Zen & The Art of Legal Networking

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: They Think I'm a Pest

Lindsay Griffiths — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:29:02 -0500

Tonight, we kicked off the ILN's 25th Anniversary Annual Meeting with our welcome reception and dinner! We've been busily preparing for the conference, so today, I've got a great rainmaking recommendation from expert, Jaimie Field!

***

The part of Rainmaking that I try to pound into my client’s heads is “follow up, follow up, follow up.”

But how many times should you try to get in touch with someone before you become a pest?

There is no magic number. While some may say 3 times, others say 6 times and some say more. But if you think about what you do for a living, being an attorney, you need to realize that many people may not need your service at the exact moment you meet them.

Rainmaking = Relationships

It is your job, as a rainmaker, to keep your name and services (and the services of your firm) top of mind at all times so that when a potential client, current client or even a potential referral, has a need your name comes up first in their heads.

For example: if you are a real estate attorney, a person you meet may not be buying a house or leasing a business space at that time. However, when they do (and statistics prove that at some time they will), you want to be the one they call. However, if you aren’t the first person they think of, they will go to someone else.

There are so many ways to keep in touch without bombarding them with “sales calls” or non-stop emails about your work.

Send emails with information that is germane to their businesses or lives – it may have absolutely nothing to do with what you do. It’s about what’s of interest to them.
Call to find out how they are doing – just a friendly “what’s going on with you” call
Send newsletters about your work
·Invite them to a seminar or event – even if you are not the one giving the event or presenting at the event, it
should be of interest to them. You can go with them and continue to build that relationship.
· Take them to a fun event – does your potential client like golf? Invite them to a golf outing that benefits another
group or charity.

What other ways can you think of to keep in touch without “selling” your services?

Rainmaking, as I reiterate over and over again, is about creating relationships. Each time you “touch” a client, in many different ways, you have the opportunity to create and deepen a relationship.

Please forward this information to a colleague who you think would benefit; It must be forwarded it in its entirety. All information is the copyright of Marketing Field, LLC © 2013

Rainmaking Recommendations are sent the first and third Wednesdays of the month. They are bite size tips that when implemented will cause you to make rain. To learn more about Rainmaking, Goal Setting and Achieving the Life you want as an Attorney please contact Jaimie B. Field, Esq. If you have missed any of the previous Rainmaking Recommendations you can find them at www.jaimiefield.com The Enlightened Rainmaker Blog.

Week of May 6, 2013 on ILNToday - A Roundup!

Lindsay Griffiths — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:20:47 -0500

With less than a week to go until the ILN's 25th Anniversary Meeting, things are very busy here at the ILN! So just a quick roundup for you today - happy reading!

Can you challenge a Will based on a broken promise? from Clark Wilson
Steps for integrating CSR and anti-corruption compliance from Corrado Ferrari Mainieri Pedeferri e soci
Fallout from Failing to Conduct a HIPAA Risk Analysis from Epstein Becker & Green
New Family Law Act and Wills Variation Act Claim from Clark Wilson
Sexual Harassment at Workplace– The Impetus on the Employer from LexCounsel Law Offices
Employees at a Non-Union Worksite May Select a Union Representative for an OSHA Inspection from Epstein Becker & Green

Networking Tips for Lawyers

Lindsay Griffiths — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:36:09 -0500

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking with a Canadian reporter who is doing a series of stories about the importance of networking for lawyers. She wanted to get my thoughts based on my eight and a half years of networking experience with the lawyers in the ILN, and I thought I'd share some of those tips here on Zen too. These are all tips I use myself, as well as recommending them to our attorneys!

Have a plan: It's important to have an overall plan for your business development activities, but also one for each activity that you do. The overall plan should be a written one, that you check in on quarterly - this allows you to review what you've done over the past three months, as well as set up in your calendar the activities you'd like to commit to over the next three months. For individual networking activities, you should set up goals for yourself for the event, so you know in advance what you'd like to achieve.

Use Social Media: I'm not saying this simply because I'm a lover of all things social media, but because I believe it's a great facilitator of relationships. Let's say you're going to a conference for the first time - when you register, you should find out whether there's a conference hashtag set up for Twitter. You can then follow this hashtag, and it will give you an idea of who will be there - start engaging with those people, and it helps to create a relationship with them before you even arrive at the conference. Use the hashtag during the conference to arrange to meet up with people there for dinner or lunch or coffee. Use the hashtag after the conference to share any relevant blog posts or articles (your own and others) that you think would be of interest. Connect to conference speakers and people that you meet on LinkedIn. If someone is local to you, arrange to meet with them in a few weeks for lunch. Look for a LinkedIn group dedicated to the conference, and engage with people through that as well.
Never Eat Alone: I'm an introvert, so my preference is to hide out at conferences and eat solo whenever I can. But this is a big no-no for effective networking, so it's something I strive not to do. As an introvert, social media is a huge help here for a few reasons - one, you already share a common bond with someone when you meet them for the first time, so those initial introductions aren't as difficult. Two, you can reach out to people on Twitter leading up to a meal to make sure you have someone to sit with at lunch, or a group to meet with at dinner - everyone is very friendly that way, and it takes some of the awkwardness out of having to approach a table full of people you don't know. If you're an extrovert, you're likely already chatting with people you meet during the coffee breaks and in sessions at a conference, so keep the conversations going over a meal.
Take Online Relationships Offline: We all travel these days, either for work or for pleasure. When visiting another city, I always instruct my attorneys to look up the local member there and have coffee with them. But this doesn't have to be limited to ILN members - if you're a member of an association, look up a local person in the city that you're visiting and reach out to them to meet up. Check your LinkedIn connections and see who might be nearby. If you don't want to invest the time to research it, you can just put up a post that says when you'll be traveling to that city, and invite people to reach out to you if they'd like to get together. There's no reason not to add a networking component to all of your travel.
Add an Extra Day: Along those lines, someone once suggested to me that adding an extra day to your travels is an excellent way to fit in some time for networking. Our trips are often so crammed with meetings that we don't have time to breathe, let alone meet with new people. But if you add an extra day to the beginning or end of your trip, it's a minimal time and financial investment that can pay big dividends in your networking efforts. But make sure to use that time for networking!
Accountability is Key: For all of us, having someone to be accountable to can make a big difference - it's the reason why people post their workouts to Facebook or go to a trainer, and why weight loss companies like Weight Watchers are so effective. It can work wonders for networking too. If you know that accountability is something you need, you can either seek out the marketing professionals at your firm or a rainmaking coach to help you craft and stick to your business plan or you can arrange to bring together a group of your colleagues for monthly or quarterly networking progress lunches. These groups can give you new ideas for networking activities that you may not have previously considered, and they'll also motivate you to stick to your own plan.

There were a number of other things that we chatted about in our hour long conversation, so I'll make sure to share the article when it's published. But in the meantime, what are some of your tried and true networking recommendations?

GC Focus - an LMA Annual Conference Recap

Lindsay Griffiths — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:52:47 -0500

At this year's LMA, we were fortunate enough to have not one, but TWO sessions with General Counsel. This one took place at the end of the first day, and included a procurement guy - a first for the LMA. The session was titled "GC Focus: Project Management. Position Your Firm in Alignment With the Unique Challenges Faced by In-house Counsel."

Panelists included Keith Isgett, the Managing Attorney-General - Global External Legal Relations, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Justin Ergler, Sourcing Group Manager, Legal Services Procurement, GlaxoSmithKline, and Nat Slavin, Founder and Partner of Wicker Park Group, along with Moderator Alicia Brown, Director of Strategic Relationships for Bloomberg Law.

After their introductions, Isgett kicked it off by saying that he wants to receive the best representation for the best price, and part of the "best representation" is having a good relationship with the law firm. The procurement team is there to make sure that what they're paying for is what they receive, and that there is value there. Isgett noted that "People are still talking about discounted hourly rates, which means we're not as far along as I'd like us to be."

