Law Firm Marketing Consultant : Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, sales training, practice development, training, marketing consultant, legal consultant, individual lawyer coaching, business development, client team, practice development, business development, law firm coach

Following is a guest post from lawyer coach Martha Newman.

What goes into the complex formula we call SUCCESS?

Success involves leveraging the strong relationships you have built through your networking to OTHER people’s advantage.

Strive to make everyone around you successful - and you'll find success yourself.

This is the notion of SOCIAL ARBITRAGE: a constant and open exchange of favors and intelligence.

How does it work?

It's simple really. When someone mentions a problem, try to think of a solution. Become a KNOWLEDGE BROKER, indispensably doling out as much information, contacts, and goodwill to as many people as possible.

The first rule of thumb: Don't wait to be asked. Just do it.

If a colleague needs help on a complicated business litigation case, think about all of your contacts in the field. Surely, one of them has tried a similar case. Give them a call and match them up. Your colleagues, in turn, will make their own connection and appreciate the work you did to bring them together.

The second rule of thumb: Make knowledge brokering a habit.

Take the time to identify some leading thinkers and writers in the legal field. Read their books and newspaper articles, and make mental notes. As a knowledge broker, you should be prepared to pass along this information whenever you hear a "problem".  Remember, as a practitioner of social arbitrage, you'll always need a solution.

Knowledge brokering takes time and a certain amount of thoughtfulness.  That's exactly why it is appreciated.

Powerful attorneys are interested in other people's successes.

Make that your mantra and start building UP your relationships today.

Martha M. Newman is a lawyer coach, CLE presenter for the State Bar of Texas and Vice President of the Women Lawyers Section in her bar association. She is the founder of Gain Your Goals, Inc. and publisher of Top Lawyer Coach, a website that focuses on building lawyer's rainmaking, practice management, and leadership skills.  She has kindly agreed to share with us some of her thoughts regarding branding.

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From TechCrunch.com:

Ever since last summer, Twitter’s growth in the U.S. has been stalling. But in October, the number of people who visited Twitter.com from the U.S. actually declined for the first time by 8 percent month-over-month. Estimates released today by comScore put Twitter’s domestic unique visitors at 19.2 million, down from 20.9 million in September.

On an annual basis, Twitter is still going gangbusters with 1,271 percent growth from 1.4 million visitors in October, 2008. And on a global basis, it still seems to be chugging away with 58.4 million visitors in September. But a hypergrowth company like Twitter cannot afford to slow down in its home market.

CEO Evan Williams recently acknowledged the slowdown in the U.S., and hopes that a slew of new features will help revive growth to the site. Many of these features are already rolling out, including the new Retweet button, Lists, and Geolocation features.

Twitter is obviously committed to making its service better on its own Website (these numbers do not measure usage on mobile or desktop clients, which is easily half of all Twitter usage). But while it fiddles, rival Facebook keeps moving further and further ahead.

Will the new features be enough to bring back growth in the U.S.? If they don’t, Twitter’s troubles will really begin

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Plaintiff tort lawyers can use a NEW marketing technique to generate qualified leads in a highly-efficient cost-per-lead advertising model. Marketing experts Michael G. Cummings and I will host this LIVE presentation at the bargain price of $30 per connection. Click here to sign up for this event

You will learn effective skills and proven methods to develop a more successful career through the power of the cost-per-lead advertising model in this Best Practices web seminar.

Competition is fierce for plaintiff tort lawyers. You'll see your competitors marketing on billboards, print advertising, websites, yellow pages and TV ads.  Now, business development experts Michael G. Cummings and I will reveal which methods are the most effective in attracting consumer clients.  They will explain:

• Why qualified leads are all that matters in business development.
• Current methods of promotion compared on their ability to produce a return-on-investment.
• The emerging cost-per-lead advertising model.
• New group advertising option makes cost-per-lead available to PI firms.

  

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A great marketing tip I picked up from a partner at a West Virginia law firm is to bring your client to the final hearing of his case.

If the judge or jury rules in your favor, you look like a hero to the client.

If they rule against you, the client will be angry at the judge or jury -- not you.

Contrast this with having to telephone a client and say, "I lost the case.  The judge and jury ruled against us."  Now the client is angry at you.

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Networking works best if it is done with "marketing aforethought." Here’s your game plan for an effective networking event.

Where to Go

The best meetings for networking are the ones your clients and referral sources go to. Every person in business belongs to a trade association. Simply ask your clients what meetings they go to and suggest you join them. At the meeting, have your client introduce you to others (who are prospective clients). If anyone asks what you’re doing there, tell them you want to learn the industry better, to meet people and to ask questions.

Bar association meetings can be a great source for referrals – if you’re a litigator and you attend bar meetings to meet transactional lawyers, or you can meet out-of-state lawyers who may call you when they have a matter in your city.

Making a Plan of Action

Most people erroneously think networking is shaking as many hands as possible and spreading out as many business cards as possible at an event. This is incorrect. You should go to an event with the aim of having one or two meaningful conversations – that’s it.

