Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

I attended a great LMA Vancouver lunch hour seminar today presented by Tim Leishman from Kerma Partners.  (Kerma Partners came into existence in late 2006 and has already developed into an alternative to Hildebrandt in the professional services consulting arena.) 

Leishman first penned an article on lawyer practices styles in 1998, and the ideas he set out provide a helpful tool for thinking about and understanding the contributions lawyers make to the success of a law firm.

Leishman sets out four categories of contribution that lawyers make to their firms:  Rainmaker, Point Person, Hired Gun, Brain Surgeon.  In very short form here’s how he describes each of these types of lawyers:

Rainmakers are interested in connections.  They are into meeting new people.  They are initiative takers.  They are high intensity networkers.  They approach business development from the standpoint of “how can I help this person?” Or, “how can I make it easy for them?”

Point Persons are the client managers par excellence.  They are most interested in loyalty.  They approach their client service from the standpoint of how can I make this person look good?  They are natural team players and consensus builders.

The Hired Guns are motivated by credentials.  They like to focus on publishing, presenting and building their profile and reputation.  They help strengthen the firm’s reputation for expertise.

Brain surgeons are those lawyers whose insight, and intellectual prowess, put them in a category all to themselves.  They are highly knowledgeable in key niche areas of law and are known for their outstanding legal abilities. 

Leishman’s point is that firms would be best to work to lawyers strengths rather then trying to get them to improve in their weak areas.  Trying to get a Brain Surgeon become an effective practice group leader is likely an exercise in futility!  Leishman sets out two priorities for law firms:

First, lawyers should be guided to develop in accordance with their relative strengths and talents.

Second, firms should learn to identify the natural abilities and talents that are associated with certain practice styles and learn from lawyers with those abilities so that those abilities can be developed in others.

Once you know your strength you can then maximize the intensity you are putting into it, and get the most out of it.

Attendees at the seminar also offered some of their own thought provoking questions and comments.  One person commented that the difficulty for many firms is that they have a number of lawyers who fall into neither of the above categories.  In these cases, coaching can help to support the lawyer in discovering and developing their strengths. 

Another point raised was that there is a lot to be gained for firms in having practice group leaders learn to manage their groups by leveraging the strengths of their group members in each of these areas.  Rainmakers, Point Persons, Brain Surgeons and Hired Guns when brought together as a team can bring about some powerful results for a firm.  The challenge is that there are currently few practice group leaders given the time, training, and support from the firm to effectively manage, or learn to manage their groups in a way that maximizes the strengths of the members.

I encourage you to take a moment to read Leishman’s article.  It’s a valuable tool for thinking about lawyer marketing and business development strengths and maximizing our investments in them.

Posted in Leadership, Business Development, Marketing | Permalink | 1 Comment »


Monday, February 19th, 2007

This Friday I am presenting on Marketing for the Solo and Small Firm along with Lorne MacLean of the MacLean Family Law Group at the CLE BC’s Solo and Small Firm Conference 2007.

Lorne and I have been chatting with each other over the past few weeks about what really works for building profitable and interesting practices at solo and small firms. Here are ten pointers for you to consider when planning your solo or small firm marketing initiatives for 2007:

1.  Alignment.  Take the time to determine what kind of firm and practice you want to build and make sure your decisions align with those goals.  Develop a clear message that describes what you would like your potential clients to know about yourself and your firm, and that will distinguish you from other lawyers.  Focus your marketing efforts on delivering that message. 

2.  Plan.  Take the time to plan your marketing.  Decide what you want to achieve in a given period of time and develop a simple plan of what you are going to do to get there.

3.  Clients.  The number one source of new work is from your current clients.  Would they be open to sending you more work?  Will they refer their contacts to you?  Investing in your current clients is the vital first step of any marketing plan.

4.  Network. The vast majority of work comes in through word of mouth referral.  After your clients, your personal network of contacts is your biggest marketing asset.  Have you got a system in place for keeping track of the names, addresses, phone and email for your contacts?  Have you established a system for staying in touch with your most important contacts?  How are you currently investing in building this network?

5.  Research.  Each time a new client joins your firm track how they heard about you.  Talk to your clients.  Find out what publications they read.  Do they prefer email or printed newsletters?  Do they look at legal blogs?  Do they even know what a blog is?  Do they use your website for anything?  What would make your delivery of legal services easier for them?  The more information you can uncover about your clients preferences the better you can tailor your marketing efforts.

6.  Technology.  Web sites, blogs, email provide the best return on investment for small firms.  They are cheaper then print materials, can reach large numbers of people, and are easy to keep fresh and up-to-date.

7.  CMS.  Make sure you have a website that you or your secretary can update yourselves.  This means you have something called a “content management system” (CMS) plugged to the back-end.  These don’t have to be expensive.  Adobe sells a program called Contribute for US$149 that a programmer can plug into your site and will allow you or your staff to update content with only a little training.  It’s so easy I taught myself how to use it.

8.  Yellow pages.  Don’t invest in yellow page ads.  There are better and more targeted ways to get your message out to potential clients. 

9.  PR.  Use the free announcements available in the Vancouver Sun, Business in Vancouver, Lawyers Weekly, to announce new lawyers at your firm, new partner announcements, and other related developments.  Determine which newspapers, industry publications that might be interested in quoting you for time to time or printing your articles.  Contact the editors and find out how they like to be approached with story ideas and articles. 