GSK went with discounted hourly rates for a while, but now they use other alternative billing arrangements. They couldn't figure out what discounting the rack rate actually meant. But AFAs give client cost predictability. GSK uses different types of AFAs:

Capped Fee: This is a moving target that depends on progress.
Fixed Fee: They agree on a fee for a matter and receive "shadow invoices" so that they can track actual costs against the fixed fee. If actual costs are way less or way more, they either pay a percentage or get a percentage break.

The goal in this is fairness - Isgett said that they don't want firms to be miserable, but wants everyone to be content at the end of a matter.

Another essential aspect for the relationship with outside counsel is communication, particularly about billing, Isgett said that firms shouldn't be late on billing, and the bottom line is "no surprises." He told the story of having an accounts payable person at a firm hassling him over payment, while there was still some disagreement over the bill. GSK wants regular communication from the partner on the project, not the account payable person.

For example, Isgett expects the lead partner to call a month in advance if he anticipates going over the estimated costs drastically, saying "the last thing you want to do is surprise me with money matters."

Inside counsel are less concerned also about whether a project is handled directly by an attorney or not - they just want the confidence that a law firm has the matter under control. And while their procurement team won't make all the substantive decisions in a legal matter, they will make the business decisions. They used Dechert as an example - they have a project manager who works with their attorneys to keep them in line with matters, and that's what GSK wants.

In terms of pitching matters, while GSK wants to see substantive expertise, they'd also like to see a project manager and someone from accounts. They want people in that meeting who understand what the client is thinking from a money and business perspective, not just the legal perspective.

Slavin broke in at this point to ask the audience how many have client teams who visit their clients to find out how they define transparency and value - less than a dozen people raised their hands.

Everything lawyers do for clients is about solving problems - coming up with legal arguments is only a tool. What gets a firm in the door for a pitch meeting is being "smart." Clients want to know what a firm is going to do to solve a problem in a way that they're not already doing using. So attorneys shouldn't think about how their past experience is relevant, unless it's about economics or an understanding of the clients' needs. Clients don't want to see an attorney's bio - they want to see bullet points on how that attorney can help their business.

For any new significant matter, GSK has an RFP process, with a few questions that look to get the attorney's key impressions of the matter. Isgett commented that there are a lot of law firms that can do excellent work, so separating the firm from others is where marketers can come into play big time.

In selecting counsel, GSK puts short-listed firms through a "reverse auction." If law firms want the work, they need to be nimble and adapt. Once GSK gets the fee offers, they arrive at a flat fee number. At the end of each of these reverse auctions, they have a feedback session with the firms who didn't get the business, and this is mandated by the General Counsel.

Slavin asked Isgett whether GSK would be willing to pay an hourly fee for a project manager, and he said that they were open to the idea if it was rolled into the agreed fees and transparent. But paying for a project manager has never been proposed to them - it's a fairly new position. Isgett added that if a firm wants to play ball and be more efficient, that's what clients want.

The days of turning over every stone in a matter are over - for "bet the company" matters, yes, that's what they still want. But for other things, it's more important to find out from the client what their risk tolerance is instead. If a firm comes up with a creative alternative fee arrangement, that tells the client that they're thinking and are interested in what the client wants.

Bidding out legal work the way that GSK does is fairly cutting edge, so they're still working out the kinks, and along the way, they're trying to find the best fit with a firm for a range of matters.

Slavin noted that throughout the discussion, GSK avoided the "t" word: Trust. He asked what it takes for GSK to trust a firm.

Isgett asked "Do I trust firms?" and then was silent, which was very telling for the audience.

He then said that he does trust firms at the start of a relationship, and that trust is a firm's to lose. It's not that he believes firms are out there being unethical, but he does think that there are 30-40 years of doing things in a way that needs to change, and he doesn't think that firms are working as hard to change things as they should be.

GSK is now moving more towards just accepting flat fee arrangements, with no other oversight than a robust set of tasks - no shadow invoices. Isgett commented that they both do and don't care about how firms get the work done, as long as they get it done for the flat fee. If a firm takes 50 hours to do something that they thought would take thousands, good for them - GSK just wants what they paid for. It's not the clients' job to ensure that the lawyer hits the threshold of their minimal billable hours.

Importantly, Isgett also pointed out that the lowest bid from a firm is not always the winner of the reverse auction that they hold as part of the pitch process.

Alicia asked the panelists to give their final thoughts, as time wound down:

Nat Slavin: Relentlessly ask your partners what matters to their clients and share that at your firm, one size fits one.
Keith Isgett: Train your folks on alternative fees speak, so that they understand what's being said.
Justin Ergler: Change with your clients - don't react. Understand where they're going, and be there with them.

Hearing clients say much of the same year in and year out emphasizes that what Isgett says about firms being unwilling to change is true. How is your firm working to listen to its clients, and in the process, differentiate itself?

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: Manners Matter

Lindsay Griffiths — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:33:08 -0500

Jaimie Field is back on this cloudy Monday afternoon with another rainmaking recommendation which may seem like common sense to most of us, but she's absolutely right in pointing it out - manners matter.

***

Lately, I have noticed a horrific lack of manners (even more so than usual):

Not saying “excuse me” when you have to interrupt someone;
Not saying: “thank you” for being helped;
Not apologizing for making a mistake or offending someone inadvertently;
Looking at your smart phone at inappropriate times (like when you have a client or colleague sitting in front of you);
Eating like a slob/pig or reaching across a table;
Taking phone calls when someone is in your office or worse using phones in inappropriate locations (like when you are with a cashier or in a restaurant or in the bathroom);
Being at a networking event and barging into a group without introducing yourself or asking to be introduced;
Walking through a door without holding for the person behind you (it doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman);
The lack of the word “Please”;
Interrupting someone who is talking and
Rudeness;

And so many more examples.

We have become a society which expects to get and get quickly without the traditional niceties with which some of us, or our parents, or our grandparents, have grown up. However, manners matter.

Remember, people do business with people they know, like and trust and one of the ways to get people to like us to have common courtesy.

Excellent manners can only help you to have better relationships with people you know, and help to create relationships with those you will meet.

Rainmaking Recommendations are sent the first and third Wednesdays of the month. They are bite size tips that when implemented will cause you to make rain. To learn more about Rainmaking, Goal Setting and Achieving the Life you want as an Attorney please contact Jaimie B. Field, Esq. If you have missed any of the previous Rainmaking Recommendations you can find them at www.jaimiefield.com The Enlightened Rainmaker Blog.

Week of April 29, 2013 on ILNToday - A Roundup!

Lindsay Griffiths — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:04:18 -0500

We've reached the end of another busy week here at the ILN, which means that there is under two weeks left until our Annual Meeting is under way!

So without further ado, here are this week's top posts:

McDonald Hopkins' Ohio Statehouse Update: McDonald Hopkins looks at the top issues from this week (April 26th) including a push by the Ohio Manufacturers' Association to maintain Ohio's energy standards, a challenger for Governor Kasich, and legislation being considered.
The controlled transactions, made in 2012, are to be reported to by 20 May 2013 from Lidings Law Firm: Lidings looks at changes to the Russian tax code and their implications for controlled transactions.
Report from Russia: Strengthening Government Control or Striving for Compliance with International Standards? from Lidings Law Firm: Lidings discusses state regulation of the pharmaceutical market.
McDonald Hopkins' Government Strategies: This Week in Washington: McDonald Hopkins looks at the top issues in government for this week, including internet sales tax, immigration reform following the bombings in Boston, tax reforms, banking and furloughs.
In A Case Against Retail Clothing Boutique, NLRB Finds Facebook Posts By Non-Union Employees "Classic Concerted Protected Activity" from Epstein Becker & Green: The NLRB is at it again, again finding social media posts by employees to be protected activities.

Enjoy your weekend!

General Counsel Panel: Separate from the Pack - a Recap Part II

Lindsay Griffiths — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:24:07 -0500

In yesterday's post, we learned that building relationships is still of primary importance to clients - and some of the ways to do this including figuring out what benefits the client the most, and focusing on what business solutions will make them look good.

