Legal Marketing

Total news: 38
Last news: March 18, 2008 19:59:07

Last week the LMA gave out its annual Your Honor awards.  Taking a cue from the LawMarketing Portal, the LMA put up the list of the winners online (Click here for an excel file for the full results) and actually printed a 48-page glossy brochure describing what the winners did to get the award.  (Click here to download the 2008 Winners Book (its a 7.18 MB PDF file).

Several of the winners have already been featured on the LawMarketing Portal and Blog:

• Bingham took first place for firm identity and their famous "Grizzly Bear Holding a Baby" ad -- see Bingham Sweeps New England LMA Chapter Your Honor Awards 
• Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds got an award for their clever holiday card. See Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds Knows the Elements of a Fun Holiday Message and their clever branded gifts: Law Firm Dispenses Medicine to Understand Boston Accent
• Foley Hoags offbeat advertising campaign: NY Times Features Foley Hoag Advertising Campaign
• Choate Halls web videos that mimicked the "Mac vs. PC" TV campaigns: YouTube and The Law Meet on Choate Recruiting Website
• Morrison & Foersters creative recruiting website: MoFo Mojo Workin’ on Student Recruits 

Of course, I couldnt anticipate all the winners, and Ill be contacting several of them to find out key info, such as what the programs cost and what results they brought -- topics that were not thoroughly covered in the winner handbook.  Ill keep you posted on what I find out.

To review the list of first-place winners, just click the link Continue Reading...

Following are the first place winners in the 12 categories of the Your Honor Awards:

Almost since the earliest days of the Internet, lawyers have been experimenting with virtual firms to increase efficiency and lower costs. More recently, virtual firms have taken on greater levels of sophistication and complexity. On the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discussed this phenomenon with the principals of two virtual firms and a business-development consultant. The speakers included:

• Co-hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi
• Myself as business development consultant and author of the Law Marketing Blog
• Wyatt Durrette, founding member of the virtual IP firm XDL Group
• Mark Harris, CEO of Axiom Legal.

Among the things we discussed were putting a law firm on the Web with lawyers at widespread locations, the convenience of virtual firms for clients, and letting the Web do your own marketing for you. Other advatnages are less travel, less overhead, and no boring office meetings.

Download or listen to the program on this page or listen on your mobile phone using mobilize. Subscribe to receive all Lawyer2Lawyer programs via RSS or using iTunes.

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The following letter to the editor from Jennifer Johnson, president of the New York LMA chapter, appeared in the March 13 issue of the New York Lawyer.  It came in response to an op-ed article by Elizabeth Anne "Betiayn" Tursi, Editor-in-Chief of ALMs Marketing The Law Firm. Among other points, Tursi wrote, " I dropped my membership because as time went on, I found the organization to be lacking the type of educational give and take that an organization is supposed to provide its members." 

To the Editor:

We here at the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) find ourselves compelled to respond to the recent forecast of the death of our industry and alleged lack of leadership in our Association as outlined on this Web site on March 6, "Law Firm Marketing: R.I.P.?." It is clear to our members that this is anything but a field in decline. The facts point to just the opposite: law firm marketing is alive and thriving.

The LMA is a group of more than 3,100 marketing, business development and public relations professionals worldwide whose members are dedicated to growing the business of law firms globally. The Metro New York Chapter, with nearly 500 members locally, believes it is necessary to deliver hard facts not only to counter the provocative opinions of the author of the March 6 column, but to provide a clear and accurate picture of the reality of law firm marketing today.

The Association, in direct correlation with the industry of legal marketing, has grown more than 53% over the past five years due to law firms investment in building more sophisticated platforms - many of which mirror those of their clients. What is the reason for such tremendous growth? It is because law firms have seen positive results in their bottom line. The firms who utilize marketing resources have seen increased efficiency with internal cross-communication resulting in more business from existing clients; brands that are differentiated from their competitors; increased partner business generation thanks to individualized marketing plans and coaching; geographic expansion due to the research of competitive intelligence teams; heightened realization rates because of improved matter management; and the list goes on.

