Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal editor, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, marketing consultant, legal consultant, business development

It's been 20 years since I rode the train line between Boston and Washington, D.C. and man have I missed a lot.  Today I got on the Amtrak Acela high-speed train in New York City at 4:25 PM and by 5:45 PM I was having dinner with new friends in Philadelphia.

Copious thanks to Mary Zove, administrator of Jacoby Donner in Philadelphia for making the arrangements, and to Frederick Esposito, Executive Director of Fineman Krekstein & Harris and to Gail Ruopp, Executive Director of Flaster Greenberg for the delicious salmon dinner.

What a piece of cake the train trip was.  I went to Penn Station in Manhattan and found a ticket computer terminal, swiped my card and it produced my ticket. Total cost: $56!  I found a seat with ample legroom, and an extending tray that I could put my notebook computer on.  Plus the train had electric outlets where I could plug in! There was tons of room for carry on luggage, and none of the folderol prohibitions on liquids.  The seat was comfy and wide and leaned back so I could snooze.  The ride was silent and smooth and I had no trouble catching a few z's.

The aisles were wide -- two people could pass each other wish ease -- and every car had a large, clean bathroom.  I was not restricted to having to "go" in my ticket class, as with the airlines.  The were big windows where you could watch the scenery go by.  And my cell phone and computer sky card worked the entire way -- none of that "shut everything off" command when leaving the terminal.

The was a car entirely devoted to dining, and it included wine and some classy snacks in addition to hot dogs and chips.  The dining car had big tables where you could spread out, eat and read the paper.  No need to sneak food onto the plane and eat it off your lap.

The end car on the train was a "quiet car" where no cell phones or noisy electronic devices were allowed.  The train started in the center of a city, and dropped me off in the downtown of my destination.  I didn't have to bother with airport shuttles and expensive cabs. This is the way travel should be!

So I say: let the accursed airlines go bankrupt.  Don't bail them out, but instead sell off their assets and take the money to build high-speed rail lines between New York, Chicago, L.A. -- all the big destinations. I just hate air travel and would like to see the jets sold and the terminals turned into museums.  If people want to fly, let them buy or share an airplane.  But for me, I want a seat on a train, where they still remember how good travel can be.

Law firm Web sites are the single most effective marketing tool employed by corporate, transactional and defense firms, according to a national survey by Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc. of Denver (www.prdenver.com).

Seminars and presentations slipped to second on the list of most effective marketing tactics. Fifty-five percent of firms reported receiving work directly or by referral from those efforts, which is down from 77 percent in 2004.

For the past 20 years, our bi-annual national survey of business and defense firms, along with every other survey we have ever reviewed, has ranked seminars and presentations/speeches as the most effective business development tactic a business and commercial litigation law firm could employ.

"However, the 2006 reveals that 82 percent of the 119 responding firms had "received work directly or by referral during the past 24 months," from their Web site," said Robert A. Weiss, President of Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc. "That's up from 51 percent of firms in 2004 -- a huge leap reflecting the power and pervasiveness of the Internet on traditional legal services purchase patterns.

Our survey also revealed a growing number of business law firms employ formalized search engine marketing to obtain case inquiries from the Internet. No firm reported using search engine marketing techniques in the 2004 survey, but 20 percent said they did in 2006.

Follow-up calls to firms about the change confirmed that most of the 20 percent of responding firms who had employed formal search engine marketing techniques -- key phrase optimization, geotargeting and click-through campaigns -- had received a steady flow of case inquiries.

Trade and community group participation came in third with 47 percent of firms, the same as in 2004, reporting they obtained work that way.

The survey also ranks the use and relative effectiveness of client entertainment, law firm networks, cross-selling programs, print advertising and other marketing tactics.  It also reveals how much firms spend on marketing overall as a percentage of gross fee volume. Results are compared to answers given by firms in 2004.

Participating firms filled out detailed questionnaires concerning their marketing efforts and expenses.  The questionnaires were developed with input from a panel of law firm marketing directors and legal administrators. Returns were received from December 2005 to January 2006. 

The survey is conducted every other year. In off-years, the company surveys the marketing done by contingent fee practices.  The 2006 survey and previous surveys done by the firm are available at  www.prdenver.com/survey.php.

