Tag Archives: law firm marketing

Go Big for Law Firm Brand Recognition

Posted on February 26, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Size does matter, at least when it comes to law firm brand recognition. That’s the finding of the Acritas “US Law Firm Brand Index 2013” that surveyed 711 general counsels at companies with a revenue of at least $50 million and found that “big is best” when it comes to how clients choose which law firms to hire.

“What matters most is obviously what the clients think,” writes Above the Law’s Staci Zaretsky. “After all, a brand is something that will keep clients coming back, and usher in new and exciting business opportunities.”

How does a firm increase their brand recognition? By increasing their market share through mergers and overseas expansion, thereby extending their brand. According to the American Lawyer article, the two firms that illustrated this trend are “McDermott Will & Emery, which surged from No. 31 to 12th place, and DLA Piper, which jumped six spots to No. 5.” Both firms added partners last year—DLA added 97, McDermott hired 42—and both expanded overseas, each opening offices in Seoul and McDermott opening one in Frankfurt.

The top 10 law firm brands for 2013 are:

  1. Skadden
  2. Jones Day
  3. Baker & McKenzie
  4. Latham & Watkins
  5. DLA Piper
  6. Sidley Austin
  7. Kirkland & Ellis
  8. Mayer Brown
  9. Morgan Lewis
  10. Gibson Dunn

“Putting prestige aside, this ranking speaks volumes as to which BigLaw firms are on top when it comes to client loyalty,” Zaretsky writes. “If your firm’s name is one of the first five that comes to mind when big clients have bet-the-company litigation and major M&A transactions, you know you’re probably doing something right.”

For the full list, which includes 2012 rankings, read the American Lawyer article. You can also request a copy of the “US Law Firm Brand Index 2013” report from Acritas.

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Monday Clicks: Business Skills for the New Normal

Posted on February 25, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Strategy, marketing and sales—three skills law school didn’t teach. But managing a law firm through the “new normal” of a changing, uncertain legal market requires these business skills, as well as building trust and loyalty among your clients. We’ve collected several articles to help show you the way.

  • It’s all about having a clear strategy to survive the changing market, according to Legal Week’s Tom Wood (sub. req.). His five-point plan for success includes: connect strategic plans to growth, control costs carefully, structure for success, look after your own and remember that the client is king.
  • In “Strategy Is All About Practice,” Roger Martin writes that strategy is a discipline that must be believed in and requires “work, work and more work” to become skilled at it. Therefore, to become a successful strategist you must “work, work and work some more.”
  • Scenario planning is, according to Legal Week, a “strategic planning tool to help organizations manage uncertainty, and if there is one profession that is definitely facing uncertainty now, it’s the UK legal services market.” The article states that the changes in the legal market are structural and require using scenario planning to create a long-term, responsive strategy to ensure future success.
  • “The sophistication of consumers of legal services will cause law firms to move away from the traditional ‘full service’ approach and adopt tighter, targeted strategies which play to their strengths,” reports the Global Legal Post. The article details a recent white paper from Huron Consulting that examined the shift away from traditional law firm service models.
  • “Customers aren’t idiots; they know when they’re being sold,” writes HBR Blog Network’s Michael Schrage. “They’re both smart and wired enough to seek out—and appreciate—quality assistance.”  In “Invest in Your Customers More Than Your Brand,” he uses Amazon’s misunderstood core values to illustrate how it’s all about “helping customers” not “selling things.”
  • In an hour-long webinar, “Smarter Marketing: The New Partnership for the CMO and CIO,” the Cleveland Clinic’s C. Martin Harris, M.D., and Paul Matsen talk about how chief marketing officers and chief information officers can “drive growth by collaborating and transforming their organizations” by using “social media technology to deepen their connection with customers, employees, and citizens.”
  • Whether it’s our law firm’s services or convincing our kids to do the dishes, we’re all selling something. That’s according to Dan Pink, author of To Sell Is Human, in a podcast interview “Why We’re All in Sales” on the HBR Blog Network. As Heidi Grant Halvorson writes, “In a nutshell, Pink argues that moving people (i.e., selling, but also persuading or influencing) has become an essential component of nearly everyone’s job in the modern workplace.”

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Eight ‘Golden Rules’ of Successful Transition to Equity Partner

Posted on February 19, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Partnership. It’s the goal of many a young lawyer. But how does one successfully transition to an equity partnership? Heather Townsend and Jo Larbie, authors of How to Make Partner and Still Have A Life, outlined eight “golden rules” for equity partners in Legal Week (sub. req.).

1. Hit financial targets. Equity partners are part of the business, not employees, and have to bring in the profits to support the business. As the authors state, “As an equity partner, all your excellent work won’t count if you don’t record, bill and collect the cash.”

