The Best of MLF 2007

In July we said goodbye to Mel Morrione's Corner Office column, so I thought that perhaps to pay homage to Mel and his fabulous column that gave us enlightenment on management issues in law firms, would highlight a small sample of his 2007 offerings. Here in its entirety is Mel's January 07 column entitled 'Growth: An Imperative for Survival'

Do your current clients provide a steady stream of work that keeps all your lawyers busy? Are new clients constantly knocking at your door with new work based solely upon your firm's reputation? If that's your situation, stop here and read no further. You are in law firm nirvana.

Unfortunately, the other 99% of your managing partners are not so lucky. Your firm's clients are probably taking an increasing amount of work in-house, putting work you used to take for granted out for bids, and just seeming to want more work for lower fees. You probably have competitors who are getting more aggressive and who seem to be developing relationships with some of your best clients, or seem to be courting some of your best partners. And you may even have partners who complain that the firm's earnings should be much higher and that they should be earning more. Welcome to today's world of law firm dynamics.

If you're going to respond to these market forces, you can't stand still. Inaction is not an option. As managing partner, you have got to recognize that growing the firm is the key to survival, because in today's environment, a firm that does not grow will be overtaken by the competition and wither.

The Case for Organic Growth

The question is how to grow your firm. While the recent spate of mergers by major firms would suggest that merger must be the answer, it is no panacea. Although the merger route might look like a quick fix, most mergers are born out of weakness and create more problems in the long run than they solve in the short run. Actually, mergers divert management attention and firm resources from addressing the real problem ' the inability to grow the firm organically.

Growing the firm with your own people, which I call organic growth, is the only viable long-term solution. But it is not easy, because growth means marketing. Growing a law firm organically requires that all of the partners participate in activities designed to expand the practice and increase the visibility of the partners and the firm in the marketplace. Success requires building a marketing mindset into the fabric, or culture, of the firm.

Can Your Partners Be Made into Organic Gardeners?

To answer this question you need first to examine the qualities of your equity partners. Smart, technically competent, willing to work hard, sound lawyers ' great, we'll take all that for granted. But do they act as if they are personally responsible for growing the business?

All too many partners in large and mid-sized firms view the practice of law as a profession ' not a business. They conduct themselves as if the firm is an institution, and they stand ready to handle any work that magically comes through the door. Ask yourself how many sound lawyers you can afford to carry as equity partners who cannot 'market' themselves or the firm? In spite of what many lawyers would like to think, a law firm, regardless of its size, is a business. And the owners of that business have an obligation to grow the business by keeping the pipeline filled with new work and new clients.

Successful entrepreneurs who have built their own businesses understand not only the process for making the product or providing the service, but the importance of getting and keeping customers, hiring and training good people and controlling costs. Without the ability to access potential buyers, the product or service would just gather dust on a shelf, or in the case of a law firm just sit in the office waiting for the phone to ring. So how do your partners stack up as entrepreneurs?

Create a Marketing Mindset

In order to grow the firm, you, as managing partner, have got to engender an entrepreneurial spirit in your partners and change their attitudes toward marketing. This kind of change can be implemented only if you send a clear message that equity partners must act like owners. And owners must take responsibility for growing the business.

You must create an environment in which marketing is the means of implementing a strategic plan for overall firm growth, with each practice area setting growth goals and coordinating and monitoring the activities of each of its partners.

Creating a marketing mindset means that every partner must participate in marketing, and marketing must be acknowledged to be an important part of every partner's responsibility. For many firms this will be more than a change in culture ' it will be a cultural revolution.

So What Is Marketing?

Marketing professional services requires an understanding of the current and future needs of existing and prospective clients and the ability to explain how you can fulfill them better than anyone else. Clients buy legal services from lawyers ' lawyers they meet in person. A lawyer may have a great reputation and come highly recommended, but only with face-to-face contact can a client see how a lawyer will react to him or her and the situation. Much as most lawyers are loathe to admit it, marketing is, as Betiayn Tursi, our Editor-in-Chief, describes it in the MLF 50, a 'contact sport.' You've got to be out there, where the clients are, to meet and engage them. A client relationship is one of trust, and trust can be built only on a personal relationship.

Profile of a Rainmaker

Except for a tiny supply of natural-born rainmakers, most lawyers don't really know how to market themselves or their firms. Even those with good intentions always defer marketing and seldom get around to it, because client matters always manage to get in the way. If you have a few rainmakers in your firm, you will probably recognize these traits:

• They've developed a niche or specialty, and they write and speak regularly at professional and industry forums.
• They take leadership positions in organizations, go to events and work hard at meeting new prospects.
• They are never too busy to help on a matter or do a personal favor.
• They are always available to their clients and are genuinely interested in their clients' satisfaction.
• They frequently mix their business and social lives and develop close personal relationships with their clients.

But aren't these the qualities that every equity partner should have? And shouldn't you encourage the development of these qualities in all of your partners? You have probably also found that even rainmakers willing to share their contacts have difficulty teaching younger partners how to emulate themselves. Often too, the generational chasm between their contacts and the younger partners is too difficult to bridge.

So would you rather bet your firm's future on the backs of a handful of aging rainmakers or try to encourage your partners to think like entrepreneurs and develop a marketing mindset in all of them?

Getting Partners to Build Marketing into Their Daily Lives

The law business is driven by billable hours, and firms that track only billable time send an unmistakable message that only billable time is important. So if you want your partners to spend time marketing, you must assure them that time and effort spent in marketing activities will be tracked and evaluated just like billable hours.

In order that partners understand the level of marketing activity expected of them, you will need to set a minimum number of hours that each partner should devote to marketing. An appropriate level is 250 hours per year. Although many partners would take exception to this, who could reasonably argue that an equity owner of a business should not spend five hours per week exploring how to provide additional services to existing clients and seeking out new ones.

Now comes the hard part. Where will the time come from? That will depend upon your current standards for billable time. If you hold your partners to 1900 billable hours, adding 250 on top of probably 100 hours for other administrative duties would push them up to about 50 hours per week. Not an inordinate level for a partner in a major firm, but you could suggest that more billable work be pushed down to associates, where it probably belongs anyway, to get them to spend 250. On the other hand, if your standard billable hour objective is lower, asking them to spend five hours per week growing the firm's business is far from unreasonable.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that to get partners to build marketing into their daily lives, they have got to be confident that the hours they spend marketing will be considered to be as important as billable time. For many firms, this will be a cultural revolution, but anything short of this would be futile. Unless you are willing to commit to this kind of change, you might just as well not start because there would be little chance of success.

Evaluate Effort, Not Achievement

The focus of a marketing program must be on effort, not achievement. Marketing, like gardening, takes time; you plant today, you reap tomorrow. The payoff is seldom immediate, and success requires perseverance. Can everybody become a rainmaker? No. But everyone can participate in activities that will add value to the firm's marketing program.

At the beginning of the year, every partner should complete a written personal marketing plan that sets forth how the time will be spent; e.g., target prospects, speeches, articles, organizations, personal contacts, etc. One size does not fit all, and each partner's plan should be tailored to his or her strengths. Your partners will need coaching in what, and how, to market, and will need help both planning and implementing their marketing activities.

While it's easier to sell additional services to existing clients, access to new clients is best achieved by developing recognition for your partners in the marketplace, which I refer to as developing their 'star power.' Clients always want to retain the best, and encouraging your partners to develop their reputations as leaders in their practice areas will enhance their star power. Your partners will soon come to realize that what's good for the partner is also good for the firm.

How to Motivate Your Partners

There are only two ways to motivate partners in a law firm: peer pressure and compensation. You can create peer pressure by holding every partner to the same standards of marketing activity and creating forums for them to share their activities and achievements. Since most partners will usually climb on the bandwagon, those who do not will tend to be pressured, either directly by their practice heads, or indirectly by their visibility.

But if, after a period of time, peer pressure doesn't work, you may have to use the ultimate motivator: compensation. If partners know that their marketing activity, of lack of it, will be factored into their compensation, marketing will undoubtedly take on a higher priority.

How Can You Make This Work?

Your chances of success will be directly proportional to your level of commitment. This is not a process you can start and leave unattended. You've got to be steadfast. It's a long-term program that will require regular reinforcement to maintain its momentum. In addition to coaching for the partners, you may also find that an outside adviser could be very helpful to you in developing the program, helping with its implementation, and pacing and monitoring its progress. What is needed is the equivalent of a coxswain in the back of the boat to steadily beat the drum, until the partners embrace the change and it becomes ingrained into the firm culture.

You should also enjoy the added benefit that comes from the fact that partners in a firm that is growing feel a sense of euphoria, which encourages them to stay with the firm because they feel it provides the best vehicle for them to achieve their professional goals and dissuades them from seeking opportunities elsewhere. Just imagine all your partners out there in the marketplace developing new contacts and new business. For any managing partner, that would be law firm nirvana.

February

In February, we welcomed Christy Burke, who took over the Place to Network column. Christy has done a fabulous job of taking a fresh look at networking. Here's an excerpt from Christy's first column for MLF.

