Law Firm 4.0 Blog

What law firms can learn from my experience with the strangest dessert in San Francisco (maybe the world)

While In San Francisco to speak at the monthly San Francisco LMA luncheon on Website trends (with Barbara Abulafia, Keker & Van Nest, Jeff Yerkey, Right Hat and Per Casey, Tenrec), my colleague Keith Wewe, another couple and I were hosted by Elizabeth Lampert for dinner at Twenty-Five Lusk. 

This modern and tony restaurant, located in the burgeoning China Basin neighborhood in San Francisco's SOMA (South of Market) district, is led by Executive Chef Matthew Dolan. Its website says this: "...featuring seasonally driven New American cuisine, a dynamic wine program, and expertly crafted cocktails. The design weaves a modern aesthetic through a historic brick and timber  warehouse originally built in 1917 as a meat packing and smokehouse facility."

Bottom line, it's completely worth trying - the food was quite delicious.  However, they had one mis-step that reminded me of the danger law firms can face when they don't have highly focused marketing and business development programs led by serious professionals.

Twenty-Five Lusk features a dessert called "Textures and Chaos" that lists only four ingredients on the menu, but clearly had several more (as you can see by the photo below).  This photo can't begin to communicate the plated disaster that was proudly delivered to our table. 

 

 

Perhaps, in a desire to elevate the participation among his team (and create a sense of inclusion), the chef tried crowd-sourcing to create this dessert - where each member of the kitchen staff added a favorite ingredient - and, voila! - Textures and Chaos was born.  The result was so poorly conceived and executed that I was inspired to write about it.  It's not only seriously ugly, but the tastes were as cacophonous as 5 p.m. rush hour in New York.

What can lawyers learn from this?  With the proliferation of new Internet-based marketing and business development channels, particularly social media outlets, individual lawyers, practice groups and firms have an unprecedented opportunity to jump into the fray.  And indeed they are jumping!  More than ever before, these lawyers, groups and firms need guidance and direction from experienced marketers who can help them define strategy and keep their focus.  Having an Internet presence that isn't well delineated, refined and targeted does the lawyer and firm no good - in fact, it can dilute any reputation you might have that's been developed in more traditional offline media. 

Firm strategy should start back in the kitchen-equivalent (not at the dinner table) and be a thoughtful consideration of audiences, markets, geographic reach, competition, threats and opportunities that are just cresting over the horizon.  This positioning stake in the ground informs what practice and industry teams could do, and what individual lawyers on those teams can do.  When well-intentioned, but overly independent lawyers go off and create their own Internet presence with no regard for their law firm, they miss the most important advantage available to them - leveraging the investments (strategy, time, reputation and money) made by the mother ship.

When many lawyers in a firm do their own thing without regard for the firm and practice group strategies, the result won't be far away from "Textures and Chaos."

 

 

 

 

 

The most startling finding from the 2012-2013 AmLaw 100 Websites research - A troubling deficiency

Content Pilot is just releasing the findings of the 2012-2013 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices research.  Objectively reviewing the websites of the nation's largest law firms is an arduous process. There are Ten Foundational Best Practices - must-have features and functionality for today's law firm sites - and each FBP has several attributes under it.  All in, the research team reviewed, analyzed and ranked 66 total attributes of AmLaw 100 websites.

The first study was conducted in 2005 with the 10 FBPs and their attributes borrowed from broad web industry best practices at the time, as well as interviews and focus groups with buyers of legal services.  Since then, Content Pilot has led and sponsored the research in 2006, 2007, 2010 and now in 2012-2013.  The Foundational Best Practices/attributes have changed over the years, informed by changes in the web industry, visitor patterns and continuing discussions with buyers of legal services and how they use law firm websites.

The first FBP is "Communicating your Message," and the 2012-2013 attributes we evaluated are:

1. Clear and differentiating positioning strategy (meaning, do they put a unique and defining positioning stake in the ground - does the firm answer the question, "why should I care about you?" Is strategy evident?)
2. Practice and industry focus are apparent (it's a best practice to separate practices and industries - and it is much more advantageous to the firm to do so. According to the analytics we track, more than 3 times more visitors view industries pages than they do practice pages.)
3. Geographic reach is apparent (1 office or 40)
4. Contact info is clear and easy to find (law firms do a much better job here than corporations or the Big 4/Next 4 accounting firms)
5. Site features or links to foreign language translations (all the firms boast that they are global - but how committed are they to their non-U.S. offices?)

This best practice has essentially stayed the same since 2005, although we adjusted the strategy piece in this study to focus on the differentiation of a firm's positioning strategy.  In prior years, the focus was on what we refer to as "strategy copy."  If they had it, they received points for it, regardless of how distinguishing it was. 

The most troubling finding in this 2012-2013 study?  -- the dearth of firm strategy on the websites of these prominent law firms.  Each attribute is scored on a 100-point scale.  The average score of all AmLaw 100 firms on "clear and differentiating positioning strategy" is 39.1 - or "poor." This is a huge missed opportunity for firms to succinctly and compellingly tell their story, and inspire their visitors to feel something about them.