2. Grow your practice. As an equity partner, the authors say it is essential to get to know the skills and abilities of the other partners and leverage that knowledge to not only build your own part of the practice but the firm as a whole. It is also important to make marketing and business development a top priority.

3. Develop your team and others. “If you’re going to hit the profit targets you have committed to deliver,” the authors write, “doing all the work yourself may not be an option.” You need a strong team that you can delegate work to and whose skills you consistently develop by passing on your own knowledge and experience.

4. Identify and develop your potential successors. As an equity partner, the success of the firm—even after you leave—is tantamount. “If a practice is going to remain profitable and sustainable in the long term, there needs to be good talent in the pipeline at all levels, ready, able and willing to make the next step up,” the authors write.

5. Be politically savvy, but not “political.” All firms occasionally suffer from what the authors nicely call “strong personalities, sensitivities, and empire protectors.” Successful equity partners are politically savvy, accepting this reality and being aware of the impact of what they say and do upon others so they can get work done “without triggering unnecessary negative reactions.”

6. Have a plan and ­strategy for your part of the practice. “To achieve many of the golden rules,” the authors write, “successful equity partners will need the discipline and diligence to plan, communicate, monitor and review business, marketing and people plans for their part of the practice.”

7. Look after yourself. You’ve heard this one before: If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. The authors stress that it’s vitally important to actively take care of yourself in order to enjoy the fruits of your labor both during your time at the firm and long after.

8. Build your influence within the partnership. Much of an equity partner’s success comes down to the relationships he or she builds within the practice. By “building a strong internal network,” the authors write, “an equity partner is able to have a greater influence over how the practice is run, while finding it easier to achieve their own particular goals and objectives.”

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Monday Clicks: 2012 Not Bad, 2013 Forecasts and You Could Use a Plan

Posted on February 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment

It turns out that 2012 wasn’t a bad year, just slow—but what will 2013 bring? Lots of litigation and strategic plans, apparently. From technology and cyber security to marketing and business development, the advice on what your firm needs abounds. Also: Poor leaders can become good…with effort and a continuous commitment to improve.

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Legal Ethics & Social Media

Posted on January 29, 2013 by | Leave a comment

It’s a social media jungle out there. It helps us connect and drum up business, but it can eat up our time and lead to sticky legal ethics issues. Not to mention, get you fired for sometimes dubious reasons.

“Social media is an amazing opportunity for building the connections between you and your referral sources,” states Divorce Discourse. “When used properly, it’s an opportunity to build increasingly strong relationships.”

But what about when it’s used improperly? And what, exactly, is considered “improper” from a legal ethics standpoint? A roundtable by The Recorder discussed a few of the issues raised by the latest ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct in the video “Social Media & Ethics: Avoiding Costly Mistakes.” The attorney advertising rules were expanded to include “and other forms of electronic communication.”

“Clearly it’s going to be the duty of all lawyers to be aware of these kinds of things,” Robert Zitrin, of Counsel Carlson Calladine & Peterson, says in the video. “Clearly it’s going to be part of competency. In fact, clearly it already is part of being a competent lawyer.”

Eric J. Sinrod, a partner at Duane Morris, added that when touching on legal issues through your blog or other electronic communications, readers might “believe that you’re undertaking to give them advice.” It is therefore “very important to not unwittingly create attorney-client relationships.”

The panelists also discussed how you have to know what works, what doesn’t and what the younger generation is using, as well as issues with cloud storage.

So what’s a lawyer and law firm to do about social media? Use it, but use it wisely—and keep an eye on those developing ethical issues.

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Get Bloggy With It

Posted on January 24, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The business of law is ever-changing—and it seems like everyone has an opinion about it. To help keep up with the latest news, advice and trends, check out a few of these law firm business-related blogs from the sixth-annual ABA Journal Blawg 100:

  • For “sweeping” coverage on the legal profession at large, Above the Law is your go-to destination. Its posts cover issues “from the heights of the U.S. Supreme Court to the depths of disgraced and depraved attorneys.”
  • Adam Smith Esq. covers law firm economics. Consultant Bruce MacEwen writes about the latest trends in the BigLaw industry, including a 12-part “Growth is Dead” series that is now available as an e-book.
  • Am Law Daily covers everything “from firm finances and business models to the latest lateral moves and partner defections.”
  • The consultant-written Attorney at Work blog offers “tips on productivity, positivity and persistence,” asking experts for help when tackling issues of law practice management.
  • The Careerist is written by former lawyer, now reporter Vivia Chen. She “asks the legal profession’s big shots how they got to where they are and what they look for when they’re interviewing and hiring.”
  • If liability insurance is your thing, the D&O Diary should be on your to-read list. It examines such issues as managerial liability insurance, fiduciary liability insurance coverage and the occasional travel tour posts.
  • Law21 “focuses on innovation in the legal industry and how firms can keep up in 21st-century markets…[and] forecasts the impact of the changing legal market on lawyers, law firms and legal organizations.”
  • Ride the Lightning’s Sharon Nelson covers the privacy and security risks that new technologies can bring, as well as how companies are combating them.
  • Small Firm Innovation “is intended to offer first-person anecdotes and advice for solos and small firms. With a concentration on rainmaking and creating mobile, tech-savvy offices, the blog encourages firms to be flexible and responsive to the changing legal market.”
  • 3 Geeks and a Law Blog covers law practice management, law firm pricing, legal research, marketing and more.

