Legal Marketing & PR

Ari Kaplan at ABA Techshow: Market Your Imperfection

Posted on March 25, 2010
Ari Kaplan -- razor thin, bespectacled and brimming with enthusiam, said the way to market yourself is to let your imperfections show.  "You need to stop worrying about creating the perfect email or the perfect marketing campaign. The new technology allows you to be authentic...

Huge Crowd at ABA Techshow

Posted on March 25, 2010
I'm in Chicago, attending ABA Techshow. It's a blowout this year – 1,200 attendees (way up from last year) and 100 exhibitors. Coming up next: the keynote address by boy wonder Ari Kaplan, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise from being an associate for 9 years at McDermott Will in New York to social networking guru...

Elawyering Award Goes to Rosen Divorce Firm

Posted on March 25, 2010
Kudos to Lee Rosen, founder of the Rosen divorce law firm in Raleigh, N.C. and its family law website, North Carolina Divorce, for winning the 2010 award for Excellence in Elawyering. I was puzzled why ABA Techshow didn't give more prominence to this important award, which is named after James I...

Ross Kodner: Wait Until Your Computer Dies Before Getting Windows 7

Posted on March 25, 2010
Tech expert Ross Kodner of Microlaw gave the most dim, faint praise for Windows 7 I've heard to date.  At best he said it's "sort of" time to upgrade your Windows XP computer to Windows 7.  Basically he advised lawyers at ABA Techshow in Chicago to keep those XP computers running until they die...

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The key to Law Firm Marketing is Keeping in Touch With People After a Successful Introduction

Posted on March 24, 2010
From Ameet Sachdev, a leading business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where he covers legal affairs and law firms: If the recession taught lawyers anything, it is the value of business development. Those with large books of business or long-standing relationships with clients were more admired as corporate firms faced a downturn in legal work...

Have You Heard About AFAs? It's the latest Law Firm Marketing Buzzword

Posted on March 23, 2010
AFAs are all the talk today in law firm marketing today. I especially see big firms -- like Drinker Biddle and Womble Carlyle -- offering AFAs as a point of distinction. "AFA" is the current buzzword for "alternative fee arrangements," such as flat fees, "all you can eat" concierge plans, blended rates, and conditional and contingency fees...

TODAY is the last chance to register: Webinar with Woman Rainmaker of the Year

Posted on March 22, 2010
Today is your last chance to register for the program law firms everywhere want to hear: The Woman Rainmaker of the Year Offers Business Development Advice, with Lawyer Mary Ann Dunham of Pittsburgh, PA. Ms. Dunham is a wife, mother of two and chair of the law firm's Women's Business Development Committee at 450-lawyer Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC – and the Originate! Woman Rainmaker of 2010...

Do Chambers Ratings Matter? NO

Posted on March 21, 2010
Now law firm marketers can toss the vaunted Chambers directory on the heap with the soggy yellow pages dumped on their driveways, Superlawyers, Avvo and the 950 other surveys and rankings of law firms.  Statistically significant evidence proves that all of them generate little to no new business for law firms...

Mark Your Calendar for LSSO's RainDance on June 9-10

Posted on March 18, 2010
Keynote Speaker:   Tom McCarty, Author and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Managing Director, Six Sigma Practice Leader, Jones Lang LaSalle 2010 Faculty Joseph B...

Business Development with Online Social Networking

Posted on March 17, 2010
Join me at the Phoenix, Arizona, chapter of the Legal Marketing Association where I'll be speaking on "Business Development with Online Social Networking." The meeting takes place on Thursday March 18 beginning at 11:30 AM at the offices of Perkins Coie Brown & Bain at 2901 N...

Webinar today: Why You Really Need Video to Market Your Law Firm

Posted on March 16, 2010
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Celebrate by attending Gerry Oginski's webinar "Why You Really Need Video to Market Your Law Firm presented at NOON Eastern time today, March 17.  Just click on the lucky four-leaf clover to register, or visit http://www...