Lunching Up ' From the Meal to the Deal

Gone are the days of the three-martini lunch! Today's frenetic business pace makes a long, leisurely meal seem both improbable and impossible for lawyers. After all, 'How in the world will I get all this work done if I waste 75 minutes on lunch?' For most lawyers, lunchtime means hunching over takeout at a cluttered desk, anxiously reading and responding to
e-mails from their Blackberry devices.

The unforgiving mantra of 'more billable hours' continues to apply pressure to legal professionals and can lead to extremes. Even the most extroverted lawyer can unwittingly get in the habit of squirreling away in an office barricaded by document-filled Banker's Boxes. Attorneys who travel frequently and live in a virtual world of laptops, VPNs and PDAs have difficulty finding time for face-to-face meetings with their current clients, much less prospective ones.

Has the importance of billing time all but eclipsed the potential gain of going out to lunch with a prospective client? As profits per partner keep skyrocketing, the case needs to be made for the old-fashioned business lunch. Clever 'rainmakers' have a keen eye for business development. They have realized that this forum presents a brilliant opportunity for networking and smoking out new opportunities. New clients aren't lining up outside your office so get smart and get out of that chair!

By carefully choosing and planning lunches with key contacts, marketing savvy lawyers are building their practices, their profits and are actually fueling their billable hours. They have learned how to 'Lunch Up' and are reaping the benefits.

The Art of 'Lunching Up'

Lunching Up is a multi-phased networking strategy that was explained to me at a LFMP (Law Firm Media Professionals) meeting by attorney Doug O'Brien. Doug, who is a broadcaster, lawyer and long-time public relations adviser to the New York State Bar Association, says that Lunching Up is a unique contact-leapfrogging method originally developed by an attorney colleague. What sets Lunching Up apart from regular prospecting is that you first set your sights on meeting with a junior level or lateral contact at the prospect company rather than fixating at the outset on speaking with the decision-maker. According to O'Brien, the lawyer who invented Lunching Up 'swore by it' as a way to gradually slide into the decision-maker's office to win the prospect's business.

Here's how Lunching Up works. The attorney, aided by the firm's marketing department, identifies a target company or department within a company to pitch. If possible, the attorney networks within the firm or with external colleagues to get a contact name at the company. If you can set up and confirm a lunch date and actually manage to have that lunch with the general counsel or executive right away, congratulations ' you are in the top .001% of the class and you probably don't need to even be reading this article. For the rest of you, the Lunching Up technique offers an alternative strategy that is totally within your grasp. Though it takes a little more time and expense, it is a proven method to climb the ladder and indeed reach the top.

March

Our regular columnists Chuck and Evan Polin (Practicing Building Skills) wrote a very interesting piece in the March issue:

If You Fail to Plan, Then You Plan to Fail

Achieving success in your business development efforts takes a great deal of goal setting and planning. Would you begin working on a matter without planning for the outcome you would like to achieve? When you think about the successes in your life, did they mostly occur by accident, or did you plan and work hard toward a goal? Our guess would be that most of the successes in your life came to you through your hard work and planning, and sometimes even with some sacrifices. Successful business development occurs in much the same way.

How to Plan

In the course of your busy work schedule, it is sometimes hard to get everything done. It is easy to get overwhelmed with daily activities and lose track of time. Unless you specifically plan time to include business development activities in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule, they will fall by the wayside. You must make the time for business development if you want to advance in your career. It is imperative that you spend two to three hours per week implementing your business development action plan. The first step in creating this plan is to focus on a goal. Think about what type of work you would like to do and what a good potential client might look like. How much business would you like to develop? What are your personal strengths and weaknesses? In what types of prospecting activities do you believe you would excel? Do you have many personal and business contacts, or do you enjoy meeting new people and attending networking events? Perhaps you enjoy getting involved in charities, or writing articles. Before you develop your action plan, decide which activities would best fit in with your situation and personality style.

Four Elements

In developing your action plan, it is important to consider four elements. The first element to consider is what activities will be in your plan. Will you choose to get involved in marketing and advertising, or instead, learn how to ask for and get referrals from current clients and contacts? You might decide to attend networking events, write a white paper, or develop a Web site or newsletter. The second element to consider is your budget. Track the dollars you spend on business development and decide which activities are the most cost effective for you. The third element is to track your time. As professionals, you do not have extra time to waste on activities that are not working for you. Track how much time each of your business development activities is costing you. The last element to consider is your return on investment (ROI). It is important that you spend time on productive activities that are leading to business generation. Create your plan and measure the results.

Conclusion

It is important to understand, that for most of us, business development skills do not come naturally. It is helpful to have a coach or mentor who will help us to development and implement these skills, and to hold us accountable.

Consider what will happen if you don't plan for and succeed in business development. You will most likely lose control over your career and may even become a part of someone else's plan. On the other hand, consider what could happen if you really become an expert in business development. If you set goals, focus on those goals and make a plan to achieve those goals, you can insure your success

April

Our regular columnist Joshua Fruchter, who co-authors the Technology In Marketing column with Nancy Manzo, wrote a great piece with an alluring title:

What Law Firms Can Learn from How the Swiss Sell Cheese

A marketing consultant and friend, Robert Kaplan, recently shared a story with me from one of his overseas trips. He had been traveling in Switzerland when he chanced upon a cheese store. It was like nothing he had ever seen in the States. Upon entering, he was immediately approached by a man dressed in a sterile white coat (almost like a surgeon) bearing a silver platter filled with cheese. Wielding a slender knife, the gentleman cut off of a piece and beckoned Robert to sample a slice. Politely, Robert accepted and tasted the morsel. Much to his surprise, he became enamored of this variety and proceeded to buy a 2.5-kg cut.

Nice story, but what has it got to do with law firm marketing? Well, pretty clearly, it was only after Robert had been offered a taste of the cheese that he was willing to invest in 2.5 kilos. It was the 'taste' that triggered the sale. We see this marketing approach used in many other contexts, such as when beauty consultants spray you with a dose of perfume as you enter the cosmetic section of a department store.

Selling Expertise

Law firms don't sell cheese or perfume ' they sell expertise. So how does one provide prospective clients with a 'taste' or 'spray' of something so intangible? The same question could be asked concerning existing clients. Given the marketing axiom that it is more cost-effective to generate additional business from existing clients than to sign up new accounts, how does a firm cross-sell other areas of expertise to existing clients whose exposure to the firm has been limited thus far to a single practice area?

A logical place to promote a firm's expertise would be its Web site, which can be populated with alerts, articles, press releases and other content that highlight the firm's past successes, areas of specialization and general legal prowess. The problem is that prospective clients need to go to the Web site before they can browse it. Given that most law firm Web sites cover a broad swath of content from attorney bios to multiple practice area descriptions, it is unlikely that the typical law firm Web site will rank highly in Google or other search engines for the kind of targeted search queries that prospective clients might run to locate a law firm specializing in a particular area.

By the same token, most existing clients don't visit their law firms' Web sites on a regular basis. While clients may frequent sites like Yahoo, Google and other popular Web destinations, surveys show that they typically visit their law firm's Web site for very functional and practical purposes such as finding an attorney's phone number or e-mail address. In short, because it is difficult to attract qualified client traffic to a law firm Web site on a regular and ongoing basis, firms need to consider how they can more effectively 'pull' existing and prospective clients into their Web sites for a 'taste' of the firm's expertise.

Go Blog

Blogs are the solution for prospective clients. Blogs tend to rank high in the search engines because they deliver what search engines want: targeted content updated frequently with lots of inbound and outbound links. As such, to the extent a firm wants to maximize the likelihood that prospective clients will 'sample' its expertise in say, the fields of 'international transfer taxes' or 'Brownfields development,' launching a blog on those topics is an excellent choice. By regularly publishing short posts on developments and trends in the often esoteric practice area covered by a blog, a firm is essentially offering the universe of prospective clients a 'taste' of its expertise in that area.

HTML e-Mail

For existing clients, HTML e-mail is the preferred solution for reaching out. By employing the same graphic look and feel as your Web site, an HTML e-mail is effectively a 'traveling' site that provides recipients with a 'taste' of the specialized content available on your primary site. With HTML, you don't have to wait for clients to visit your Web site. You can send a piece of your Web site to them!

To grab readers, the content in a blog or e-mail should be compelling, timely, relevant and grabbing. It should be representative of the firm's best thinking on a particular subject. The goal is that once prospective and/or existing clients get a 'taste' of the firm's expertise in a particular field from a blog or e-mail, they will be tempted to explore further by clicking through to the firm's Web site, and eventually initiating an inquiry.

Conclusion

Ultimately, blogs and HTML e-mail are tools for leveraging a company's investment in its Web site. They are the digital equivalent of the salesforce that leaves a manufacturer's warehouse each morning to pitch and bring samples to prospects and customers ' one-on-one, mobile, and high-impact. And the great thing about blogs and HTML e-mail is that they are cost-effective. So you don't have to spend large additional sums to dramatically increase the ROI on your Web site using these tools.