The panelists agreed that the role of their lawyers needs to be that of strategic partners, and for their part, they need to inform outside counsel about what they need. But outside counsel can also be proactive to learn more about their clients. The panelists suggested that attorneys read company filings and public documents before they meet with them. They emphasized that outside counsel should understand their customer before asking them to be their customer. Post-matter debriefings, at no cost, are also helpful.

In the theme of relationship building, referrals among in-house counsel are still paramount as well. GCs are often actively promoting their outside counsel to other in-house counsel. As Cottle said "There is no substitute for the personal relationship with your go-to outside lawyer." The panelists agreed that these relationships aren't going to come from social media, so it's key to take any online relationships offline.

The panelists then moved on to discuss training young lawyers. They felt that many firms are missing a key element - that of focusing on leadership among associates and young partners. It can't be all about the work for lawyers - it has to also be about leadership. When more leadership opportunities are developed with outside counsel for young attorneys, this can be very powerful and a big selling point for clients.

Another must-do for outside counsel? Pay attention to your client's billing guidelines - they're written for a reason. Equally important is attorney review of pre-bills. The GCs lamented that there's nothing more frustrating than having to fix bills that are wrong. In general, the panelists felt that their outside counsel should try to understand the company's business objectives, including their financials and accounting calendar, and should run their billing systems from the point of view of the GC, not the partner.

The last key takeaway from the session came from Shubert, who said that lawyers shouldn't assume that the most efficient option is to email their clients. Often several hours of back and forth emails can be saved with a quick phone call, and GCs would prefer this.

***

What do you think? Are your firms abiding by these suggestions from in-house counsel?

General Counsel Panel: Separate from the Pack - a Recap Part I

Lindsay Griffiths — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:50:24 -0500

Another of my all-time favorite conference sessions at LMA is always the client panel. For me, the panel always makes the investment in the conference worth it, because I can impart what I learn from the GCs there to my lawyers, to help them to understand their own clients better, and that adds value for everyone.

This year's client panel didn't disappoint. It focused on best practices for building and maintaining your law firm's relationship with in-house counsel and featured Megan Belcher, the VP and Chief Employment Counsel for ConAgra, Kevin Schubert, the Associate General Counsel, Transactions for LV Sands Corporation, Simon Manoucherian, the Assistance General Counsel/Director of Litigation GRIFOLS, and Karen Cottle, Senior Counsel for Sidley Austin and former in-house counsel. The panel was moderated by Inside Counsel magazine.

The panelists said that they would discuss the role of social media for general counsel, the challenges that they see over the next five years, and the change in inside/outside counsel relationships since 2008. Since the economic downturn, GCs have changed the way that they evaluate outside counsel, and the process by which trust is built.

In terms of social media, the moderators announced that the latest New Media for Inside Counsel survey results would be released the following week, by Greentarget, Inside Counsel, and Zeughauser Group. The survey shows, and the panelists reinforced, that new media is impacting the way that in-house counsel review the credentials of outside counsel.

Some of the results from the survey (which we discussed in more depth here) included:

67% of counsel have used LinkedIn for professional reasons in the last week.
Though Wikipedia was scorned in a professional setting just a few years ago, now, 50% of in-house counsel report using it weekly.
46% of counsel are using blogs on a weekly basis for professional reasons.

Schubert said that he uses blogs to vet issues before he goes to outside counsel, so that he has a better understanding of them. He noted that blogs allow you to go to question & answer forums and dig into an issue, so that you can then limit the scope of the search that you need outside counsel to do (thus saving costs).

Manoucherian said that he uses blogs for the same reasons, but went further to say that he also uses them to vet counsel. He likes to look at both text and video blogs to see if an attorney can speak on the issues. The panelists agreed that they wouldn't hire a firm or attorney based solely on their social media presence, but blogs and LinkedIn are the best way to consolidate information. In-house counsel are inundated by information, so any way that firms can offer a concise compendium is a great marketing tool. To them, social media demonstrates a willingness to educated and experience in the field, which will weigh in favor of the firm.

Belcher added that she appreciates when a blogger includes relevant links at the end of a blog post to direct her to additional information. That gives her the ability to get more in-depth if she wants to.

The panelists admitted that social media allows them to do a lot more background searching than they were able to do in the past. Not only are they researching issues this way, but they also look to social media to show them who the real experts in the field are. Cottle added that social media also helps GCs to get to know a lawyer before they meet them in person, though she added that there is no substitute for the personal relationship when hiring lawyers.

They were equally passionate about the question of cross-selling, agreeing that when a firm brings in a team of 20 lawyers to pitch all of their services, this isn't effective - trust must be built first. In-house counsel are looking to hire lawyers that they can have a relationship with, not just your partner. So for the same reason, mass blasts of cross-selling emails are not appreciated either.

Law firm gaffes are not just limited to cross-selling though, according to the panel. They said that there's a big disconnect with the great marketing tools that law firms use - such as email blasts and webinars - and what they use when they want to earn a company's business - brochures. Inside counsel go to the internet when they want to hire someone - that's how they get to know you. They don't want print information, like brochures. Brochures do not build relationships.

Timeliness is also very important to GCs - in email blasts about law changes, they want to see these immediately, not a week later. They also read the Wall Street Journal, so they do notice the lag in time.

Video blogs are also of interest to inside counsel - these can be a cost-effective tool for GCs because it costs them nothing. The panelists mentioned Arent Fox as a firm that is doing a great job with video. Manoucherian said that when lawyers role-play situations and keep them short (3-8 minutes, 10 minutes maximum), video can be great and fun.

The panelists feel that a lot of firms are also using webinars very effectively, if they're timely on changes in the law and new issues. Schubert noted that he'll usually watch the first webinar that comes up on an issue, so timeliness is very important. Webinars are also helpful to busy in-house counsel because it means they don't have to leave their desks. One of the panelists commented that he's reached out to lawyers who have presented on issues in webinars, to engage them in conversation around that issue.

Another point of contention for the panelists was about expertise - while there are a lot of smart lawyers who can get up to speed on an issue, the panelists emphasized that if a lawyer really doesn't have the expertise, they shouldn't lie about it. Honesty means more.

Outside counsel are also making missteps when first meeting GCs - they think that they can go right from the introduction to "go-to counsel" in one step. This creates problems. Manoucherian said that he often attends events where he's treated like chum in the water, and outside counsel are sharks attacking him. GCs don't want outside counsel to go right from discussing an issue to "here are my rates, you need to hire me." One of the panelists said that it's "obnoxious."

Schubert said that in-house counsel expect more of a test period, and a ramp-up phase before jumping into taking full responsibility with a firm. So firms need to be expecting this test period before they develop a full relationship with a new client. Schubert added that in-house counsel want to give firms small matters first to test the waters before giving them big business - this also helps them to get a sense of how the firm treats costs. Seeing how a firm budgets and tailors responses on the small matters can influence whether a company will give them more business.

Cottle said that they're looking for firms who can be true partners and have the expertise - and they're willing to hire multiple law firms to get the best lawyer. She added that while some lawyers understand this, there are still many who don't see that there has been a shift in the role of GCs and in-house lawyers to strategic business partners. So firms need to understand the business, the outcomes and the business solution that companies need, not just the legal solution. As we've heard time and time again, it's the job of outside counsel to make in-house counsel look good.

And when it comes to fees? Cottle warns that outside counsel shouldn't just react to GCs asking for alternative fees. They need to be more proactive in order to achieve value objectives. It's not that GCs want the firm not to be profitable, it's that they want predictability and value. She emphasized that it's imperative for firms to come up with these pricing models, because they're the ones who understand their own financials.

***

There's a lot of meaty information in this session, so I'll continue tomorrow with the second part of the recap!

"Delivering Happiness" - A Zappos Session Recap

Lindsay Griffiths — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:49:51 -0500

So if you've been hiding under a rock instead of reading my blog posts, you may not already know that my favorite session from LMA13 was "Delivering Happiness: Fresh Ideas for Service-Driven Brands Deploying Social Media Tactics, Seeking ROI" with Graham Kahr, Social Scientist for Zappos and Jayne Navarre of Law Gravity LLC.

