I am absolutely gobsmacked that we’ve made it to nine years of blogging here at Zen. It’s been an adventure! I never imagined when I first began writing in this little corner of the internet how much joy blogging would bring me, but it’s allowed me to connect with people all over the world, and have some brilliant and interesting conversations with some wonderfully smart and thoughtful people.

In nine years of blogging, we’ve seen:

  • Almost 1,110 posts
  • More than 58,000 page views (WOW!)
  • Visitors from almost 200 countries and six of the seven continents

I’m looking forward to connecting with even more of you in the future, and continuing to deepen the conversations that we’ve had here on Zen.

So what has 9 years in legal blogging taught me? I wanted to share with you 9 lessons about the legal industry that I’ve picked up over the last 13+ years. Continue Reading Happy 9th Blogiversary to Zen & the Art of Legal Networking!

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, Kriton Metaxopoulos of our member firm A. & K. Metaxopoulos and Partners in Athens, Greece.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
We are a traditional full service, but at the same time niche, Greek law firm with an international reputation and presence. 

Who would be your typical client?
It is not an easy task, especially during this deep global financial crisis where legal services have been severely affected, to name a typical client. Our firm has maintained its ties with its “traditional” Greek clients, but has also built new relationships with international clients such as Adidas, Abela Group of Companies, Warner, Fromageries Bel, Thomson Reuters, Conde Nast and also distinguished law firms such as Baker McKenzie LLP, CMS, Lewis Silkin, Taylor Wessing and others. Continue Reading ILN-terviews: Kriton Metaxopoulos, A. & K. Metaxopoulos and Partners Law Firm

It’s no secret that attending an industry event can lead to business opportunities. When you choose the right one, the networking alone provides the return on your investment.

But we’re often so eager for the actual attendance to equal business that we forget that as with any business development opportunity, it’s not one-and-done. In the dating game, while it might be possible for you to meet someone and marry them the same night, and find lasting happiness, it’s much more likely that you spend time getting to know each other before making a commitment. Your business relationships are much the same.

How can you translate those conference attendances into business opportunities? There are as many articles and blog posts on this as there are ways to do it, but today, I’m offering up three tips to use after your next event to move the needle.  Continue Reading 3 Tips to Translate a Conference Attendance into Business Opportunities

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, Lee International IP & Law Group, Seoul, South Korea!

Lee International IP & Law Group was founded in 1961 and is rooted in technology and cross-border transactions. The firm, serving Korea and beyond for more than 55 years, has grown from a patent firm to a full-service law and intellectual property firm. Lee International has seasoned attorneys and boasts a team comprised of former judges, prosecutors, private practice attorneys, senior foreign attorneys and former judicial law clerks.

Lee International provides “one-stop business support” to its clients, providing not only legal services for clients with business in Korea, but with business activities on a global level as well. Continue Reading ILN Firm of the Month – Lee International IP & Law Group, Seoul, South Korea!  

Here we go, folks, it’s the post you’ve all been waiting for. What are the truly ugly commercials from this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads?

Before we dive into this year’s, I wanted to take a look back at some of the ugly commercials from previous years. Which made me realize that we’ve been doing this annual round up for seven years. WOW. Looking back shows me that we really have improved in the “ugly” category. In this year’s group, we have two, where we used to have 5 or more! If you’d like to enjoy a trip down advertising memory lane, here you go:

Some other interesting observations strike me from looking back:

  • It’s been a few years since we’ve seen a Go Daddy Super Bowl commercial. Historically they haven’t been overly well-received, and that’s probably why they’re not investing in the Super Bowl anymore. But they certainly got a lot of name recognition from it. Does that mean the adage “there’s no such thing as bad press” doesn’t hold true here? Have you even thought about Go Daddy recently?
  • Where has Snickers gone? They’re another disappearing brand from the Super Bowl radar. I don’t think Snickers are in any danger of disappearing any time soon, but give some thought to the idea of what might happen if you’re not regularly reaching out to your clients, and especially not reaching out to them in the big moments. Looking back, I realized that Snickers is missing. But otherwise, I wouldn’t have thought about it. Would your clients even notice you were missing if they didn’t hear from you?
  • Historically, I’ve apparently really disliked Coca Cola commercials. But this year, they really came around. That shows that you CAN turn around someone’s opinion on your message, and that messaging is an important factor. Although, interestingly, I had to look back to remember feeling that way about Coca-Cola. So also worth considering is the idea that when your BRAND is incredibly strong (is it?), you can withstand some messaging mishaps. Doritos has also improved, but I was WELL aware that I usually don’t like their commercials when their ad started. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed their commercial so much. It shouldn’t be a surprise to a client to have a good interaction with your messaging, even if they generally like working with you.

