Blogs

The following is a compilation of recent news in the legal industry and legal marketing/business development profession. LMA does not fact-check this content and accepts no liability for content contained herein; original publishers are noted at the top of each brief. LMA weclomes members and industry practitioners to share their news and commentary through this resource. To contribute to the LMA Intelligence Briefings, send your briefs, along with a link to the full article, to LMA Headquarters in care of Sara Giacalone.

Headlines

5 Types of Audience Targeting on LinkedIn (for Your Law Firm Content)
Close to Home: Minority Firms Reach Into the Community for Their Clients
Coupon, You’re On: 3 Opinions Say Lawyers May Participate in Daily-Deal Websites
Fordham Law Offers a Marketing Class—Will Other Schools Follow?
Gift of the Gab
Going Mobile: Legal Marketers Discover QR Codes
How to Create a Professional Video or Webinar Presentation
Law Firm Security
Law Firm's Free Help for Startups Strikes a Chord
Re-Engineering the Business of Law
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: How B2B Law Firms Can Leverage LinkedIn for Leads
Biggest Lawyers Grab Fee Bounty


5 Types of Audience Targeting on LinkedIn (for Your Law Firm Content)
Legal Marketing Scoop (04/19/2012)
There are five key types of audiences targeting on LinkedIn that should be of interest to law firms. Each group carries its own particular strength. The first is the professional network, which is valuable as a measure of the personal and professional relationships that each attorney in a firm has established. Lawyers should use LinkedIn to grow a trusted audience and share appropriate law firm content within their networks. The second audience is LinkedIn groups, which can have daily and weekly group emails that firms should participate in. While many attorneys tend to join LinkedIn groups of other attorneys, instead they should join the groups that cater to the industries in which firms work, such as energy or finance. These groups can be used to disseminate meaningful, targeted content that a firm produces. The third type of audience is company profiles on LinkedIn, which makes it easy to get information to "followers" on LinkedIn and even measure engagement on a firm's shares. A firm's Web site can add a button that encourages visitors to follow the firm directly on LinkedIn. A fourth audience is JD Supra's Legal Updates on LinkedIn, an app that can help a firm reach people beyond their specific followers and include those who have chosen to hear about specific legal issues. The fifth audience is LinkedIn Answers, a highly targeted feature on the site that allows a firm or lawyer to showcase specific expertise.
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Close to Home: Minority Firms Reach Into the Community for Their Clients
ABA Journal (05/01/12) Hanna, Janan
Minority and female attorneys often rely on a combination of word-of-mouth, traditional face-to-face networking, and the Internet to market their firms. However, when interviewed about their practices, many minority and female attorneys emphasized that keeping close ties with their ethnic community and among friends and family members is the most effective way to bring in new business. "It’s the concentric-circles theory," says Dale Minami of Minami Tamaki in San Francisco, who has been practicing for 40 years and was one of the founding members of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. "We’ve done a really rough anecdotal survey of where we get our cases and it’s really through family, friends, former clients, folks who have referred you cases and people you just know." For example, Minami sent 250 CDs of the Japanese-American jazz band Hiroshima to clients and former clients as holiday gifts, and the 15-lawyer firm also distributed pedestrian-safety fliers in English and Japanese throughout organizations in Japantown to stay connected to the Asian American community. Christopher W. Quinn II, an attorney in Detroit, offered a free consultation to the subscribers of the African-American newspaper the Michigan Chronicle, places advertisements for his firm, Quinn & Associates, in restaurants and bars he frequents, and posts on Facebook and Twitter whenever he wins in court. "It’s really important to maximize your inner circle, the people you’re closest to," says Quinn, "because from there they work as marketing agents for you."
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Coupon, You’re On: 3 Opinions Say Lawyers May Participate in Daily-Deal Websites
ABA Journal (05/01/12) Francis Ward, Stephanie
Ethics opinions issued recently by three state bar associations suggest that it is acceptable for lawyers to participate in the deal-of-the-day coupon bandwagon. The ethics question for lawyers is whether the type of payment arrangement used by the websites amounts to fee splitting with nonlawyers, which is prohibited by Rule 5.4 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, as well as the ethics rules of all the states. Opinions issued late last year by the South Carolina Bar, the North Carolina State Bar, and the New York State Bar Association all concluded that the fee arrangements pass muster under their versions of Model Rule 5.4. Lawyers in those states received the green light to participate in deal-based websites. Some ethics experts say deal-based advertising is appropriate for flat fees, but not retainers or legal services provided on an hourly basis.
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Fordham Law Offers a Marketing Class—Will Other Schools Follow?
The Careerist (04/30/2012) Chen, Viva
Some lawyers begin marketing themselves the moment they make partner, or their first day of practice. At Fordham Law School, students have already begun to market themselves as lawyers. Students are encouraged to treat every class like it is a business meeting, develop a business plan, blog regularly about a practice area, and make practice pitches to hypothetical clients. These students also learn from law firm marketing directors and consultants. Professor Silvia Hodges, who has a Ph.D. in law firm marketing, says that being a lawyer now is primarily about business. She points out that business and marketing experience will "protect partners from being deequitized, or worse, squeezed out during the recession." Hodges says that many law schools are resistant to practical courses, as it may have too much of a vocational focus.