Rather than a typical session, Jayne and Graham let us know right away that it would be different when they introduced themselves in the third person. Their session took on the tone of more of a conversation, which also included those of us in the audience.

They began their conversation by saying that they wouldn't be talking about social media per se, but really focusing instead on creating experiences for clients (which is something we could all identify with). Graham said that Zappos doesn't push their own brand stories - they want their customers to tell the brand story for them.

Because of that, counting friends, fans and followers isn't the true measure of social media ROI in the traditional sense (Return on Investment). Graham challenged us to think of it instead as "Return on Ignoring" and the idea of whether we can afford to ignore the conversations and opportunities happening in social media for our businesses. For Zappos, they measure their social media successes in terms of human interaction. And while they care about likes, shares, comments and followers, if they're not driving sales, something isn't working.

From the law firm perspective, Jayne commented that she doesn't see any engagement on social media sites. Most firms use their Facebook pages, for example, to talk about themselves. And if people don't see value in that (which they probably won't), they won't stay. As Graham added, fans have liked you for a reason, so you need to deliver value to them. A firm or company can pepper in items about their culture, but it's more important to focus on the fans.

So while firms have things to say, it doesn't always need to be about them. Instead, they should stop at nothing to deliver client value, and part of doing that is giving the community what they want. Graham asked us to think about our friends, and asked how many people in the room have a friend who only talks about themselves. Everyone in the audience raised their hands. He then asked people to keep their hands raised if that person was their favorite friend - and no one did.

The idea is to make the customer/client the star of the show - deliver content to them, but also give them something to do with it. Firms may be pushing out content, but they're not adding conversation to that. Jayne asked Graham how they manage that side of it. He said that before Zappos step into any new social network, they make sure that they have a real person on their end who will interact with the public there. This went back to an earlier idea that he mentioned, that of making sure a firm or company can handle their organic network before they try to build it further.

Consistent interaction and responsiveness across all social networks is critical to Zappos' success (and all service-driven brands' successes) - they would never ignore their community. Graham pointed out that none of us would ignore the phone if it rings in the office, so why would you ignore your fans or followers?

A member of the audience asked Graham and Jayne to talk about whether lawyers' paranoia about social media is to blame for their lack of activity on it, and therefore a lack of results. While they agreed that that might be the case, the answer is that lawyers can respond on social media to legal questions in a general way - people gravitate towards the most helpful people, and there are ways to be helpful without engaging in an attorney-client relationship, or trampling on ethics.

Engaging with fans and followers on social media can build brand loyalty just as easily for law firms as it can for customer-based businesses like Zappos, so it's essential that people don't feel ignored. Marketers themselves can also scan legal questions on social networks and then ask these questions of their attorneys. Graham suggested having lunch with your lawyers and posing these legal questions to them - get the answers in laymen's terms, and that will be "content gold." When you're helpful for free, prospects will return to you because you were there for them, even when it wasn't your "business."

For those who start to feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the work this might entail, Graham pointed out that his department is made up of three people, and they handle 11 social networks.

In terms of Twitter, Graham commented that people go to Twitter for customer service, so it's a good place to listen. Other channels are more for push/broadcast. For monitoring brands, there is software, including some free, that can help. Graham recommended Hootsuite, Radian6, Google analytics and Bit.ly analytics. He offered the tip that if you add a "+" to the end of a shortened link from bit.ly, it will tell you who has clicked on the link.

In terms of the type of content that law firms can focus on, Jayne and Graham agreed that there are things that counsel do in their everyday lives that can help clients - to look at case verdicts only is too wide a perspective. It's important to care about all of the steps that lead to the "buy" - not just the result. That's what service is about.

On Facebook, people are looking for something "living" - they're not looking for legal advice. They want to be treated like a person. Firms want clients to say wonderful things about them - Graham said those are the things the firm should talk about on Facebook, not verdicts. An audience member mentioned that lawyers are concerned about ethics rules, so Graham said that they don't need to talk about substantive topics. Service, products, and relationships will always exist - Zappos is a customer service company that happens to sell shoes. Law firms are a customer service company that happens to sell legal advice.

Graham and Jayne moved on to discussing social media policies, and Graham said that at Zappos, their policy is very simple: "Do what makes sense." The idea behind this is that they don't slow their client down in their pursuit of happiness. So as a result, employees are empowered to solve problems to make their customers happy. When Zappos is out of a product, they'll even help their customers find another retailer - just to make them happy. For law firms, this could translate to the idea that when a firm doesn't have the expertise for a certain issue, they can help their client to find someone who does - even though it takes business away from them in the short term, the client will remember the firm as helping them and will bring business back in the long term.

Social media has infiltrated Zappos at all levels too - Zappos puts everyone's Twitter accounts on their profiles, and uses them as a way to share their culture with each other. Their new hire training includes social media training, and Zappos asks their employees to broadcast for them - tour photos, charity events, etc. Their approach to social media is very simple: "We have a problem to solve. We find the solution. Implement it. Go back to the drawing board."

Someone in the audience pointed out that while we would be happy to see a Zappos box appear on our doorstep, we wouldn't be happy when a lawyer showed up. So how can we really translate their customer service and social media lessons to our own firms? (This is where I jumped in with my points) Heather Morse summed it up over on Twitter by saying that lawyers need to connect on more than just business and the law - they need to bring their human side out.

Graham went back to talking about about Zappos' focus on customer service, saying that every new hire goes through four weeks of customer service training - even their CEO, Tony Hsieh, went through the training. He said that when hiring, they look for people who already have their core values, not those who they could teach them to. Then, two weeks into their new jobs, Zappos offers the employee a couple of thousand dollars to quit. That doubles the third week of working there. Under 2% of people take that offer - their employees are just that happy to be working there.

An audience member asked Graham to elaborate on what those core values are, and he said it's the four C's - Clothing, Culture, Customer Service and Community. Their main focus is that of "surprise and delight," the idea of which is to treat every customer the way you've always wanted a company to treat you. Graham said that in every opportunity that they have to talk to someone, they can make someone's day, make a PEC or Personal Emotional Connection. He emphasized that we should never forget that there are real humans out there behind social media accounts - if someone tells you a problem, it's because they think you might be able to solve it.

These "magic moments" won't happen when a client gets the bill - they're going to happen when you connect on a personal level. So think outside the box to connect with clients - while this is something the lawyers can do, it's also something that marketers can act on. For example, send a baby basket to new parents - not everything has to be about business. Conversations with Zappos aren't always about shoes and clothes, but each of those conversations is valuable nonetheless.

So although I've challenged all of you to think outside the box and identify what lessons you can translate to the legal industry from this session, I'll outline them below for you:

No matter what business you're in, your focus should be about creating positive client experiences at every level.
Identify what the costs to your firm are of not being involved with social media, and not participating in the conversations happening about your firm and the topics you care about - that will tell you what the benefits of being involved with social media are better than the number of followers you have.
It's better to empower your clients and social media communities to tell your firm's story, than to tell it yourself. How can you best do that?
How can you make the client/potential client the "star" of your social media efforts?
Firms should identify what their social media communities want on each network (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) and then give that to them.
Be consistent and always interact with your social media audiences - never ignore questions you get, even if the answer is that you can't comment on something because of ethics rules.
Marketers should mine social media networks for legal questions, then pose these to their own attorneys to get the answer in laymen's terms, and re-frame them for appropriate use - this is content gold.
Be helpful, even when it's not going to directly lead to business for you. People will bring business back to those who have helped them.
Empower everyone in the firm to solve problems (remember that solving a problem for someone can be as simple as introducing them to the right attorney at your firm to help them, or to point them to the right resource to find more information).
Connect on more than just the legal and business side - lawyers and law firm marketers should show their communities their human side.
Every time someone in your firm talks to someone, from the receptionist answering the phone, to a tweet from the firm account, to an attorney engaging with a client, there is the opportunity for a Personal Emotional Connection. Does everyone at the firm share the same core values, so that they can take advantage of these opportunities?
Never forget that there is a person behind every email, every Facebook question, every tweet. "Magic moments" with your firm and its members will only happen when you connect on a personal level. And these magic moments lead to business.