I had been warned by recent travelers that getting on an airplane was a hellish experience, and they were right.  I prepared in advance, packing all liquids in my checkable suitcase, printing out my boarding pass in advance and arriving at the O'Hare airport 2 hours in advance. 

It was an exercise in futility.  The airport was like an anthill of people with luggage. My boarding pass entitled me to get on the end of a long line and wait for an agent.  Abandoning that idea, I went to the computer terminals, swiped my card and checked by bag that way. 

Why don't the airlines simply force passengers to strip naked and issue us orange jumpsuits before they lock us in the plane? It would be easier than standing in a line, cleaning out all my pockets of metal pens, a watch, change and my belt.  Then I had to take my shoes off.  I wanted a private changing room to disrobe in.  At the checkpoint they took away my Tide spot remover pen, but ignored my 1-oz. bottle of eye drops and 2 oz. bottle of eyeglass spray cleaner.  Luggage began to pile up behind me as I hurriedly got dressed and repacked.

I got onto my plane to New York but when I arrived at LaGuardia, my luggage did not.  Naturally, the bag contained medicine, fresh clothes and toiletries.  At the baggage claim I saw the American Airlines ad, "We know why you fly."  That's right, because I don't have any choice. Next time I'm taking a train, the bus or driving a car.

The Accursed Airlines delivered my bag at 2:30 AM, waking me from a anxious night's sleep.  Just what I didn't need the night before a 3-hour presentation.

Now I read that it's OK to bring onboard a travel-size 3-oz. container of lotion, mouthwash, perfume, shampoo, and toothpaste.  Big freakin' deal.  How about letting me bring a bottle of water or my nice hot latte?  How about mustard for my sandwich?

One of the most important points of information that a law firm can put on its Web site is a list of industries it serves. Industry experience is one of the first things that corporate executives and in-house counsel look for. They want to know if your lawyers are familiar with the trends affecting their business, and smart law firms put this information right up front.

Think about it: when your firm is choosing among vendors, you inquire whether the vendor has experience with the legal profession and can list other law firms as references. Corporations vet law firms in the same fashion.

The link to "Industries Served" should be right on the home page. Don't hide it on the back pages, because industry representation is a key selling point. This takes advantage of the way that clients and prospective clients think. Clients see themselves as being part of an industry. They do not view themselves as clients of a practice group. They also see their cases as business problems, not legal matters.

To see what other firms are doing -- including Womble Carlyle, Reed Smith, Winston & Strawn, Foley & Lardner, Jenkens & Gilchrist, and Holland & Hart -- visit http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleID=19.

Cross-selling is an elusive goal for law firms. The idea is simple: to interest clients that are using one practice area in using a second or third area. But the devil is in the details and most cross-selling plans fail as soon as they meet one of several common objections.

As a result, to paraphrase Mark Twain, everyone talks about cross-selling, but nobody is doing anything about it.

Yet cross-selling is more important than ever. According to new research by The BTI Consulting Group in Boston, corporations in the Fortune 1000 list are using 20% fewer core law firms than they did a year earlier. This means that fewer law firms will get the available work, and they will likely be the firms that successfully cross-sold their practices.

Knowing this, law firms send out calls to come to cross-selling sessions, but can't get lawyers to attend the meetings. Firms struggle to identify cross-selling targets but falter when it comes to making contact with the client. The keys to success are overcoming the objections that partners raise and focusing on firmwide, rather than individual, goals.

To jump-start a program, attorneys need to keep in mind the firmwide goals of cross-selling:

• To keep current clients by establishing as many points of contact with the law firm as possible.
• To expand client relationships by assuring that the client is completely satisfied with the firm's service and inquiring into the additional business problems a client has.
• To familiarize the lawyers with the client, so that they know the client's business and understand the client's industry.

There are seven common objections that derail most cross-sellng programs, and you'll find them at at http://www.larrybodine.com/HowtoJump-StartCross-Selling.htm.

from the Wall Street Journal Online:

Duane Morris Gets the HBS Treatment

Mucho thanks to Tom Antion of Virginia Beach, author of the Great Public Speaking blog for this excellent post:

In public speaking,  think of props as any physical item that is on stage with you. Your flipchart is a prop. Your lectern is a prop. Overhead projectors, pointers, notes, chairs, markers, pens, and other audio/visual aids are all forms of props. Conversely, props are a form of visual aid.

