Law Firm 4.0 Blog

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.

Stuffing v. Dressing - an unnecessary war of words

Thank you for reading my blog!  Truly, I am so grateful. I take your comments to heart, and invite suggestions to improve it and recommendations for future topics. As a thank you, I share a favorite poem about the ubiquitousness of our kitchen tables and my special Cornbread and Sausage "Dressing" recipe.

I grew up in a small town in Minnesota (Willmar) and we called it dressing.  But I have lived in Texas since 1987, and they call it "stuffing."  My Minnesota family uses bread; the South loves cornbread. Native Minnesotans would never put sausage (or frankly nothing more than celery and onion) in their dressing, let alone raisins that had enjoyed a brandy-bath overnight. 

So, I have created a hybrid recipe that combines the best of my Thanksgiving-at-the-kitchen-table memories from the upper Midwest and my adopted home in the Southwest.  Let me know if you have questions about it - and certainly, what you think of it.

First, the poem . . .

Perhaps the World Ends Here

By Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.

The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.

We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.

It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.

We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

"Perhaps the World Ends Here" from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo. Copyright © 1994 by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Cornbread and Sausage Dressing - serves 8 (doubles easily)

By Deborah McMurray

(Note that I always look for ways to reduce calories and fat [especially at Thanksgiving!], so I have several lower fat substitutions here - such as using 4 egg whites instead of 2 eggs.)

• Make fresh cornbread (2 boxes Jiffy Cornbread or your favorite from-scratch recipe), crumble into a large bowl and set aside.  You can bake it the night before and refrigerate it, or several weeks before and freeze it.
• 1 cup brown or golden raisins, plus pour over 1/2 cup brandy or cognac.  Add enough hot water so the raisins are immersed in liquid.   Soak overnight and reserve the soaking mixture.
• 4 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1 pound Jimmy Dean's reduced fat mild pork sausage
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped (I always pull the outside threads off - they are kind of tough and bitter)
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 16-oz can of corn or frozen corn, thawed and drained
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup toasted pecans or pine-nuts (either is delicious)
• 1 tbsp. fresh sage or 1 1/4 tsp dried sage (but crack open a fresh jar if you use dried)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (pour yourself a glass, too, as you watch the raisins plump)
• 1-2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (the heat adds so much to this recipe!)
• Sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste (I use quite a lot, like usual)
• 1 cup chicken or turkey stock (or broth)

Making the dressing: Crumble and fry the sausage in a large non-stick skillet until brown.  Remove it from the pan and add it to the cornbread bowl, leaving a tiny bit of the drippings in the pan. Discard any excess oil. Saute the onion over medium heat until slightly softened, then add the celery.  Cook until the onions are translucent. Add to the sausage/cornbread mixture in the bowl.

Add the skim milk, beaten egg whites, corn, apple, water chestnuts, raisins (including 1/4 cup of the brandy mixture), pine nuts or pecans and other spices.  Add the chicken or turkey stock and the white wine.  Mix all ingredients.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with PAM, pour dressing into the pan, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake another 30 minutes until crunchy and brown.  Remove from the oven and keep warm until serving.

If necessary to reheat, cover with foil, but remove the foil the last few minutes to re-crisp the top.

This dressing is great with turkey, but also wonderful with roast pork.

Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The Secret of CRM Success in a Law Firm - Guest Post by William A. Smith

Marketing technology implementations are challenging in a law firm for a variety of reasons.  The demand for trusted data for use by lawyers exactly when they need it is increasing, and the pressure on marketers to deliver just-in-time, relevant information and intelligence is greater than ever before. 

I recently spoke at the Lex Mundi 2012 Americas Regional Marketing Roundtable about Experience Management, which I believe is one of the hottest areas on a chief marketer's hot-plate.  Like CRM, which William Smith discusses below, experience database implementations are among the most challenging of all marketing technology initiatives - not because the technology is hard, but because gathering such data in a law firm culture is.  But the challenges and obstacles are far from insurmountable - I'll dedicate my next blog post to this.