Here is the scoring breakdown for each attribute:

• 86-100 = Excellent
• 71-85 = Good
• 51-70 = Fair
• 26-50 = Poor
• 25 and below = Unacceptable

It's as though with the rise of and easy access to new features and functionality, the firms are focusing on those (although the study results don't uniformly support this conclusion).  We all know it's hard to put that strategic positioning stake in the ground - it takes courage and confidence.  And it makes some law firm partners uneasy - they'd rather be something to everyone, which, given the size and reach of these firms, isn't hard to do. (But what kind of strategy is, "I want to be something to everyone?!")

Yes, it's much harder to NOT be something to everyone - to define how you do business, your target markets, your growth plans, sweet spots and the clients you are best suited to serve.  Given that there are so few opportunities today to tell your unique story, we recommend that firms not miss the opportunity to do a better job making a memorable first impression.

There were 28 firms that received 100 on this attribute.  I have to say not all these firms' positioning statements were clear and differentiating, but they did try something.  Here are a few stand-out examples:

1.DLA Piper - it's absolutely clear who they are and what they do. It's not clever, but it is very clear.  "DLA Piper is a global law firm with 4,200 lawyers located in more than 30 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, positioning us to help companies with their legal needs anywhere in the world."

2.Weil, Gotschal & Manges - This is crafted by an excellent writer who puts Weil's stake in the ground in a more descriptive way. It doesn't just list features about the firm, it previews what it's like to do business with them.  "Faced with high-stakes legal challenges, the world's most sophisticated clients count on Weil to listen hard, understand their business, and deliver unequivocally sound judgment. Our one-firm approach ensures that approximately 1,200 lawyers across 21 offices worldwide work seamlessly to manage the most complex matters." 

3. O'Melveny & Myers - O'Melveny plays on its URL (omm.com) and highlights how it is naturally embedded in certain words, such as "Community." "Connecting Communities, Clients, and People."  My one comment here is, aren't clients people?  I would have suggested Communities, companies and people. 

4. Winston & Strawn - Also written by a strong copywriter, Winston's message is compelling, focusing on something that all clients want. There is a well defined pay-off to clients here. We know that some lawyers over-complicate things - Winston doesn't. "Simplify: Clients Need to succeed on their own terms. Focusing on what clients want to accomplish, Winston & Strawn works to effectively manage complex legal issues and keep from making straightforward ones complicated."

5. Quinn Emanuel - A firm with a boutique practice has an easier time with its positioning strategy than the enormous global law firms.  Quinn Emanuel's is overly long and too wordy, but it hits a visitor between the eyes - it's all about results.  State Bar officials in certain states would balk at their claims, and in many cases disallow such statements.  Apparently California does not, however.  "Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a 650+ lawyer business litigation firm -- the largest in the United States devoted solely to business litigation.  Our lawyers have tried 1739 cases and won 1577, or over 90%.  When we represent defendants, our trial experience gets us better settlements or defense verdicts.  When representing plaintiffs, our lawyers have won over $15 billion in judgments and settlements.  We have won five 9-figure jury verdicts in the last ten years.  We have also obtained  nine 9-figure and five 10-figure settlements." 

Here is how the first Foundational Best Practice (all the attributes combined) fared among the 99 AmLaw 100 firms (minus Dewey LeBoeuf):

• Excellent - 19 firms
• Good - 36 firms
• Fair - 37 firms
• Poor - 8 firms
• Unacceptable - none

Stay tuned for more data and commentary about the Ten Foundational Best Practices research.  I will report it here, and am also speaking at various LMA and other meetings.

Upcoming presentation:  "State-of-the-art Law Firm Websites (and Technologies that should be on your Radar" - San Francisco LMA - May 16, 2013, 11:30-1:30 p.m.  For more information and to register:  http://lmabayarea.camp9.org/events?eventId=578570&EventViewMode=EventDetails

This presentation will also include Jeff Yerkey, Interactive Director at RightHat, Per Casey, CEO and President of TenRec, and the panel will be moderated by Barbara Abulafia, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Keker & Van Nest.

 

What Law Firms Can Learn From John Patterson

Guest Post By Patrick Fuller

John Patterson is one of those historical figures that very few people are familiar with, but whose legacy has impacted both the business world as well as the legal profession.

Patterson was educated at Dartmouth, and following graduation, joined his brother in the coal business in Ohio.  The Patterson brothers owned and operated two coal yards and a company store in the late 1870's and early 1880's, and John Patterson noticed that the profitability of the store should be better, and surmised that the staff was stealing from the store.  During this time, most businesses operated out of cash boxes, with minimal records of transactions, creating a very tempting situation for employees to dip into the cash box.