Associate Rainmaker Elizabeth L. Gunn - A Woman with Drive

Posted on March 15, 2010
The associate Rainmaker of the Year is Elizabeth L. Gunn, a bankruptcy lawyer serving closely-held businesses, their owners and executives. She works DurretteBradshaw PLC, an 18 lawyer boutique firm based in Richmond, Virginia. In 2009 – just her third year at the firm – she could point to originations worth a third of her billings, and 10-15 new clients for the firm, including several substantial ongoing clients...

Today: Live Twitter Discussion ("Value Tweet")

Posted on March 15, 2010
Please join me for a LIVE Twitter discussion on Tuesday, March 16 2010 (tomorrow) from Noon to 2pm EST.  Follow all the action by searching for and using the hash tag #MHVT.  The discussion will focus on the following questions: Impact of Virtual Firms on the Large Law Firm model...

Tuesday: Live Twitter Discussion ("Value Tweet") on Virtual Law Firms

Posted on March 15, 2010
Please join me for a LIVE Twitter discussion on Tuesday, March 16 2010 (tomorrow) from Noon to 2pm EST.  I'll be joined by and Martindale-Hubbell Connected Community Manager Mike Mintz. Follow all the action by searching for and using the hash tag #MHVT...

Howrey Plans to Axe Up to 10% of Its Partners

Posted on March 12, 2010
Howrey is planning to oust up to 10 percent of its partners, a move that follows a year of disappointing revenue numbers. Howrey is expected to cut between 25 and 30 partners, most of them in the United States, Legal Week reports. The decision to make the cuts was made before Christmas, according to the story...

Final Batch of Your Honor Winners

Posted on March 12, 2010
Today the LMA awarded the final batch of Your Honor Awards: Practice Development -- Sutherland Asbill & Brennan: Sutherland Business Development curriculum Media Relations: Mayer Brown Community Relations: Middleton Reutlinger – kindess public service advertising campaign Recruiting: Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft: recruiting microsite Chapter of the year (of 18 LMA chapters) - LMA Vancouver: 'Changing the Rules' Marketing on a Shoestring: (maximum expenditure of $500) -- Morrison Foerster: Regulatory Innovation Award Best in show: (an entry that stood out from the rest, where a law firm took something and did everything they could possibly do to maximize it) -- Event by Fredrickson Bryon: 'Lawyers & the Louvre' Campaign Awards given on previous days of the convention, which ended today, are: Advertising (single ad): Bennet Jones – The Pink Ad Advertising campaign: McInnes Cooper – signal flag branding campaign...

LMA Your Honor First-Place Winners

Posted on March 12, 2010
Here is the list of LMA Your Honor first-place winners:: Practice Development -- Sutherland Asbill & Brennan: Sutherland Business Development curriculum Media Relations: Mayer Brown Community Relations: Middleton Reutlinger – kindess public service advertising campaign Recruiting: Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft: recruiting microsite Chapter of the year (of 18 LMA chapters) - LMA Vancouver: 'Changing the Rules' Marketing on a Shoestring: (maximum expenditure of $500) -- Morrison Foerster: Regulatory Innovation Award Best in show: (an entry that stood out from the rest, where a law firm took something and did everything they could possibly do to maximize it) -- Event by Fredrickson Bryon: 'Lawyers & the Louvre' Campaign Awards given on previous days of the convention, which ended today, are: Advertising (single ad): Bennet Jones – The Pink Ad Advertising campaign: McInnes Cooper – signal flag branding campaign...

Small Firm Rainmaker Christopher Marston - Putting His Firm Where the Market Will Be

Posted on March 11, 2010
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, as 2010 Small Firm Rainmaker of the Year Christopher Marston knows well. He offers soup-to-nuts service to entrepreneurs and startup businesses. Originate! newsletter selected him because the revenues of his Boston law firm – Exemplar – saw its revenues shoot up 48% last year, when the rest of the legal profession stagnated in the Great Recession...

800 Attendees at LMA National Conference

Posted on March 11, 2010
I haven't been to an LMA meeting in 5 years, and this one in Denver is a very pleasant surprise.  Many longtime and senior members of the marketing profession were there. There is great networking – I barely made it 30 feet into the Hyatt Regency lobby when I immediately ran into people I knew...