May

In May, we premiered the Client Speak column written exclusively by Allan Colman. Allan had previously written an article for us, but with the following piece he officially became a regular columnist.

A Matrix of Understanding: What Does 'Client Knowledge' Actually Mean?

In my last piece, we concluded with a question once asked in a popular song of the 1960s: 'Do You Want to Dance?' Implicit in the tuneful allusion is the need to transition your focus, and your firm's focus, from talking to selling ' from planning the dance to actually requesting the honor of one.

Admittedly, our metaphor breaks down rather quickly. After all, one needs no particular understanding of a prospective dance partner to close the waltz deal or the mambo deal or even the funky chicken deal. It's just a dance, after all, and not yet a developed relationship.

The professional services deal is an altogether different proposition. Here we are talking about relationships, in the most fundamental professional sense. In this ballroom, a whole matrix of understanding must underlie the decisive 'Do you want to dance' question before you dare ask it.

Client Knowledge

We choose the word 'matrix' advisedly. To finally close the deal, there are a number of key elements that must be linked. You need to match your own self-knowledge to your knowledge about the client. You need to know enough about both yourself and the buyer to determine how and to what extent ' or ' if at all ' you can finally serve the corporate need. By now, 'knowing the client' is a marketing bromide and a fairly tired one at that. To reinvest the mantra with actionable meaning, law firms must understand the in-house dynamic ' they must know how in-house counsel actually think ' in very specific terms.

First, what are the buyer's professional values? You need to know enough about the client to know the client's perception of you, your firm, and your practice groups. Specifically:What kind of commitments does the buyer/client expect the seller/firm to make? Knowledge results in then decisively making those commitments or else not wasting your time with a client who wants too much for too little.

What are the buyer's expectations in terms of rate structure? Knowledge is the ability to tell the difference between rate-shoppers, on the one hand, and, on the other, in-house lawyers who don't feel secure in a safety buy unless they're certain that your top-end partners will be immersed in the work.

What are the expectations about winning versus settling? Client knowledge developed along such narrow questions leads to a more fundamental, macro-level understanding ' namely, does in-house counsel want a firm that actually strategizes or a firm that dutifully files briefs and hopefully wins in court?

What are the buyer's needs arrayed across a broad spectrum of potential legal services? Client knowledge here means knowing when a cross-sell will be welcome and when it won't.

Second, how many baskets are your eggs in? At the most practical level, you need to know the buyer's internal situation. While recent and current clients are obviously the best source of new engagements, are your relationships numerous and broad enough to withstand the departure of a general counsel or associate general counsel or chief litigation counsel? Beyond the law department, can you survive a new CEO or other top executive? Will you always have at least one referral source or internal advocate at day's end?

Third, why has a competitor bested you? What do they know about the client that you don't? Why did the associate GC hire a particular firm? Conversely, based on your knowledge of the client, what are the competition's vulnerabilities? Here, client knowledge allows you to spot openings based on how the buyer views a broad spectrum of law firms. Track the client's outside hires ' is there a pattern?

Is there some reason an oil company hired a particular lawyer with no apparent oil industry experience? Odds are, by answering that question, you may glean at least one powerful practical insight into the company that will serve you in very good stead further down the line or with similar industry buyers as well. Simply talk to their in-house lawyers, for goodness sake. Take them to lunch, ask them why they hired so-and-so and (diplomatically) is it working out so far? Be sure to pick up the tab.

Competitive Differentiation

From client knowledge, we naturally transition to competitive differentiation, a key point in building the matrix.

Examine professional research. Client knowledge can begin with certain practical steps. In that regard, our 'Do you want to dance?' metaphor might still be useful. Has your prospective dance partner smiled or scowled at you from across the dance floor? In the professional services ballroom, how do clients respond when the responsible partner asks for an introduction to others in the corporation, both in-house lawyers and non-lawyer executives? If there's reluctance, there's a problem.

When inside counsel actually ask to meet more members of your team, they may or may not expect to be billed for the pleasure. Our resolute advice is to simply not do so. Remember too, such meetings are excellent opportunities to train other members of your client team in the fine art of client relationships ' and, by definition, in client knowledge-seeking as well.

In-house lawyers expect to profit from such meetings ' perhaps by learning something they didn't know before that's actually useful to them, or by being presented with collaborative opportunities to advance their own individual professional goals. Such collaboration could take the form of co-written articles, for example, or making joint presentations at industry events attended by diverse audiences.

The more time you spend with the clients, the more knowledge of them you stand to gain ' and if that time is spent in truly substantive endeavors, the door to client knowledge swings open even wider. Such endeavors could range from simple collaterals to all-important community projects, from co-sponsored seminars to aggressive diversity initiatives.

In our next article, we'll be exploring how you can recruit in-house clients as parties to your own marketing. We'll look at some of the specific co-marketing possibilities that in-house lawyers are likeliest to value. To be sure, marketing the law firm is not an us-them proposition.

Quite to the contrary, what begins as a dance could even end in marriage.

June

In my estimation; I feel lucky to have Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams as the person spearheading the Professional Development column. Here's a piece written by Sharon that I thought was particularly interesting:

Minding Your Firm's Ps & Qs

I started conducting etiquette-training sessions in the mid 90s. The typical program focused on good manners and business protocol. Fast-forward to the new millennium and I am discussing etiquette topics that were unknown a decade ago, like appropriate use of cell phones, PDAs and electronic mail. Interesting thing about etiquette: It constantly changes to keep up with society, technology and new business philosophies. Who would have thought or accepted the notion of 'business casual' anytime other than on 90-degree summer days? Or that a named partner would be called by his or her first name?

Unfortunately, along with dressing down our attire and our diminished show of respect for station or attained status, we have also lost our common courtesies and basic levels of good etiquette. Look around your firm and observe. I challenge you to spend time listening and watching how the partners, associates and staff interact with each other. To help you in your observations, look for the following types of etiquette circumstances.

• Have people stopped saying 'please' and 'thank you' for basic niceties?
• Do the lawyers know the firm's protocol for meetings, retreats and other activities?
• Do people introduce each other to visitors, clients or other new faces in the office?
• At meetings, are people seated in an arrangement that is conducive to a positive working situation?
• Are basic dining and table manners missing?

A Major Issue

Now that you have observed the need for some etiquette training, here are some other items you can place in your arsenal to help convince management that this should be offered. First is increased exposure from articles published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and similar publications identifying etiquette as a major issue in the business world. As Generation Y is entering the work force and the Boomers are moving out, there is a marked difference in the level of sophistication of business interactions. Second, and the most important reason to offer an etiquette tune- up, is when you receive feedback from others about the poor manners of one of your partners, associates or staff members. Simple acts like welcoming clients, offering a seat or pronouncing a difficult name correctly can warm a client's heart. On the other hand, when partners read Blackberrys during meetings, take cell phone calls or otherwise show a lack of respect for the clients' time, it can be deadly to the relationship.

Offering an etiquette program at your firm will help improve all aspects of your firm's image. Everything being equal between two lawyers, the one with good etiquette and a polite manner will win the client, his/her colleagues, and the staff's support. As long as the program that is offered is upbeat, positive and presented in an effective manner, it will be perceived in an affirmative way.

There are a few issues that might stand in the way of executing this new initiative. If top management does not perceive there is a need for this training, it will never be accepted as an activity that can improve the firm. It is important not to implement this in a remedial manner, because if this happens the very people you want to attend might be insulted so they refuse to participate. Lack of money to hire a speaker and lack of space to host such a program would also be obstacles to overcome.

For Your Consideration

Before implementing an etiquette a program, here are few more things to consider:

• What do you really want to accomplish by offering this program?
• Why do you think it is important?
• Who should attend?
• When is the best time to offer this program?
• Where would you conduct the program?

Be sure you have answered the above questions, because a well-designed program is the key to getting good audience attendance, and hopefully good reviews, so others will want to attend future programs.

Finding a Trainer

The next step is finding the right person to conduct your training. There are two options: an in-house person, or an outside consultant. There are a variety of certification courses available for an in-house person to attend to become 'qualified,' at least in content knowledge, to conduct a training session. Beware of this option, however, because it is like a person teaching horseback riding, but never having ridden before he or she took the three-day 'how to teach riding' class. How ingrained is the true nature of understanding etiquette if one has not been practicing it his or her whole life?

As for an outside expert, I had 109,000 hits when I googled etiquette consultants. To find the right one to fit your firm's culture, you must review his or her credentials and call at least four or five references. I recommend an in-person interview so you can tell if your candidate's personality will mesh with your firm. Of course, the final decision should be based on the content of the program the consultant intends to deliver.

Content

When reviewing program content, look for a combination of basic dining and general etiquette skills as a start. Added to this, look for content that expands into client relationship skills that can cover topics such as being a host and dealing with electronic communications. Proper correspondence may be a lost art in the e-mail world, but old-fashioned written notes should be addressed as a form of good etiquette. And finally, depending on your firm's needs, a discussion of proper attire might be appropriate.