10.  Recycle.  Time is precious.  Get as much mileage as possible out of each marketing activity you invest in.  If you write an article for a publication then post it to your website.  Look for an opportunity to present on the content to your clients or potential clients.  Use the same material in as many ways as possible.

Posted in Marketing, Solo and Small Firms | Permalink | No Comments »


Friday, February 16th, 2007

From day one of their practice lawyers are inducted into the world of the billable hour.  Efficient tracking and billing of time is vital to a lawyer’s success. 

Time is money. 

So it is not surprising that when I meet with lawyer friends for lunch and coffee one of the complaints I most often hear is: why would I bother to do X if I’m not compensated for it.  X can stand for lead the practice group, bring in business for other members of the firm, dedicate time to marketing activities, or help manage the firm.

And they have a point. 

Sure there are intrinsic rewards to be garnered including the lawyer’s own long term professional goals and interests, and the long term benefit and prosperity of the firm, but let’s face it, when the compensation committee comes to call, it can be a real slap in the face when all the hard work and effort goes unrewarded.

I know one great business developer who threw up his hands and said forget it!  If all you want is billing, that’s all you will get. 

This week Beverly Cramp of The Lawyers Weekly has published an informative article following up on the discussion Simon Taylor and I had in this blog earlier this year about an innovative new compensation system being introduced by a local Vancouver law firm.  Taylor worked with the firm extensively on the system and shared with me some of the ideas behind the approach.

Here’s a quote from Cramp’s article:

“But the more time partners spend building relationships, the less time they have for doing their own billable work and with a compensation system overemphasizing the partner’s billable hour record, their income can fall. This is a financial disincentive to delegating work and spending time with new clients. So even though one of the key drivers of profitability is the ability to effectively delegate, the partnership is collectively shooting itself in the foot.  This calls for significant changes in partnership behaviour. But this stuff isn’t learned at law school. Entire careers are built on billable hours.” Simon Taylor

I encourage you to take a moment to read the article in full.  And if you want to make changes to your firm’s compensation here’s what can help:

• Align the compensation system with the overall firm strategy
• Develop a long term change management plan, with strategies developed in advance for overcoming some of the road blocks and objections you know will arise 
• Support your plan with clear and frequent communication and dialogue from the leadership with members of the firm
• Set your lawyers up for success. If you are asking busy professionals to make a significant change to their practice make sure you are giving the support to make that change.  Invest in the tools, technology, and professional assistance that they will need to succeed.

The crucial point is to not allow the fear of change (or the turmoil cause by change) to prevent your firm from taking measures to strategically manage the practice.

 

Posted in Compensation | Permalink | No Comments »


Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

I had the good fortune to attend a panel discussion today held by the LMA Vancouver Chapter on “How Public Sector Counsel Select Their Outside Counsel.”

It was a dynamite session. Paul Reynolds of 2nvision consulting moderated the discussion.  He spoke with three public sector in-house counsel on the factors influencing their retention of external counsel, what distinguishes the great lawyers they have worked with, and why they fire some firms.

Doug Jasinki, from Skunkworks Creative, and I are developing a five minute podcast with highlights from session for posting to the LMA Vancouver website.  In the meantime here’s a brief excerpt from my notes on the session:

The best lawyers are:

• Responsive.  They are prompt and respond in a timely manner to requests.
• Pragmatic.  They work the file appropriately.
• Aware of context.  They repeatedly invest in learning about the organization, not just for the initial sales call, and are sensitive to the organization’s particular requirements
• Team players.  They work closely with in-house counsel, communicate well, and keep counsel well apprised of what is going on in a file
• Flexible.  They are able to work at odd hours and on short notice when  necessary.
• Pleasant to deal with!  They are well mannered, and treat their clients with respect.

Listening between the lines today it seemed to me that the panelists had experienced some atrocious examples of bad client service.  Here’s my take on the five easy ways to get fired:

1. Don’t meet deadlines.  If the client requests the Opinion for their very important meeting at 2:00 pm then hand it in at 4:00 pm. 
2. Communicate with the client as little as possible.  Keep them in the dark.  Don’t keep them updated on the file.  If nothing happens on the file for weeks or months, you don’t have to contact them! Better to just let them wonder what is going on.
3. Bill the client for the friendly chat you had with them on the phone.
4. The client is a public agency and under public scrunity – but who cares?! Advocate as aggressively and sharply as possible, regardless of any negative media fallout.
5. Be as arrogant as possible.  When the CEO enters the room don’t stand up, don’t shake his hand.  Turn up late for meetings and act like you are doing everyone a favour for being there.

The panelists were refreshingly candid and many of us left with a stack of notes on such topics as how to structure your business development approach, how to respond to RFPs, how to stand out as great counsel, and what are the most effective marketing tools.

The feedback I am hearing about the event has been overwhelmingly positive.  As one lawyer concluded, it was great to have the opportunity to get “find out the answers to those questions that lawyers typically don’t have the guts to ask!” (Guts is my word.  He used a more descriptive one!)

Posted in Client Relations, Business Development, Marketing | Permalink | 1 Comment »