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’m still recovering from the whirlwind that was #LMA15 – it’s always a festival of education, networking, mentorship, relationship-building, thought leadership, and having amazing, thought-provoking conversations about our industry and where its headed. And I love every minute of it. But one of my favorite parts, as you know, is the general counsel panel.  This year’s panel was focused on “How we buy what you sell – and how that’s changing.” I had the pleasure of speaking with two of the three panelists in advance of the session, Joe Otterstetter of 3M and Virginia Sanzone of CareFusion, and their comments during the session were very much in line with our conversations. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at how LMA described the session:

You already know plenty about ‘The New Normal’ and how law firms are adjusting, but corporate legal departments are not standing still either. This year’s GC panel will share Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) data and the perspective of senior in-house counsel on trends in law firm selection processes, outside counsel management, and unbundling and in-sourcing work. You will have a chance to take a look ‘under the hood’ at how legal services purchasing decisions are made and external resources are managed, including discussion of how ‘switching costs’ from an incumbent law firm are considered, the role of Procurement, how success is measured (including how the managers of outside counsel are evaluated), and more through open Q&A.”

  Continue Reading How We Buy What You Sell – and How That’s Changing – A Recap

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 have 135 partners and over 1100 staff across offices throughout Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney) as well as Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

They are a full service firm offering a broad spectrum of legal services including: banking and financial services; property, construction and planning; energy & resources; dispute resolution and litigation; corporate and commercial; corporate risk and insurance; employment and safety; insolvency and recoveries; aged care, not for profit and tax.

Many of their business units are repeatedly recognised as leading legal service providers in the Chambers Asia Pacific and The Legal 500 Asia Pacificlegal directories, and Gadens was named ‘Law firm of the year’ at the Australian Banking and Finance Awards 2014.

 
Main Contacts at Gadens and More…

 
Learn More…
Full descriptions of Gadens’ services, expertise, and lawyer profiles are available on their ILN profile.
Ian Clarke
Ian Clarke

Email: 
ian.clarke@gadens.com

Telephone: +61 2 9931 4722

Practice Groups: Banking and Finance
Arthur Koumoukelis
Arthur Koumoukelis

Email: 
arthur.koumoukelis@gadens.com

Telephone: +61 2 9931
4873

Practice Groups:
Aged Care and Retirement
 
Alan Griffiths

ILN Executive Director, Alan Griffiths says…

"Gadens is a powerhouse ILN member, with a strong, talented team. They are long-time members of the ILN and we’re proud to showcase them as the firm of the month." 
Contact Us
The International Lawyers Network is an association of 91 high-quality, full-service law firms with over 5,000 lawyers worldwide. The Network provides clients with easily accessible legal services in 67 countries on six continents. The ILN – where lawyers become friends. 

International Lawyers Network | 179 Kinderkamack Road | Westwood, New Jersey, 07675
(201) 594-9985 | (201)  740-9765 | www.ilntoday.com
 

 

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