There are a multitude of topics that can be, and maybe for your firm, should be addressed through an etiquette workshop. But no matter the content, a well-planned business etiquette program will provide the members of your firm with the skills and knowledge to handle themselves in most any situation. Good manners and proper etiquette will lead to a welcoming and comfortable environment that will set your firm apart from the competition.

July

Our column Media & Communications Corner is written by members of the Jaffe Associates team. In July, Jason Milch did a profile of Theresa Jaffe, Chief Marketing Officer of Jenner & Block LLP:

When Jenner & Block's Chief Marketing Officer Theresa Jaffe was being recruited for her current job nearly eight years ago, she became intrigued by the marketing challenge that the then-87-year-old powerhouse Firm represented.

'Jenner & Block had a sterling reputation in the marketplace ' great lawyers, great public service commitment, an excellent client base and a history of delivering exceptional results for its clients, be they paying or pro bono,' Jaffe says. 'The challenge wasn't about building the brand that many law firms at the time were (and still are) facing, but rather identifying the distinct attributes of the firm and truly marketing these. The firm needed to leverage the sizable success it had experienced over the years and reposition itself in the changing competitive landscape.

'The challenge from a marketing perspective was to creatively leverage the existing reputation by converting it into an organic brand that would resonate with the clients, the marketplace, recruits and within the firm,' Jaffe continues. 'I felt the opportunity presented by Jenner & Block was a unique one.'

With a 30-year career that included experience in the accounting, consulting, technology, health care and nonprofit industries, Jaffe arrived at the firm in 2000 after having spent the previous 2.5 years as National Director of Marketing at Katten Muchin Zavis LLP (now Katten Muchin Rosenman). Upon arrival, she conducted a comprehensive marketing assessment, which resulted in a report to firm management, 'Current versus Desired State Marketing,' that benchmarked the firm for marketing best practices in more than 35 discreet marketing activities along a continuum of processes. From there, priorities and timetables were agreed-upon and staff recruitment began.

Hiring an Expert Staff

First, Jaffe hired Senior Marketing Manager Murray Coffey, an attorney and former executive with Hubbard One; and Public Relations Manager Darryl Van Duch, also an attorney and former Chicago Bureau Chief of The National Law Journal, to serve in key leadership positions in the newly formed Marketing Department ' the first in the firm's long history.

'Murray and Darryl shared my understanding of the valuable identity that Jenner & Block had formed, and just as importantly, the wide range of activities that would be necessary to maintain and enhance the brand over the long term in an increasingly competitive environment,' Jaffe says. 'They understood that the key to successfully marketing Jenner & Block would be in leveraging its substantive legal acumen.'

Everything with a Purpose

Jaffe and her team have one simple but absolute rule, 'Everything that we, as a Marketing Department, do must be tied to the firm's Strategic Plan.' Jaffe further explained, '[That plan] was created nearly eight years ago and clearly articulates the values that drive Jenner & Block. It is the framework for every business decision at the firm. As marketers, this plan provides us with the big picture and is the underpinning for everything we do.'

While focusing on the Strategic Plan may sound simple in theory, Jaffe notes that with the multitude of marketing opportunities available to law firms across many different mediums, it is, at times, easy to lose sight of the big picture.

And Jaffe ensures her team always has that 'big picture' in mind. The Department's mission statement is openly posted throughout the Marketing Department, and a chart shows how the Marketing Department's mission ultimately supports the Firm's mission and values. Another flow chart lays out all potential marketing activities and ties them back to the firm's mission statement and overall objectives.

When it comes to making Jenner & Block attractive to prospects, Jaffe, Coffey and Van Duch agree that marketing is most effective and its benefits maximized, when it integrates a number of activities and functional areas of the Firm. Jenner & Block's Marketing Department serves the entire Firm including Practice Groups, Legal Recruiting, Pro Bono and Diversity, Human Resources and Professional Development Departments.

'You cannot effectively market a professional services firm in a vacuum,' says Jaffe, 'Marketing must be integrated into the fabric of the firm.'

Van Duch adds, 'Each individual marketing activity or technique we employ is an important component of our overall strategy because they complement, reinforce and build upon one another.'

'We constantly monitor the correlation between advertising and media placements and visits to our Web site and the bios of our attorneys,' Coffey says. 'So while we know that a certain initiative may generate more traffic than another, we also know that for the long-term, there needs to be a balance among all activities.'

This by no means implies that Jenner & Block just does a little bit of everything and hopes that it works out, Jaffe says. 'Again, every activity in which we engage must fit with the firm's overall objectives. If it doesn't, then we won't do it.'

Public Relations: The Gateway to Business Development

While Jenner & Block does use a wide range of marketing activities, Jaffe says that her department focuses substantial resources on initiatives that provide relevant, high quality third party credentialing, such as media placements, speaking engagements, surveys, rankings and awards.

'The function of PR is to position the firm so that when attorneys make new business presentations to potential clients, the prospect walks into the meeting already having a positive image of [us],' Van Duch says. 'The key to building lasting relationships with the media is to be knowledgeable of what reporters and editors need and provide lawyers who are ready, willing and able to satisfy that need,' he continues.

Jaffe adds, 'By always knowing what the media is looking for, we create a win-win situation. Our attorneys win because they are quoted by a reputable media outlet on a topic that relates to their practice, and the reporters win because they get the quotes that they need to round out their stories.'

Van Duch also notes that when it comes to media placements, 'the Internet has completely transformed legal PR to the point where information is now so easy to find via key word searches, that a placement in a wider variety of credible media outlets, whether print or online, will do wonders. Given the almost indefinite archive the Web represents, the stories and placements also have much longer lives than ever before.'

Jenner & Block's public relations efforts also focus heavily on generating bylined article opportunities for its attorneys in leading business and trade publications, something that Jaffe says, plays to their strengths.

'Jenner & Block partners are informed and knowledgeable in a wide array of legal topics, so one of the most effective ways for the firm to credentialize itself is through bylined articles and cutting edge alerts.' Jaffe says, 'By helping partners share this knowledge with legal and business audiences, we create potential new business opportunities, while simultaneously promoting the Jenner & Block brand.'

Much of the firm's good news relating to its attorneys' courtroom victories, successfully closed deals and public service are summarized on its content-rich, news-driven Web site, www.jenner.com, making it a destination not only for those looking for information about the firm, but for legal news in general.

'Our goal in creating the Web site was for it to be an informational hub,' Coffey says. 'We wanted to take the content being generated by our partners and create an easy-to- use tool that could benefit clients, potential recruits, the media and the Bar.' A great example of this are the Resource Centers found on the Jenner.com homepage, which give users access to in-depth legal information in areas as wide ranging as amicus briefs filed in the Guantanamo Bay cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, to up-to-the-minute information on climate change law and legislation. We closely monitor traffic to our site and know that Jenner.com generates exceptional traffic because people know it as a site where they can find the legal information they need.'

Alliances and Advertising: Another Cornerstone

Jenner & Block's approach to advertising is not what one might expect from a 470-lawyer firm. The firm does not undertake any large-scale advertising campaigns, as many firms its size do.

'We use advertising to further publicize our good news and as a vehicle to promote and reinforce our brand,' Jaffe says. 'Because we already have an established brand, large-scale image campaigns provide limited benefit.'

Jenner & Block instead prefers to spend its advertising dollars more strategically, forming alliances with trade organizations and sponsoring industry events like InsideCounsel magazine's SuperConference, for which the Firm has been the exclusive presenting sponsor for the last six years. Jaffe notes that many of these sponsorships also include advertising, with the added benefit of knowing that the Firm is reaching a highly targeted audience.

'We find that these types of advertising opportunities provide great value,' she says.

Promoting the Brand: Measuring the Impact

Jenner & Block's Marketing Depart- ment is steadfastly dedicated to managing and maintaining the brand of the Firm. As evidenced by the Firm's content-rich Web site and targeted approach to advertising, Jenner & Block has focused its marketing investment. Additionally, the Department measures the results of its activities and uses a set of defined metrics to report monthly impact.

'The rapidity of change in legal marketing is unprecedented in any other industry and if you don't adapt to change, you will fall behind the curve,' Jaffe says. 'At the same time, everything that we do must be tied to the firm's overall strategy, with an eye toward how it will satisfy our overall Firm objectives.'

This type of thinking has helped Jaffe and her team to take an 94-year-old brand and, over the last eight years, make it stronger than ever.

Elizabeth Anne 'Betiayn' Tursi is the Editor-in-Chief of this publication, and a principal of Tursi Law Marketing Management. Ms. Tursi focuses on helping law firms attain and sustain market share by developing successful marketing, business development and communications programs. She also works with public companies who service law firms to create programs that impact sales.

