Second Place
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP — Cracking the Code: Paul Hastings Forum Provides Solution to Clients’ Credit Crisis Queries

When U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced the Financial Stability Plan in February, reactions were strong. Consumers fumed, economists debated, politicians bickered, and many of their clients scratched their heads unsure of the implications to their businesses.

As the stock market took a nose dive that afternoon, a team of Paul Hastings lawyers and marketers held an emergency teleconference to discuss the firm’s response to clients’ needs. The objective quickly became apparent: Paul Hastings needed to develop a program to guide clients through the new financial environment.

To meet this critical need, the firm decided to produce an executive forum, “Cracking the Code: The New U.S. Financial Stability Plan.” They were determined to launch the event in mere weeks, attract a minimum of 200 key stakeholders from financial services companies, and to raise the firm’s profile in the marketplace.

A team of professionals from a cross section of disciplines was assembled to help the firm better understand the financial environment. The research included a probe of the PPIP and TARP programs to identify specific ways in which they could assist clients and a review of how competitors were addressing these issues. The firm discovered that competitors had not yet launched events and felt pressure to produce the event quickly to be first-to-market. They scheduled the forum for May 12.

Through relationships and research, they identified industry leaders with whom to collaborate. A managing director of J.P. Morgan signed on as keynote. They secured panelists from Barclays Capital, Corsair Capital, and Oaktree Capital Management.

They launched a carefully orchestrated marketing plan involving more than 15 marketing professionals from around the globe. The team created an invitation list of “who’s who” financial services leaders, reached out to media contacts, and coached speakers. They prepared thought leadership pieces, set up post-event client meetings, and developed marketing collateral.

Summary of Outcomes

“Cracking the Code” exceeded expectations for success. The goal was to reach 200 financial services executives and lawyers. The had a long wait list for attendees and maxed out the venue space with a total of 308 attendees.

Two financial services clients hired Paul Hastings immediately following the program for counseling on the companies’ options with respect to various government bail-out programs. These two clients engaged Paul Hastings on a total of 14 additional matters subsequent to the event and through the end of 2009.

In addition, they secured 21 media placements following the event in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, American Banker, Reuters, US Banker and Bloomberg. They also secured television appearance opportunities on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business. This far exceeded the goal of ten media placements, and resulted in a steady stream of Paul Hastings partner commentary in the media.

Third Place
Choate Hall & Stewart LLP with Greenfield/Belser, Ltd. — BIO Conference Booth Campaign

Named a “go-to-firm” by Corporate Counsel for intellectual property services, Choate set out to highlight its leading life sciences practice at BIO 2009, the industry’s premier conference, to develop new leads and further existing relationships.

The firm needed to develop a fresh take on their existing tradeshow booth in order to stand out in a crowd of more than 2,200 exhibitors. The goal was to create a promotion that left conference attendees with a memorable impression of the firm.

Through in-depth meetings with Choate’s key life sciences players, they were able to identify the unique value they bring to life sciences specialties important to the BIO audience.

The firm built at 5-foot licorice spool that recalled Choate’s unique metric rules. The life-size spool was wrapped with real red licorice, the dominate color of Choate’s brand and the central focal point of the booth. They ran a daily promotion for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii to the attendee that could correctly guess — either randomly or by bringing out their inner scientist to create the appropriate algorithm — how many feet of licorice was used to wrap the spool.

To drive home the theme, they gave out individually wrapped strands of licorice and red slinkies emblazoned with the Choate logo. To further promote this, the firm adopted an e-mail campaign strategy for attendees to ‘get wrapped up’ to see if they could unravel the answer.

Summary of Outcomes

What resulted was a powerful tradeshow booth that sparked excitement and surprised visitors. People were enthralled by the licorice spool and wondered how they had built it. There was a palpable buzz among attendees, who were drawn in by the challenge of the licorice calculation contest. This fun and creative atmosphere helped the firm to receive over 700 both visits, which included over 100 in-depth discussions between the attorneys manning the booth and new prospects and existing contacts, allowing them to achieve their goal of generating new leads and solidifying existing relationship.