The 2009 Rainmaker of the Year Award winners, by category, are: 

Woman Lawyer:  
Mary Ann Dunham, with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, in Pittsburgh. See http://alturl.com/oy9c
NOTE: Mary Ann Dunham will be featured on a web seminar broadcast by PBDI on Tuesday March 23 at 1PM Eastern time.  Visit www.pbdi.org for more information.

Small Firm Lawyer: 
Christopher Marston, with Exemplar, a law firm based in Boston.  See http://alturl.com/knjq

Associate: 
Elizabeth L. Gunn, with Durrette Bradshaw PLC in Richmond, VA.  See http://alturl.com/6hfc

The remaining two winners, in the categories “Partner – Transactions” and “Partner – Litigator” will be announced and profiled in the April Issue

“In selecting these winners,” according to Originate! Editor-in-Chief Barry Schneider, “we aim to find the strongest models of effective business development and marketing. In our interviews we extract the tactics and techniques that make them successful.”

The Rainmaker of the Year Awards are a joint project of Originate!, the premier online newsletter dedicated to helping attorneys build their personal practices, and Legal Sales and Services Organization (LSSO), the only organization exclusively focused on sales, service and quality issues in law firms and legal departments. 

Originate! has published more than 200 articles in the last three years, but these case stories are among the most important for the examples they present. The previous year’s winners are profiled in the September 2008 Issue.

For further information contact:

Editor in Chief Barry Schneider, (214) 315-3212 and bschneider@sageprofessional.com

Tactics Editor Larry Bodine, 630.942.0977 and Lbodine@LawMarketing.com

What else they could be doing is the subject of this month’s lead article in Originate!, the premiere online newsletter on business development for attorneys. This article is available to the public at www.pbdi.org/originate and reflects activities that consultant Michael Cummings affirms have much greater value. 

According to Cummings, the same old activities “make you seem like one of the crowd, provide no business value and often lack a true personal touch.” These proven ideas, on the other hand, “will separate you from the attorneys that go through the routine end of year motions. It also provides that contact and personal touch that lead to results.”

Mr. Cummings has worked with hundreds of attorneys as managing director of SAGE PDI, a firm that trains and coaches attorneys in results-driven business development, and has co-authored a highly praised book on personal marketing for attorneys.

The other articles in Originate! this month (available to subscribers only) also enumerate practical advice for lawyers to improve their business development for next year.

There are ten social networking actions recommended by Darryl Cross for making new work come from online sources. Seven good ways to zip up the relationships with your clients and gain new business from Larry Bodine. Six goal-setting steps to make you much more productive in the new year from Thom Singer. And three holiday card alternatives to a chilling tale from Andy Havens.

Lastly, Kristin Stark somberly assesses today’s profit picture and the evolving buyer’s market for services, then proposes how lawyers and firms can build a brighter future through advancing their marketing capabilities.

As Editor-in-Chief Barry Schneider noted, “Now’s the time to change old practices and do things a bit differently, not just because it’s the new year, but because lawyers must respond to this tougher environment.”

About ORIGINATE! – Now in its third year of publication, the online monthly ORIGINATE! offers a consistent, reliable resource for ambitious and serious-minded lawyers who seek advice on building their personal practice. The newsletter delivers practical real-world strategies and proven tactics, the best methods used by top attorneys now to land clients, sell work and strengthen relationships. With a set of contributors of unique depth and breadth, ORIGINATE! offers an unparalleled practice-building asset. www.pbdi.org/originate

If you are an ambitious plaintiff tort attorney, what keeps you up at night?

First, you are focused on making the most of the cases you currently represent. But, equally vital, you want to attract and secure as many high potential prospective clients as you can – in the same high priority tort categories that can fuel the continued growth of your firm.

So, what types of methods work best in attracting and converting the specific, highly qualified leads that you need? That is what we cover in this white paper.

Specifically:

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of current methods?
• Why cost per lead advertising provides the best ROI for you?
• How you can get the best results from a new group advertising model?

The Problem You Face

Let’s say that you are looking to find a pipeline of solid prospective clients in tort categories such as pharmaceutical products, nutritional supplements, medical devices or product liability.

