This afternoon, I was thinking back to my very first "official" job, as kennel help at a pet store in northern New Jersey. It was hard work, and long hours, but playing with puppies was a pretty great benefit of working there. It also taught me a lot, and one lesson I remember being crystal clear – don’t be afraid to ask questions. 

The story is that after working there for a little while, the store’s owners let me assist with other kinds of work at the store, including running the register. This was not too complicated, but a job that involved a lot of trust (we were dealing with pretty big sums of money, for one thing). Most of the charges were paid either by credit card or cash. But there was one afternoon when a woman wanted to pay for her puppy and his associated gear with a check. 

Thanks to my fourth grade teacher who had done a unit where we all got "checkbooks" and had to learn to use them to make payments, my 16-year-old self was pretty comfortable with what a check looked like, and which fields needed to be filled in. But there was one extra thing I was required to get from this woman in order to process the check. 

Continue Reading Client Service: There are no Stupid Questions

Greentarget, ALM Legal Intelligence, and Zeughauser Group have released the results of their 2014 survey, newly titled "2014 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey." The change in title is a great reflection of the change in conversation in the last year, a shift in focus to the discussion around content marketing, and how social tools are used to that end. 

As we in legal know, lawyers have been doing content marketing for as long as we can remember, but we finally have a name for it! 

This year’s survey also has another new feature – a survey of law firm CMOs and marketers. You may remember that we discussed some of the results already, with a focus on LinkedIn, following the LMA conference, but today, let’s take a look at the most important conversation piece to come out of the survey (which you can review in full here). Next week, we’ll take a look at some of the results in more detail. 

Continue Reading Corporate Journalism is the Future According to Greentarget

For today’s Two for Tuesdays, I want to spend some time talking about Facebook. I can hear many of you rolling your eyes, either because we’re talking social media, or because we’re talking Facebook, or both. 

But, as I say regularly, social media is nothing more than a set of tools for building relationships – just as client lunches, cocktail receptions, and conferences are. If you use these tools to connect with people, and share yourself in the same way as you would in person (and, of course, combine the use of these tools with meeting in person), they can be extraordinarily valuable. 

So why Facebook? There’s a couple of reasons – the first is that likely most of you reading this are already on LinkedIn, which I consider to be the most professional of the social media tools. I think that will always remain the case (unless another, unique platform comes along), and I find LinkedIn to be incredibly valuable. 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Facebook

Today, I’m bringing you my final recap from LMA14 – and while it’s last, it’s certainly NOT least! We’ll be looking at one of my favorite sessions from the conference, "Generational Marketing: Strategies and Tactics for Engaging Different Generations." Heather Morse (@heather_morse) of Barger & Wolen and Jonathan Fitzgarrald (@jrfitzgarrald) of Greenberg Glusker started talking several months ago about how there were four generations currently in the workplace, but no one was really looking at how that affects our external business development activities and efforts or our internal challenges. 

So they did. 

And in this well-researched, thoughtful and thought-provoking presentation, they got many of us thinking and talking about it as well. 

For me, it brought a number of "a HA!" moments, as I recognized some of the very issues among some of the attorneys I work with that Heather and Jonathan were referring to. Their presentation gave me not only a lot to think about, but a lot of tools to use moving forward. 

Continue Reading Generational Marketing: Strategies & Tactics from Heather Morse & Jonathan Fitzgarrald

Today, I’m bringing you another recap from LMA’s 2014 Annual Conference, from an excellent session I attended on the first morning, called "Playing the Relationship Game in Today’s Connected World." 

Kalev Peekna (@kpeekna) and John Simpson (@onenorth) of One North Interactive ran a great interactive session. According to the conference materials: 

For relationship-based businesses like law firms, the connections that firms make with their clients – and the connections these clients have with each other – have a profound effect on the amount of ongoing business and new opportunities they’ll win. Thanks to the ever-connected world we live in, it is now essential that firms align their digital marketing and business development efforts along what we like to call The Relationship Cycle."

In this session, we’ll provide examples of how businesses are using interactive marketing to reach their clients at every point in the decision-making experience, establish trust and create advocates that help drive new business opportunities with current and prospective clients. As this is The Relationship Game, a handful of contestants from the audience will participate game-show style to help us identify key interactive trends, reveal best practices for building digital relationships and uncover key findings from our latest General Counsel Survey." 

Continue Reading Playing the Relationship Game with One North Interactive

I’ve done a number of posts here recently on best practices for networking and relationship-building at conferences, and you may remember that I’ve said, more than once, how important it is to avoid your room at all costs. 

But there’s a counter-point to that which I’ve been thinking about a lot as we have our ILN Annual Meeting on the horizon, and that is – DON’T SKIP ANYTHING.

Sometimes, when attending a conference, it’s very tempting (and often reasonable) to combine other business with the business of the conference – you may have clients in the same city, or friends that you rarely get to see, or a spouse who is with you, but not joining in on the conference, and you feel that taking an afternoon (or two) or a meal (or two) away from the conference won’t be such a big deal. 

