Highlights from ALM's Business Development and Marketing Leadership Forum 2012

The GCs Perspective

One of the highlight of this year's Leadership Forum was to hear an insider's view on how general counsel work with outside counsel, perceive differentiation among law firms and the impact of corporate pressures on their go-to lawyers. The GC panel was comprised of three impressive individuals: Ronald Cami, GC at TPC Capital LP; Kenneth Handal, President Governance, Risk and Compliance at Guidepost Solutions LLC; and Seth Kraus, EVP and GC of Take-Two Interactive. The salient (paraphrased) takeaways from this lively interactive session were:

• All three GCs stressed how important it is for outside counsel to get to know their clients' business, strategy and culture. Ron Cami described his go-to law firms as “an extension of the internal legal department, even when dealing with the business units. Understanding our culture and strategy is really important.” Ken Handal underscored the point that law firm marketing departments' competitive intelligence and industry research capabilities are more important than ever. And Seth Kraus spoke about the need for outside counsel to “put yourself in the in-house lawyer's shoes.”
• On cross-selling and opening the door for new business, the panelists opined that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a law firm institutionalizing a client, however Ron Cami emphasized that cross-selling new practice areas needs to be done with “a human touch.” Seth Kraus said law firms need to “take the time to introduce the right people at the right time in a substantive manner. Gratuitous introductions are not helpful at all.” All three GCs were expansive when speaking of law firms getting their foot in the door. Their legal departments are very much open to the idea of off-the-clock CLE training sessions, lawyer's secondments, and focused meetings designed to share best practices from the clients' industry, particularly best practices related to project management, alternative fee arrangements and litigation management.
• The panelists informed the audience that law firm websites do not play a significant role in their decision to work with outside counsel. They do, however, peruse online lawyer biographies and obtain contact details.
• That said, the GCs were adamant about the importance of a strong law firm brand, particularly in connection with selecting new counsel for bet-the-company emergency cases. A strong law firm brand is often the deciding factor when a company's board of directors must decide between two similar and competing proposals.
• Social media. Take-Two Interactive develops and publishes entertainment software, so it's no surprise that Seth Kraus uses and follows various social media channels. Social media helps him and his company stay abreast of trends and the competition.
• The strongest theme throughout the session was the GCs' view that outside counsel's greatest role is in risk management. The three GCs said they expected the following characteristics from their most trusted lawyers: leadership, judgment, partnership, value add and empathy.

Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Faced with increasing pressure to grow revenue in a highly competitive market, the reality today is that to gain market share you need to take market share. How are firms shifting their business development strategies and tailoring their approaches in this environment? Panelists Kristan Morrell (Chief Strategic Officer, Dickstein Shapiro), Bob Robertson (Chief Marketing Officer, Greenberg Traurig) and Anne Malloy Tucker (Chief Marketing Officer, Goodwin Procter) shared their views.

While their approaches may be different in some areas, the panelists agreed that first and foremost, protecting and nurturing existing client relationships is critical. Whether the strategy is key client programs or client feedback initiatives, client relationship management is key.

A second panel, featuring Paul Bonner (Director of Business Development, Haynes & Boone), Jason Bovis (Director of Marketing, Akerman Senterfitt) and Darryl Cross (Vice President, LexisNexis) spoke in depth about the tools and techniques firms are using to assist in their business development efforts.

Instinct is no longer enough in today's data rich environment. The panel focused on the use of analytics to help drive new business (and protect existing relationships) ' from basic relationship management to the development of sophisticated dashboards, referral tracking and pipeline management.

While an array of strategies were discussed, at the end of the day, execution is everything.

Project Management: The Core of Every New Business Pitch

The ability to demonstrate a firm's project management capabilities can make the difference between winning and losing a new business pitch. Baker & McKenzie Global Director of Business Development, Laurie Robertson, moderated this highly interactive session with a discussion of how client expectations of new business presentations have changed, with major corporations regularly demanding that firms demonstrate their matter management capabilities including work plans, decision trees, time lines and budget estimates. Nationally recognized project and practice management consultant Susan Lambreth of LawVision Group provided a crash course in the fundamentals of legal project management (LPM) and how to use LPM skills and processes to build trust with clients and negotiate mutually beneficial fee arrangements.

ContentPilot CEO Deborah McMurray set forth a clear outline of how to integrate LPM language and processes into new business pitches in ways that will delight clients and set a firm apart.

Navigating the Media Ecosystem

Aric Press, American Lawyer Media Editor-in-Chief, moderated this lively session on communicating in the world of blogs, Tweets and other social media platforms. Womble Carlyle Chief Client Development Officer Steve Bell launched a spirited debate by outlining the ways social media can be integrated into a firm's business development program ' from listening platforms and targeting and messaging to thought leadership, visibility and networking.

