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.

Last week, we delved into some methods for leveraging your law firm or referral networks to provide additional value. Building on that theme this week, we’re going to look at three opportunities to develop fertile ground for further relationship and business development within your networks, among your clients, and within your jurisdiction.

Content

As a recommendation for building relationships within your networks, we suggested co-authoring articles on areas of mutual interest. Of course, content doesn’t end here – law firms are already fairly expert at producing a fair amount of content, whether it’s articles, blog posts, podcasts, video, client alerts, etc. You can start to leverage content from your fellow network members in a strategic way that will benefit both of you. Continue Reading 3 Tactics to Squeeze More Value Out of Your Law Firm Network

Around this time last year, HighQ posed this question to a number of legal industry leaders:

What do you believe lawyers and law firms need to do to prepare for the future of legal services?”

This resulted in an interesting and in-depth e-book that delved into a variety of answers, many of which overlapped and all of which challenged us to be and do better. Although the pace of the legal industry tends towards the glacial, I am curious, a year later, to learn how everyone believes we’re progressing, and whether with an increasing focus on AI, a shift in the way we believe legal services themselves will be practiced and transmitted to the next generations of lawyers, and even the entities that are delivering those services, what we now believe lawyers and law firms should be doing to prepare. I suspect that the majority of us (and data reflects this) will say that change is not some far off idea in the future – it is NOW. But that means both that there are things that lawyers and law firm should be doing at present to accommodate the shifting legal landscape in order to remain competitive, and preparations that they will be making in the future – and it’s both of those things I’m interested in hearing about from all of you.  Continue Reading Back to the Future…Law Firm

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, Michael Samuel of Miller Samuel Samuel Hill Brown LLP in Scotland.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
A bespoke niche practice offering quality and specific services to clients at competitive rates.

Who would be your typical client?
Not easy to categorise, but we like to act for successful business entrepreneurs, medium to high net worth individuals, and for quoted and unquoted companies.
Continue Reading ILN-terviews: Michael Samuel, Miller Samuel Hill Brown LLP

Like with any relationship, the relationship you have with your law firm network will give back what you put into it. (This is true for any informal referral networks too, by the way)

While we wholeheartedly advocate that you join a network with the goal of being able to better serve your clients by offering them a broader level of expertise, and a vetted source of trusted partners around the world at a moment’s notice, we recognize the reality that many firms, of course, are also interested in receiving referrals, and working together with their fellow members to develop new business. While it’s a nice idea to think that you can join a network, tick a box, and sit back and watch the work roll in, the truth is that unless you’re in a jurisdiction where business is naturally incoming, this is unlikely to happen unless you put in some work. The network can and will help you facilitate your relationships with other members and will supercharge your networking and business development efforts, but there are some key strategic steps you can and should undertake to leverage your network membership. These ideas can also be applied to any informal referral networks that you may have.  Continue Reading Leverage Your Law Firm Network for More Value

Artificial Intelligence: the number one topic for discussion among my lawyers when we ask them about future and current trends in the legal industry. Or as they like to refer to it, “technology.”

While a few people are still talking about it like it’s something that’s going to happen or will affect us in the future, the majority have accepted that AI is already here. Whether they’ve adopted certain pieces of it (see this discussion we had earlier in 2017 on AI), or they’re still trying to figure out what it means for their firm, there are some standard questions and ideas that law firms, lawyers, and other legal professionals should become comfortable with, if you’re not already.

To aid in this process, the Legal Marketing Association has been providing some additional resources on AI, and brought together some of the top minds in LMA to host a Twitter chat last week on the “Next Big Thing: Artificial Intelligence.” While I’d argue that it’s more just “The Big Thing” since it’s already here and being adopted by firms, and more importantly, their clients, the discussion was a robust one, with some excellent food for thought. The following is my summary of the discussion.  Continue Reading Artificial Intelligence: What Law Firms Need to Know

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, PETERKA & PARTNERS, Czech Republic, Romania & Slovakia!

PETERKA & PARTNERS is a leading independent full-service business law practice with a special commitment to Central and Eastern Europe.

Operating 9 wholly owned offices across the region in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Hungary, the firm is seamlessly integrated and provides clients from different industry sectors with a pan regional service and a single point of contact, maintaining a broad vision for all their regional assignments.

A pioneer among Central and Eastern European law firms in expanding abroad, the firm pools its own entrepreneurial experience and authentic business know-how to offer special added value to clients looking to set up and expand in the Region or to develop their operations in several countries.

Continue Reading ILN Firm of the Month – PETERKA & PARTNERS, Czech Republic, Romania & Slovakia!

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, Andrey Zelenin of Lidings Law Firm in Moscow, Russia.

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Advising business in Russia on all aspects of the Russian law.

Who would be your typical client?
Russian and international companies primarily from such industries as pharmaceuticals and healthcare, IT&Electronics and FMCG.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
That I’m down-to-earth, responsible, optimistic and go above and beyond to get the results.
Continue Reading ILN-terviews: Andrey Zelenin, Lidings Law Firm