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Lindsay Griffiths

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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.

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On the second day of the LMA conference, I kept the client-related momentum going by heading straight into "Client Expectations in Today’s Marketplace" after the GC Panel. Presenting in the session were Laura Meherg and Nat Slavin of Wicker Park Group, and thanks to LMA, I can tell you: 

Wicker Park Group consultants interview hundreds of clients each year on behalf of law firms located around the world. The interviewees include business owners, company executives and in-house counsel representing a wide range of industries. Taken together, the interviews offer unique insights into the essential expectations that build strong client relationships regardless of location, industry or client history."

The session itself promised that: 

This program will highlight the most common themes in client expectations, including the complaints and praise – both big and small – that clients identify as greatly impacting the well-being of their outside counsel relationships. In addition, Wicker Park Group partners will explain what clients think about client feedback, why it’s critical to consistently seek their input, the global trends in client feedback and best practices from successful client feedback and client service programs in law firms."

Continue Reading Client Expectations in Today’s Marketplace – A Recap

It feels good to be getting back into the routine after being away at LMA15! You’ll still be seeing a couple more recap posts from me (two, perhaps three), but today, we’re back to our regularly scheduled Two for Tuesdays, and yes, we’re still looking at content marketing. 

As expected, content marketing was the buzz of the LMA too, and it’s not going away any time soon. Lest you start to panic, law firms have been producing content long before it was "cool" to do so – we’ve just now got a name for it. 

But there are still challenges to doing so, and I see the results of them all the time. Let’s look at two of these challenges today, and how to overcome them, in our latest Two for Tuesdays. Thanks to The Wordstream Blog and their "11 Big Content Marketing Challenges (and How to Overcome Them)" for the inspiration! 

Challenge One: Competition

What’s the old adage? There’s nothing new to say, just new ways to say it. As The Wordstream Blog’s post points out: 

Whether you’re blogging about your small needlecraft business or enterprise-level IT hardware, someone else has already been blogging about it for a long time. To make matters worse, there has never been such intense competition for your audience’s attention."

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Challenges to Content Marketing

I am happy to announce our firm of the month, Gadens Lawyers, our member from Australia! 

 
April/May 2015
ILN Firm of the Month – Gadens, Australia!

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, Gadens, Australia! 

Gadens is a leading Australian legal services provider with a footprint in the Asia Pacific region. They

…

On Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking with another of the panelists for Wednesday’s General Counsel Panel here at the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference. Joseph Otterstetter is the Managing Counsel and Associate General Counsel with 3M.  The position was a new one created two and a half years ago, with Otterstetter acting as a type of “Chief of Staff” for the legal department. He overseas a range of areas, including budget, human resources, and operations, and works with the General Counsel and leadership to run the department.

I started off by observing that in Otterstetter’s LinkedIn biography, he indicates that he was appointed to lead the efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness of 3M legal affairs. I asked him to comment on how he’s been focused on accomplishing that. 

Primarily, he answered, it’s been focused around three things.

  1. Working with his colleagues on the convergence process, which has led them to reduced their outside counsel by 75%.
  2. Related to that, there’s been a big push for using non-time-based bees for outside lawyers, and that’s now the majority of the work that they do.
  3. They’re also doing strategic insourcing – moving more of the work that they’ve typically done outside in the past in-house. 


Continue Reading Outside Firms are More and More Becoming an Extension of In-House Law Departments

Today’s Two for Tuesdays is really going to put you to work – it’s about measuring your content marketing. 

While it is true that there’s a lot of subjectivity when it comes to content marketing, and that it’s not often easy to measure or track where business comes from ("I just *feel* like things are happening since I started blogging!"), there are some things you can do to keep an eye on your efforts and to see where your time is best invested. 

Tip One: Identify Your Goals

It makes no sense to try to track any metrics before you identify what your goals are. What is it that you want to achieve with your content marketing? Start with a vague idea of what it is that you want, and then get very, very specific so that you have something that is measurable and actionable. 

Some ideas for possible motivation behind content marketing include: 

  • Becoming better known as a thought leader in X specialty area. 
  • Bringing in new clients. 
  • Getting more speaking opportunities in a niche practice area. 
  • Bringing in more of a certain kind of work. 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Content Marketing Metrics

We’re one week away from the start of the Legal Marketing Association‘s Annual Conference, and if you’re a regular reader of Zen, you’ll know that my favorite session of the conference is always the general counsel panel. 

