The Year in Review: Our Look Back and Look Forward

Last month we started our Year in Review, and made it up through June. In Part Two, we finish off the highlights of 2004.

July

The regular July issue featured a great article by our board member Dawn Gertz, who is Director of Practice Development for the Business Transactions Department at Akin Gump. Dawn's article “Herding Cats and Motivating Teams: Geographic, Regional, and Practice Group Marketing” described how law firms with multiple offices or with lawyers who practice in different practice groups face challenges that are substantially different from the issues that single office firms or specialized boutiques must handle. This is true whether the larger firm has only a few practice groups or is a full service general practice firm as well as whether its offices are located in one state, across the same region of the United States, spread widely throughout the U.S., or both here and overseas.

The difficulties stem from the very nature of the multi-office firm (distance still does matter, even today) and the multi-practice firm (litigators, for example, are different from trusts and estates lawyers, and they are different from corporate practitioners). Additionally, the more lawyers who work at a firm, whether in the same location or different offices or whether in the same or different departments, the more likely it is that there will be lawyers with different levels of interest in marketing, different levels of motivation, and, ultimately, different levels of participation in the client development process. When combined with the fact that lawyers typically are trained to work alone ' although marketing requires that they work in a group ' and with the particular culture of the firm, the problems can seem daunting.

They can, however, be solved. Doing so requires three key elements: leadership, “buy-in,” and communication.

A firm that begins to formalize its marketing efforts must be committed to marketing. In large measure, this means that it must support the marketing department and make sure that it is seen as an equal team player, and it must be empowered by the leader of the group.

The firm's marketing leaders must be able to motivate the firm's lawyers. One way to do this is simply by recognizing the client development efforts of partners, counsel, and associates on a firm-wide or practice group level. Everyone must receive credit for new business developed; firms therefore should consider financially rewarding lawyers for their client development activities. At the very least, these actions can be highlighted in a firm newsletter or on its Intranet.

“Buy-in” is critical. Essentially, this means that all of the firm's lawyers, as well as the firm's marketing professionals, must be included in the firm's marketing efforts. This begins with the planning process, where everyone should participate in the development of a business plan, setting manageable goals and objectives, and should sign off on the final product.

The third element to a successful marketing effort is communication. Practice groups should meet on a regular basis, either by phone or in person, to discuss changes in the law affecting their practice and potential new business opportunities, and to update the group on client development projects, eg, client relationship building and article ideas In addition, the firm's marketing staff should frequently meet with the firm's lawyers in person and should regularly speak with them by phone. A great deal can be discussed at these times, from the progress on “action items” to the return on investment for particular events and sponsorships.

When lawyers across a firm's practice groups and physical locations successfully operate in teams and work towards building their firm as a recognized brand, client development efforts will be successful. Reaching that goal is not easy, but it can be done. It requires leadership that leads to “buy-in” being continually reinforced through an effective communications program.

We premiered our first Special Issue of Marketing The Law Firm with our Women and Diversity: The 'Best of' Women In Law Programs”. In this special two-part article Eva Wisnik and Jennifer Johnson of Wisnik Career Enterprises profiled ten law firms who have made decisive strides on fostering women in law programs and strengthening their initiatives in this area. The firms we profiled included Akin Gump in Washington, D.C., Barnes & Thornburgh in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bingham McCutchen, Epstein Becker & Greene,, Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz in Chicago, Kirkland & Ellis, McKenn a Long & Aldridge, Schwartz, Cooper, Greenberger & Krauss in Chicago, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold and Steel Hector & Davis.

In this Special Issue we were also privileged to have as a guest author, my personal hero, Diane Yu, the Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession whose article “Challenge and Change: The Gender Diversity Imperative for the Legal Profession” made a compelling case with her opening salvo that “There is not a single statistic that says that women lawyers have achieved equality in terms of pay, position, power or prestige-not one.”

In addition to our “Best of” and Diane Yu's article, Robyn Crowther, a shareholder at the firm of Caldwell, Leslie, Newcombe & Pettit in Los Angeles brought us a wonderful profile of her firm who can boast that it is “composed of more than 50% women lawyers, 25% gay or lesbian lawyers and a Native American shareholder.

In July we also presented a web audio for senior marketing executives “Advanced Law Marketing Summer Session” which focused on, among other topics:

• How to create a marketing and business development culture that resonates with everyone
• The communications component of marketing and business development
• What sales can and cannot deliver
• The marriage of marketing and technology.

Our panel of experts included Bob Ambrogi of Jaffe Associates, Jose Cunningham, now the CMO at Crowell & Moring, Jason Dinwoodie, now the Director of Marketing and Communications at Dewey Ballantine and Michael Hodes, Managing Partner of Hodes, Ulman, Pession & Katz.