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Gift of the Gab
The Lawyer.com (04/30/12)
Attorneys are supporting charities, arts and cultural organizations, and the education sector increasingly via non-financial aid such as in-kind donations, staff volunteering, and pro-bono services, encouraged by their bosses to expand their skills to support local communities. An analysis by Factary of donations by leading British law firms finds that there are four primary drivers for operating corporate responsibility programs, including to align corporate responsibility work to counter industry criticism; to focus on doing what they do best for community benefit; to energize staff by promoting opportunities for volunteering and giving; and to create nuanced connections between business objectives and community investment work, generating networks and relationships that support business development. The research finds that firms are being more selective in the type of charities they support, choosing causes that can yield benefits to both the firm and the charity. "While the charity can benefit from the core business skills, including professional, financial and logistical expertise of the firm, the firm benefits from good publicity and building brand awareness through association with an organization, a deeper understanding of its own ­customer base and staff development benefits through volunteering and pro bono activities," the analysis says. The Factary report lists education, young people, and rights as the three most popular areas for charitable giving in 2010 in terms of value, while other segments included arts, health, welfare, international development, housing, and employment, with preferences reliant on whether the support is from firms' charitable trusts or foundations, or staff fundraising operations. The study finds that environmental, heritage, and elderly charities are not reporting contributions from U.K. law firms. Among the suggestions the report makes for law firms and charities to enhance the donation-publicity cycle is for firms not to depend on the perception of generosity, and for nonprofits to concentrate on pro bono and offer to publicize their donations.
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Going Mobile: Legal Marketers Discover QR Codes
Virginia Lawyers Weekly (04/30/12) Rodriguez, Sarah
Legal marketers are tapping Quick Response (QR) codes as tools for delivering their messages to increasingly tech-savvy consumers who are embracing mobile technology such as smartphones and tablet computers. Eighty percent of law firms plan to start employing QR codes this year, according to a 2011 Vizibility survey. Eighty-five percent of the polled legal marketers were familiar with QR codes, and 35 percent already use them in their marketing programs. The generation of such codes requires no technical expertise or any specialized software. QR codes are finding their way into law firm brochures, lawyers' business cards, print ads, and promotional material for events. Emily Krause with Richmond, Va., firm Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen says the firm utilizes QR codes on tradeshow giveaways, and users can download the firm's mobile app onto their smartphone by scanning the image. Sands Anderson's Russell Lawson thinks the best use of QR codes for law firms is for crafting a code that connects to a landing page featuring a lawyer's photo and links to multiple information sources for the lawyer. Firms considering enhancing their marketing strategy with QR codes should consider a number of points, such as establishing a clear goal and objective for the code to meet. QR landing pages also should set up a call to action through an interactive component, and be augmented for mobile browsers. Size and placement of the QR codes are critical to ensure their easy scanning and good Internet reception, while the codes should generally be deployed on print material rather than online. Legal marketers also should keep track of QR code scans, not assume that all smartphones are created equal, emphasize simplicity of QR code deployment, and perform rigorous testing on the code's usability.
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How to Create a Professional Video or Webinar Presentation
Law Technology News (04/01/12) Vol. 19, No. 2, P. 58; Rodriguez, Carlos
A lot of work must be invested before, during, and after a professional video or webinar presentation in order to ensure its success, and one best practice before the meeting is to choose the right platform as well as the right location. The rooms and equipment should be reserved, and the appropriate personnel assigned to the event. You must find the right level of illumination and avoid a "ghost light" effect that gives the speaker an aura, while the speakers' faces must be visible to the audience through adequate front lighting and less back lighting. The use of tablecloths or pads can avoid distracting reflections, and microphones should be charged and positioned to avoid feedback. Once the right equipment and setting are chosen, a dress rehearsal with the presenters should be carried out, and the same hardware and software used in the actual presentation should be employed for the rehearsal. The time of day of the rehearsal also should be the same time of day as the real meeting, and be in the same room/location. If content is to be shared, you should ensure that it is properly formatted so that it can be broadcast directly, while everyone should be made to understand ahead of time how a question-and-answer period will be managed. For the actual meeting/presentation, speakers should arrive at least 20 minutes before the event to do quick sound/video checks, and someone from your team should log on to the conference so that final tests can be performed. Camera angles and video display must be in accordance with what was agreed to during the test stage, while you should be prepared for things to go wrong. Duplicates and backups should be available in case problems arise. It is recommended that the support staff involved in the logistics confer after the meeting to assess what worked and what did not so that adjustments can be made for the next event.