In 2007, we learned a lot from myriad authors and our fabulous regular columnists. As with past practice, I am going to give our readership the pleasure of having the opportunity to enjoy reading one article from each of the past 12 months. In this issue we will feature January up to and including July. The February issue will continue highlighting one article from each of the August to December issues.

January

In July we said goodbye to Mel Morrione's Corner Office column, so I thought that perhaps to pay homage to Mel and his fabulous column that gave us enlightenment on management issues in law firms, would highlight a small sample of his 2007 offerings. Here in its entirety is Mel's January 07 column entitled 'Growth: An Imperative for Survival'

Do your current clients provide a steady stream of work that keeps all your lawyers busy? Are new clients constantly knocking at your door with new work based solely upon your firm's reputation? If that's your situation, stop here and read no further. You are in law firm nirvana.

Unfortunately, the other 99% of your managing partners are not so lucky. Your firm's clients are probably taking an increasing amount of work in-house, putting work you used to take for granted out for bids, and just seeming to want more work for lower fees. You probably have competitors who are getting more aggressive and who seem to be developing relationships with some of your best clients, or seem to be courting some of your best partners. And you may even have partners who complain that the firm's earnings should be much higher and that they should be earning more. Welcome to today's world of law firm dynamics.

If you're going to respond to these market forces, you can't stand still. Inaction is not an option. As managing partner, you have got to recognize that growing the firm is the key to survival, because in today's environment, a firm that does not grow will be overtaken by the competition and wither.

The Case for Organic Growth

The question is how to grow your firm. While the recent spate of mergers by major firms would suggest that merger must be the answer, it is no panacea. Although the merger route might look like a quick fix, most mergers are born out of weakness and create more problems in the long run than they solve in the short run. Actually, mergers divert management attention and firm resources from addressing the real problem ' the inability to grow the firm organically.

Growing the firm with your own people, which I call organic growth, is the only viable long-term solution. But it is not easy, because growth means marketing. Growing a law firm organically requires that all of the partners participate in activities designed to expand the practice and increase the visibility of the partners and the firm in the marketplace. Success requires building a marketing mindset into the fabric, or culture, of the firm.

Can Your Partners Be Made into Organic Gardeners?

To answer this question you need first to examine the qualities of your equity partners. Smart, technically competent, willing to work hard, sound lawyers ' great, we'll take all that for granted. But do they act as if they are personally responsible for growing the business?

All too many partners in large and mid-sized firms view the practice of law as a profession ' not a business. They conduct themselves as if the firm is an institution, and they stand ready to handle any work that magically comes through the door. Ask yourself how many sound lawyers you can afford to carry as equity partners who cannot 'market' themselves or the firm? In spite of what many lawyers would like to think, a law firm, regardless of its size, is a business. And the owners of that business have an obligation to grow the business by keeping the pipeline filled with new work and new clients.

Successful entrepreneurs who have built their own businesses understand not only the process for making the product or providing the service, but the importance of getting and keeping customers, hiring and training good people and controlling costs. Without the ability to access potential buyers, the product or service would just gather dust on a shelf, or in the case of a law firm just sit in the office waiting for the phone to ring. So how do your partners stack up as entrepreneurs?

Create a Marketing Mindset

In order to grow the firm, you, as managing partner, have got to engender an entrepreneurial spirit in your partners and change their attitudes toward marketing. This kind of change can be implemented only if you send a clear message that equity partners must act like owners. And owners must take responsibility for growing the business.

You must create an environment in which marketing is the means of implementing a strategic plan for overall firm growth, with each practice area setting growth goals and coordinating and monitoring the activities of each of its partners.

Creating a marketing mindset means that every partner must participate in marketing, and marketing must be acknowledged to be an important part of every partner's responsibility. For many firms this will be more than a change in culture ' it will be a cultural revolution.

So What Is Marketing?

Marketing professional services requires an understanding of the current and future needs of existing and prospective clients and the ability to explain how you can fulfill them better than anyone else. Clients buy legal services from lawyers ' lawyers they meet in person. A lawyer may have a great reputation and come highly recommended, but only with face-to-face contact can a client see how a lawyer will react to him or her and the situation. Much as most lawyers are loathe to admit it, marketing is, as Betiayn Tursi, our Editor-in-Chief, describes it in the MLF 50, a 'contact sport.' You've got to be out there, where the clients are, to meet and engage them. A client relationship is one of trust, and trust can be built only on a personal relationship.

Profile of a Rainmaker

Except for a tiny supply of natural-born rainmakers, most lawyers don't really know how to market themselves or their firms. Even those with good intentions always defer marketing and seldom get around to it, because client matters always manage to get in the way. If you have a few rainmakers in your firm, you will probably recognize these traits:

• They've developed a niche or specialty, and they write and speak regularly at professional and industry forums.
• They take leadership positions in organizations, go to events and work hard at meeting new prospects.
• They are never too busy to help on a matter or do a personal favor.
• They are always available to their clients and are genuinely interested in their clients' satisfaction.
• They frequently mix their business and social lives and develop close personal relationships with their clients.

But aren't these the qualities that every equity partner should have? And shouldn't you encourage the development of these qualities in all of your partners? You have probably also found that even rainmakers willing to share their contacts have difficulty teaching younger partners how to emulate themselves. Often too, the generational chasm between their contacts and the younger partners is too difficult to bridge.

So would you rather bet your firm's future on the backs of a handful of aging rainmakers or try to encourage your partners to think like entrepreneurs and develop a marketing mindset in all of them?

Getting Partners to Build Marketing into Their Daily Lives

The law business is driven by billable hours, and firms that track only billable time send an unmistakable message that only billable time is important. So if you want your partners to spend time marketing, you must assure them that time and effort spent in marketing activities will be tracked and evaluated just like billable hours.

In order that partners understand the level of marketing activity expected of them, you will need to set a minimum number of hours that each partner should devote to marketing. An appropriate level is 250 hours per year. Although many partners would take exception to this, who could reasonably argue that an equity owner of a business should not spend five hours per week exploring how to provide additional services to existing clients and seeking out new ones.

Now comes the hard part. Where will the time come from? That will depend upon your current standards for billable time. If you hold your partners to 1900 billable hours, adding 250 on top of probably 100 hours for other administrative duties would push them up to about 50 hours per week. Not an inordinate level for a partner in a major firm, but you could suggest that more billable work be pushed down to associates, where it probably belongs anyway, to get them to spend 250. On the other hand, if your standard billable hour objective is lower, asking them to spend five hours per week growing the firm's business is far from unreasonable.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that to get partners to build marketing into their daily lives, they have got to be confident that the hours they spend marketing will be considered to be as important as billable time. For many firms, this will be a cultural revolution, but anything short of this would be futile. Unless you are willing to commit to this kind of change, you might just as well not start because there would be little chance of success.

Evaluate Effort, Not Achievement

The focus of a marketing program must be on effort, not achievement. Marketing, like gardening, takes time; you plant today, you reap tomorrow. The payoff is seldom immediate, and success requires perseverance. Can everybody become a rainmaker? No. But everyone can participate in activities that will add value to the firm's marketing program.

At the beginning of the year, every partner should complete a written personal marketing plan that sets forth how the time will be spent; e.g., target prospects, speeches, articles, organizations, personal contacts, etc. One size does not fit all, and each partner's plan should be tailored to his or her strengths. Your partners will need coaching in what, and how, to market, and will need help both planning and implementing their marketing activities.

While it's easier to sell additional services to existing clients, access to new clients is best achieved by developing recognition for your partners in the marketplace, which I refer to as developing their 'star power.' Clients always want to retain the best, and encouraging your partners to develop their reputations as leaders in their practice areas will enhance their star power. Your partners will soon come to realize that what's good for the partner is also good for the firm.

How to Motivate Your Partners

There are only two ways to motivate partners in a law firm: peer pressure and compensation. You can create peer pressure by holding every partner to the same standards of marketing activity and creating forums for them to share their activities and achievements. Since most partners will usually climb on the bandwagon, those who do not will tend to be pressured, either directly by their practice heads, or indirectly by their visibility.

But if, after a period of time, peer pressure doesn't work, you may have to use the ultimate motivator: compensation. If partners know that their marketing activity, of lack of it, will be factored into their compensation, marketing will undoubtedly take on a higher priority.

How Can You Make This Work?

Your chances of success will be directly proportional to your level of commitment. This is not a process you can start and leave unattended. You've got to be steadfast. It's a long-term program that will require regular reinforcement to maintain its momentum. In addition to coaching for the partners, you may also find that an outside adviser could be very helpful to you in developing the program, helping with its implementation, and pacing and monitoring its progress. What is needed is the equivalent of a coxswain in the back of the boat to steadily beat the drum, until the partners embrace the change and it becomes ingrained into the firm culture.

You should also enjoy the added benefit that comes from the fact that partners in a firm that is growing feel a sense of euphoria, which encourages them to stay with the firm because they feel it provides the best vehicle for them to achieve their professional goals and dissuades them from seeking opportunities elsewhere. Just imagine all your partners out there in the marketplace developing new contacts and new business. For any managing partner, that would be law firm nirvana.