Patterson heard about a fairly new invention - the cash register - and in particular, one that was produced in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.  These machines, produced by National Manufacturing Company, produced a printed record of the business transaction.  Sight unseen, Patterson purchased five of the machines.  Over the next few years, Patterson's company's profitability grew so much that Patterson and his brother eventually sold their business to investors from the east coast, and looked for their next venture.

In 1884, Patterson acquired National Manufacturing Company, and renamed it National Cash Register, which later became NCR.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Before I discuss the positive impact Patterson made to the business world, the less-than-stellar traits should also be noted.  Labor and Employment attorneys everywhere owe Patterson a debt of gratitude. Patterson was known to weigh his employees frequently and terminate their employment if their weight was outside of a very narrow acceptable range; he was well ahead of his time in eliminating both carbohydrates (no bread was allowed at NCR's offices & plants) and butter (also banned).  It is also said that he terminated employees for violations such as failing to know why flags were at half-staff or not riding a horse properly.  He is famous for terminating Thomas Watson, Sr., who would later become the President of IBM.  Patterson hired and fired so many senior executives that employment at NCR was often referred to as a real-world MBA.

Now, to the positive impacts made by Patterson.  When Patterson purchased NCR in 1884, he noticed that the sales were very poor despite the fact that their primary product was instrumental improving profitability in his own company.

In the 1880s, there was no demand for receipts, and Patterson owned the company whose product was the only one to produce receipts.  It was clear that his company possessed a unique competitive advantage, so he set out to create demand for that differentation.

His first order of business was to create buyer demand for receipts.  Below is one of the earliest advertisements run by NCR - and notice, the company name is not mentioned at all.  It's all about "getting a receipt" - the one item that only his product could produce.

 

With the buyer side demand growing, Patterson then launched a campaign targeting merchants, utilizing his own experiences to create demand for his receipt-producing product.  NCR's machines were more expensive, but Patterson focused on improved client profitability, not selling on cost. This is a critical learning point for law firms who find themsel consistently competing on cost.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patterson also focused on sustainability - he knew that in order to be successful over the long term, he had to start developing behavioral succession planning with clients.  This ad from 1916 is fairly self-explanatory, but it provides compelling reasons to move potential buyers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a sales manager, Patterson noticed that several "sales agents" had better production from others. He asked those sales agents to write down their sales and demonstration process, and then distributed it to the other sales agents for training purposes.  This is one of the first uses of "best practices" in modern business, and as NCR grew, this annual Sales Primer, as it became known, evolved into the sales guide that every sales agent had to learn before they could sell.

Law Firms should take particular note about how Patterson identified a unique competitive advantage, and created demand around that differentiation.  At the same time, he also focused on the profitability impact his product could make on businesses as opposed to the cost of his product. In addition, he also recognized that client succession planning was critical to the longterm success of his business.  All three points, from over 100 years ago, have never been more relevant for law firms than they are right now.  

Patrick Fuller is the Vice President, Market and Product Strategy of Content Pilot LLC, a strategy, design and technology company serving the legal industry.  Reach Patrick at pjfuller@contentpilot.net and watch for his future posts at the Law Firm 4.0 Blog.

 

What law firms can learn from Banana Joe

On Monday, February 11, no one outside the dog-show world knew of “Banana Joe,” the affenpinscher who won Westminster Dog Show’s platinum crown – “Best in Show.” Two days later,the five-year old super-pooch is ubiquitous, appearing on all the major networks and in every brand name online and print news publication.

Jason Gay, the popular sports writer for the Wall Street Journal, penned an article for the February 14 issue  in the style of a call-in radio show. The article, entitled “Longtime Listener, First-Time Barker,” scripts “calls” from listeners named Snickers, Biscuit and Peanut Butter, among others, who happen to be Labrador Retrievers. (These dogs made the point that Labs are the number-one most popular dog in America – the most owned and trusted canine among all breeds.)

The Labs are in an uproar about losing at Westminster year after year, especially in light of their dominance in the popular vote.  Dog after dog gets on the line whining about how unfair it is – they even wonder if they should hire Phil Jackson to help turn it around for them. 

Then Banana Joe calls and weighs in (a/k/a/ trash talks).  When asked by the radio show host, " . . . what do you make of this whole Lab controversy?” 

Banana Joe says, “Champions win. Talkers talk." . . ." I am sick and tired of the Labs just whining on Westminster. Same goes for the golden retrievers, too.  All they do is talk . . . “

So what can lawyers and law firms learn from this? There is more talk among lawyers about business development and rainmaking than there is actual rainmaking. I do advocate effective planning, and not going out willy-nilly to try to expand your client base. But, if lawyers spent more time doing it and less time talking about it, I know the success rate would be greater. And I am confident it would be more fun.

Too much planning and talking is paralyzing. It sabotages the self-confidence that a lawyer needs to effectively engage in a conversation that will matter to a client or prospect. Find out what truly concerns your buyer, what his horizon issues are - hear his opportunities and challenges.The best rainmakers know how to gently guide and facilitate this discussion – with very little talking – so the person making or influencing the buying decision senses the lawyer’s authenticity and sees her brainpower uniquely applied to his issues. 