Why use props? Props help warm up the audience when you do a public speaking engagement. They can be used as a substitute for notes. They help focus attention on the speaking points you are trying to make along with illustrating them for you. They make better connections than your words with the visually oriented members of your audience. They create interest, add variety, and make your points more memorable.

Do you hate relying on notes? Props can be a substitute for written cheat sheets. To illustrate this in live seminars and television interviews I use three hats as an outline for a program. The first hat is a gag ball cap that has really long hair attached to it so that you look like a hippie when you wear it. The second hat is a black top hat. The third is a safari hat. Each hat prompts me to talk about a thoroughly rehearsed bit or chunk. Putting on the longhaired ball cap immediately reminds me to talk about when the company was young and aggressive. After that section I remove the ball cap (if you have a fun and playful audience, you could put it on an audience member's head), then I put on the black top hat. The top hat prompts a section on the mature growth years of the company. I then put on the safari hat which kicks off a section on searching for new business. The whole talk is done without any notes at all. You only have to memorize your opening and closing and practice each of the sections independently as you learned in a previous issue.

Memorability is another good reason to use props. People remember pictures far longer than words. That is why the treat public speakers that use stories try to use words to create images in your mind. They know the images will be remembered when the words are long forgotten. If you are not a great storyteller yet, you can use props to help create these pictures.

There are many different kinds of props that can be used to your advantage in a public speech. Extra large or extra small props are funny. Noisemakers are funny. Even though you are attacking the sense of hearing, you are attacking it in a unique way that makes it memorable. Costumes and magic tricks make good props.

I have a friend who speaks on telephone skills. He uses a giant telephone receiver to make a point about the importance of phone skills. I used a clown prop to make the serious point that if we went through with this merger it would be like being in a thunderstorm with a clown umbrella (for those of you that do not know, a clown umbrella is only about 8 inches in diameter).

Noisemakers are fun. I recommended that a sales manager get one of those expressway revenge devices that makes machine gun, ray gun, and bomb noises when you press a button. If XYA company gets in our way, this is what will do to them (he pressed the machine gun button while holding the device near the microphone). He got his point across.

I have worn gorilla costumes, brought full-size mannequins on stage and kicked them around. I have done simple magic tricks and many other things to get my point across in a more memorable and interesting fashion.

You don't necessarily have to do wild things to use props. A very creative friend of mine, Carolyn Long, was going to speak about the keys to creativity. She opened by holding up keys, then discarded them in favor of a combination lock. Her point was made.

LawMarketing Listserv members recently shared their experiences and successes in exhibiting at trade show booths. This compilation includes advice from Ronnie Sanford, Sanford Group Marketing Consultants; checklists from Cecilia Alers, Cecilia Alers Consulting, LLC; Bernadine Bednarz; Mark Merenda, Smart Marketing; and me.

Among the tips:

• Get the attendee list in advance and schedule meetings between your attorneys, potential clients and network contacts.
• Read "Law Firms Get Business from Booths at ACCA Meeting" 
• Stand in front of or to the side of your booth/table - not behind; be approachable; Initiate conversations; talk with exhibitors nearby to develop relationships; walk the floor during the show, draw people to your booth and meet others.
• Always rent your furniture from the trade show approved company. You can get cheaper furniture from the outside, but if you need to make a change quickly, the approved company is there for you; they want to make things good. Cheap is expensive.
• Contact a modeling agency. It will cost you about $300 a day. You will have clients five deep around your booth for the entire show, and will sign a lot of them as clients.

For the rest of the story, visit the LawMarketing Portal.

News Release: For immediate release

UK AND EUROPEAN LAW FIRMS RISK BEING CAUGHT BY PROPOSED NEW YORK STATE BAR RULES ON LAWYER ADVERTISING AND CLIENT SOLICITATION

Consultation on proposed new rules ends 15 September 2006 and final rules are intended to become effective on 1 November 2006.

Proposals put forward by the New York State Courts for the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) on lawyer advertising and client solicitation risk capturing UK and other country law firms and international legal networks in its regulatory net according to the Professional Services Marketing Group (PSMG).  The PSMG is the UK's only not-for-profit professional services marketing association.

The proposed rules define advertising as meaning: "any public communication made by or on behalf of a lawyer or law firm about a lawyer or law firm, or about a lawyer's or law firm's services."  According to the PSMG that would include most law firm marketing materials including websites, brochures, newsletters, emails, magazines, seminar invitations and press releases as well as traditional paid-for advertising.   