Week of April 22, 2013 on ILNToday - A Roundup!

Lindsay Griffiths — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:40:07 -0500

As of yesterday, we are now only three weeks away from the ILN's 25th Annual Meeting, and our 25th Anniversary celebrations! We're really looking forward to celebrating with everyone, taking a look back as well as looking toward the future. But while we've been focused on getting ready for our conference, our members are putting out some high quality content.

This week's top posts are:

Changes to litigation funding and insurance from April 2013 from Fladgate LLP: Fladgate details recent changes to the rules surrounding how a law firm can charge their client in litigation, as well as the costs of insurance for parties in a litigation.
Employer Illegally Seized Former Employee's LinkedIn Account, But Employee Suffered No Provable Damages from Epstein Becker & Green: EBG discusses Eagle v. Morgan, which found in favor of the employee in terms of ownership of the LinkedIn account in question, but determined that she could not prove any specific damages as a result of her former employer's actions.
Ebb and flow of courts' enforcement of contract notice requirements from Clark Wilson: Clark Wilson looks at recent court cases that deal with whether a contractor's compliance with contract notice requirements is a prerequisite for payment for extra work.
New federal regulations require material changes to notice of privacy practices from McDonald Hopkins: McDonald Hopkins talks about the HIPAA Omnibus Rule as it relates to notices of privacy practices.

ILN-terviews: Bill Milani, Epstein Becker & Green

Lindsay Griffiths — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:56:57 -0500

Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Bill Milani of our member firm, Epstein Becker & Green in New York!

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Management side labor and employment law with a particular concentration representing foreign-owned and financial services companies.

Who would be your typical client?
A foreign-owned bank.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
I will partner with them to achieve the best possible business results within the law.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
My very first case upon joining EBG involved representing a foreign-owned company doing business in the U.S. accused of sex discrimination. I had to learn about the culture and business practices of the Company in order to defend the case. It was a wonderful learning experience.

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
Having my son tell me that he would like to pursue a career as an international lawyer.

What do you do when you’re not practicing law?
Reading, sports, travel.

What would surprise people most about you?
Sadly, nothing.

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
My first meeting-I was in awe of the many countries and firms represented and the close friendships among the attendees.

What career would you have chosen if you weren’t a lawyer?
Centerfield for the N.Y. Yankees

If a movie were made of your life, who would you want to play you?
Any of the James Bonds (except for Roger Moore)

How would you like to be remembered?
For my professionalism and integrity.

Identify, Don't Compare - Lessons from Zappos for the Legal Industry

Lindsay Griffiths — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:32:13 -0500

A lesson I learned several years ago that has been invaluable to me is that of "identify, don't compare." When you compare, you're looking to match your situation exactly to that of someone else's - and when we do that, we're always going to come up different (and that can paralyze us).

But when we identify, we're looking for those elements that run through a situation that are the same as ours - and this gives us the inspiration to keep moving forward, instead of giving up because we think we'll never be the same. That lesson comes in handy when I'm sitting in a session like the Zappos one from the LMA Annual Conference. Although it's easy to try to compare Zappos to legal marketing and come up lacking because they're a consumer-driven business, when I identify instead, I find many parallels which allow me to take the lessons that Graham was sharing with us and apply them to my own situation.

As you know, yesterday I was all fired up about the benefits of bringing in speakers from outside the legal industry and challenging our fellow marketers to take the lessons that they offer us and translate those into success within our own firms (which the "marketer in the car," Seth Apple agreed with). So before I head into a recap, which I'll likely cover tomorrow, I'll share what I expressed among some legal marketing friends, and said in the session as well. Whether you're Zappos or a law firm, it all boils down to the customer or client experience.

Sure, as someone said during the session, people are happy to see a Zappos box appear on their doorstep, but they're not likely happy to see their lawyer appear on their doorstep. But it's not about that - it's about making the client feel that they're being taken care of and their needs are met.

I said in my post about the inside counsel new media survey that it's common sense, and I believe that it really boils down to that. Whether I'm working with my clients (our member law firm attorneys) or their clients (in-house counsel), I ask myself, how would I want to be treated if I were on the receiving end of this information? What do I want to know about this person and how do I want to feel about this person in order to want to do business with them?

In some transactions, as a consumer or client, you want to be fairly anonymous, and therefore, you don't really care whether the person that you're talking to also likes to play golf (though you might!). But when you're talking about something that means a lot to you - like your company, or your reputation within your organization - you have a vested interest. And so you care very deeply about the lawyers and firms that are representing you. You want them to care about you.

How can you accomplish that? By being interested in them - and I mean genuinely interested, not interested because you might get business. For example, when the city of Boston was on lockdown on Friday, one of the first emails I sent out was to our attorneys and marketing director at our host firm - I wanted to let them know that we were thinking about them. Not because I had a professional interest, but because I had a personal one. I remember what 9/11 was like for those of us in the tri-state area, and when people across the country reached out and stood strong with us, it was comforting.

So how does this translate for social media? And in particular, how does this translate for law firms?

Again, it's about creating a client experience, as Graham Kahr shared. For Zappos, it's doing things like ordering pizza for a woman stranded during a snowstorm with no power, who was checking the Zappos Facebook feed as a distraction. For law firms, it can be posting photos of your attorneys enjoying a charity event, or sharing client successes unrelated to the firm. It's refraining from posting items related to your business when there's an emergency. It's answering every question you get through social media, even if it's from someone who can't give you business - you never know who they might refer you to, or how they might handle being ignored. It's showing people that you're listening to them.

We've said time and time again that people do business with those they know, like and trust. And so business development is entirely about relationships. Using social media to build relationships is just figuring out how to use a technological tool to do what you've always done - when you attend a cocktail party, it would be obnoxious to walk around handing everyone your business card and only talking to them for a second, about yourself. Similarly, it's obnoxious to only send out tweets about yourself. You've got to interact.

"But...but...we're lawyers!" I can hear you say. But consider this - someone at a social function, upon finding out that you're a lawyer, might ask you a legal question. What are you going to do? You're not going to answer it - you'll tell them that you either have the expertise and could speak with them further in another setting that would be more appropriate, or you'll direct them to the proper resource.

Similarly, on social media, when someone asks a legal question, if you have the expertise, you can tell them that you'd be happy to discuss it with them in the right setting, or you can direct them to another resource. The only thing that's different is the medium.

That's one of the reasons most social media strategists recommend listening first when you join a network - first, because it helps you to understand the unwritten "rules" of the ecosystem and second, because you start to learn what you like and don't like about how people act within it. For example, it makes me very uncomfortable to meet someone at a social function who only wants to give me their business card and move on to the next "prospect." So I'm very aware of making sure it's the right moment to hand out my own card.

Similarly, someone on Facebook who only posts about business (both individuals and brands) is going to leave me feeling cold. So as I interact with people through my personal and professional accounts, I'm very cognizant of that and act accordingly. I'm always asking - "How would I want to be treated" and "What would make me happy if I was the client?"

Today, as you're interacting with people - be it clients, potential clients, friends, influencers or amplifiers - ask yourself how you would feel in their shoes. Look for the commonalities you have with them by identifying, instead of comparing. Remember that it's not all about you - it's all about them.

And tomorrow, I'll dive back into my detailed recaps, starting with the Zappos session!

Legal Marketers - Let's Raise the Bar

Lindsay Griffiths — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:46:21 -0500

This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking with my fellow co-leaders in the Legal Marketing Association's Social Media Special Interest Group (LMA Social Media SIG for short). Our main purpose was to debrief on our group's activities at the conference, to see what worked well and what didn't, but by virtue of the conversation, we ended up talking about the conference in general and some of the anecdotal feedback that we'd heard.

One of the interesting points that was raised was it had been suggested that the Zappos session, bringing in an outside-of-the-industry speaker, was either loved or hated. Loved, because, as I've mentioned before, it was excellent, or hated because people didn't understand how a customer-driven organization like Zappos could have any relevance to legal marketing.

Sigh.