Let the prospect do the talking and you get to be the champion.

 

The future of CMOs - according to FORBES

A Forbes blogger posted an article called, "Is the CMO Role Dying or Thriving?"  Here is how it starts: 

What’s happening to the CMO role? This question has been hot for a couple of years. Some suggest the role is nominal and “dying” while others suggest it is bigger, more complex, and more important than ever before.

I would love to know who claims it's dying.  According to executive search firms that serve the legal industry, there have been more law firms seeking highly qualified CMOs in 2012 (and now in Q1 2013) than there were in the previous three years combined.

Blogger Kimberly Whitler conducted a quick survey of CMOs before she appeared on a panel at the CMO Exchange conference.  She admits that the survey was more directionally interesting than methodologically sound - and it turns out that what she found in this survey is consistent with what I believe is happening.  Her panel was called "The Evolving Role of the CMO."

Whitler's survey respondents described their CMO world as "moving" and "changing" (not "shifting" - which seems a little hair-splitty to me) in tsunami-like proportion.  She says, "Consumer beliefs have radically changed with 76% of consumers not believing that companies tell the truth in advertising (Yankelovich 2005)." 

She's talking about consumer skepticism here - but what do we know about the beliefs held by clients of law firms and how they've changed the last few years?  We've read the stories, conducted the satisfaction/loyalty interviews, and understand fundamentally that there is less work to go around and less across-the-board loyalty awarded by clients to their law firms.  And our law firm CMOs are the ones on the front lines figuring this out. 

Whitler says, "CMOs have often been the leaders who harness this understanding and lead the requisite internal change to adapt to the market. If the market, consumer, and environment are changing dramatically, it’s a foregone conclusion that the CMO’s role is as well."  Amen.

So - what are some of the changes that Whitler and her CMO respondents predict?

1.     "The technology revolution has led to the CMO role revolution. Gartner, in fact, recently suggested that by 2017, the CMO will manage more of the IS spend than the CIO will."  Proving Whitler's statement about Gartner, I found this written by a Gartner researcher, "Marketing is purchasing significant marketing-related technology and services from their own capital and expense budgets – both outside the control of the internal IT organization and in conjunction with them." 

As the CEO of a company that sells marketing and business development technologies for professional services firms (websites, mobile sites and apps, experience databases, proposal systems), we are on the front lines of this trend. The law firm CMO is leading these initiatives with very specific and measureable goals in mind -- to save time and grow revenue. There is no other administrative or functional role in the law firm - outside of the lawyers - who has responsibility for client retention, expansion and revenue growth as does the CMO.  A deep understanding of technology processes and tools is critical.

2.    Whitler states that "If current CMOs don't change, a new breed will surpass them."  She continues, "Radical change requires significant growth in knowledge, skill, and competency.  Big data requires math, stats, and problem solving skills. A technology revolution requires an appreciation for systems, technology, and process.  Consumer belief and behavior change requires a thirst for – and knowledge of – stats, research, and deep, unique insight. Significant integration between technology, finance, and marketing requires superior leadership and strategy skills."

Smart law firm leaders are seeking CMOs who can rise to this level, who can effectively manage teams that cover the broad gamut of historical marketing communications and business development initiatives, and who can find, understand and synthesize financial and other data that gives the firm a competitive advantage. 

Whitler concludes by suggesting that the people who predict that CMOs are "dying" are those that are trying to cash-in on their demise in some way -- consultants and vendors perhaps.

I see 2013 and the next two - three years as the most exciting for our industry's smartest CMOs. Enormous amounts of work to do, but the possibilities for success will be tangible and measureable - more than ever before.

 

 

Embrace Life - The most moving YouTube video

Today's post is not about marketing and business development technology, knowledge or experience management, websites, marketing strategy, lawyers or law firms.  It's to share a link of a remarkable and powerful advertising campaign promoting the use of seat belts. 

It could be one of the finest, most moving ads I've ever seen.  http://www.youtube.com/embed/h-8PBx7isoM

Readers, please buckle up and enjoy your weekend.

Experience management/databases - best practices in content gathering

Gathering and managing content that is relevant to a firm's buyers of legal services is the bane of every marketer's existence.  I've seen this one activity paralyze entire departments.  The team is flummoxed by finding the most efficient way to engage lawyers so they provide the information that marketers need for pitches, proposals, Chambers, Thomson League Tables and other rankings/listings.

In my last post about experience management, I wrote about focusing on your top three use cases and on the people who will use this information.  Your clients are the ultimate consumers of experience data - how are they evaluating you?  What do they need to know about you to make the decision to hire you?

