Revisiting MLF 2008: What You Missed!

At the beginning of a new year, I always look back on the year that was. This past year was indeed interesting for a variety of reasons. Many people will talk about a new administration, the TARP and other stories that made front-page news. For us here at Marketing the Law Firm, we had another great year. Our columnists and authors provided top-notch information to our readership. I wrote a rather controversial Op Ed that raised the hackles of a few in our industry. For me, it is all part of raising awareness of how we move forward.

The Year in Review will present a pared-down reprint of one article from each of the last 12 issues of MLF (six articles this month and six next month).

January

Allan Colman, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors and a regular columnist, is the CEO of the Closers Group, LLC. In January, Allan wrote a great piece for his column, Client Speak.

The Red Zone Is Wide Open: In a Troubled Economy,
New Business Opportunities Still Abound

Down economy. Incipient recession. Sub-prime credit crunch. Those are excuses that smart marketers don't use. They're catch-phrases that aggressive business developers never rely on. They're facts of life that do not impinge on the agendas of street-smart lawyers. Especially street-smart lawyers adept in the art of closing inside the Red Zone where ' marketplace conditions notwithstanding ' client prospects are always a breath or two away from saying yes, if only you know how to get them to say it.

To be sure, some firms are hamstrung by their overall strategies. If, for example, your core practice is heavily oriented toward structured finance, it's likely that the current credit crunch has wreaked havoc on your bottom line. That said, fungibility should always be just a wave of the wand away. Can lawyers be retooled into less affected transactional or real estate practices? Can they be trained to sell the skills that the marketplace now demands rather than the ones they've refined over the last few years?

Here's a simple but powerful case in point. The very day the stock market crashed in 1987, a visitor at Winston & Strawn asked the managing partner, “What are you guys going to do now?” The managing partner was unperturbed. “Build up our bankruptcy practice, of course,” he replied with a smile.

I'm not saying it's easy. But I am saying that every marketplace fluctuation raises pointed concerns for your clients as well as for you. Your job is to have in place a marketing strategy that allows you to directly address their future concerns as well as a business development presentation to persuasively communicate that, if you did securitizations yesterday, you'll do workouts today with equal aplomb.

Like all downturns, the sub-prime crisis teaches us to have contingency plans. Contingency plans that are directly related to client needs. Anticipate what clients will need in bad times even as the good times are still rolling. To paraphrase Joe Flom, every crisis is an opportunity. So true, so true!

The Larger Picture

Meanwhile, practice areas hampered by the current credit market represent a mere smidgen of what most well-rounded law firms still have to sell. Understand that associate layoffs in specific affected areas are only distractions from the larger picture. To get a real sense of that larger picture, let's take a look ' as we often have to support points we've made in this column ' at the 2007 BTI Consulting Group Survey.

In that survey, 1,272 individual interviews with corporate counsel disclosed conspicuous business-generation opportunities for law firms that are able to recognize such opportunities and match their resident skills to client needs. Consider:

• 61.1% of corporate clients have replaced at least one primary firm in the past 18 months.
• Corporate in-house counsel have added an average of eight new law firms to their core roster in the past two years.
• Corporate counsel have increased their spending with their secondary firms by 60% since 2001.
• Only 32.1% of corporations recommend their primary law firms to others.

If there was ever a time to prospect for new business, this is it. Even as the economy appears headed for a significant correction, major legal practice areas will continue to hold steady or even grow. BTI identifies six specialties as “Powerhouse Practices ' Best Opportunities for 2007″ based on perceptible growth patterns and client openness to premium rate billing.

• Class Action
• Bet-the-Company Litigation
• IP Litigation
• Regulatory
• M&A
• Securities

The litigation areas are not, of course, surprising. There, as in employment and intellectual property (IP litigation and non-litigation IP), anticipated growth rates are just under 10%. As litigators, do you have business development plans separately tailored for up markets and down markets? Litigators should naturally thrive in both.

In securities, there may be growing demand for diversified instruments unaffected by the current downturn in mortgage-backed securities. Are you identifying creative alternatives? Are you giving free hints on how corporate and institutional portfolios might be further diversified and expanded?

“Free hints” are always shrewd marketing and selling techniques. They provide potential buyers with a sense of what you can accomplish. The implicit message to the client prospect: If this is what you're getting for free, imagine what you'll get if you start paying for it! In a down market, the technique is even more effective. Client prospects might feel as if they're about to start drowning. Your free hints, if they're substantive and useful enough, are like lifelines that C-Suites as well as in-house counsel may grab.

At first blush it's something of a surprise to see M&A on the current hot list, yet consider the diversity of transactions that may arise if the volume of mega-deals subsides. There are still terrific mid-sized law firms in cities like Cleveland and Indianapolis feeding on deals involving mid-cap clients.

The Industry Factor

Specific industries are also consolidating because competitive conditions demand it. Here, the “client knowledge” mantra is especially important. Clients may be caught between two untenable positions: having to merge or acquire because their customers require fuller service and broader platform, while being hard-pressed to generate the financing to move forward. Are there solutions you can talk about? Can you talk about growth in a less-than-abundance situation?

Client knowledge and industry knowledge naturally dovetail. Know what specific industries need in down markets as well as what they need in better weather. Right now, a variety of sources, including BTI, confirm increased litigation in health care, insurance, professional services, utilities, and wholesale trade. Do you know what causes of action commonly drive that diverse litigation?

Not just banks and financial services, securities work is on the upswing among manufacturers and wholesalers. M&A is reportedly still strong in those sectors as well, while the chemical and energy industries are seeing a strong flow of sizable deals. (Even as I write, the Netherlands-based Bassell has just acquired the Lyondell Chemical Company).

Have your IP lawyers looked at the banking and insurance industries as well as high tech and pharma? Are your employment lawyers marketing to telecommunications companies as well as to their customary health care and retail prospects? Are your environmental lawyers talking to wholesalers?

Painful Lessons

The fact that, in this current market, your lawyers ought to be carefully examining such new and variegated industry area possibilities suggests a few very important marketing lessons. Lawyers get myopic. Some lawyers, for example, see themselves as both employment and health care practitioners, defining their skills according to a specific industry even though those skills are widely adaptable. Employment lawyers like litigators may tend to do well in adverse economies, but the health care industry is driven by consolidation. Why define yourself mainly on the basis of a single industry with a steadily declining pool of potential clients. So take a look at telecommunications as well. Likewise, look at wholesalers, not just retailers.

Diversify your marketing in the good times if you want to be ready for the bad ones.

One wonders about the wisdom of industry practice groups. To be sure, it's a powerful selling tool when you can tell prospects that you know everything there is to know about the widgets they manufacture. Again, though, what happens if people stop buying widgets?

You can never have too much market research ' and the broader, the better. When we see law firms start global warming practice groups (Greenberg Traurig) or sub-prime counseling practices (Patterson Belknap), chances are we're seeing the fruits of their extensive research into both specific client needs and overall industry concerns. In turn, such research facilitates the most effective possible professional service marketing ' marketing that is based on extraordinarily broad due diligence and yet results in extraordinarily specific niche service capability.

It's a safe bet that the law firms most directly affected by the credit crunch will now acknowledge, albeit a mite sadly, the wisdom of diversified marketing to support an expanding number of targeted niche services. The good news is that down markets always provide opportunities to learn the kind of lessons that will only make us stronger in the future.

The bad news is that, no matter how painful those lessons are to learn, they always seem to be quickly forgotten.

February

Christy Burke, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors and a regular columnist, gave us a great look at social networking in her The Place To Network Column.

Jumpstart Client Development with Social Networking

Teens, college kids and recent graduates have grown up with the Internet and social networking sites in their bloodstreams ' they are constantly communicating with each other through Web sites. If you are not convinced that you're slightly out of the loop on this trend, ask yourself when was the last time you got “poked” or “threw a sheep” at someone on Facebook?

Adults who have been out of school for a few (ahem) years may find social networking tools a bit intimidating, or think that they're just for kids or recreational purposes. And many lawyers, who are among the more techno-phobic of professionals, are often reluctant to learn new technologies, especially when they're so busy doing grown-up things like billing hours and meeting with clients.

The truth is that the social networking is rapidly becoming a highly viable way for attorneys to expand their books of business. Social networking goes far beyond MySpace and Facebook ' the options are constantly growing as the Internet increasingly takes on the roles of publisher, matchmaker, business developer and research library.

The Internet can be your new best friend when it comes to generating leads. Just for kicks, try “Googleing” your name, your firm's name and your competitors' names. You can easily see what kind of exposure is available on the Web and notice what you've already garnered, perhaps without even realizing it. You'll also be privy to your competitors' tactics which may make you realize you need to step up your Internet presence quite a bit. Frankly put, the more places you can post yourself on the Web, the more “hits” people will find when they Google your name.