You may think that because a conference is only a few business sessions combined with some social activities (as our conferences are), that the social activities are just the way you’re rewarded for attending the conference. You may even think that because you’ve been to a city before, and done some of the same things, that you don’t need to go on those trips, because you won’t be missing anything. 

Continue Reading Best Practices in Effective Conference Networking: Don’t Skip Anything

We’re switching it up here again on our Two for Tuesdays, and instead of bringing you tips today, I’m bringing you two thought leaders in the legal industry to pay attention to! 

Thought Leader One: Tim Corcoran, Corcoran Consulting Group

If you don’t already know Tim, you should. From his bio, we learn that he: 

advises law firm leaders and in-house counsel on business process improvement, legal project management, alternative fees and business development. He also advises legal technology vendors and service providers on market strategy and sales force readiness. The essence of his consulting practice is to help law firms, in-house counsel and legal vendors profit in a changing marketplace."

Tim regularly speaks, writes, counsels and advises on some thought-provoking topics that surround some of the most cutting-edge ideas in our industry – ideas that make many uncomfortable, but are necessary conversations to have in today’s marketplace. 

 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Thought Leaders to Follow

Ask anyone what they thought the most memorable session of the recent LMA conference was, and I’m sure they’ll tell you, "Kat Cole’s keynote."

Kat (@KatColeATL) is the President of Cinnabon, Inc., and although more than one person was heard to ask, "what do cinnamon buns have to do with lawyers?" (only before the session, not after!) we all learned lesson after valuable lesson during her speech. 

If you’re still not sure what Kat’s words had to do with legal marketing, take a look at my comments after last year’s Zappos session here and here. And read on. Also, take a look at Chelsie Givan’s recap of the session. 

Before I dive into the session itself, let’s talk a little bit about Kat. 

Kat Cole is the president of Cinnabon, Inc. where [she] is accountable for leading, evolving and building the team and multi-channel brand. Ms. Cole is also a member of the leadership team within Cinnabon’s parent company, FOCUS Brands Inc…Prior to her role with FOCUS Brands at Cinnabon Inc., Ms. Cole was Vice President of Training and Development for Hooters of America, Inc."

Continue Reading Cinnamon Buns & Leadership – Lessons for Legal Marketers & Lawyers

Today’s Two for Tuesdays is going to address a problem I’ve seen fairly consistently over the last decade in legal – a failure to respond to emails. It’s a rather HUGE pet peeve of mine, and I want to talk today about why it’s important, as well as another tip for managing your professional relationships. 

Tip One: Answer. Your. Emails. 

I know attorneys are busy. I know that their time, literally, is money. So I can be forgiving of the attorneys who may not read and answer all of the emails that I send them.

However. 

It boggles my mind when someone emails an attorney to say that they want to refer work to them, and the attorney doesn’t answer. 

If someone sent me an (legitimate) email that basically says, "hey, I want to pay you money," I would answer it (Nigerian princes notwithstanding).

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Best Practices for Professional Relationships

This month’s firm of the month is our Danish member, DAHL Law Firm! Congratulations to all of our friends in Denmark! 

   

 

 

Member of the International Lawyers Network

 The ILN is proud to announce our latest "Firm of the Month" – DAHL Law Firm!

DAHL is a full-service business law firm with a national and international focus. DAHL has 200 employees in total and a legal staff of 100, placing DAHL among the 6 largest law firms in Denmark.

DAHL has five offices in Denmark.

DAHL has a significant practice covering Finance law, Company law, Competition law, Employment law, Energy law, EU law, Insolvency, Insurance and tort, Intellectual property, IT and telecom, Media and marketing, M&A, Procurement law, Public law, Real property, Tax law. DAHL is a mod-ern firm with a high focus on delivering high quality service “to the point”.

The working languages of the firm are English, German, French and the Scandinavian languages. 

Full descriptions of DAHL’s  services, expertise, and lawyer profiles are available on their ILN profile.

Lindsay Griffiths
Director of Global Relationship Management
International Lawyers Network

Lindsay Griffiths

 

Learn More

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Main Contacts: 

Henning von Lillienskjold

Henning von Lillienskjold

Email: hvl@dahllaw.dk
Telephone: +45 88 91 94 15

Practice Groups:
Corporate, Commercial

sidebar-divider.gifFrederik Bruhn

Frederik Bruhn

Email: fbr@dahllaw.dk
Telephone: +45 88 91 98 11

Practice Groups:
Corporate, Commercial, IT & IP

sidebar-divider.gifKlaus Kjaer

Klaus Kjær

Email: kkk@dahllaw.dk
Telephone: +45 88 91 89 26

Practice Groups:
Corporate, Commercial, Construction Law

sidebar-divider.gifSoren Wolder Knudsen

Søren Wolder Knudsen

Email: swk@dahllaw.dk
Telephone: +45 88 91 92 45

Practice Groups:
IT and IP, Competition law

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Alan Griffiths

“DAHL joined the ILN in 2006, and have been providing excellence from the very start. Their dedication to the Network and its growth continues to be essential.”

Alan Griffiths
Executive Director
International Lawyers Network

+001.201.594.9985

www.ilntoday.com