A recent study by the author of this rebuttal shows that 61% of Chief Marketing Officers report to a Managing Partner or Chair of their firm. The average tenure for a Chief Marketing Officer was merely 18 months in 2005 and has grown to more than four years today. This compares favorably with other industries and can be taken as a strong gauge that marketing professionals are not only accepted, but very much valued by their firms.

Wait - theres more. Over the past five years the LMA has been led, whether at the International or Chapter level, by 24 c-level marketing professionals and by 125 director-level professionals, all of whom are volunteers. More than 30% of our members possess advanced degrees (which is a far cry from the days when firms plucked any warm body from the staff pool to lead marketing efforts). With 17 Chapters in the United States and Canada and members spanning the globe, the LMA has held approximately 1,000 events over the past five years that are not only educational but also afford important networking opportunities. These activities enable legal marketing professionals to learn from each other, form alliances and refer business which, ultimately, benefits their firms.

As to the substance of our educational efforts, the keynote speaker at todays LMA conference, for example, is noted attorney and human rights activist Cherie Booth Blair. After graduating with the highest honors from the London School of Economics, Ms. Booth Blair pursued a career as a practicing lawyer at Matrix Chambers Law Group in London while championing international causes along with her husband, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

As legal marketers, our mission is to ensure that our clients, the lawyers, are able to invest all of their energy and intelligence into providing the best possible service to their clients. With our help, lawyers have to worry less about where the next new matter will come from. It is the volunteers of the LMA who provide crucial resources to supplement the already marketing-savvy professionals in the industry.

If legal marketing as a profession is in decline, why are we able to point to so many successes? Ms. Tursis column suggests that the law firm leaders who hire us, pay us and retain us are missing the mark. We could not disagree more. The increase in c-level positions, the diversification of roles within marketing departments and, frankly, the increased profitability of law firms in recent years can be attributed to the investment in legal marketing professionals.

The members of the LMA in discussion have been unable to grasp the motivation behind Ms. Tursis comments, and we welcome a reasoned opposing view (we work for lawyers, after all),

But we will not stand by without responding to an attack that is not constructive, and we feel is blatantly without merit.

For many years to come,

Jennifer Johnson
President of the Board of Directors
Legal Marketing Association
Metro New York Chapter

Jennifer Johnson is Vice President of Recruitment & Strategy at Wisnik Career Enterprises, Inc.

For the first time I can say that a vendor expo was awesome. The ABA Techshow had the usual collection of case management and time-and-billing stuff, but I found some really cool items:

I bought a top-of-the-line fast laptop/main computer at the Dell booth.  I got A Latitutde D630 for 35% off -- for a total of $1831! Ask for salesman Jesus Ortega, a big guy with a big smile. The system includes:
- Core 2 Duo T9300 2.50 GHz processor with 6M Level 2 Cache with an 800 Mhz bus
- XP home edition.  No Vista for me, thank you.
- 120 Gig hard drive -- a faster one that runs at 7200 rpm.
- DVD player and burner
- built in wireless card
- MS Office 2007 Small business edition (I winced that I would have to learn yet another version of Word, but Jesus told me I could master it in 3 days).
- a 9 cell batter that lasts 9 hours
- 3 year mail in service warranty

The next cool thing was the KeyScan KS810 keyboard scanner.  Most scanners have huge footprints.  With KeyScan you just insert your document into a slot in the keyboard. KeyScan can save it as a PDF and automatically insert it as an attachment in Outlook.  Or, if youre working on a document, you put the cursor where you want the image to appear, scan it, and it is automatically inserted there.  Heres the best part: the price is $159.  If you want one, call Ophira Rosolio at 781.658.2020 or ophira@keyscan.com (see www.keyscan.com)

Thirdly, I was walking down a aisle as saw my face flash up on the TV monitor.  Being curious I tracked down the camera and found Audience Response Systems, Inc.  I congratulated Regional Sales Manager Doug Kinsella on his eye-catching marketing.  Its the best draw in the entire Expo.  They sell Pulse, a continuous real-time audience polling system.  Each audience member (or mock jury member) is given a little keypad, and every 5 seconds they indicate whether they are bored (click 1) or that theyre fascinated (click 10).  The results appear live on a screen viewed by monitors.  A speaker or lawyer doing a closing argument can instantly see when hes losing the audience, or when hes got their total attention.  Level 2 Pulse for 24 participants is $4,160.  For more info go to www.audienceresponse.comk or call Doug Kinsellla at 800.458.9081.

Finally the best "gimme" was a yo-yo that lights up when you spin it.  Im meeting my son Ted for lunch (hes an analyst at Fidelity Investments in downtown Chicago) and Im going to give it to him.

Stay tuned for more.

According to Conference Chair Tom Mighell, some 900 lawyers will descend on the Hilton Hotel on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago for ABA Techshow 2008.  When you add in exhibit hall vendors, faculty and vendors, the total is expected to go up to 2,000.

ABA Techshow is ideal for the 21st Century wired lawyer.  Im here blogging about the conference and also writing a story for Law Technology News about how lawyers use social networking.

You can follow reports on the conference by:

• Reading this blog, where Ill be reporting on several programs on Friday March 14 about marketing with technology.
• Go to http://www.abanet.org/techshow/buzz/ and see photos from Techshow that have been posted on Flickr, follow updates from attendees or even check out some of the websites being talked about at the show.
• Following a Twitter stream, with conference updates as well as personal messages from attendees. You need to open an account on Twitter (http://twitter.com), which is a service that asks the question, “What are you doing?” Techshow is using Twitter to update attendees on activities.  Twitter can be used to tell people that, you just heard or saw something really cool, there’s a raffle drawing happening in a few minutes, you’re looking for someone interested in a particular subject or an important session is about to start
• Grab the RSS feed -- http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=OigKb_Tj3BGJA380n0artA&_render=rss -- and plug it into your news aggregator so you can see other blog posts about the conference.
• You can share a website thats cool by using del.icio.us, a social bookmarking tool. We’re keeping all of the ABA TECHSHOW 2008 bookmarks in one place, and it’s really easy to join in.  Just read the tech Cheat Sheet at http://www.abanet.org/techshow/docs/2008/buzzcheat.pdf.

Theres free wi-fi on the conference floor to blog, get on the Web and email about the 60 CLE sessions and 100 legal technology exhibitors.  More later.

The Chicago Bar Association asked me to record a podcast on the most effective marketing initiatives for solos and small law firms.  The recording is online at http://www.chicagobar.org/podcasts/   Its the second item: 08/24/2007 - YLS - Most Effective Marketing Techniques. 

1. Spend 2.5% of gross revenue on marketing.
2. Put video on your website.  It appeals to 30% of the US public, which has always had the Internet as part of their lives.
3. If you cant measure your marketing initiative, dont do it.  Be skeptical of advertising and public relations. Instead write blogs, websites, online banner ads, email newsletters
4. Focus on getting new files from current clients.
5. Cultivate referral sources. Start with clients, then pursue investment brokers, accountants, bankers, law school classmates and other sources.
6. Get on the board of directors of a trade association.  Get active and be visible.
7. Pursue "targets," or business executives whom you already know.
8. Write down your business plan -- whom youre going to call, when youre going to meet them and the outcome you desire.  Its inchoate until you write it down.
9. Spend 400 hours a year on business development -- four hours per week.
10. Track your results.   Its better than radio ads, which dont produce any results.

Bingham was one of 20 winners of Californias Best Places to Work, as chosen by the Los Angeles-based Employers Group, a human resources consulting and educational company for California employers.

Its most recent recognition of the firm’s culture and working environment. Bingham, with nearly 1,000 attorneys in 13 offices, was selected  in the large company category out of more than 400 entrants. Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp won in the medium company category.

“This is the second competition that has named Bingham as a Best Place to Work this year, after being named for the fourth straight year to FORTUNE magazine’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list. We hope to build upon this momentum in 2008 and beyond,” said Bingham Chairman Jay Zimmerman.

The ranking was based on more than 400 companies’ responses to a survey of employers and employees in nine categories, including: pay, benefits, training and advancement opportunities, work-life balance, diversity programs, turnover, perks, employee voice and workplace culture, and community involvement.

• In January, Bingham was named for the fourth straight year to the FORTUNE magazine “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The firm ranked 41st on the list, up from 94 in 2007, with the percentage of women and minority employees noted as a main factor for the firm’s selection.
• In September 2007, the Los Angeles Business Journal ranked Bingham’s Los Angeles and Santa Monica offices No. 7 on its “Best Places to Work” list.
• Bingham also was the only large law firm named to the Boston Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” list for 2007, ranking fifth. The firm was one of only four companies that has made the newspaper’s list each year since it was launched.
• In August 2007, Working Mother magazine named Bingham one of the top 50 law firms for working mothers and flex-time lawyers.
• Bingham was one of only 30 law firms and 195 major U.S. companies to score 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2007 Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, customers and investors.

Theres a ray of light in the economic gloom affecting law firms: many corporate clients have plenty of cash and little debt, and are well-situated to get through the recession, according to the New York Times.

The concern in the legal community is that corporate clients will start demanding rate freezes or discounts, following the direct challenge spearheaded by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) against law firm rates. (See They Say They Want a Revolution: Reconnecting Legal Costs to Value Delivered, subscription required.)

But Jason Trennert, managing partner and chief investment strategist at Strategas Research Partners in New York, who said his own rough examination of corporate balance sheets shows that “cash, as a percent of total assets, is as high as it’s been since the 1960s.”

• At Paychex the ratio of cash as a percent of total asserts has grown from 30% in 1988 to 70% by last year.
• Apples cash ration grew from 38% to 60% over the same time period.
• Microsofts cash on hand is so large that it could pay out the $20 billion cash component of its pending hostile takeover bid for Yahoo from its own reserves.

High cash ratios exist across many industries, including apparel, manufacturing, engineering, retail, healthcare and technology companies.

Meanwhile, a study by at Ohio State University shows that corporate debt has fallen sharply.  The net debt ratio, or debt minus cash as a percent of total assets — fell so sharply that, by 2004, it was below zero, where it stayed at least through 2006.

“In other words,” the researchers noted, “on average, firms could have paid off their debt with their cash holdings.” Innovations like "just in time" supply chains and faster payment systems have cut accounts receivable, cut debt and raised cash reserves.

Ideally this means that corporations will spend their "overstuffed wallets" on litigation, mergers and acquisitions and corporate work done by law firms.

As recently as October 2007, an ACC/Serengeti survey revealed that corporations expect their law firms to increase their rates by 5.3% up to 6% on hourly rates in 2008.  The same report found that the balance of fee-setting power favors law firms, hourly rates will continue to predominate, and cutting fees is not the top client priority.

Maybe 2008 wont be as hard on law firms as they expect.

In a controversial op-ed article entitled "Law Firm Marketing: Is It So Over We Need a New Word for Over?" Elizabeth Tursi, the Editor-in-Chief of Marketing The Law Firm, takes legal marketers -- and the LMA to task -- for failing to grow into a real profession. "Things are starting to look even gloomier," she writes.

For close to 20 years, I have been one of the supporting voices for law firm marketing, hoping against hope that the profession would come to be accepted and that over time, law firm marketing would come into its own and garner the respect it so richly deserved. Simply stated: For the most part it has not and things are starting to look even gloomier.

Yes, there are firms that have embraced marketing and as a result of targeted marketing programs, these firms have prospered. Many of these firms appear on the annual MLF 50. But for every firm on that list there are countless others that have been unsuccessful in putting forth the premise that marketing works. I have watched the revolving door of marketing professionals and have taken note of many firms that have no marketing programs at all. You’ve got to wonder. What’s up with law firm marketing and after a somewhat good run, is it in the throes of going the way of TQM — remember that?

Exactly the wrong person for the job

To begin, we have the selection of the actual person leading the marketing efforts. Time after time, in firm after firm, the individual selected as CMO has been exactly the wrong person for the job. Many of these individuals had been chosen based on a resume of other law firm experience. Did anyone ever stop to check to see if these candidates were successful in their prior position? The resounding answer is “no.” The reason: Because law firms thought that candidates with resumes replete with other law firm positions obviously made them marketing geniuses. Wrong again. On the other side of the spectrum is the choice of individuals from outside the world of law firms. These are the candidates who have never worked in a horizontal management structure and are completely baffled as they walk into a room of 20 or more owners. Disastrous results followed because with no political savvy (a prerequisite for working in a law firm), these individuals were clueless as to how to work within the structure. The other part of the problem is gravitas. I have been preaching about this forever. Without the ability to have a “seat at the table,” make your case, stick to it and go head to head with management, a CMO is doomed to fail.

Problem Number Two: There are certain questions that a candidate prior to securing the position must ask. It involves doing one’s own due diligence and asking those questions. Will I have autonomy to do a needs assessment and when the results are produced, and when I do create the plan and develop the strategy, will I be provided with the resources and buy-in from management to implement that plan? Without the answer being “yes” on the part of management, the success ratio — zero!

The wrong approach to implement marketing

Next problem: Many firms chose the wrong approach to implement the marketing plan — marketing by committee. Again, what do attorneys know about marketing — not very much. Therefore, why would a CMO be forced to sit in a room filled with attorneys giving their opinions on how to market the firm? Clearly, at the get-go, the CMO is in a no-win situation because, after all, the committee members own the place and it was their money that was being pumped into the marketing program. If a committee has to rubber-stamp each marketing activity, the overall program once again is doomed to fail. Marketing by consensus is just not the way to go.

To finish reading the article visit the LawMarketing Portal.

In case you missed it, appended below is an article about a social networking website that the State Bar of Texas created for Texas lawyers
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Branching Out in the Lone Star State

IOMA is conducting a survey on lateral hiring and integration at law firms, and this is your chance to provide input. I recommend that you take a few minutes to fill out the survey.

In exchange for completing the survey, you will get a summary of the results as published in IOMA’s Compensation & Benefits for Law Offices newsletter. As always, you may start the survey and come back to it later at the place you left off.

Ive read and relied on IOMAs newsletters and reports and find them practical and useful.  For over 20 years, IOMA has been an independent source of exclusive business management information for experienced senior and middle management professionals.

Simply visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=spr4yVzqyReXhRVRNufoXQ_3d_3d  and take the survey.

Your responses are kept strictly confidential.  If you have any questions or comments, e-mail the editor, Lisa Isom, at lrisom@ioma.com or the Publisher, Meg Hargreaves, at mhargreaves@pf.com

The law firm Perkins Coie, with 129 employees (staff + lawyers combined) at the office at 131 S. Dearborn St. in Chicago, made the list of Chicagos Best Places to Work just published by Crains Chicago Business.

Congratulations to Christopher Wilson, Office managing partner, for breaking the code on how to make a law firm a great place to have a career.  If you want a job there, just contact Joyce Wlodarczyk at jwlodarczyk@oerkinscoie.com.

With more than 650 lawyers in 14 offices across the United States and in China, the firm represents companies ranging in size from start-ups to FORTUNE 100.  Perkins Coie was named to FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. 

See my earlier report 5 Law Firms Included in Fortunes Best Places to Work on the LawMarketing Portal.

