Photo of Lindsay Griffiths

Lindsay Griffiths is the International Lawyers Network’s Executive Director. She is a dynamic, influential international executive and marketing thought leader with a passion for relationship development and authoring impactful content. Griffiths is a driven, strategic leader who implements creative initiatives to achieve the goals of a global professional services network. She manages all major aspects of the Network, including recruitment, member retention, and providing exceptional client service to an international membership base.

In her role as Executive Director, Griffiths manages a mix of international programs, engages a diverse global community, and develops an international membership base. She leads the development and successful implementation of major organizational initiatives, manages interpersonal relationships, and possesses executive presence with audiences of internal and external stakeholders. Griffiths excels at project management, organization, and planning, writes and speaks with influence and authority, and works independently while demonstrating flexibility in thinking, especially in challenging situations. She also adapts to diverse and dynamic environments with constant assessment and recalibration.

JD Supra Readers Choice Top Author 2019

In 2021, the ILN was honored as Global Law Firm Network of the Year by The Lawyer European Awards, and in 2016, 2017, and 2022, they were shortlisted as Global Law Firm Network of the Year. Since 2011, the Network has been listed as a Chambers & Partners Leading Law Firm Network, recently increasing this ranking to be included in the top two percent of law firm networks globally, as well as adding two regional rankings. She was awarded “Thought Leader of the Year” by the Legal Marketing Association’s New York chapter in 2014 for her substantive contributions to the industry and was included in Clio’s list of “34 People in Legal You Should Follow on Twitter.” She was also chosen for the American Bar Association Journal’s inaugural Web 100‘s Best Law Blogs, where judge Ivy Grey said “This blog is outstanding, thoughtful, and useful.” Ms. Griffiths was chosen as a Top Author by JD Supra in their 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards, for the level of engagement and visibility she attained with readers on the topic of marketing & business development. She has been the author of Zen & the Art of Legal Networking since February 2009.

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

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vXGYK1eP_wo

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"Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Bad & The Ugly – Lessons for Lawyers

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….Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Good – Lessons for Lawyers

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.Continue Reading Communication Crisis – My Two Cents on the Kenneth Cole Scandal

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?Continue Reading Lawyers: What Can We Learn From Zappos?

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, Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. in Washington, D.C.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Representing

It’s that time of year again – the LMA Annual Conference is coming up in April!  It’s a great opportunity to make new friends and renew relationships, so I thought I’d keep a list of those attending as I’m advised, as well as their Twitter names (so anyone interested in the conference who can’t attend can follow along).  Also, don’t forget to follow #LMA11 for more information on the conference and during the sessions.  

If you’d like to follow along with a twitter list, check out Laura Gutierrez’s list of LMA attendees!

Lindsay Griffiths (@lindsaygriffith)
Heather Morse (@heather_morse)
Nancy Myrland (@nancymyrland)
Gail LaMarche (@gaillamarche)
Laura Gutierrez (@lalaland999)
Megan McKeon (@meganmckeon)
Karen Cariello (@karencariello)
Lydia Bednerik (@lydiabednerik)
Sally Schmidt (@sallyschmidt)
Nuno Lapirdo (@nlapirdo)
Matt Fankhauser (@mattfankhauser)
Amy Knapp (@knappmarketing)
Jonathan Groner (@jgronerpr)
Jasmine Decarie (@jasminedecarie)
Kristin Tyhurst (@ktyhurst)
Nat Slavin (@natslavin)Continue Reading LMA Attendees

The ILN has offered a webinar series to our members for the past two years, and in 2010/2011, we offered a three-part series on social networking. In October, we started with, "Social Networking Strategy & Blogging," with Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog and in December, we had Freesource’s Nathan Egan discuss "LinkedIn for Lawyers." January’s webinar with Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media and Nancy Myrland of Myrland Marketing focused on Facebook and Twitter for Lawyers.

Part II with Dave focused on Using Facebook to Grow Your Law Firm.  As I mentioned in my first post, due to some technical difficulties, our webinar didn’t record any sound, so I’ll be re-capping the presentations based on my (hopefully) excellent memory, and the slide decks of our presenters. 

As we mentioned in the webinar introduction, Dave is the CEO of Likeable Media, a social media and word of mouth marketing firm. Dave is one of the leading experts on social media and Facebook marketing, and he and his work have been featured on CNBC’s "On the Money," ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Early Show, the New York Times, and countless blogs.Continue Reading Webinar Re-cap: Facebook & Twitter for Lawyers with Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media and Nancy Myrland of Myrland Marketing Part II

The ILN has offered a webinar series to our members for the past two years, and in 2010/2011, we offered a three-part series on social networking. In October, we started with, "Social Networking Strategy & Blogging," with Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog and in December, we had Freesource’s Nathan Egan discuss "LinkedIn for Lawyers." January’s webinar with Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media and Nancy Myrland of Myrland Marketing focused on Facebook and Twitter for Lawyers.

Nancy kicked off the session with some fantastic information for our audience about Twitter.  I’ll be splitting my posts into two with Part I focused on Twitter and Part II dealing with Dave’s comments on Facebook.

Due to some technical difficulties, our webinar didn’t record any sound, so I’ll be re-capping the presentations based on my (hopefully) excellent memory, and the slide decks of our presenters.

Continue Reading Webinar Re-cap: Facebook & Twitter for Lawyers with Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media and Nancy Myrland of Myrland Marketing Part I

As a part of the ILN’s Administrative team, I’ve been fortunate to have the experience of working with some incredible legal marketers at our member firms. They’ve supported me in my role in the Network and I’ve learned from them time and time again.

Periodically, we draw on them for assistance in answering member firms’

Ah December.

The time of year when everyone is rushing around trying to finish end of the year projects and planning for next year is already underway.  

There have been a lot of "end of the year" posts lately, and I’ve been debating whether to throw my hat into the ring.  

I’ve been thinking about this post for a week and couldn’t decide what to write about.  I wanted to reflect on what I’ve learned in the last year, but should it be what I’ve learned personally? Professionally? Through Zen Legal Networking? Through our lawyers? 

I just couldn’t come up with a theme.

Until I read this post over at The Bloggess.

And I cried.Continue Reading It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year