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Law Firm Security
Security Management (05/01/12) P. 28; Anderson, Teresa
Global law firm Covington & Burling LLP developed a video as part of its new security initiative that highlights the firm's access control system, childcare facility security, and emergency go kit. Since the video was made, the firm's San Francisco office has doubled in size, and it opened new offices in Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Beijing. The video helped staff be more prepared when the August 2011 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Virginia and prompted mass evacuations. The go kit radio helped evacuating employees who wanted news about any disruptions the quake caused. Since the video, the company also developed a separate emergency response Web page on the firm's intranet. In case of an emergency, the system sends out an email that asks employees to check in. Once they are checked in, employees have access to appropriate emergency plans. This helps confirm that employees are accounted for, and allows work to continue in many cases.
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Law Firm's Free Help for Startups Strikes a Chord
New Hampshire Business Review (05/18/12) Callahan, Kathleen
The New Hampshire-based Devine Millimet law firm's Business Launch Initiative offers free advice and assistance to new businesses seeking to incorporate, and the benefits it has yielded for the firm include early entry into the startups as they expand, and the cultivation of long-term relationships. "It was more of selling a vision, because this isn't for the most part about giving away free legal services," says Angela Martin, head of Devine's small business group. "This is also about having a vision for building up our corporate practice and bringing in businesses we want to represent for a long time." Devine's Steve Cohen reports that nearly one-third of businesses that incorporated through the Business Launch Initiative have returned already on a fee basis. For instance, since launching his business, Bioscience Solutions Group, last summer through Devine, Brett Gordon has already returned twice on a paid basis. The initiative is helpful in the sense that it gets new businesses started on the right foot with the aim of being the opposite of online form companies such as LegalZoom, according to Cohen. "We oftentimes get clients who have been set up two, three, four, 10 years, and we look at their corporate records and they're a mess," he notes. "They never issue stock certificates, all they did was file a simple form at the secretary of state's office, they really haven't done what's necessary to limit their liability and to act, look or smell like a corporation or a limited liability company—but they don't know any better because they've bought a form." Cohen says Devine is providing startups with legal advice, tax advice, and structural advice.
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Re-Engineering the Business of Law
New York Times DealBook Blog (05/07/12) Poor, J. Stephen
Long-term success requires businesses to improve continually and reimagine how they operate in the face of changing competition and market forces; but this innovative strategy is largely absent from large law firms. Instead, the measures become balancing rate growth versus discounted fees, lawyer productivity measured in tenths of hours, and recruiting the partner with a book of business from one firm to another. These address the traditional measures of law firm profitability, but the needs of purchasers are changing. The pressure to deliver better services using fewer resources is at an all-time high, and corporate counsel are increasingly looking for firms that deliver greater value. The changing demands of clients require the legal services profession to find different paths to deliver value to purchasers. Lawyers must ask themselves nontraditional questions: how to apply resources more effectively, to shorten cycle time and lower the cost of their work product and other deliverables, while raising the level of service. Traditionally, large law firms fit into largely homogenous business models, but that has changed and will continue to shift. One firm's experience presents three core lessons: firms must constantly adapt and implement their learning and innovating as they examine and reimagine their own business model; firms cannot settle for partial implementation of inconsistent philosophies; and firms must work through a change management process in order to deal with any push-back they may receive from lawyers, stakeholders, and clients.
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Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: How B2B Law Firms Can Leverage LinkedIn for Leads
Rainmaker Blog (05/10/12) Fairley, Stephen
LinkedIn has been found to be 277 percent more effective in generating leads than Facebook and Twitter. As such, it stands to reason that B2B law firms can get the most out of LinkedIn when it comes to lead generation. There are several key steps to accessing this potential: linking ones blog to a LinkedIn profile; sharing slides from stellar presentations; promoting a practice to a target audience based on industry, location, company size, job function and seniority level; creating banner ads for promotion; e-mailing group members to promote things; and using LinkedIn Answers, which provides a great platform for networking, discussion, and thought leadership.
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Biggest Lawyers Grab Fee Bounty
Wall Street Journal (04/15/12) Smith, Jennifer
A report from TyMetrix and Corporate Executive Board found that the highest-priced U.S. lawyers are getting more expensive, while the lowest-priced attorneys are struggling to keep pace with inflation. Partners in the top quarter of hourly billers hiked their average price to $873 an hour last year, up 4.9 percent from the year before; partners in the bottom quarter, meanwhile, charged an average of $204 last year, up just 1.3 percent. Alternative fee structures can push effective billing rates to several thousand dollars an hour at the very highest end. "There are a large number of lawyers today who find themselves in the uncomfortable position of being, for lack of a better phrase, commodity service providers," notes Wolverine World Wide attorney Ken Grady. "You don't see a lot of big rate increases being asked for in those areas, and that's not something they expect to get." Among practices commanding high fees are high-end bankruptcy, tax, and corporate work, says Valeo Partners. At the lower end, less expensive alternatives such as legal outsourcing firms and contract attorneys have made it harder for lawyers to justify rate hikes. Furthermore, most attorneys tailor their rates depending on the client or task. Valeo estimates that high-billing partners in the 12 law firms with the most revenue as ranked by American Lawyer magazine charge between $250 and $400 an hour more than low-billing partners at the same firm, and legal experts expect prices to go even higher.
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