Archive for the ‘Strategic Marketing’ Category

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Do lawyer blogs work for lead generation? Visit our recent round table discussion from practicing attorneys to law firm marketing directors.

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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

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Trial Lawyers Spot Litigation Trends to Develop New Practice

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

In today’s economy, companies are desperate to generate revenues and are leaving their business ethics on the cutting room floor. A new emerging trend is emerging in advertising. Instead of promoting their product’s features and benefits, the latest strategy is to actually name and bash their competitor’s product.


The auto company which typically used comparative references are now on a full blown competitor assault. This new marketing strategy is now being used in many different business verticals and there is not limit to the amount of bashing and false claims being made especially in television advertisements.

For example, a well know state BAR prep study course suffered a major publicity blow when their competitor falsely stated that this company’s students had a lower success rate then what actual the case.

So what can you do if a competitor is making false claims about your company? How can you recover from the financial damage and tarnished reputation?

You hire an advertising lawyer.

At Lawyer Success, Inc., we strive to educate our clients concerning the latest types of litigation, emerging trends and proper marketing strategies in order to increase our clients’ success. Call us today at (769) 218-6099 for more information about our law firm marketing consulting services.

Hildebrandt interprets impact Of economic crisis on legal industry

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Hildebrandt interprets impact
Of economic crisis on legal industry

Janet Ellen Raasch

Janet Ellen Raasch is a writer, ghostwriter and blogger (www.constantcontentblog.com) who works closely with professional services providers – especially lawyers, law firms, legal consultants and legal organizations – to help them achieve name recognition and new business through publication of keyword-rich content for the Web and social media sites as well as articles and books for print. She can be reached at (303) 399-5041 or [email protected].


The recent economic crisis has had a significant impact on everyone – including most law firms. In 2007, profits at many law firms were up a healthy ten percent. By late 2008, profits were down between five to 20 percent. In 2009, year-end profits will likely average between flat to down 15 percent from 2008.

“For most law firms in the current economic environment,” said Kristin Stark, “’flat’ is the new ‘up’ – although there are notable variations by size, location and practice area.

“Things have stabilized but, at this point, we do not expect much change for the last quarter of 2009,” said Stark. “We do not anticipate a dramatic upswing in firm performance in 2010. It is likely to be a slow recovery.

“Larger law firms operating in major financial centers have suffered the most,” said Stark. “Smaller firms and those located in secondary cities (like Denver) have been affected – but not as significantly.”

Bankruptcy remains the most in-demand practice area, increasing by 18 percent during the first three quarters of 2009. Demand for litigation has increased slightly — 1.3 percent. Transactional practices like capital markets, real estate, tax, general corporate, and mergers and acquisitions have been hit hardest and continue to struggle.

Stark is a senior director in Hildebrandt International’s Strategy Group. Hildebrandt (www.hildebrandt.com) specializes in professional services firm management and publishes the quarterly Peer Monitor index of law firm performance, which provided all the data cited in this presentation.

Stark spoke at the monthly educational meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association (www.legalmarketing.org/rockymountain), held Nov. 10 at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Denver.

“In addition to a sharp decline in demand, declining profits are due to slow collection cycles (realization is down four percent), rate pressures (financially strapped clients are very resistant to rate increases in a buyer’s market) and declining productivity (especially among non-equity partners),” said Stark.

Law firm response

Law firms have responded to these market conditions by making sharp cuts to overhead. As recently as 2008, total law firm overhead expenses increased 8.2 percent. Due to intensifying focus on expense control, total overhead expenses decreased 0.6 percent from the previous year in the first three quarters of 2009.

An analysis of the percentage change over a rolling 12 months indicates that expense increases for occupancy fell from 9.2 percent in 2008 to 8 percent in 2009; expense increases for technology fell from 9.5 percent to 2.1 percent; expenses increases for library fell from 11.8 percent to 2.2 percent.

Law firms actually cut expenses in the areas of non-lawyer compensation (from an increase of 8 percent in 2008 to a decrease of 0.5 percent in 2009), marketing (from an increase of 6.4 percent to a decrease of 9.7 percent) and office expenses (from an increase of 7.9 percent to a decrease of 14.8 percent).

“I am puzzled in particular by the dramatic cuts in marketing expenditures,” said Stark. “Wouldn’t you think that in an environment defined by less demand and high client frustration, lawyers and law firms would be expanding marketing efforts rather than making cuts? This clearly demonstrates the (unfortunate) historically low value placed on marketing.”

The traditional way for law firms to weather economic downturns – cutting overhead and raising rates — are no longer enough. “Law firms must expand their efforts to understand the marked shift in client attitude that is the product of this economy,” said Stark. “After ten years of a ‘seller’s market’ we have rapidly shifted to a ‘buyer’s market.’

“Clients now hold the power where pricing is concerned,” said Stark, “and these clients are angry and frustrated. This downturn has quickly compounded long-term client perceptions of poor value and misalignment of resources in exchange for high rates.

