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

Lawyers USA has a great article on the effects of billing clients for certain costs. In the case of a major New York law firm it led to a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff argues that the firm violated California’s ethics laws as well as the state’s unfair business practices statute by overcharging him for computerized legal research.

It's also really bad for law firm marketing.

Granted, the bonehead who filed suit is in my opinion pursuing a nuisance lawsuit that he deserves to lose.  He's claiming that the firm buys its Westlaw and Lexis service in an annual contract but didn't pass along the savings to him.  When they throw his case out, I hope they hit him with attorney fees too.

By my point is, when you got to the UPS store and they mark up the cost of US Postal mail, you feel like you're getting gypped.  The same thing when they charge you $5 a page to send a fax to Europe.

Hotels have been charging $7 for a tiny bottle of scotch in the mini-refrigerators for years.  Airlines now charge $5 for a mediocre box lunch when you used to get a hot meal served for free.  Customers don't like it when a business passes on its own cost of doing business.

The best practice for attorneys is to build computerized legal research costs into their overhead costs and not break them out separately in the bill. Clients hate seeing charges for copying or postage. If you break out every charge, it makes you look like you are trying to milk every nickel and dime possible out of the client.

Instead, build the cost of the research into your hourly time , but be sure to explain it to the client. 

And in the current economy, it might be worth simply not charging the client for the cost of research. Just eat the cost. Charge for your time doing legal research, but don’t charge the client for the cost of the service. Just be sure to say … on the invoice that you didn’t charge them and let them know that’s something you do for valued clients.”

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An 85-lawyer firm is the first recipient of RainMaker Software’s $1 million Economic Assistance Package for law firms. So far RainMaker has awarded $228,164 in economic assistance, as much as $30,000 per firm. 

Law firms get the funds in the form of a discount on the company’s software and must agree to “pay it forward” by devoting the benefits of the bail-out to their local community, for example, identifying new pro-bono work initiatives for laid-off workers, or assisting families dealing with potential mortgage foreclosures. The amount of the bailout package for each firm is based on their size and the commitment they make to “pay forward” these benefits.

Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman, headquartered in Los Angeles, was the first to receive the bailout money. The firm has offices across California, Arizona, Las Vegas and Denver. “As our firm continues to grow and open new offices, we see this as a great opportunity to help our communities,” said Kelli Moorehead, IT Manager of Wood Smith. The firm has agreed to pay it forward by contributing volunteer time and resources such as Adopt-A-Family for the Holidays, Race for the Cure, Children’s Foundation Career Fair, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Habitat for Humanity and VIP Mentors.

RainMaker says it is committed to helping law firms become financially healthy, no matter what the state of the economy, by offering the $1 million package. "We all need to look for ways to pull out of this economic slump together," said Jim Hammond, President of RainMaker Software.

Law firms can apply for the funds at http://www.rainmakerlegal.com/assistance.htm

“You may ask if this isn’t just a publicity stunt. My response is that there is no free lunch,” Hammond said. Most legal market vendors and law firms are being impacted by the current economic crisis. We all read the headlines where firms are laying off both attorneys and staff. The Economic Assistance package will provide firms an additional incentive to invest money today to improve their infrastructure tomorrow. We’ll be able to keep our people busy, and while we’ll make less money in the short term, in the long run we’ll all be better off, as will the communities that benefit from the ‘pay forward.’ It is that simple.”

Rainmaker Software sells financial and practice software for mid-to-large sized law firms. Founded 40 years ago, RainMaker also offers a business intelligence toolset with no custom programming needed.

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From the Chicago Tribune:

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1. Employment law. President Obama just signed a law making it easier to bring employment discrimination cases. See "Law Firm Marketing Should Focus on Employment Law" at http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleCategoryID=58&ArticleID=852

2. Commercial leases.  There is a downturn in retail shopping, and people are not going to the mall as much as in the past.  Retail store owners will need legal help to negotiate cheaper leases, free utilities, rent holidays, etc. See "Recession Has Landlords of Retail Tenants Extending Discounts of Their Own" at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/nyregion/01leases.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=recession%20landlords%20retailers%20discounts&st=cse

3. Bankruptcy. See "4,946 Reasons to Enter the Hottest Practice: Personal Bankruptcies" at http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/ArticleLogin.asp

4. Litigation of all kinds. See "Litigation Will Lead the Legal Profession Out of the Recession in 2009" at http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleCategoryID=58&ArticleID=846

5. Government contracts.  Soon there will be billions flowing to government agencies to rebuild roads and bridges.  Contractors and builders will need help negotiating with the government.

