There is no “New Normal.” There is Normal & There is you (2014 LMA Annual Conference)

#airportgiftshop

Derek Maine

There is a “new normal.” You’ve probably heard about it. I wasn’t around for the old normal so I’m working at a disadvantage here but I’m going to step outside my own experience and make an educated guess: the new normal is the same as the old normal. It’s the norm. Individuals and businesses need lawyers. Lawyers need individuals and businesses (and laws, of course, but there’s plenty of them to go around). Our job is to connect. Or coordinate, direct or official a connection, as the case may be. Buying ad space in the phone book doesn’t make much sound sense anymore. So now we chase Google’s ever-changing algorithms in pursuit of the almighty first page result. LinkedIN is a lot prettier to look at than a dusty rolodex.  Clients with voluminous legal needs started noticing that there sure were a lot of lawyers and a timely bottle of scotch didn’t go as far. Some even dared to speak the unspeakable, “why do we pay that way instead of this way?”

There is no new normal because there was no old normal. The phrase “change is the only constant” is attributed to a Greek philosopher that lived from 535 BC until 475 BC. In other words, we’re all already well aware of this truth. But have we accepted it?

We are in the stage of a business cycle, in the legal industry, where the supply outweighs the demand. That will change because that’s the nature of cycles. But which attorneys and which firms will make it through and flourish in this portion of the cycle is a fair question. Some of the tools I was introduced to at the annual conference may play an important role in answering that question. Some of them won’t. Identifying which one’s will and which one’s won’t and allocating your resources in an effective manner definitely will.  It always has. That’s just normal.

The 2014 Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference was unquestionably geared towards large firms. International firms. Cross-coastal firms. AmLaw 100, AmLaw 250. Firms with marketing departments and specialization. I was a proud and honored recipient of the LMASE scholarship to attend the conference but I happen to not work at one of those firms. I gained some insight, was able to see a lot of really cutting edge software and processes and met some really interesting people. I know more about the industry today, as I wrap this up, than I did when I boarded that plane. But there are a lot of us out there, toiling away in one or two member departments for smaller firms. My experience at the 2013 LMASE Annual Conference in Charleston, and the local meetings and meet-ups, tap into this culture of smaller firms much more effectively.

I spent some time walking around the halls of the hotel feeling a little insecure about my place in the profession. The large firms, with their supremely competent big staffs and legal software to die for, was part of it. The other part was my inexperience, obviously. And this was my first time. Not being a natural at networking, I’m bound to feel myself get tied up. But there was something else and it stemmed from the educational and information overload I had experienced in a short matter of time. I felt like I had too many options, was being seduced in too many directions. I have the resources for one big project a year and my notebook had suggestions for 12. I took a seat, grabbed a coffee, and looked at the list. The theme was choice. If there is a new normal, it’s an abundance of choice. And there’s just me. That’s overwhelming. I used to tell friends that romance, work and home ownership were not that difficult because you only need one partner, one job and one home. It only takes one so the odds are pretty well stacked in your favor to find someone to love, something to do during the day and somewhere to sleep. There are a lot of people to love, a lot of things to do and a lot of places to sleep. They outnumber you. The key, and this is hard for some people, is to commit to that one thing. So I took my silly advice and crossed out 11 of the projects in my notebook, emailed firm leadership about an initiative I was interested in exploring and committed.

Thanks for reading. Reach out, say hello, my email is derekmaine@yahoo.com. I am always happy to talk and sometimes I even listen.

Buying In and Selling Out (2014 LMA Annual Conference)

#Day2

Derek Maine

This was my first Annual Conference. I have been a Legal Marketer since July, 2013. While I’ve worked at law firms for my entire career, up until July, 2013 I only wistfully looked at the marketing department in the firms I worked at. In other words, I don’t even know what I don’t know. It’s my single biggest strength and my single biggest weakness. I look at everything through fresh eyes. I am also missing, or just learning, concepts and tools that have been obvious to most for many years. But I do have a hunch that the theme of attorneys “buying in” is not new this year. Attorneys understand the importance of marketing, probably more so in this climate than ever. And it is short-sighted to assume that attorneys have no innate marketing skills. After all, plenty of attorneys are able to pay their light bill without a marketing department. So why does the issue of attorneys “buying in” keep getting uttered in panel discussions, the exhibit hall and during coffee breaks?

I think the question of “buying in” isn’t about attorneys believing or not believing in the power of marketing. It’s the issue of someone telling them what works best. And that someone is often not an attorney themselves. It’s difficult for any intelligent, driven individual to hand over the stewardship of their work ex fide fiducia. Actually, here we go: no one likes to be told what they have done that has worked before does not work anymore. We don’t like to change, we don’t like to be told we have to do something. And we want to exert control over our work. Attorneys have no trouble buying into the principles, but they may be hesitant to buy into specific tools and techniques that marketers are advocating. So the very first thing I do when I receive push-back on any project or initiative is reflect. What is my logic and is it sound? I build my case to myself and, if that case holds up, I sell it. I look at the partners in my own firm as the very best sounding board and critics. If there is a lack of “buy in,” and it’s not rooted in clear realpolitik, the problem is most likely not with attorneys refusing to buy in. The problem is me and what I’m selling.

I attended this year’s conference with the Marketing Partner at our firm. I wanted her to be inundated, as I would be, with the strategies, tools and techniques. How would we view the themes and concepts differently? Would we hear the same message? Early on in day one, my colleague lamented that many panel discussions were critical of attorneys and focused on some negative generalizations that deal with professionals hesitancy to adopt change. I didn’t hear that. She was clear, “I already know this about attorneys, I want to know what to do about it.” I always defer to bumper stickers for the important lessons in life. So, be the change, I say. Because, truthfully, there isn’t always something you can do about it. Some people, across all facets of work and life, do not want to put in the frustratingly slow and hard work necessary to reap the rewards. So spend more time and resources with those attorneys that do.

The first panel discussion for me on day two was “Trends in Media/PR for Law Firms in Terms of What’s Valuable and Effective Today.” Again, a quote from the program landed me in the chair. “…but now even online media can be a fool’s game.” Tell me more.

Paul Webb, Director of Marketing at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP was the single best panel speaker I saw at the conference. He had a tremendously interesting story on how his firm used an office move to build up an entire PR campaign in a very creative fashion. And then we started talking about rankings. What started as a whisper of annoying surveys to fill out, in-office politicking and affirmed total lack of client interest in how or why an attorney is ranked soon became a roar. Everyone hates having to do this. It serves no purpose. Everyone does it anyway. I heard this over and over throughout the conference and now we were going to discuss it out in the open. Paul Webb asked if anyone in the room knew of a client that hired an attorney based on a ranking. Someone raised their hand. It was the first time he had heard of that. It was suggested that one possible useful tool in rankings is recognizing attorneys that do not always get the spotlight. That sounds like a nice thing. Chambers came up for the 26^th time. I’ve been hearing about Chambers for a while, but nowhere near the amount of chatter going back and forth at this conference. One of the first things I did when I got back to my office was check out Chambers & Partners. The website smelled of mahogany and rich leather. I knew the names of almost all of the law firms on the shortlist. The brands were large, institutional, old, international, conservative and boring. The website gave my computer this weird virus where now everything around me was 1983 and cartoonish financiers and their bespeckled counsel drank dry martini’s and smoked cigars in the back room of a restaurant that does not exist anymore, sitting in high back red booths.  

For a civil defense firm the best work, the really ingenious creative cost-saving legal work is known by the attorney and the client. That’s it. It is actually always unethical and most of the time illegal for it to be any other way. It’s not ranked, recognized, Super Lawyered or Best Lawyered. There is no SEO formula and no app for that. I submitted a press release, for immediate distribution, to all major networks and outlets: Attorney called client back immediately and resolved an issue before it became a legal claim; billed 0.1. Even The Onion passed.

The room was huge. Every chair was taken up. Extra chairs were brought in. Legal Marketers sat down in the back and in the rows on the side. “Quick Fixes: Innovative Solutions in Law Firm Business Development” was, from my view, the most popular breakout session of the conference. Dave Burns, Director of Client Services at Farella Braun + Martel LLP {shortlisted for Best Real Estate Firm by Chambers and Partners 2014] had a story to tell. His firm is serious about diversity. As in, they don’t have a diversity pamphlet and document tucked away on their intranet. They get out in the community and practice what they preach. And, it turns out, they were so good at it that their clients wanted in. They committed to something and benefited their community with their work and their clients noticed and wanted to get involved to help. This is the future of our industry. This is the success story. This is the theme. And it’s not just our industry, it’s everywhere. The American Dream as a shared experience and goal as opposed to an individualistic ideal.

Melanie Green, Chief Client Development Officer at Faegre Baker Daniels, had a nice problem to have. Her firm had just merged. All of a sudden there were a lot more innovative, intelligent attorneys at their disposal. She needed them to talk to each other. At a firm retreat, catering to the competitive nature of attorneys, they set up a trade booth style show where attorneys would get prizes for visiting other practice groups in the firm and having conversations. Follow-ups were identified and tracked. There was some trouble with buy-in. Alcohol was served. It worked. In planning for this year’s event the firm leadership admitted that they needed forced interaction so that attorneys didn’t just spend their time socializing with colleagues they already knew, but branched out and networked with their new colleagues. How many connections were made, how many shared clients with varied needs identified, how many in-house referrals gathered? Well, lets just go ahead and be crass. How much revenue did Melanie Green and her team generate for the firm by putting on an internal trade show? How much revenue did Dave Burns and his team generate for the firm by believing in ideals enough to put in the time, money and effort to commit to them?

