Law Firm 4.0 Blog

Experience databases: If you build it, will they come?

For many AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms, experience management is one of the most important stated initiatives for 2012.  Knowing what your partners do and knowing how to easily sort, parse and leverage this data is a top priority for managing partners, law firm chairs and executive committees.  If you want to learn more about the focus shift of these projects from the IT department to your firm leaders' agenda, you must register for this program. 

ILTA, the International Legal Technology Assocciation, is hosting a webinar Tuesday, January 31, 2012 called, "Experience Databases and Management:  If you Build it, (How) will they Come?"   It's free to all who want to dial in, because my company, Content Pilot is sponsoring it. 

Cheryl Disch, Senior Manager, Marketing Information Systems at Duane Morris is the program organizer, and our panelists include Katherine (Kate) Cain, Manager of Business Intelligence, Winston & Strawn, and Lisa Simon, Chief Marketing Officer, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.  I am the moderator. 

To prepare for the webinar, and to tailor our discussion to the interests of our audience, we are conducting a short Zoomerang survey.  If you are reading this and you haven't completed the survey, please do so -- I'll report on the survey results during the webinar and in my next blog post.  It won't take longer than 3 minutes - I promise. 

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EJEYC7Z7K/

During our webinar, we will discuss the technology and systems - whether to build or buy, and what Winston and Brownstein's integration strategy is.  In addition, you'll hear best practices for strategy, planning and the implementation of these critical tools so you can ensure success in your firm.  They will also answer the question, "If you could start over and do one thing differently, what would that be?"

Register for this free webinar:  http://www.iltanet.org/MainMenuCategory/Meetings/Webinars/WEB-PS-013112-828337.html

 

 

The best description of "strategy" I've read in years

I am having lunch today with the "3 Geeks and a Law Blog" trio - Lisa Salazar, Toby Brown and Greg Lambert.  To prep, I am climbing into their award-winning blog of the same name and came across this description in a post by Greg.

He's talking about another blogger at his firm, King & Spalding, Richard C. Hsu, who writes his own blog, "The One Page Blog."

As the set up to this great strategy description by Hsu, Lambert writes this:

Richard discusses his thoughts behind why he is blogging in the section of his blog titled "Lawyer's Confessions" where he admits that, although he is a super techie (CalTech grad and experienced programmer), he has found himself somehow "out of touch" with the new generation's mode of communications. He reminds us that, despite our experiences, there seems to always come a day when someone younger comes in and makes us understand that in order to "get with it" we'll need to climb outside our own comfort zones. For Hsu, that meant playing to the strengths that comes with age/experience, and that is understanding strategy.  He says it best in his explanation of technology and technology strategy:

And here is what Hsu writes:

On the other hand, technology strategy is not technology.  It is strategy.  And strategy’s half-life is more like plutonium:  what worked a thousand years ago works today, and will work in a thousand years....  Invest in understanding strategy now, and you will understand it just as well — probably even better [in the future.]

It's true!  Law firms too often assume strategy discussions (and strategic planning) are a necessary evil, led by expensive consultants who leave you with nothing more than a weighty document that isn't actionable. 

And strategy is almost non-existent in most major tech project implementations in law firms - from websites to proposal centers, experience databases, mobile apps, client extranets, intranets, CRM, KM and more.  Every technology initiative in your law firm should have a clear strategy component.  It's the strategy that will drive goals, objectives and measurements of success.

True, some consultants do leave you with fat stacks of paper. But if firms viewed strategy as a combination of vision, ideas and business transparency - and then took fear out of it, these planning sessions would be infused with hope and life. And your tech project implementation would be successful, and your internal and external teams accountable for meeting your stated goals.

And, like Hsu says, strategy has a shelf-life like plutonium - or the last Twinkie you ingested.

 

 

 

 

 

Advice to CMOs: Don't relinquish control when searching for your critical team members.

(Guest post by Steve Nelson and Cassie Battle)

One critical determinant in the success of CMOs in law firms is the ability to build a high-functioning team. Anyone who has read “Good to Great” knows that the key to success in any enterprise is to get the right people on board (“Get the right people on the bus.”), and then positively motivate them to accomplish well-articulated team and firm goals.

That said, CMOs often have difficulty accomplishing those ends, mostly due to administrative burdens placed on them by their law firms. As a starting point, law firms fail to use the same methodology that produced the CMOs themselves. The vast majority of CMOs at AmLaw 200 firms got their positions through retained searches, where the search firms used their expertise to unearth and qualify candidates, both in terms of quality and whether they were serious about the position at hand.

