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, David Conway of our member firm Connolly Gallagher LLP in Delaware, USA.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
I close M&A deals, negotiate commercial agreements and provide Delaware law advice for local, national and international companies.

Who would be your typical client? 
My clients are of two main varieties. One being small local companies, to whom I provide soup to nuts services as an outside general counsel. The other being national and international companies who are formed (or have subsidiaries) in Delaware, to whom I provide advice on Delaware law issues and structure corporate transactions such as reorganizations, mergers and sales of assets.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you? 
I was a finance major in school, and am a former in-house general counsel. So I bring a practical business perspective to negotiations that some law firm lawyers are lacking. Continue Reading ILN-terviews: David Conway, Connolly Gallagher LLP

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, Otto Mittag Fontane, Frankfurt, Germany!

Otto Mittag Fontane is a boutique-style firm that focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate finance, banking and capital markets law.

Founding partners Hans-Jochen Otto, Gabriele Fontane and Jochen Mittag brought together more than twenty years of experience to form the firm in early 2009. Since then, they have built a team of experts with a strong reputation for advising on M&A and private equity transactions, as well as banking and financial matters. Continue Reading ILN Firm of the Month – Otto Mittag Fontane, Frankfurt, Germany!

For better or for worse, we are living in a hyper-connected world. Which means that whether we are always reachable, the person on the other end of the email or phone believes us to be. None of us is ever really “away.” (And we can debate the necessity and impact of that another time).

When it comes to managing your business relationships, a lack of communication can have a huge detrimental effect. Where you might be assuming that “no news is good news,” your client or other business relationship may be left feeling anxious about the status of your last conversation and wondering whether it’s even still on your radar. I’ve had contrasting incidences of this recently, which have illustrated some important lessons for me about managing expectations in all of my business relationships.  Continue Reading No News is Not Always Good News for Business Relationships

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be attending CLOC’s first EMEA Institute in London, which has me revisiting some best practices on building relationships and networking. When I attended my first CLOC conference in April, I found an exceptionally passionate and enthusiastic group of legal professionals that straddled the legal ecosphere. Bearing that in mind, it’s unlikely that we’ll see anyone ducking out early or skipping conference functions, because everyone is invested in being there, driving change, and working together.

But what about in other areas where we have the opportunity to meet new people and develop the relationships that can lead to new business? It’s entirely possible that even with the best of intentions, we can end up with networking fatigue. With that in mind, I’m revisiting an old post on the importance of showing up in order to build relationships.

 

Sometimes, when attending a conference, it’s tempting (and often reasonable) to combine other business with the business of the conference – maybe you have clients or friends in the same city, and it doesn’t seem like a big deal to miss an afternoon or a meal at the conference. You may even be worried that the social functions of the conference are more of a boondoggle, and the “value” is only found in the educational sessions. So what are you missing out on if you skip group outings or meals?  Continue Reading To Build Relationships, You Have to Show Up

A lot of people I know were happy to see the backside of 2017. But even with the enthusiasm for a new year in our pockets, it can be hard to find the motivation to kickstart our plans and projects as we head back to work this week and find ourselves facing the same day to day grind as before the holidays, as well as a backlog of vacation work and emails to catch up on.

Even though I know it’s coming every year, it still feels as if the new year sneaks up on me, and I’m never prepared with either resolutions or a “word of the year,” like it seems that so many other people are. I have my professional plan in place by mid-December, but finding a way to dive in with gusto can be challenging. So today, I’m bringing you three tips to kick off January with some grace.  Continue Reading 3 Tips to Kick off Your January with Gusto

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, Jonas Forsman of our member firm Hellstrom in Stockholm, Sweden.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
My practice is within company law with focus on M&A, contract/corporate law and negotiations.

Who would be your typical client? 
My clients range from listed companies to one-man-holding companies. In essence the typical client is a mid size shareholder-driven Swedish limited liability company with an international business, market and/or ownership.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you? 
I strive to add value, not only invoices! I put the legal issue into context with the clients’ business for a legal and business-oriented way forward. Continue Reading ILN-terviews: Jonas Forsman, Hellström

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, TGS Baltic, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania!

TGS Baltic is a top-tier commercial law firm with offices in all the Baltic countries. Their mission is not only to be the best legal experts in their region, but to use their expertise, experience and skills to support the business of their clients. They believe lawyers should not only be experts in the law, but that the real added value for their clients comes from their ability to help them succeed in their business objectives.

 Full descriptions of TGS Baltic’s services, expertise, and lawyer profiles are available on their ILN profile. Continue Reading ILN Firm of the Month – TGS Baltic, Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania!

The ILN’s Real Estate Group is delighted to announce today the release of the second (and updated) edition of their guide, “Buying & Selling Real Estate: An International Guide.” This collaborative electronic guide offers a summary of key real estate law principles in 18 countries across the globe, serving as a quick, practical reference for those establishing an entity in these jurisdictions. In 2017, we have added seven new jurisdictions, which includes Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, India, the Netherlands, and Michigan. The group continues to work collaboratively to update the guide with the latest figures and regulations for their countries, and we’re really excited to provide this valuable resource for firms and companies with multinational business needs.

