Explore exercise as another way to develop business, as well as change the relationship you have with your health. And if you are a female runner, or a woman wanting to become a runner, check out the Badass Lady Gang, which has almost 60 chapters around the world and is a great way to get started (full disclosure, I lead my local chapter).  Continue Reading

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