6. Estate Planning. The Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, are now 77 million strong and they compose 23% of the population. They are in the age range of 45 to 63, and 4 million will hit age 60 each year. Estate planning is top-of-mind as they face empty nests, physical aging and end of life issues. Their retirement savings just got a 25% to 40% haircut, presuming they have any savings, and they want to get their affairs in order. The key motivating event: a fall. When a Boomer has a serious injury or illness, they and their kids want them to talk to a lawyer. Now is the time for lawyers to set up referral arrangements with urologists, cancer doctors and elder care counselors. Lawyers should be giving speeches at assisted living homes and senior clubs.

I see six hot areas of law practice for regional and midsized firms.  Now is the time to step up law firm marketing in the following areas:

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Two leading advisors to major law firms predicted a declining demand for legal services, a 15% drop in net income from 2008, the inability to raise rates, additional layoffs, salary freezes and cost cutting, heavier fee discounting, expenses rising faster than revenues -- and a long wait for better times.

"This recession is significantly different that prior recessions and could lead to fundamental changes in the law firm business model," including more contract and temp lawyers and fewer full-time partners and associates, said James W. Jones of Washington, D.C., Managing Director of Hildebrandt International, speaking yesterday at the Marketing Partner Forum in Dana Point, CA.

Joining him was Lucinda J. Tambourine, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor of Citi Private Bank.  "We are in a shift from a decade of growth and expansion to an extended period of reduced demand and resistance to increase in costs of legal services," she said.

2009 will be an extraordinarily bleak year because of one key factor, according to Jones: "The single factor that worked consistently to drive profitability in the past was the ability to drive up rates 6% to 8% per year, regardless of what else was happening.  As we are entering a period of extended softness in demand, corporate clients are going to be more resistant to the overall cost of legal services.  You are looking at a fundamental shift in the law firm economic model we've lived with for many years.

They also offered these new business models for law firms to respond to the recession. "Firms that are willing to think outside the box will come out of the crisis better than they went into it," Jones said.

For the full story visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com.

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75% of responding General Counsel indicated that their law departments are facing budget cuts averaging 11.5% for 2009.  An additional 15.6% reported that their budgets would increase by a smaller percentage than in prior years.

Follow this link to read the Altman Weil research.

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In tough economic times, marketing is often one of the first items to be slashed. That's a mistake, as I've maintained consistently. The time to be marketing is in a severe economic downturn. But regrettably, a lot of law firms will dump jet fuel while their firm is going into a tailspin.

Lawyers USA has a good article pinpointing the 4 steps a law firm must take in this horrendous economy.

• Focus on top clients.

Those are your crown jewel clients, which generate 50% to 80% of firm revenue. Visit them, spend time with them, find out what's going on at their companies and if you can help them.

Susan Van Dyke, a legal marketing and communications consultant in Vancouver, British Columbia, suggests setting up small working groups for each of your top 10 clients. Then, launch a series of non-billable, quarterly lunch meetings between the clients' executives and the legal teams to discuss new issues or resolve problems. 

• Follow the revenue pipelines.

Determine your high-margin practice areas, and focus on them to increase your pipelines of revenue. For instance, Van Dyke says, the lending industry needs foreclosure help; real estate developers may have contract issues or employment disputes.

"Package a suite of services that demonstrates your understanding and ability to assist them swiftly," she suggests.

• Communicate your expertise.

Trey Ryder, a legal marketing consultant in Payson, Ariz., recommends mailing out educational letters to referral sources, as well as current and former clients, explaining the economic problems they face and what you can do to help them.

For example, "in this particular economy, a lot of people want to protect their assets, they want to do estate planning," he notes.

• Get a plan.

Make all the lawyers in your firm develop a business development plan, listing the clients they're going to call on, the people they'll build into a referral network and at least one organization they will join.

And don't just join a random organization. Ask your best clients which organizations they belong to and then ask if you can attend a meeting of that group with them. If you go to a Rotary Club meeting with a client, for example, not only will you be introduced to potential clients, but you'll have the opportunity to deepen your relationship with the existing client. 

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Suddenly things are looking up for the hundreds of thousands of lawyers who have a residential real estate practice. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

1. Mortgage rates dropped below 6% last week, a significant market threshold. For a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, rates can be found as low as 5.5%, according to Mortgage News Daily. This has caused the largest increase in refinance applications in the last 18 years.  More importantly, it will encourage investors and individuals to buy homes -- and increase the number of closings that lawyers do.