February

In February, we welcomed Christy Burke, who took over the Place to Network column. Christy has done a fabulous job of taking a fresh look at networking. Here's an excerpt from Christy's first column for MLF.

Lunching Up ' From the Meal to the Deal

Gone are the days of the three-martini lunch! Today's frenetic business pace makes a long, leisurely meal seem both improbable and impossible for lawyers. After all, 'How in the world will I get all this work done if I waste 75 minutes on lunch?' For most lawyers, lunchtime means hunching over takeout at a cluttered desk, anxiously reading and responding to
e-mails from their Blackberry devices.

The unforgiving mantra of 'more billable hours' continues to apply pressure to legal professionals and can lead to extremes. Even the most extroverted lawyer can unwittingly get in the habit of squirreling away in an office barricaded by document-filled Banker's Boxes. Attorneys who travel frequently and live in a virtual world of laptops, VPNs and PDAs have difficulty finding time for face-to-face meetings with their current clients, much less prospective ones.

Has the importance of billing time all but eclipsed the potential gain of going out to lunch with a prospective client? As profits per partner keep skyrocketing, the case needs to be made for the old-fashioned business lunch. Clever 'rainmakers' have a keen eye for business development. They have realized that this forum presents a brilliant opportunity for networking and smoking out new opportunities. New clients aren't lining up outside your office so get smart and get out of that chair!

By carefully choosing and planning lunches with key contacts, marketing savvy lawyers are building their practices, their profits and are actually fueling their billable hours. They have learned how to 'Lunch Up' and are reaping the benefits.

The Art of 'Lunching Up'

Lunching Up is a multi-phased networking strategy that was explained to me at a LFMP (Law Firm Media Professionals) meeting by attorney Doug O'Brien. Doug, who is a broadcaster, lawyer and long-time public relations adviser to the New York State Bar Association, says that Lunching Up is a unique contact-leapfrogging method originally developed by an attorney colleague. What sets Lunching Up apart from regular prospecting is that you first set your sights on meeting with a junior level or lateral contact at the prospect company rather than fixating at the outset on speaking with the decision-maker. According to O'Brien, the lawyer who invented Lunching Up 'swore by it' as a way to gradually slide into the decision-maker's office to win the prospect's business.

Here's how Lunching Up works. The attorney, aided by the firm's marketing department, identifies a target company or department within a company to pitch. If possible, the attorney networks within the firm or with external colleagues to get a contact name at the company. If you can set up and confirm a lunch date and actually manage to have that lunch with the general counsel or executive right away, congratulations ' you are in the top .001% of the class and you probably don't need to even be reading this article. For the rest of you, the Lunching Up technique offers an alternative strategy that is totally within your grasp. Though it takes a little more time and expense, it is a proven method to climb the ladder and indeed reach the top.

March

Our regular columnists Chuck and Evan Polin (Practicing Building Skills) wrote a very interesting piece in the March issue:

If You Fail to Plan, Then You Plan to Fail

Achieving success in your business development efforts takes a great deal of goal setting and planning. Would you begin working on a matter without planning for the outcome you would like to achieve? When you think about the successes in your life, did they mostly occur by accident, or did you plan and work hard toward a goal? Our guess would be that most of the successes in your life came to you through your hard work and planning, and sometimes even with some sacrifices. Successful business development occurs in much the same way.

How to Plan

In the course of your busy work schedule, it is sometimes hard to get everything done. It is easy to get overwhelmed with daily activities and lose track of time. Unless you specifically plan time to include business development activities in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule, they will fall by the wayside. You must make the time for business development if you want to advance in your career. It is imperative that you spend two to three hours per week implementing your business development action plan. The first step in creating this plan is to focus on a goal. Think about what type of work you would like to do and what a good potential client might look like. How much business would you like to develop? What are your personal strengths and weaknesses? In what types of prospecting activities do you believe you would excel? Do you have many personal and business contacts, or do you enjoy meeting new people and attending networking events? Perhaps you enjoy getting involved in charities, or writing articles. Before you develop your action plan, decide which activities would best fit in with your situation and personality style.

Four Elements

In developing your action plan, it is important to consider four elements. The first element to consider is what activities will be in your plan. Will you choose to get involved in marketing and advertising, or instead, learn how to ask for and get referrals from current clients and contacts? You might decide to attend networking events, write a white paper, or develop a Web site or newsletter. The second element to consider is your budget. Track the dollars you spend on business development and decide which activities are the most cost effective for you. The third element is to track your time. As professionals, you do not have extra time to waste on activities that are not working for you. Track how much time each of your business development activities is costing you. The last element to consider is your return on investment (ROI). It is important that you spend time on productive activities that are leading to business generation. Create your plan and measure the results.

Conclusion

It is important to understand, that for most of us, business development skills do not come naturally. It is helpful to have a coach or mentor who will help us to development and implement these skills, and to hold us accountable.

Consider what will happen if you don't plan for and succeed in business development. You will most likely lose control over your career and may even become a part of someone else's plan. On the other hand, consider what could happen if you really become an expert in business development. If you set goals, focus on those goals and make a plan to achieve those goals, you can insure your success

April

Our regular columnist Joshua Fruchter, who co-authors the Technology In Marketing column with Nancy Manzo, wrote a great piece with an alluring title:

What Law Firms Can Learn from How the Swiss Sell Cheese

A marketing consultant and friend, Robert Kaplan, recently shared a story with me from one of his overseas trips. He had been traveling in Switzerland when he chanced upon a cheese store. It was like nothing he had ever seen in the States. Upon entering, he was immediately approached by a man dressed in a sterile white coat (almost like a surgeon) bearing a silver platter filled with cheese. Wielding a slender knife, the gentleman cut off of a piece and beckoned Robert to sample a slice. Politely, Robert accepted and tasted the morsel. Much to his surprise, he became enamored of this variety and proceeded to buy a 2.5-kg cut.

Nice story, but what has it got to do with law firm marketing? Well, pretty clearly, it was only after Robert had been offered a taste of the cheese that he was willing to invest in 2.5 kilos. It was the 'taste' that triggered the sale. We see this marketing approach used in many other contexts, such as when beauty consultants spray you with a dose of perfume as you enter the cosmetic section of a department store.

Selling Expertise

Law firms don't sell cheese or perfume ' they sell expertise. So how does one provide prospective clients with a 'taste' or 'spray' of something so intangible? The same question could be asked concerning existing clients. Given the marketing axiom that it is more cost-effective to generate additional business from existing clients than to sign up new accounts, how does a firm cross-sell other areas of expertise to existing clients whose exposure to the firm has been limited thus far to a single practice area?

A logical place to promote a firm's expertise would be its Web site, which can be populated with alerts, articles, press releases and other content that highlight the firm's past successes, areas of specialization and general legal prowess. The problem is that prospective clients need to go to the Web site before they can browse it. Given that most law firm Web sites cover a broad swath of content from attorney bios to multiple practice area descriptions, it is unlikely that the typical law firm Web site will rank highly in Google or other search engines for the kind of targeted search queries that prospective clients might run to locate a law firm specializing in a particular area.

By the same token, most existing clients don't visit their law firms' Web sites on a regular basis. While clients may frequent sites like Yahoo, Google and other popular Web destinations, surveys show that they typically visit their law firm's Web site for very functional and practical purposes such as finding an attorney's phone number or e-mail address. In short, because it is difficult to attract qualified client traffic to a law firm Web site on a regular and ongoing basis, firms need to consider how they can more effectively 'pull' existing and prospective clients into their Web sites for a 'taste' of the firm's expertise.

Go Blog

Blogs are the solution for prospective clients. Blogs tend to rank high in the search engines because they deliver what search engines want: targeted content updated frequently with lots of inbound and outbound links. As such, to the extent a firm wants to maximize the likelihood that prospective clients will 'sample' its expertise in say, the fields of 'international transfer taxes' or 'Brownfields development,' launching a blog on those topics is an excellent choice. By regularly publishing short posts on developments and trends in the often esoteric practice area covered by a blog, a firm is essentially offering the universe of prospective clients a 'taste' of its expertise in that area.

HTML e-Mail

For existing clients, HTML e-mail is the preferred solution for reaching out. By employing the same graphic look and feel as your Web site, an HTML e-mail is effectively a 'traveling' site that provides recipients with a 'taste' of the specialized content available on your primary site. With HTML, you don't have to wait for clients to visit your Web site. You can send a piece of your Web site to them!

To grab readers, the content in a blog or e-mail should be compelling, timely, relevant and grabbing. It should be representative of the firm's best thinking on a particular subject. The goal is that once prospective and/or existing clients get a 'taste' of the firm's expertise in a particular field from a blog or e-mail, they will be tempted to explore further by clicking through to the firm's Web site, and eventually initiating an inquiry.