But at most firms, most manager and even director positions are handled in a completely different way. CMOs tend to follow a practice that, after doing some cursory networking, they contact human resources to ask them to help fill the positions; the CMO is available for interviews that are scheduled, but tends to be less involved with the actual hiring process, particularly when significant issues are raised by preferred candidates.  If recruiters are used at all, the work tends to go to multiple agencies that have a “pool” of candidates who have expressed an interest to leave their current positions.

With this approach, there is little, if any, opportunity to attract candidates who are satisfied, perhaps even happy, with their current jobs, yet who could be attracted by a unique opportunity. One only needs to review the scads of openings listed on the Legal Marketing Association job bank to see how vanilla many of these job postings are.  Qualified candidates that are happy in their current positions would never know about them – or be enticed by the descriptions.

Another flaw with this approach is that, because they’ve handed it off, many CMOs get disengaged once the process begins. Their initial enthusiasm gradually wanes as other priorities crowd out the importance of talent scouting. Meanwhile, parades of candidates come through for interviews, and the CMOs (and partners, if they are involved at the interview stage) don’t see the candidates they really want.

Because the CMOs have ceded the day-to-day contact with candidates to the HR staff who can never fully understand the requirements of the positions and the unique attributes marketing and business development professionals must have, the CMOs end up dissatisfied with the choices they see.  The final candidate might satisfy a basic list of requirements, but may never have that special something that will make her an exemplary contributing asset on the team.

This is not to say that CMOs should battle with human resources to gain control. But we are saying that they do need to play a proactive role in working with the internal recruiters to make sure that the right candidates are being recruited. HR can effectively handle the logistics, but the CMO should own the candidate selection and vetting start to finish.

This is also not a call to have these positions exclusively handled by search firms on a retained basis. Economic realities often dictate otherwise. But when positions are critical to the marketing operation, or when they have been tough to fill, using a recruiter who can help you communicate the opportunity to a broader segment of the market can make a difference. 

The best recruiters use different approaches to identify the perfect candidates for your available position.  Ensure that yours tailors his or her approach to your circumstances and firm.

Steve Nelson is Managing Principal of Law and Government Affairs, the McCormick Group, an executive search consulting firm.  He can be reached at [email protected] or (703) 841-1700.

Cassie Battle is a Principal with The McCormick Group, specializing in legal marketing and business development  placements. She can be reached at the same number or at [email protected].

A Toast to Differentiation: What law firms can learn from Blue Hill at Stone Barns

(Guest post by Lise Anne Schwartz)

Regular visitors to this blog know that Deborah is a connoisseur of fine food, wine and restaurants. So when she visited New York last week, the pressure was on to find a unique dining experience for us to share. I took her to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant on a working farm 30 miles from New York City.

Blue Hill gets virtually all its produce, meat and poultry from its own four-season farm and other local organic farms. It is among the pioneers of the locavore movement in the Northeast, where food is sold and served as close as possible to its source.

Like top law firms, fine dining establishments sell a pricey product in a crowded and largely undifferentiated market. But some manage to stand out and earn a reputation for adding value to the dining experience. We think Blue Hill’s success in this regard holds a few valuable lessons for law firms.

1. Looks count.  Our first steps into the dining room at Blue Hill told us what to expect. The room is large, with dark beams and trim against a high-peaked ceiling, heavy cream draperies, and a huge wooden farm table showcasing grown-on-the-grounds ingredients. Thick white linens, small votives and white plates dress the tables. Against this clean, elegant backdrop, creative vegetable presentations shine (smoked kale, roasted baby carrots and tiny, jewel-like radishes “growing” on a miniature twig tree, anyone?). The restaurant’s promise is immediately clear—unpretentious, rustic elegance, creativity and appreciation of simple, fresh ingredients.

A law firm often makes its first visual impression through its website. What kind of experience does your firm’s website promise? Does it effectively preview what it’s like to do business with you?  Is the voice consistent – do you sound like “one firm?” Can visitors easily navigate where they want to go? Does your design showcase important content or overwhelm it?

2. Get personal.  Blue Hill has no set menu; rather, the chef writes an individual menu for each table (and sometimes each diner) based on your food preferences and what’s fresh on the farm. All you have to do is answer a few questions and then decide whether to order five, eight or 12 (yes, 12!) courses. We diners feel like we are eating food thoughtfully prepared by a personal chef, not generic dishes the kitchen puts out on autopilot – day after day, week after week.

Good legal service is the same way. Sophisticated law firm clients, like sophisticated diners, come in with an idea of what they do and don’t want.  If I tell you I don’t want sweetbreads, I won’t be happy if you serve them to me, no matter how well-prepared they are.

On the other hand, if you give me a meal I could have created at home, I’ll feel like I didn’t get my money’s worth. Successful lawyers really hear what the client wants—and then use it as a jumping off point to provide better service and results than expected. That’s the kind of value-add that makes clients line up to pay premium prices.

