Posted in Legal Marketing, Rainmaking Recommendations

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: The Benefits of Creating Your Legal Brand (Legal Branding Series 3)

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Today, we’re bringing you a guest post from rainmaking trainer and expert, Jaimie Field, who continues her series on branding with the benefits of creating your legal brand.

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In part 1 of this series, we discussed why you need to create a brand.  In part 2, we discussed what characteristics go into creating your brand.  Now, in part 3, we will be discussing the benefits of creating your legal brand.
There is real power in having a brand.  Your brand conveys the promises you are willing to make to your clients without necessarily saying a word.  Your personal brand is, as mentioned in part 2, is “what people say when you leave the room.”   But, what are the true benefits of creating a personal legal brand? Continue Reading

Posted in Firm of the Month

ILN Firm of the Month – SJA Avocats, Geneva, Switzerland!

By Lindsay Griffiths on

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, SJA Avocats, Geneva, Switzerland!
SJA Avocats was established over 25 years ago. They were among the first firms to practice across cantons, with offices in Geneva as well as Lausanne, covering all the Suisse Romande.

Continue Reading

Posted in Law Firms, Leadership, Legal Marketing

How to Leverage Multigenerational Talent to Achieve Business Development Success

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Children businessmen are meeting in the office sitting at the computer

Today, I’m bringing you a post from an ILN marketer, Amanda Schneider. Amanda is with ILN member firm Epstein Becker Green, where she is the Chief Marketing Officer. Amanda provides tips on how firms can leverage the multigenerational attorney workforce through involvement in business development initiatives.

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It is critical for firms to understand that attorney engagement in business and client development must begin in the early stages of an attorney’s career to ensure that he or she is prepared for the prospect of partnership. However, in order to do this, the firm’s culture must be accepting of providing true business development opportunities to non-partner attorneys.

Below are actionable ways to involve all generations in marketing and business development:

  • Support business plan development from day one. Empower members of the marketing and business development team to provide coaching to attorneys in a systematic manner that involves building a business development plan, starting from when an attorney joins the firm. Even first-year attorneys can consider their network of contacts and ways to continue building relationships that may eventually lead to business. The ability for junior attorneys to build their skill set in writing, speaking, and networking is critical for future success, and these skills must be engrained through training and coaching. Firm leadership must support this type of process to ensure its success.
  • Train for the effective development of an attorney’s online profile.Attorney biographies, blog posts, and social media profiles provide an opportunity to develop each attorney’s personal brand. With proper training, an attorney can effectively share the firm’s thought leadership through his or her social media network by using platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. An emphasis should be placed on adhering to ethical guidelines and conducting conflicts checks before writing on topics to confirm that the firm is protecting its client relationships. Blogs are a terrific place for attorneys to begin writing, as the more condensed format is less intimidating.
  • Use video to showcase talent at all levels. Video content is a fantastic way to include attorneys of all generations on the firm’s website and social media channels. For junior attorneys, video interviews provide a great opportunity to practice speaking publicly on niche topics.
  • Provide media training and access to interviews. The idea that only partners should byline articles and be included in media interviews is not conducive to training multiple generations on media relations. Firms should encourage partners to mentor non-partner attorneys on co-writing articles and give them access to media interviews, with proper media training.

With three generations of attorneys currently in the legal workforce, enormous opportunities exist for firms that can leverage their talents.

Posted in General Counsel Corner, Law Firm Client Service, Leadership

Why Legal Tech does not work: The top 8 mistakes GCs make

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Today, we’re bringing you a special guest post from the folks at Legal Gateway, who have identified the top eight mistakes that in-house counsel make when implementing legal technology that prevents it from being successful. In-house lawyers: this one’s for you, and for our outside counsel readers, consider sharing this with your clients and discussing their technology needs, solutions, and strategies with them, and how you may be able to partner with them. This was originally published on Plexus.

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After many years of under-investment in technology, GCs are finally joining the party.  Sadly, many of them are setting themselves up for a hangover.