The launch of JD Supra is the talk of the bloggers everywhere.  You owe it to yourself to visit the site where a lawyer can post a court filing, opinion or article, for free, that links to a profile of the lawyer -- also free -- where clients, prospects and lawyers can search the database -- also for free. 

Among the bloggers to comment about JD Supra so far are:

The Wall Street Journal blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/02/26/law-blog-news-you-can-use-free-legal-research-sites/#comments

ABA Journal Law News Now
http://www.abajournal.com/news/new_public_website_for_lawyers_give_content_get_noticed/

Robert Ambrogis Lawsites
http://www.legaline.com/2008/02/jd-supra-launches-tomorrow.html

The National Post
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/legalpost/archive/2008/02/28/jd-supra-launched.aspx

Lawyer KM
http://lawyerkm.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/is-jd-supra-inter-law-firm-knowledge-management/

My Shingle
http://www.myshingle.com/2008/02/articles/tech-web/new-site-for-solos-jd-supra/

The LawMarketing Portal (which I operate)
http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleCategoryID=7&ArticleID=726 

Law Firm Web Strategy Blog
http://www.stemlegal.com/strategyblog/2008/jd-supra-is-live-today/

WisBlawg From the UW Law Library
http://www.law.wisc.edu/blogs/wisblawg/2008/02/jd_supra_combines_business_net.html

Law, Technology & Legal Marketing Blog
http://onward.justia.com/useful-tools-web-sites-201-jdsupra-free-user-generated-legal-document-forms-brief-library-open-to-all.html

ABA GP|Solo Technology eReport
http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/ereport/vol7/num1/productnotes.html#a_jdsupra

Techlaw Advisor blog
http://techlawadvisor.com/2008/02/26/jd_supra.html

Interest in the site has been so strong that JD Supra launched its own blog, "JD Scoop," which you can find at http://scoop.jdsupra.com/.

The Legal Marketing Association’s New England Chapter named the winners of its Sixth Annual Your Honor Awards at a gala event held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston.

The Your Honor Awards recognize law firms that have demonstrated excellence in marketing and business development during the preceding year. Twenty-two firms submitted 68 total entries across 13 possible categories.

“These awards demonstrate in technicolor the talent and breadth of the legal marketing industry in New England,” said Jeff Scalzi, Director of Marketing at Foley Hoag LLP and President of the LMA New England Chapter. “We are especially pleased this year to have entries from all six New England states, underscoring the continued growth of our profession in the region and the sophistication that law firms in New England are applying to innovative marketing and business development initiatives.”

The Sixth Annual LMA New England Your Honor Award winners were as follows:

Identity: First Place: Bingham McCutchen LLP for its brand relaunch; Second Place: Hamilton Smith Brook Reynolds, PC for its brand relaunch; Third Place: Foley Hoag LLP for its “Driving Business Advantage” brand launch.

Promotional Materials and Communications/Brochures and Collateral Materials: First Place: Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. for its 2006 Mintz Levin Pro Bono Report; Second Place: Bingham McCutchen LLP for its “Who we are” booklet; Third Place: Foley Hoag LLP for its practice group brochures and eBook series.

Promotional Materials and Communications/External Communication: First Place: Hamilton Smith Brook Reynolds, PC for its “Freedom from Drab-Giving Thanks and Building Brand”; Second Place: Patridge Snow & Hahn LLP for its Annual Review; Third Place: Preti Flaherty LLP for its 2006 Annual Report.

Promotional Materials and Communications/Internal Communication: First Place: Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. for its MintzKids Art Contest and Gallery Installation; Second Place: Foley Hoag LLP for its “Living Our Brand” internal brand launch campaign; Third Place: Robinson & Cole LLP, for its “The Source” internal business development and marketing newsletter.

Advertising: First Place: Bingham McCutchen LLP for its “Bear and Baby” ad; Second Place: Wiggin & Nourie, P.A. for its “Conflict Campaign”; Third Place: Goulston & Storrs for its “Donedeal Campaign”.