Effectively managing content requires the perfect marriage of people, process and technology.  But, as I noted in my last post, don't start with the technology tool.  Answer these questions about content contribution:

1. What processes do you currently have in place?  How are they working?
2. Who inputs new matters into your experience database?
3. How many fields per matter are too many (a barrier to entry)?
4. Post-launch, how much lawyer time is required for each new matter?
5. Who is the ultimate owner of the experience database, and who ensures the efficacy of the data?

In the Lex Mundi Americas experience management survey of CMOs that I conducted before a November presentation, the vast majority (nearly 80%) of respondents said the marketing/business development team own the process and database.  Lawyers own this process in several firms, as well as paralegals in others. 

Lawyers must "own" this data or they won't use it, but we still recommend that the marketing/BD team is the ultimate facilitator and controller of the technology and process. 

In the CMO survey, I asked the question: How many people on your team are directly involved in managing experience and keeping it current?  58% of the respondents said 1-2 people, but 32% said 3-5 people.  The right number depends on firm size, but we believe that larger firms should have several content contributors and managers.  Effectively gathering the right information is a sleuthing exercise and it's time-consuming.  Having more people dedicated to this mission-critical task is better - especially on the front end of a project implementation.

Lisa Simon, CMO of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and former international LMA President, is a long-time advocate for effective experience management. We worked together to implement an experience database at her firm and she says the firm has seen the enormous benefits.  Lisa has this advice for managing the content:

1. Less is more - having some data on a lot of matters is better than having lots of data on only a handful.
2. Stakeholders are not always partners - Paralegals and secretaries/admin assistants are as important to the process as the attorneys - their buy-in is key.
3. Look beyond the obvious sources - Utilize resources outside your own systems to begin generating content.  Sometimes you get more info from your clients' press releases than your own lawyers.

Interestingly, according to the CMO survey, some firms have a database, but they don't give lawyers access to it. I believe it's a best practice to let lawyers be hands-on - to pull data, sort and parse it.  Once again, if they see its utility, they'll engage with it, and be invested in its success and health.

I asked the CMOs whether they give lawyers access to the database to enter new matters. More respondents did not have lawyers enter content.  At Brownstein, we created a web form for the corporate/securities group - they were clamoring for it, wanting to populate the database themselves. They use the form several times a day and now other groups want forms for their practices.  Brownstein will launch these forms for its five main practice teams.

In other posts, I've written that lawyers don't trust the efficacy of the data if they don't own it. Brownstein has figured this out - the lawyers enter the data, and the marketing team reviews it before it goes live (on the website or for pitches/proposals). Lawyers trust it, so they'll use it, and they'll keep contributing to the Deals and Cases Tool.

In the CMO survey, I asked whether firms were adding the matters of lateral hires.  As I noted in my last experience management post, effective lateral integration remains one of the greatest challenges firm leaders have today. While it is challenging, I believe it's a best practice to merge laterals' experience with yours as quickly as possible.  There are easy ways to tag their experience, so if they leave, you can easily sweep it from your system.  Half of the Lex Mundi survey respondents merge laterals' data into their tools and half do not.

Finally, it is early January 2013 and you might be in a position to make the business case for an experience database. Whether a new one or continued investment in an existing database, the arguments for it are compelling:

1. It is guaranteed to increase revenue and make cross-selling/relationship expansion more effective.
2. It creates practice and lawyer stickiness to your firm.
3. As the owner of the experience database, marketing has more power than ever (knowledge really is power) - it leads to respect.
4. No more emails! (Does anyone know anyone who  knows anyone who does XYZ?) For 25 years or more, lawyers have been sending these dreaded emails.

Year-end website bio housekeeping for lawyers in 30 minutes or less

People don't like to start on new projects the last few days of December.  The pre-holiday bustle that focuses around family, food, faith, fa-la-la and folly has subsided, and we look ahead to the first full week of January to really start work.  This year, these last December days are "lost" days if we don't seize them and dedicate them to simple, yet constructive things. 

Like not letting one more minute pass before you update your website biographies.  Face it - it's long overdue.  Don't wait to make it a New Year's resolution (along with "I will lose 10 lbs, stop eating M&Ms, observe highway speed postings and call my brother more often"). Here are some things you can do in 30 minutes or less -- and a few other things you can do during your next website refresh.

Each year, Content Pilot publishes “Ten Foundational Best Practices” for law firm websites, and Lawyer Biographies is one of them. The company analyzes AmLaw 100 firms based on the Ten FBPs and will release the research findings in late January 2013. The housekeeping items below are the attributes of the Lawyer Biography Foundational Best Practice.  If you invest this bio update time during these lost December days, you'll start the year with a best practices bio to boot.

Things you can do in 30 minutes or less (You will need the help of your marketing team, but I know they'll be happy to help you.):

1. Rewrite the first 150 characters (not words, characters, which include punctuation and spaces) of your bio so that it is compelling and relevant to your practice.  Google and other search engines will pick up the first 100-150 characters - arguably the most valuable professional real estate you can own. What do you want potential clients to see when they Google your name?  Focus on that. 
   
