Legal Marketing

Total news: 100
Last news: April 30, 2009 23:58:26

In a horrendous tragedy resulting from the recession in the legal profession, a 59-year-old lawyer with Kilpatrick Stockton who was due to lose his job for economic reasons was found dead in his Washington office this morning.  He shot himself in the head, according to police.

Mark I. Levy  was discovered by a co-worker about 8 a.m. in his 11th-floor office at Kilpatrick Stockton, in the 600 block of 14th Street NW, police said. They said evidence indicates that Levy shot himself in the head with a .38-caliber handgun.

The firm, headquartered in Atlanta, had no comment on his death today beyond a statement calling him a "highly respected" colleague and offering condolences to his family. He was a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration.

Kilpatrick Stockton, which employs scores of people in offices in the United States, Europe and the United Arab Emirates, announced Tuesday that 24 lawyers would be laid off.

According to the Washington Post, police learned that Levy had been told that he was among those being let go, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. Stockton Kilpatricks Web site says Levy was head of the firms Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Practice.

The Post said Levys layoff was effective today and he was given four months of severance pay.

Diane Prucino, a co-managing partner of the century-old firm in Atlanta, confirmed the layoffs Tuesday in a statement quoted by the Fulton County Daily Report.

"These actions are driven by the economic downturn," she said, adding that the belt-tightening at Kilpatrick Stockton was "structured to further the long-term success of the firm and to enhance the achievement of our strategic goals."

The Post reported that Levy left a note in his home, saying he loved his family and instructing his wife on how to handle finances and other matters. He apparently had spent some time recently getting his affairs in order. Levys teenage son found the note this morning and called Montgomery County police. An officer was at the home when someone called from the law firm. The officer spoke with the caller, and learned of the suicide. The Montgomery officer then broke the news to the family, according to the source.

Computer records show that Levy swiped his entrance card to get into the building at 607 14th Street from a parking garage about 5:30 a.m., the source said, adding that Levy was the registered owner of the handgun.

According to his biography on the firms Web site, Levy, a Yale Law School graduate, joined the Justice Department in 1993 as deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Division, overseeing 60 lawyers handling appellate litigation. He argued 16 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court during his career, the Web site says.

Im weeping to read that for the first time since 1991, both average profits per partner and revenue per lawyer dipped last year among the Am Law 100 firms. And, Im choked up that given the weakness in the market thus far in 2009, another decline seems likely this year.

This proves the maxim, “what goes down must go down further.”

Im crying crocodile tears for the Wachtell lawyers whose profits per partner plummeted 18.9% to $4,000,000 each. What a tragedy. I don’t know how those Wachtell guys can survive in New York on only 4 mil a year.

The Cravath partners got a similar haircut. Their profits per partner dropped 23.6% -- just shocking for America’s silkiest stocking firm – to $2,500,000 per partner. They must be scrimping by, firing their chauffeurs and driving their cars themselves, dropping country club memberships and sweeping their own driveways in their second homes in the Hamptons.

Then theres the poor schlubs at Simpson Thacher, where profits per partner crashed down 13.9% to a mere $2,475,000.  I guess that means 13.9% less caviar, back rubs and Mephisto shoes for them.  What a terrible shame.

These are indeed harsh times.

For the entire story you have got to read “Lessons from the AmLaw 100 Nothing Grows Forever”: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202430284287

Events on Twitter are really getting pathetic.  First we had a movie actor who won a competition with an entire TV broadcasting network to get the most followers.  Celebrity won over news, which shows the decline of the intelligence of the American Public.  Now a lawyer wants to "buy" followers on Twitter.  Twitter is becoming a circus.  Few paid attention to it before December 2009 and now people are falling over themselves to get into the center ring.

From the ABA Journal:

Seattle personal injury lawyer Bill Marler wants 25,000 additional Twitter followers by the end of the month, and will donate $25,000 to a charity if he achieves the goal.

This follows movie actor Ashton Kutchers competition with CNN in a race to be the first to have 1 million Twitter followers. Kucher made an agreement to donate 10,000 malaria nets to charity as a result of winning, and thats what inspired attorney Marler.

Marler, who represents victims of food-borne illnesses, made the offer in a post at his Marler Blog on April 17, when he had about 1,650 followers. Three days later, Marler tells the ABA Journal, he has an additional 275 or so followers.