Deborah adds:  Speaking of getting personal, let’s talk about written proposals and pitches.  The volume of requests in 2011 as reported by marketing and business development professionals was up two to four times over 2009.  This upward trajectory is expected to continue.

Creating a “one-size-fits-most” pitch packet is not getting personal.  You can bet that it will not make your prospect feel special, important or well served by your firm.  Marketers know this, of course; the key is convincing your lawyers to step back and design a presentation effective and tailored enough for the prospect to say, “You understand me.  I’d like to hear/see more.”  There are technology tools that automate the process so you can focus your time and attention on being the right strategic fit for your prospect.

3. Give a little bit.  Before we began our parade of courses (we chose five), the chef treated us to three separate amuse bouches—small appetizers meant to welcome diners and awaken palates. A particular favorite was tiny beet and goat cheese sliders served on top of a tall crystal stem filled with sesame seeds. The presentation was wonderfully simple and elegant.  We felt like valued guests, not people the restaurant was trying to milk for money.

What can you give away, either through your website or face-to-face? A training course? A quarterly status meeting? A set of form documents?  Everything you give away should preview what it’s like to do business with you.  Set the stage for what’s to come—awaken the palates of your prospects and clients.

4. Educated cross-selling.  Cross-selling is the oat bran of today—the magic bullet, the cure-all for hard-to-grow law firm business.  Everyone struggles with it, and sadly, it is frequently ineffective.

Blue Hill had something to cross-sell us, too: a series of wines perfectly paired to each of our five courses. But unlike most law-firm cross-selling, the server who artfully pitched us the pairings knew a lot about what she was selling. She had visited the vineyards (from France and Germany to Italy and California), seen the growing methods, tasted the products and talked with chefs and sommeliers about how the wines would enhance the sum of all the flavors. (Are you familiar with biodynamic wine growing methods?) 

We know a good bit about wines, but because of her soft-handed style, she enhanced what we knew.  She didn't make us feel like neophytes, yet we felt smarter at the meal's conclusion than when we arrived.

Imagine if lawyers knew this much about their partners’ practices before trying to cross-sell them. You’d have a trusted source actively participating in the sale instead of just saying, “You should meet my partner so-and-so; she really knows real estate.” Building—and using—an experience database for your firm can make this kind of cross-selling raw material a lot easier to come by.

As you can tell by the photo above, the educated cross-selling worked. We ordered, and loved, the wine pairings.

Differentiation works, whether at Blue Hill at Stone Barns or in your law firm.  It just takes care and diligence to make it pay off.

Lise Anne Schwartz is a New York-based copywriter and the President of Bold Language.  She is a former SEC lawyer and pastry chef.

"2012 CFO Outlook" - A survey by Merrill Lynch and Bank of America - What does this mean for law firms?

Now that the holidays are behind us, let's get down to some serious business - and some prognosticating about what law firms' business and financial lives might be like this year.  The bottom line is that the CFO respondents (600 of them from corporate America) are concerned and have low confidence in the economy - in spite of their prediction that corporate revenues and hiring will increase.

A post on the BofA website says: 

In its 14th year, the survey finds that despite lower economic confidence and an expanding range of concerns heading into 2012, U.S. CFOs are largely holding firm on employment and hiring projections, research and development spending, new borrowing, and other activities that drive both day-to-day operations and future growth.

So, the news for law firms who serve these corporations is largely good.  But, communication around fees and project management and scope will need to be clearer and more transparent than ever. 

The Summary Report includes the following key findings (the full report and a webcast won't be available until February 1, 2012):

1. More than half of the 600 executives expect revenues to grow in 2012.
2. 46% expect to hire new employees and 48% expect employment levels to remain the same.
3. More than 75% surveyed said their R&D levels are the same or higher than their pre-recession spending.
4. More CFOs say that more credit is available now and fewer expect the cost of capital to increase.

So, why are the CFOs seeming gloomy?  Here is what the survey found:

Senior financial executives are more concerned about more factors that could affect the economy than in any previous point in the CFO Outlook survey’s history. Heading into a critical election year, it’s telling that 70% of CFOs cited concern about the effectiveness of U.S. government leaders and 63% cited the U.S. budget deficit. In addition, 60% listed healthcare costs, 58% listed unemployment levels and 55% listed consumer confidence as concerns. By contrast, last year’s top concern regarding the economy was healthcare reform, chosen by 54% of CFOs.

The 2012 survey captures views across five key categories:

1. Economies and Sectors
2. Performance and People
3. Financing
4. Mergers and Acquisitions
5. International Trade. 

The Executive Summary briefly summarizes the findings in each of these five areas.  Below is a chart of their greatest economic concerns:

The table below (also taken from the Executive Summary) compares how the CFOs felt in 2011 to the 2012 results: