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

Your legal work may have been stellar, but unhappiness with cost and billing, lack of response, incompetence, failure to understand client needs and a conflict with a partner or staff will make clients leave, according to Jeffrey Miller and Jill Kohn, Ph.D., marketing consultants at Kohn Communications.  

Lawyers often mistake a lack of complaining from clients as a sign of satisfaction. This may be an overly optimistic conclusion. Research indicates that most clients won’t express feelings of dissatisfaction; they’ll just leave. This is particularly true for consumers of services, who are less likely to complain than those who purchase a tangible product. For every client who does give you an earful, research indicates there are 26 others you won’t be hearing from. Ten of their friends and associates, however, will be told about their unpleasant experience with you and your firm in high-definition detail.

Maybe you have done nothing technically wrong. In fact, the legal work may have been stellar, but for some reason the client is unhappy. This is because it can be difficult for clients to accurately assess what you have done for them. They may not understand the complexity of issues involved with their matters or lack the technical knowledge to effectively evaluate services rendered. The client’s expectations can vary greatly from the attorney’s in nearly every aspect of the relationship, including the amount of time the matter requires, the scope of the issue, and the likely outcome.

Based on interviews with a wide va­riety of law firm clients across the country, there are five complaints clients express most fre­quently -- and there are strategies you can employ to effectively address your client’s top concerns, thereby prevent­ing client loss and enhancing client loyalty.

1. COST AND BILLING. Dissatisfaction with cost and billing can take several different forms, but the following are the most common.

For the rest of the story visit the LawMarketing Portal at http://bit.ly/cBJHbI

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Legal OnRamp -- the leading online social network for general counsel and in-house lawyers -- is adding 14,000 additional corporate lawyers to its membership, as part of a deal with Corporate Executive Board Co. ("CBE"), an executive network based in Arlington, VA.

“Our mission is not to be simply a Facebook for lawyers, but to be as compelling for a 49-year-old general counsel as Facebook is for a 19-year-old college student,” said attorney Paul Lippe, CEO of California-based OnRamp.

“Because knowledge in law comes from many experts, a profile-based system that allows each expert to share his knowledge is the most efficient platform to reduce costs and improve quality. The purpose isn’t to network. It’s to do your job better.”

The agreement links 9,550 Legal OnRamp members to CEB’s 14,000-member general counsel division, which advises corporations on how to manage legal departments and outside counsel. Publicly traded CEB advises 4,700 businesses, including more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500.

Legal OnRamp has 4,458 in-house members and 5,000 lawyers in private practice, who can request an invitation online to join OnRamp. The site was created by Mark Chandler, General Counsel of Cisco Systems; the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and Paul Lippe.

Legal OnRamp allows members to create profiles, e-mail each other, join group discussions, read blogs and post content such as articles, speeches and draft contracts. Discussion topics range from the future of patent litigation to anecdotes about the difficulties of working out alternative fee arrangements. 

“Smart clients are increasingly using non-traditional interactive approaches to find and reward the law firms that deliver the most value,” said FMC Technologies General Counsel Jeffrey Carr. “OnRamp is a great platform for these sophisticated processes.”

Carr used Legal OnRamp this year to solicit proposals from firms such as Greenberg Traurig and Kirkland Ellis -- as well as many small and mid-size firms --  which bid for pieces of FMC’s litigation work. FMC provides technology for oil and natural gas fields.

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In addition to pushing firms to be more flexible and competitive on fee arrangements, the Barclays Bank has rolled out an e-billing system across all 11 of its panels, and asked all of its newly-appointed panel firms to sign up to a range of diversity initiatives, according to an article in Legal Week.

The bank has more than 1,700 branches in the UK and some 2,000 more in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the US. General counsel Mark Harding confirmed that he has asked all of the firms on its main panel, as well as those on its 10 specialist panels, to confirm to the bank their diversity and inclusion policies, including details of how they measure and manage diversity.

The move expands on Harding's policy, introduced in 2006, to ask main advisers Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Lovells and Simmons & Simmons to supply the information.

The diversity program is one of a number of initiatives Barclays has introduced as part of its latest review in order to cut costs and strengthen relationships with panel firms. The e-billing is designed to allow the bank to more closely monitor external legal costs.

Harding told Legal Week: "Through the panel process we have naturally reviewed projected rates and have focused on firms that are not only competitive but that can also demonstrate innovation in the way that they approach a range of pricing arrangements."

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These are turbulent times for corporate clients, which are struggling with management changes, workforce voids caused by layoffs, worries about cost-reduction initiatives and keeping pace with competitors.

This creates an excellent opportunity for professional firms -- including law firms -- to capture their outsourced work by showing companies how to increase revenue growth, decrease operating expenses, and demonstrate their expertise in the client's line of business, according to a new 80-page survey report, "Consulting & Professional Services Firm Hiring by U.S. Middle-Market Companies."