The Secret of CRM Success in a Law Firm

Guest Post by William A. Smith

Fifteen years ago, if you asked someone at a law firm  what  is “CRM”  the responses could have been anything from a blank stare to  “isn’t that what our eyes do when you’re in a really deep sleep?” Today, client relationship management has become an integral and vital part of business organizations. Whether a law firm, technology company, or retail conglomerate, the ability to understand the value of your client/customer relationships-- who your clients are, how  the clients view you, benchmarking and monetizing the  value of those relationships-- has become a
core part of business management.

When I was child, my father would always say “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  That axiom is true in life, politics and business. It is the very heart of social networking. Businesses have recognized the value of this “who knows whom” paradigm, going as far to seek out and develop technology solutions to help define:

• what makes a suspect
• what turns it into a  prospect
• how to develop it into a customer/client, and most importantly,
• how to retain the customer/client.

There are numerous success stories out there where companies have experienced market share and revenue growth by utilizing this “business intelligence.”  Client relationship management(CRM) technology has enabled organizations to develop the key performance indicators and marketing strategies that speak to their sweet spots  and answers the question “how does our marketing investment  translate into revenue?”

So why do law firms have such a hard time with CRM technology?  You would think that it would be a perfect fit –a business model that leverages relationships, and a technology solution that helps to sort it all. Regardless of the brand of CRM, most firms have a love- hate relationship with their CRM platform. Love the concept, hate the execution. 

On one hand, today’s firms are much more techno-savvy than just a few years ago-- better  equipped to handle new technologies that seem to spring up daily. They are also better at understanding the concept of integrating systems and knowledge management—leveraging the information in proposal systems, experience databases, time and billing systems and personal information systems.

But on the other hand, the cleanliness of concept crashes head-on into the chaos of implementation. In general, a CRM platform’s greatest strength is also one of its greatest challenges. These systems can be quite flexible, integrating with other enterprise systems to the point where  implementation and maintenance can be quite a handful. Typically CRM systems do not act like a “normal” database. The data is constantly changing and updating (minute by minute) due to user interaction, and if it integrates with other systems (HR and experience databases, time and billing, proposal centers, etc.), it is not only communicating with those other systems but, in a perfect world, it might even update or be updated by those other systems.  

Ok, so if these platforms can do everything except make frozen margaritas, why aren’t they being used to their full potential?    CRM platforms tend to much more flexible than the environments in which they are placed. Face it --- you have one platform that can talk to time and billing, HR, email, Internet, intranet, and with the right tools can even send and manage its own e-communications.  All of these individual systems have their own individual experts.  If a firm is lucky enough to have someone with CRM system background, that person often does not have expertise in those other aforementioned areas.

Technical teams are not “marketing-y” enough and marketing staffs are not sufficiently “techie.”  In other words,  an IT department may have the expertise to keep all of the firm systems up running as well as application/reports development, but they are not going to have the resources available to focus solely on the needs and nuances of a CRM system —reports, KPI, user acceptance,  workflow, etc.  Marketing may have unique expertise in the “use cases” and managing the CRM system, but often they will have no knowledge of the platform’s impact on the firm’s other resources and bandwidth, let alone any challenges with system integration and data management/analysis.

And let’s not forget about the attorneys. They want client information, market intelligence and any other data that will translate into billable hours or bring in the next big client and matter.

Each group is concerned about doing what they need to do—attorneys are about attorneying, marketers are about marketing and  IT is about IT-ing. However, working in these separate silos illustrates a weakness in the business intelligence game plan.  If these groups cannot share information, find redundancies and provide common solutions that move the entire enterprise forward, you wind up with bad intelligence, wasted efforts and more problems than solutions.

But there is an untapped resource available to firms—if developed and utilized it can give an organization quite an advantage. Firms that have a person who understands CRM from the technical, marketing, legal and business analyst perspective have the upper hand here. The ideal person (or persons) is someone that understands how CRM works in our legal environment—that has experience benchmarking, managing the project and implementing the CRM solution efficiently and effectively from start to finish.  This is someone who is capable on the technical side; who can walk the IT walk, as well as speak to the end user experience.