Social Networking Sites

Setting up a basic Facebook or MySpace page takes less than 15 minutes to do. It's very simple, as long as you know your name, e-mail address and educational history. And the best part? It's free!

New York solo attorney Evans Legros has gotten business through social networking sites like the above. He practices immigration, real estate, matrimonial and entertainment law, often working with clients who reside outside of the U.S. Legros' music clients started listing him as their attorney on their MySpace pages. When their friends were on those sites, they saw Legros' name displayed and contacted him for legal services. Legros has landed several clients this way, some of whom are well-known celebrities that have brought him additional notoriety.

Paul Gardner, Managing Partner of the Gardner Law Group in Baltimore, is a music entertainment attorney who has successfully landed high-profile clients through MySpace. Gardner was turned on to MySpace by his sister and he started by adding himself to Sean Combs' (formerly Puff Daddy) page as a “Friend.” The rush of being the “friend” of a superstar like Combs inspired Gardner to add more and more friends to his list. For the first three months, he was adding anyone and everyone he could find to his page.

“Then, all of a sudden,” says Gardner, “the friends weren't so random ' they were people in my industry. One of the people I picked to contact was guitarist BB McGill ' she looked cool. I copied and pasted my short pitch and sent it to McGill, telling her that I was an entertainment lawyer and to tell me if she needed to bounce questions off me, I'm here.”

A day or two later, McGill responded and thanked Gardner for his e-mail, saying he must have heard the good news ' that she was going on tour with Beyonc' as lead guitarist and leader of the star's all-female band. Gardner sent McGill references that included OutKast and she asked him to renegotiate her contract, which he did at no charge. He now reviews her contracts and helped her to incorporate. Gardner may never have had access to McGill if not through MySpace.

Gardner recommends that when communicating with prospects on social networking sites, lawyers should offer to answer questions free of charge. He favors this softer approach over suggesting a one-hour consultation, which can imply that the prospective client might not be paying now, but will pay later. He also notes that the search tools on MySpace and other sites can be very helpful ' you can search by city or by keywords like “musicians.”

Clearly, MySpace is not equally useful for all types of attorneys. But judging from Legros' and Gardner's examples above, it's an easy, inexpensive marketing method which has tremendous potential to deliver results and dollars with minimal energy and monetary expense for the lawyer.

Business Networking Sites

Attorneys with a more business-to-business or corporate focus find success uncovering prospects on business networking sites such as LinkedIn and ZoomInfo, which are also free to join. These sites allow you to post a photo and basic and educational information just like MySpace and Facebook. Both sites give you the option of entering in your work history timeline ' where you worked and when. This not only enables you to search for and contact people ' it also allows former colleagues to find you!

Once you've entered in your background details, you can search for former classmates and also former colleagues, or co-workers at your current firm. Maybe you went to Connecticut College and want to see who else in your company or city is also a graduate, or you're looking for a contact name at a company to pitch them on your services. Ed Poll even recommends asking your LinkedIn contacts to make introductions for you so you're not cold-contacting people.

A unique feature of LinkedIn is that it enables people to endorse each other professionally. Why not approach some of your most satisfied clients about joining LinkedIn, and then ask them to post a positive testimonial quote about you? Most likely, they'll be happy to do it and you'll reap the benefits when people read the rave on your profile page.

Blogs

Ed Poll runs a blog called “LawBiz' Blog,” so he knows this territory first-hand. He says that lawyer-run blogs have become incredibly prevalent and powerful in the legal industry, and can be a terrific marketing vehicle for their authors. He notes that some blogs are so widely read and respected that they actually have the power to influence legislation and bring about major business leads. Blogging can be a great public relations advantage, too, since reporters often quote bloggers as sources in their articles.

The tricky part about blogging for attorneys is to share expertise about a specific slice of the legal industry, but to make sure that you are not actually giving out official legal advice. Poll insists that lawyers be sure to put a disclaimer on their blog, making it clear that they are not giving legal advice. Also, he suggests that attorneys not answer direct questions from potential or current clients.

Legal marketing consultant Larry Bodine estimates that there are about 5000 professional blogs written by lawyers right now, and that number is rapidly increasing. Bodine notes that the highest percentage of legal blogs exist in criminal law and intellectual property practice areas. He suggests that attorneys ideally should find a very specific, focused niche to blog about ' not a general topic where there will be many other blogs covering that subject matter. For example, don't just blog about immigration law ' blog about immigration law for French and Italian models who want to come to the U.S.

Creating a blog is relatively straightforward for an attorney to do and costs about $15 per month when using TypePad'. However, it's the cost of your own time for ongoing maintenance and updating of the blog which is the real consideration. Bodine writes appropriately named “Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog.” He says, “Blogs need to be updated at least twice a week. The reason that blogs are interesting is that they call attention to current verdicts, rulings and changes in regulations.”

If you have decided to start a blog, consider teaming up with another attorney to share the writing workload, hire a freelance writer to help you when you're swamped, or stockpile a number of “canned” posts that are not time-sensitive and can be used when no news items are coming up in your field.

Find the Time for Social Networking

No attorney will argue that business development activities are vital to the health of any legal practice. However, networking and marketing efforts frequently end up on the back burner, especially when the legal workload gets heavier.

The beauty of social and business networking sites is that they don't take up a lot of time to set up and use. Blogging can be more time-consuming, but if you are smart about it, you'll either share the workload with others or pick a topic where you have a steady stream of potential blog topics coming your way.

One thing you can be sure about is that social networking is not going away ' it is shaping the way that people do business. In some cases, these sites are actually determining which providers clients consider for legal services. Why not join Facebook, MySpace, ZoomInfo and LinkedIn and consider starting a blog? Who knows ' you might actually have some fun in the process ' and wouldn't that be a welcome addition to your workday!

March

In March, David H. Freeman, also a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors and a regular columnist, wrote about:

Courageous Leadership

How did it feel when you came to work this morning? Were you light, excited, looking forward to the challenges and opportunities, and eager to interact with friends? Or was it more of a dread, a heaviness, a loathing, frustration, or a feeling of not wanting to see certain people? How do you think it feels for others who operate in different groups in the firm?

A 1999 Notre Dame study stated that “lawyers suffer from depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoia, social alienation and isolation, obsessive-compulsiveness, and interpersonal sensitivity at alarming rates.” Lawyers topped the list (of 104 professions studied), suffering from (major depression disorders) at a rate 3.6 times higher than non-lawyers who shared their key socio-demographic traits.

Further search on the Internet reveals more alarming information. In 2006, Michael Cohen, Executive Director of Florida Lawyers Assistance, presented a session entitled “Chemical Dependency/Stress,” and some of his findings included:

• 15%-18% of attorneys will have substance abuse problems vs. 10% of general population.
• Over 1/3 of attorneys say they are dissatisfied and would choose another profession if they could.
• Attorneys have the highest rates of depression and suicide of any profession.

What Does This Mean?

It is clear that law firms can be very stressful places. While this may not be news to you, it does raise some important questions. What responsibilities do we, as leaders, have to reduce some of this stress? While in the short term, we may not be able to change the nature of the work (e.g., pressures generated by billable hours requirements), can we change the nature of the environment in which we work?

First, let's look inside our firms to identify some of the sources of this stress. When communities of people get together, there are always potential rubs. Put them in high-stakes, high-tension situations, and the friction increases. Add to the mix people who are perfectionists, who possess the behaviors stated in the Notre Dame study, and who are products of systems that generally reward self-centered behaviors (law school grades, origination credits, etc.), and the temperature rises. Throw people from different cultures into the pot (e.g., diversity, laterals, mergers), and you add even more fuel. The stifling lid on this cauldron is the tendency of those in power to ignore these factors because, as a profitable profession, they don't want to disrupt what “works” from a financial perspective. And, in such a profitable profession, those in power often ignore these problems because they don't want to mess with what has proven to “work” from a financial perspective.

This pressure-cooker environment has many negative ramifications. People are underproductive, they poison the environment for those around them, they leave for other firms or professions, they get sick, or even die. All in all, we are not creating fertile ground for high performance. It must be the job of leaders to remove obstacles and create environments that allow highly motivated, highly talented, and highly-strung people to thrive.

It Takes Courage

What must leaders do to create the right environment? Digging through our leadership toolkit, we need, first and foremost, to find courage. As poet and consultant David Whyte points out, we need the ability to engage in courageous conversations. We need courageous listening, courageous decision-making, courageous action, the courage to set and enforce standards of behavior, and the courage to do what it takes to change destructive existing habits.

Courageous leadership requires people to see what others don't want to see, and do what others don't want to do. At a recent conference, a speaker related a Sioux Indian saying that reminded us to “Listen to the whispers before they turn into screams.” Our whispers may include associate dissatisfaction, low diversity rankings, client complaints, dysfunctional group meetings (“we should be fighting our competitors, not each other”), and weak cross-selling activity. The screams ' wholesale partner defections, lost clients, weak lateral recruitment, or even dissolution.