First, you have to find the prospective clients among the general population. Next, you have to get them to find and call you and your firm – instead of the myriad of aggressive competing firms who are chasing the same prospects. Then, you have to ensure that they have a strong case and convert them into clients.

The Problem with Traditional Marketing

While this problem is certainly not new, we now have many years of experience in a variety of marketing methods – with documented return on investment statistics to judge their effectiveness.

• Paid referrals to other attorneys: This is the longest standing form of marketing and results in a small stream of viable leads. Yet, it provides insufficient coverage of a broad market opportunity and costs you a % of the settlement.
• Yellow pages advertising: This tends to be the mainstay of most attorneys and law firms. We suggest that the effectiveness of this form of advertising is becoming obsolete.  First, Today 70% of people use the internet instead. Secondly, it is expensive to get any form of prime placement. In terms of high quality leads, yellow pages advertising:
  • Attracts price-shoppers
  • Generates unfiltered flow of callers
  • Is expensive
  • Leads to overwhelming clutter
  • Makes yourself more like the competition, not distinguishing yourself
• Referral services: Again, this form of advertising does get your name placed in directories that are searchable by interested parties. But, you are often one of the crowd and the services are not well known among the target market that you are pursuing.
• Print advertising: Print advertising requires two foundations to be effective – both of which add to its cost. First, it has to reach your target audience and grab their attention. Then it has to be repeated time and time again to make an impression and separate you from the competition.

The basic flaw in all of this advertising is its return on investment. You spend a lot of money up front and hope that it generates results.  In most cases, the costs are high and the resulting business can be minimal. And you, as the advertiser, are bearing all of the risk.

Also, many tort firms are interested in a variety of tort categories. So, it is often cost prohibitive to do the depth and breadth of advertising required to make a dent across the board.

The New Wave Of Marketing

In today’s legal profession, two forms of advertising have become prevalent: television advertising and Google ads.

Traditional Television Advertising

Now, the history of TV advertising in the profession has been controversial. Many early advertisements were poorly done and perceived as un professional.

But, despite the detractors, TV advertising works – if done properly. As appendix A shows, legal advertising is now the #8 category in terms of local TV advertising spend, and it is the only category that grew in 2009.

And many firms are making substantial investments, the top firms in terms of 2009 TV advertising include:

While traditional TV advertising does work, it can also be a disaster for firms who are getting into to it.

First, attorneys are not experts and can make mistakes that can negatively impact your brand. Also, many brand based TV spots that focus on the firm and their credentials rather that on generating leads can lead nowhere  Third, it can be a wide-cast medium – and reaches many non-target people if you are not expert at placement.

And it is costly. Producing your own commercial can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Purchase of TV time is $10 to $15 per thousand viewers (not qualified leads), and this buys you a single airing of your commercial.

So, what’s the bottom line? First, doing your own campaign requires expertise in production and placement to succeed. And, you have to be prepared to spend substantial money – in terms of hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it right.

Here is one example of what can go wrong. Two years ago, a 15-lawyer Bucks County, PA, personal injury firm decided to put commercials on TV. In the first year, the firm spent $40,000 on TV ads with no results. In the second year, the firm spent $60,000 to get six clients that generated new litigation business. So, the cost per lead was $10,000.

Web-based Advertisements

Most advertisements on the web are some form of Google ad words, where your firm promotion shows up when a person searches based on specific tort-related words. The firm pays for each time a person clicks on their ad.

Again, this form of advertising does work. It gets people to act and respond in terms of a search on a specific form of tort pain. It generates a call to action. And the web offers you broad market coverage to reach potential clients. So, it does provide ROI because you can track how many people contact you based on the specific ad,

But, you must realize that you are paying for “clicks” not leads. You don’t know the quality of any click. And the costs for an individual clicks can become quite expensive – in some cases ten thousand plus a month.

Also, there is clutter because you are competing with several law firms for placement … and 4-5 options (or more) are often offered for the same inquiry.

The Best of Both Worlds: Cost per Lead Group TV Advertising Model

Recently, a new form of lead generation is becoming available to law firms that combines the best of the power of TV advertising and the Google ad words model – and eliminates the cost/risk of traditional TV advertising.