August

The August issue included part two of our “Best of” Women in Law Programs. In addition, we a fabulous front-page article by Jason Dinwoodie, who sits on our Board, entitled “Publish or Perish!: Academic Clich' Offers Lawyers Valuable Lessions on the Road to Punditry”. The following is an excerpt from this fascinating piece:

As anyone who has attended a four-year university can attest, “publish or perish” is the mantra for budding academics looking to secure the permanent, and virtually untouchable, position of tenured faculty. In modern academia, many have eschewed that thought ' claiming that it places too great an emphasis on research and not enough on actual teaching.

However, more and more lawyers are beginning to grasp the thought that its time for them to take the baton from their academic colleagues ' as the pressures of law firm consolidation and the necessity to stand out in a crowded field demand an aggressive visibility and communications strategy. Simply saying that you are the best (insert name of practice type here) lawyer is not enough. It is what others say about you that gets to the heart of reputation ' and a favorable reputation is singular in growing and maintaining your practice.

Developing an effective media outreach function will go a long way towards enhancing your reputation in the marketplace. When Jonathan Glater, noted legal beat reporter for the New York Times, has you on his short list of “must have” sources for a particular issue, the underlying statement made to the reading, and purchasing, public is “this is someone who's opinion on this matter is reputable, trusted, and relied upon.” Not a bad thing for people to think about their outside legal counsel.

And the beautiful part about it: you didn't have to say it ' you let the reputation of the New York Times as a publication speak to your reputation as a lawyer. One of the most respected newspapers in the world certainly wouldn't want commentary from anyone that isn't among the most respected in their field, would they? But how do you get on Glater's and others list? By communicating (not marketing) and merchandising your media successes the same as you would your courtroom successes. There is a very deliberate progression to becoming a media pundit, much like there are prerequisites in a school curriculum before you are allowed to focus on your degree track.

In order to secure an authorship spot, contact the editor responsible for a particular publication, or feature section within that publication, and begin a dialogue about how you may contribute. Be mindful that, just as you would ask a potential client what their needs are prior to beginning legal representation on their behalf, you must also be prepared to meet the needs of the respective publication you are interested in publishing in. Be sure that your topic is newsworthy, one that has not been previously written about ad nauseum (think Sarbanes Oxley) and one that will not be written as an infomercial for your own firm.

Once you have secured a commitment from the editor, go about writing your article but keep a few things in mind:

• Make your article interesting to the reader, not to you.
• Draw conclusions. When it comes to articles, no one is really interested in a simple recitation of the facts. Give them something to think about.
• Don't miss your deadlines. The surest way to guarantee that you will not have the opportunity to write a second article is to leave an editor scrambling for a replacement at the last minute your first time out!

So you've got an article published in XYZ Law Journal. Now What? Once your article has appeared in print, now the real work begins. What do you do with it now (besides send a copy to your mother)? Merchandise it!

Just as you cannot become a tenured professor without a list of publications to your credit, you cannot become a media pundit without first authoring by-lined articles for those publications that are focused on the business of law. These articles will result in new business and media opportunities for you by demonstrating precisely the sort of thought leadership that clients are looking for when they are seeking to hire outside counsel, or when journalists are trying to find the perfect sources for their story.

September

In September we premiered our new quarterly supplement Sales in The Law Firm. The first issue featured a co-authored article by Mike O'Horo, President of Sales Results Inc. and Craig Levinson, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Brown Raysman. Their article entitled “A Marketing Program Without A Sales Component? Sheer Folly” took a look at how a law firm, in this case Brown Raysman, shaped a group of partners into an effective sales force.

The supplement also featured an article by our Board Member, Darryl Cross, Director of Business Development at Interface Software. Darryl's article “A Dash of Hope (And a Heaping Helping of Reality)” provided a blueprint to developing a sales architecture that every firm can benefit from.

In our regular issue, I was personally thrilled to have Barry Solomon, Executive Vice President of Interface Software, contributing an article entitled “CRM: When Choice Abounds, Choose Wisely”. In this article Barry gives us an insider's look at how choosing the right CRM solution can be among the most important strategic decisions a law firm makes. And with more choices then ever, making the right decision couldn't be more confusing. Following is an excerpt of Barry's article.

Best of breed CRM vendors market systems offering advanced applications that provide everything from centralized contact management to advanced relationship intelligence functionality. Low-end vendors hype simplicity and cheap licensing fees by limiting their offerings to the most basic contact management functionality.

Some vendors specializing in other back-office applications are taking a “business suite” approach, offering add-on “CRM modules” designed to extend the functionality of their primary product. And increasingly, large software providers that traditionally target Fortune 500 and midsize enterprises (but with no specific expertise in law) are hungry to tap new markets in this difficult economy and therefore are marketing their products to the legal space.

With so many CRM vendors vying for mind share, law firms are being bombarded with confusing messages. This article outlines some basic CRM principles that will help law firm marketers and other decision-makers better evaluate their choices in CRM technology.