“The most market-savvy law firms understand that clients currently enjoy a growing number of options to get legal services cheaper and faster,” said Stark. “These firms are actively pushing ‘big moves’ to reshape their firms – and the legal industry.”

These include:

? Corporate clients are currently focused on cost, value and predictability. In the ACC Value Challenge, for example, in-house lawyers are able to grade law firms’ performance on six “value” criteria – and view the grades of others. Use a formal interview process to understand what your clients want.

? The long-standing debate over alternative pricing has reached a “tipping point.” Clients expect fixed fees for commodity work and flexibility when pricing all but the most critical “bet the company” work.

? The trend towards convergence is accelerating. In order to exert pricing pressure and encourage better partnership, clients will cut their roster of outside counsel and give more work to those who are willing to be flexible.

? There will be no client tolerance for rate increases for “business as usual.” Any rate increases must be justified by obvious increases in value.

? Increasingly, contracting for outside counsel is being handled by skilled corporate procurement departments – not general counsel. These decisions will be based more on cold cost and less on warm law-school relationships.

New roles for marketers

Traditionally, the role of marketing in law firms was reactive and focused on marketing communications.

To keep pace with emerging trends sparked by the current economy, the role of marketing in law firms must follow a more progressive and proactive model – and add new capabilities in research, strategy and sales. “You will see fewer generalists and more specialists – dedicated to a particular practice or industry segment,” said Stark.

In the area of research, marketers will be responsible for market/client analysis, internal analysis, competitive analysis and client feedback programs.

“Marketers will proactively identify client concerns and develop methods to address these concerns,” said Stark. “Good ways to do this include ‘deep dive’ in-person client interviews, secondments (where lawyers spend time working at a client’s site) and inviting clients to speak on panels at law firm retreats.”

In the area of strategy, marketers will participate in planning and targeting, development of new products and services (including the hiring of laterals to provide those services), and creation and maintenance of referral alliances.

“In particular, you will see marketers fully participating in pricing and profitability decisions,” said Stark. “In many cases, they will come to the table with financial expertise or advanced degrees in these areas. It takes a lot of skill and research to price profitably on a non-hourly basis. Do it wrong and you can lose a lot of money.”

In the area of sales, marketers will focus on the retention and growth of existing clients, the targeting of new business opportunities, and sales training and coaching to help lawyers (or dedicated sales personnel) turn these opportunities into new client relationships. “What is really new in this evolving model for a competitive marketplace is the strategic identification and ‘poaching’ of clients from other law firms,” said Stark.

“All in all, this is no time for law firms to be cutting back on marketing expenses or personnel,” said Stark. “Be sure that your lawyers understand the real value being added by the marketing function. Proactively drive strategic marketing approaches to help your firm differentiate itself from the competition. Communicate and demonstrate value in order to support your closer involvement in critical client issues.

“By taking aggressive steps now, you can position your firm to come out of this economic crisis well ahead of its competitors,” said Stark.

Good lawyers Good leaders – Are they mutually exclusive?

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Janet Ellen Raasch

Janet Ellen Raasch is a writer, ghostwriter and blogger (www.constantcontentblog.com) who works closely with professional services providers – especially lawyers, law firms, legal consultants and legal organizations – to help them achieve name recognition and new business through publication of keyword-rich content for Web and social media sites as well as articles and books for print. She can be reached at (303) 399-5041 or [email protected].


Now more than ever, law firms of all sizes need good leadership in order to thrive. The characteristics that traditionally make a good practicing lawyer, however, are quite different from the characteristics that make a good leader – or a good follower.

It’s time to change that tradition.

According to research conducted by the Hildebrandt Institute, the current crop of lawyers strongly deviates (more than two standard deviations) from the rest of the population in six key areas.

“Lawyers as a group are highly skeptical, autonomous, introverted, resistant to new ideas, urgent and easily discouraged by set-backs,” said Mark Beese. “Leaders, on the other hand, tend to be trusting, team-oriented, social, open to new ideas, strategic and resilient. Business development or sales – in particular — requires a high degree of resiliency.”

In addition, the traditional “matrix” structure of most law firms does not mesh well with leadership models from the business world, which offer a clear decision-making hierarchy. “It is very difficult for an outsider or a newcomer to know who at a law firm actually has the power at any given time on any given issue,” said Beese. “This can discourage would-be leaders.”

Beese further supported this claim with a quote from David Maister, a leading authority on the management of professional services firms and author of The Trusted Advisor:

After spending 25 years saying that all professions are similar and can learn from each other, I’m now ready to make a concession: Law firms are different. The ways of thinking and behaving that help lawyers excel in their profession may be the very things that limit what they can achieve as firms. Management challenges occur not in spite of lawyers’ intelligence and training — but because of them.