Bringing people together. Sharing ideas. Learning birthdays, the names of children, favorite sports team, most underrated Coen Brothers’ film. Using digital tools to more effectively coordinate face to face interaction. In the same room. With your laptop closed. With your phone in your pocket. Being interested and present in life. I buy into all of that.

Thank you for reading. I will have one more post tomorrow wrapping up the conference. If we are lucky enough to meet, as a starting point; April 15, 1982, Wyatt & Zoe, North Carolina Tarheels, A Serious Man.

Thurs 4/17/14:                  There is no “New Normal.” There is Normal & There is you

                                              (#AirportGiftShop)

The Social Media, Big Data, Competitive Intelligence “Just Right” Formula (2014 LMA Annual Conference)

#Day1

Derek Maine

I knew exactly where I was headed for the first breakout session when I read this excerpt from the conference program, “Social Media can either be a complete waste of time, or a key strategic plank for your firm.” It was the “or” that caught my eye. If I was charged with leading this session (which would be a terrible idea for a number of reasons, my stark lack of experience chief among them), I would have just put a period after ‘waste of time’ and been done with it. But, “a key strategic plank for your firm?” I grabbed a coffee and headed off to listen to the crazy man.

Setting aside some glibness, there are [obviously] lots of different types of law firms and lots of different types of lawyers [no, really]. Social Media may work as a strategic plank for some firms. I can certainly see how it can be effective for lawyers as individuals. Social Media is a great tool for keeping you updated on the things that interest you. But that’s all it is and turning it into a platform for brand synergy is so transparently cheeky that I suspect it achieves the opposite effect. Social Media works for personal brands, like the individual lawyer, because we can get a sense of who s/he is and what s/he is interested in. The rumblings of a shared connection can take hold in the digital space before we even meet.  I work for a civil defense law firm. We, as a firm, represent other businesses and, typically, we are defending them. To what end would it serve to tweet our Super Lawyer results and, more importantly, who would care? We, the faceless firm, are made up of incredibly interesting individuals doing outstanding legal work. I was interested in learning how I could tweet that and have you believe it and have you care.

It turned out that the man was not crazy at all, just Canadian. So he was unnaturally kind and approachable. I went ahead and put my guard up. Randall Craig, President of 108 ideaspace, put on a very professional, organized presentation that focused on tangible ways to manage our time when dealing with Social Media. He addressed risk and specific catch-all internet directories (he instructed us all to claim our own listing and encourage firm members to do the same, on www.zoominfo.com) that we should be monitoring. I absolutely wrote a note to myself that I should definitely put that on my to-do list which I have every intention of following up on in the very near future. I didn’t come out of his presentation any more sold on the strategic plank of Social Media, but that’s not his job. Onward!

My job, I suspect all of our jobs, sometimes involves begging. I am not too proud to beg for data. And there is nothing more seductive to an attorney than, “other firms are doing it.” It is their catnip. So I sat in the front row for “Big Data for Legal Marketers,” fully prepared to write down an exhaustive list of what some folks much smarter than me were doing, handing it over to leadership at my firm, and getting my numbers. I was not disappointed. I believe that the secret to more business, and varied, interesting work, is right here at my office somewhere amidst the data. Existing clients already know the quality of our work and have our phone number. Relationship management, and coordination among different attorneys in different practice groups, strikes me as the single most effective and profitable path to business development. Alina Gorokkhovsky, Partner at RCT Partners, was really impressive. The panel delved into process improvement. If it’s true that marketing is part science and part art, this panel focused on measuring our successes and failures in such a way that the business owners (partners) would have a better sense of the importance of legal marketing. It wouldn’t just be buzz words and copying the firm down the street with one extra floor, but assigning statistics to what worked and what didn’t and then deploying our resources appropriately. This may seem obvious, intuitive and elementary. It is in many ways. But law firms have consistently been late adopters of successful business strategies. Big Data is here now, in our industry and making our jobs much more efficient.

By now most attorneys understand that asking clients what they need is more effective than telling them what they can do. Many of the attorneys at my firm, and across the country, are focusing in on the industries their clients work in; diving in and becoming a partner to each other’s success. I went to the panel discussion on Competitive Intelligence not to learn how to spy on the firm down the street but how to wisely gather and present market intelligence on the industries we service. The panel delivered by focusing on the tools; SEC filings, industry reports, white papers, google alerts, broad macroeconomic trends. If we accept that a conversation with a client about their needs is effective, then it is no legal industry secret that calling with, “I saw where the weather was predicted to shut down the Bakken transportation routes for a few weeks, is there anything we can do to help you plan for this,” is the ticket to that ‘true partnership.’