2. Home sales are up in the bleakest area for real estate closings: Los Banos, CA.  It is the hardest hit city where home prices are down 66% from their peak. Local sales are now up five times from a year ago, as investors snapped up foreclosed homes. Lower rates are also getting families to buy houses.

3. The federal government is working on pushing mortgage rates as low as 4.5%.  The Treasury Department is planning to use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage banks to lend at this super-low rate. The rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage hasn't been that low since the 1960s.  I predict that this will unleash a surge in home-buying as long-waiting families and investors will see the low rate as a green light to buy -- and get real estate lawyers busy again.

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I  got this on Monday: 

-----Original Message-----
From: CNN Breaking News

-- The U.S. entered a recession in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
--------------------------

Leave it to the government to tell us something we've known for a year. On the bright side, a new ALM Law Firm Leaders Survey 2008 shows glimmers of optimism: 

My friend Bob Weiss of Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc.® in Denver, CO, just wrote me, "We tend to represent regional-local firms of less than 100 lawyers— all of our clients of this size, while concerned about next year, will have record revenue-profitability in 2008. More than half are hiring and actively seeking laterals, particularly for IP disputes, to lesser degree for IP prosecution/registration. The more you get to the middle of the country, it seems, the better the results for 2008."

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For law firms planning to be in business in 2009, don't miss this Webinar: Business Development in a Severe Downturn -- How CMOs Can Train Partners to be Rainmakers.
	PRESENTED BY:	Incisive Media
	SPEAKER(S):	Iris Jones, Chadbourne & Parke;  Larry Bodine, Esq., Apollo Business Development; and Darryl Cross, LexisNexis
	DATE:	Wednesday, December 3, 2008; 12PM - 1PM Eastern
	LOCATION:	Over the Web, on your computer
	MORE INFO:	CONTACT: Laura Kresich; (Tel) 773.966.9273 or  lkresich@lawmarketing.com

It's now official: The U.S. entered a recession in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.  The law firms that survive and indeed, thrive, will be those that attend this not-to-be-missed program addresses several perennial challenges facing law firm CMOs and marketing partners, including:

Motivating the attorneys to conduct business development.

Demonstrating the marketer’s value to the management committee.

You will learn what the key business development tactics to use to get your lawyers into face-to-face meetings that generate new business. This program is also designed to get marketers off the dreaded “overhead” category of a law firm’s ledger, and solidly onto the “revenue” side. In today’s increasingly competitive law firm environment, Chief Marketing Officers and law firm business development professionals need a new strategy for competitive advantage.

"This will no doubt be the most challenging year the legal industry has seen since 2001" -- Dan Dipietro, of the Citi Private Bank, writing in the Oct. 2008 American Lawyer magazine.

The program draws on the collective experience of Iris Jones, the Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer of Chadbourne & Parke -- an AmLaw 100 law firm with $281,000,000 in gross revenues -- and Apollo Business Development expert Larry Bodine, Esq. plus Darryl Cross, Vice President of Client Profitability at LexisNexis.  Together, they have helped dozens of law firms generate millions of dollars.

NEW EXPANDED CURRICULUM:  

• The law firm recession is here, and how to beat it.
• How the federal bailout bill will increase spending on law firms.
• The top practice (of 5) that will lead the profession out of the recession.
• Industries with the strongest fee growth rates.
• "Don’t be caught selling smoke detectors to someone whose house is on fire. Sell fire extinguishers."
• The three results that make lawyers support business development.
• Treating relationships like currency.
• Turning seminars and sports events into moneymakers.
• Using competitive intelligence not only to find answers, but to develop selling questions.
• The duty to cross-sell clients.

You'll also see the methods that 480-lawyer Chadbourne actually uses to activate their lawyers to bring in new files:

• A strategy for business development training
• Creating a training calendar and what to put on it.
• Providing tools to simplify tracking contacts.
• Using competitive intelligence -- to look for the relationship, not just the name of the competing firm.
• Creating a "Client Service Team Information Kit."
• Offering in-house business development planning -- with action plans and progress reports.
• Cultivating rainmaking programs with internal roundtables and team presentations.
• Establishing a proposal center.
• Demonstrating accountability.

Join us for this live Web seminar and learn how to jump start your firm's business development program and increase profits.

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