Conclusion

Ultimately, blogs and HTML e-mail are tools for leveraging a company's investment in its Web site. They are the digital equivalent of the salesforce that leaves a manufacturer's warehouse each morning to pitch and bring samples to prospects and customers ' one-on-one, mobile, and high-impact. And the great thing about blogs and HTML e-mail is that they are cost-effective. So you don't have to spend large additional sums to dramatically increase the ROI on your Web site using these tools.

May

In May, we premiered the Client Speak column written exclusively by Allan Colman. Allan had previously written an article for us, but with the following piece he officially became a regular columnist.

A Matrix of Understanding: What Does 'Client Knowledge' Actually Mean?

In my last piece, we concluded with a question once asked in a popular song of the 1960s: 'Do You Want to Dance?' Implicit in the tuneful allusion is the need to transition your focus, and your firm's focus, from talking to selling ' from planning the dance to actually requesting the honor of one.

Admittedly, our metaphor breaks down rather quickly. After all, one needs no particular understanding of a prospective dance partner to close the waltz deal or the mambo deal or even the funky chicken deal. It's just a dance, after all, and not yet a developed relationship.

The professional services deal is an altogether different proposition. Here we are talking about relationships, in the most fundamental professional sense. In this ballroom, a whole matrix of understanding must underlie the decisive 'Do you want to dance' question before you dare ask it.

Client Knowledge

We choose the word 'matrix' advisedly. To finally close the deal, there are a number of key elements that must be linked. You need to match your own self-knowledge to your knowledge about the client. You need to know enough about both yourself and the buyer to determine how and to what extent ' or ' if at all ' you can finally serve the corporate need. By now, 'knowing the client' is a marketing bromide and a fairly tired one at that. To reinvest the mantra with actionable meaning, law firms must understand the in-house dynamic ' they must know how in-house counsel actually think ' in very specific terms.

First, what are the buyer's professional values? You need to know enough about the client to know the client's perception of you, your firm, and your practice groups. Specifically:What kind of commitments does the buyer/client expect the seller/firm to make? Knowledge results in then decisively making those commitments or else not wasting your time with a client who wants too much for too little.

What are the buyer's expectations in terms of rate structure? Knowledge is the ability to tell the difference between rate-shoppers, on the one hand, and, on the other, in-house lawyers who don't feel secure in a safety buy unless they're certain that your top-end partners will be immersed in the work.

What are the expectations about winning versus settling? Client knowledge developed along such narrow questions leads to a more fundamental, macro-level understanding ' namely, does in-house counsel want a firm that actually strategizes or a firm that dutifully files briefs and hopefully wins in court?

What are the buyer's needs arrayed across a broad spectrum of potential legal services? Client knowledge here means knowing when a cross-sell will be welcome and when it won't.

Second, how many baskets are your eggs in? At the most practical level, you need to know the buyer's internal situation. While recent and current clients are obviously the best source of new engagements, are your relationships numerous and broad enough to withstand the departure of a general counsel or associate general counsel or chief litigation counsel? Beyond the law department, can you survive a new CEO or other top executive? Will you always have at least one referral source or internal advocate at day's end?

Third, why has a competitor bested you? What do they know about the client that you don't? Why did the associate GC hire a particular firm? Conversely, based on your knowledge of the client, what are the competition's vulnerabilities? Here, client knowledge allows you to spot openings based on how the buyer views a broad spectrum of law firms. Track the client's outside hires ' is there a pattern?

Is there some reason an oil company hired a particular lawyer with no apparent oil industry experience? Odds are, by answering that question, you may glean at least one powerful practical insight into the company that will serve you in very good stead further down the line or with similar industry buyers as well. Simply talk to their in-house lawyers, for goodness sake. Take them to lunch, ask them why they hired so-and-so and (diplomatically) is it working out so far? Be sure to pick up the tab.

Competitive Differentiation

From client knowledge, we naturally transition to competitive differentiation, a key point in building the matrix.

Examine professional research. Client knowledge can begin with certain practical steps. In that regard, our 'Do you want to dance?' metaphor might still be useful. Has your prospective dance partner smiled or scowled at you from across the dance floor? In the professional services ballroom, how do clients respond when the responsible partner asks for an introduction to others in the corporation, both in-house lawyers and non-lawyer executives? If there's reluctance, there's a problem.

When inside counsel actually ask to meet more members of your team, they may or may not expect to be billed for the pleasure. Our resolute advice is to simply not do so. Remember too, such meetings are excellent opportunities to train other members of your client team in the fine art of client relationships ' and, by definition, in client knowledge-seeking as well.

In-house lawyers expect to profit from such meetings ' perhaps by learning something they didn't know before that's actually useful to them, or by being presented with collaborative opportunities to advance their own individual professional goals. Such collaboration could take the form of co-written articles, for example, or making joint presentations at industry events attended by diverse audiences.

The more time you spend with the clients, the more knowledge of them you stand to gain ' and if that time is spent in truly substantive endeavors, the door to client knowledge swings open even wider. Such endeavors could range from simple collaterals to all-important community projects, from co-sponsored seminars to aggressive diversity initiatives.

In our next article, we'll be exploring how you can recruit in-house clients as parties to your own marketing. We'll look at some of the specific co-marketing possibilities that in-house lawyers are likeliest to value. To be sure, marketing the law firm is not an us-them proposition.

Quite to the contrary, what begins as a dance could even end in marriage.

June

In my estimation; I feel lucky to have Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams as the person spearheading the Professional Development column. Here's a piece written by Sharon that I thought was particularly interesting:

Minding Your Firm's Ps & Qs

I started conducting etiquette-training sessions in the mid 90s. The typical program focused on good manners and business protocol. Fast-forward to the new millennium and I am discussing etiquette topics that were unknown a decade ago, like appropriate use of cell phones, PDAs and electronic mail. Interesting thing about etiquette: It constantly changes to keep up with society, technology and new business philosophies. Who would have thought or accepted the notion of 'business casual' anytime other than on 90-degree summer days? Or that a named partner would be called by his or her first name?

Unfortunately, along with dressing down our attire and our diminished show of respect for station or attained status, we have also lost our common courtesies and basic levels of good etiquette. Look around your firm and observe. I challenge you to spend time listening and watching how the partners, associates and staff interact with each other. To help you in your observations, look for the following types of etiquette circumstances.

• Have people stopped saying 'please' and 'thank you' for basic niceties?
• Do the lawyers know the firm's protocol for meetings, retreats and other activities?
• Do people introduce each other to visitors, clients or other new faces in the office?
• At meetings, are people seated in an arrangement that is conducive to a positive working situation?
• Are basic dining and table manners missing?

A Major Issue

Now that you have observed the need for some etiquette training, here are some other items you can place in your arsenal to help convince management that this should be offered. First is increased exposure from articles published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and similar publications identifying etiquette as a major issue in the business world. As Generation Y is entering the work force and the Boomers are moving out, there is a marked difference in the level of sophistication of business interactions. Second, and the most important reason to offer an etiquette tune- up, is when you receive feedback from others about the poor manners of one of your partners, associates or staff members. Simple acts like welcoming clients, offering a seat or pronouncing a difficult name correctly can warm a client's heart. On the other hand, when partners read Blackberrys during meetings, take cell phone calls or otherwise show a lack of respect for the clients' time, it can be deadly to the relationship.

Offering an etiquette program at your firm will help improve all aspects of your firm's image. Everything being equal between two lawyers, the one with good etiquette and a polite manner will win the client, his/her colleagues, and the staff's support. As long as the program that is offered is upbeat, positive and presented in an effective manner, it will be perceived in an affirmative way.

There are a few issues that might stand in the way of executing this new initiative. If top management does not perceive there is a need for this training, it will never be accepted as an activity that can improve the firm. It is important not to implement this in a remedial manner, because if this happens the very people you want to attend might be insulted so they refuse to participate. Lack of money to hire a speaker and lack of space to host such a program would also be obstacles to overcome.

For Your Consideration

Before implementing an etiquette a program, here are few more things to consider:

• What do you really want to accomplish by offering this program?
• Why do you think it is important?
• Who should attend?
• When is the best time to offer this program?
• Where would you conduct the program?

Be sure you have answered the above questions, because a well-designed program is the key to getting good audience attendance, and hopefully good reviews, so others will want to attend future programs.

Finding a Trainer

The next step is finding the right person to conduct your training. There are two options: an in-house person, or an outside consultant. There are a variety of certification courses available for an in-house person to attend to become 'qualified,' at least in content knowledge, to conduct a training session. Beware of this option, however, because it is like a person teaching horseback riding, but never having ridden before he or she took the three-day 'how to teach riding' class. How ingrained is the true nature of understanding etiquette if one has not been practicing it his or her whole life?

As for an outside expert, I had 109,000 hits when I googled etiquette consultants. To find the right one to fit your firm's culture, you must review his or her credentials and call at least four or five references. I recommend an in-person interview so you can tell if your candidate's personality will mesh with your firm. Of course, the final decision should be based on the content of the program the consultant intends to deliver.

