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

We’re excited to announce today that the ILN is forming a Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Specialty Group, which will be co-chaired by James Giszczak of McDonald Hopkins (Cleveland, Ohio) and Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker & Green (Washington, DC). The group joins the ILN’s thirteen other practice and industry-focused specialty groups.

I have the opportunity to work closely with the chairs of our specialty groups as their facilitator, and I particularly enjoy working with lawyers who have a passion for their work, which Jim and Stuart certainly do in this area. I expect great things to come from the CDP guys and gals! 

I include the remainder of the press release for additional information about the group, and our two co-chairs. 

Both chairs are enthusiastic to push the group forward, with a goal of working together with the other members of the group to co-promote the combined strength and depth of expertise of its members, both domestically and internationally. A directory of ILN firms with Cybersecurity & Data Privacy expertise is already available on the ILN website.

 

Continue Reading International Lawyers Network Forms Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Specialty Group

Last week, we started talking about how to get the most value out of a conference or event that you’re attending, and then communicate that value back to those at your office. Preparation before the event is key, but the next piece of the puzzle if about engaging at the conference itself. 

This is something that we’ve talked about here at Zen before. in part, it’s about putting into place the preparation that you started before you left for the conference. 

Attend all of the Sessions You’ve Identified in Your Review

Prior to the event, you’ve reviewed the agenda and identified the sessions that will have value for you, your firm and your colleagues. Now is the time to not only get to those sessions, but also to stay engaged in them – take notes, live tweet, write blog recaps, ask questions – whatever will keep you most invested in each individual session so that you stay focused on the takeaways is the key here.

Don’t assume that you’ll just remember the highlights either – use whatever notes system works best for you to get your impressions of the presentation or discussion down as it’s happening. 

Continue Reading Communicating Conference Attendance Value: Engage