I'd had a similar conversation with a fellow marketer that I shared a car with on the way to the airport after the conference - he said that he'd love to see more outside speakers come in to share their lessons with us; that we as legal marketers had heard a lot of the same advice and seen many of the same examples over the years, so it would be refreshing to get a new perspective. And that it was then up to US to take the leap and make the connections with how it can work within our own firms and industry.

I couldn't agree with him more.

Listen, anyone who followed or participated in the tweet stream for LMA13 knows that we have our share of detractors - those who think of legal marketers as the "party planners" at the firm, or only useful when a new brochure is needed. But those of us within the industry know that we are so much more than that. I've been in legal marketing for eight and a half years and I've long seen a lot of talk about "getting a seat at the table." But those marketers who HAVE a seat at the table know that the way to get it is to stop talking about it, and just become instrumental in our firms' successes.

How do we do that?

Well, we've been challenging our lawyers for a few years to understand what their clients need and want. We've all sat in on client panels or interviews where the clients say that they want a lawyer who is their business partner - someone who understands their business, the challenges that they face, and can help them by using their legal expertise to meet their business goals.

So why are we exempt from that advice?

As legal marketers, particularly in a down market, it's our mandate to work harder and smarter, and to wear more hats than ever - I don't think that comes as a surprise to anyone. We've all had to be incredibly nimble to keep up with the changing pace of the legal industry, and it's up to us to do so in order to stay relevant and invaluable. Part of doing that is to remain open to learning and to use the creativity so prized in our positions. We're not going to be taken seriously by our attorneys if we don't constantly challenge ourselves to think differently and to figure out how within our own positions we can meet our clients' (our lawyers) goals for the firm and their own practices.

So when LMA brings in Zappos to talk to us about how they use social media to translate their core values of delivering happiness to their customers, we can identify how we, too, can create the ideal client experience based on what our clients want - without immediately writing off the advice simply because Zappos sells goods via the internet and we work with lawyers.

Kudos to LMA and Jayne Navarre for broadening our minds - I go to the LMA Conference annually not just to see old friends (which is a wonderful thing) and not just to learn how to do what I'm already doing more efficiently, but also to stretch my brain in new ways, so that I can be a better marketer for my attorneys, and so I can better support them in their goals.

Tomorrow, I'll talk more about how I see the lessons of Zappos applying to the legal industry, but for today, I challenge legal marketers to be more open-minded, thoughtful and creative.

It's Here! -- A Look at the 2012 In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey

Lindsay Griffiths — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:04:51 -0500

When I attended the general counsel panel a couple of weeks ago at the LMA's Annual Conference, I was happy to hear that the moderators would be spending some time focusing the panelists on discussing social media, and their use of it in their outside counsel relationships.

I'm going to delve into that discussion more in a future post, but today, I wanted to talk about the results from Greentarget, Inside Counsel, and Zeughauser Group's In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey results, which were released last week. I pay very close attention to this survey because let's be honest, social media isn't going to matter one whit to my clients if their own clients aren't paying it any attention.

This year's survey results reaffirmed both the comments of the three general counsel at the LMA Conference, and my anecdotal experience, which I often share with my attorneys. Today, let's look at a couple of highlights. To see the survey results in full, click here.

"Mark 2013 as the year it became hard to find lawyers not using new media tools."

As the survey report says:

New media usage is not only common, as last year’s survey showed, it’s mainstream. The percentage of respondents not using new media tools has shrunk from 43 percent in 2010 to 27 percent in 2013."

In 2013 the lawyer who has his paralegal print his emails for him, gets all his news from the print edition of The New York Times, and thinks a 'blog' is a smudge on his tie is part of a dying breed."

Sure, we all had a nice little chuckle over this second quote, but there are definitely some attorneys out there who are not using new media. With such a huge jump from 2010 to 2013 in terms of those in-house counsel using new media tools, lawyers can no longer afford to think that social media is a "fad."

But that being said, should lawyers and firms be concerned that they've missed the boat if they're either just getting started with new media, or they're refining their strategy? No, says the survey results:

Yet our survey shows that some of the most popular regions of the new media ecosystem are far from fully exploited—rich with opportunity, perhaps, for pioneering lawyers and law firms that create high-quality content that grabs attention on those channels."

Social media/new media can no longer be considered something that you throw into the marketing mix - it has to be a part of building your marketing and business development plans from the ground up. How can you use social media to support all of your marketing and business development goals? Make sure to thread that through everything you're doing to make the most out of these trends.

Let's Go Mobile

This is one of those common sense things (in my mind) that doesn't need to be said out loud, but I'm saying it anyway - you need to be mobile friendly. Think about what you're doing in your own life - we're all running to various meetings, commuting, flying, working from home, working from the couch at night - always connected. Right? Who here is NOT checking their mobile phone with one eye open as soon as their alarm goes off in the morning?

If you're doing that, it stands to reason that your clients are doing the same thing - so it's essential to make sure that any content you're supplying them can be easily read on a mobile device. For me, I know that I read all of the blogs I subscribe to through a reader application on my phone - so if it's cutting off the post after the first paragraph, unless I'm very motivated to click through to the actual page, I'm just going to skip to the next post in the list. Similarly, if I do click through, and the post is unreadable on a small screen, I'm going to quickly give up.

The survey results say:

An increasing number of in-house counsel are reading daily general business media on their smartphones (53 percent), tablets (39 percent), or mobile apps (23 percent), which signals their growing consumption of media on the go."

My recommendation? Have a family member or friend not in the legal industry check out your website, profiles, and blog posts on their own phone and give you their unbiased feedback on how easy it is to access them, and the kind of information they might be looking for, but unable to find. Then, implement their suggestions immediately.

Wikipedia as a Professional Tool?

One of the biggest surprises from the new media survey was that Wikipedia is increasingly regarded as a legitimate professional tool.

The percentage of respondents who said they use Wikipedia to conduct company and industry research jumped from 51 percent in 2012 to 65 percent this year, which is one of the most significant changes in the most recent survey data."

While Wikipedia already was considered the top platform used for personal usage in our 2010 survey, it has emerged as an important professional tool. Just shy of half of respondents, almost 49 percent, said they had used Wikipedia in the past day or week for professional reasons, second only to LinkedIn." [emphasis added]

But before you go running to your marketing departments to get them to update the firm's Wikipedia entry, the survey also revealed that:

Few respondents (12 percent) are visiting the Wikipedia pages of current and prospective outside law firms. In order to reach in-house counsel through the increasingly popular site, a law firm should consider using Wikipedia to credential individual attorneys on various subject matters tied to their practices, and not focus solely on the firm’s Wikipedia profile."

Great advice, which dovetails nicely with my overall suggestion for making sure that social media is threaded throughout all the activities used to meet your business development goals.

Print Media - Still Strong

Another interesting result of the survey is that the readership for print media is still very high.

Despite the number of print publications that are folding or struggling, more than half of in-house counsel continue to read daily print versions from their general business media, such as The Wall Street Journal and local business news. An even higher portion, 74 percent, read print legal industry trade publications weekly and monthly—a frequency that reflects the hard-copy publishing schedules of the legal industry trade press."

You might be surprised to see me include that in my discussion of the results of a social media survey, but I think this has additional impact within social media. With in-house counsel still relying heavily on print media, there's a huge opportunity for lawyers to get in front of the journalists who write for these publications through social media.

Lawyers may not always be engaging directly with clients and potential clients on new media, but as I've said time and time again, they ARE getting in front of influencers and amplifiers...such as journalists. Highlighting yourself as a resource for credible information on a substantive area of the law - not only by sharing your content, but also by sharing others' content in the same sphere - will make you a go-to resource for the media. This will subsequently lead you raising your profile within these print publications, which in-house counsel are reading. Once again, these tools can all work together to help you reach your ultimate goals in marketing and business development.

Other Things to Note...