"The ongoing makeover of the business models of many companies is a notable finding in this study," said the author of the report, Mark N. Clemente, Editorial Director of Clemente Communications in Glen Rock, NJ. "In the near-term, companies will be exploring all manner of corporate growth opportunities to transform themselves in an effort to either realize cost-reduction synergies or to support wholesale shifts in strategy. Legal, financial, and strategy experts will invariably be required for those companies pursuing mergers, corporate combinations, and other deal-based growth opportunities," he added.

Clemente is a consultant and author of five books and journal articles on marketing, business communication and corporate development. The research is an X-ray into the factors that cause corporate clients to hire law firms. The study surveyed executives at 250 middle-market companies.

For the rest of the story, visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com

The LawMarketing Portal has obtained a $100 discount off the purchase price of the study especially for our readers. Simply visit http://www.clementeonline.com/research_reports.html for further information and how to order your own copy of the report, which has an official price of $495.  LawMarketing Portal readers can buy the report for $395 -- and save $100 -- by using the code LMP2009 when ordering the report.

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Most lawyers who get into mediation or other ADR services don’t do it because they love to market their services, according to Diana Mercer, Esq. of Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc. in Playa del Rey, CA. For many lawyers, marketing has a pejorative feel to it; marketing feels unprofessional for a professional service industry.  Yet, because so much of the public is unfamiliar with the types of services that ADR practitioners offer, lawyer-mediators need to find an authentic, comfortable way to market their services and mediation programs.

For most of lawyers, it’s been a long journey since they resolved to become peacemakers. Once you open your office it doesn’t take long to learn that clients don’t magically appear.  The question is how to make your commitment to peacemaking feel as authentic for your prospective clients as it is for yourselves.  How can you design marketing plans that convey the benefits of mediation and your own sincerity in a way that is also designed to sell your services? 

Developing your signature style and discovering your own identity as a mediator are the key elements to begin your marketing.  After that, marketing falls into two categories, one of which works and one of which doesn’t: 

• Spending lots of money (doesn’t work) and
• Spending lots of time (works really well). 

Chronologically, you also divide your time into two categories: 

• Finding new prospective clients and
• Making sure they become actual clients. 

The trick is to be yourself while marketing and how to choose marketing techniques that will work for you and your practice. For your marketing to work...

To see the rest of the story, visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.LawMarketing.com

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According to Bloomberg.com, U.S. companies are adding firms with 300 or fewer lawyers to their outside-counsel roster and saving as much as half compared with fees of Wall Street firms more than triple that size.

I wrote about this trend in Pendulum Swings in Favor of Mid-size Law Firms on the LawMarketing Portal.

Corporations hit by the recession are adopting a model used by DuPont Co., which are pressing firms for fixed fees or 10 to 25 percent discounts, accordingto Bloomberg.com. Lower overhead of smaller firms, such as 210-lawyer Hiscock & Barclay LLP, permit them to charge less than DLA Piper LLP or Latham & Watkins LLP, which have thousands of lawyers. Partners at smaller firms charge $500 to $600 an hour as top fees compared with as much as $1,000 at large New York firms.

“At a time when general counsel are looking for alternative billing arrangements, the playing field has been leveled, so smaller firms can make pitches to big clients that would have fallen on deaf ears before,” Thomas Sager, DuPont’s general counsel, said in an interview.

Starting in 1992, Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont, the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, set out to reduce its stable of law firms, applying rigorous criteria to cut costs and increase the value of legal services. The company’s current roster includes eight of the 100 biggest U.S. law firms and four times as many smaller firms, which Sager said he prizes for their “flexibility and creativity” in billing.

High Overhead

Small firms offer quality work at a discount because they are more conservatively managed, with fewer offices, fewer junior attorneys and less debt, said Todd Phillips, managing partner at Wick Phillips LLP, a 12-lawyer Dallas law firm.

“At many big law firms, the overhead is so high it pushes the rates through the roofs,” Phillips said. “They are less able, or willing, to negotiate a different fee structure for fear of cutting their own throats.”

‘You Get Me’

While companies will continue to use big firms for some high-stakes work, smaller firms can handle routine deals and lawsuits as well as patents, real estate, employment and immigration work, said Rachel Hayes, a consultant with Framingham, Massachusetts-based Wellesley Hills Group.

“At many of the big firms, clients end up dealing with a fourth-year associate,” J. Joseph Bainton, a litigator in the New York office of Atlanta-based Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP, said in an interview. “When you hire me, you get me.”

Smith Gambrell partners bill 10 to 20 percent less than big firms and give the client more attention than they get elsewhere, Bainton said.

Bainton previously ran a nine-lawyer New York firm. He joined 189-attorney Smith Gambrell with five of his colleagues in December.

Boutique Firms

A firm with fewer than 50 lawyers that specializes in a few areas of law is commonly known as a boutique. Smith Gambrell and others in the headcount range of 50 to 300 lawyers are traditionally considered midsize. The 10 biggest firms in the U.S., with offices around the world, have more than 1,500 attorneys.

