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

Only 5% of chief legal officers at corporations believe that law firms are serious about changing the value proposition in their legal service delivery, as opposed to simply cutting costs, a new survey by Altman Weil reveals. 

“This year, in the midst of an unprecedented financial shift, we wanted to learn if the talk about a changing model of legal service delivery – in terms of pricing, staffing and law firm selection criteria – was being translated into action,” DiLuccio said.  But cleints don't see it happening.

Heavy pressure to change

The survey asked Chief Legal Officers (CLOs) to rate how much pressure corporations are putting on law firms to change the value proposition in legal service delivery, as opposed to simply cutting costs. CLOs responded across the board, with:

• 25% rating the pressure as high – or between 8 and 10 on a zero to 10 scale
• 37% rating the pressure in the mid-range at 5, 6 or 7
• 38% rating it low, between zero and 4. 

However, when asked how serious law firms are about changing their delivery model, the answers were in sharp contrast.  Only 5% of CLOs assessed law firms as highly serious, scoring them between 8 and 10.  Twenty percent gave firms credit for some level of effort, rating them 5, 6 or 7. A full 75% rated law firms between zero and 4 on the scale, indicating little or no interest in change.

“This is a dramatic vote of no confidence from Chief Legal Officers,” observed Altman Weil principal Dan DiLucchio.  “Either many law firms just don’t understand that clients today expect greater value and predictability in staffing and pricing legal work, or firms are failing to adequately communicate their understanding and willingness to make real change.  In either case, it’s a big problem.”

For the rest of the story visit the LawMarketing Portal at http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleCategoryID=58&ArticleID=895

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From the Fulton County Daily Report:

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Here's something I've never seen before: a plastic see-through post card.  I liked it as a marketing tool because it really popped out of all the other mail I get. Appropriately, it promotes a $100 discount to a marketing conference in Chicago in July.

The text and graphics are painted onto the oversize 6"x9" card, and the address appears to be laser printed onto the card.  Created by ShipShapes, the "ClearCard™ is a rectangular direct mail piece that captures attention, evokes a response, and sticks around while conventional mail gets tossed in a recycle bin or trash can."

"ClearCards are unconventional post card mailers that not only get noticed, they influence response, generate word-of-mouth advertising, and encourage recipients to hold onto them. In test campaigns, ClearCards consistently outperform control pieces with 3 to 10 time higher measures." 

You can put a dinosaur, water bottle or castle as the graphic on the ClearCard. The company says the cards generated a 49% response rate for a sports team ticket promotion and the best ROI and 320% lift for a telecom company seeking new ISP subscribers.

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For the next 48 hours Paula Black will be offering an impressive opportunity to anyone who purchases “The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide To Creating A Marketing Habit in 21 Days.” Readers who purchase the book will receive “The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit,” a compilation of advice from more than 30 of the most sought-after experts in the legal arena (including myself!). Click here for details.

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Aden Dauchess,  Director of Digital Marketing, and the tech wizards at 530-lawyer Womble Carlye will release a funny  video of two laywers texting each other about the sale of a factory.

To the tune of Leroy Anderson's orchestra music "The Typewriter," it shows the shorthand used in the text messages and a polite translation below.
 

At the end, Burley Mitchell, former Supreme Court Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and a Womble Carlyle attorney appears, snapping his cell phone shut.

To see it visit http://www.wcsr.com/resources/video/TheFutureNow-texting.wmv  The video, titled "The Future is Now" was created by Robby Merritt of Merritt Videoworks.

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A Massachusetts credit union got rid of its old logo because it made them look like a law firm, which doesn't say much for law firm marketing logos.

When the officers at the First Citizens' Federal Credit Union in Massachusetts decided it was time for a new bank logo, they embarked on what can be a risky enterprise. Business people know that these things can go very, very wrong.

At right, First Citizens Federal Credit Union CEO Peter Muise stands next to a poster bearing the new company logo.

But some of the competition had already thrown down the redesign gauntlet. In particular, said Nora Ganim-Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research at UMass Dartmouth College of Business, Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank had recently transformed its name and its look to the new Bank Five.

First Citizens', meanwhile, was still using a maroon logo with script lettering dating back 30 or 40 years that President and CEO Muise says "looked like a law firm."

Barnes said, "You look at the competitive environment and see whether or not you're looking tired and old and you need to shake things up a little bit. You do a competitive analysis. There are times when it is appropriate and times when it's inappropriate."

The old lawfimmish logo is shown above.

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I'll see you soon at LSSO's RainDance Conference, scheduled for June 3-5 in Chicago.  The conference is conceived and designed for senior leaders in law firms and legal departments. It's the place where sophisticated professionals and industry thought leaders turn for their own professional development.

Register for RainDance '09

From LSSO: We know this is a tough year and that budgets are tight – so, we’ve lowered registration fees, developed great team pricing, rolled back sponsorship pricing to 2004 rates, elevated the conference agenda (have you seen who's on the 2009 faculty?!), and negotiated favorable rates at the fabulous Hotel Sax too. Our goal, as always, is that you realize a substantial return on your registration investment. Visit us at www.legalsales.org/raindance for more information and to see 5 reasons it makes good sense to attend RainDance this year. Here’s one:

RainDance is the only conference in the legal industry that gives you critical sales, service and process improvement education and tools that you and your firm need to compete. With this focus on specific content, RainDance is geared to provide the skills and education that help you be in the know about how to survive in these challenging times and address important initiatives, such as the ACC Value Challenge, that are now hitting the legal industry.