In addition this person can provide key business analysis and intelligence rather than just throwing reports over the wall.  Want to know the return on investment of lawyers’ travel and business development meetings, or what practice groups’-client relationships generate the most revenue? Curious about whether your e-communications  are reaching your desired audience? Do those communications strengthen or weaken your bottom line? This person can find those answers.

Unfortunately most firms do not have such a person – they are hard to come by. Typically, there are several people who can provide different bits of information—but rarely do any of them have a single, holistic approach or share the same perspective.  The fact that this person is unique shouldn’t deter firms from having a goal of finding or developing someone with this combination of skills, experience and viewpoint—a valuable resource that could pay dividends for years to come.

William Allen Smith is the former VP-Marketing Information Systems, Walkers Global LLP, and can be reached at [email protected] or 877-696-3480.

 

Waller: A successful law firm website case study

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP is a 200-lawyer firm headquartered in Nashville, with offices in Birmingham, AL and Austin, TX.  The work that “Waller” does in the healthcare industry belies its relatively small size.  It is known throughout that industry as the leader, the number-one firm, the “player” in that space.  Every other healthcare practice in America wants to be them.

When the new Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, Mark Greene, was hired in January 2011, he understood that while the firm’s reputation was superior, it wasn’t well known by many outside Nashville and beyond the healthcare industry.  The firm has other important practices and industry teams – it was important to “own” the healthcare strength, but make other areas more prominent as well.

A sophisticated user of technology and a veteran market researcher, Greene hired legal industry leaders to conduct market research, interview clients, design and launch a new positioning strategy and brand, and design and build a new website as the centerpiece of the brand launch.  The former website had little visual appeal, was overly generic and didn’t establish the firm as a market leader in any sector or industry. 

All the research culminated in a unique positioning strategy that supported all practice and industry teams in the firm, and built on the essence of what makes Waller extraordinary:

You’ve no doubt heard it said, or even said yourself, that nobody looks for a law firm—they look for a lawyer. Well, we like to think we’ve turned that around.

Just look at how many clients come to us for one reason, stay with us for something completely different, then do the same thing time and time again. True, these clients probably came to us with a specific lawyer or practice in mind, but that doesn’t really account for the longevity or depth of our relationships.

It’s not just the quality of the work we do. It’s how we go about it. We have all the experience and intellectual firepower you’d expect from a firm of our stature, but the feel is different. Clients say we’re more responsive, we understand their stresses. We make their issues our issues, their fights our fights. This could be why we rarely lose a client, and why so many engage an extraordinary number of our practice groups.

At Waller the atmosphere is comfortable, the people good-natured, easy-going. There’s a contagious quiet confidence—a feeling that no matter how complex the deal or fierce the litigation, these are people who can be formidable, who can deliver the results, yet still keep a sense of humor. It comes as no surprise that clients like the way they’re treated, and feel their treatment transcends any one attorney.

In other words, they come here for a lawyer, but they stay here for the firm.

Given this positioning and brand strategy, the challenges for the website were:

1. How do you demonstrate industry depth and experience and, at the same time, humanize the lawyers so they seem accessible?
2. How could Waller distinguish itself among other healthcare-strong law firms?
3. How does Waller ensure that the non-healthcare practices and industries have equal opportunity on the website?
4. How can the lawyers’ bios reflect their individuality, yet reinforce that they are an integral part of a firm and a team?
5. How does Waller prove its depth, reach and drive?
6. What can Waller offer healthcare clients and prospects that will be unique?
7. How can Waller leverage the social media and blog content – ensuring a 360-degree online strategy?
8. Finally, how do we build a site that is flexible, robust and that can grow with the firm as it grows and expands?

We designed and launched a website that answered these questions in the following ways:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Balancing industry/practice depth/distinction and personality is critical in a two-dimensional medium.  Buyers of legal services want to know three things when they come to a law firm website: what you have done, for whom you have done it, and what you can do for me.  Firms must answer these questions to keep a visitor on the site – they’re table stakes for making the short list of credible providers of the services they need. 
   