According to the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs, the strategic, operational and marketing challenges facing leaders – especially leaders at law firms – are more complex and urgent than ever before.

How can law firms overcome these personality and structural obstacles to develop the leadership they so desperately need in challenging times? How can they train skeptical, autonomous lawyers to participate on teams – not only as leaders, but also as followers of other lawyers or non-lawyer staff who bring essential business expertise to the table?

Beese addressed these questions at the monthly educational program of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association (www.legalmarketing.org/rockymountain), which took place Sept. 8 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Denver.

Beese is president of Denver-based Leadership for Lawyers (www.leadershipforlawyers.com), which focuses on helping lawyers become better leaders and business developers. He is a board member of LMA International and former Chief Marketing Officer at Holland & Hart.

Firm culture must change

“Most lawyers find behavioral change to be difficult – even painful,” said Beese. “However, in our current environment, change is essential for survival. The engrained law firm culture discourages effective leadership — and progress. The lawyer personality, the law firm structure and the weak precedent for leadership must all be addressed.”

What kind of culture encourages leadership? According to the CCL study, leaders are adaptable, build and mend relationships, build effective teams, facilitate change, coach, collaborate, drive innovation and leverage differences to achieve positive results. They are credible, decisive and influential.

“These behaviors differ greatly from many ‘traditional’ lawyer behaviors,” said Beese. “They will not change unless the firm culture changes to reward these new behaviors.

A lot can be learned about a firm culture by its ‘conversations.’ “Conversations can take place at the water cooler, in meetings, in emails — or in the actions (or inactions) taken by firm management,” said Beese. “Are most of your firm’s conversations regressive, negative, backward-looking and problem-based? If so, your culture needs to be revised before the next generation of leaders can evolve.

“Leadership can thrive only when conversations – throughout the firm — are constructive, positive, forward-looking and solution-based,” said Beese.

Individuals must self-identify as leaders

Certain job descriptions are commonly linked with leadership – C-level executives, elected officials and military officers, for example. “The truth is,” said Beese, “you don’t have to be the guy or gal ‘at the top’ to be a leader. Anyone can be an effective leader within a certain area of influence – and help create a culture of leadership.

“You might not be managing partner of your law firm, but you can exert leadership in more subtle ways,” said Beese “You can run a task force studying the use of social networks to market a new practice area. You can coach a brusque lawyer in gentler ways of working with staff. You can organize a bike team to participate in a race for the cure of an illness suffered by a fellow lawyer or staff person.

“The behaviors required to achieve each of these tasks will contribute to your personal identity – and your identity with the firm – as a leader,” said Beese. “Find your voice. Affirm shared values. Set an example by walking the talk. Build credibility for yourself and your team. Wake up each morning asking yourself, ‘How can I lead today?’ As Gandhi said, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’”

Leaders must rally others behind a shared vision

Leadership does not operate in a vacuum. Leaders are effective guides only when they act in service to a compelling, clear and challenging vision. “In his ‘I have a dream’ speech,” said Beese, “Martin Luther King, Jr., clearly outlined his vision for America. More than 45 years later, most Americans can still quote from that speech.”

The enlisting of others into an effort towards a common vision looks a lot like negotiation – something lawyers are familiar with. “Point out and build on an alignment of interests,” said Beese. “After years of experience, I firmly believe that this alignment is done best in one-on-one conversations rather than a group setting.”

Leaders must challenge the status quo

Because most lawyers are by nature resistant to new ideas, one of the key roles of a leader – innovation – can be troublesome for would-be leaders. “Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience,” said Beese.

“Look outside the legal profession for ideas and inspiration,” said Beese. “When I was at Holland & Hart, our internal marketing team came up with the innovative idea of partnering with Frontier Airlines to include short segments about our clients in flight programming. There was a lot of resistance at first, of course, but we ran a beta test of the segments and positive client response soon persuaded our lawyers to get on board.”

Leaders must implement actions to achieve the vision

Effective leaders know that they cannot do everything themselves – that they must engage and empower others and foster collaboration. They must measure results. Under good leaders, team members can answer in the affirmative the Twelve Questions of Engagement posed by Marcus Buckingham in his book, First, Break All the Rules:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?

5. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?

12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

Leaders must build trust

The successful practice of law is based on good relationships between lawyers and their clients. The same holds true within a firm. The successful operation of a law firm is based on trusting relationships between leaders and group members. “You cannot lead others unless you know them,” said Beese.

“Trust is built from credibility (being good at what you do), reliability (doing what you say you will do) and intimacy (knowing the other person),” said Beese. “It is weakened by self-interest. Trust is never complete; it must be constantly maintained. If you want others to trust you, you must model trust in others.”

Lawyers may not be natural leaders and the current law firm environment may not encourage and reward the natural development of leaders. With training and attention, however, these obstacles can be overcome to give law firms the leadership they need in order to succeed in an increasingly competitive business environment.