View the RainDance Program Agenda

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Come to the "Get a Life Conference" next Wednesday in Chicago, where I'll be speaking on "Building Your Personal & Client Business Development Plans."  The conference is sponsored by the The Practice Management Association, a new organization that helps attorneys seeking innovative ways to grow their practice and manage their office without sacrificing their personal and family life. 

I'll be talking about how lawyers can survive the recession by focusing on:

• Six Thriving practice areas
• Generating leads with FREE technology
• Four primary sources of new business
• Stop “making a pitch” and start asking  questions
• Business Development is a learnable skill
• Networking with a purpose

The two-day conference takes plan on Wednesday, May 27 and Thursday May 28 at Hyatt Regency, 151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601. The awesome list of additional speakers includes:

• Ed Adams, Editor and Publisher, the ABA Journal
• Brad Botes, Esq., Partner, Manager, and Vice President in Charge of Legal Relationships
• Kevin Chern, Esq., President, Total Attorneys
• Damon Cheronis, Esq., Attorney
• Erik Clark, Esq., Founding Partner, Borowitz, Lozano & Clark, LLP
• Stephen Fairley, CEO, Rainmaker Institute
• Ross Fishman, CEO, Fishman Marketing, Inc.
• Max Gardner, Esq., Founder, Bankruptcy Bootcamp
• Will Hornsby, Esq., Author and Staff Counsel, ABA Division for Legal Services
• Steven Imparl, Author
• Mark Jacobsen, Senior Director of Product Development, FindLaw
• Nancy Roberts Linder, Principal, Nancy Roberts Linder Consulting
• John Mickalovski, LPO Operations Manager, Total Attorneys
• Alexis Martin Neely, Esq., Law Business Revolution
• Kevin O'Keefe, CEO, Lex Blog
• John Remsen, Jr., President, The Remsen Group
• Gerry Riskin, Esq., Co-Founder/Partner, Edge International.
• Tim Ryan, Vice-President, Total Attorneys
• Ameet Sachdev, Business Reporter, the Chicago Tribune
• Ed Scanlan, CEO & Founder, Total Attorneys
• Allison Shields, Esq., Owner, Legal Ease Consulting

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From the Wall Street Journal:

"In the last few months, law firms have become increasingly aware that training lawyers in marketing and business development is a key way to drive business. According to a February survey of 120 marketing directors at large law firms -- conducted by legal market researcher, BTI Consulting Group -- business development is one of the few marketing areas where law firm executives are most willing to increase spending. Nearly 70% said they planned to provide more marketing coaching to lawyers.

"Marketing coaching fills in where law school falls short on training. Firms are enlisting coaches who work one-on-one with their lawyers on how to keep up with existing clients and court new ones. While it's certainly not a new concept to the legal world, this kind of strategic networking becomes critical as business wanes. "As business falls off everywhere, all of us need to have an eye on where the next thing is coming from," says Edward Winslow, partner at Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, an 85-lawyer firm based in Greensboro, N.C.

"Larry Bodine, an Illinois-based law firm business-development consultant, has been working nights and weekends to accommodate his new influx of clients, which has tripled from 20 to 60 lawyers since January. "Business development is not something taught in law school," he says. "Basically you spend three years reading appellate court opinions and you don't learn anything about building a clientele," he says.

"While many firms are looking outside to hire coaches, others are ramping up internal efforts. At Boston-based Nixon Peabody, where the marketing budget is down 20% this year, chief marketing officer Mark Greene says there has been a distinct shift in how resources are allocated, with more emphasis on coaching individual lawyers. "A year ago the department was more focused on marketing in the traditional sense of brand creation," says Mr. Greene. "We have shifted resources toward one-on-one relationship building."

For more about business development training, visit www.ApolloBusinessDevelopment.com

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Lawyers know the value of getting your name in the news, but in these hard times, few can come up with the $5,000 or $10,000 retainer that big PR agencies want.

How would you like to get access to queries from journalists as they are working on articles, plus exposure to the world’s most influential news outlets -- for $34.95 a month?

Thanks to the ever-resourceful Paramjit Mahli of Legal PR Network For Attorneys in New York, now you can, with the "Amethyst" level of service.

It's PR on a shoestring. A gem lover, she also offers the "Ruby" level that adds coaching from a media expert.  The "Diamond" level includes all of the above, plus inclusion in a database like ProfNet, where journalists can look up lawyers to quote.

“We’re very pleased” – we’re getting 5 inquiries a week from journalists," said Paramjit, who is a veteran of the CNN news network.  She's made her network of journalists available to lawyers, "because there's a need in the legal space to do public relations on a shoestring.  Lawyers get new-business leads from using public relations."

Sample stories where reporters were seeking lawyers to quote include:

• Where are the Somali going be prosecuted? The Legal Talk Network wanted a lawyer to go on the air to discuss the point. 
• The New York Post wanted a lawyer who was a hunter to comment on a story about a woman who was sitting in church in The Bronx, and was hit by an arrow.
• Inside Counsel called seeking comment on European legislation and environmental laws that affect US businesses there.
• Working Mother magazine sought a lawyer to ask if women were taking advantage of cost cutting measures that law firms are making to suit their work/life schedules.

The Legal PR Network for Attorneys "has really taken off," said Paramjit, who can be reached at 212.661.9137. "We want to help lawyers get through the recession."

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