A premeditated networker going to an event checks the membership or attendee list ahead of time, and highlights 3-5 people to meet. That way he’s not walking into a huge room full of people he doesn’t know. At the event, the networker asks the president to introduce him to a few of these targets.

Additional Tips

• Come early to meetings and stand by the table where nametags are handed out. Let everyone at the meeting see you are there. Say hello to everyone you know.
• Have the staff working the desk identify the people you are looking for.
• Pick out whom you're going to sit with and put your purse/jacket across the chairs at the table.
• Introduce yourself to the speakers and get their business cards; briefly chat them up about the topic they're speaking on. Do this at the front of the room so everybody can see you attended the meeting.
• If possible, bring a second person from your law firm to the meeting and have them do the same thing; be certain that you split up from the second person and sit at separate tables and talk to different people.

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Article from: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)

It reads like a typical MBA student class schedule: performance management, the global organization and creating value.

Only the students are not future CEOs or CFOs. They are lawyers wanting to learn to think like business executives.

While today's biggest law firms may resemble multinational corporations with offices worldwide, most lawyers are ill equipped to manage such complex entities. They usually learn management on the fly, and also tend to be poor at working as a team, which increasingly is necessary in today's business world.

"Legal education hasn't adequately adapted to the changing needs of the profession," said Deborah Rhode, a law professor at Stanford University and the director of its Center on Ethics. "One of the most critical failures is the whole area of managerial skills."

A few law firms have stepped into the gap and designed mini MBA classes for their lawyers, often in partnership with business schools.

Chicago law firm Seyfarth Shaw, for example, began a management program for partners last year at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Its lawyers live on campus for three days and learn marketing and strategy at one of the nation's most prestigious business schools.

"This sensitized the partners to some of the critical business issues going forward, such as mergers, bringing on laterals [lawyers from other firms] and opening new offices," said Michael Levinson, a trial lawyer and partner at Seyfarth Shaw.

Such training is expensive. A five-day program at Kellogg costs $7,500 per person, including food and lodging.

Another Chicago firm, Baker & McKenzie, designed something similar with Kellogg for its partners a few years ago, and began to understand their clients better.

"It really helped our partners appreciate how clients are organized, how they manage and how we can serve them better," said Christine Lagarde, chairman of Baker & McKenzie, which has more than 3,000 lawyers worldwide.

Still, executive education for lawyers is rare.

"I don't know that a lot of other firms are doing this," said J. Stephen Poor, Seyfarth Shaw's managing partner. "I discuss this at managing-partner meetings and get a lot of blank looks around the table."

Beyond ongoing legal training, law firms do not have the tradition of other professional services of business development.

As accounting firms expanded internationally, the larger ones established collegelike campuses where recruits were transformed into well-scrubbed accountants and consultants and returned later for management classes. Some, like Ernst & Young, have turned to business schools for education. It has offered a program through Kellogg since 1987.

In contrast, most lawyers have never taken a management course even though corporate clients want knowledgeable business advisers who can provide counsel on everything from marketing to mergers and acquisitions.

And they want advice that is cost-effective or they will take their business elsewhere.

"Although we see ourselves as being excellent lawyers, we don't necessarily think like businessmen," said John Smith, a partner at Pittsburgh firm Reed Smith.
"We don't understand exactly their analysis of a business situation," he said.

Starting in October, Reed Smith hopes to change that by offering courses in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

Offerings will include instruction in managing and developing business relationships as well as leadership training for the firm's future managers.

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Womble Carlyle Prospers by Adopting Association of Corporate Counsel Value Challenge Only 24 hours left to register - don't miss out! Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, a firm respected as a pace-setter in the legal profession, has adopted the Value Challenge made by the American Corporate Counsel Association -- and prospered as a result. Listen to Womble's Partner Robert E. Fields, III, and Bill Turner, Director of Practice Management, describe the steps their firm took. Benefits of the Value Challenge to lawyers in private practice include having a marketing point of distinction, fewer delays in payments, higher realization rates, an increased volume of work, and a greater likelihood of handling future related matters. Click here to learn more about this Webinar.       Womble Carlyle Prospers by Adopting Association of Corporate Counsel Value Challenge Presented by: Apollo Business Development Speakers: Robert E. Fields, III, Partner, and Bill Turner, Director of Practice Management, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice Date: Tomorrow, November 12, 2009; 1 PM - 2:15 PM Eastern Location: Over the Web, on your computer Contact: Laura Kresich, Program Director; (Tel) (773) 966-9273 or  Lkresich@lawmarketing.com   Register now.       More than 250 law firms and corporations have attended organized meetings nationwide to discuss implementing the Value Challenge. The widely-promoted Challenge aims to link value to the client with the fees a law firm charges. Robert E. Fields, III and Bill Turner will describe the steps their firm took and the benefits of the Value Challenge to lawyers in private practice, such as:  A marketing point of distinction. Fewer delays in payments and falling realization rates. Increased volume of work. Greater likelihood of handling future related matters. Change orders when work exceeds the original scope. Reduced overhead devoted to the billing process. Fewer clients flyspecking bills and demanding after-the-fact discounts. Better alignment between the cost and the value of the legal service. Click here to learn more about this Webinar.   Don't delay. The Webinar is tomorrow, so register now. Cost: $300. Any number can attend in the room where you connect to the site and the call. One connection per registration.   Register now Cost: $300. Any number can attend in the room where you connect to the site and the call. One connection per registration.             Tel 630 942 0977 http://www.apollobusinessdevelopment.com/