Our recent research into Legal Transformation suggests that General Counsels will increase investment in technology by 252% in the next two years.  Yet, limited technology competencies will lead most to frustration and failure. Continue Reading

Posted in Rainmaking Recommendations

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: What Goes Into Creating Your Personal Brand? (Branding Series part 2)

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Following up on part one of her series on branding, rainmaking expert and coach, Jaimie Field, is bringing us part two today, on what goes into creating your personal brand.

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When attorneys think of brand they usually think of the firm name or about creating a logo or even having a tagline.  And while these things go into making up your “visual brand” and should be used to create consistency in your marketing, a personal brand goes so much deeper. Continue Reading

Posted in Conference/Webinar Session Re-caps, Law Firm Client Service, Law Firms, Legal Marketing

Connection Brings People Back – Business Development Lessons from Disney

By Lindsay Griffiths on

It can seem like the reason that Disney is so successful is truly a dose of magic.

But when you break it down, they have a real formula for excellence – excellence in leadership, creating and sustaining the right culture, and pursuing client satisfaction. All of the pieces of that formula are important, but even after putting them together, what truly makes Disney successful is their ability to bring people back again and again. And to do that, they need connection with their customers, and to empower their customers to tell the stories that make other people want a piece of the Disney experience too.

That isn’t much different to the way business development works for lawyers and law firms. Continue Reading

Posted in Law Firms, Legal Marketing

Say Goodbye To Q1 With A Tune-up Of Your Marketing & BD Plan

By Lindsay Griffiths on

We’re ending the week on a high note, with a guest post from Lance Godard, of The Godard Group. For over 30 years, Lance has worked with lawyers and law firms to help them craft their messages, so if you’re looking for someone to help you with your content, look no further than The Godard Group. Today, he gives us some solid tips for conducting a quarterly tune-up of our marketing/BD plans.

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Just as you regularly perform maintenance on your car, you need to regularly tune-up your marketing and business development efforts, objectives and plans in response to changes in your practice, your client base, your experience, and your network. In fact, it’s a good idea to do that quarterly, because three months is enough time to determine how well your plan is working or, more to the point, how well you are working your plan. Here are three things you can do: Continue Reading

Posted in Conference/Webinar Session Re-caps, Law Firm Client Service, Law Firms

Success Requires Client Satisfaction – the Disney Philosophy

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Success that starts with leadership and continues with having the right people makes complete sense – but all of that doesn’t mean much if your clients aren’t satisfied. And that’s the third piece in Disney’s philosophy.

Disney’s strategy is to exceed their guests’ expectations by paying attention to every detail of the delivery.  Paying attention doesn’t cost money, just time – and that’s something that firms can be doing as well.  While I recognize that time does equal money for law firms, what Disney says next makes sense – there can be big wows (like building a new rollercoaster), but paying attention to the small details changes the experience – it’s easier to do 100 things 1% better than to do 1 thing 100% better. When you link all those little wows together, you create a big wow. Continue Reading

Posted in Conference/Webinar Session Re-caps, Law Firms, Leadership

Success Requires the Right Culture – the Disney Philosophy

By Lindsay Griffiths on

Starting at the top is essential, but you need the right mix of people within your firm to really be successufl. Disney calls this “cast excellence.” The corporate culture at Disney is, by design, well-defined, clear to all, and goal-oriented. It can seem challenging to implement this at a law firm, but I’ve seen it done (take a look at our member firm in Australia, Hall & Wilcox, with their emphasis on Smarter Law). Jeff Williford of the Disney Institute challenged firms to think about their corporate culture, and whether the existing culture is what they want – internal branding is important, as is communicating your culture up front and early.

If you communicate your culture up-front, others can make the decision if they want to engage with you or not.  For example – Disney doesn’t allow anyone with visible tattoos or mohawks to work there, and they communicate that early so people can self-select out. Similarly, Hall & Wilcox has a transparent culture of collaboration and community, with a fully open plan in their offices – when you interview, you know right away whether that’s something that would work for you or not. Continue Reading

Posted in Future of the Law Firm, Leadership

3 Reasons Law Firms Should be Paying Attention to CLOC

By Lindsay Griffiths on

CLOC is a movement.

You’ve heard me mention this before, that CLOC (also known as the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium) is a community, a movement. It’s a drumbeat. And it’s not going away. But why is it so important for lawyers and law firms to be paying attention? Three reasons. Continue Reading

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