There are a few other results from the survey to note, but I don't want to spend too much time on them:

"The 'serious' social network is LinkedIn: I say this all the time to my attorneys and the survey backs it up - "LinkedIn is the most used professional social network, with 40 percent of respondents having used it in the past 24 hours and another 27 percent having used it in the past week. When using LinkedIn for professional reasons, most are using it for several reasons. Seventy percent use it to connect with in-house colleagues; 66 percent use it to connect with business and industry leaders; 61 percent use it to get news and information; and 60 percent use it to connect with outside counsel with whom they work."
Invisible users are growing: Last year, the survey revealed that in-house counsel are mostly consumers of information, and are not using them to engage, but they cautioned that firms shouldn't assume their efforts aren't valuable because they don't receive a certain number of comments or shares - "The portion of respondents who actively post information to new media networks still is significantly lower than those who pull information from them. In fact, this 'invisible user' phenomenon, identified last year in this survey, is growing stronger. The percentage of respondents who used social media in listen-only mode rose from 68 in 2012 to 74 in 2013."
Legal aggregators are considered among the most credible sources: According to the survey results: "Traditional media remains the most credible news source, in the opinion of in-house counsel. After that, the sources that rank highest as 'very credible' are, in order, legal news aggregators such as JD Supra and Lexology, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and blogs. The sources that rank highest when 'somewhat credible' votes are included are LinkedIn, legal news aggregators, blogs and Wikipedia. Blogs and Wikipedia are rising in terms of credibility, rivaling more obviously trusted sources such as LinkedIn, which is considered the 'serious' social platform, and legal news aggregators, which pick up the most popular content." So even if you're sharing your own content, you may gain credibility if you have it shared under the JD Supra or Lexology umbrellas.
Opportunity with online video: Online video may be the next big thing, and with few law firms using it, there is a huge opportunity here. The survey said that "A majority of respondents (55 percent) said they access law firm websites and YouTube channels to some degree to access substantive video content. Frequency is modest. Since few law firms provide content in this way, there may be an opportunity here for law firms that produce quality online video to stand out."
Blogs continue to be influential: The survey showed that once again, high quality and substantive blog content continues to be important to in-house counsel. "Forty-six percent of respondents said they had used blogs in the previous day or week. Blog usage also grew slightly in the past year. Which blogs do in-house counsel frequent and value the most? The answer: law firm attorney-authored blogs (55 percent check 'somewhat' or 'very often') and media-branded blogs written by professional journalists (54 percent). In-house respondents indicate they are reading attorney-authored blogs as frequently as they read blogs authored by professional journalists, which indicates those blogs are increasingly considered credible sources of information and underscores the importance of and opportunity associated with high-quality blogs."

Greentarget, Zeughauser and Inside Counsel once again give us a lot of food for thought and help in refocusing our social media efforts with their latest survey. What struck you most about the results? Are your current efforts in line with what in-house counsel are emphasizing?

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: One Small Step

Lindsay Griffiths — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:43:19 -0500

With a hectic day all around me today as we put the final touches on next month's 25th Anniversary conference, I'm glad to have some excellent advice from rainmaking expert, Jaimie Field, to fall back on for a blog post. Jaimie talks about how taking one small step in your rainmaking efforts still brings you closer to your goals.

***

In order to get into the habit of Rainmaking on a regular basis, I have been asking my clients to send me an email at the end of each week to let me know what Rainmaking activities they have performed during the week. They are to write down, each day, the step they have taken to move their Rainmaking forward. Even if they did nothing, they are to note that too.

Recently, a new client sent me her list. Each day she noted what she did – from sending an email to an old client to reconnect, to writing a blog post, to answering a question on AVVO, to calling a potential referral source to meet for lunch. She did something every single day. At the end of the list, she wrote that she felt like these were only small things she was doing and apologized for that.

During our coaching call, the next week, I reminded her that Rainmaking, like creating any relationship, is not about the big grand gesture, but that each small step brings you closer to achieving your goals. Each small step you take – like publishing your blog post – will get you known, each networking event you go to and follow up with those you meet we begin to get you more well known, and each time you present a seminar your name gets out there.

In addition, I reminded her that if each of these activities took her 15 minutes per day, at the end of the week she has more than 1.25 hours of rainmaking each week and more than 5 hours per month. That’s more than most attorneys will take the time to do.

As you have always heard me say – people do business with people they know, like and trust. Each step brings you closer to that goal.

LMA Annual Conference - A Quick Debrief

Lindsay Griffiths — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:03:44 -0500

It's been a week since I returned home from the LMA's Annual Conference, and I'm still digesting everything that went on there - it was a non-stop whirlwind of networking, meetups with social media friends and ILN marketers, face-time with new attendees, and conference sessions (as well as a LOT of food). LMA served its purpose once again though, and I've returned to the office with new vigor, feeling more inspired than when I left! Even better for this Social Media Special Interest Group Co-Leader? Not only did I get to see my friends and make new connections face to face, but #LMA13 was trending on Twitter! (Pictured are fellow co-leaders Gail Lamarche of Henderson Franklin and Nancy Myrland, Myrland Marketing with me. Not pictured are Lance Godard of JD Supra, who was unable to join us, and Laura Toledo, Tenrec, who was ill).

There will be several recap posts to come, but while I'm still ruminating on those, I thought I'd share with you my three favorite sessions, as well as what's on my reading list now that I've returned home. Keep an eye out for the recaps on these sessions!

My absolute favorite session of the conference was hands-down "Delivering Happiness:" Fresh Ideas for Service-Driven Brands Deploying Social Media Tactics, Seeking ROI. Why? First, because the presenters were incredibly engaging and led the session in a casual, interactive format that really benefited the audience members. Second, because although we got the legal perspective from moderator, Jayne Navarre, of Law Gravity LLC, we also got an outside perspective from Graham Kahr, Social Scientist with Zappos.com. Zappos may be a consumer brand, but since they're all about service and the customer/client experience (and so are we), it was great to hear some fresh ideas and be challenged to think about how we can adopt them within the legal field.
Wednesday's General Counsel Panel: Separate from the Pack: Best Practices in Building and Maintaining Your Law Firm's Relationship with In-House Counsel. If you've been following along with me, you know that I LOVE me a good GC panel - there's no better way for me to deliver value to my attorney clients than to be able to tell them exactly what a sampling of their clients in the industry are thinking about and looking for in their outside counsel relationships. While we're still hearing a lot of the same things from GCs (once again, making me wonder what firms are really listening), we also learned more about their thoughts on new media and how that impacts their outside counsel selection process.
GC Focus: Project Management. Position Your Firm in Alignment with the Unique Challenges Faced by In-House Counsel. We were treated to not one, but TWO in-house counsel sessions this conference, with this one being a breakout on the first day. We heard from the managing attorney at GlaxoSmithKline, as well as their procurement guy (a new perspective at LMA Annual from the in-house side), and Wicker Park Group's Nat Slavin, who shared his years of experience doing client interviews. This was a much more nuts and bolts type of session, which was again hugely beneficial and gave us all food for thought.

You'll be seeing recap posts on these sessions, and maybe a few others, in the coming days.

During Graham's session, someone asked him for reading recommendations for the in-house marketer, and with my information all saved at Amazon, I was able to order the books on the spot. He recommended:

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Delivering Happiness (of course) by Tony Hsieh
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The follow up, Great by Choice by Collins and Hansen
Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, John King, And Halee Fischer-Wright

These are all sitting just next to my monitor, and I hope to be able to dive into them soon!

Thanks to LMA for another great and inspiring conference - I'm already excited for 2014!

Taking it Offline

Lindsay Griffiths — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:02:07 -0500

Social media is the perfect medium for someone like me - someone who's an introvert, a bit on the shy side, and prefers to have the safety of being behind a computer screen rather than face-to-face.

But if you're using social media to be...well, social...and you'd like it to lead to business development opportunities, you've got to take it offline. While it's possible to build relationships online, and to nurture them there, you cannot discount the benefit to meeting someone face-to-face.

A conference is the perfect opportunity for this, and I'll tell you a story about how social media has enriched my conference experience at the Legal Marketing Association's Annual Meeting (which I'm currently en-route to - I love airplane wifi!).

