Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog

Act on those Client Complaints

Ignore client complaints at your peril, say Sally Glick, CMO of Sobel & Co and Leisa Gill, director of marketing for Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, in the March issue of the Ioma Partner's Report.  They identified the four worst complaints:

1. "I can't get them to call me back (or return my e-mails)."
2. "They wait until the last minute to deliver reports"
3. "The service level is less than acceptable."
4. "They do not understand my business needs."

Even if the complaint is baseless, "you don't want them telling their story about you on the street," Gill said.

The solution is "romancing" the client, according to Glick. "Romancing the client is a never-ending job.  It includes paying attention, really listening and maintaining communications--all things that go along with any other successful life relationship."

Glick says her firm has a rule requiring that any client call or email be answered within four hours, and that clients be told how they can reach you.

Clients are always judging you by missed deadlines, Gill said. "We try to map out a date of delivery and follow the receipt of the data from the client so we can tack it and remind the client if information is missing," she said.

If there is a problem with service, solve it with finesse, Gill advised. Fee disputes don't improve over time, so handle these immediately.   Sometimes clients don't speak up, so it's important for partners to visit clients.

Finally, stay informed about each client's business or industry. It helps if you can be the one to bring a development in the industry to the client's attention.

Canada's Faskens Sponsors Hockey Team

The ice-pounding law firm of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin is now an official sponsor of the popular Vancouver Canucks hockey team.  Remember that hockey is a near-religion in Canada.

The deal is considered a marketing coup and ground-breaking strategy for the firm, which wants to gain a stronger foothold in Western Canada.

"No other law firm has entered into such an agreement of this magnitude before with a western Canadian NHL team and both teams are keen to advance our common values on and off the ice," said William Westeringh, Managing Partner of Fasken Martineau in Vancouver said, posing with the hockey team's Orca mascot, "Fin."

Faskens has 650 lawyers worldwide with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, New York, London and Johannesburg. Elements of the deal include:

• Faskens will be the designated legal counsel to the Vancouver Canucks and General Motors Place for the next five years.
• The law firm will have board signage at the arena.
• All televised games will flash the law firm’s name to broadcast audiences.
• Faskens' message and brand will be on the 360 degree LED score-board high up in the middle of GM Place.
• The firm will get seats in a corporate box.
• Faskens will have an annual golf tournament that the Canucks will participate in.
• Westeringh and another partner will man the phones at the Canuck’s Kids Telethon.

“Obviously it will get our brand in front of corporate Vancouver,” Westeringh said. “In this province, that’s where corporations are — at GM Place," which is the stadium where the Canucks play.

Entrepreneurial Partner Will Get New Business

A friend of mine who is a partner at a mega-law firm wanted to hold a social event for business development purposes -- but he got no support.

So he printed up invitations, mailed them out and will pay for the party all by himself.  He was wondering if he was crazy.  I told him yes -- crazy like a fox.

"My partners and our marketing department did not support the idea of doing this (and I’ve been suggesting it for years), so I am doing it by myself. The partners said:

• What if no one comes?
• What if everyone comes?
• What if the wrong people come?
• We don’t want our clients meeting our other clients
• We’ve never done anything like this
• Too much work
• We should do lunches instead
• We should do dinners instead
• We should do tables at charitable events instead
• We should do industry events instead
• We should go after a carefully targeted small group of super high end prospective clients

"The marketing department said:

• No one will come
• Clients and prospects don’t want to come to lawyers’ cocktail parties
• You need a theme
• You can’t use the logo
• We don’t have a budget
• You need more approvals.

"So I went ahead and did it myself. Do you think I’m crazy? Do you think my partners and marketing department might be right?" he asked me.

"No," I told him. "Your colleagues are dunderheads."  Putting on a cocktail party positions him as a leader, a guy who makes things happen.  And the party will allow clients to meet clients, which is a good thing! It positions him as a Maven.  As people leave, he will give them a gift bag with handles, which will remind guests of him.

In my experience, the best business developers and rainmakers are lawyers with an entrepreneurial attitude, which he clearly has.  As we know, new business comes from relationships; the more you have, the better. The party will enable him to to start new relationships and deepen existing ones.

Stay tuned. The party is coming up this month.

Law Marketers on You Tube!

There's a wickedly funny video mockumentary on YouTube about life as a law firm marketing director, entitled "Truth Justice & Credibility."

Jeff Reade of Cole Valley Software plays the sadistic managing partner who sighs when the marketing director interrupts his reading of a cartoon book to talk to him, and who gives credit for the marketing director's ideas to consultants he hired.