Continue Reading Super Bowl Commercials – The Ugly of 2018

Last week, we took some time to review my top spots from this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads. And now it’s time to take a look at where things got a little…yucky. While we were fortunate to be overwhelmed with good commercials the last two years, there are still a few brands that are missing the mark for one reason or another. And those spots leave us with something to think about. Let’s take a look.

Continue Reading Super Bowl Commercials – The Bad of 2018

When I did a search back on Zen to see what else we’ve discussed about networking, the results revealed that it’s…a lot. We’ve covered everything from networking for introverts, to conference networking, to social networking, to networking for people who hate networking, and more.

So why do we keep talking about it, over and over again?

Two reasons really:

  1. Networking is never really over.
  2. It bears repeating.

Continue Reading Ugh…Why Keep Talking About Networking?

All right kids, it’s that time again! Whether your team won or lost or you don’t care about sportsball at all, you might have spared a moment or two for the secondary contest of Sunday evening…and I’m not talking about the highly contested puppy bowl (everyone wins there).

That’s right, it’s time for my annual review of Super Bowl Commercials.

As we did last year, we’re seeing a positive upward trend. Brands are spending a lot of money, and they’re doing it wisely for a change, with mostly good, solid commercials. We saw a lot of themes on social justice and togetherness, along with some clever humor. There were a couple of truly ugly spots, including some local ads that only ran in the tri-state area (you’ll have to wait for next week for those!). But overall, it was a solid crop of advertising wins. Pat yourselves on the back for a change, agencies!

One overall trend I saw on a couple of spots that I think we’ll see more of is the overlaying of the brand watermark on the ad. We have been seeing hashtags for the last few years, which I think will continue to be the case, but with so many brands focusing on more social messages, and delivering on stories rather than pushing their product in your face (something I embrace, by the way), we’ll also see more of this brand watermarking so that there’s no mistaking who is delivering the message.

Of course, that makes it a little bit difficult to choose the top spots, but there were a couple of clear winners, with lessons for lawyers and law firms, to share with you here. Let’s relive those. Continue Reading Super Bowl Commercials – The Good of 2018

We’re thrilled to welcome a new member in Luxembourg, joining our current member, Lutgen + Associes.

Bouchoms & Braesch is an independent law firm serving business clientele such as private organisations, family businesses and public entities.

Bouchoms & Braesch was created by two lawyers with more than 10 years’ experience working at renowned law firms and financial institutions. The members of Bouchoms & Braesch sought to create their own firm with personalized services for its valued clients.

Bouchoms & Braesch offers a full range of services to its clients. These services include a.o. corporate law, corporate housekeeping, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, national and international tax law, collective procedures and liquidation of regulated and unregulated vehicles and business litigation.

“We are thrilled to welcome our newest firm, Bouchoms & Braesch,” said International Lawyers Network Executive Director Alan Griffiths. “With the range of services this Luxembourg firm provides to its local and global clients, we know they will bring a great deal of value to our members and our Network.”

For more information about Bouchoms & Braesch, visit the firm’s website at www.bobr.lu/. Please help us welcome our newest member!

Today marks the start of International Networking Week, and as you can imagine, that’s something we at the International Lawyers Network are pretty excited and passionate about. We’ve sent out a challenge to our membership to increase their own networks by reaching out to someone that they don’t know well to deepen that relationship, and over the course of this week, I’ll be sharing some best practices for networking with you. I also invite you to share your own networking tips here for a chance to be featured on the blog!

In today’s post, I want to look at five tips that you can use right away to build relationships. Often, we can think of networking and relationship building as an arduous task, but really, it’s a series of smaller actions that we take that help weave the fabric of those stronger relationships. So whether you’ve got five minutes or an hour, you can strengthen your network today.  Continue Reading 5 Tips to Build Relationships TODAY