The NYSBA is proposing to amend its rules regarding the scope of its authority so that, alongside lawyers admitted to practice in the state of New York, "a lawyer not admitted in this jurisdiction is also subject to the disciplinary authority of this state if the lawyer provides or solicits any legal services in this state."   

According to the PSMG this means that the NYSBA could easily include a law firm that sells its services to a New York client, even if the law firm didn't have a presence in the United States.  The rule could also catch independent law firm networks such as Lex Mundi.  New York qualified lawyers in UK law firms are already subject to regulation by the NYSBA although the proposed rules would potentially extend the reach of the Bar to cover the whole firm.

The proposed rules aim to force law firms to adopt a number of detailed measures including prohibiting under certain circumstances statements that:
* describe or characterise the quality of a lawyer's services
* compare a lawyer's services with the services of other lawyers
* are reasonably likely to create an expectation about results the lawyer can achieve
* include testimonials or endorsements of former clients
The proposed rules also state that any packaging used to transmit an advertisement or solicitation should be labelled as "Attorney Advertising" in red ink.  Any email should contain the same wording in the subject line and websites should also be similarly marked.

Commenting on the proposals, Chris Hinze, chairman of the PSMG, said:   "We do not dispute the right of the State Bar to make rules that govern lawyers admitted to practice in New York State.  However, the language used to define who the proposed rules cover is very sweeping in nature and raises serious concerns over extra-territoriality.  The New York market is of global importance and it is right that the scope of these proposed rules is questioned and clarified.  If the intent of the Bar is to just cover attorneys who are qualified somewhere in the United States then that should be made clear in the language of the rules, otherwise the net is potentially global in nature.

"Looking at the detail of the rule changes themselves, it is easily recognised that they are designed to rein in some of the perceived faults of the personal injury market.  However, in doing so, they also restrict the sophisticated commercial legal market.  Clients should be allowed to make an informed choice regarding their legal advisers and they have a legitimate expectation that law firms can demonstrate their quality and say what makes them different from their competitors.  Branding marketing material and the envelope or email it travels in as "attorney advertising" in red ink when it is aimed at a sophisticated senior general counsel of a Fortune 500 multinational is simply unnecessary at best and insulting at worst.

"Some of the prohibitions could easily capture statements including how a law firm performs against its competitors in M&A deal rankings or how it is rated against its competitors in a legal directory such as Chambers & Partners or Legal 500 series.  Such information can help clients make an informed choice and promotes a transparent and competitive market.  If you can't describe the quality of a lawyer's service then it is very unclear as to how you can differentiate one firm from another.

"While it might be difficult for the rules to be enforced against a foreign firm with no physical presence in New York there is nothing to prevent the Bar from 'naming and shaming' or similar measures.  In addition, the rules might be used to block fair and legitimate competition.

"Firms that might be covered by the rules should make the appropriate representations to the NYSBA.  The consultation process finishes on 15 September 2006 and are set to come into effect on 1 November 2006."

The proposed rules may be found at www.nycourts.gov/rules/proposedamendments.shtml. Comments should be addressed to Michael Colodner, Esq., Office of Court Administration, 25 Beaver Street, New York, New York 10004. Comments should also be addressed to Bernice K. Leber, Esq., chair of the NYSBA Task Force on Lawyer Advertising, Arent Fox, 1675 Broadway, New York, NY 10019¬5820.

The PSMG is the UK's only not-for-profit professional services marketing association.
* Membership is drawn from across the professions including law, accountancy, real estate, banking, architecture, actuarial, insurance, management consultancy, marketing communications, engineering and construction as well as those with an interest in professional services marketing.
* It is a national organisation with active groups in key commercial centres in the UK and international links in the United States, Canada, Continental Europe and Australasia. In the United States the PSMG is associated with the Legal Marketing Association.
* It is a not-for-profit group for all those with an interest in marketing within professional services organisations, including practitioners, recognised consultants, suppliers and those who have an interest in this sector. Members include: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Linklaters, Addleshaw Goddard, Deloitte, Grant Thornton, Mazars, Gensler, Baker & McKenzie, AYH, Denton Wilde Sapte, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Lewis Silkin, Enviros, Carter Jonas, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung and GVA Grimley.