Many blogging lawyers are now posting on Twitter as well.  Marler has been using Twitter for a couple months, posting news of what he is doing and what he is blogging. His followers include “foodie-type people,” government health workers, journalists and other lawyers. He doesn’t view the service as a way of generating clients, but he does see it as a way of communicating with government and media representatives interested in food-safety issues. He also uses Twitter to follow food-safety news, but is finding that it can be “another one of those Internet time drains.”

Marler reports some critics claim he made the offer for ego gratification. “Any criticism leveled against a lawyer for their ego, I suppose, is pretty much on the mark,” he muses. “The reason I did it, I was just so fascinated by the whole Ashton Kucher CNN thing. I thought it would be interesting to see if people would respond to an offer like a dollar for each follower.”

Marler says he’s a little surprised that the post hasn’t generated more followers, but he has generated some great suggestions for worthy charities. “It’s run the gamut,” he says, from Parkinson’s disease to sustainable farming to “a reply from somebody in Africa who wants to put in a permanent well in the village.”

Marler says he already donates money and helps raise cash for good causes, but the recipients have been traditional charities such as the Red Cross or education. Even if he doesn’t meet his goal of 25,000 followers, Marler says, he’ll probably donate the money anyway.

What makes a password strong is the combination of different alphanumeric, special characters, and capitalization that you use, and of course the length of the password.

"I dont know about you, but I dont want to remember and type an epistle when I fill out a password field," says Dewald Pretorius of New Brunswick, Canada, who created the TweetLater service.  "And, ideally, I dont want to use the same password on many sites, because if one is compromised then my entire life is unlocked."

Pretorious shows us how to choose very strong passwords for every website that you use, that are different for each website, and are each only 9 characters in length max.

A study found that an 8-character password thats constructed in the following manner has 7.2 quadrillion different combinations, and will take 83.5 days to crack if the hacker can try 1 billion different passwords per second.

Step 1: Pick 2 Starting Characters

To make it easy to remember, all your passwords are going to start with the same characters. But these are not just any characters. Pick 2 characters from the list of special characters that you see above the numbers on your keyboard and to the left of the Enter key.

These characters are: ~ ` ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ - + = { } [ ] : ; " < > ? / | \

Pick any two of them as your password starting characters. To show you an example as you read through the steps, lets pick $ and % (pick your own two).
 

For the rest of the story visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com.

Please join me for this 90-minute webinar and live presentation sponsored by the State Bar of Arizona on May 6 in Phoenix and online too.  Visit WEBCAST- Surviving the Recession for all the details. Any lawyer in any state can attend. The course has been approved for 1.5 total CLE Units, all of which may be applied toward  Ethics.

I gave the program last year and heres what attendees had to say:

• "The program is one of the most interesting that I have viewed online. Thank you." (Phoenix, AZ)
• "This is absolutely amazingly well done. Critical thinking, clear language, practical: an excellent resource." (Scottsdale, AZ)
• "This guys terrific. Can I buy a video?" (Scottsdale, AZ)
• "Very interesting and I believe it will be helpful to my business." (Mesa, AZ)
• "Excellent presentation! I like the fact that it was available online, especially since I needed 3 more credits by today!" (Scottsdale, AZ)

"Partners, law firm owners, solo and small firm practitioners who wish to avoid being victims of the worst economic downturn in our lifetimes should attend this special seminar. Hear from a 16-year veteran business developer on how to increase your clientele and revenue," the bar brochure states.

Program highlights: http://tinyurl.com/d5kdn9

• The four hot practice areas for general practitioners.
• How to keep the good clients you have.
• In-person marketing and business development techniques to find new clients.
• Marketing with technology tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Webinars and blogs.
• Writing your Personal Business Development Plan.

How can you go wrong with a $69 registration fee?  If you want to get more cleints and generate more revenue, I hope to see you there.

For the second year in a row, Emerson College in Boston, MA, is offering a for-credit post-graduate course in professional services marketing beginning May 11, 2009.  Professor Silvia Hodges believes it is unique in the USA -- which she feels is a shame, because all law schools should teach their students how to get clients and generate new business.

Prof. Hodges of the colleges Department of Marketing Communication invented the course last year, and its graduates have gone on to marketing positions in accounting architectural, engineering, executive search and law firms worldwide. In fact one of her students, Idan Nishlis is now the first legal marketer in Israel, working for Shiboleth law firm in Tel Aviv.