Michele Golivesky (who in real life is the Marketing Director for Swift Currie in Atlanta) plays the suffering marketing director. Senior partners introduce her as the "chief party planner and napkin folder" to clients.  The killer scene is when the managing partner goes manic with his idea to give out cheap "red hots" candy as the firm's signature gift -- for the ridiculous theme "hotlaw."

The marketing director is found passed out, asleep on her desk, after staying up all night to complete an RFP.  Then a partner walks in and says "get over that, my contact called and we don't need that RFP."  The marketing director scrambles to find a cup so she can take some ibuprofen.

For all of us who have the lash marks on our backs to prove we were marketing directors, we thank you, Jeff.  The truth is funny...but this stuff really happens. Ya gotta see it.

Terri Gavulic, Vice President of Hildebrandt, Inc. in Marietta, GA, co-wrote the script with Jennifer Manton, Chief Marketing Officer of Loeb & Loeb in New York and Jeff Reade. Terri also co-directed it.

Death of Jenkens & Gilchrist

Today we learned that the law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist will shut its doors after being ordered to pay $76 million in federal penalties for its alleged role in creating illegal tax shelters. In January 2006, Rich Klein, President of Riverside Public Relations LLC in New York, wrote about the firm here to point out how a law firm cannot afford to ignore a brewing crisis that can  ultimately destroy its long-held reputation.

Even the U.S. Attorney who announced the agreement with the firm today referred to the fact that the firm “has recognized ... that its tax-shelter practice has caused serious damage to its reputation, revenues and stability, and that as a result it ultimately cannot continue in business.”

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service have spent four years investigating Jenkens & Gilchrist and its promotion of shelters used to shield billions of dollars from taxes.  Once numbering 611 lawyers, today the firm Web site lists only 163 lawyers.

The IRS said an estimated 1,400 wealthy individuals were affected by the firm's advice on tax shelters and will owe interest and penalties for underpaid taxes.  Jenkens & Gilchrist, a 56-year-old national law firm based in Dallas, has been sued in recent years by wealthy investors who followed its advice and purchased the shelters.

Incredibly, the firm says nothing about the closure on its home page. There's only happy talk about "Gilchrist stays up on Main Street" and "Guidance to Summer Associates." The Web site's News section has an ironic item, "Corporate Relief After Hurricane Katrina (and other major disasters)."  The Recent News & Information" has 378 items, none about the firm closing.

Denial is not a good marketing technique.

Larry bodine was a mutant with the ability to manipulate light

I knew I had "arrived" when a friend told me there was a Wikipedia description of me. I was thrilled until I saw that the reference was to a Marvel Comics character who first appeared in New Mutants #45. The character had the ability to create solid light sculptures, which I thought would be a cool way to get the attention of lawyers and clients. 

The entry states, "Larry Bodine was a mutant with the ability to manipulate light, and even build sculptures out of it."

I wish the entry were about the $1 million I helped a law firm bring in, or the lawyer who I trained so that she multiplied her revenue from $200,000 to $2.5 million in one year.  Alas, I'll have to get by with my ability to create light sculptures.

The lesson I drew from this is to look up yourself online.  You should Google yourself and see what turns up.  You better see links to your bio and practice, articles you've written and speeches you've made.  If you don't turn up in the Internet's largest resource, you are totally invisible to potential clients. 

Also search Google Images to see if your photo can be found.  I was able to locate numerous photos of myself plus a picture of a yellow lizard.  Owners of Apple computers will believe this is an accurate depiction. 

Be sure to check Google Blogs (you do have a blog, don't you?)  Not only did I find my latest post, but all the other bloggers who made reference to it.  You can really find out which of your blog posts are catching people's interest.

Heck, check Wikipedia to see if there is a description of you. You could be a mutant too.

How Not to Structure the Marketing Department

A chief marketing officer was on the phone with me, looking for research on how to structure a law firm's marketing department.  The Made Guys at the firm had just separated marketing from business development.

I didn't need to find any research.  The decision of the partners made as much sense as separating a fisherman from his lure.  Marketing and business development ("sales") are vitally intertwined.

Business development cannot succeed without marketing. Direct mail, advertising, newsletters, email broadcasts, events, print collateral, public relations, branding and the Web site make the law firm a known quantity.  Without marketing, business developers are facing this guy in the chair:

From marketing you get strategy, without which sales has no direction. From marketing you generate leads, without which the sales pipeline is empty. From marketing you identify a firm's unique sales proposition, without which business developers have nothing to say.