   But research shows that when they are selecting the one law firm with which to work, they are making an emotional decision, and that requires that the site effectively communicate the answer to “why us, of all the credible providers?” That’s where brand positioning is crucial. We must communicate who we are as people, not just what we are as a firm.  The site must communicate the brand as a compelling reason to choose this firm from the list of credible providers.
   
   The Waller industry, service and bio pages are infused with specific experience that answers those three expertise questions. An experience database will soon be populating the site, ensuring that the experience feeds are fresh and relevant (and easing the burden of the small team of marketers). 
   
   The lawyer bios have a flexible tab structure, where lawyers can choose the tabs they want to appear – tabs that will spotlight their specific interests and strengths.  In addition, many lawyers have an “Up Close” tab, which highlights pro bono work, personal commitments to
   charities and civic pursuits, or hobbies and other diversions.
   
   
2. The healthcare industry section of the website is broken out into 15 sub-practices, proving the depth and diversity of their strengths.  These range from dialysis and urgent care, dental and orthodontics, healthcare REITS and life sciences, and much more.  Any industry executive would see this list and immediately recognize substance.
   
   Healthcare services (the practice areas) has 13 sub-groups under it, including commercial finance, compliance and operations, M&A, real estate, securities and tax, litigation and patient privacy, plus other areas that are vital to the successful running of healthcare organizations.
   
   
3. Because the site is broken down into industries and services, other industry teams are featured in ways that are important to Waller.  Eight non-healthcare industries are presented, plus eight service areas that each have several sub-groups.
   
   
4. The bio photography is fresh and “environmental,” suggesting that these lawyers are nice, accessible people.  In addition, all lawyers have included their assistants’ names and contact information on their bios.  As mentioned before, lawyers personalize their own bios with what makes them unique – their experience, involvement and passions outside the office.
   
   
5. Drive is hard to prove in this medium, but we believe that showing depth and diversity of experience is the best way to show it.  In addition, the home page features and rotates case studies and photography that prove that Waller isn’t your average law firm with a few lawyers who do a little of this and that.
   
   
6. One of the most unique visitor benefits of the home page is “Market Intelligence.”  This is a live feed of industry intelligence from ShiftCentral (www.shiftcentral.com).  Visitors type words or phrases in this predictive or type-ahead search box and results immediately appear.  Waller offers this sophisticated tool free to its visitors – and it’s never before appeared on a law firm website.
   
   
7. A 360-degree content strategy is a centerpiece of Waller’s business development strategy. This ensures that up-to-the-minute blog content is fed into the News/Events section of the website (with a link available from the home page).  Waller also feeds offline content – lawyer speeches, event appearances, webinar participation and print – to its online content and vice versa.
   
   
8. Waller chose Content Pilot as its technology provider for its “evergreen” approach to technology maintenance, among other reasons.  Through its planned maintenance and service program, Content Pilot ensures that its platform is as current post-launch as it was at launch.  New web features and functionality will be considered by the firm as long as it fits into the Waller strategy.  Waller will never hear, “You need to buy the new version of our product if you want to do that.”

Measureable Results

The Waller marketing and business development team regularly monitors traffic patterns and visitor analytics.  For the one-month period August 18 – September 17, 2011, the former website had total site visits of 6,096.  One-year later, the new site during the same period had 9,949 visits – a 62% increase. Nearly 44% of the visits were from returning visitors – a remarkably high percentage when compared to other law firm websites.  Three-plus pages were viewed by each visitor on average during this period.

The high visitor engagement demonstrated by these numbers is a direct testament that Waller’s positioning strategy “Come for the lawyer, stay for the firm” is spot-on.

