Leadership for Lawyers

Associate Marketing Webinar Notes

Here are my notes from today's Larry Bodine/Michael Cummings webinar on Associate Marketing Webinar I did with Jan Dubin today:

1.  Get motivated to market

• Business development is absolutely important.

• Everything you do is marketing.  You are selling yourself internally and externally

• Business development is a marathon, not a sprint.  Relationships take time.

• Start thinking about business development early in your career – the earlier the better.  It is a habit you want to develop over time.

• Make it fun and rewarding for you, not a chore, otherwise you will not be motivated to develop business later in your career.

Example 1:  Relationship Rainmaker:  1^st attorney in firm to make 7-figure compensation.  As an associate he made a list of 50 people he knew, or could know, who would be outstanding clients.  He built relationships with them over time.  Many became leaders in business, politics and community, who trusted him for both legal work and referrals.

Example 2:  Specialization Rainmaker:  Associate specialized early on in employment law for small and mid-sized companies in rural west. Started road-show seminars, e-mail newsletters, and built relationships with HR managers throughout state.  He wrote, spoke, and attended SHRM and industry events to develop a reputation and build a strong book of business before he was a partner.

Example 3:  Entrepreneur Rainmaker:  Two associates saw an industry trend with low density of lawyers.  They quickly developed an expertise in financing, permitting, etc and got very involved in industry events, resulting in new clients and matters for them, and the firm.  Shows enthusiasm, energy, and focus – fast track to Partner.

Example 4:  Networker Rainmaker:  Associate gets very involved in local and state politics, community service, and pro bono work, developing a network of business and government leaders along the way.   People trusted associate resulting in new work and clients for him and the firm.

Example 5:  Roadie Rainmaker:  Associate takes specialty to a different geographic location where the office and city has fewer lawyers, setting up meetings, seminars, and networking events with current and potential clients.  She has two offices in two cities, growing work for entire group.

Other advice:

• Have a personal plan.

• Do something every month, at least one internal and one external activity or event a month.

• Develop a pipeline – serve others that can give you or your firm business.

• Collaborate with others.

• Be a person with a life.  Have a life outside of the office.  Be interesting.

• Help others.

2: Be a Team Player

• Find your strength and build on it:  Writing, speaking, networking, community service, other skills.

• Consider the three types of people who contribute to the tipping point:  Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople.  Which are you?  Where can you grow?

• Know your client’s industry and business.  How can you bring industry expertise to your group?

• Develop relationships throughout your client’s organization.  Develop friendships with peers in client’s organization.

• Develop a niche practice.  Specialize.  Market that specialization first internally, then externally.  How can you help other Partner’s clients with your specialty?

• Develop a “R&D” project to expand the capacity of your practice or industry group.  What is coming around the bend?  How can you help your clients prepare for the future?

• Example:  R&D: Y2K, Biofuels, Space Law, Corporate Compliance On-line training and certification

• Example:  Strategy retreat with client.  Night out with clients’ team.  Attend an industry conference together.  Plan a team-building exercise.  All on the firm’s nickel, of course.

3:  A plan should include:

• Strategic Networking

• Outstanding Client Service

• Know Client’s business and industry

• Develop a niche or specialty

• Develop a personal brand related to your specialty and audience

• Build relationships with peers, alumni, clients, referral sources, community

• Focus on a target audience.  The narrower, the better.

• Seek ongoing training

• Internal marketing and relationship building is as important as external.  Perhaps more.

• Consider productizing services that you can cross-sell to other clients and partners internally

• Examples:  H&H Emergency Response Service:  Training, on-site consultation, emergency response services, which leads to the matter.

• Example: HHCMS:  Export Control training online, with testing and reporting function.

• Leverage industry expertise to build reputation and open doors.  Blogging and podcasting a cool way to go.  Speak and write to targeted audience.

4: Mentors

• The best way to learn is to watch and listen.

• Shadow good rainmakers at community and firm events to learn more about the firm, its clients, its culture and its stories.

• For a mentor, find someone who is similar to you, someone you admire, would like to emulate, is fun, and will give you a chance to try things out.