I joined the ILN back in 2004, and in search of an organization that could help further educate me in the legal marketing arena, I stumbled on the LMA thanks to one of our firm's marketing professionals. The first conference I went to was in 2005, and since then, I've only missed one due to an overlap with our Asia Pacific Meeting. For the first few years, I'd arrive at the conference and feel like a total wallflower. I met a few people, and would force myself to sit down at tables with no one I knew and say hello, but I felt like it was a hard group to break into - people either knew each other from years past, or they had come in groups from their firms.

And while everyone was friendly, I didn't really have a group to hang out with and learn from. Being really shy means that my mind goes entirely blank whenever I meet someone totally new to me - even when we have the shared experience of working with lawyers.

Enter social media. I'd already joined LinkedIn and Facebook, but neither of those gave me the networking with new connections in my industry that I was looking for. Then, I joined Twitter. Because I started out there so early on, it was a pretty small community and I got to know everyone in the legal industry on there pretty quickly.

Working in a two-person office means that I have only one other co-worker, our Executive Director, and I was really looking for some legal marketing colleagues to bounce ideas off of and talk to about questions I had during the day. On Twitter, in those early days, I found that. At the same time, we also shared things about our personal lives and lo and behold, I made friends.

So when we finally met in person at a conference four years ago in National Harbor, Maryland, we were already connected in so many ways - so rather than making small talk, we fell into comfortable friendships and professional relationships that have enriched my conference experience immeasurably.

Whereas before, I would spend a lot of time in my hotel room, trying to force myself to go to various events and meet people, now, I already had a group of people to talk to, to introduce me around, to eat with (a LOT of networking happens over meals, by the way). And it was easy to welcome others too - the next year, in Denver, Laura Toledo (nee Gutierrez) reached out on Twitter, hoping to connect with us in person. We met her the first night, and last November, I attended her wedding.

Others have reached out on Twitter and said things like "I'm in XYZ session, who else is in here?" and I'll look around the room to catch their eye, or set up a meeting in the hallway for after the session. The lines have blurred between people that I know only online, and those I've also met in person, and it's wonderful. I'm no longer a hermit in my hotel room.

My dear friend, Nancy Myrland, talks about reaching out and finding her because she loves to meet new people, and to make first timers and shy folks (like myself) feel comfortable and welcomed by our community. She really does love networking, and she does mean it when she tells people that she'll give them a hug if they want one (I've seen her do it). But as she mentions early in her post, not everyone is wired that way - I'm certainly not; it still surprises me a little when people actually want to talk to me!

So I wanted to write this post and say that if you're attending a conference - the LMA or one in your own industry - head over to Twitter and sign up. Check the conference website to see if there is a hashtag for the conference because that's where you're going to find other people also attending, and you can reach out to them before you even arrive. Arrange to meet up with them the first night for dinner or drinks, just to break the ice, and start conversations with them online first - it makes the transition when you arrive at the conference so much more seamless.

Tweet during the conference and look for opportunities to meet up with people - my LMA friends and I will often tweet where we're sitting for lunch, or try to get a group together for dinner to make sure that anyone flying solo doesn't feel alone. We've all been there. Twitter is a way to reach out to the conference speakers as well - see someone you particularly liked? Tweet out a message to them and connect to them on LinkedIn. Keep those conversations going after the conference is over.

If you're also a blogger, like me, it can be useful to add your thoughts into the conversation during and after the conference - learn something particularly inspiring? Blog about it and share it with the conference hashtag. People at the conference and those not able to attend will find it valuable, and it will give you the opportunity to meet more people the following year.

My friend, Heather Morse, told us this week to bring our passion to LMA13 and for me, that's social media. Not only because it's a valuable business development tool - when you use it to build relationships in a smart way - but because I've made lifelong and incredibly close friends, who bring me out of my shell, inspire me with their professional brilliance, and challenge me to be a better legal marketer.

Week of April 1, 2013 on ILNToday - A Roundup!

Lindsay Griffiths — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:35:03 -0500

Tomorrow, I head out to Las Vegas for the Legal Marketing Association's Annual Meeting, and I'm very excited to be seeing old friends, making new ones, and being inspired by my fellow marketers.

So without further ado, here's a quick roundup of this week's top posts!

Sanctions Imposed For Deleted Facebook Account from Epstein Becker & Green
Ohio's Supreme Court affirms payment of attorney fees under workers' compensation statute from McDonald Hopkins
Development of anti-cartel enforcement practice from Lidings Law Firm
Companies selling copyrighted works in foreign countries beware from McDonald Hopkins
Cease and Desist Letters Enjoy An Absolute Privilege From Libel Claims from Epstein Becker & Green

Happy Friday all!

ILN-terviews: Joe Guarino, Epstein Becker & Green

Lindsay Griffiths — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:28:03 -0500

Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Joe Guarino of our member firm, Epstein Becker & Green in New Jersey!

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
I have a busy and diverse practice representing U.S. and multi-national clients from many different industries.

Who would be your typical client?
My typical client is in-house counsel for a mid to large sized business.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
My practice emphasizes the representation of management and employers in labor & employment matters, including both preventive counseling & litigation. I also regularly litigate commercial matters in which I represent companies in securities fraud cases, false advertising claims, shareholder disputes, non-compete matters, broker dealer litigation, provider claims, third-party administrator suits, hospital/network disputes & ERISA class actions. My client base has a national & international presence and primarily conduct business in the healthcare, dietary supplement, transportation, retail and financial services industries. I have been fortunate to have been named as one of the state’s top litigators by the New Jersey Law Journal for the past several years. The goals of my practice are to provide world-class legal representation at an affordable price and to be available to serve my clients on a 24/7 basis. I never bill my clients to speak with me about anything that is on their mind. I only expect to be fairly compensated when I add value. My team and I know that our clients represent business units with budgets and other constraints. Thus, we strive to obtain optimal results by proactive counseling, alternative resolution or, as a last resort, litigation.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
The next one that comes in the door!

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
My proudest moments are when a client shakes my hand or gives me a hug and says “thank you.” That’s what it is all about.

What do you do when you’re not practicing law?
My wife and I are the proud parents of a seven year old daughter (Ava) and an “active” two year old son (Riley). Since we both have busy careers, we enjoy our time as a family doing simple things such as cooking family dinners, playing sports, watching movies, reading books and visiting with family and friends.

What would surprise people most about you?
That I subscribe to a paleolithic (caveman) diet and practice daily meditation. I was also an All-State outfielder at St. Peter’s Prep and at the University of Scranton.

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
Meeting Lindsay Griffiths!

What career would you have chosen if you weren’t a lawyer?
I would have been a carpenter.

If a movie were made of your life, who would you want to play you?
Gerard Butler. Someone once said that I looked like him and I took it as a compliment!

How would you like to be remembered?
I would like to think that the script is still being written. But, if people thought of me as an ordinary person who did extraordinary things, I would be happy.

Rainmaking Recommendation from Jaimie Field: Spring Renewal

Lindsay Griffiths — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:47:44 -0500

As we start to see signs of spring (hopefully!), Jaimie Field challenges us to think about our rainmaking efforts and goals. In fact, on Monday, I took some time to review my marketing and business development plan for 2013, to make sure I was on track with my goals for the year, and set forth a plan for the next quarter. How are you doing on your plan?

***

One-quarter of this year is already gone.

For most of us in the world, spring is on its way (although on the East Coast of the United States, it seems like this won’t happen). What usually happens in spring? The flowers begin to bloom, the trees get their leaves back, and the world seems to come alive again.

What about your Rainmaking efforts?

Have they hibernated during the winter? Did you hunker down and not get out to network or meet with prospects, referral sources?

Did you neglect to service your blog? (I admit to not doing this myself – but please keep an eye on it for some new posts.)

Did you come up with every excuse in the book not to achieve the goals you set at the beginning of the year (did you even set goals at the beginning of the year?).

Maybe you can think of spring as a time of new growth. You can look at this time, when the weather becomes better, to renew your commitment to achieving your rainmaking goals.

So pull out the Rainmaking Plan that you began in January (or commit to creating one that you will start to implement now) and start to put into action all of the activities you know will grow your book of business.