View the full Blawg 100 list here.

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What Do Clients Want?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Clients are a law firm’s real assets. But how do they choose your firm over another? Turns out that subject matter expertise, a successful track record and having a prior relationship with your firm are the most-mentioned reasons clients choose a law firm, according to the Altman Weil Why Clients Choose Law Firms survey.

Other top reasons clients choose a firm are:

  • Demonstrated understanding of their business or industry
  • Referrals or recommendations from colleagues
  • Personal contact through face-to-face meetings and phone calls

At the bottom of the list:

  • Direct mail or email communications about your firm
  • Social media activity
  • Invitations to social or sporting events and meals

What does this mean for you? Well, first, you can probably relax about building a killer Facebook page for your firm. Attracting clients is all about what it’s always been about: providing excellent service.

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Hello 2013

Posted on January 2, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The dawning of a new year is always a time of reflection and resolutions—assuming, of course, that reentry into the workaday world didn’t send you into a stupor. But have no fear! We here at Hildebrandt Institute scoured the blogosphere for law firm resolutions to serve as inspiration. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, one thing is clear: Whether it’s a bunch of to-dos, not-to-dos or predictions, lawyers like lists. So sit back, pour yourself another cup of your caffeinated beverage of choice, ignore those 300 emails in your inbox and gain a little fodder for a list of your own.

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Law Firm Websites and Beyond: How to Win and Retain Business

Posted on July 12, 2012 by | 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe that the first law firm website was launched less than twenty years ago.  According to a recent blog post by Robert Ambrogi, it was Venable, which launched the first law firm website in March 1994. Considered cutting edge at the time, law firm websites have since been joined by wikis, extranets, blogs and other forms of social media as part of the business development toolkit of large law firms.  A recent report from Hubbard One (a Thomson Reuters business), Building Relationships with Global General Counsel, highlights the continuing importance of law firm websites as well as the use of newer social media tools.

The survey consisted of interviews with 40 General Counsel (GCs) worldwide.  Ninety percent of the respondents were from US-based companies, two-thirds of which have international operations.  Eight percent of the respondents were based in Europe and almost all respondents (95%) work in large private or public companies with annual revenues greater than US$500 million.

Not surprisingly, the two main factors that GCs say are important when selecting a law firm are the experience of the firm’s attorneys (33%) and the firm’s expert knowledge of the company’s sector or industry (31%).  These two factors far outweigh competitive and/or flexible pricing (16%), not to mention brand reputation (9%) and efficiency/legal project management (7%).

Websites

There are numerous channels that allow firms to showcase their expertise including proposals, websites, newsletters and e-mail alerts.  While the survey found that many GCs relied on proposals to assess the suitability of firms for a project when there was no clear choice of a firm to work with, websites are still important tools that GCs use to help them select firms. 

Many interviewed GCs indicated that they visit the website of law firms they are considering working with once or twice per month. Though these visits may be as short and practical as looking at an attorney’s biography or finding relevant contact information, they leave a deep impression on the visitor. It is crucial that law firms have an up-to-date website with a constant stream of relevant and original material that is easy to access.

The survey also noted that clear and usable navigation (34%), relevant and valuable content (31%), and quick and easy searches (29%) were equally important for busy GCs.  Of lesser value were interactive user experiences (2%) and visually attractive design (1%).  As one GC interviewed said about the problem with poorly designed websites:

 “Too much junk. No effective search. Just tell us who you are, where you are, who your lawyers are and what you’re really good at. The rest of the fluffy stuff is superfluous and should not clutter navigation bars, front pages or make it more difficult to find the important content.”

While GCs may not want a website that is too flashy, that doesn’t mean that they don’t appreciate an up-to-date appearance.  Branding and having a modern look are important, too. 

Larger, often more corporate law firms have understood that “brand is as important [to them], as it is to Procter & Gamble, Nestle or anybody else.” Yet in other cases, GCs regularly see the type of “website [that] looks like it was made in 2005 and not appropriate for high-resolution modern screens,” which “just looks like they’re on the cheap side.”

In terms of the most often viewed sections of a firm website, survey respondents spent the most time looking at lawyer and staff profiles (combined score of 40%), followed by practice areas and service offerings (22%).  GCs pay close attention to lawyer profiles, looking at a lawyer’s personal experience or prior legal work (combined score of 55%), their list of clients (21%), and what school they attended (11%).