This year, I thought I’d switch things up a little bit by reaching out to LMA before the conference to see if I could interview the GCs prior to the panel for a preview of their remarks. I spoke with one of the panelists on Friday, and will be speaking with another one this coming Friday, so tune in next Monday for our second preview interview! 

Before I jump into the panelist’s remarks, let’s look at what LMA will be focusing on in this year’s panel, which is titled "How We Buy What You Sell – and How That’s Changing."  The panel will be moderated by Catherine Moynihan, the Senior Director of Legal Management Services at the Association of Corporate Counsel, and will feature Darragh Davis, the Vice President & General Counsel for Petco Animal Supplies Inc., Virginia Sanzone, the SVP and AGC – Business Segments and Americas for CareFusion and Joe Otterstetter, the Managing Counsel for 3M. 

Continue Reading It’s [Still] About Being Your Client’s Business Partner

The final key in getting and communicating the value of any conference or event you attend is, of course, in the follow up. Follow up seems like an obvious piece of the puzzle, but because you’ve been out of the office for a couple of days, and there are demands on your time from the moment you land, it’s actually fairly easy for it to slip from the front of your mind to the back burner. 

It’s essential not to let that happen, so that you don’t lose all of the value that you’ve gained from preparation and engaging in the conference. 

As with preparation and engagement, there are a number of different ways to follow up after (and even while you’re still at) an event, culminating with a review for your colleagues and firm decision makers. The reason I suggest that the follow up end with the review is two-fold – one, when you do all of the other follow-up first, all of the conference value will be very fresh in your mind, and you’ll have your key points handy to share with them right away.

And two, implementing this follow up will hopefully have them following along and result in some further engagement, which will help you to demonstrate additional value even more easily during the review meeting. Continue Reading Communicating Conference Attendance Value: Follow Up

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 one of our newest ILN members, Miriam Machado of KLA – Koury Lopes Advogados in Brazil!

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Hectic and interesting! Everyday is crazy and busy and stressful, but there is no one day like the other. Never a dull moment!

Who would be your typical client?
CFOs, CEOs and CMOs of foreign (large and medium size) companies. I expressly mention the positions because at the end of the day, the people are really the clients in most cases.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
That I am practical and business oriented, focused on solutions. And that I have fun discussing complicated issues or putting intricate structures together.

What has been your most challenging case?
Every case that involves individuals. The negotiation of a large deal between a Brazilian company (infrastructure conglomerate) and a Japanese group (keiretsu). The cultural gaps were evident from the start and bridging them was an added challenge (especially being a woman). The closing was a very rewarding moment! I was very proud of all of us! And I fell in love with Tokyo!
Continue Reading ILN-terviews: Miriam Machado, KLA – Koury Lopes Advogados

Supposedly, spring is coming here in the northeast, though with snow and continued single-digit temperatures, it’s hard to believe.

But April will start tomorrow regardless, and if you’re spring cleaning your house, why not "spring clean" your content marketing as well? (It’s a cheesy metaphor, but bear with me). 

Last night, I was reading a post from Practical ECommerce that offered some content marketing ideas for April, using April holidays as a springboard. I was ready to discount this right off the bat as being not applicable to the legal industry, but it turns out that it may actually be quite useful…which serves as yet another good reminder as to why we’ve all got to stay open-minded when it comes to marketing and business development ideas. 

Of course, there are some suggestions that won’t be practical for lawyers. Although I’d love to see some content marketing pieces created around April Fools’ Day jokes, I doubt it will happen. Although…employment lawyers! How about creating some posts on April Fools’ Day jokes in the workplace gone wrong? I could see that working very well!Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Unique Content Marketing Ideas

We’re excited to announce today that the ILN is forming a Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Specialty Group, which will be co-chaired by James Giszczak of McDonald Hopkins (Cleveland, Ohio) and Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker & Green (Washington, DC). The group joins the ILN’s thirteen other practice and industry-focused specialty groups.

I have the opportunity to work closely with the chairs of our specialty groups as their facilitator, and I particularly enjoy working with lawyers who have a passion for their work, which Jim and Stuart certainly do in this area. I expect great things to come from the CDP guys and gals! 

I include the remainder of the press release for additional information about the group, and our two co-chairs. 

Both chairs are enthusiastic to push the group forward, with a goal of working together with the other members of the group to co-promote the combined strength and depth of expertise of its members, both domestically and internationally. A directory of ILN firms with Cybersecurity & Data Privacy expertise is already available on the ILN website.

Continue Reading International Lawyers Network Forms Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Specialty Group