Judy Stein-Corte, Senior Media and PR Officer of Osler, Hoskin, provided the counter-argument, reminding attendees that social media is a vehicle and not a destination. While social media has expanded the array of communication tools available to us, marketers can not afford to neglect core communication functions, such as maintaining strong relationships with reporters and editors.

Branding and Business Development

When “Branding and Business Development” panel moderator Norm Rubenstein of Zeughauser Group asked Maura Brandt of Miller Chevalier, Mark Greene of Waller Lansden, and Nancy Kostakos of Goodwin Proctor about their firms' branding initiatives and how they relate to their firms' business development efforts, several realities of professional services branding quickly surfaced. The first: no matter how appropriate and client-focused the underlying concept, or how compelling the visual and verbal execution, the most important element of a successful law firm brand is how well the firm prepares its workforce to understand and embody the brand.

All agreed that a firm must craft a systemic and consistent program to ensure that everyone in the firm ' lawyers and other business professionals alike ' understands the positioning strategy and demonstrates its principles in every internal and external interaction they have. When the firm lives its brand ' as well as communicates it through traditional marketing and business development tools ' the consistency underscores its authenticity, a critical criterion of a successful brand. This alignment must be demonstrated in every aspect of a firm's internal and external life.

All panelists believe that a brand must help informed buyers of legal services discriminate among the robust set of options in the legal marketplace, and all agreed that no matter how many practices or other commonalities a firm shares with other law firms, one critical element in successful law firm branding is developing and executing a brand that, no matter how similar in some respects to other service providers, is articulated and presented in a way that is truly memorable.

All panelists agreed that effective branding begins with extensive data-gathering and analysis ' from internal interviews and data, to external analyses of the marketplace, to competitor positioning, to measuring a firm's relative brand equity. And all spoke from experience that one of the most important reasons for rigorous research and analysis is the role it helps play in building internal consensus among internal stakeholders for the proposed positioning strategy.

Kimberly Alford Rice, Editor-in-Chief of this newsletter, is the principal of KLA Marketing Associates, Cherry Hill, NJ. She can be reached at [email protected].

In its third year, The American Lawyer recently sponsored the “Law Firm Marketing & Business Development Leadership Forum” during which CMOs and law firm leaders gathered to learn and discuss a series of thought-provoking sessions that help them to optimize their firm's marketing and business development function.

With the insightful input of the summit's co-chairs and faculty, we provide a recap of some of the high-impact topics presented.

A special thanks goes out to Jose Cunningham (BDO, Crowell & Moring), Wendy Bernero (Chief of Strategic Initiatives, Proskauer), Anne Malloy Tucker (CMO, Goodwin Procter) and Norm Rubenstein (Partner, Zeughauser Group) for their contributions.

The GCs Perspective

One of the highlight of this year's Leadership Forum was to hear an insider's view on how general counsel work with outside counsel, perceive differentiation among law firms and the impact of corporate pressures on their go-to lawyers. The GC panel was comprised of three impressive individuals: Ronald Cami, GC at TPC Capital LP; Kenneth Handal, President Governance, Risk and Compliance at Guidepost Solutions LLC; and Seth Kraus, EVP and GC of Take-Two Interactive. The salient (paraphrased) takeaways from this lively interactive session were:

• All three GCs stressed how important it is for outside counsel to get to know their clients' business, strategy and culture. Ron Cami described his go-to law firms as “an extension of the internal legal department, even when dealing with the business units. Understanding our culture and strategy is really important.” Ken Handal underscored the point that law firm marketing departments' competitive intelligence and industry research capabilities are more important than ever. And Seth Kraus spoke about the need for outside counsel to “put yourself in the in-house lawyer's shoes.”
• On cross-selling and opening the door for new business, the panelists opined that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a law firm institutionalizing a client, however Ron Cami emphasized that cross-selling new practice areas needs to be done with “a human touch.” Seth Kraus said law firms need to “take the time to introduce the right people at the right time in a substantive manner. Gratuitous introductions are not helpful at all.” All three GCs were expansive when speaking of law firms getting their foot in the door. Their legal departments are very much open to the idea of off-the-clock CLE training sessions, lawyer's secondments, and focused meetings designed to share best practices from the clients' industry, particularly best practices related to project management, alternative fee arrangements and litigation management.
• The panelists informed the audience that law firm websites do not play a significant role in their decision to work with outside counsel. They do, however, peruse online lawyer biographies and obtain contact details.
• That said, the GCs were adamant about the importance of a strong law firm brand, particularly in connection with selecting new counsel for bet-the-company emergency cases. A strong law firm brand is often the deciding factor when a company's board of directors must decide between two similar and competing proposals.
• Social media. Take-Two Interactive develops and publishes entertainment software, so it's no surprise that Seth Kraus uses and follows various social media channels. Social media helps him and his company stay abreast of trends and the competition.
• The strongest theme throughout the session was the GCs' view that outside counsel's greatest role is in risk management. The three GCs said they expected the following characteristics from their most trusted lawyers: leadership, judgment, partnership, value add and empathy.

Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Faced with increasing pressure to grow revenue in a highly competitive market, the reality today is that to gain market share you need to take market share. How are firms shifting their business development strategies and tailoring their approaches in this environment? Panelists Kristan Morrell (Chief Strategic Officer, Dickstein Shapiro), Bob Robertson (Chief Marketing Officer, Greenberg Traurig) and Anne Malloy Tucker (Chief Marketing Officer, Goodwin Procter) shared their views.

While their approaches may be different in some areas, the panelists agreed that first and foremost, protecting and nurturing existing client relationships is critical. Whether the strategy is key client programs or client feedback initiatives, client relationship management is key.

A second panel, featuring Paul Bonner (Director of Business Development, Haynes & Boone), Jason Bovis (Director of Marketing, Akerman Senterfitt) and Darryl Cross (Vice President, LexisNexis) spoke in depth about the tools and techniques firms are using to assist in their business development efforts.

Instinct is no longer enough in today's data rich environment. The panel focused on the use of analytics to help drive new business (and protect existing relationships) ' from basic relationship management to the development of sophisticated dashboards, referral tracking and pipeline management.

While an array of strategies were discussed, at the end of the day, execution is everything.

Project Management: The Core of Every New Business Pitch

The ability to demonstrate a firm's project management capabilities can make the difference between winning and losing a new business pitch. Baker & McKenzie Global Director of Business Development, Laurie Robertson, moderated this highly interactive session with a discussion of how client expectations of new business presentations have changed, with major corporations regularly demanding that firms demonstrate their matter management capabilities including work plans, decision trees, time lines and budget estimates. Nationally recognized project and practice management consultant Susan Lambreth of LawVision Group provided a crash course in the fundamentals of legal project management (LPM) and how to use LPM skills and processes to build trust with clients and negotiate mutually beneficial fee arrangements.

ContentPilot CEO Deborah McMurray set forth a clear outline of how to integrate LPM language and processes into new business pitches in ways that will delight clients and set a firm apart.

Navigating the Media Ecosystem

Aric Press, American Lawyer Media Editor-in-Chief, moderated this lively session on communicating in the world of blogs, Tweets and other social media platforms. Womble Carlyle Chief Client Development Officer Steve Bell launched a spirited debate by outlining the ways social media can be integrated into a firm's business development program ' from listening platforms and targeting and messaging to thought leadership, visibility and networking.

Judy Stein-Corte, Senior Media and PR Officer of Osler, Hoskin, provided the counter-argument, reminding attendees that social media is a vehicle and not a destination. While social media has expanded the array of communication tools available to us, marketers can not afford to neglect core communication functions, such as maintaining strong relationships with reporters and editors.

Branding and Business Development

When “Branding and Business Development” panel moderator Norm Rubenstein of Zeughauser Group asked Maura Brandt of Miller Chevalier, Mark Greene of Waller Lansden, and Nancy Kostakos of Goodwin Proctor about their firms' branding initiatives and how they relate to their firms' business development efforts, several realities of professional services branding quickly surfaced. The first: no matter how appropriate and client-focused the underlying concept, or how compelling the visual and verbal execution, the most important element of a successful law firm brand is how well the firm prepares its workforce to understand and embody the brand.

All agreed that a firm must craft a systemic and consistent program to ensure that everyone in the firm ' lawyers and other business professionals alike ' understands the positioning strategy and demonstrates its principles in every internal and external interaction they have. When the firm lives its brand ' as well as communicates it through traditional marketing and business development tools ' the consistency underscores its authenticity, a critical criterion of a successful brand. This alignment must be demonstrated in every aspect of a firm's internal and external life.

All panelists believe that a brand must help informed buyers of legal services discriminate among the robust set of options in the legal marketplace, and all agreed that no matter how many practices or other commonalities a firm shares with other law firms, one critical element in successful law firm branding is developing and executing a brand that, no matter how similar in some respects to other service providers, is articulated and presented in a way that is truly memorable.

All panelists agreed that effective branding begins with extensive data-gathering and analysis ' from internal interviews and data, to external analyses of the marketplace, to competitor positioning, to measuring a firm's relative brand equity. And all spoke from experience that one of the most important reasons for rigorous research and analysis is the role it helps play in building internal consensus among internal stakeholders for the proposed positioning strategy.

Kimberly Alford Rice, Editor-in-Chief of this newsletter, is the principal of KLA Marketing Associates, Cherry Hill, NJ. She can be reached at [email protected].