Coulter, Durham & McMurdo Inducted into LMA Hall of Fame

Posted on March 11, 2010
The LMA today inducted 3 people into its Hall of Fame: 1.       Silvia Coulter of Hildebrandt Baker Robbins in Boston – she is a former CMO of three AmLaw 100 law firms, founder of LSSO. She has a book coming out this fall: Client Relationship Management for Associates, published by the ABA...

Legal Job Losses Drop Off Sharply

Posted on March 10, 2010
Further evidence that the legal profession  is in a recovery economy arrives in a new report that layoffs at law firms are nearing zero. As the national unemployment rate remained steady in February, the number of legal industry jobs lost dropped to one-tenth of what it had been in January, according to the U...

Four AMLaw100, Two Mid-Size Firms Employ Concep for Digital Marketing

Posted on March 09, 2010
Six additional law firms have retained Concep, a leading provider of integrated digital marketing solutions to law firms, representing 10 percent growth for Concep during Q1 2010. Among the new clients are Hunton & Williams Schulte Roth & Zabel Cole Schotz, a mid-sized firm...

Why You Really Need Video to Market Your Law Firm

Posted on March 08, 2010
Join the video lawyer expert, New York Attorney Gerry Oginski together with me on Wednesday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day at Noon for an important look at how video marketing can differentiate you and prompt new clients to call you. Research has shown that you're 53 times more likely to get on the first page of Google's search results if you have video on your website...

Law Firm Mergers Continue Apace as Benesch Merges with Indiana Firm

Posted on March 04, 2010
I can tell the economy for the legal industry is getting better when research shows that law firms are merging with each other without any slowdown.  Hildebrandt Baker Robbins reports that there were 57 completed law firm mergers in 2009. The newest one is the merger of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP, with headquarters in Cleveland (plus offices in Columbus, Philadelphia, White Plains, Wilmington and Shanghai) with Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman of Indianapolis, IN, effective March 1, 2010...

Mary Ann Dunham - 2010 Woman Rainmaker of the Year

Posted on March 03, 2010
The applause was enthusiastic when lawyer Mary Ann Dunham of Pittsburgh, PA, was named the 2009 Greater Pittsburgh Athena Award recipient.  An energetic community leader, she was acclaimed for creativity in the profession, serving the community and assisting other women to reach their leadership potential...

Amazing Stats on the State of the Internet

Posted on March 02, 2010
Amazing stats like Facebook passing  the 400 million user mark, Twitter hitting 50 million tweets per day, and YouTube viewers watching 1 billion videos per day are impressive on their own, but what if we looked at Internet-related stats collectively? Jesse Thomas looked at Internet-related stats collectively in his video State of the Internet (see below)...

Social Media Not Preferred Recommendation Resource

Posted on March 01, 2010
Although I love online social media, it turns out that nothing beats a word-of-mouth recommendation to get new business, according to a new study by ARAnet. Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends or family remain the most influential resource on advice for those looking to purchase products and services, but overall, search engines are also becoming a trusted source...

Should your firm accept walk-in clients?

Posted on February 26, 2010
From Justin Rebello of Lawyer's Weekly: Some lawyers are even acting contrary to the old credo that the client shouldn't pick the lawyer; the lawyer should pick the client, and taking clients that simply walk in the door. But is it a good idea to take on walk-in clients? Thomas Gallagher, a criminal defense lawyer in Minneapolis, said many walk-in clients have done very little research about his firm or even his practice area...

Lawyers Flock to Facebook for Law Firm Marketing

Posted on February 25, 2010
Facebook has increasingly become a source of marketing efforts by law firms. For instance, see Facebook Generates More Website Visitors than Google and News Reporters Now Depend on Social Media Sources  For a list of law firms with Facebook "fan pages" I turned to Dale Tincher, CEO, Consultwebs...

Today is last chance to Register for "Business Development for Litigators"

Posted on February 24, 2010
The Web seminar "Business Development for Litigators" will be broadcast at Noon Central Time tomorrow, Thursday February 25, 2010.  Today is your last chance to register at www.PBDI.org, Join us to learn how to overcome the bane of litigators: the one-shot case...

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