• Ask mentor for stories, examples, and introductions

• Practice, practice, practice, with your mentor.  Go on sales calls, BD lunches, networking events.  Make your mentor your partner.

• Go with your strengths.  Be aware of weaknesses.

• Invite your mentor to keep you accountable and help you accomplish your personal BD plan.

• Have mentors inside and outside of the firm. 
• Think:  Personal Board of Directors.

5:  Find the support you need:

• Calendar time for BD activities

• Treat BD activities like billable work – set an annual and monthly budget – 200 hours a year?   100?  50?

• Give yourself quotas and goals:  how many networking events, BD lunches, community events, etc?

• Develop a hit list of strategic relationships – 20?  30?  50?
• Find ways to build relationships that work for you.  Both a mix of written and face-to-face activities.

Marketing Department can help by:

• Creating personal budgets and plans with you

• Opening doors to BD opportunities, events, committees, community involvement

• Training and coaching

• Speaking and writing gigs

• Personal branding

• Teeing up opportunities internally and externally. 
• Internal networking and introductions.

 

1.

The Goal of Leadership: Culture Change or Ideology?

Bruce MacEwen posted an outline of a presentation he gave on Leadership for IT Managers.  Bruce postulated that law firm leadership means:

-  having vision

-  creating an environment that allows people to catch the vision

-  good communication

-  managing change

-  and differentiating between implementers, managers and leaders.  Leaders focus on culture and the external market in order to manage the change necessary to make the firm successful.

This post implored David Maister to respond with a post of his own, entitled, Dangerous Rubbish About Leadership.  Among several debatable claims, David writes,

    "Advocating that someone energize a professional firm or group through ‘leadership’ is like advising someone to be talented. You either have what it takes to get people to see you as a leader or you don’t. And by the way, if you’re not yet sure whether you have this ability – you don’t! You would have known whether you had it or not by the time you got out of high school.

       For the rest of us who don’t have this innate ability, all is not lost. What we need to do is stop pursuing the mirage of leadership, and start learning the model of how to be an effective manager – helping other people, individually and in groups, truly accomplish their potential. This requires putting the people being helped at the center of the discussion, not the leader. Management can be learned, but not if you’re trying to be something you’re not supposed to be and are probably incapable of being."

    I disagree with this.  I believe that many leadership skills can be taught, and learned.  There is a difference between management and leadership.  "Command and control" is not the only style of leadership.  Indeed, facilitative leadership that helps teams become more effective and smarter,  is critical to growing strong professional service firms.  Nearly everything is accomplished (or not) in teams:  client teams, practice group teams, industry teams, recruiting committees, diversity committees, compensation review committees.   We are a profession built on small groups. 

   Companies from the Fortune 500 to NGO's and the government invest a lot of money and resources into leadership development and training.  Certainly lawyers can learn to be better leaders - particularly in the context of small group leadership - through training, mentoring and coaching.

Maister closes with a clause I do agree with:

    "Great leaders (there, I’ve said the dreaded word) get people to focus on the key elements of strategy – the standards on which the firm is going to compete. With a clear ideology to rally around, talented people get the choice of saying – ‘I can believe in that. I think I’ll stick around to a part of that and be a member of a society of like-minded people operating together in accordance with common values.’ That commitment, in company after company, has led to service line and market sector choices not no-one anticipated, because they were not the guts of the strategy, but rather the outcome of the strategy – the firm’s own way of doing things. "

   The core issue between MacEwen and Maister, I believe, is a difference in the concept of a firm.  Is a firm a collection of individual professionals who choose a platform which to practice as a silo or small, independent practice?  Maister seems to believe that talented people choose firms like a society in which to exist. 

     Or, is a firm an entity like a corporation, which exists because of the synergies and partnerships among its people, create added value for its clients, workers, and society?  As a firm, do lawyers and staff work effectively as cross-functional teams to provide solutions and value that individual silos cannot?

     If it is the first, all we need is management.  If it is the second, leadership is crucial.

---  Mark Beese

p.s.  Phil Gott has wonderful insights into this topic on his blog.  Phil also has an insightful white paper on managing and leading professionals. 

idealawg launches!