The most common misconception about CRM is that it is a technology. In reality, CRM is a business strategy designed to support the firm's profitability and revenue goals. Prior to conducting your CRM software search it is important to understand exactly what you want to achieve. Whether your CRM strategy is ambitious or modest, knowing your goals and objectives is your first step. From there, it is critical to understand how that strategy fits into your current firm culture and business processes – and what must be changed to support your strategy.

At the heart of any CRM strategy ' whether basic or ambitious ' is the notion of centralized contact management. Most firms are plagued with the frustration of managing multiple lists that must be kept up to date, assembling contacts from myriad databases and Personal Information Managers (PIMs), and managing duplicates and errors simply to execute a mailing or marketing campaign. The firm's reputation, image and bottom line are dependent upon your ability to work with a clean and updated contact list to effectively communicate with clients, prospects and colleagues.

Beyond centralized contact and list management, most firms want advanced applications built into the CRM system that are able to leverage the centrally managed repository. Referring back to the strategy section of this article, firms should inventory their strategic objectives and then use the software selection process to evaluate which tools provide the relationship intelligence needed to support those objectives. Examples include:

• Client Management;
• Relationship Capital Management;
• Matter Management;
• Opportunity and Pipeline Management;
• Expertise & Experience Management;
• Marketing Automation; and
• Alumni Management.

Each lawyer will want to maintain his own version of the contact, without the firm centrally overwriting that version. Accordingly, the CRM solution must be flexible enough to provide lawyers with that level of control over their own contacts without creating duplicates in the system. Cultural barriers to adoption such as control are issues few vendors are aware of, and accordingly, their products will not accommodate the reality of how lawyers think. Therefore, it's also critical to know your vendor.

Understanding the vendor standing behind the product is as important as the product itself. Does the provider have experience selling into the legal industry? Do they understand your business challenges? The legal industry is unique, and therefore so are law firms' CRM requirements. If a vendor you're considering does not specialize in CRM for law firms ' make sure they have significant experience successfully implementing solutions for law firms. You must do your due diligence and ask for references.

And finally, some cautionary words about price. According to a recent Gartner Group study, over a 5-year period, CRM software licensing fees account for only 15% of the total cost of ownership of a CRM solution. (The Gartner Group, Research Note: Ten Tips for Lowering Your CRM Total Cost of Ownership, Beth Eisenfeld, May 2004.) This is a sobering statistic to many firms, especially those enticed by vendors offering CRM solutions for free or at suspiciously low prices. Even implementing a bare bones CRM package requires a commitment and investment in time and resources.

So, while price will always be an issue ' it should not supercede more important factors, such as whether the system you're considering provides the essential infrastructure necessary to succeed. The costs associated with a failed implementation and starting over from scratch can be numbing, not to mention career ending. Remember ' if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

October

The Web audio division presented a program on “Staffing a Law Firm Marketing Department … Efficiencies and Effectiveness … Size Matters. To date this program attracted the largest audience and presented topics that clearly resonated well within the professional law firm marketing arena. With a blue-ribbon panel of experts that included Jonathan Asperger, Director of Marketing at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Sandra Napoli D'Arco, Director of Marketing at Freeborn & Peters in Chicago, Craig Levinson (mentioned above), Roberta Montafia, CMO of Day Berry & Howard and Linda Sedloff Orton, President of Intelligent Marketing Solutions, the program covered a range of topics from conducting a needs assessment to communicating with firm management to being a hands on key marketing executive.

Our October issue included a front-page article by our Board member John Hellerman, a partner in Hellerman Baretz Communications LLC entitled “Forgest Your Firm; Market Your Partners focusing on why law firms spend so much time and money marketing the firms rather than the attorneys and (at most) practice groups that are the actual marketplace products. Here's a “Cliff Notes” look at John's article:

Law firms become branded by the quality and reliability of their “product lines” ' the work of their individual partners in different practice niches. A good analogy in the corporate arena is Nike. Within each of Nike's product lines (basketball, tennis, golf, etc.), the company markets and sells many different “brands” ' each brand with its own marketing strategy, demographics and purpose.

How does this apply? Well, this is going to be a strange piece of advice to read about in a publication called Marketing the Law Firm, but here goes: If you want the biggest return on investment (ROI) from your marketing dollars, stop trying to “brand” your firm. In fact, forget about marketing your firm altogether and instead, focus on marketing your products ' your lawyers. In consumer marketing, these would be called the company's “brands.”

Now, it's important to note that I am not suggesting that a firm market its lawyers like the Coca Cola Company would market Coke or Nike Inc. would market shoes. Of course it's true ' no matter what some might argue ' that the same tactics and strategies used to promote consumer products are NOT appropriate to promote professionals (people are not bars of soap, shoes, or bottles of soda). However, in the marketplace and in the context for looking at how and what to market, what I'm suggesting is this: Law firms are not Coke. Law firms are not Tide. Law firms are not Cheerios. In the legal marketplace, law firms are the Coca-Cola Company. Law firms are Proctor & Gamble. Law firms are General Mills.