We have the ability to make the necessary changes, but it requires courageous leaders who possess strength, conviction, and the stamina to hold on through the inevitable resistance. Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier, reported that as he approached the barrier, it was the most turbulent ride of his life, but once he broke through, it became the calmest. Courageous leaders need to focus on getting to the other side of our barriers.

Courageous leadership exists everywhere. Since culture is the sum total of all the personal interactions in an organization, leadership must come from named leaders, partners, associates, and staff. It is in these interactions that leadership moments arise, and how we deal with those moments can makes all the difference. Let's look at some change agents from various firms to see examples of the power many of us possess.

It's about clarifying group perceptions. One boutique firm recently described a cultural fable that lives in many of our firms. During a retreat, one partner proudly reinforced the platitude that they should think of themselves as “family.” A courageous partner stood up and said, “I don't agree. Families can be painful and highly dysfunctional places where unacceptable behavior often is tolerated. I believe we should aspire to treating each other like good friends. We would never treat our best friends like we treat our families.” The room fell silent as people realized the behaviors they permitted as a “family” didn't belong in a law firm.

It's about rebalancing power. In one firm, where some powerful lawyers were not sharing origination credit in an appropriate manner, a group leader is stepping up on behalf of his group members to change the system.

It's about leading by example. In a firm where cross-selling potential is not being fully realized because of the chilling historical practices of major rainmakers who keep too much (if not all) of the originations, a partner who couldn't change the system changed her way of sharing. For work she gives to others, she offers a significant portion of credit, thereby breaking the loop of unproductive behavior. With the people she works with, she has created a culture of sharing with the hope it will spread to others.

It's about asking for forgiveness rather than permission. A marketing director insisted as a condition of his employment that all attorney contacts be included in a centralized database. Despite vigorous backlash from a few dissenters, he created a unified contact management system that saved money and was much more effective in reaching out to firm contacts.

It's about setting the tone. In more than one firm, I have seen and heard about main receptionists who are so client-focused, so friendly, so nurturing and caring of the people in the firm, that they are credited with creating a stronger feeling of community in their offices.

It's about enforcing standards. Kudos to those leaders who have demonstrated the courage and conviction to enforce partnership behavior standards by getting rid of the 800-lb. gorilla partners (with large books of business) who terrorize associates and cause them to leave in droves.

It's about admitting weakness. During a leadership training and planning session, one leader who realized he didn't have what was needed to effectively lead, admitted it and asked for someone else to take his place.

It's about doing what you believe in. At a boutique firm that is populated with lawyers from the best schools in the country, I learned that one recent associate lateral took a $100,000 pay cut to join the firm in order to “do what I went to law school for.”

It's about standing up for yourself. One associate who was being verbally and emotionally abused by an overbearing partner called a meeting with him, defined his behavior as unacceptable, told him she would no longer accept that behavior, and together they agreed upon ground rules for their future interactions.

It's about breaking old patterns and building new ones. A leader of a Labor & Employment group was relentless about building relationships with other complementary group leaders, getting cross-groups to regularly meet, and demanded commitments for cross-group action, all resulting in significant new revenue to the firm.

It's about protecting your turf when necessary. A group lateraled into a large firm, and one of the new partners was designated the leader of an existing group. The new leader funneled all new work to the partners who came with him, cutting off a partner from the legacy firm. The partner confronted the leader, called him on his behavior, defined her market, and protected her practice.

It's about taking risks. The insurance defense and Workers' Comp practices that could live with the devil they know (long hours at low rates), but have risked building new practices that could be more personally and financially rewarding.

Questions to Ask

How can we become the kind of firm we wish for? We can start by answering questions like these:

• What kind of firm do we want?
• How would a brave, integrity-filled firm act?
• What is getting in the way of becoming that kind of firm?
• What must we do to remove obstacles?
• What are our standards for interacting with each other?
• How should we enforce our standards, and what are the implications of non-compliance?
• How should we treat our associates (as slave labor or future partners/potential referral sources)?
• What is my role in making this a better (or worse) place for me and my colleagues?
• What would courageous behavior from me look like?

Imagine the kind of firm you'd work in if these questions were asked and addressed. The good news is that you possess the power to step up, to be a catalyst, to squeak the wheel, and ignite a fire. You can take on the responsibility to encourage others to throw their kindling upon your flame and fan it until the blaze destroys negative patterns of behavior. Poet Marianne Williamson provides excellent guidance by telling us “' playing small does not serve the world.”

April

In April, the Career Journal column, written by Michael DeCosta, gave us a look at:

The Quest for the Ultimate Resume ' Don't Waste Your Time

In the 2001 movie, Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon plays an aspiring Harvard law school graduate who uses some creative flair in drafting her resume in an attempt to make it stand out. The result? A pink, perfume-scented resume that is certain to catch everyone's attention. Okay, so that was a little far-fetched, but it shows how much we all want to put a little something extra into an otherwise drab document. In recent years, I have seen an explosion of gizmos and gadgets included in and accompanying resumes nearly as imaginative as title inflation. With the advent of powerful word processing programs, color printers, and creative software, many have tried to give their resumes a little twist and added dimension.

Creating a “four-color glossy” resume with an accompanying picture of yourself smiling ear to ear is going to leave a lasting impression, but not in the way you might hope. You may be thinking; “I would never do that!” But you would be amazed at how many of your contemporaries have acted on that temptation.

Constraint Is Your Best Marketing Tool

As marketing executives, the desire to be creative is inherent. Creativity, it is believed, is tantamount to aptitude. Isn't that what prospective employers are looking for in their marketing executives, anyway? Why not give them a taste of what you've got?

Alas, however tempting it may be to add some color to that black and white two-dimensional piece of paper, doing so can be as destructive to one's career as embellishing accomplishments or academic credentials. Do so at your own peril, not advantage. As difficult as it may be to constrain yourself, you will be well-served to give the facts ' and nothing but the facts ' on your resume. Resumes are prosaic, not poetic. They are not your creative outlet.

Think about it. Your command of the written word demonstrates your ability to communicate, which in turn exhibits your ability to persuade and sell. It is, in fact, the most effective skill a marketing executive brings to the table, not creativity. Creativity, at the expense of cogency, is lethal. Marketing is not abstract art. It is the art of selling through effective messaging. The art of resume writing should be no less disciplined.

Writing a coherent, well-understood resume that resonates with the reader is your most effective tool. Sadly, it's the best way to stand out, as most resumes fail to accomplish this fundamental task. I am amazed at how many executives cannot do this. Using abbreviations, acronyms or convoluted terms that are not universally understood can really alienate the reader, yet they are commonplace. Leave that type of resume writing to the software programmers. Similarly, including nebulous phrases such as “team-player,” “self-motivated,” and “high-energy” are indistinct descriptions used ad nauseam. Leave that to the recent college grads who have little more to offer. The majority of resumes fail to get their writer's message across to the reader. Write a resume that most will understand and you will be ahead of the pack. Readability is the mark of a great resume.

There's More to the Process

Moreover, writing your resume is only a small fraction of the job search process. Resumes do not get you the job; you do. The majority of job seekers land their next position through networking. Your time would better served “working your network” than trying to produce the ultimate resume. That said, once your networking efforts produce an interview, be prepared with a proper resume and, more importantly, supporting collateral materials to showcase your talent. A portfolio of marketing materials you have produced over time is absolutely essential.

In essence, the art of writing a resume follows the same fundamental principles of any writing. Splashy headlines in newspapers or attractive jackets canvassing a new novel may catch the passerby's attention, but it is not necessarily going to make the individual buy it. Similarly, your resume should be written in such a manner as to be make it long enough to cover the subject (i.e., your career), but short enough to make it interesting. In that regard, let's put to bed the myth that resumes should be kept to one page. They can be however long you want them to be as long as they keep the reader's attention.

May

Chuck and Evan Polin, in their Practice Building Skills column, gave us:

Straight from the GC's Mouth: What Companies Are Looking for from Their Law Firm!

When trying to develop your business, it is always important to think about the client or potential client with whom you are speaking. It is vital to find out what their needs are, and to discover how you can best help them with their issues. It is important to take the time to ask your clients and potential clients detailed questions. These questions should not just pertain to the legal matter at hand. You should also be asking questions regarding how the individual or company prefers to interact with their law firm. Two companies may have similar legal issues, but have completely different expectations regarding what they are looking for from their law firm, and what they hope the final outcome will be. One of the major mistakes that we see attorneys and law firms make when they pitch business is that they spend too much time outlining their experience and what they can do for their client (the pitch), and they don't spend enough time asking their potential client what is important to them when hiring an attorney.

