At a time when law firms are likely more focused than ever on client development, attendees at the 2010 Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Annual Conference in Denver are getting insight for their work from some of the best practitioners from around the world.
That work also includes knowing how to work best with the leaders and key people within the walls of the firm.
Jonathan Fitzgarrald, director of marketing at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP participated in a session titled “Developing Your Communication Skills to Gain Influence and Increase Your Effectiveness in your Role.”
In a post on Hubbard One’s blog titled “Gaining Influence and Increasing Effectiveness as a Legal Marketer,” Chelsie Givan shares a video interview with Fitzgarrald in which he outlines five best practices for marketers in sometimes difficult and political environments in professional services firms, including law firms.
You can watch the video and read Chelsie’s full post on The Hubbard Perspective blog.
And for more information on the 2010 LMA Annual Conference, click here.
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The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) is holding its annual conference in Denver. Our colleagues at Hubbard One are covering some of the activity on The Hubbard Perspective blog.
In a post titled “Transitioning from Marketing to Business Development,” Jen Bullett recapped a panel discussion about the transition of a law firm marketer’s mindset, from marketing to business development. The panel featured José Cunningham, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, Crowell & Moring LLP, and Anne Malloy Tucker, Chief Marketing Officer, Goodwin Procter LLP.
Here are five of the points from the panel that Jen noted:
1. Understand your key partners’ top 5 clients
2. Know your firm’s top 100 clients and prospects
3. Be an agent for cross-selling
4. Focus on initiatives that get lawyers in front of clients
5. Identify and nurture those lawyers with untapped potential
You can read Jen’s full post on The Hubbard Perspective blog.
And for more information on the 2010 LMA Annual Conference, click here.
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Hildebrandt Baker Robbins and the Law Firm Group at Citi Private Bank just released their 2010 Client Advisory for the legal industry. It describes the economic and related impacts of the past year on law firms across the U.S. market and offers some projections.
So what is their crystal ball telling them?
2010 will be a year of gradual growth, with revenues remaining at or slightly above 2009 levels. Dan DiPietro, advisory head of Citi’s Law Firm Group, says he believes the worst of the impact of the economic downturn is over. (more…)
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The Microsoft Partner Network has granted Gold Certified status to ProLaw, with a competency in Data Management Solutions.
The Microsoft Partner Network provides opportunities for partners to develop and expand their businesses; expertise and resources that help partners better serve their customers; and creates communities that spark innovation by connecting partners with one another. (more…)
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Many law firms – all around the world – are finding new opportunities to leverage marketing technology with a focus on supporting and growing the business development efforts of their attorneys.
How can firms ensure the success of these technology initiatives by fostering meaningful and productive relationships between IT and marketing?
Shawn Samuel, chief architect at Hubbard One, contributed his thoughts on this topic in a white paper from the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA). Shawn’s article is titled “Social Networks to Firmwide Collaboration.” The ILTA white paper, published in October 2009, is Marketing Technology: Making Connections, Keeping Clients.
Samuel specifically looks at social media and the integration of those tools with enterprise systems to boost a firm’s business development efforts. He says:
Chief information officers (CIOs) and chief marketing officers (CMOs) in the legal field, many of whom encourage a close relationship between IT and marketing, are beginning to translate the advantages of social media and networks into terms legal eagles can understand.
Samuel also writes that it isn’t only CIOs promoting the partnership of marketing and IT and their combined role as proponents of marketing technology. He quotes Kim Perret, director of Marketing and Business Development at Hunton & Williams in Washington, D.C., about the marketing technology team at her firm that focuses on helping attorneys leverage technology to communicate with key audiences:
“Our team is focused on CRM, Web, electronic communications, webinar technologies and communications,” she said, “They serve as the coordinators working with the business development team and liaise with IT for more involved projects.”
For more of Samuel’s insight into law firm collaboration between marketing and technology, listen to this Westcast podcast interview with him or download the PDF of his article.
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SharePoint continues to gain ground in its use in law firm client service and business development. Aimed at fostering collaboration and efficiency across a firm, SharePoint also earns attention for the ways firms can customize it to meet their needs for sharing information. Microsoft even has a dedicated page about its specific benefits for the practice and business of law.
Bob Beach offers some ideas on how SharePoint can best be used on the Hubbard One blog, Hubbard Perspectives, in a post titled “SharePoint Best Practices Panel from Legal Tech NY.” Beach is a the director of XMLAW client services.