More importantly, you can invest in this advertising on a cost per lead basis that is similar to the Google model. This means that you can budget and buy leads for a specific type of tort that have been pre-qualified to have certain characteristics. However, these are “leads” (solid prospects) rather than clicks.

So, how does this work? An industry-leading company experienced in the legal category now offers cost per lead group advertising. Their approach has been reviewed and approved by an leading ABA staff ethics expert to ensure that it meets your professional standards.

First, the agency picks a tort category such as Mesothelioma, Paxil, Hydroxycut, etc. Then the agency uses its own expertise to develop the TV ad and distributes it to 1700 local stations and cable outlets. It runs the ad with an 800 number. The consumer with the condition then calls the 800 number where they are qualified by a skilled interviewer.

Then, the agency offers the leads to a select group of law firms based on a cost for each lead (in the range of $100-$300 in many cases). The leads are based on the zip code location of the prospective client – and the law firm that has purchased access to the leads.

So, why is this the best of both worlds? Here are the benefits for the law firm:

• No up-front investment, lost time or risk for the participating lawyer
• Leverages the production and placement expertise of an agency without bearing the cost
• You get leads that have been pre- qualified for need
• It has been proven to work in the legal profession
• It meets the ethical provisions of the legal profession, since it is not a referral service

What does it take? To become part of the program, you have to be willing to invest $ 50,000 a quarter. This may be significant for you. But, you know that the money will result in leads.

In our experience, this is a model that has become the norm in other industries – and used by some of the most sophisticated marketers in the world. It has now been transitioned to our profession.

Our advice is that firms consider shifting investment and evaluate this form of advertising. This is the most direct and effective way for you to attract clients.

Note: If you want to learn more about the group advertising possibilities, you can reach us at

• Michael Cummings, 630-572-4798, mcummings@sageprofessional.com
• Larry Bodine, 630-942-0977,
  Lbodine@LawMarketing.com

Recently, a new form of lead generation is becoming available to law firms that combines the best of the power of TV advertising and the Google AdWords model – and eliminates the cost/risk of traditional TV advertising.

More importantly, lawyers can invest in this advertising on a cost-per-lead basis that is similar to the Google model. This means that you can budget and buy leads for a specific type of tort that have been pre-qualified to have certain characteristics. However, these are “leads” (solid prospects) rather than clicks.

To build a thriving plaintiff personal injury practice, lawyers need to find a pipeline of solid prospective clients in tort categories such as pharmaceutical products, nutritional supplements, medical devices or product liability.

First, you have to find the prospective clients among the general population. Next, you have to get them to find call you and your firm – instead of the myriad of aggressive competing firms who are chasing the same prospects. Then, you have to ensure that they have a strong case and convert them into clients.

Most traditional forms of finding new prospective clients – yellow pages, print advertising are costly and risky – and fail to produce the results in terms of solid leads.

TV advertising does work. In fact, legal advertising is now the #8 category in terms of local TV advertising spend, and it is the only category that grew in 2009. And a few firms are spending between $ 2-10 million a year.

But, producing your own commercial can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Purchase of TV time is $10 to $15 per thousand viewers (not qualified leads), and this buys you a single airing of your commercial.

A New, Affordable Way To Invest In TV Advertising

So, how does cost-per-lead advertising work? Recently, an industry leading company has entered in the legal industry to offer cost-per-lead group advertising. Their approach has been reviewed and approved by a leading ABA staff ethics expert to ensure that it meets your professional standards.

First, the agency picks a tort category such as Mesothelioma, Paxil, Hydroxycut, etc. Then the agency uses its own expertise to develop the TV ad and purchase time on 1,500 local stations and cable outlets. It runs the ad with an 800 number. The consumer with the condition then calls the 800 number where the person is qualified by a skilled interviewer.

Because the ad is run by the agency, your law firm’s name doesn’t appear – so this eliminates any qualms that firms may have on this form of advertising

Then, the agency offers the leads to a select group of law firms based on a cost for each lead (in the range of $ 200-300 in many cases). The leads are based on the zip code location of the prospective client – and the law firm who has purchased access to the leads.