Lessons Learned from a Panel Discussion

Back in February, our firm hosted a CLE program in the Greater Philadelphia area titled “How Attorneys Can Make the Perfect Presentation ' From a General Counsel's Perspective.” The program was a panel discussion and included four of the major rainmakers in Philadelphia and three General Counsel attorneys (GCs) of major companies in the region. As the program progressed, we noticed that there was a huge gap between what the attorneys thought was important to the General Counsels, and what actually mattered to the General Counsels when choosing an attorney. Many of the attorneys walked into that program believing that their credentials and name recognition were some of the most important factors that went into a GC's decision-making process. The answers that the
attorneys received as the GCs spoke painted a much different picture.

Are You Listening to Their Needs?

When the panel of General Counsels spoke, the theme that was revisited throughout the program was that they believed that the law firms that pitched them didn't listen to their needs. Each of the GCs told stories about how law firms would focus on factors such as: size and depth of the law firm, where the attorneys went to school, and what clients they worked with. The attorneys would relate how they knew what the GC and the company needed, without asking any questions. The GCs reported that many attorneys assumed that everyone was the same and the wants and needs of the company didn't really matter. They all said that it was not unusual for firms to give pitches and never ask the GC what he/she was looking for in a law firm. The GCs also reported that regardless of the firm that was providing the pitch, most of the pitches looked the same. They suggested that most firms have comparable resources, and that the situations where one firm was imminently more qualified than the other firms they were pitching against were rare.

Who Gets the Client

Each GC reported that the law firms they chose to work with were the firms that provided the best customer service. All of the GCs on the panel said that they preferred to work with a law firm that listened to their needs rather than the law firm with the biggest name or the best reputation. The GCs said that they felt the greatest connection to the attorneys who would take the time to ask them questions. When law firms asked questions such as, “What were you hoping that we could do for you?” and “Ideally, how would you like to work with a firm like ours?” the GCs were interested in giving those firms a chance. In these instances, the GCs believed that the law firm was going to listen to their needs and give them the attention that they needed. When the relationship started this way, the GC looked at the attorney as a trusted adviser rather than just another lawyer.

A Paradigm Shift

There needs to be a paradigm shift when you approach companies about their legal work. The old paradigm consisted of pitching based on your experience and expertise. Attorneys wanted to show companies their capabilities, and to prove how they we were smarter/more capable than everyone else. Unfortunately, companies that have been successful pitching business the old way are discovering that times have changed. The old way doesn't work anymore. There is too much competition and not enough loyalty for them to be successful pitching business the old way, a way that worked in the past.

For you to be competitive in today's marketplace, you need to pay closer attention to the needs of your prospects and clients. There is more competition than ever, and you must show your prospects and clients that their business is important to you. You need to show them that you understand how difficult their job is, and that you will work with them in a way that will make their lives easier. When you are developing new business, you should ask questions to find out what is important to each individual client. We can't assume that the way we interact with client A is the same way that we should interact with client B. There are some clients who may have different objectives each time that you work with them. It is your job to ask clients the right questions so that you can determine the best way to work with them.

Some of the questions we should be asking include: What would you like a firm like ours to accomplish for you? Ideally, how would you like to work with a law firm like ours? If there is one thing that your current firm could be doing a little better for you, what would that be? How do you prefer to interact with your outside counsel? The answers to these questions will help you determine if the company you are speaking with is a good fit for you, and it will help you determine the best way to move forward with your pitch. Ultimately, the company that you are pitching needs to be comfortable with your work and your competence, but if they share with you exactly what it is that they are looking for, it will make your job much easier. If you begin to focus on asking your prospects the right questions, it will help the prospect get what he or she is looking for, and it will make it easier for you to make the right pitch.

June

Shannon Sankstone, a member of our Board of Editors, presented in her Law Firm Intelligence column:

Researching an RFP: Winning Business Through Understanding Clients

Law firms are constantly responding to request for proposals (RFPs), and researchers are, more than ever, integrating into the business development team. Researchers can add significant value to the RFP process through analyzing the company, firm, and competition and providing their findings and recommendations to the team. This article details the process for gathering intelligence that would support a comprehensive RFP response, as well as the final research product that is presented to the business development team.

The Research Process

Research is both a product and a process. It encompasses the act of research ' formulating research questions, determining the most appropriate sources, collating findings, and evaluating information obtained in light of the original (and possibly reformulated) research questions, and analyzing the information. Moreover, research includes the product of research: The report and/or presentation, which should include answers to the research inquiry, key findings, and recommendations for actions.

In conducting research for an RFP, turnaround time, budget, and resource considerations will have to be balanced with the value of the opportunity. Before the research begins, the researcher should read the RFP and consult with key decision-makers in her firm to determine the research questions, the scope of the research process as well the format of the final product.

Reading the RFP

All members of the RFP response team should be familiar with the RFP, including the researcher. Access to this information is critical, as the RFP usually contains a wealth of information that will not only guide the research process, but also spark new ideas for strategy.

While each RFP is unique, they typically include company background information, a series of questions which must be addressed in the response, and a list of practice areas or legal needs for which the company seeks outside counsel. The most useful information lies in the often-overlooked narrative. A researcher with a keen eye will not only spot this information, but use it as a stepping-off point for further inquiry. The following examples from an RFP illustrate how the RFP itself will dictate the protocol for further activities:

• The purpose of the RFP was to develop a preferred law firm list, and the company sought to evaluate firms based on their ability to provide national and/or regional representation;
• The company stated a “hallmark” of its business strategy was the use of information technology; and
• The legal department consisted of 120 employees, 42 of whom were attorneys. The company dealt with approximately 800 open matters each year, spending upwards of $15 million per year on outside counsel.

Having read this, the researcher would know, among other things, that she is mining for 120 contacts in the firm's contacts database, looking for her firm's, and the competition's, use of technology (such as extranets and Webinars), and the firm's competition would probably be national and regional firms (and therefore the response should not tout the firm's international capabilities).

Internal Research

After reading through the RFP and formulating possible research questions, the researcher should meet with key decision-makers within her firm to discuss the details of the RFP, the team's goals, intended actions, and intelligence and information needs. After these meetings, the research questions will be finalized and firm-internal research will begin.

Internal research typically includes:

• A search of the CRM database, to determine who has contacts within the company;
• Financial reports, with financial data for the client shown firm-wide, and segmented by practice group (to determine the extent of cross-selling success) and office (to illustrate the regional/national representation of the company), as well as for several clients in the same industry combined (to show industry knowledge);
• A detailed list of matters that the firm has completed for the company. It is especially informative when the experience inventory includes matters from the practice areas the firm is pitching to the company; and
• If necessary, interviews with attorneys to uncover anecdotal information about the company, its legal department and legal needs, the industry, and competitor firms.

Competing Firms

At a baseline, the RFP team will want to know the following information:

• Who is the competition;
• What is their relationship with the company; and
• How are they positioning themselves?

Although the answers to these questions are useful to the RFP response, the answers are, in fact, information. Simply listing the answers in a packet would probably satisfy most RFP teams. However, the researcher can provide added value by analyzing the information obtained to deconstruct the competition's competitive advantage and provide recommendations for improving her team's chances of success. This is the difference between information and intelligence.

Company Research

Company research is two-fold. First, the RFP team needs to have a general understanding of the company's business, its operations, its people, its strategy, trends, and the risks it faces. For a public company, most of this information can be found through publicly available information, such as annual and quarterly SEC filings (although biographies ' especially for in-house counsel ' will not be included in an SEC filing), IP filings and press releases. For smaller or private companies, information can be very difficult ' or impossible ' to obtain. In these instances, the best approach might be to glean insights from the company's industry and/or competitors.

The second portion of company research involves delving into
the company's legal needs. The RFP team will require information pertaining to each practice area for which they are bidding, although not all practice areas will have information readily available. Easy targets include M&A, litigation, IP, bankruptcy/creditors' rights, and government procurement (for larger contracts). Difficult practice areas include real estate and compliance.

Other Research

While company, competitor, and firm research form the basis of an RFP research assignment, the RFP team should consider including information pertaining to the company's competitors, industry, and market. Trends and issues affecting an industry and a market will also affect the company's business environment, and highlighting these will better enable a firm to position itself for legal work.

The Research Product

When all the research has been completed and the information analyzed, the researcher will usually disseminate this intelligence to interested parties in a report format. Most firms engaged in competitive intelligence have a report template that can be customized to immediate needs. The researcher uses the template as a framework, while attorneys benefit from intelligence presented consistently.

Additionally, the researcher should present her findings and recommendations to the RFP team in a meeting. This facilitate understanding; often, the attorneys, marketers, and researcher discussing the completed research together will uncover new opportunities or positioning points that would otherwise have been missed.

The RFP research assignment does not end with this presentation, however. In fact, the best research continues on through the RFP process. In other words, the researcher works with the team even after they bid the work in an effort to better understand the company, the company's decision making, the RFP process, and possible improvements to the process.

Conclusion

Next month, Marketing the Law Firm reviews issues July through December ' stay tuned.

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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 in the creation of programs designed to partner with law firms for the purpose of creating business development opportunities.