For further information, please contact:

Chris Hinze
Chairman, PSMG
Tel: 07802 784611
chris.hinze@hinzecommunications.com

or

Dillon Mann
Spada
Tel: 0207 269 1430
dillonmann@spada.co.uk

Jim Calloway, everyone's favorite technology expert, has finally hit the big time: he's the subject of a full-page personal profile in the "Up Close" page in the September issue of Law Technology News.  Congratulations Jim, I can't think of anyone who deserves it more. (Click the image to see it full-size.)

And what an awesome dude he is. He's the chairman of ABA Techshow 2005 and Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program.  Here's what he's got under the hood of his technology:

• OFFICE TECHNOLOGY: Dell Inc.'s Latitude D800 laptop with docking station and additional monitor; Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 6620; Visioneer Strobe XP200 scanner. Software: Adobe Acrobat, LexisNexis TimeMatters, Corel Corp.'s Word Perfect X3. Mobile: USB drives and devices, recovery disks, cables, a USB headset, 20 GB iPod.
• HOME OFFICE: H-P vx74 desktop computer; Apple MacBook Pro laptop; H-P Office Jet 4110; H-P Photosmart 7350. ISP: Cox.
• SOFTWARE USED THE MOST: Corel's WordPerfect and Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint.
• MOST RECENT TECH PURCHASE: Nuance Communication's Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.
• PDA/CELL: Treo 650.

You can hear Jim's sage advice in an Webinar next Tuesday: From Clicks to Bucks: Using Technology to Get New Business

PRESENTED BY:  Professional Business Development Institute 
SPEAKERS: Jim Calloway, Mike Cummings and Larry Bodine 
DATE: September 19, 2006; 1PM - 2PM Eastern
LOCATION: on the Web, on your computer
TO REGISTER: Go to http://www.pbdi.org/pages/events.asp?Action=View&EventID=140 and sign up instantly with a credit card.

"Super Lawyers" was the topic at my table at lunch yesterday at the "Strategic Marketing for the Modern Law Firm" conference in Chicago sponsored by the Ark Group.  A group of marketing directors were snickering at preposterousness of the Super Lawyers directory.

"They sent us a letter that three of our lawyers had been chosen," said the director of a prominent Ohio law firm.  "One was retired and another was dead."  So much for their rigorous selection criteria.  "So I called up and said I wanted three different lawyers in the directory.  They said 'OK.'"  Again, so much for their rigorous selection criteria.

"That's nothing," said another marketer at the table.  "Three of our partners were upset that they weren't selected.  So I phoned Super Lawyers and they added them.  Of course we had to buy some advertising."

The marketers laughed, and then sighed about how easily the lawyers were fooled.  All it took was one shot at their egos and the were ready to pay money to be in a meaningless directory.  I remarked that research shows that only blue collar workers are impressed by the Super Lawyers designation -- not corporate execs, GCs or referring lawyers. I've never seen a Super Lawyers listing in the office of any corporate leader who hired lawyers.

When I am advising a law firm on marketing, and see that they've put their Super Lawyers selection on their Web site or in a press release, I recommend they immediately remove them.  They are embarrassing themselves.  They are advertising to the world that the only ranking they can get into is one that sells advertising. They are announcing how insecure they are that their ego needs to be propped up with apparent praise.

Most law firm marketers know to steer their firms away from this claptrap.  But a new sucker is christened with a J.D. every day.

According to a new survey, 70 percent of corporate counsel surveyed--most from Fortune 1000 companies--were dissatisfied with their primary law firms. A little more than half of the corporate counsel reported they had replaced or demoted at least one of their primary law firms in the 18 months prior to the survey--largely without any more notice than a reduction in assignments.

The survey found a 30.7 percent satisfaction rate, representing a drop from the prior year's rate of 43.5 percent, a five-year high. If law firms would just listen to their clients (see "Listening Your Way to New Business") or pay a visit to their offices they would know what was on their client's minds.  The survey report, How Clients Hire, Fire and Spend: Landing the World's Best Clients, attributed the decline to three key factors. The law firms:

• Fail to keep up with clients' changing needs.
• Do not articulate the value they deliver.
• Do not communicate well with clients.