   You know your practice. You know for what you want to be known.  This shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to write.
2. Rewrite the rest of your overview paragraph. Don't tell who you are (Partner in the labor and employment section of XYZ law firm, Board Certified, blah blah blah), tell what you do and for whom you do it. Here is a good example:
   
   John Smith represents trademark, brand and copyright owners around the world in disputes, enforcement efforts, trademark acquisitions and stopping counterfeits. His clients include consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, software companies, real estate developers, and service providers.
   
   It is loaded with keywords that are critical to John's practice.
   
   Again, you know what you do.  This shouldn't take longer than 12 minutes to write - you already have the first 150 characters done.
3. Do not use Mr. or Ms. throughout your bio.  It's so old-fashioned and impersonal.  If you want to get hired over your competitor across the country or down the street, humanize your bio.  Be approachable.
   
   This will take your webmaster 3 minutes to do.
4. Update your LinkedIn profile and keep your Twitter feed active. Then add your social media icons to your website bio. 
   
   Your webmaster and maybe your developer will need a few minutes to add these links/icons.  But updating your LinkedIn profile will only take about 10 minutes.
5. Study and be critical of your practice and industry lists to which you link on your bio. Too many lawyers have a long list of 10 or more links.  This does not add credibility to your profile. To pare this down, answer the questions:  what do I want to be known for?  What will I be known for in 3 years?  5 years?  Ignore the practices that occupied you 10 years ago unless those are still critical to your livelihood (and your firm's strategy) today.
   
   If you are comfortable self-analyzing, this won't take more than 5 minutes. If you don't like to self-analyze, get over it - at least for this.  Your marketing team can help you.
6. Visitors to every law firm website want to know 3 things: What you've done, for whom you've done it and what, specifcally, you can do for them.  So - update the experience on your bio and be as specific as your state bar association allows.
   
   If you haven't been keeping it current, this could take awhile.  This is the most important bio commitment you can make.
7. Finally, add your latest news articles, publications, e-alerts, etc. to your website and cross-link to them.  Your marketing team is most likely doing this already.  But confirm that they have everything that's relevant to your practice.
   
   Take a few minutes and delete links that are no longer relevant to what you are doing.  Including a long list of 30 articles that were written 20-30 years ago doesn't add credibility, either (unless they are seminal articles in important publications).
   
   All this will only take 10 minutes if you've been keeping it fairly current.

Now, if you have a website refresh on the horizon, you can work with your marketing team to ensure that your firm's bio pages are exemplary. Create "personal portals" or mini-sites for each lawyer, so the uniqueness of each professional can be highlighted.  Organize your content more elegantly using the latest technology tools, such as ajax, jquery and javascript.  Take new photos that are more "environmental" or as I like to say, "magazine-style." They are larger, more inviting and not your typical headshot. 

Please use these lost days of December.  When we roll around to January 2nd, you'll feel so much better about starting this new year.

 

 

 

2013 advice for law firms to ensure a bright future

My friend and colleague Leigh Dance published a terrific article in AmLaw Daily structured as advice for global law firms.  But most of it applies to law firms of any size.  I've linked to the article here, but I have also pulled the key points so you can scan them.

Leigh's advice comes from more than 20 years consulting to corporate legal departments in multinational companies and global law firms.  In addition, she recently conducted a major study for World Law Group with survey respondents from more than 30 countries.  Her "to-do's" are designed for law firms with international offices and how they can best serve domestic clients abroad and foreign clients at home.  For firms with local, regional and national practices, take this advice and extrapolate to find the nuggets that will work best for you.

1. Inhabit your client's world; they want you there.  "Your clients in corporations around the world are busy rethinking and reworking every aspect of making and delivering legal services. While they’ll proceed with or without you, they’d like to have their preferred firms at their side. Unfortunately many of you are simply not involved enough in their world. Their focus is not just the legal part—it’s how legal advice is sourced and delivered in the company."
   
   Spend the time and money to meet your clients on their turf.
2. Build project management tools, including financial accounting ones.  "Your clients want more certainty. Clients still love what you do for them, but many want to manage smarter so they can use you less. To nourish the relationship, your numbers must show you can deliver on your promises. Most of your firm’s financial and account management exists to give you (and The American Lawyer and the banks), productivity and profitability info. What’s in it for the client?"
   
   Clients want to know how you will ensure that you won't under- or over-deliver.  And they want to know this on the front end of a matter or engagement.
3. Use knowledge management and IT across borders to reinforce client relationships.  "Trust is a relationship thing, and your clients long ago stopped thinking of relationships as one-to-one. In multipolar business, relationships between international law firms and corporate clients are inevitably multipersonal. Across the time zones, organizational structures, legal systems, and compliance frameworks, trust is a network constructed with information and project continuity that supports good personal relationships."
   