Marketing is the hook and Business development is catching the fish.

Business development is creating personal sales plans that the attorneys will carry out to generate new files.  BD is training attorneys how to fish and showing them which techniques to use to acquire a target client. BD is rehearsing the partners before they go out on a sales call. BD is meeting the prospect face-to-face, asking questions to determine client "pain," and offering to help.  BD is asking for the business.

Without fishermen there is no catch. Should law firms separate marketing from business development?  Only if they want to sleep with the fishes.

Coaching Lawyers to be Rainmakers

Join me  at the Legal Marketing Association, Southwest Chapter Luncheon, on Thursday, April 19, 2007, where I'll show how Marketing Directors can get out of the "overhead" category and into the "revenue" category by coaching their lawyers to be rainmakers. 

The program runs from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Gallagher & Kennedy,  2575 East Camelback Road, Suite 1100, Phoenix, Arizona.

In the presentation, I'll show marketers how to capitalize on the lawyer personality, how to interest lawyers in business development and how to conduct a one-on-one coaching session with a lawyer.

Other topics include:

• The seven most effective marketing techniques.
• How to find leads.
• How a lawyer can get a meeting with a prospect.
• What to do and say at the new-business meeting.
• How to close the sale.

Attendees will see how this really works, including case histories where marketers turned themselves into stars. 

The program is free to LMA Members, and costs $25 for Non-Members.  RSVP by April 16, 2007 to Kathleen Brieske kbrieske@perkinscoie.com or 602.351.8215

Clever Blog about "The Office" Spotlights Real Client Liabilities

You've got to check out the blog "That's What She Said," which analyzes antics on the TV show "The Office" and assesses what they would cost a real live employer in workplace lawsuits.

Talk about a great marketing technique!

The author is Julie Elgar, a labor and employment attorney at law firm of Ford & Harrison in Atlanta, Georgia.  She  represents management in companies that have been sued by their employees and former employees.

"When I’m home, I like to relax in front of the TV. NBC’s hit show, "The Office" with Steve Carrell is a draw — not just because it’s so funny -- but also because it is fascinating to consider how many zeros a company would have to add to the settlement check if the antics of the folks at Dunder Mifflin appeared in a real lawsuit," she says.

For example:

• Announcing “we’re screwed” is not the best way to tell employees that the company is closing down its branch. LITIGATION VALUE: $150,000 in defense costs — unless the WARN Act applies.
• Nothing says “I love you” quite like a legal contract acknowledging that you weren't coerced or enticed into having into a relationship with your boss, and that if it doesn't work out, you won’t sue your employer. Courts generally don’t take much stock in agreements that waive your right to sue for wrongs that haven’t even happened yet.  LITIGATION VALUE: $75,000.
• If an executive learns that a regional manager has sponsored a bachelor party in the warehouse, hired a stripper, offered to “deflower” the bride, taken an employee to a sex store, received a lap dance, and allowed a pervert dressed up like Benjamin Franklin to make a lewd statement to the receptionist, she should fire him. As this episode colorfully illustrates, it is not enough to have an anti-harassment policy. LITIGATION VALUE: $800,000+

Dang. Where was Julie Elgar when we needed her at the office holiday party.

Law Firm Web Site Online in 60 Days!

At many law firms, getting a Web site online takes many months and is a process involving committees, multiple levels of approval, re-designs and rewriting.  But the Chicago litigation boutique Miller Law LLC got their site online in only 60 days, proving it can be done. 

The site lists industry experience, many case histories, and biographies that disccuss results. It's everything a referral source needs to know.

Here is the chronology:

January 20, 2007: First Step Internet, a Web site developer for law firms, creates two home page mockups based on Web site usability and marketing principles. We notify the managing partner to take a first look.

February 13: The developer incorporates revisions from the managing partner into the mockup.

February 16: The managing partner and I meet to discuss additional changes and features in the site.

March 2: We begin putting content on the draft site, based on biographies, firm resume and case histories supplied by the law firm.

March 8: Add new text and photos to the draft site.

March 12: Revise text and check the site for compliance with ethics rules.

March 13: Hold a conference call with the managing partner, and we make numerous revisions.

March 19: Correct typos and formatting.

March 20, 4:45 PM Central Time -- the site goes live.  See http://www.millerlawllc.com/.

If you'd like your own Web site online in 60 days, visit me online.