So, why is this model the best of both worlds? Here is the benefit for the law firm:

− No up-front investment, lost time or risk for participating lawyer
− Leverages the production and placement expertise of an agency without bearing the cost
− You get leads that have been pre- qualified for need
− It has been proven to work in the legal profession
− It meets the ethical provisions of the legal profession, because it is not a referral service

About The Firm: Apollo Business Development advises law firms on how to grow their business through marketing and sales training. There is a web seminar How Plaintiff Tort Lawyers Can Generate High-Value Leads
DATE: December 2, 2009; 12PM – 1PM Central for $ 30. To learn more:

http://bit.ly/15H4WD

Contact: Larry Bodine (630)-942-3932 and Michael Cummings (312)-543-7617

What will give them a payback and what won’t is the subject of this month’s lead article in Originate!, the premiere online newsletter on business development for attorneys. This article is available to the public at www.pbdi.org/originate and reflects the experience of Steve Barrett about the kind of ROI you can expect from the most common law marketing initiatives.

As Barrett puts it, “To find a worthwhile return on investment in marketing initiatives, we need to start focusing on doing things [to the good side of the] breakeven curve.  This has been true since the 1990s, and particularly, since September 2008 when the economy went off the cliff.”

Steve Barrett knows what he’s talking about. He was CMO at Drinker Biddle in Philadelphia, and held similar positions at Perkins Coie LLP; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP; and Choate, Hall & Stewart.

The other articles in Originate! this month (available to subscribers only) follow his theme and give practical do-it-yourself advice on how to pursue the kinds of money making initiatives Barrett highlights.

Gail Huneryager details what to do when you get and decide to responding to a request for proposal.  Michael Cummings looks at the small group gathering, specifically the business roundtable, as a way to expand your network and get business.

When it comes to contact making, our best practice tip writers steer you away from the worst options and toward the best. Thom Singer shows how you can manage the online social network of Twitter as a local resource, a shift that can prove invaluable to your personal network. And Darryl Cross examines one of the best ways to use an association for the same purpose, the membership committee, though his rationale can guide you to an optimal choice in other types of organization as well. Meanwhile, Andy Havens uses the aim of raising the profile of a practice group within a firm to show why five loser initiatives are on Barrett’s list as well. What the do-it-yourselfer should not do.

As Editor-in-Chief Barry Schneider noted, “The aim is to learn to avoid hitting your thumb with a hammer, and to grow your practice with the right tools applied well.”

About ORIGINATE! – Now in it’s third year of publication, the online monthly ORIGINATE! offers a consistent, reliable resource for ambitious and serious-minded lawyers who seek advice on building their personal practice. The newsletter delivers practical real-world strategies and proven tactics, the best methods used by top attorneys now to land clients, sell work and strengthen relationships. With a set of contributors of unique depth and breadth, ORIGINATE! offers an unparalleled practice-building asset. Try us at www.pbdi.org/originate.

Registration information is available at http://bit.ly/17t3Iz  The trio will appear on a Webinar on October 29, 2009; 1PM - 2:15 PM Eastern Time.

“Law firms can win new business and keep current clients if they master the ability to give a price quote for a legal assignment,” said Larry Bodine, Esq., faculty head at Apollo Business Development Webinars. “Attendees of this live webcast will learn how to wean themselves from the billable hour and explore blended rates, capped fees, fixed fees, retainers and success fees.”

This web seminar is proudly co-sponsored by Legal OnRamp, the online social network for 14,000 in-house lawyers and 5,200 lawyers in private practice.

Money spent on alternative billing arrangements has totaled $13.1 billion this year, versus $8.6 billion in the like period of 2008, according to a survey of in-house lawyers who work at Fortune 1000 companies. It said 63% of the surveyed lawyers planned to increase their use of alternative billing arrangements.

Many firms are prospering with alternative fees. Just read “Drinker Biddle Prospers after Adopting the ACC Value Challenge” at http://bit.ly/CduaS for examples.

Who Should Attend

• Marketing and managing partners.
• Lawyers who want to grow their book of business.
• Associates who want to be ahead of the game when they become partner. 
• Chief Marketing Officers and Marketing Directors.

