Law Firm 4.0 Blog

Once again, bad judgment in law firm advertising

Before the economic downturn in 2008, large law firms were spending $500,000 and up on print advertising - and that's on the media spend alone.  Trying hard to creatively cut through the clutter significantly added to that investment.

Today, far fewer law firms - at least the business to business ones - are buying print advertising in legal trades, industry verticals and business publications.  This tracks with business-to-business advertising cut-backs in all industries.  While I think there is still a place for strategically designed print ads, I don't think we'll ever see the pre-recession levels of spending.

Maybe this is why bad advertising stands out so much today.  There isn't the blizzard of competitors' ads to sift through when flipping the pages of American Lawyer, the Wall Street Journal and other desirable publications.

CNN today reported on an ad featuring a stock photo of a firefighter with a headline stating - "I was there.  And now Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern is there for me."  This is a personal injury firm

Really?

According to CNN, this was a stock photo of a man who became a firefighter in 2004. He sold the rights to his image and the law firm bought it, doctored it and used it.  Technically, that's how stock image rights work. 

Given the understandable hyper-sensitivity by everyone about 9/11, it was an avoidable situation.  All the firm had to do was be thoughtful and sensitive in its creative planning, and to tell its ad agency that exploiting 9/11 in any way was off-limits.

Because I don't want to reprint the ad here, here is a link to the CNN story. 

The secret to becoming a rainmaker - Part 2

On February 15th, I wrote a post called, "The secret to becoming a rainmaker."  It was one of the highest read posts since I started my Law Firm 4.0 blog. 

I plan to add to this from time to time and will, very simply, call them Part 2, Part 3, and so on.

In law firms, we have spoken about "cross-selling" for my entire career in this industry (mid-1980s in case you are wondering).  Of all the sweeping changes we have seen with technology that instantly enables cross-border collaboration among lawyers in far-flung areas, in most firms, cross-selling is one area that hasn't developed much beyond conscientious lip service.  In spite of this, most lawyers I know are unquestionably well intentioned.  They want to do the right thing. 

For years, the oft-repeated reasons for it not working in firms are:  no trust, compensation systems and firm structures that don't support it, and several others that become sub-sets of these large elephants in the room.

A casual conversation with a friend who is a senior partner at a Big 4 accounting firm led to an epiphany about law firms, cross-selling and rainmaking.  He said that there is a mandate in his firm that his partners live the mantra:  "Be a student of your clients and a student of the firm."

That's how simple it is.  Be a student of your clients.  Be a student of the firm.

The most successful lawyers i know instinctively invest in this life-long education.  It's unconscious for them.  But, a majority of lawyers in firms may not have such instincts, so it must be a conscious, disciplined choice they make.  Like eating well and exercising. 

Marketing and business development departments at major firms collectively spend years preparing competitive intelligence and other information that paves the road to cross-selling and rainmaking success.  Too often, it is under-appreciated initiative.  Why?  Because some lawyers don't have the mindset that they must be a "student" to succeed.  On some level, they feel it is someone else's job.

All truly successful rainmakers know it's not.  They know it's their job and that it is a life-long quest.

Lawyers Beware: You're being heard and watched (and read)

This morning I read a blog post from a great resource for lawyers published by legal marketing veteran Merrilyn Astin Tarlton and colleagues Joan Feldman and Mark Feldman, "Attorney at Work." It reminded me of two recent experiences.  Today's Attorney at Work post is called "Wireless Hot Spot Safety Tips" and was written by Sheila Blackford, an attorney and Practice Management Advisor for the Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund. 

The article advises readers to beware of logging into your various accounts on public wi-fi networks, such as those at Starbucks, airports, etc. 

Now, the two experiences I referenced above  . . .

I was having a wonderful dinner in New York at a popular Manhattan restaurant, where the tables are arranged barely six inches apart.  White paper was carefully laid on top of the linen tablecloths.  Seated next to me were two well dressed gentlemen that I ignored until the one facing me, clearly a lawyer, started outlining his case strategy for a piece of litigation on the white paper.  His client, a Toyota executive, was in the banquette beside me, carefully following the diagram as it expanded.  So was I, as much as I tried to ignore this ameobic artwork.   This conversation started when the wine was poured and continued through dessert and espresso.  The lawyer paid the bill and left, leaving the diagram and all his notes under his now empty wine glass.

I don't know how this trial turned out, but I was stunned at how relaxed and uncareful both the lawyer and the client were.  Privileged and confidential??  Not so much.

The second story involves my seatmate on an airplane.  Sitting on an American Airlines coach flight, I worked for the first hour of the flight, ignoring the passengers around me.  Taking a breather, I glanced at my seatmate's computer screen and he had the black screen/white type that programmers and system administrators "read" when they are trying to fix your errant computer.  I asked him if he was a programmer; he said he wasn't - he was a director of network security for Motorola.  He was essentially browsing "inside" the airplane's unsecured wi-fi network and could see what everyone on the airplane was doing on the Internet - from paying bills and Facebook-friending to observing company emails and conversations. 

He advised me never to use public wi-fi to transmit anything confidential.  Ever. 

Given the proliferation of smart phones and tablets, we are conducting business and managing client relationships increasingly on the fly.  Lawyers beware -- take precautions to ensure that you aren't unwittingly broadcasting confidential details about your clients to interested bystanders with spurious motives. 

And avoid confidential conversations with your clients and colleagues in crowded restaurants.