He writes:
SharePoint can and should be used as a platform for bringing together information about clients, matters, and practices/industries served by the firm. When done well, this can lead to new insights about the work the firm is doing, and opportunities to drive new business.
Beach also writes about client extranets in in SharePoint:
Client extranets are a great way to interact with clients beyond simple document sharing to include collaboration capabilities, billing-related information, and trending towards matter budgeting and task/project management.
To read Beach’s full post, including his keys to great content on SharePoint through intranets or extranets, click here.
For more information about SharePoint’s solutions for the law, visit Hubbard One and XMLAW.
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The results of the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins Peer Monitor Economic Index (PMI) for the fourth quarter of 2009 are in, showing an increase for the third straight quarter.
The PMI rose nine points to a reading of 55. A PMI of 65 or greater indicates strong law firm market performance.
The PMI is a composite index of law firm market performance using real-time data drawn from major law firms in the United States and key international markets.
Demand and worked rate growth remain weak in the Q4 PMI, and much of the strength resulted from strong cost controls and improved productivity, contributing to firm profitability.
Demand, as measured by billable hours, stabilized in the fourth quarter at roughly the same level as a year earlier. Demand strengthened throughout the second half of 2009, but remains well below the levels of 2007.
London was up five percent in growth. The top major market in the United States was New York, up two percent from a year earlier. That reflects improvements in litigation and corporate transactional work. Chicago was up one-half of a percent. Boston and Washington, D.C., were flat in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Silicon Valley were among the weakest markets.
For the first time since PMI has been tracking data three years ago, attorney headcount contracted, down three percent in the fourth quarter. As a result, direct expenses fell more than five percent – the steepest decline PMI has recorded.
You can review the Q4 2009 PMI report here.
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The massive debt problems in Dubai have led to complex efforts to restructure that debt, as well as the Emirate’s legal framework itself. So there are still many questions that counsel and creditors are waiting to get some answers to.
As Jack Bunker points out on Westlaw Business Currents in his post titled, “Trimming the Sails: Dubai Investors Lurch Into Uncharted Court Waters,” there are billions of dollars at stake and the legal and financial communities are watching very closely.
Bunker examines the tension in Dubai World and the risks within the context of litigation involving Dubai:
This analysis is no mere history survey in its look at Dubai World. Government-owned entities in Dubai still have tens of billions in debt coming due in the next few years. The skein of lines demarcating Dubai’s government and its many state-owned entities can be dizzying. Compounding this, the ad hoc juxtaposition of regulatory agencies, official decrees, Dubai law, Free Zone law and UAE federal law is no more easily negotiable than that of complex legal frameworks in the West.
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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The aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers International Europe is the focus of a post on Westlaw Business Currents. Christopher Elias addresses some of the issues in his post titled, “UK Insolvency Law: Trust Issues Complicate Lehman Administration.”
Elias examines how trusts present a special issue for financial company insolvency in the United Kingdom. He writes:
The insolvency of the Lehman Brothers Group marks a fundamental difference between the UK and the U.S. in the insolvency of financial services companies. In the U.S the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ensures that a beneficiary’s property in a financial services company is identifiable at all times, whereas the same cannot be said to be true in the UK. This lack of segregation poses an uphill struggle for UK administrators where financial services companies are involved, as it makes it difficult to identify a beneficiary’s entitlement to trust property. This is exacerbated by the fact that administrators are unable to use Scheme of Arrangements where trusts are involved, as they inevitably will be in the case of a Financial Services Company.
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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Here’s a quick roundup of some interesting law-related blog and news links from the week of Jan. 18, 2010:
“UK Government backs Islamists in battle to remove their names from terror list” – Daily Telegraph
“Critics, Dissenters Predict Wave of Corporate Money After Campaign Finance Ruling” – The National Law Journal
“British bill of rights: what’s in a name?” – The Guardian World News
“Lawyers Without Borders” – Slaw
“China lashes back at U.S. over Internet criticism” – Reuters.com
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Thomson Reuters, Legal, President & CEO Peter Warwick offered his perspective on the company’s approach to the current economic reality in a panel discussion, “Adapting and Thriving in a Challenging Economy”, at the Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference.
The launch of WestlawNext brings a significant advancement in the way professional legal research is done.
Andrew F. Popper, a professor at American University, Washington College of Law, talks about his award-winning novel “Rediscovering Lone Pine.”