Attendees can gather with others in their office and any number can attend in the room where you connect to the site and the call — at the same low price. Simply call (773) 966-9273 or visit http://bit.ly/17t3Iz to register.

About Apollo Business Development.  Based in suburban Chicago, Apollo company has presented business development programs for 6 years, and also conducts in-person business development training for lawyers.

CHICAGO – Lawyers and marketers can now take a private class on how to get more clients and generate more revenue in the booming area of online social networking, taught by business development expert Larry Bodine, Esq.

“This is not a class on how to dither away time during working hours. It is a business development class intentionally designed to show lawyers how to expand their clientele,” Bodine said. The class is available by private web seminar or a live in-person presentation.” For details, visit http://j.mp/2C5TUe

Most lawyers are confused by all the online social networking options. They realize they’re a great business development tool – but they don’t know where to begin. This class will sort through all the choices – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Martindale Connected, Legal Onramp, JD Supra, My Space, Plaxo, Spoke and others – and instruct attendees on:

• Which site to focus your efforts for the best business development results.
• Which of the networks are a waste of time.
• Creating a profile that generates leads.
• How to use a network so that it generates new-business leads.
• Avoiding the downsides and dangers of online social networking.
• How much time to devote to it.
• Online “netiquette” and mistakes to avoid.
• A Model Policy on Blogging, Social Networking, and Electronic Communications and Media.

Without a presence online, you may be invisible to potential clients and referral sources. “Is your word of mouth marketing being boosted by your web presence – or are you losing out to more internet savvy competitors?” Bodine asked.

Now you can get these and all your related questions answered by a former litigator who is an online expert. You’ll get practical, plain-English, how-to advice from a professional marketer who is familiar with all the online options.

Attendees have two options:
1. 90-Minute Online Web Seminar — customized just for your firm.
2. An in-person, live presentation of the Class on Business Development with Online Social Networking.

The class can be customized for you to include a discussion of blogging, a critique of your firm’s website, how to launch an e-newsletter, and how to present a web seminar for your own clients and prospects.
This class will be relevant to the newest Generation Y associate and comprehensible by the most experienced Baby Boomer senior partner.

To reserve your own class time call today:

Larry Bodine, Esq.
Larry Bodine Marketing
691 Wingate Road
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Tel: 630.942.0977
Email: Lbodine@LawMarketing.com
Web: For details, visit http://j.mp/2C5TUe

Handout materials
• A Model Policy on Blogging, Social Networking, and Electronic Communications and Media – in use by law firms today.
• “The Legal Pitfalls of Online Social Media”
• “59% of Lawyers Have Joined Online Social Networks”
• “Social Networks Now More Popular than Email”
• “Supercharge Your Referrals with Technology”
• “How to Mine Legal Biz out of Social Media (and Ignore Twitter)”
• “The State of Legal Social Networking”

Program Faculty: Larry Bodine, Esq.
A 15-year veteran on the Web, Larry operates some of the top online destinations:
• The LawMarketing Portal Web site, www.LawMarketing.com, a news and information Web site that receives 80,000 unique visitors per month.
• The bi-weekly LawMarketing e-Newsletter, which is broadcast to 4,000 subscribers across North America. See http://j.mp/2SxCQK
• The top-rated LawMarketing Blog at http://blog.larrybodine.com
• The LawMarketing Listserv, founded in 1996, www.LawMarketing.Biz, which is an online email discussion group with hundreds of members.

You can also view his:
• LinkedIn Profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/larrybodine
• Facebook page at: http://bit.ly/53L3D
• Twitter account at http://twitter.com/larrybodine

Lawyers and marketers can learn how to capitalize on this trend by registering for the Webinar, “Alternate Fees — Current Best Practices and Likely Trends” on October 29, 2009, at http://bit.ly/nqyKK The all-star panel of speakers includes Paul Lippe, Esq., Founder of Legal OnRamp, Jeffrey Carr, General Counsel of FMC Technologies, and Dan Currell, Managing Director, General Counsel Roundtable.

Early adopters are reaping the benefits of alternative fees, including firms large and small. “Particularly during challenging times, clients want to pay for results, not time,” said faculty leader Larry Bodine, Esq. “ They want predictable fees, not surprises. This has never been more important than today, when every dollar counts, and requires justification. Stakes are higher now.” 