As the facilitator of the guide, I can say that we’re delighted to publish this collaborative work and showcase the strength and depth of the combined expertise of our real estate lawyers. We already have plans to add additional jurisdictions to the publication, which will be regularly revised, to make this a comprehensive and up-to-date source of information. Like our corporate guide on establishing business entities, this is a real labor of love.

To view the guide, please click here: http://bit.ly/ILNRealEstate2nd

About the ILN Real Estate Specialty Group
Co-chaired by Amy Fracassini of Davis, Malm & D’Agostine in Boston, Massachusetts and Tor Erlend Framstad of Okland & Co DA in Oslo, Norway, the Real Estate Group fosters relationships among practitioners in this area to support the making and receiving of referrals.

The first day of Hanukkah is upon us, so if you haven’t gotten your holiday cards out yet (like me), you’re too late. I’m just kidding.

But in all seriousness, while some firms and lawyers are still using paper cards, others have gone the electronic route, and still others (like the ILN, actually) have opted out of holiday cards entirely, you may be wondering what the point is, and how to stand out.

Some firms stand out by sending cards for alternate holidays or birthdays instead of traditional holiday cards, and others use the opportunity to pen a personalized note, thanking their clients and friends for their success and support throughout the year. But I’d like to share with you what one firm did, which was SO different, that it’s stuck with me for an entire year.

At the end of 2016, I had the pleasure of serving with some fellow Legal Marketing Association members as a judge for the Your Honor Awards, considered to be the Oscars of Legal Marketing. YHA is a competitive process, with a lot of smart, talented people and firms entering, so to stand out, you must have a compelling project. To stand out in a category with a holiday card, you must REALLY have something special.  Continue Reading 5 Ways to Make Your Holiday Cards Stand Out

Today, I am bringing you a guest post from my friend, Lance Godard! Lance has spent three decades within the legal profession, in-house and as a consultant, helping lawyers and practice groups grow their book of business. He’s the founder of The Godard Group, a marketing communications firm for lawyers and firms. You can check out more of his great advice at JD Supra as well.

In this post, Lance shares with us some important suggestions for how law firm websites can better connect with clients, and since our sites are one of the primary ways we show our “face” to the world, this is some important advice!

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Read any good law firm websites lately? I have. And I’ve noticed some common themes across websites that connect with clients and prospective clients. Here are five:

  1. They speak directly to their target audience. There’s a reason so many law firm websites are filled with generic, bland, marketing content: it’s easy to write. But generic and bland practice descriptions don’t make an impact with your targets. What does is writing that responds to the concerns and challenges of the people from whom you are trying to get work, like the General Counsel at a publicly held company or the entrepreneur who just launched a start-up or the human resources manager struggling to balance the needs of the company with the regulations of his jurisdiction. Write marketing content that speaks directly to the people you’re trying to reach, that tells them exactly how you can help them solve the problems you know they face.
  2. They make their content relevant. Clients and prospects go to your website for a reason. They want to know if you can help them with the challenges they are facing: fighting off a patent infringement lawsuit, responding to an employee complaint, structuring a real estate transaction. They’re looking for answers, not the places your team went to law school or the awards they’ve won or the size of your firm. Their questions are really about them, not about Make your content relevant to those readers by writing it from their perspective. After all, they’re the ones whose problems you know how to solve.
  3. They write like people talk. Most people – maybe even most lawyers – don’t use arcane legal terms in every-day conversations. Of course you need to include important keywords on your website, both for SEO and to reassure readers, but you don’t need to write using jargon and obscure terminology. Your goal is to connect with people, to get them to read your practice descriptions and attorney biographies, to communicate what you do and why it is important to clients and prospects. To do that, write in language that anyone can understand.
  4. They avoid lists. You can’t possibly name every single accomplishment, every award, every client, every matter. Nor would you want to: long lists of anything tend to be boring, and nobody – not even your grandmother – will read the list of years you’ve been named in SuperLawyers or that of each company you’ve ever represented or the one naming the 50 different industries you’ve done work in. The goal of the marketing content on your website is not to provide an exhaustive record of your skills and experience, but to spark interest, to make you credible, to get people to answer the phone when you call or maybe even dial your number when they need help. You don’t need a list to do that.
  5. They tell a good story. Whether it’s Dostoyevsky or the descriptive materials on your website, people can’t resist a good story. The good news is that you have plenty to tell. Maybe you helped a public company fend off a frivolous class-action lawsuit. Maybe you counseled a struggling inventor seeking to monetize her intellectual property and build her own business. Maybe you represented a victim of age discrimination by his employer. Tell stories that demonstrate the benefits you bring to your clients, and new ones will be eager to find out more.