The sooner a firm comes to realize that this is its role in the market, the faster it can apply its marketing investments to strategies and tactics that will actually drive business.

How much do you know about Coca-Cola Company? Did you know (or care) that Coca-Cola Company was founded in 1886, and the Company is the world's leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 400 beverage brands? Or that there corporate headquarters are in Atlanta, with local operations in over 200 countries around the world? I doubt it. We know Coke. We know Minute Maid. We know Dasani water. In fact, out of Coca-Cola's nearly 400 brands (products), as individual consumers we probably only know 10 or so, and only really care about two or three (if that).

Now, substitute “400 brands” with “400 lawyers” and the conclusion seems obvious. Invest in branding individual attorneys and practices (each with its own marketing strategy, demographics and purpose) and the reputation, position, and success of the firm as a whole will follow.

November

Our November issue presented another Special Supplement. This time we focused on Best of Law Firm Leaders in Marketing. I again enlisted the assistance of Wisnik Career Enterprises to assist me in putting together a profile of individuals who best exemplify true leadership in marketing. Those chosen come from a wide range of national and international firms. They include Randall Vickery, Chair of the Executive Committee of Freeborn & Peters, who took top honors and received outstanding recognition as the “Best of the Best”. Also on the list, Andrew Baum, Managing Principal of Darby & Darby, Perry Galler, Managing Partner of Phillips Nizer, Ralph Baxter, Managing Partner of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Bill Charyk, Managing Partner of Arent Fox and Buddy DuBose, Co-Managing Partner of Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman. Honorable mention was given to Jeff Haidet, Vice Chairman of McKenna Long & Aldridge.

I did some writing in 2004 but the article I am most proud of appeared in the November issue. The article entitled “Separate But Equal”: How Diversity, Pro Bono, Recruiting and Marketing Can Be Aligned to Create the 'Perfect” Law Firm” focused on the creation of an architecture that supports growth and profitability. Here's a thumbnail of the article:

Four initiatives equally important to the landscape of growth and profitability have for the most part remained separate programs within the scope of law firm planning. These initiatives have been the subject of scrutiny within the legal profession while being included as the criteria and methodology on many lists including The American Lawyer's “A” List. Diversity, pro bono, recruiting and marketing comprise the newly minted platinum, gold, silver and bronze best practices standard for today's law firms. Add to the mix client service and relations and you have the makings of growth and profitability. In this article I will introduce you to an aligned architecture where diversity, pro bono, recruiting and marketing create the “perfect” law firm.

To begin, we need to take into consideration the commonality or thread that contributes to creating this alignment. This, of course, refers to the culture of the firm, one in which everyone participates and there is little or no organizational friction. Without this, the initiatives we are discussing here cannot take shape or succeed.

Much has been written about the importance of diversity, but few law firms understand how to approach this important initiative other than by administering human resources and recruiting programs that enhance their “scorecard” numbers. This methodology is shortsighted and, per usual for law firm management, is a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that has caused the legal profession a good deal of consternation. While Corporate America has embraced diversity at many levels, most law firms have yet to understand its importance or implications.

Of late there has been a significant downturn in the commitment of law firms to pro bono work. This is in large part due to the demands on billable hours for associates and partners that tie hours to compensation and bonus. When it comes right down to it, law firms should be the bedrock of the pro bono movement. Throughout the country, Legal Aid programs are in dire straits because there are not enough lawyers to meet the needs of those who cannot afford representation. Something is wrong ' very wrong ' and no statistic of hours per lawyer or percentage of lawyers with more than 20 hours of pro bono time can make a case for what's right with a profession whose commitment to helping others is the centerpiece of their lives from the first day they are admitted to practice.

While on-campus recruiting is still a mainstay of many of the larger law firms, lateral recruiting has become an important focus for mid-sized and smaller firms where clients have all but refused to pay for training of young associates, research and drafting of documents. Law firms have been forced to absorb the costs of training associates and for the mid-sized and smaller firms, many have all but abandoned on-campus recruiting; instead opting for lateral hiring where there is at least the guarantee of new business and potential for growth and business development.

Of the four initiatives, marketing is the most controversial and is still, after close to 15 years, winding its way through the maze of professional service acceptance. For this author, it is as ' if not more ' important than the other three initiatives. It provides the “blueprint” that will enable diversity, pro bono and recruiting to align themselves to form a structured architecture that will enable law firms to become both more proactive and profitable. Simply stated and to paraphrase: “If you don't build it, no one will come.” If you cannot go out on the road with your initiatives in hand, whether visual or verbal, then you have little hope of fostering external communication to reinforce and promote your programs. What's more, you will be unable to get the “buy in” from your constituencies ' namely, clients, potential clients, referral sources, laterals and students.

And so it goes …

It's been a great year and there's more to come in 2005. Stay tuned for the premier of a new publication and a continued stream of Web audio conferences.