We're in for a treat.  Stephanie West Allen just launched her blog:

http://westallen.typepad.com/idealawg/

Stephanie is a brilliant lawyer, talented trainer, insightful consultant, and a renaissance soul.  Watch her blog or subscribe to its feed, and prepare to be enlightened.

-  Mark Beese

Blawg stories beget blog posts

I've tried not to blog about bloggers.  I would rather stick to information and opinions that might benefit folks.  However, I continually find this blogosphere thing fascinating.  For example, the Denver Post featured a story on law firms blogging three days ago.  They called me for background because www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com was listed onthe Denver Post Blogroll.  Then:

-  Denise Howell (blawg pioneer) posts, "Kudos to Holland & Hart for confirming what should be self-evident: a bit of inflammatory feedback is likely to come with the territory and no reason to yank down a perfectly good blawg. "

-  Another blogger - Timothy Hadley -  mentioned in the article, Math Class for Poets, posts several stories on being interviewed, with links to Holland & Hart's blogs, and echo's Denise's praise of Holland & Hart's blogs.

-  Still another blogger mentioned in the story - Larry King of ColoradoDivorceMediation.com contacted me via email, who wrote,  "In my view of the world, MARKETING is a way more important skill than just about any other taught in law school, and most mediators haven't dialed in to its importance at all." 

-  A leadership consultant read the article, visited our blogs, and contacted me by email to see if we could trade secrets over coffee some day.

-  More than 20 blogs have picked up the Denver Post story,ranging from commenting on the content to simply summarizing the article. 

Rick Klau - www.rklau.com/tins/ - once told me that blogs are an online, two-way conversation about ideas.  I am surprised, and very pleased, to discover this to be true.

-  Mark Beese

They blawg the law and the blog won!

The Denver Post featured Holland & Hart's two health care blawgs in a story on law firm bloggers last Sunday.  Reporter Greg Griffin wrote about Greg Piche, a health care lawyer who launched his health law blog four years ago.  Griffin's hook is a story on how a disgruntled reader blasted hundreds of Holland & Hart attorneys for one of Greg's posts about a cross-dressing ER doctor.    The blog, while debated among partners, survived and has resulted in new work for Piche, totaling between 33% and 50% of his practice. 

The author was kind to mention Holland & Hart's other blog, http://securities.blogs.com/hh/, as well as www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com.

I found it amusing that during the interview the reporter admitted his bias:  he was surprised to see a 60 year old lawyer be the first blogger from a large law firm.   Bernard Wooten, our web-marketing guru, and I never thought twice about it. 

CRM: It's the Culture, Stupid!

Remember when James Carvill told candidate Clinton, "It's the economy, stupid!"?

For CRM, I say, "It's the culture, stupid!"

At the LMA conference this week, consultant Aleen Z. Bayard cited a study by IBM that only 15% of CRM users are satisified with its return on investment.   Not surprised?  That statistic applies to businesses across the spectrum, not just law firms.

Monica Bay and Silvia Coulter penned a wonderful article on CRM ROI and acceptance in Law Firm Inc last year, claiming more than half of the firms with 100 attorneys or more have CRM tools, but less than 30% of lawyers use CRM.

For marketers, CRM is a no-brainer.  It helps us keep track of clients, prospects, referral sources, influencers, attorneys and alumni who are constantly moving around.  It makes email lists generation easier and allows us to create tailored and targeted lists much easier to develop, especially if the data is clean and robust.  CRM is an important intelligence tool, allowing us to understand the depth, quality and nature of relationships.  The "who knows whom" function is a powerful networking tool that can prevent embarrassment as often as open doors. 

Have you ever prepared a pitch to a prospect, only to find out later in the meeting that she is the next door neighbor (or classmate, or fellow board member....) of a partner in your firm?

If CRM is a no-brainer, why is it so hard to adopt?

Culture.  It is hard to change behavior.  Adopting CRM for most firms means a leap of faith, a change in thinking, a new way of thinking about the old Rolodex - not to mention how we view clients of the firm and the 'ownership' of relationships.  The belief is almost hard-wired.  Remember fighting as kids as young as first graders, "He's was my friend first!"