The course includes guest lecturers who are well-known names in professional services marketing like Anne Malloy Tucker of Goodwin Procter, Joshua Peck of Duane Morris, Larry Smith of Levick Communications, Donna Shaft of Mason & Perry LP, and Catherine MacDonagh, founder and head of LSSO.

Keeping things lively, Prof. Hodges will include workshops, role playing and other break-out sessions. Each student must make a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation on the profession he or she picked. It must give an insight into the state of marketing in the profession what triggered the firms in the field to embrace marketing, and what are the typical marketing tools used.

For the full story, visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com 

From the LawMarketing Portal:

Blogs are a pervasive part of your clients lives, according to PR expert Rodger Johnson. They are an essential element of public relations, because 80% of bloggers post reviews of products and brands -- including yours.

Social media is changing how we do public relations. And at the heart of it all -- blogs. In the Technorati: State of the Blogosphere report for 2008, we find blogs are a pervasive part of our daily lives. Technorati cites several studies to illustrate the scope of the blogosphere and its impact. Take a look:

• comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)
  • Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
• eMarketer (May 2008)
  • 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)

Technorati found "brands make up a major part of bloggers online conversations. More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate." Researchers found bloggers -- 22.6 million group of people (12 percent of the US population) --  are being taken more seriously as information sources. "One in five bloggers dont think that newspapers will survive the next ten years," according to Technoratis report. "Half believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years."

For the rest of the story visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com

Dont miss legal sales and business development experts Michael Cummings and me when we reveal the how-to secrets in this webinar today:

DATE: Thursday, April 23, 2009; 1PM - 2:15 PM Eastern
LOCATION: on the web, on your computer
MORE INFO: Michael Cummings; Tel: (630) 572-4798 or mcummings@sageprofessional.com  
TO REGISTER: www.sagelawmarketing.com/webseminar45 

Topics Include:

• Common business development mistakes that attorneys make
• What clients care about when meeting you
• Why selfish self promotion doesnt work
• How to ask the right questions and listen effectively
• How to excel in a networking situation
• Diagnosing a clients need for service
• How to sell ideas for next steps
• Using a proven, step-by-step business development process

Youll find that business development is simply a skill that you can learn. Done properly, you just leverage your existing professional skills and apply them to business development. You dont have to change your personality or style and suddenly transform yourself into a glib, glad-handing extrovert.  

Excerpted from the Build Your Own Business blog by Dave Lorenzo of Aventura, FL:

1. Differentiate Yourself

As times get tougher, many other lawyers will "dabble" in your area of expertise. Make your prospective clients aware that this is happening. Remind your clients that you handle issues in your specialty full-time, not on a part-time basis. If you are a criminal defense attorney, explain to them that you are not a real estate attorney who takes a few criminal defense cases each year to "fill out his calendar."

The reason people chose you in a good economy is more important in a down economy. There is more competition out there. Focus on your unique value proposition and hammer it home. You must be able to articulate clearly why you are the best choice for this client in this situation.

2. Help Clients Understand the Consequences of Bargain Shopping

A client receives no bargain from cut-rate parachute manufacturers, heart surgeons, or legal practitioners. Paying less often means not getting the best work. Your prospective clients must understand this, and you are the best person who can bring it to their attention.

Help prospective clients focus on their own personal economy.

• What consequences are they likely to face if this work is botched?
• What is their exposure?
• If this situation is not handled, how much will they suffer?
• Do they want to face this possibility armed with the best possible representation?
• Or do they want to take a big, big chance with someone else?

3. Work Your Contact Lists

Every lunch you eat by yourself is costing you money. You need to stay in front of the people who know you so they remember to refer clients to you. While many people may not come into daily contact with friends or relatives who need your services you never know when they may hear of someone who needs legal assistance. If you are on top of mind they can offer to connect them with you. This happens more often than you realize.

The best way to get these referrals is to sit down with people and get to know them. Breakfast, lunch or dinner provide the perfect opportunities to breathe new life into a potential referral relationship.

Invite long-time clients to lunch. Find out how you can help them by providing some referrals to their business. They will almost always want to reciprocate if possible. The more you give to them, the more they will want to help you.

4. Keep Your Name in Front of Everyone You Know Every Month

Greeting cards are cheap, easy and effective way to attract more legal clients. Every month has a holiday that will serve as an excuse for mailing your entire contact list. The more creative and memorable your message the more likely your contacts will refer you.