   Law firms of all sizes struggle with client relationship and experience data.  Many are paralyzed because of inefficient processes - or even knowing what to do with the data when they capture it.  I'll write much more about this in 2013, but here are two recent blog posts that will further the discussion in your firms.  http://lawfirm4-0.typepad.com/law_firm_40_blog/2012/11/experience-management-and-databases-the-results-of-a-survey-of-cmos.html and http://lawfirm4-0.typepad.com/law_firm_40_blog/2012/02/experience-management-its-been-elevated-to-mission-critical.html 
4.  Demonstrate international know-how.  "Your firm should provide specific and compelling proof of your knowledge of laws and regulations across the diverse places where your clients are selling, buying, sourcing, or investing.  It seems so basic, but global clients say their most pressing concern in high-growth markets is: understanding local and regional laws and regulations. Hello? Big Law, step up to the plate."
   
   If your lawyers are effectively collaborating across practices and geographies, then you are heads and shoulders above your competitor firms.  This is what it takes to make your global clients happy with you and your firm. 
5. Show off your multicultural strengths.  "Since many of your clients are worldly, they can quickly discern your lawyers’ and your firm’s ability (or failure) to get things done with a diverse cultural mix of stakeholders, executives, employees, and regulators (many of whom have not mastered your language). Clients active in multiple new markets recognize that service styles and practices vary across cultures. They also know that great short- and long-distance service can be as important as technical legal skill in giving valuable counsel."
   
   Brilliant legal technicians who don't care about the human side of the relationship are not a good fit for many clients - domestic or abroad.  The human and cultural understanding are what causes firms and lawyers to get hired - and without it, fired.
   
6. Figure out what you do that's better or different and emphasize it.  "Big Law has aced the task of providing expert lawyers who speak brilliantly on their subject matter. It’s far harder, yet more important now, for lawyers to present the firm’s advantages in a way that resonates with the particular client. To do that, you need to understand better what your key clients worry most about, for the issue at hand. Is it meeting a deadline, managing a far-flung legal team, compliance monitoring, reducing costs, cross-border coordination, getting along with a prickly regulator? Only then can you present a differentiated offering that addresses the client’s specific needs."
   
   Your marketing and business development department can be a great asset here.  But, in addition to people who understand positioning and messaging, it requires effective processes and the right technology, such as experience management and proposal generation tools. 
7. Make your global brand real by aligning it with how you serve clients. "Given point Number 6, it frustrates me that many firm marketing efforts travel poorly to clients (and the firm’s own lawyers) around the world.  Global law firm branding tends to overemphasize visual identity and underemphasize how specific services and the firm’s resources are discussed with and delivered to clients. Many firms send promotional messages that don’t make sense across cultures and thus mean little to the clients you are trying to win." 
   
   Clients will see through "brand" messages that are distinctly different than lawyers' service delivery.  Ensure that your key messages resonate with buyers of legal services across all borders.  While your messaging might be aspirational, it surely won't ring true.

Here is Leigh's byline and a link to the World Law Group summary of the study. 

E. Leigh Dance is president and founder of legal services management consultancy ELD International, based in New York and Brussels. She speaks three languages fluently, and for more than 20 years has worked with global corporate law departments and law firms. The study referred to is the World Law Group Global Agenda 2012: Issues & Priorities for Senior In-house Counsel Worldwide, conducted in conjunction with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell and ELD International. Download the study report on home page of www.TheWorldLawGroup.com.

 

Experience management and databases - The results of a survey of CMOs

Experience management and how to get one's arms around it surfaces in every conversation that I have with firm leaders and senior marketers.  As I noted in a February 2012 blog post "Experience Management - it's been elevated to mission-critical," cross-selling and revenue growth are the two top concerns of firm leaders as they see a future of shrinking demand for legal services and higher expenses.  These issues remain at the top as we approach 2013 - but firm leaders are no closer to having a handle on how to cross-sell more effectively and otherwise drive new revenue.

According to Altman Weil's MergerLine(tm), through the 3rd quarter there have been 68 law firm mergers completed.  In Q4, there are several high profile and notable ones in the works - Fulbright's merger with Norton Rose and SNR Denton's three-way merger with Fraser Milner and Salans are two that will create literally thousands of laterals.  Lateral integration is also at the top of firm leaders' list of concerns - how do they quickly embed and inculcate a few laterals into the fabric (and client base) of the firm, let alone many hundreds? 

The simplest answer is effective experience management.  Sure, but how?  It's not easy, but it's not nearly as paralyzing as you think.  Reframe your thinking about how to go about it - don't start with the lawyers and their many and assorted lists of deals and cases; start with the clients - the buyers of legal services.  What do they want and need to make buying decisions in your various practice and industry areas?  When your planning starts with the end in mind, it ensures that your focus, and consequently, your action is relevant.

To prepare for a recent experience management presentation to a Lex Mundi Americas group of senior marketing and business development professionals, I surveyed the group about their hottest button issues and concerns, wanting to understand where they were in the experience management life cycle.  Most of the 19 respondents were in mid-sized to large law firms.