The “Just Right” formula panel enticed me with project management techniques. The speakers really were very good and they played a version of “Cards Against Humanity” that was clever and well received. So why is my notepad for the session still unstained by ink? Probably it’s my fault for not spotting the key takeaways, for not sensing and adopting the messages behind the case studies. I walked out of the room, looked at my clean notepad and felt like I had failed. The Legal Marketing Association Southeastern Chapter had graciously awarded me a scholarship to attend the conference. Now I had an empty notebook for one of the sessions. And it was a session with good speakers and relevant content. But there’s no “Just Right” formula. Kelly Harbour, Manager of Client Relationship Management at Bingham McCutchen LLP and Jim Jarrell, Business Development Manager at Barnes & Thornburg LLP went through a project each of them worked on and identified the steps they took to complete the project. Both projects sounded great and I am convinced they did a wonderful job and their respective firms are better off now than they were before. But we all know, generally speaking at least, what needs to be done. We all know, eventually, after some research, how to do it. There are countless books on organizational methods for project management. There are a billion apps. You can pay someone to speak at your organization that is an unquestioned expert in the field. The field is large. There are a lot of projects. Someone needs to manage them. But really, you take a notebook and you write down step one. Then you write down step two and step three and so on and so forth. Then you start the work, you work in sequence, you cross off and move on. That is, in essence, every technique. There are some cool tools and there are certainly people who are much better at project management than others and our panel was comprised of such people. But there’s only so much you can teach or pass along. You pick a system, any organizational system will do, and you commit. That’s the formula.

Wed 4/16/14:                    Buying In and Selling Out

                                           (#Day2)

Thurs 4/17/14:                  There is no “New Normal.” There is Normal & There is you

                                          (#AirportGiftShop)

The Elements of Style @ LMA14

The Elements of Style @ LMA14

#Kickoff

Derek Maine

Two months before the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference in Orlando, before I had heard about an LMASE scholarship, before I had applied and before I, incredulously, won, I sat down at my desk, took the cellophane off the wrapper of the conference agenda and began my search for the theme. I had a few naïve and obvious guesses; social media, “Big Data,” Mobile Apps, ROI on time spent scouring LinkedIN for ‘decision-makers.’ As I dug into the agenda, the speakers and panel discussions mentioned all of these vagaries in one form or another (except for scouring LinkedIN to identify ‘decision-makers,’ apparently that’s just me), but there was no underlying theme. It was a smorgasbord of tools and techniques that hit on one aspect or another of every piece of my day-to-day working life. So if I wanted a theme, I was going to have to start by getting on a plane.

                There’s something no one warns you about when attending an LMA conference and I could have used a head’s up. The industry is, top to bottom and left to right, made up of absurdly good looking people with “I-need-to-up-my-game” style. I almost stole another man’s shoes before I even checked into the hotel. As in, I saw a man sitting in the lobby with his very nice shoes off, resting in front of him, and I went through a rudimentary pro/con analysis on attending the conference v. taking off with his shoes, catching the next flight to North Carolina and declaring pyrrhic victory. If this seems like an especially adolescent observation it comes from years of attending trade shows with my father and witnessing swarms of bored, lethargic looking salesmen collecting dust in the corner of fluorescent conference halls, sporting five o’clock shadows. At LMA, my fellow attendees, my peers, were a collection of professionals clearly excited to be there, mixing with their old friends and new colleagues, proud of their work and their industry. I got my shoes shined.

                A few weeks before the conference my email inbox at work contained almost twenty unread messages with the subject line, “Issue with the golf balls.” My voicemail light was blinking and there was a post-it note from a senior partner that also referenced golf balls. It seems there was some back and forth on what exact golf ball needed to be ordered for an upcoming raffle giveaway. Committees were formed. Allegiances established. No matter how wonderful your firm, how present your leadership, there are going to be those days where you mediate a discussion on golf balls. Or font size. (“I was considering hiring that firm, but did you notice they used a 14 point on the notepads? Needless to say, I passed” – General Counsels everywhere, all the time). Kat Cole, President of Cinnabon, Inc., humanitarian & charmer extraordinaire kicked off the conference by allowing us all to revel in the big ideas. It was an elegant reminder of why we love this work, why we love this industry. We can affect change. We work with brilliant minds. We help sell crucial services that have tangible, sometimes life and career altering, benefits. Her clever refrain, “If not now, when, if not me, who?” was tweeted and retweeted and hash tagged throughout the conference. When shopping for golf balls, it’s easy to forget that my work has meaning. Thank you, Kat Cole, in 11 point Calibri, for reminding me.

Tues 4/15/14:            The Social Media, Big Data, Competitive Intelligence “Just Right” Formula (#Day1)

Wed 4/16/14:             Buying In and Selling Out

                                   (#Day2)

Thurs 4/17/14:           There is no “New Normal.” There is Normal & There is you  

                                   (#AirportGiftShop)