The economic slowdown has hit big firms hard. Law firms such as 3,785 lawyer, Chicago-based DLA Piper and Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, based in New York, have cut the annual payments to some of their partners. More than half of the 50 largest firms have fired associates and staff, anticipating revenue declines.

“These aren’t great economic times for anybody, but there are lots of opportunities for a firm like ours,” James Yates, managing partner of Raleigh, North Carolina-based Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, said in an interview.

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Lawyers need to send "status obvious" gifts to clients, according to Kathryn E. Brown of The Write Word LLC.  If you send cheap monogrammed  gifts like hats or T-shirts, they can wind up in a charity thrift shop priced at 25 cents.  There's nothing worse than seeing a homeless guy wearing your law firm baseball cap.

"Gifts aren't worth giving if they aren't useful as well as impressive. In addition, gifts are sometimes better received if the tokens of appreciation aren't branded with a logo or name of any kind, which sends a message of selflessness," she writes.

Here's her top 10 list of best client Christmas gifts:

1. The Open-Top Tote by Lands' End
2. L.L. Bean's Weekend Blanket
3. A sophisticated Levenger fountain pen
4. Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies
5. The Greenbrier's fruitcake, made by real pastry chefs
6. An autographed cookbook by famous caterer Ina Garten of the Food Network's popular show, "Barefoot Contessa."
7. Dylan Lauren's Candy Bar of New York City (she is the daughter of fashion designer Ralph Lauren), available at Saks Fifth Avenue
8. Red Envelope Asian money tree in a sculptural pot
9. Vera Bradley  leather MP3 cases
10. Tiffany robin's egg blue Swiss movement clock.

Meanwhile, head out to that thrift shop and buy your cheap merchandise back!

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More than half of all corporate clients have fired one of their key law firms, according to research by The BTI Consulting Group in Boston.

61.1% of clients have replaced at least one primary law firm according to the research report, "Key Trends in Client Relationships and Satisfaction with Law FIrms: Market Opportunities for 2007."  If you have corporate clients, it's time to start visiting their offices, holding regular business update meetings and sending client satisfaction surveys.

On the other hand, this is great news for law firms trying to crack a major corporate account.  The odds are now in your favor that the target corporation will have an opening for a new law firm.  Happily, corporations are shifting more dollars to hiring secondary law firms, as the in-house counsel try new law firms, according to the BTI study.  In fact, 51.3% of their spending will be on secondary law firms.

The time to act is now.

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By Charlie Miller and Ronna Cross, Patton Boggs

Charlie Miller is Deputy Managing Partner and Ronna Cross is Director of Business Development at Patton Boggs,  Patton Boggs is a law firm with 500 attorneys based in Washington, D.C. with six additional offices worldwide.  

Most thriving law firms today understand how important it is to:

• Thoroughly understand your clients’ and potential clients’ businesses;
• Identify existing and prospective clients’ problems, opportunities and changes; and
• Create value-added solutions

At Patton Boggs, we collectively call these habits of thought and action, “capturing the voice of the client.”  Capturing the voice of the client has generated revenue for us far beyond everyone’s expectations.  But building that ability into our culture took some effort and habit-forming.

In this article, we draw on our experiences and analyze the “what, why, when and how” of capturing the voice of the client. And how you can start doing the same within your firm. What we found is that the “little things” make the big difference. 

For the rest of the article visit the Originate newsletter.

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I was reading the latest issue of the ABA's Law Practice magazine and saw Matt Homann's 17 Tips for  Lawyers.  They are definitely worth repeating if you want to keep the clients you have:

1.  Whenever your clients don’t understand what you are doing for them, they think about what you are doing to them.

2.  Many of your clients remain your clients because it is a pain in the ass to find another laywer – not because they love you.

3.  Every time your clients get your bill, they think about how beautiful your office is and about the nice car you drive.  And they wonder if you are worth it. 

4.  If your office is a dump and you drive a wreck, they wonder about that too.

5.  If your client doesn’t pay you, fire them.  Don’t ignore them.

6.  At least once a year, tell a client, “It’s on the house.”

7.  Taking a client to play golf doesn’t show how good a lawyer you are.  It shows how good a golfer you are.

8.  Quit being a pompous, demanding jerk around the office.  If you can’t keep good staff, you don’t deserve good clients.

9.  Your clients will always know their business better than you do.  They may even know the law better than you.  Make sure to seek their advice before giving yours.

10.  A lawyer charging extra for stamps and copies is like a car wash charging extra for water.  Stop it now.

11.  Your clients have wants.  Your clients have needs.  They often don’t know the difference.

12.  Whenever you interrupt a client meeting to take an “important” call, your client thinks about hiring another lawyer.

13.  Imagine a world where your clients knew each month how much their bill from you will be so they could plan for it.  They do.

14.  If you hate being a lawyer, be something else.  You are smart.  You’ll figure it out.

15.  A bill is not communication.  At least not the good kind.

16.  When is the last time you called a client just to thank them for being your client?  That’s what I thought.

17.    People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they are funny.  They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true.  Spend your career proving them wrong.

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