Law firms can win new business and keep current clients if they master the ability to give a price quote for a legal assignment. Attendees of this LIVE webcast will learn how to wean themselves from the billable hour and explore blended rates, capped fees, fixed fees, retainers and success fees. 

The primary benefit that you can offer that clients want is predictability. Clients see the billable hour method as a bottomless pit of costs that encourages inefficiency by lawyers.  An over-budget legal fee wreaks havoc with corporate executives, whose compensation  is tied to meeting their budgets. 

A distinct advantage to lawyers offering alternative fees is the elimination of increasing overhead devoted to the billing process, clients flyspecking bills and demanding after-the-fact discounts, and delays in payments and falling realization rates.

The program is sponsored by Apollo Business Development web seminars and Legal OnRamp, the leading online social network for in-house lawyers. Speaker bios and details are online at http://bit.ly/nqyKK  The registration fee of $300 covers as many people who can attend in a single room.  For more information, contact:

Larry Bodine, Esq.

630.942.0977

Lbodine@LawMarketing.com

Larry Bodine, Esq. of Glen Ellyn, (Chicago) IL, is a business developer with 18 years experience who helps exclusively law firms attract and keep more clients.  He conducts business development training through Apollo Business Development. He can be reached at 630.942.0977 and LBodine@LawMarketing.com.

Adrian Dayton:  I understand you just got back from a business development training session with a law firm.  Before you do training, most likely you do some type of evaluation.  You evaluate the firm’s marketing plan.  What type of questions do you ask when evaluating their plan?

Larry Bodine:  Ordinarily, I’ll begin by asking if they have a marketing plan. 

Adrian Dayton:  That’s not always a given, right?

Larry Bodine:  Right.  Far and away, most law firms do not have marketing plans.  They might have an approach in mind that the management committee has, but it’s something that’s just residing in their heads and it’s not written down.  What I’ll do is try to collect the key elements that would go into a marketing plan.  A lot of it is financial data and client information. 

• I want to see what the trend line is on the firm revenues; are they going up?  If they’re calling me, it’s typically because they’re going down. 
• I’ll inquire into which practices areas are the moneymakers.  That’s always a sensitive question, but I’ll ask them to rank their areas of service in terms of how much profit they generate.  Frequently that will be the first time anyone has asked for a report like that from a lot of the firms I deal with. 
• I’ll look over their top hundred clients and try to sort them into industries.  The idea is to try to get a picture of the pipelines of revenue; where is the revenue coming into the firm. Rather than to build new pipelines, my approach has always been, let’s take the areas where you’re making a lot of money and increase those. 

Adrian Dayton:  Yes, build on your basic strength, basically.  It’s interesting, you said to me that they’re usually sensitive when you ask them which are the most profitable practice areas, and it’s another example of how law firms aren’t really comfortable with running themselves like a business.  Any other business, you’re going have spreadsheets and be tracking profitability of every sector, but law firms are more resistant to that. 

Larry Bodine:  It’s more personalized in a law firm.  Law firms are partnerships, so they’re really reluctant to create a spreadsheet that shows that the insurance defense practice is making less money than the litigation practice — because it just creates a lot of hurt feelings.  My approach is not necessarily to publicize this information within the firm, but work with management and say, “You should really focus on litigation as a marketing emphasis because that’s where you’re making your money.”  If there’s an area where you’re not making money, you don’t necessarily discontinue it unless it’s losing money, but we just won’t focus on it.  That’s really the essence of marketing: focus. 

Measuring return on investment

Adrian Dayton:  How do you recommend that firms track their return on investment when it comes to putting money into marketing and effort into marketing? 

Larry Bodine:  Planning to measure ROI is step one when you begin a marketing initiative.  Before you undertake it, you have to ask is there going to be any way that you know that it worked.  If you can’t measure it, then you shouldn’t do it.  For instance, something that is measureable might be an event where you invite a number of clients and prospective clients.  You’ll know what your out of pocket costs are.  What you want to do after that is for the following 90 days, identify any files that were generated indirectly or directly from that event, and then project forward what the annual billings will be, and you can show a return on investment. 