E-Mail Alerts, Briefings, Whitepapers, Social Media

Beyond websites, GCs find that the most useful ways to receive information from law firms is from email alerts (33%), industry briefings/seminars (25%), industry reports/whitepapers (18%), and webinars (16%).  Similar to websites, these communication channels are only useful to GCs when they are highly focused to meet a particular need.  Extranets/portals, blogs and video, according to the survey, were underutilized but may become more important over time as GCs become more comfortable with these tools.

When it comes to sourcing information about or from law firms, blogs (35%) and LinkedIn (26%) are the most popular means used by interviewed GCs.  Podcasts and video are used by 11% of GCs, while YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and SlideShare have limited appeal.  More than two-thirds of respondents find “law firm engagement in social media ‘not very valuable,’ and a quarter ‘not valuable at all,’” indicating that firms might not be engaging correctly with social media.  Firms appear to be slowly embracing the medium’s interactive nature, a topic that was covered in our interviews last month with lawyer Dan Goldman of the Mayo Clinic and Sarah Feingold, general counsel at Etsy.  One GC who responded to the survey commented:

 [Firms are] treating it as “an adjunct to their normal marketing strategy.” He explains: “So, if they win an award, they’ll tweet about it or put it on LinkedIn. But the interactive nature of social media which is supposed to make it what it is, no, I do not think that they have grasped the proper way to use it.”

The Future

Looking towards the future, GCs were asked what trends they thought would impact how they select, communicate and collaborate with law firms in the next three years.  Relationship automation (e-billing being the most common form) was ranked as the top development, with cloud computing and online work collaboration in second place, and web intelligence (data analytics) in third.

Law firms are under heightened pressure to set themselves apart from competitors in order to improve their chances of winning work and retaining clients.  GCs are increasingly expecting law firms to provide them with highly relevant information on a timely basis, using many different communication channels.  Successful firms will not only provide targeted content on websites and via email alerts and newsletters, but will also be comfortable as an active participant on other social media platforms.

Posted by Marianne Purzycki

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Blogging/Tweeting: Promoting Your Work “Pays” Off

Posted on May 24, 2012 by | 2 Comments

We’ve written numerous times about the use of social media in law firms both from a content standpoint as well as noting that for most lawyers and law firms, having a web presence is essential these days.  While we know that social media usage in law firms is growing, supporting data on whether or not there is a return on investment for law firms (or for any other business) employing social media as part of their marketing mix is difficult if not almost impossible to come by.  In fact, a recent article by McKinsey & Company states that many companies find it hard to devote significant resources to social media precisely because “there’s no single measure of social media’s financial impact.” 

However, despite not having a definitive financial metric for social media, there are other ways to evaluate this form of marketing.  A recent post on the London School of Economics Impact of Social Sciences blog provides some data and insights on how social media can be used effectively as a marketing tool.  Last month Melissa Terras wrote about her experience blogging and tweeting about all of her academic research papers. Terras, who is the Co-Director of University College London’s (UCL) Centre for Digital Humanities, was curious to see what impact social media would have on the dissemination of her body of work.  So she took the 26 articles – which had already been published in refereed journals and were available via UCL’s online repository – and then blogged and tweeted about each one.

Before she began the experiment, most of her papers had only one or two downloads, no matter how long they had been in the UCL online repository.  But upon blogging/tweeting about them, there were on average 70 downloads of each paper within 24 hours.  Not a head-turning statistic by Internet standards, but it indicates a big step forward in interest in her work. 

As part of the project, she charted the monthly download counts of the top ten papers downloaded from her department over the last year.  She found that the increase in downloads – the upward spikes on the graph – corresponded to her blogging/tweeting about her research.  Additionally, seven out of the 10 most downloaded papers include her as an author and she gets credit for 27 out of the top 50 downloads as well as about one-third of the entire downloads for her department. 

“My stuff isn’t better than my colleagues’ work,” Terras freely admits. “They’re all doing wonderful things! But I’m just the only one actively promoting access to my research papers.” And that’s one of the take-ways in this experiment, according to Terras: “If you tell people about your research, they look at it. Your research will get looked at more than papers which are not promoted via social media.”

Another reason that her experiment was so successful, she theorizes, is that she already had a digital presence. She has built up her audience over three years by “hanging out and chatting, pointing to interesting stuff, repointing to interesting stuff, asking questions, answering questions, getting stroppy, [and] sending supportive comments.” 

She concludes: “If you want people to find and read your research, build up a digital presence in your discipline, and use it to promote your work when you have something interesting to share.”  In the end, whether the discussion revolves around academia or law firms, the bottom line is that having a social media presence plus having something meaningful to say is a powerful combination.

Posted by Marianne Purzycki

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