As for articulating value, there's only one thing clients card about: "did you help my company make more money?"  Or did you save them money?  Or did you protect their assets?  You have to think in terms of business results and actually tell the client what you did for them.  They will not infer this from your great legal pleadings.

The results show customer service in a corporate-client relationship is paramount, and it is "not just about returning phone calls," says BTI president Michael B. Rynowecer. "The major components of client satisfaction are the ability to make legal expertise client-specific, to understand the client's business, to go beyond what's anticipated and to achieve the client's goals."

The survey was conducted by BTI Consulting Group, a Wellesley, Mass.-based market research and management consulting firm. The results were drawn from more than 200 interviews between July and October 2005 with corporate counsel at large and Fortune 1000 companies across more than 15 sectors, including banking, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and high-tech.

I'm at the "Strategic Marketing for the Modern Law Firm" conference in Chicago sponsored by the Ark Group. Keynote speaker Stephen A. Cone, Managing Director and Head of Advertising and Brand Management for Citigroup Global Wealth Management, told the audience that law firms are wasting billions by creating "crappy advertising."

"The problem is that advertising is all homogenized "Kodak moments" - the same old stuff --  pictures older couple walking on beach or a car on a wet street -- it all looks the same," he said.

Cone is a frequent lecturer at Harvard, MIT and Columbia Business Schools, and is the author of book Steal These Ideas: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star! ($12.89 on Amazon.com).

Among the challenges marketers face is stopping the human eye, which speeds across a magazine or brochure page at 100 miles per hour.  "How do you stop the eye that's moving that fast to focus on your message?"

Plus there's a lot of clutter: The average American adult will spend 9.3 hours a day with TV, radio, Internet, newspapers, recorded music, magazines, books, DVD, video games, wireless and movies.  Most of the time is spent watching TV and listening to the radio. "The Internet has 30 million available Web sites but most people go to only 11," Cone said.

Three keys to success

1. You need to create visual or sensual excitement in your ad.  "Sound is 10-15 times more powerful than sight, that's why TV and radio so important.  You can hear a song you heard 30 years ago and remember the words," he said.
2. Your message must have real news in it that will make readers pay attention.
3. You must have a compelling call to action - exhorting a reader to go to your Web site or take five minutes to call you.

The trick is to create a sense of intimacy with the prospect.  Examples:

• iPod ad - depicting woman in black with a outline of white wires.  "The ad says, 'It's my personal music device,'" Cone said.   "It's exiting, it's fantastic."
• American Express ad - using catchy pictures of famous people - like a man being nuzzled by a big white horse -- with a personal profile about what makes them tick.

To read his 11 Quick Advertising Techniques, visit
http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleCategoryID=7&ArticleID=555
on the LawMarketing Portal.

It was four years in the making, but the Law Firm Media Professionals finally have a Web site. According to Board Member Luis Mocete. Law Firm Media Professionals (LFMP) is a New York-based association of in-house and outside media and marketing professionals.

"We started LFMP in 2002 with just the idea that law firm media personnel would benefit greatly from getting to know one another, sharing their experiences, and understanding that 'they are not alone,'" said Joshua M. Peck, Senior Manager, Media Relations, DuaneMorris, Founding LFMP Member and President.

Their next meeting is on September 13 at 7:00 pm at the host firm, Bingham McCutchen.  Ellen Rosen and Karen Donovan, both formerly journalists for American Lawyer and now both freelancers who appear in the NY Times and other publications, are the featured speakers. 

LFMP was formed in New York City in 2002. The primary objective of the group is to provide members with a forum to exchange ideas, experiences and information on a wide variety of communications issues.  The group shares its insights with one another in relatively informal monthly meetings which offer educational and networking opportunities. The session locations vary and are hosted by the New York offices of the members' firms. Though many members work predominantly out of other cities, they participate via conference call or sometimes in person if business travel permits.

Guest speakers to the group include journalists from some of the most prestigious news affiliates in the world including the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and Bloomberg News

If your firm's profit margin is not 40% or more, it should be.  Having examined the finances of dozens of law firms in my marketing work, I've seen that successful firms make 40 cents or more on every dollar collected.

If your firm doesn't have this margin, it's time to focus on cutting expenses and boosting your realization rate.  You also need a good marketing plan to upgrade your clients so you can charge higher rates.