At the beginning of a new year, I always look back on the year that was. This past year was indeed interesting for a variety of reasons. Many people will talk about a new administration, the TARP and other stories that made front-page news. For us here at Marketing the Law Firm, we had another great year. Our columnists and authors provided top-notch information to our readership. I wrote a rather controversial Op Ed that raised the hackles of a few in our industry. For me, it is all part of raising awareness of how we move forward.

The Year in Review will present a pared-down reprint of one article from each of the last 12 issues of MLF (six articles this month and six next month).

January

Allan Colman, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors and a regular columnist, is the CEO of the Closers Group, LLC. In January, Allan wrote a great piece for his column, Client Speak.

The Red Zone Is Wide Open: In a Troubled Economy,
New Business Opportunities Still Abound

Down economy. Incipient recession. Sub-prime credit crunch. Those are excuses that smart marketers don't use. They're catch-phrases that aggressive business developers never rely on. They're facts of life that do not impinge on the agendas of street-smart lawyers. Especially street-smart lawyers adept in the art of closing inside the Red Zone where ' marketplace conditions notwithstanding ' client prospects are always a breath or two away from saying yes, if only you know how to get them to say it.

To be sure, some firms are hamstrung by their overall strategies. If, for example, your core practice is heavily oriented toward structured finance, it's likely that the current credit crunch has wreaked havoc on your bottom line. That said, fungibility should always be just a wave of the wand away. Can lawyers be retooled into less affected transactional or real estate practices? Can they be trained to sell the skills that the marketplace now demands rather than the ones they've refined over the last few years?

Here's a simple but powerful case in point. The very day the stock market crashed in 1987, a visitor at Winston & Strawn asked the managing partner, “What are you guys going to do now?” The managing partner was unperturbed. “Build up our bankruptcy practice, of course,” he replied with a smile.

I'm not saying it's easy. But I am saying that every marketplace fluctuation raises pointed concerns for your clients as well as for you. Your job is to have in place a marketing strategy that allows you to directly address their future concerns as well as a business development presentation to persuasively communicate that, if you did securitizations yesterday, you'll do workouts today with equal aplomb.

Like all downturns, the sub-prime crisis teaches us to have contingency plans. Contingency plans that are directly related to client needs. Anticipate what clients will need in bad times even as the good times are still rolling. To paraphrase Joe Flom, every crisis is an opportunity. So true, so true!

The Larger Picture

Meanwhile, practice areas hampered by the current credit market represent a mere smidgen of what most well-rounded law firms still have to sell. Understand that associate layoffs in specific affected areas are only distractions from the larger picture. To get a real sense of that larger picture, let's take a look ' as we often have to support points we've made in this column ' at the 2007 BTI Consulting Group Survey.

In that survey, 1,272 individual interviews with corporate counsel disclosed conspicuous business-generation opportunities for law firms that are able to recognize such opportunities and match their resident skills to client needs. Consider:

• 61.1% of corporate clients have replaced at least one primary firm in the past 18 months.
• Corporate in-house counsel have added an average of eight new law firms to their core roster in the past two years.
• Corporate counsel have increased their spending with their secondary firms by 60% since 2001.
• Only 32.1% of corporations recommend their primary law firms to others.

If there was ever a time to prospect for new business, this is it. Even as the economy appears headed for a significant correction, major legal practice areas will continue to hold steady or even grow. BTI identifies six specialties as “Powerhouse Practices ' Best Opportunities for 2007″ based on perceptible growth patterns and client openness to premium rate billing.

• Class Action
• Bet-the-Company Litigation
• IP Litigation
• Regulatory
• M&A
• Securities

The litigation areas are not, of course, surprising. There, as in employment and intellectual property (IP litigation and non-litigation IP), anticipated growth rates are just under 10%. As litigators, do you have business development plans separately tailored for up markets and down markets? Litigators should naturally thrive in both.

In securities, there may be growing demand for diversified instruments unaffected by the current downturn in mortgage-backed securities. Are you identifying creative alternatives? Are you giving free hints on how corporate and institutional portfolios might be further diversified and expanded?

“Free hints” are always shrewd marketing and selling techniques. They provide potential buyers with a sense of what you can accomplish. The implicit message to the client prospect: If this is what you're getting for free, imagine what you'll get if you start paying for it! In a down market, the technique is even more effective. Client prospects might feel as if they're about to start drowning. Your free hints, if they're substantive and useful enough, are like lifelines that C-Suites as well as in-house counsel may grab.

At first blush it's something of a surprise to see M&A on the current hot list, yet consider the diversity of transactions that may arise if the volume of mega-deals subsides. There are still terrific mid-sized law firms in cities like Cleveland and Indianapolis feeding on deals involving mid-cap clients.

The Industry Factor

Specific industries are also consolidating because competitive conditions demand it. Here, the “client knowledge” mantra is especially important. Clients may be caught between two untenable positions: having to merge or acquire because their customers require fuller service and broader platform, while being hard-pressed to generate the financing to move forward. Are there solutions you can talk about? Can you talk about growth in a less-than-abundance situation?

Client knowledge and industry knowledge naturally dovetail. Know what specific industries need in down markets as well as what they need in better weather. Right now, a variety of sources, including BTI, confirm increased litigation in health care, insurance, professional services, utilities, and wholesale trade. Do you know what causes of action commonly drive that diverse litigation?

Not just banks and financial services, securities work is on the upswing among manufacturers and wholesalers. M&A is reportedly still strong in those sectors as well, while the chemical and energy industries are seeing a strong flow of sizable deals. (Even as I write, the Netherlands-based Bassell has just acquired the Lyondell Chemical Company).

Have your IP lawyers looked at the banking and insurance industries as well as high tech and pharma? Are your employment lawyers marketing to telecommunications companies as well as to their customary health care and retail prospects? Are your environmental lawyers talking to wholesalers?

Painful Lessons

The fact that, in this current market, your lawyers ought to be carefully examining such new and variegated industry area possibilities suggests a few very important marketing lessons. Lawyers get myopic. Some lawyers, for example, see themselves as both employment and health care practitioners, defining their skills according to a specific industry even though those skills are widely adaptable. Employment lawyers like litigators may tend to do well in adverse economies, but the health care industry is driven by consolidation. Why define yourself mainly on the basis of a single industry with a steadily declining pool of potential clients. So take a look at telecommunications as well. Likewise, look at wholesalers, not just retailers.

Diversify your marketing in the good times if you want to be ready for the bad ones.

One wonders about the wisdom of industry practice groups. To be sure, it's a powerful selling tool when you can tell prospects that you know everything there is to know about the widgets they manufacture. Again, though, what happens if people stop buying widgets?

You can never have too much market research ' and the broader, the better. When we see law firms start global warming practice groups (Greenberg Traurig) or sub-prime counseling practices (Patterson Belknap), chances are we're seeing the fruits of their extensive research into both specific client needs and overall industry concerns. In turn, such research facilitates the most effective possible professional service marketing ' marketing that is based on extraordinarily broad due diligence and yet results in extraordinarily specific niche service capability.

It's a safe bet that the law firms most directly affected by the credit crunch will now acknowledge, albeit a mite sadly, the wisdom of diversified marketing to support an expanding number of targeted niche services. The good news is that down markets always provide opportunities to learn the kind of lessons that will only make us stronger in the future.

The bad news is that, no matter how painful those lessons are to learn, they always seem to be quickly forgotten.

February

Christy Burke, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors and a regular columnist, gave us a great look at social networking in her The Place To Network Column.

Jumpstart Client Development with Social Networking

Teens, college kids and recent graduates have grown up with the Internet and social networking sites in their bloodstreams ' they are constantly communicating with each other through Web sites. If you are not convinced that you're slightly out of the loop on this trend, ask yourself when was the last time you got “poked” or “threw a sheep” at someone on Facebook?

Adults who have been out of school for a few (ahem) years may find social networking tools a bit intimidating, or think that they're just for kids or recreational purposes. And many lawyers, who are among the more techno-phobic of professionals, are often reluctant to learn new technologies, especially when they're so busy doing grown-up things like billing hours and meeting with clients.

The truth is that the social networking is rapidly becoming a highly viable way for attorneys to expand their books of business. Social networking goes far beyond MySpace and Facebook ' the options are constantly growing as the Internet increasingly takes on the roles of publisher, matchmaker, business developer and research library.

The Internet can be your new best friend when it comes to generating leads. Just for kicks, try “Googleing” your name, your firm's name and your competitors' names. You can easily see what kind of exposure is available on the Web and notice what you've already garnered, perhaps without even realizing it. You'll also be privy to your competitors' tactics which may make you realize you need to step up your Internet presence quite a bit. Frankly put, the more places you can post yourself on the Web, the more “hits” people will find when they Google your name.