Content

When reviewing program content, look for a combination of basic dining and general etiquette skills as a start. Added to this, look for content that expands into client relationship skills that can cover topics such as being a host and dealing with electronic communications. Proper correspondence may be a lost art in the e-mail world, but old-fashioned written notes should be addressed as a form of good etiquette. And finally, depending on your firm's needs, a discussion of proper attire might be appropriate.

There are a multitude of topics that can be, and maybe for your firm, should be addressed through an etiquette workshop. But no matter the content, a well-planned business etiquette program will provide the members of your firm with the skills and knowledge to handle themselves in most any situation. Good manners and proper etiquette will lead to a welcoming and comfortable environment that will set your firm apart from the competition.

July

Our column Media & Communications Corner is written by members of the Jaffe Associates team. In July, Jason Milch did a profile of Theresa Jaffe, Chief Marketing Officer of Jenner & Block LLP:

When Jenner & Block's Chief Marketing Officer Theresa Jaffe was being recruited for her current job nearly eight years ago, she became intrigued by the marketing challenge that the then-87-year-old powerhouse Firm represented.

'Jenner & Block had a sterling reputation in the marketplace ' great lawyers, great public service commitment, an excellent client base and a history of delivering exceptional results for its clients, be they paying or pro bono,' Jaffe says. 'The challenge wasn't about building the brand that many law firms at the time were (and still are) facing, but rather identifying the distinct attributes of the firm and truly marketing these. The firm needed to leverage the sizable success it had experienced over the years and reposition itself in the changing competitive landscape.

'The challenge from a marketing perspective was to creatively leverage the existing reputation by converting it into an organic brand that would resonate with the clients, the marketplace, recruits and within the firm,' Jaffe continues. 'I felt the opportunity presented by Jenner & Block was a unique one.'

With a 30-year career that included experience in the accounting, consulting, technology, health care and nonprofit industries, Jaffe arrived at the firm in 2000 after having spent the previous 2.5 years as National Director of Marketing at Katten Muchin Zavis LLP (now Katten Muchin Rosenman). Upon arrival, she conducted a comprehensive marketing assessment, which resulted in a report to firm management, 'Current versus Desired State Marketing,' that benchmarked the firm for marketing best practices in more than 35 discreet marketing activities along a continuum of processes. From there, priorities and timetables were agreed-upon and staff recruitment began.

Hiring an Expert Staff

First, Jaffe hired Senior Marketing Manager Murray Coffey, an attorney and former executive with Hubbard One; and Public Relations Manager Darryl Van Duch, also an attorney and former Chicago Bureau Chief of The National Law Journal, to serve in key leadership positions in the newly formed Marketing Department ' the first in the firm's long history.

'Murray and Darryl shared my understanding of the valuable identity that Jenner & Block had formed, and just as importantly, the wide range of activities that would be necessary to maintain and enhance the brand over the long term in an increasingly competitive environment,' Jaffe says. 'They understood that the key to successfully marketing Jenner & Block would be in leveraging its substantive legal acumen.'

Everything with a Purpose

Jaffe and her team have one simple but absolute rule, 'Everything that we, as a Marketing Department, do must be tied to the firm's Strategic Plan.' Jaffe further explained, '[That plan] was created nearly eight years ago and clearly articulates the values that drive Jenner & Block. It is the framework for every business decision at the firm. As marketers, this plan provides us with the big picture and is the underpinning for everything we do.'

While focusing on the Strategic Plan may sound simple in theory, Jaffe notes that with the multitude of marketing opportunities available to law firms across many different mediums, it is, at times, easy to lose sight of the big picture.

And Jaffe ensures her team always has that 'big picture' in mind. The Department's mission statement is openly posted throughout the Marketing Department, and a chart shows how the Marketing Department's mission ultimately supports the Firm's mission and values. Another flow chart lays out all potential marketing activities and ties them back to the firm's mission statement and overall objectives.

When it comes to making Jenner & Block attractive to prospects, Jaffe, Coffey and Van Duch agree that marketing is most effective and its benefits maximized, when it integrates a number of activities and functional areas of the Firm. Jenner & Block's Marketing Department serves the entire Firm including Practice Groups, Legal Recruiting, Pro Bono and Diversity, Human Resources and Professional Development Departments.

'You cannot effectively market a professional services firm in a vacuum,' says Jaffe, 'Marketing must be integrated into the fabric of the firm.'

Van Duch adds, 'Each individual marketing activity or technique we employ is an important component of our overall strategy because they complement, reinforce and build upon one another.'

'We constantly monitor the correlation between advertising and media placements and visits to our Web site and the bios of our attorneys,' Coffey says. 'So while we know that a certain initiative may generate more traffic than another, we also know that for the long-term, there needs to be a balance among all activities.'

This by no means implies that Jenner & Block just does a little bit of everything and hopes that it works out, Jaffe says. 'Again, every activity in which we engage must fit with the firm's overall objectives. If it doesn't, then we won't do it.'

Public Relations: The Gateway to Business Development

While Jenner & Block does use a wide range of marketing activities, Jaffe says that her department focuses substantial resources on initiatives that provide relevant, high quality third party credentialing, such as media placements, speaking engagements, surveys, rankings and awards.

'The function of PR is to position the firm so that when attorneys make new business presentations to potential clients, the prospect walks into the meeting already having a positive image of [us],' Van Duch says. 'The key to building lasting relationships with the media is to be knowledgeable of what reporters and editors need and provide lawyers who are ready, willing and able to satisfy that need,' he continues.

Jaffe adds, 'By always knowing what the media is looking for, we create a win-win situation. Our attorneys win because they are quoted by a reputable media outlet on a topic that relates to their practice, and the reporters win because they get the quotes that they need to round out their stories.'

Van Duch also notes that when it comes to media placements, 'the Internet has completely transformed legal PR to the point where information is now so easy to find via key word searches, that a placement in a wider variety of credible media outlets, whether print or online, will do wonders. Given the almost indefinite archive the Web represents, the stories and placements also have much longer lives than ever before.'

Jenner & Block's public relations efforts also focus heavily on generating bylined article opportunities for its attorneys in leading business and trade publications, something that Jaffe says, plays to their strengths.

'Jenner & Block partners are informed and knowledgeable in a wide array of legal topics, so one of the most effective ways for the firm to credentialize itself is through bylined articles and cutting edge alerts.' Jaffe says, 'By helping partners share this knowledge with legal and business audiences, we create potential new business opportunities, while simultaneously promoting the Jenner & Block brand.'

Much of the firm's good news relating to its attorneys' courtroom victories, successfully closed deals and public service are summarized on its content-rich, news-driven Web site, www.jenner.com, making it a destination not only for those looking for information about the firm, but for legal news in general.

'Our goal in creating the Web site was for it to be an informational hub,' Coffey says. 'We wanted to take the content being generated by our partners and create an easy-to- use tool that could benefit clients, potential recruits, the media and the Bar.' A great example of this are the Resource Centers found on the Jenner.com homepage, which give users access to in-depth legal information in areas as wide ranging as amicus briefs filed in the Guantanamo Bay cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, to up-to-the-minute information on climate change law and legislation. We closely monitor traffic to our site and know that Jenner.com generates exceptional traffic because people know it as a site where they can find the legal information they need.'

Alliances and Advertising: Another Cornerstone

Jenner & Block's approach to advertising is not what one might expect from a 470-lawyer firm. The firm does not undertake any large-scale advertising campaigns, as many firms its size do.

'We use advertising to further publicize our good news and as a vehicle to promote and reinforce our brand,' Jaffe says. 'Because we already have an established brand, large-scale image campaigns provide limited benefit.'

Jenner & Block instead prefers to spend its advertising dollars more strategically, forming alliances with trade organizations and sponsoring industry events like InsideCounsel magazine's SuperConference, for which the Firm has been the exclusive presenting sponsor for the last six years. Jaffe notes that many of these sponsorships also include advertising, with the added benefit of knowing that the Firm is reaching a highly targeted audience.

'We find that these types of advertising opportunities provide great value,' she says.

Promoting the Brand: Measuring the Impact

Jenner & Block's Marketing Depart- ment is steadfastly dedicated to managing and maintaining the brand of the Firm. As evidenced by the Firm's content-rich Web site and targeted approach to advertising, Jenner & Block has focused its marketing investment. Additionally, the Department measures the results of its activities and uses a set of defined metrics to report monthly impact.

'The rapidity of change in legal marketing is unprecedented in any other industry and if you don't adapt to change, you will fall behind the curve,' Jaffe says. 'At the same time, everything that we do must be tied to the firm's overall strategy, with an eye toward how it will satisfy our overall Firm objectives.'

This type of thinking has helped Jaffe and her team to take an 94-year-old brand and, over the last eight years, make it stronger than ever.

Elizabeth Anne 'Betiayn' Tursi is the Editor-in-Chief of this publication, and a principal of Tursi Law Marketing Management. Ms. Tursi focuses on helping law firms attain and sustain market share by developing successful marketing, business development and communications programs. She also works with public companies who service law firms to create programs that impact sales.