---

Elizabeth Anne “Betiayn” Tursi Law Journal Newsletters Web Audio Division [email protected]

Last month we started our Year in Review, and made it up through June. In Part Two, we finish off the highlights of 2004.

July

The regular July issue featured a great article by our board member Dawn Gertz, who is Director of Practice Development for the Business Transactions Department at Akin Gump. Dawn's article “Herding Cats and Motivating Teams: Geographic, Regional, and Practice Group Marketing” described how law firms with multiple offices or with lawyers who practice in different practice groups face challenges that are substantially different from the issues that single office firms or specialized boutiques must handle. This is true whether the larger firm has only a few practice groups or is a full service general practice firm as well as whether its offices are located in one state, across the same region of the United States, spread widely throughout the U.S., or both here and overseas.

The difficulties stem from the very nature of the multi-office firm (distance still does matter, even today) and the multi-practice firm (litigators, for example, are different from trusts and estates lawyers, and they are different from corporate practitioners). Additionally, the more lawyers who work at a firm, whether in the same location or different offices or whether in the same or different departments, the more likely it is that there will be lawyers with different levels of interest in marketing, different levels of motivation, and, ultimately, different levels of participation in the client development process. When combined with the fact that lawyers typically are trained to work alone ' although marketing requires that they work in a group ' and with the particular culture of the firm, the problems can seem daunting.

They can, however, be solved. Doing so requires three key elements: leadership, “buy-in,” and communication.

A firm that begins to formalize its marketing efforts must be committed to marketing. In large measure, this means that it must support the marketing department and make sure that it is seen as an equal team player, and it must be empowered by the leader of the group.

The firm's marketing leaders must be able to motivate the firm's lawyers. One way to do this is simply by recognizing the client development efforts of partners, counsel, and associates on a firm-wide or practice group level. Everyone must receive credit for new business developed; firms therefore should consider financially rewarding lawyers for their client development activities. At the very least, these actions can be highlighted in a firm newsletter or on its Intranet.

“Buy-in” is critical. Essentially, this means that all of the firm's lawyers, as well as the firm's marketing professionals, must be included in the firm's marketing efforts. This begins with the planning process, where everyone should participate in the development of a business plan, setting manageable goals and objectives, and should sign off on the final product.

The third element to a successful marketing effort is communication. Practice groups should meet on a regular basis, either by phone or in person, to discuss changes in the law affecting their practice and potential new business opportunities, and to update the group on client development projects, eg, client relationship building and article ideas In addition, the firm's marketing staff should frequently meet with the firm's lawyers in person and should regularly speak with them by phone. A great deal can be discussed at these times, from the progress on “action items” to the return on investment for particular events and sponsorships.

When lawyers across a firm's practice groups and physical locations successfully operate in teams and work towards building their firm as a recognized brand, client development efforts will be successful. Reaching that goal is not easy, but it can be done. It requires leadership that leads to “buy-in” being continually reinforced through an effective communications program.

We premiered our first Special Issue of Marketing The Law Firm with our Women and Diversity: The 'Best of' Women In Law Programs”. In this special two-part article Eva Wisnik and Jennifer Johnson of Wisnik Career Enterprises profiled ten law firms who have made decisive strides on fostering women in law programs and strengthening their initiatives in this area. The firms we profiled included Akin Gump in Washington, D.C., Barnes & Thornburgh in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bingham McCutchen, Epstein Becker & Greene,, Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz in Chicago, Kirkland & Ellis, McKenn a Long & Aldridge, Schwartz, Cooper, Greenberger & Krauss in Chicago, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold and Steel Hector & Davis.

In this Special Issue we were also privileged to have as a guest author, my personal hero, Diane Yu, the Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession whose article “Challenge and Change: The Gender Diversity Imperative for the Legal Profession” made a compelling case with her opening salvo that “There is not a single statistic that says that women lawyers have achieved equality in terms of pay, position, power or prestige-not one.”

In addition to our “Best of” and Diane Yu's article, Robyn Crowther, a shareholder at the firm of Caldwell, Leslie, Newcombe & Pettit in Los Angeles brought us a wonderful profile of her firm who can boast that it is “composed of more than 50% women lawyers, 25% gay or lesbian lawyers and a Native American shareholder.

In July we also presented a web audio for senior marketing executives “Advanced Law Marketing Summer Session” which focused on, among other topics:

• How to create a marketing and business development culture that resonates with everyone
• The communications component of marketing and business development
• What sales can and cannot deliver
• The marriage of marketing and technology.

Our panel of experts included Bob Ambrogi of Jaffe Associates, Jose Cunningham, now the CMO at Crowell & Moring, Jason Dinwoodie, now the Director of Marketing and Communications at Dewey Ballantine and Michael Hodes, Managing Partner of Hodes, Ulman, Pession & Katz.