Waller Website Team - Internal

• Mark Greene, Ph.D., CMBDO
• Kathy Phelps, Director, Marketing Operations
• Aimee Moore, Design Specialist
• Mike Moss, Webmaster
• Rebecca Howald, Director, Practice Group Business Development
• Vikki Carter, Director, Healthcare Business Development
• Scott Manners, Manager, Healthcare Business Development
• Ruth Freeland, Manager, Practice Group Business Development 
• Lesley Kibler, Market Intelligence Manager

Waller Website Team - External

• Allison Market Research
• Right Hat Design
• Content Pilot LLC

Mine human capital to raise law firm revenue and profit - guest post by Jim Dolan

I have written several posts that focus on how lawyers can improve their business development success.  The secret to becoming a rainmaker and The secret to becoming a rainmaker - Part 2 are two recent examples.  In both posts, the advice is simple - something every lawyer could do.  Yet, too many lawyers don't budge. 

The first article I wrote about business development and rainmaking was published in the Texas Lawyer in 1996, "The Myth of the Perfect Rainmaker."  It discusses the "perfect" personality or communication style for bringing in business. Of course, there isn't one, thus the title.

Jim Dolan is a friend, advisor and sought-after leadership coach and psychotherapist.  He works with a lot of lawyers, and writes a column in the Texas Lawyer called "The Lawyer's Coach." I have reprinted Jim's posts on my Law Firm 4.0 Blog, with one about integrity being my favorite. 

Jim and I recently visited about lawyers and business development over lunch.

Guest post by Jim Dolan:

Recently my friend Deborah and I were having lunch and talking business.  Somehow the conversation got around to the profitability problem law firms face in a time when the marketplace pie is shrinking. We recalled recent studies done by two big financial institutions (Citigroup and Wells Fargo) that both have substantial interests in the fiscal health of firms.  

During our discussion, Deborah said, "In the hundreds of partner and firm leader interviews I’ve done related to various initiatives, I always ask, ‘What percentage of your partners would you call rainmakers?’ Surprisingly, the answer is consistently the same.  For a dozen or more years, the response ranges from 8-11%."  She noted that firms with origination-based compensation systems trend slightly higher, but, on average, only marginally so. 

I'd always known that only a small number of law firm partners were “real producers,” but the 8-11% number was a surprise.  What that means is this: between 40-60 lawyers in a 500-lawyer firm pay not only their own salaries and overhead, but support their admins, associates, professional staff and all their families.  A real eye opener when viewed in the bright light that illuminates our economic prospects. 

But vast opportunity is also revealed.  Law firms’ only real capital is their human capital, and the non-producing members represent vast untapped potential.  If the 89% could somehow begin to do something, rather than nothing, if they could move their business development activity incrementally, show even a 1 or 2% increase, and if that happened just with 30% or 40% of the non-producing 89%, then law firms would begin to show huge revenue and profitability increases in fairly short order. 

How to do this?  In my experience, the non-producers see themselves as professionals who provide expertise in specific, highly specialized areas of knowledge.  As high academic introverts, they typically prefer to be left alone to work methodically through highly structured, intellectual tasks.  It is a great thing they provide, but left undeveloped is their capacity to come to know and listen to their clients as the people they are. (It’s like the surgeon who views his patients as gall bladders or broken arms rather than John Smith, the father of three, or Ava Hanson, the 9-year old dynamo who loves gymnastics.) 

Clients want to know who is representing them; and this is the root of business development: -know your client.  Does this mean putting on a plaid sport coat and white loafers?  Does it mean pretending to be something you are not? Absolutely not, it only means connecting on a human level in a way that is meaningful to your clients.  It’s about them, not you. 

Regularly stay in touch with clients, ask how business is, stay on top of trends and news in their industry, know their competitors, what your clients' concerns are, what problems they face, where it hurts, where their emotional labor is going.  And it means taking what you learn and doing something with it – show clients how your intellectual resourcefulness can help assuage their concerns.  

If that is done frequently enough, then the 89% number becomes 88, 87, 80% --and revenue and profits will rise. 

Deborah and I left lunch feeling like we'd solved a big problem, the only one left being to convey that message, which is what I am doing here.  Now it’s up to you.