Adrian Dayton:  For years law firms have basically just thrown the money at these marketing initiatives without looking for measureable ROI in a lot of cases.  I think with the current state of the economy, the savvy business directors of the firms are demanding more, they’re demanding a better return on the investment. 

Larry Bodine:  I think that’s only smart.  It’s a good way to run a business, and it’s a good way for a marketing director to keep his or her job, to be able to say that “we obtained the following ROI for a particular initiative.”  My favorite example is at Dykema, a 400-lawyer firm that’s got 10 offices mainly in the Midwest. They decided to do industry marketing.  They picked four industries, and gave themselves a goal of increasing files and from current clients as well as new files from new clients.  They were able to say, “We spent about a $160,000 and we got $6 million in return, so this was definitely worth doing.”

Adrian Dayton:  That’s an interesting way to think of it, to say, “We’re going to focus on industries, on a few specific niche industries, and then we can measure because we’ll see exactly how many files we get from those industries.”

Larry Bodine:  Precisely.  To my way of thinking, it’s really the most logical approach as you look over the client list.  If you find that you have a preponderance of, or a number of clients in, the trucking industry — it makes sense to not only cross-sell all of those clients in the trucking industry and make sure that your serving them in every way that you possibly can.  You can go into Hoovers or any of the other online databases and create for yourself a list of other companies within that industry.  Basically, that’s your target list.  You should start writing articles about the trucking industry; the lawyers should start giving talks about the trucking industry, and they should join trucking industry associations.  If they’re going to do advertising, it should appear in only trucking industry publications.  That’s a really effective approach.

For lawyers it’s a little counter-intuitive to look at things by the industry because they look at things by practice group.  I could draw up a list of three trucking companies that the firm represents and their response will be, “Oh no, we do insurance defense for this one, this other one is a corporate client, that’s an estate planning client.”  They’ll proceed to tell me how these are all clients of particular practices but that’s not how clients think.

Clients don’t see themselves as a customer of practice group. They see themselves as a member of an industry.  The idea is you penetrate members of an industry because they’re all going to talk among themselves, and if you do good work, they’re going to recommend you. 

Adrian Dayton:  It seems like if there’s that focus, it’s going to make cross-selling within the practice a lot easier too. 

Larry Bodine:  That’s right.  What the clients want more than anything is an attorney who is familiar with their business and knows who the players are in their industry and can talk the terms of art of a particular industry.  Otherwise they really have no way to judge the quality of an attorney.  They can look over an attorney’s resume, and they have no way to tell if they’re looking at a lawyer that’s better than some other lawyer.  The one thing they will understand is if someone walks in and starts speaking the industry language, knows the issues of the company and the industry, and knows the other players in the field. 

Online social media

Adrian Dayton:  I’m curious what you think of the new technology, social media in particular.  How is that affecting law firms and the way they can market their services?

Larry Bodine:  Savvy law firms are strongly embracing social media.  For instance LinkedIn has become the de facto online directory of professionals worldwide.  As of June 2009, some 850,000 lawyers have created profiles on LinkedIn.  That’s just really smart.  Another example is blogging.  I don’t think there’s any more than 3,000 or 4,000 attorney blogs in the country, and this is based on information from blawgsearch.com. It’s an excellent time to start a blog.  Blogs are an excellent medium to generate inquiries, to establish and demonstrate expertise, and to get calls from the media. 

Adrian Dayton:  Certainly.  The other curious thing about that statistic is that generally lawyers are really phenomenal bloggers.  They’re good at writing interesting content in a more informal way, and it’s really enjoyable for most of the attorneys that do it. 

Larry Bodine:  Not all of them are that comfortable with blogging.  Some will think that if I write a blog, I’ll have to write a law review article.  You always need to explain that, no, just write a paragraph and a link to somewhere else.  Set up a bunch of Google alerts and follow other bloggers so that you have a full stockpile of material.   Their typical concern is how will I keep this thing going?  What if I’m in the middle of a trial and six weeks go by and I haven’t put up a post?  If that’s the situation, then you need to make friends with a corporate lawyer who is going to be in the office all the time or an associate who can keep the blog going. 