August

The August issue included part two of our “Best of” Women in Law Programs. In addition, we a fabulous front-page article by Jason Dinwoodie, who sits on our Board, entitled “Publish or Perish!: Academic Clich' Offers Lawyers Valuable Lessions on the Road to Punditry”. The following is an excerpt from this fascinating piece:

As anyone who has attended a four-year university can attest, “publish or perish” is the mantra for budding academics looking to secure the permanent, and virtually untouchable, position of tenured faculty. In modern academia, many have eschewed that thought ' claiming that it places too great an emphasis on research and not enough on actual teaching.

However, more and more lawyers are beginning to grasp the thought that its time for them to take the baton from their academic colleagues ' as the pressures of law firm consolidation and the necessity to stand out in a crowded field demand an aggressive visibility and communications strategy. Simply saying that you are the best (insert name of practice type here) lawyer is not enough. It is what others say about you that gets to the heart of reputation ' and a favorable reputation is singular in growing and maintaining your practice.

Developing an effective media outreach function will go a long way towards enhancing your reputation in the marketplace. When Jonathan Glater, noted legal beat reporter for the New York Times, has you on his short list of “must have” sources for a particular issue, the underlying statement made to the reading, and purchasing, public is “this is someone who's opinion on this matter is reputable, trusted, and relied upon.” Not a bad thing for people to think about their outside legal counsel.

And the beautiful part about it: you didn't have to say it ' you let the reputation of the New York Times as a publication speak to your reputation as a lawyer. One of the most respected newspapers in the world certainly wouldn't want commentary from anyone that isn't among the most respected in their field, would they? But how do you get on Glater's and others list? By communicating (not marketing) and merchandising your media successes the same as you would your courtroom successes. There is a very deliberate progression to becoming a media pundit, much like there are prerequisites in a school curriculum before you are allowed to focus on your degree track.

In order to secure an authorship spot, contact the editor responsible for a particular publication, or feature section within that publication, and begin a dialogue about how you may contribute. Be mindful that, just as you would ask a potential client what their needs are prior to beginning legal representation on their behalf, you must also be prepared to meet the needs of the respective publication you are interested in publishing in. Be sure that your topic is newsworthy, one that has not been previously written about ad nauseum (think Sarbanes Oxley) and one that will not be written as an infomercial for your own firm.

Once you have secured a commitment from the editor, go about writing your article but keep a few things in mind:

• Make your article interesting to the reader, not to you.
• Draw conclusions. When it comes to articles, no one is really interested in a simple recitation of the facts. Give them something to think about.
• Don't miss your deadlines. The surest way to guarantee that you will not have the opportunity to write a second article is to leave an editor scrambling for a replacement at the last minute your first time out!

So you've got an article published in XYZ Law Journal. Now What? Once your article has appeared in print, now the real work begins. What do you do with it now (besides send a copy to your mother)? Merchandise it!

Just as you cannot become a tenured professor without a list of publications to your credit, you cannot become a media pundit without first authoring by-lined articles for those publications that are focused on the business of law. These articles will result in new business and media opportunities for you by demonstrating precisely the sort of thought leadership that clients are looking for when they are seeking to hire outside counsel, or when journalists are trying to find the perfect sources for their story.

September

In September we premiered our new quarterly supplement Sales in The Law Firm. The first issue featured a co-authored article by Mike O'Horo, President of Sales Results Inc. and Craig Levinson, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Brown Raysman. Their article entitled “A Marketing Program Without A Sales Component? Sheer Folly” took a look at how a law firm, in this case Brown Raysman, shaped a group of partners into an effective sales force.

The supplement also featured an article by our Board Member, Darryl Cross, Director of Business Development at Interface Software. Darryl's article “A Dash of Hope (And a Heaping Helping of Reality)” provided a blueprint to developing a sales architecture that every firm can benefit from.

In our regular issue, I was personally thrilled to have Barry Solomon, Executive Vice President of Interface Software, contributing an article entitled “CRM: When Choice Abounds, Choose Wisely”. In this article Barry gives us an insider's look at how choosing the right CRM solution can be among the most important strategic decisions a law firm makes. And with more choices then ever, making the right decision couldn't be more confusing. Following is an excerpt of Barry's article.

Best of breed CRM vendors market systems offering advanced applications that provide everything from centralized contact management to advanced relationship intelligence functionality. Low-end vendors hype simplicity and cheap licensing fees by limiting their offerings to the most basic contact management functionality.

Some vendors specializing in other back-office applications are taking a “business suite” approach, offering add-on “CRM modules” designed to extend the functionality of their primary product. And increasingly, large software providers that traditionally target Fortune 500 and midsize enterprises (but with no specific expertise in law) are hungry to tap new markets in this difficult economy and therefore are marketing their products to the legal space.

With so many CRM vendors vying for mind share, law firms are being bombarded with confusing messages. This article outlines some basic CRM principles that will help law firm marketers and other decision-makers better evaluate their choices in CRM technology.