Social Networking Sites

Setting up a basic Facebook or MySpace page takes less than 15 minutes to do. It's very simple, as long as you know your name, e-mail address and educational history. And the best part? It's free!

New York solo attorney Evans Legros has gotten business through social networking sites like the above. He practices immigration, real estate, matrimonial and entertainment law, often working with clients who reside outside of the U.S. Legros' music clients started listing him as their attorney on their MySpace pages. When their friends were on those sites, they saw Legros' name displayed and contacted him for legal services. Legros has landed several clients this way, some of whom are well-known celebrities that have brought him additional notoriety.

Paul Gardner, Managing Partner of the Gardner Law Group in Baltimore, is a music entertainment attorney who has successfully landed high-profile clients through MySpace. Gardner was turned on to MySpace by his sister and he started by adding himself to Sean Combs' (formerly Puff Daddy) page as a “Friend.” The rush of being the “friend” of a superstar like Combs inspired Gardner to add more and more friends to his list. For the first three months, he was adding anyone and everyone he could find to his page.

“Then, all of a sudden,” says Gardner, “the friends weren't so random ' they were people in my industry. One of the people I picked to contact was guitarist BB McGill ' she looked cool. I copied and pasted my short pitch and sent it to McGill, telling her that I was an entertainment lawyer and to tell me if she needed to bounce questions off me, I'm here.”

A day or two later, McGill responded and thanked Gardner for his e-mail, saying he must have heard the good news ' that she was going on tour with Beyonc' as lead guitarist and leader of the star's all-female band. Gardner sent McGill references that included OutKast and she asked him to renegotiate her contract, which he did at no charge. He now reviews her contracts and helped her to incorporate. Gardner may never have had access to McGill if not through MySpace.

Gardner recommends that when communicating with prospects on social networking sites, lawyers should offer to answer questions free of charge. He favors this softer approach over suggesting a one-hour consultation, which can imply that the prospective client might not be paying now, but will pay later. He also notes that the search tools on MySpace and other sites can be very helpful ' you can search by city or by keywords like “musicians.”

Clearly, MySpace is not equally useful for all types of attorneys. But judging from Legros' and Gardner's examples above, it's an easy, inexpensive marketing method which has tremendous potential to deliver results and dollars with minimal energy and monetary expense for the lawyer.

Business Networking Sites

Attorneys with a more business-to-business or corporate focus find success uncovering prospects on business networking sites such as LinkedIn and ZoomInfo, which are also free to join. These sites allow you to post a photo and basic and educational information just like MySpace and Facebook. Both sites give you the option of entering in your work history timeline ' where you worked and when. This not only enables you to search for and contact people ' it also allows former colleagues to find you!

Once you've entered in your background details, you can search for former classmates and also former colleagues, or co-workers at your current firm. Maybe you went to Connecticut College and want to see who else in your company or city is also a graduate, or you're looking for a contact name at a company to pitch them on your services. Ed Poll even recommends asking your LinkedIn contacts to make introductions for you so you're not cold-contacting people.

A unique feature of LinkedIn is that it enables people to endorse each other professionally. Why not approach some of your most satisfied clients about joining LinkedIn, and then ask them to post a positive testimonial quote about you? Most likely, they'll be happy to do it and you'll reap the benefits when people read the rave on your profile page.

Blogs

Ed Poll runs a blog called “LawBiz' Blog,” so he knows this territory first-hand. He says that lawyer-run blogs have become incredibly prevalent and powerful in the legal industry, and can be a terrific marketing vehicle for their authors. He notes that some blogs are so widely read and respected that they actually have the power to influence legislation and bring about major business leads. Blogging can be a great public relations advantage, too, since reporters often quote bloggers as sources in their articles.

The tricky part about blogging for attorneys is to share expertise about a specific slice of the legal industry, but to make sure that you are not actually giving out official legal advice. Poll insists that lawyers be sure to put a disclaimer on their blog, making it clear that they are not giving legal advice. Also, he suggests that attorneys not answer direct questions from potential or current clients.

Legal marketing consultant Larry Bodine estimates that there are about 5000 professional blogs written by lawyers right now, and that number is rapidly increasing. Bodine notes that the highest percentage of legal blogs exist in criminal law and intellectual property practice areas. He suggests that attorneys ideally should find a very specific, focused niche to blog about ' not a general topic where there will be many other blogs covering that subject matter. For example, don't just blog about immigration law ' blog about immigration law for French and Italian models who want to come to the U.S.

Creating a blog is relatively straightforward for an attorney to do and costs about $15 per month when using TypePad'. However, it's the cost of your own time for ongoing maintenance and updating of the blog which is the real consideration. Bodine writes appropriately named “Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog.” He says, “Blogs need to be updated at least twice a week. The reason that blogs are interesting is that they call attention to current verdicts, rulings and changes in regulations.”

If you have decided to start a blog, consider teaming up with another attorney to share the writing workload, hire a freelance writer to help you when you're swamped, or stockpile a number of “canned” posts that are not time-sensitive and can be used when no news items are coming up in your field.

Find the Time for Social Networking

No attorney will argue that business development activities are vital to the health of any legal practice. However, networking and marketing efforts frequently end up on the back burner, especially when the legal workload gets heavier.

The beauty of social and business networking sites is that they don't take up a lot of time to set up and use. Blogging can be more time-consuming, but if you are smart about it, you'll either share the workload with others or pick a topic where you have a steady stream of potential blog topics coming your way.

One thing you can be sure about is that social networking is not going away ' it is shaping the way that people do business. In some cases, these sites are actually determining which providers clients consider for legal services. Why not join Facebook, MySpace, ZoomInfo and LinkedIn and consider starting a blog? Who knows ' you might actually have some fun in the process ' and wouldn't that be a welcome addition to your workday!

March

In March, David H. Freeman, also a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors and a regular columnist, wrote about:

Courageous Leadership

How did it feel when you came to work this morning? Were you light, excited, looking forward to the challenges and opportunities, and eager to interact with friends? Or was it more of a dread, a heaviness, a loathing, frustration, or a feeling of not wanting to see certain people? How do you think it feels for others who operate in different groups in the firm?

A 1999 Notre Dame study stated that “lawyers suffer from depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoia, social alienation and isolation, obsessive-compulsiveness, and interpersonal sensitivity at alarming rates.” Lawyers topped the list (of 104 professions studied), suffering from (major depression disorders) at a rate 3.6 times higher than non-lawyers who shared their key socio-demographic traits.

Further search on the Internet reveals more alarming information. In 2006, Michael Cohen, Executive Director of Florida Lawyers Assistance, presented a session entitled “Chemical Dependency/Stress,” and some of his findings included:

• 15%-18% of attorneys will have substance abuse problems vs. 10% of general population.
• Over 1/3 of attorneys say they are dissatisfied and would choose another profession if they could.
• Attorneys have the highest rates of depression and suicide of any profession.

What Does This Mean?

It is clear that law firms can be very stressful places. While this may not be news to you, it does raise some important questions. What responsibilities do we, as leaders, have to reduce some of this stress? While in the short term, we may not be able to change the nature of the work (e.g., pressures generated by billable hours requirements), can we change the nature of the environment in which we work?

First, let's look inside our firms to identify some of the sources of this stress. When communities of people get together, there are always potential rubs. Put them in high-stakes, high-tension situations, and the friction increases. Add to the mix people who are perfectionists, who possess the behaviors stated in the Notre Dame study, and who are products of systems that generally reward self-centered behaviors (law school grades, origination credits, etc.), and the temperature rises. Throw people from different cultures into the pot (e.g., diversity, laterals, mergers), and you add even more fuel. The stifling lid on this cauldron is the tendency of those in power to ignore these factors because, as a profitable profession, they don't want to disrupt what “works” from a financial perspective. And, in such a profitable profession, those in power often ignore these problems because they don't want to mess with what has proven to “work” from a financial perspective.

This pressure-cooker environment has many negative ramifications. People are underproductive, they poison the environment for those around them, they leave for other firms or professions, they get sick, or even die. All in all, we are not creating fertile ground for high performance. It must be the job of leaders to remove obstacles and create environments that allow highly motivated, highly talented, and highly-strung people to thrive.

It Takes Courage

What must leaders do to create the right environment? Digging through our leadership toolkit, we need, first and foremost, to find courage. As poet and consultant David Whyte points out, we need the ability to engage in courageous conversations. We need courageous listening, courageous decision-making, courageous action, the courage to set and enforce standards of behavior, and the courage to do what it takes to change destructive existing habits.

Courageous leadership requires people to see what others don't want to see, and do what others don't want to do. At a recent conference, a speaker related a Sioux Indian saying that reminded us to “Listen to the whispers before they turn into screams.” Our whispers may include associate dissatisfaction, low diversity rankings, client complaints, dysfunctional group meetings (“we should be fighting our competitors, not each other”), and weak cross-selling activity. The screams ' wholesale partner defections, lost clients, weak lateral recruitment, or even dissolution.