If this seems goofy (after all, who gets a greeting card from an attorney?), remember that being different is the point. For example, one side of your card can say something like: "All of us at XYZ Law Firm wish you a safe and happy Halloween. Thanks for thinking of us." On the opposite side it could say: "We help people who are being chased by real goblins, monsters, and other scary creatures waiting to attack your business (or your bank account)." Below this message, you print your contact information.

The key is not to be overtly solicitous. You want to remind people what you do and thank them for thinking of you.

5. Media Exposure Can Make a Difference

Getting your name and face in the local media can make a difference in attracting new legal clients for your small law firm. You may not get clients from actually appearing on television or being quoted in an article, but media outreach can help enhance your credibility.

Prospective clients often view media exposure as a surrogate for expertise. Giving a few interviews or commenting on a few out-of-town cases for a local reporter will help keep your name in front of clients and it will position you as an expert.

There is no reason your law firm should suffer in an economic downturn. People still need assistance handling legal matters. Develop these good habits now and you will attract more legal clients for your small law firm during a recession. 

My longtime friend Maggie Watkins has joined Best Best & Krieger as Chief Marketing And Business Development Officer. Headquartered in Riverside, CA, the firm has 200 lawyers in 8 offices.

Ive known her since the early days of her career as President/CEO of the Meritas legal network in Minneapolis, then Marketing Director of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego, and most recently as Director of Marketing and Communications  at LECG Consulting.

Now she will will focus her efforts on client outreach, sales training, internal and external communications, branding, advertising and market research for the firm. You can reach Maggie at (619) 525-1365 and maggie.watkins@bbklaw.com 

Welcome back to legal marketing, Maggie, and best of luck in your new job!  

I just found the website of artist Richard Stergulz, who will create funny custom drawings featuring lawyers at www.yournameherecartoons.com.  You choose the person’s name (or law firm name) to be inserted into the cartoon caption.

A small cartoon unframed is $75, and the largest cartoon framed is $350. (Note: I get no compensation out of this, I just think its a fun website).

My personal favorite is the "Mt. Rushmore" cartoon.  There are also cartoons with giant bulldogs, enormous cats and a jury holding up cards that say "10" in front of the smiling lawyer in the courtroom.  Take a look at the site and let me know which cartoon is your favorite.

Most lawyers who get into mediation or other ADR services don’t do it because they love to market their services, according to Diana Mercer, Esq. of Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc. in Playa del Rey, CA. For many lawyers, marketing has a pejorative feel to it; marketing feels unprofessional for a professional service industry.  Yet, because so much of the public is unfamiliar with the types of services that ADR practitioners offer, lawyer-mediators need to find an authentic, comfortable way to market their services and mediation programs.

For most of lawyers, it’s been a long journey since they resolved to become peacemakers. Once you open your office it doesn’t take long to learn that clients don’t magically appear.  The question is how to make your commitment to peacemaking feel as authentic for your prospective clients as it is for yourselves.  How can you design marketing plans that convey the benefits of mediation and your own sincerity in a way that is also designed to sell your services? 

Developing your signature style and discovering your own identity as a mediator are the key elements to begin your marketing.  After that, marketing falls into two categories, one of which works and one of which doesn’t: 

• Spending lots of money (doesn’t work) and
• Spending lots of time (works really well). 

Chronologically, you also divide your time into two categories: 

• Finding new prospective clients and
• Making sure they become actual clients. 

The trick is to be yourself while marketing and how to choose marketing techniques that will work for you and your practice. For your marketing to work...

To see the rest of the story, visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.LawMarketing.com

How to ask for the business is the most common business development problem lawyers have.

Yet, rainmakers have learned how to engage a prospective client in a structured dialogue, listen for a problem point of business “pain” and ask the client how they might help solve this problem. After years of doing this, rainmakers seem to convert business effortlessly.

On the other hand, many attorneys don’t know how to handle business development opportunities or selling situations. Too often, they end up over-promoting themselves and their firm. Or they feel uncomfortable or pushy when trying to attract the interest of a client, prospect or referral source. Before now, nobody has ever taught them how to perform in a business development or selling situation.

You’ll find that business development is simply a skill that you can learn. You don’t have to change your personality or style and suddenly transform yourself into a glib, glad-handing extrovert.