The most common misconception about CRM is that it is a technology. In reality, CRM is a business strategy designed to support the firm's profitability and revenue goals. Prior to conducting your CRM software search it is important to understand exactly what you want to achieve. Whether your CRM strategy is ambitious or modest, knowing your goals and objectives is your first step. From there, it is critical to understand how that strategy fits into your current firm culture and business processes – and what must be changed to support your strategy.

At the heart of any CRM strategy ' whether basic or ambitious ' is the notion of centralized contact management. Most firms are plagued with the frustration of managing multiple lists that must be kept up to date, assembling contacts from myriad databases and Personal Information Managers (PIMs), and managing duplicates and errors simply to execute a mailing or marketing campaign. The firm's reputation, image and bottom line are dependent upon your ability to work with a clean and updated contact list to effectively communicate with clients, prospects and colleagues.

Beyond centralized contact and list management, most firms want advanced applications built into the CRM system that are able to leverage the centrally managed repository. Referring back to the strategy section of this article, firms should inventory their strategic objectives and then use the software selection process to evaluate which tools provide the relationship intelligence needed to support those objectives. Examples include:

• Client Management;
• Relationship Capital Management;
• Matter Management;
• Opportunity and Pipeline Management;
• Expertise & Experience Management;
• Marketing Automation; and
• Alumni Management.

Each lawyer will want to maintain his own version of the contact, without the firm centrally overwriting that version. Accordingly, the CRM solution must be flexible enough to provide lawyers with that level of control over their own contacts without creating duplicates in the system. Cultural barriers to adoption such as control are issues few vendors are aware of, and accordingly, their products will not accommodate the reality of how lawyers think. Therefore, it's also critical to know your vendor.

Understanding the vendor standing behind the product is as important as the product itself. Does the provider have experience selling into the legal industry? Do they understand your business challenges? The legal industry is unique, and therefore so are law firms' CRM requirements. If a vendor you're considering does not specialize in CRM for law firms ' make sure they have significant experience successfully implementing solutions for law firms. You must do your due diligence and ask for references.

And finally, some cautionary words about price. According to a recent Gartner Group study, over a 5-year period, CRM software licensing fees account for only 15% of the total cost of ownership of a CRM solution. (The Gartner Group, Research Note: Ten Tips for Lowering Your CRM Total Cost of Ownership, Beth Eisenfeld, May 2004.) This is a sobering statistic to many firms, especially those enticed by vendors offering CRM solutions for free or at suspiciously low prices. Even implementing a bare bones CRM package requires a commitment and investment in time and resources.

So, while price will always be an issue ' it should not supercede more important factors, such as whether the system you're considering provides the essential infrastructure necessary to succeed. The costs associated with a failed implementation and starting over from scratch can be numbing, not to mention career ending. Remember ' if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

October

The Web audio division presented a program on “Staffing a Law Firm Marketing Department … Efficiencies and Effectiveness … Size Matters. To date this program attracted the largest audience and presented topics that clearly resonated well within the professional law firm marketing arena. With a blue-ribbon panel of experts that included Jonathan Asperger, Director of Marketing at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Sandra Napoli D'Arco, Director of Marketing at Freeborn & Peters in Chicago, Craig Levinson (mentioned above), Roberta Montafia, CMO of Day Berry & Howard and Linda Sedloff Orton, President of Intelligent Marketing Solutions, the program covered a range of topics from conducting a needs assessment to communicating with firm management to being a hands on key marketing executive.

Our October issue included a front-page article by our Board member John Hellerman, a partner in Hellerman Baretz Communications LLC entitled “Forgest Your Firm; Market Your Partners focusing on why law firms spend so much time and money marketing the firms rather than the attorneys and (at most) practice groups that are the actual marketplace products. Here's a “Cliff Notes” look at John's article:

Law firms become branded by the quality and reliability of their “product lines” ' the work of their individual partners in different practice niches. A good analogy in the corporate arena is Nike. Within each of Nike's product lines (basketball, tennis, golf, etc.), the company markets and sells many different “brands” ' each brand with its own marketing strategy, demographics and purpose.

How does this apply? Well, this is going to be a strange piece of advice to read about in a publication called Marketing the Law Firm, but here goes: If you want the biggest return on investment (ROI) from your marketing dollars, stop trying to “brand” your firm. In fact, forget about marketing your firm altogether and instead, focus on marketing your products ' your lawyers. In consumer marketing, these would be called the company's “brands.”

Now, it's important to note that I am not suggesting that a firm market its lawyers like the Coca Cola Company would market Coke or Nike Inc. would market shoes. Of course it's true ' no matter what some might argue ' that the same tactics and strategies used to promote consumer products are NOT appropriate to promote professionals (people are not bars of soap, shoes, or bottles of soda). However, in the marketplace and in the context for looking at how and what to market, what I'm suggesting is this: Law firms are not Coke. Law firms are not Tide. Law firms are not Cheerios. In the legal marketplace, law firms are the Coca-Cola Company. Law firms are Proctor & Gamble. Law firms are General Mills.