We have the ability to make the necessary changes, but it requires courageous leaders who possess strength, conviction, and the stamina to hold on through the inevitable resistance. Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier, reported that as he approached the barrier, it was the most turbulent ride of his life, but once he broke through, it became the calmest. Courageous leaders need to focus on getting to the other side of our barriers.

Courageous leadership exists everywhere. Since culture is the sum total of all the personal interactions in an organization, leadership must come from named leaders, partners, associates, and staff. It is in these interactions that leadership moments arise, and how we deal with those moments can makes all the difference. Let's look at some change agents from various firms to see examples of the power many of us possess.

It's about clarifying group perceptions. One boutique firm recently described a cultural fable that lives in many of our firms. During a retreat, one partner proudly reinforced the platitude that they should think of themselves as “family.” A courageous partner stood up and said, “I don't agree. Families can be painful and highly dysfunctional places where unacceptable behavior often is tolerated. I believe we should aspire to treating each other like good friends. We would never treat our best friends like we treat our families.” The room fell silent as people realized the behaviors they permitted as a “family” didn't belong in a law firm.

It's about rebalancing power. In one firm, where some powerful lawyers were not sharing origination credit in an appropriate manner, a group leader is stepping up on behalf of his group members to change the system.

It's about leading by example. In a firm where cross-selling potential is not being fully realized because of the chilling historical practices of major rainmakers who keep too much (if not all) of the originations, a partner who couldn't change the system changed her way of sharing. For work she gives to others, she offers a significant portion of credit, thereby breaking the loop of unproductive behavior. With the people she works with, she has created a culture of sharing with the hope it will spread to others.

It's about asking for forgiveness rather than permission. A marketing director insisted as a condition of his employment that all attorney contacts be included in a centralized database. Despite vigorous backlash from a few dissenters, he created a unified contact management system that saved money and was much more effective in reaching out to firm contacts.

It's about setting the tone. In more than one firm, I have seen and heard about main receptionists who are so client-focused, so friendly, so nurturing and caring of the people in the firm, that they are credited with creating a stronger feeling of community in their offices.

It's about enforcing standards. Kudos to those leaders who have demonstrated the courage and conviction to enforce partnership behavior standards by getting rid of the 800-lb. gorilla partners (with large books of business) who terrorize associates and cause them to leave in droves.

It's about admitting weakness. During a leadership training and planning session, one leader who realized he didn't have what was needed to effectively lead, admitted it and asked for someone else to take his place.

It's about doing what you believe in. At a boutique firm that is populated with lawyers from the best schools in the country, I learned that one recent associate lateral took a $100,000 pay cut to join the firm in order to “do what I went to law school for.”

It's about standing up for yourself. One associate who was being verbally and emotionally abused by an overbearing partner called a meeting with him, defined his behavior as unacceptable, told him she would no longer accept that behavior, and together they agreed upon ground rules for their future interactions.

It's about breaking old patterns and building new ones. A leader of a Labor & Employment group was relentless about building relationships with other complementary group leaders, getting cross-groups to regularly meet, and demanded commitments for cross-group action, all resulting in significant new revenue to the firm.

It's about protecting your turf when necessary. A group lateraled into a large firm, and one of the new partners was designated the leader of an existing group. The new leader funneled all new work to the partners who came with him, cutting off a partner from the legacy firm. The partner confronted the leader, called him on his behavior, defined her market, and protected her practice.

It's about taking risks. The insurance defense and Workers' Comp practices that could live with the devil they know (long hours at low rates), but have risked building new practices that could be more personally and financially rewarding.

Questions to Ask

How can we become the kind of firm we wish for? We can start by answering questions like these:

• What kind of firm do we want?
• How would a brave, integrity-filled firm act?
• What is getting in the way of becoming that kind of firm?
• What must we do to remove obstacles?
• What are our standards for interacting with each other?
• How should we enforce our standards, and what are the implications of non-compliance?
• How should we treat our associates (as slave labor or future partners/potential referral sources)?
• What is my role in making this a better (or worse) place for me and my colleagues?
• What would courageous behavior from me look like?

Imagine the kind of firm you'd work in if these questions were asked and addressed. The good news is that you possess the power to step up, to be a catalyst, to squeak the wheel, and ignite a fire. You can take on the responsibility to encourage others to throw their kindling upon your flame and fan it until the blaze destroys negative patterns of behavior. Poet Marianne Williamson provides excellent guidance by telling us “' playing small does not serve the world.”

April

In April, the Career Journal column, written by Michael DeCosta, gave us a look at:

The Quest for the Ultimate Resume ' Don't Waste Your Time

In the 2001 movie, Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon plays an aspiring Harvard law school graduate who uses some creative flair in drafting her resume in an attempt to make it stand out. The result? A pink, perfume-scented resume that is certain to catch everyone's attention. Okay, so that was a little far-fetched, but it shows how much we all want to put a little something extra into an otherwise drab document. In recent years, I have seen an explosion of gizmos and gadgets included in and accompanying resumes nearly as imaginative as title inflation. With the advent of powerful word processing programs, color printers, and creative software, many have tried to give their resumes a little twist and added dimension.

Creating a “four-color glossy” resume with an accompanying picture of yourself smiling ear to ear is going to leave a lasting impression, but not in the way you might hope. You may be thinking; “I would never do that!” But you would be amazed at how many of your contemporaries have acted on that temptation.

Constraint Is Your Best Marketing Tool

As marketing executives, the desire to be creative is inherent. Creativity, it is believed, is tantamount to aptitude. Isn't that what prospective employers are looking for in their marketing executives, anyway? Why not give them a taste of what you've got?

Alas, however tempting it may be to add some color to that black and white two-dimensional piece of paper, doing so can be as destructive to one's career as embellishing accomplishments or academic credentials. Do so at your own peril, not advantage. As difficult as it may be to constrain yourself, you will be well-served to give the facts ' and nothing but the facts ' on your resume. Resumes are prosaic, not poetic. They are not your creative outlet.

Think about it. Your command of the written word demonstrates your ability to communicate, which in turn exhibits your ability to persuade and sell. It is, in fact, the most effective skill a marketing executive brings to the table, not creativity. Creativity, at the expense of cogency, is lethal. Marketing is not abstract art. It is the art of selling through effective messaging. The art of resume writing should be no less disciplined.

Writing a coherent, well-understood resume that resonates with the reader is your most effective tool. Sadly, it's the best way to stand out, as most resumes fail to accomplish this fundamental task. I am amazed at how many executives cannot do this. Using abbreviations, acronyms or convoluted terms that are not universally understood can really alienate the reader, yet they are commonplace. Leave that type of resume writing to the software programmers. Similarly, including nebulous phrases such as “team-player,” “self-motivated,” and “high-energy” are indistinct descriptions used ad nauseam. Leave that to the recent college grads who have little more to offer. The majority of resumes fail to get their writer's message across to the reader. Write a resume that most will understand and you will be ahead of the pack. Readability is the mark of a great resume.

There's More to the Process

Moreover, writing your resume is only a small fraction of the job search process. Resumes do not get you the job; you do. The majority of job seekers land their next position through networking. Your time would better served “working your network” than trying to produce the ultimate resume. That said, once your networking efforts produce an interview, be prepared with a proper resume and, more importantly, supporting collateral materials to showcase your talent. A portfolio of marketing materials you have produced over time is absolutely essential.

In essence, the art of writing a resume follows the same fundamental principles of any writing. Splashy headlines in newspapers or attractive jackets canvassing a new novel may catch the passerby's attention, but it is not necessarily going to make the individual buy it. Similarly, your resume should be written in such a manner as to be make it long enough to cover the subject (i.e., your career), but short enough to make it interesting. In that regard, let's put to bed the myth that resumes should be kept to one page. They can be however long you want them to be as long as they keep the reader's attention.

May

Chuck and Evan Polin, in their Practice Building Skills column, gave us:

Straight from the GC's Mouth: What Companies Are Looking for from Their Law Firm!

When trying to develop your business, it is always important to think about the client or potential client with whom you are speaking. It is vital to find out what their needs are, and to discover how you can best help them with their issues. It is important to take the time to ask your clients and potential clients detailed questions. These questions should not just pertain to the legal matter at hand. You should also be asking questions regarding how the individual or company prefers to interact with their law firm. Two companies may have similar legal issues, but have completely different expectations regarding what they are looking for from their law firm, and what they hope the final outcome will be. One of the major mistakes that we see attorneys and law firms make when they pitch business is that they spend too much time outlining their experience and what they can do for their client (the pitch), and they don't spend enough time asking their potential client what is important to them when hiring an attorney.

