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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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After two weeks off, I’m thinking about how to boost your creativity on this two for Tuesday. The lawyers among you may be wondering how that applies to you, if at all, but there’s room for creativity in all professions.  When we take the time to refresh, let different ideas in, and open our minds, sometimes the answers to critical problems can make themselves clear much more easily. 

So with that, I bring you this week’s Two for Tuesdays! 

Tip One: Read Something Different

We all do a lot of reading for work. Briefs, arguments, new legislation, blog posts, articles, news items, you name it. So it can seem daunting to try to add yet one more thing into the mix.  But how about, for today, taking a break from all of that and reading something absolutely unrelated to your work? 

Perhaps you’re a mystery buff, or you enjoy trashy beach reads (don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone). Maybe you’ve wanted to dive into that bestseller that everyone has been talking about, or reread a favorite classic novel. Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Boosting Your Creativity

As I’m still out on holidays, I’m bringing you a fabulous guest post today from my friend, Chris Kirby, President of PCT Solutions. 

***

Over the more than 15 years I’ve been coaching and/or training attorneys and other professionals, perhaps the most consistent reason for not marketing is, “I don’t have time.” Whether the client is a monsoon maker or someone who is still looking forward to his first origination credit, they never seem to have time for business development.

No matter how proficient you are at business development, it does take time. And whether you enjoy it or not, business development is no longer optional. So how do you manage to effectively source, grow, flourish, and maintain great relationships when there isn’t a spare minute in the day? Here are a few strategies I’ve seen PCTS clients use to great effect:

Continue Reading Sleepless in the Saddle: Finding time to market when there’s no time to sleep

 We’re excited to announce this month’s Firm of the Month, McDonald Hopkins LLC of Ohio! 

   

 Member of the International Lawyers Network

The ILN is proud to announce our latest "Firm of the Month" – McDonald Hopkins LLC of Cleveland, Ohio!

Attorneys. Advisors. Advocates.
As a business advisory and advocacy law firm, McDonald Hopkins is focused on insightful legal solutions

…

The final session I attended at the P3 conference was TyMetrix’s "Navigating the New Normal – Where to Start." The panel was moderated by John Strange of Baker Botts, and included Holly Montalvo, TyMetrix, Peter Eilhauer, Elevate Services, and Toby Brown, Akin Gump. 

The attendee guide reads: 

As law firms navigate in the new normal they are being asked by corporate clients to deliver their services in a more predictable and transparent fashion. Join our panel of experts in a collaborative discussion on ‘Where to Start’ on this path to deliver a more efficient and effective legal service deliverable while demonstrating value to your client in a transparent way."

As we’ve seen, there is a corporate appetite for more data to analyze what companies are spending on legal services. But where are we today in terms of understanding "big data?" The panelists say "in between a rock and a hard place." Continue Reading Navigating the New Normal – Where to Start

I may be on vacation this week, but it doesn’t mean that you’re without content here at Zen! We’re back with another Two for Tuesdays, and our second installment of "thought leaders to follow!"

Thought Leader One: Eric Fletcher

Eric’s blog bio tells us: 

With more than twenty-five years of experience, spanning broadcasting, advertising, marketing and professional services business development, Eric Fletcher is a seasoned connector — of ideas, people and strategic growth-oriented solutions. For the past dozen years he has managed and directed teams focused on targeted business development and client service in the legal industry."

I first met Eric virtually when he was brought on as the CMO of a former member firm of the ILN. But I really got to know him better when he started blogging over at Marketing Brain Fodder. Eric always writes brilliant, well-thought out and timely posts, which get me thinking and challenge me to be a better marketer and communicator. Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Thought Leaders to Follow

I may be out on vacation this week, but I’m still bringing you some content! 

My first session at the P3 conference on Friday was titled "Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Borrowing Lessons in Pricing and Metrics from Other Industries." If you’ve been reading Zen for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of looking to other industries for new ideas. And in P3 that’s especially helpful, since we’re not reinventing the wheel here – a lot of the challenges firms face have been seen in some other way somewhere else. 

The program description states: 

As the legal services industry continues to define what works and what does not in the opaque world of pricing, efficiency and process innovation, one can’t help but notice that other industries have been doing these things for quite some time, and not without success."