The sooner a firm comes to realize that this is its role in the market, the faster it can apply its marketing investments to strategies and tactics that will actually drive business.

How much do you know about Coca-Cola Company? Did you know (or care) that Coca-Cola Company was founded in 1886, and the Company is the world's leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 400 beverage brands? Or that there corporate headquarters are in Atlanta, with local operations in over 200 countries around the world? I doubt it. We know Coke. We know Minute Maid. We know Dasani water. In fact, out of Coca-Cola's nearly 400 brands (products), as individual consumers we probably only know 10 or so, and only really care about two or three (if that).

Now, substitute “400 brands” with “400 lawyers” and the conclusion seems obvious. Invest in branding individual attorneys and practices (each with its own marketing strategy, demographics and purpose) and the reputation, position, and success of the firm as a whole will follow.

November

Our November issue presented another Special Supplement. This time we focused on Best of Law Firm Leaders in Marketing. I again enlisted the assistance of Wisnik Career Enterprises to assist me in putting together a profile of individuals who best exemplify true leadership in marketing. Those chosen come from a wide range of national and international firms. They include Randall Vickery, Chair of the Executive Committee of Freeborn & Peters, who took top honors and received outstanding recognition as the “Best of the Best”. Also on the list, Andrew Baum, Managing Principal of Darby & Darby, Perry Galler, Managing Partner of Phillips Nizer, Ralph Baxter, Managing Partner of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Bill Charyk, Managing Partner of Arent Fox and Buddy DuBose, Co-Managing Partner of Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman. Honorable mention was given to Jeff Haidet, Vice Chairman of McKenna Long & Aldridge.

I did some writing in 2004 but the article I am most proud of appeared in the November issue. The article entitled “Separate But Equal”: How Diversity, Pro Bono, Recruiting and Marketing Can Be Aligned to Create the 'Perfect” Law Firm” focused on the creation of an architecture that supports growth and profitability. Here's a thumbnail of the article:

Four initiatives equally important to the landscape of growth and profitability have for the most part remained separate programs within the scope of law firm planning. These initiatives have been the subject of scrutiny within the legal profession while being included as the criteria and methodology on many lists including The American Lawyer's “A” List. Diversity, pro bono, recruiting and marketing comprise the newly minted platinum, gold, silver and bronze best practices standard for today's law firms. Add to the mix client service and relations and you have the makings of growth and profitability. In this article I will introduce you to an aligned architecture where diversity, pro bono, recruiting and marketing create the “perfect” law firm.

To begin, we need to take into consideration the commonality or thread that contributes to creating this alignment. This, of course, refers to the culture of the firm, one in which everyone participates and there is little or no organizational friction. Without this, the initiatives we are discussing here cannot take shape or succeed.

Much has been written about the importance of diversity, but few law firms understand how to approach this important initiative other than by administering human resources and recruiting programs that enhance their “scorecard” numbers. This methodology is shortsighted and, per usual for law firm management, is a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that has caused the legal profession a good deal of consternation. While Corporate America has embraced diversity at many levels, most law firms have yet to understand its importance or implications.

Of late there has been a significant downturn in the commitment of law firms to pro bono work. This is in large part due to the demands on billable hours for associates and partners that tie hours to compensation and bonus. When it comes right down to it, law firms should be the bedrock of the pro bono movement. Throughout the country, Legal Aid programs are in dire straits because there are not enough lawyers to meet the needs of those who cannot afford representation. Something is wrong ' very wrong ' and no statistic of hours per lawyer or percentage of lawyers with more than 20 hours of pro bono time can make a case for what's right with a profession whose commitment to helping others is the centerpiece of their lives from the first day they are admitted to practice.

While on-campus recruiting is still a mainstay of many of the larger law firms, lateral recruiting has become an important focus for mid-sized and smaller firms where clients have all but refused to pay for training of young associates, research and drafting of documents. Law firms have been forced to absorb the costs of training associates and for the mid-sized and smaller firms, many have all but abandoned on-campus recruiting; instead opting for lateral hiring where there is at least the guarantee of new business and potential for growth and business development.

Of the four initiatives, marketing is the most controversial and is still, after close to 15 years, winding its way through the maze of professional service acceptance. For this author, it is as ' if not more ' important than the other three initiatives. It provides the “blueprint” that will enable diversity, pro bono and recruiting to align themselves to form a structured architecture that will enable law firms to become both more proactive and profitable. Simply stated and to paraphrase: “If you don't build it, no one will come.” If you cannot go out on the road with your initiatives in hand, whether visual or verbal, then you have little hope of fostering external communication to reinforce and promote your programs. What's more, you will be unable to get the “buy in” from your constituencies ' namely, clients, potential clients, referral sources, laterals and students.

And so it goes …

It's been a great year and there's more to come in 2005. Stay tuned for the premier of a new publication and a continued stream of Web audio conferences.

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Elizabeth Anne “Betiayn” Tursi Law Journal Newsletters Web Audio Division [email protected]