I advised a large law firm that has annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  Their profit margin is +42%, yielding an average partner compensation of $550,000.  This is a really nice income.  If you're carrying all your clients problems around in your head all the time, you deserve this income.  It doesn't matter what size your firm is, you can earn this much.

Here's how the firm did it over the last four years:

• Total revenues grew 46%. They have a business development plan and are pursuing it
• Full-time employees grew only 22%.  This, along with office space, are the biggest expenses of law firms.  At typical firms, expenses grow at the same rate income grows.
• Their realization rate is 90% and increasing.  Most firms would love to take home this percentage of fees billed.
• The firm charges high rates for sophisticated work.  This means they can be a "lifestyle" firm where the partners bill only 1,500 hours and associates bill 1,700 hours per year.  This proves you don't have to work at a dreadful sweatshop to be prosperous.
• They have low turnover and have cracked to the code to retaining women lawyers.

Most importantly, the firm has a written vision for the future, a marketing strategy and a well-articulated brand message.  Without these, the revenue would not be possible.

Listening is the one sales technique that lawyers shouldn't live without. It saves you from having to make a pitch. Prospects hate being pitched (see discussion below).

The way to sell effectively is to meet a prospect and have five intelligent questions ready. The questions should demonstrate that you've made an effort to understand the prospect's business. The questions are designed to get the other person talking. They will tell you all the things you're supposed to look for to close the deal:

• The prospect's business "pain."
• What they want and how they want it.
• What's important to the prospect.
• Whether they have the money to hire you or buy your services.
• Every detail that should go into your proposal to hire you.

In fact, the prospect will write the proposal for you if you ask open-ended questions (those that cannot be answered by "yes or no," such as "tell me more about that") and just get them talking. By using the list-of-questions approach, you'll have to hire an associate to keep up with all the work coming in.

For more on turning leads into sales and 10 key questions to ask your target, visit my site at http://www.larrybodine.com/Listening.htm.

Chuhak & Tecson, one of the largest full-service law firms in Chicago, began an intensive program of business development coaching for 20 of its income partners in 2005. A year later, the group had brought in $1 million in new revenue, with one partner DOUBLING his fees billed.

The firm spent only $24,000, showed an ROI of 2000% and met its revenue goal.
Click here to read the recommendation letter of Lily Joy, the firm's Marketing Director.

Working closely with the partners and marketing director, we:

1. Increased revenue with a premeditated business development coaching program.
2. Created a marketing culture at a risk-averse law firm.
3. Engaged lawyers in business development, by overcoming their objections (no time, too much work, not interested) and building plans around their strengths, activities they enjoy and people they already knew.
4. Educated lawyers in how to sell without being a "salesman," but rather sell by asking questions and listening.
5. Helped attorneys pick targets: #1 current clients (the low-hanging fruit), #2 referral sources (the lawyers' allies) #3 carefully-chosen targets that fit the firm's strategy.

To find out how we did it, click here. Call me at 630.942.0977 if you'd like me to generate a million dollars of new revenue for your law firm.

Here's good news if you are a graduate of Harvard, Yale, Columbia or NYU  law school, and you get an offer to work at a megafirm in Manhattan: you can earn a starting salary of $145,000.  This princely sum is according to the National Association for Law Placement, which adds that in cities other than New York, you'll have to settle for about $10,000 less.

It's great to be a young rich professional, but you'll have to learn something they never taught you in law school: business development.  You went to law school because you never wanted to sell, and now you've been hired to be a billing machine.  To break out of this golden cage you'll have to bring in new files and clients.  Look to the Associate Marketing Mentor blog for business development tips, such as:

• New business is all about relationships.  Make friends with everyone you meet at  clients, if you ever get a chance to meet them.
• Don't be arrogant. People need to like you first to give you additional files.  And they need to want to help you develop, especially as a junior lawyer.
• Find a mentor who is already good at developing business.  Make friends with the person and ask to be taken along for meetings with clients.
• Realize that business development is simply a learnable skill. And superb business development simply leverages the skills that already make you a superb practicing attorney -- including being organized, working hard, listening, diagnosing client implications and finding solutions.
• Write your own personal marketing plan. This means deciding what you can do today, this week and this month to start growing your practice. First, market to the clients you already have. Second, develop a systematic plan to contact, nurture and expand your network.

To quote my colleague Michael G. Cummings: The BAD news: business development is no longer optional. The GOOD news ... you can do it!