Here were their burning questions:

1. What is the limit of experience information that can be published that doesn’t affect the confidential client information?
2. How can we motivate the lawyers to keep the experience database updated?  How do we keep it current?
3. How do we handle it when there are several practice areas working in one transaction? Is it better to consolidate as one big transaction, a transaction with different points of advice or several different matter entries?
4. Is it common to ask the client if the experience information can be published?
5. What is the best way to demonstrate the benefits of such a system to the attorneys, especially as an offset to its costs?
6. How are people doing this effectively? How do people connect to time and billing, follow-up, self-service, website, proposals, etc. What accountability share is there - lawyers vs. admins vs. BD/marketing staff?
7. Best practices, what systems are out there in the market, usability of system (lawyers, BD staff)?
8. How can we do this cheaply, but effectively?

I asked the senior marketers what their greatest challenge is regarding experience management:

1. Keeping the information updated
2. Leveraging data from other systems via integration
3. Getting the lawyers to cooperate
4. Which matters to highlight and capture
5. Convincing firm of the need for such a database
6. Resources to plan and implement it
7. Managing all the reports, rankings, pitches, web, etc. that need this data – and getting the right data to them all
8. Getting lawyers to think beyond the work they do (cross-sell)
9. The ability to capture specialized/unique skills
10. Disorganized process and incomplete data

Nearly 60% of the respondents do not have an experience database.  These firms are struggling with multiple data sources - Microsoft Word documents, mini-databases, Excel spreadsheets - and many of these documents are closely-held by the partners.  The ones that responded that they do have one are mostly "thinking about it" or are in the earliest planning stages.

Because the process of gathering thousands of matters into a single, flexible location is so debilitating, I thought it would be helpful to share best practices that we have developed for the launch of  a successful experience database.

Start Here.

1.    I previewed the secret above:  Start with your ultimate end users (your clients) and work backwards >> your lawyers >> marketing/BD team >> IT.

2.    Identify your top three use cases for your experience database (a few examples below).  Choose only three to start - you can always expand it post-launch.  Building a tool that satisfies the needs of all your use cases will take years - and the goal here is to get a workable tool launched in a matter of months - six months is average, depending on the quality of the data.

• Client pitches, proposals, RFPs
• Client expansion conversations – cross-selling
• Website – bios, practices, industries, more
• Surveys – Thomson League Tables,  Chambers, other
• Lawyers – KM
• Lateral integration

3.    Lawyers must use it or they won't keep it current.  They won't care about it if, in some way, they don't own it.  Build it to be used by everyone in the firm - not just the marketing department.

4.    Successful experience management is the perfect blend of people, process and technology.  Don't start with the technology tool. 

People.  Who needs this information? Who must be involved?

1. Clients – ultimate users of the information
2. Lawyers – practice group leaders, users of the information
3. Practice group marketers – consultants to the project for their practice/industry teams
4. Marketing/BD managers - users of the information for pitches, proposals, reports, surveys, rankings
5. Project manager in your firm – day-to-day oversight and accountability
6. Vendor partner – strategy, best practices, day-to-day project management, guidance, training, launch and post-launch.

Process.

1. Gather all the experience lists you have – scour pitches, proposals, website, personal matter lists – don't get bogged down in the formatting; different formats are OK
2. Analyze the efficacy of this data – do lawyers trust it?  (if they don't,  you can't move on to any of the next steps.  They have to trust the data first.) 
3. Create consistent presentation styles for matter and narrative format for your proposals, web, reports, case studies, surveys, etc. for the experience you have
4. Develop your strategy: Who will use it, for what will they use it?
5. Meet with your vendor/IT partner to review all of the above and plan your tech strategy/approach.

Technology and Integration.

1. Build v. Buy - 58% of the marketers said they are or are planning to build it in-house compared to 25% buying a third party tool.  In an ILTA survey we did in February 2012 of IT professionals, the results were the opposite - the majority planned to buy it.
2. What third party vendor to choose?  Choose a vendor partner who intimately understands what lawyers do, law firm project strategy, and the process and the people aspects of such an endeavor in a law firm.  This will make a huge difference in how smoothly the project goes and how much consulting value they can bring to the table.
3. Functional requirements - Your vendor partner will create these for you, and will design them based on your use cases and conversations with your IT team.
4. Integration – where does important data live?  It’s all about leveraging trusted data that lives elsewhere - time/billing, CRM, document management system, conflicts, website, HR database, etc.
5. Mobility – experience on-the-go - The most effective cross-selling takes place spontaneously, when lawyers and clients are on the move.  These opportunities are lost 80%+ of the time, because experience data lives somewhere back in the office.  Lawyers need it at their fingertips when standing in a movie line, riding in a cab with a client, and having lunch or a drink.  Velocity(tm) is the answer to this - it puts this trusted data into your lawyers' hands via their smart phones or tablets.

The next critical piece is content - who contributes to it, who owns it.  That will be my next post.