Lessons Learned from a Panel Discussion

Back in February, our firm hosted a CLE program in the Greater Philadelphia area titled “How Attorneys Can Make the Perfect Presentation ' From a General Counsel's Perspective.” The program was a panel discussion and included four of the major rainmakers in Philadelphia and three General Counsel attorneys (GCs) of major companies in the region. As the program progressed, we noticed that there was a huge gap between what the attorneys thought was important to the General Counsels, and what actually mattered to the General Counsels when choosing an attorney. Many of the attorneys walked into that program believing that their credentials and name recognition were some of the most important factors that went into a GC's decision-making process. The answers that the
attorneys received as the GCs spoke painted a much different picture.

Are You Listening to Their Needs?

When the panel of General Counsels spoke, the theme that was revisited throughout the program was that they believed that the law firms that pitched them didn't listen to their needs. Each of the GCs told stories about how law firms would focus on factors such as: size and depth of the law firm, where the attorneys went to school, and what clients they worked with. The attorneys would relate how they knew what the GC and the company needed, without asking any questions. The GCs reported that many attorneys assumed that everyone was the same and the wants and needs of the company didn't really matter. They all said that it was not unusual for firms to give pitches and never ask the GC what he/she was looking for in a law firm. The GCs also reported that regardless of the firm that was providing the pitch, most of the pitches looked the same. They suggested that most firms have comparable resources, and that the situations where one firm was imminently more qualified than the other firms they were pitching against were rare.

Who Gets the Client

Each GC reported that the law firms they chose to work with were the firms that provided the best customer service. All of the GCs on the panel said that they preferred to work with a law firm that listened to their needs rather than the law firm with the biggest name or the best reputation. The GCs said that they felt the greatest connection to the attorneys who would take the time to ask them questions. When law firms asked questions such as, “What were you hoping that we could do for you?” and “Ideally, how would you like to work with a firm like ours?” the GCs were interested in giving those firms a chance. In these instances, the GCs believed that the law firm was going to listen to their needs and give them the attention that they needed. When the relationship started this way, the GC looked at the attorney as a trusted adviser rather than just another lawyer.

A Paradigm Shift

There needs to be a paradigm shift when you approach companies about their legal work. The old paradigm consisted of pitching based on your experience and expertise. Attorneys wanted to show companies their capabilities, and to prove how they we were smarter/more capable than everyone else. Unfortunately, companies that have been successful pitching business the old way are discovering that times have changed. The old way doesn't work anymore. There is too much competition and not enough loyalty for them to be successful pitching business the old way, a way that worked in the past.

For you to be competitive in today's marketplace, you need to pay closer attention to the needs of your prospects and clients. There is more competition than ever, and you must show your prospects and clients that their business is important to you. You need to show them that you understand how difficult their job is, and that you will work with them in a way that will make their lives easier. When you are developing new business, you should ask questions to find out what is important to each individual client. We can't assume that the way we interact with client A is the same way that we should interact with client B. There are some clients who may have different objectives each time that you work with them. It is your job to ask clients the right questions so that you can determine the best way to work with them.

Some of the questions we should be asking include: What would you like a firm like ours to accomplish for you? Ideally, how would you like to work with a law firm like ours? If there is one thing that your current firm could be doing a little better for you, what would that be? How do you prefer to interact with your outside counsel? The answers to these questions will help you determine if the company you are speaking with is a good fit for you, and it will help you determine the best way to move forward with your pitch. Ultimately, the company that you are pitching needs to be comfortable with your work and your competence, but if they share with you exactly what it is that they are looking for, it will make your job much easier. If you begin to focus on asking your prospects the right questions, it will help the prospect get what he or she is looking for, and it will make it easier for you to make the right pitch.

June

Shannon Sankstone, a member of our Board of Editors, presented in her Law Firm Intelligence column:

Researching an RFP: Winning Business Through Understanding Clients

Law firms are constantly responding to request for proposals (RFPs), and researchers are, more than ever, integrating into the business development team. Researchers can add significant value to the RFP process through analyzing the company, firm, and competition and providing their findings and recommendations to the team. This article details the process for gathering intelligence that would support a comprehensive RFP response, as well as the final research product that is presented to the business development team.

The Research Process

Research is both a product and a process. It encompasses the act of research ' formulating research questions, determining the most appropriate sources, collating findings, and evaluating information obtained in light of the original (and possibly reformulated) research questions, and analyzing the information. Moreover, research includes the product of research: The report and/or presentation, which should include answers to the research inquiry, key findings, and recommendations for actions.

In conducting research for an RFP, turnaround time, budget, and resource considerations will have to be balanced with the value of the opportunity. Before the research begins, the researcher should read the RFP and consult with key decision-makers in her firm to determine the research questions, the scope of the research process as well the format of the final product.

Reading the RFP

All members of the RFP response team should be familiar with the RFP, including the researcher. Access to this information is critical, as the RFP usually contains a wealth of information that will not only guide the research process, but also spark new ideas for strategy.

While each RFP is unique, they typically include company background information, a series of questions which must be addressed in the response, and a list of practice areas or legal needs for which the company seeks outside counsel. The most useful information lies in the often-overlooked narrative. A researcher with a keen eye will not only spot this information, but use it as a stepping-off point for further inquiry. The following examples from an RFP illustrate how the RFP itself will dictate the protocol for further activities:

• The purpose of the RFP was to develop a preferred law firm list, and the company sought to evaluate firms based on their ability to provide national and/or regional representation;
• The company stated a “hallmark” of its business strategy was the use of information technology; and
• The legal department consisted of 120 employees, 42 of whom were attorneys. The company dealt with approximately 800 open matters each year, spending upwards of $15 million per year on outside counsel.

Having read this, the researcher would know, among other things, that she is mining for 120 contacts in the firm's contacts database, looking for her firm's, and the competition's, use of technology (such as extranets and Webinars), and the firm's competition would probably be national and regional firms (and therefore the response should not tout the firm's international capabilities).

Internal Research

After reading through the RFP and formulating possible research questions, the researcher should meet with key decision-makers within her firm to discuss the details of the RFP, the team's goals, intended actions, and intelligence and information needs. After these meetings, the research questions will be finalized and firm-internal research will begin.

Internal research typically includes:

• A search of the CRM database, to determine who has contacts within the company;
• Financial reports, with financial data for the client shown firm-wide, and segmented by practice group (to determine the extent of cross-selling success) and office (to illustrate the regional/national representation of the company), as well as for several clients in the same industry combined (to show industry knowledge);
• A detailed list of matters that the firm has completed for the company. It is especially informative when the experience inventory includes matters from the practice areas the firm is pitching to the company; and
• If necessary, interviews with attorneys to uncover anecdotal information about the company, its legal department and legal needs, the industry, and competitor firms.

Competing Firms

At a baseline, the RFP team will want to know the following information:

• Who is the competition;
• What is their relationship with the company; and
• How are they positioning themselves?

Although the answers to these questions are useful to the RFP response, the answers are, in fact, information. Simply listing the answers in a packet would probably satisfy most RFP teams. However, the researcher can provide added value by analyzing the information obtained to deconstruct the competition's competitive advantage and provide recommendations for improving her team's chances of success. This is the difference between information and intelligence.

Company Research

Company research is two-fold. First, the RFP team needs to have a general understanding of the company's business, its operations, its people, its strategy, trends, and the risks it faces. For a public company, most of this information can be found through publicly available information, such as annual and quarterly SEC filings (although biographies ' especially for in-house counsel ' will not be included in an SEC filing), IP filings and press releases. For smaller or private companies, information can be very difficult ' or impossible ' to obtain. In these instances, the best approach might be to glean insights from the company's industry and/or competitors.

The second portion of company research involves delving into
the company's legal needs. The RFP team will require information pertaining to each practice area for which they are bidding, although not all practice areas will have information readily available. Easy targets include M&A, litigation, IP, bankruptcy/creditors' rights, and government procurement (for larger contracts). Difficult practice areas include real estate and compliance.

Other Research

While company, competitor, and firm research form the basis of an RFP research assignment, the RFP team should consider including information pertaining to the company's competitors, industry, and market. Trends and issues affecting an industry and a market will also affect the company's business environment, and highlighting these will better enable a firm to position itself for legal work.

The Research Product

When all the research has been completed and the information analyzed, the researcher will usually disseminate this intelligence to interested parties in a report format. Most firms engaged in competitive intelligence have a report template that can be customized to immediate needs. The researcher uses the template as a framework, while attorneys benefit from intelligence presented consistently.

Additionally, the researcher should present her findings and recommendations to the RFP team in a meeting. This facilitate understanding; often, the attorneys, marketers, and researcher discussing the completed research together will uncover new opportunities or positioning points that would otherwise have been missed.

The RFP research assignment does not end with this presentation, however. In fact, the best research continues on through the RFP process. In other words, the researcher works with the team even after they bid the work in an effort to better understand the company, the company's decision making, the RFP process, and possible improvements to the process.

Conclusion

Next month, Marketing the Law Firm reviews issues July through December ' stay tuned.

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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 in the creation of programs designed to partner with law firms for the purpose of creating business development opportunities.