Web Sites: First Place: Choate Hall & Stewart, LLP for its new firm Web site; Second Place: Foley Hoag LLP for the new foleyhoag.com.

Media/Public Relations: First Place: Bingham McCutchen LLP for its “Firm-wide Media Program”.

Community Relations: First Place: Robinson & Cole LLP for its “e-Pal Program”; Second Place: Bingham McCutchen LLP for its “Say Yes Partnership”.

Sales/Business Development: First Place: Lahive & Cockfield, LLP and Seltzer Design for its “Lahive Litigation Tree Books”; Second Place: Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C. for its “Bio Royale” event.

Recruiting: First Place: Choate Hall & Stewart, LLP for its recruiting program; Second Place: Bingham McCutchen LLP for its recruiting “Web and Collateral”.

Gimme Award: First Place: Hamilton Smith Brook Reynolds, PC for its “Biotechnology Mega-Conference Kits”; Second Place: Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C. for its annual holiday card.

Best in Show/Less than 75 Attorneys: Hamilton Smith Brook Reynolds, PC for its “Making a Mega Presence at a Mega Conference”.

Best in Show/76-300 Attorneys: Robinson & Cole LLP for its “e-Pal Program”.

Best in Show/301+ Attorneys: Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. for its “MintzKids Art Contest and Gallery Installation”.

A panel of six judges composed of marketing executives from professional services industries and B2B-focused companies selected the award winners, including the “Best in Show” to extraordinary entries.  The award ceremony was The evening was sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, and account manager John Jardin served as the master of ceremonies.

With more than 225 members, the New England chapter is one of the largest in the country. Through monthly educationalprogramming, network opportunities, a growing annual conference, and other value-added member services, the New England Chapter brings law firm marketing professionals, service providers and lawyers from across the six New England states together to promote the profession. For additional information about the Legal Marketing Association’s New England chapter, please visit its Web site at www.lmanewengland.org.

By Darryl Cross in discussion with Larry Bodine  

Darryl Cross is Senior Vice President of Business Development of Concep, Inc. in New York. The company does client surveys/market research, communications, client relationship management (CRM), graphic design, holiday cards, marketing, survey software and web site development.  He can be reached at (212) 925-0380 and darryl.cross@concepglobal.com.

Darryl Cross:  Were talking looking at things from the clients bottom line point of view instead of ours. That idea leads to seven principles of client development, consistent principles that we see on a regular basis, whether they are a 30 lawyer shop in Dallas or a big New York City law firm. 

Number one is leveraging our existing assets.  There is so much content and so much information available at law firms about clients; theyre swimming in it.  Were talking about things like what relationships do we have?  What is the billing history of some very large maybe pharmaceutical clients?  It tells us a lot about what kind of problems they have.  We also look at things like who are the other people we know outside of here?  What is our matter history?  What part of our existing client base could be duplicated?  We have all this content at our finger tips.  A lot of times its out of context, but we can bring that together using technology and some good old fashioned elbow grease be able to make some sense of it. 

Principle two is once we start compiling information and seeing all those assets, we have to have the ability to think small.  Think about last time you were asked to write a short 400-word article.  Hard, isnt it, Larry? 

Larry Bodine:  Its much harder than writing a 2000-word article. 

Darryl Cross:  Its a great exercise to take a 1000-word article and nail it down to 500, then 250, and then a 50-word synopsis.  Its a great exercise in thinking small.  Heres another one you should take back to your law firms to illustrate the need to think small when it comes to business development:  When you have a gathering of lawyers in the room, ask every lawyer to pull out of piece of paper and take 15 seconds to write down 5 clients theyve never done work with before.  Ive never run into a group that cant.  The world is way too big, and there are too many opportunities and too many possibilities. 

For the rest of the article visit the Originate Web Site at http://www.pbdi.org/Originate/default.asp?Action=GetDetails&ArticleID=99.  An annual subscription costs only $397.