In Coulter and Bay's article (sounds like a retail chain, eh?) Sally Schmidt says lawyers, "don't want to share the information, which is what CRM is all about.  Without assurances taht their client relationship will be not be adversely affected, CRM is doomed."

Bay closes with, "Yes, there are hurdles to overcome before your lawyers will embrace CRM.  But trust us on this:  If you don't use CRU, you will soon pay the price.  Your competitors will not only know the name of BigCompany GC's latest wife before you do, but they'll also find out that she is the GC of your top client.  Don't wait until it's too late."

Sounds like a leadership challenge to me. 

What are you doing in your firm to change culture?  How are you leading your firm to keep ahead of issues like CRM adoption?

 

Associate Marketing Webinar

Jan Dubin and I will speak at a webinar later this month on Associate marketing.  This will be my first webinar.  I can't even transfer a phone call at work, so doing this webinar thing should be interesting.  Here's the scoop:

The CMO Perspective: How Associates Can Excel at Business Development in 2006
	PRESENTED BY:	Sage Law Marketing and the LawMarketing Portal
	SPEAKER(S):	Mark Beese of Holland & Hart and Jan Dubin of DLA Piper Rudnick
	DATE:	March 30th, 2006; 12PM - 01:30 PM
	LOCATION:	Central time, on the Web:
	MORE INFO:	http://www.pbdi.org/pages/events.asp?Action=View&EventID=126 CONTACT: Michael Cummings; (Tel) (630) 572-4798, (Fax) 630.282.0472 or  [email protected] http://www.sagelawmarketing.com/WebseminarAssociatesA5.htm

War for Talent: Resources

Resources:

• Attracting—And Keeping—The Best & Brightest—(Maryann Hedaa)
• War for Legal Talent Meets the Business Downturn (Carl Leonard)
• In-house - American Lawyer (Aric Press)
• For Gen Xers, it is Work to Live (Wall Street)
• Talent Wars Across the Pond (Bruce MacEwen) and here too.
• Making Your Firm a Great Place to Work (Susan Lambreth)
• The War for Talent (McKinsey in Fast Company)
• War for Talent II - 7 Ways to Win (Fast Company)
• War on Talent - Vault.com

Crystal Ball for 2006

Legal Times looks into their crystal ball for 2006 to answer five question:

• Will Merger Mania continue?  (Yes, and client service will drive it).
• Will compensation soar?  (Yes, and the war for talent is to blame).
• Have billing rates topped out? (Probably, but there is a rise in alternative fee arrangements).
• Can costs be cut further? (Yes.  Outsourcing, paring down practice areas).
• Are client relationships more critical than ever?  (Yes.  Duh.)

Read the article here.

War for Talent: The next big thing?

Aric Press, in an editorial in the December 2005 issue of American Lawyer, summarizes the 2005 law firm leaders survey as, "the war for talent has returned" on two fronts:  managing associates (who, with increasing frequency, don't have a chance a making equity partner) and attracting profitable and rainmaking lateral partners. 

Consider the facts:

• With an economic recovery, law school enrollment has peaked, and is expected to decrease over the next few years.
• Law students are increasingly looking to careers outside of law firms
• Law firm attrition is atrocious:  1% of associates leave after their first year, 14% of associates leave after their second year in law firms.  In large law firms, 37% of associates leave by their third year of practice. 
• I've heard that every time an associate walks out the door, $500,000 - $700,000 in investment goes with her/him and it takes an average of $300,000 to hire a good third year associate to take her/his place.   Yikes!  Do the math.
• Associate first year salaries are leaping again, 2005 bonuses reached record highs, and competition for top associates and laterals is fierce, especially for strong diverse candidates.

Law firms ARE their people.  It is their ONLY asset and differentiators.  Recruitment, retention, professional development and coaching will be the next big thing in law firm management.  Compare strong recruitment, retention and professional development to ANY OTHER cost saving measure and its effect on profitability. 

What are you doing to make your firm a great place to work?  What is your firm doing to create a sustainable environment for great people to thrive?  How is your firm preparing LEADERS to enable personal growth and institutional health for retention?