‘Borrowing’ best practices from others is a business best practice itself, and this panel of pricing professionals from non-legal organizations will share their methodologies, observations and recommendations that will provide both law firm and corporate legal department executives with food for thought on methods for addressing some of the challenges they face and finding effective solutions to conquer them."

Continue Reading Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Borrowing Lessons in Pricing and Metrics

It’s another Two for Tuesdays here, and apparently, I’m feeling the need for lots of alliteration today, as we’re looking at two tips for Twitter. 

Why bother with Twitter? 

Let’s look at a couple of stats first, and then why those might be important: 

  • 255 million monthly active users (that’s ACTIVE users)
  • 500 million tweets sent per day
  • 77% of accounts are outside of the US

And lawyers may be a bigger deal on Twitter than they think. According to Kevin O’Keefe, the "median active Twitter user (tweets at least once a month) has only 61 followers." So it follows that…

If you’re a lawyer seeing yourself as a Twitter laggard because you have only a few hundred followers, fear not. You’re in the 80th to 90th percentile. Reach 1,000 followers and you’re at the 97th percentile of active Twitter users."

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Tips for Twitter

We had high hopes for the final session on the first day of P3, with my friends Tim Corcoran (@tcorcoran), John Byrne (@johnmbyrne), Catherine MacDonagh (@CathMacDonagh) and Amy Hrehovcik (@hRovingChik) presenting – and we weren’t disappointed! 

As per the attendee guide: 

We will examine a typical corporate business case and how it incorporates internal and external factors such as market demand, competitive pricing, cost of production, cost of delivery, client mix, channel strategy, profit targets and resource allocation to make a go/no-go decision for a new initiative. By contrast, law firms have traditionally taken a less rigorous approach to quantifying new initiatives, relying instead on each practice group or even each partner to drive business decisions."

We’ll illustrate how a law firm fully embracing an integrated P3 mindset can dramatically improve its approach to business strategy, improve financial performance and maximize its resources and capabilities. We’ll demonstrate how law firms can embrace data, process, tools and incentives to make better business decisions." 

Continue Reading Anatomy of a Business Case – Integrating P3 Discipline into Law Firm Business Strategy

After lunch on the first day of the P3 Conference, we had the opportunity to listen to a client discussion – which, if you read Zen regularly, you know is a favorite of mine!  Moderator Vince Cordo (@vcordo), the Global Director of Client Value at Reed Smith led a panel that included Nick Bagiatis, the COO of Reed Smith, Lesley Garafola (@plgarafola) of Duke Energy, Gonzalo Frias of Duke Energy, and Kimberly Levinson of PNC. 

The delegate packet told us: 

Tracking and reporting on the value and the cost of legal services had become top priority. Value promotes the adoption of management practices that allow all participants to achieve their key objectives. This session is a discussion on how clients are working with firms to track spend by a law department with a focus [on] measuring value. Until you can get that data, you[r] best option is to keep pushing for lower costs. Comprehensive performance management programs are being introduced by corporations in ever economic sector. Most include key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators and the programs they support are comprehensive because they are much more far-ranging than budget and other financial indicators. Clients want programs which reduce waste and which encourage all resources to be dedicated to the top priorities set by executive leadership. It reflects the transition of the legal function from a classic position of support to one which is likelier to add value." 

Continue Reading Law Firm Partner and Client Discussion: Creating the Win-Win

The second breakout session that I attended on Thursday morning at the P3 conference was "A Case Study on Profitability through Pricing and Client Value," presented by Redwood. 

The program told us: 

For years the legal profession’s main focus with respect to ‘profit’ has been on driving productivity and revenue. Well before the boom in alternative fees this perception had changed drastically. Now in a new world with heavier client demands, budgeting needs, alternative pricing, and changing structures the true drivers of profitability have come under additional scrutiny."

Attendees of this session will learn about the components and changes within the drivers of profitability. In addition they will engage in a case study using real data under a pseudonym to analyze trends, identify wayward pricing strategy, and hone in on alternative ways to look at a firms’ [sic] profitability." 

Continue Reading Driving Profitability through Pricing and Client Value