Join two of the top business development trainers and coaches in the profession, Michael Cummings of SAGE PDI, Inc. and myself, as we present this Web seminar, “What Do I Say To A Prospective Client To Win Their Business?” on Thursday, April 23.

Click here -- or http://tinyurl.com/cpcuhl -- to register for this LIVE program on April 23. Registration fee is $300 per connection. Any number can attend in the room where you connect to the site and the call - at the same low price.

• Common Business Development Mistakes That Attorneys Make
• What Clients Care About When Meeting You
• Why Selfish Self Promotion Doesn’t Work
• How to Ask The Right Questions and Listen Effectively
• How to Excel in a Networking Situation
• Diagnosing a Clients Need For Service
• How to Sell Ideas For Next Steps
• Using a Proven, Step-by-Step Business Development Process

For details or to register, Click Here.

"Turn the key on maybe tens or hundreds of thousands or more in business..." Praise for ORIGINATE!

Featured Articles -- The Lead Article is always a free sample.

		Lead Article: Overturning the Downturn: How to Make This a Great Time for Business Development Rainmakers understand how to use an economic downturn to their advantage. Michael Cummings explains what silver linings they see, and offers ten critical to-dos right now for any lawyer or firm that can help you gain more work, and ensure that you come out of the recession better off than before.
		Business Development Advice from the Chair of the ABA Commission on Women This is the first part of a three part interview with Roberta D. Liebenberg, Esq., the Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. Here she mines her experience for those essentials that all lawyers must keep in mind as they build and sustain a practice, with particular attention to options for women.
		Party!: The power of Yall Sixth Stage of the 12 Step Pipeline: In this stage of managing your sales pipeline, as you start serving a client, Andy Havens insists that it’s good business to bring other lawyers into the mix …not because it’s good for you or the firm in the future, but because it’s good client service/value now. So forget growing the pie; grow the party!
		Making Marketing Authentic: Marketing Your Mediation Practice In this second of a three part series of articles on how to market a mediation/ADR practice, Diana Mercer, Esq. explains what marketing techniques can really work for you and how to use them effectively – from networking to building an internet presence – and also what not to do. Her specific recommendations can help any lawyer improve how they market their specialty services.

Best Practice Tips

		Shock Your Clients with One Small Step Forward One small step to improve your client service can translate into a giant leap in your relationship, observes Darryl Cross. Since merely satisfactory passes for the ordinary these days, it doesn’t take much to impress your clients and make them look forward to working with you. Here are some ideas on how to be extra-ordinary.
		Time’s Person of the Year: Me As your clients might say, it’s all about "me". In the online world, I – your client or prospective client – can readily find ways to customize my experience, getting just the information I care about. Now I’m on your web site, how do I find what matters to me, and see what might solve my problems? Barry Schneider draws conclusions from an experiment by Time magazine.
		Warning: Boring Gets Ignored To get noticed you need to stand out from the crowd, argues Thom Singer. And a good way to stand out with clients, prospects and contacts is to do something bold, unique and new. He challenges you to take a risk in how you position yourself in the marketplace. Doing the same old thing is even riskier.
		Get Connected: Turning Your Bio into a Magnet for Business Larry Bodine Esq. shows how to take a good bio and use search engine methods and social networking sites to connect to those who are looking for your services and those who can help you generate business and business connections.

Excerpted from the New York Times:

Its clear that blogs are excellent business development tools, because they establish the author as an expert to clients and attract calls from the news media. The power of blogs to influence what people buy -- and which law firms to retain -- is now established.  This face is underscored by a recent study reveals, that power is significant — so much that a majority of blog readers say blogs are useful when they make purchases.

The study, which polled 2,210 people found that the increase in blog readership from 2004 to 2008 was 300 percent; 47 percent of online consumers now read blogs.

Half of blog readers said blogs were useful when they were considering what purchases to make, and more than half of that group said they looked at a blog just when they were about to buy something.

“This is what people are trusting more and more,” said Valerie Combs, vice president for communications at BuzzLogic, a company that analyzes social media and operates an Internet advertising network and that commissioned the study from Jupiter Research. “What we’re seeing online, increasingly, is that people are relying on peer opinion.”

Blog readers are also more likely to trust advertising on a blog than on a social network like Facebook, the study found; 25 percent said they trust blog ads, with 19 percent trusting social network ads.