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Some of you may have noticed a new site navigation experience on LinkedIn.  According to Kevin Bury, Principal User Experience Designer at LinkedIn in San Francisco, LinkedIn is in the process of testing a new design.  During this testing phase, some users will see the new design, while others will not.

What’s New

1. A global navigation bar at the top of the page that provides convenient access to all LinkedIn services.
2. Simplified local navigation within each of the LinkedIn areas (Profile, Contacts, Groups, etc.).
3. More room available for page content. Less scrolling.
4. A cleaner, less-cluttered look.

An easier way to navigate and find information on LinkedIn

LinkedIn began the redesign effort several months ago by analyzing how people use LinkedIn.  They looked at what features people use the most and pored over several years of data from usability research on the site. Armed with this information they began doing design explorations of how to better organize LinkedIn features, and make them more convenient to find and use.

Mr. Bury said, "We factored into this effort additional features we knew were coming. We narrowed down the designs to a few candidates we felt were strong contenders. We then prototyped these designs and had users perform tasks with the prototypes in the usability lab. We went through numerous iterations until we arrived at a design we felt worked the best.  One of the key features of the new design is that it allows much more space for page content – information about you and your professional network."

You can leave a comment on their blog or @linkedin us on twitter as well.

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The state Supreme Court put New Jersey back in step with the rest of the nation Wednesday and changed the ethics rules to allow lawyers to mention their inclusion in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America or Martindale-Hubbell AV rankings.

The changes take effect immediately. The amendment to Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1(a)(3) requires lawyers to include in ads the name of the rating service and a disclaimer saying, "No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court."

The justices also added a comment to the rule that lawyers will want to read carefully before touting their selection by rating services to make sure the ads aren't misleading. It says the conferring service has to have made an inquiry into the attorney's fitness. The honor can't be given for a price. And the ads must describe the methodology, or at least tell the reader where the description can be found.

The Court's action ends a dispute that began on July 26, 2006, when the Committee on Attorney Advertising made the first, and ultimately only, ruling by any state's regulators that lawyers who trumpeted their inclusion in Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America were violating rules against misleading advertising.

The ads compared qualifications of lawyers, which is inherently unethical under RPC 7.1(a)(3), the committee said in the decision, Opinion 39. The Supreme Court stayed the ruling, while the rating services and the committee began marshaling their arguments.

They said other states' regulators had found the 21st century public is savvy enough to understand that a designation by Super Lawyers or Best Lawyers in America isn't misleading or can be mitigated by disclaimers.

The state Attorney General's Office argued for the committee but said that if the justices decided the ratings were permissible, they would have to change the rules.

And that -- after three years of litigation, months of hearings by a special master, deliberations by three Supreme Court committees and comment by the public -- is what the Court did.

Last December, as the rating services continuing to operate under the stay, the Court ruled that "state bans on truthful, fact-based claims in lawful advertising could be ruled unconstitutional when the state fails to establish that the regulated claims are actually or inherently misleading."

and asked the Professional Responsibility Rules Committee and other panels to draft recommendations for rule changes to accommodate the ads without disturbing the core meaning of the ethics strictures.

Under the amendment to RPC 7.1(a)(3) promulgated Wednesday, it remains unethical for New Jersey lawyers to compare their services to those of attorneys. The rule is based on the theory that clients shouldn't be led to believe that any particular lawyer has some special advantage over a peer or can guarantee a result.

But the amended rule carves out an exception for ads that include the name of a rating organization that has used a methodology that can be substantiated.

Lawyers for the rating services told the justices at a hearing in September that they wouldn't want a rule requiring a clutter of disclaimers in lawyer ads similar to the fine print in car ads or the rapid-fire list of possible side effects in drug commercials on television.

"The message should get through," said Fred Dennehey of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge, N.J., representing Best Lawyers in America. "They should not be drowned in a tsunami of prose. A frantic pace at three times speed is understood by few and cared about by fewer still."

The Court was listening. Yes, the new rule requires "a truthful plain language description of the standard or methodology upon which the honor or accolade is based is available for inspection."

But it also says the ads would be on firm ethical ground if they merely include a "reference to a convenient, publicly available source" for the standards. That appears to mean the fine print need only say something like this: "For methodology, see martindale.com"

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