I find that I never have any trouble finding material for my own blog, the LawMarketing Blog.  Typically, before I go on a business trip, I’ll write five days worth of blog posts in advance and I can schedule them so that they appear that one comes out on Monday, one comes out on Tuesday, and for all intents and purposes, it appears that I’m posting every single day. 

Adrian Dayton:  That’s a great idea.  You said for the attorneys, find a couple of partners in crime, a couple of people to help with your blog, and it can be the blog of the three of you.  A number of successful blogs are organized that way. 

Larry Bodine:  Yes.  The other thing is that the lawyers should pick an area that really fascinates them.  For example, I went to a very conservative law firm and talked to one of the partners who said he was going to start a new blog.  I thought it would be something on article nine of the UCC, and he showed me the printout for a blog on mixed martial arts — cage fighting.  When I looked at it I thought:  This is brilliant, this is focused, it’s narrow.  It’s entertainment law, essentially.  There’s going to be all kinds of issues and cases to report, and of course it was something that this otherwise mild-mannered guy in a white shirt and a red tie just had a real deep and abiding interest in.  He had no worries that he was going to have enough material for it. 

Adrian Dayton:  Think about how great that is.  This attorney, who ordinarily wouldn’t be expanding his network, suddenly has this creative entertaining law blog about mixed martial arts, and he’s going explode his zone of influence to other like-minded people who eventually may or may not want to hire him. 

Larry Bodine:  The thing that you’re doing is that you’re putting yourself at the hub of the spokes in a wheel.  You want to put yourself in the middle so that if you’re giving an opinion on a topic like say mixed martial arts – because it involves broadcasters, venues, promoters, the fighters and all sorts of vendors, such as cage builders.  It’s just like any other entertainment industry or entertainment business.  They’re going to have all the same issues.  It’s just that the kind of entertainment that he picked is different. 

That’s what you must do in a blog, is pick out something that’s unique, some niche that hasn’t been blogged to death.  I warned him that he was going to get calls from reporters, not just about the fact that he was from a conservative firm and picked mixed martial arts as his topic.  Suppose any reporter does an article on mixed martial arts, they’re going to do a Google search or a Google blog search, and they’re going to find his blog and call him up.  He will be the de facto expert in the field. 

Adrian Dayton:  Most firms don’t really have any general strategy when it comes to online marketing and social media.  I’m curious, what kind of recommendations would you make to large or medium sized firms to dip their toe in the water and start getting involved with social media? 

Caveats

Larry Bodine:  You’re going to have to develop some guidelines and disclaimers that reading the blog doesn’t form an attorney-client relationship.  The bloggers have to know that they can’t give legal advice; however, they can comment on current news and opinion.  I’ve talked to a number of marketers who said that their latest assignment was coming up with a policy on social media.  You have all of these independent thinking lawyers out there writing posts and sometimes the firm owner will want to make it clear that this individual is speaking on his own and not on behalf of a firm.  In other cases it’s like, “No, this is a firm blog and we want everybody to connect the firm to the blog.”

Adrian Dayton:  It seems like the head guys of these firms don’t really understand social media; they don’t understand blogging.  What they’re thinking is:  We have to create a list of do-not-do all of these things, rather than saying, “Hey, let’s figure out a strategy to harness the power of these tools in a way to build our practice, and then we’ll make sure that we’re safe as well, we’ll make sure that we’re not stepping on any toes or crossing any lines.” 

Larry Bodine:  Right.  Their view is: let’s identify the risk and prevent against the downside, and then if there happens to be an upside, that’s great.  Whatever happens, we don’t want to get sued, we don’t want to violate an ethics rule, and we don’t want to create any sort of adverse publicity.  Lawyers are trained to look for the dangers and with something new, there’s always some danger that something could go wrong. 

Twitter

Adrian Dayton:  Shifting gears a little bit because you’ve got a lot of press and your well-known for your article “Twitter Not Effective for Law Firm Marketing,” and over the past weeks there’s been a lot of talk about that.  I’m curious if you’ve softened any on that stance. 

Larry Bodine:  Twitter definitely has a role in society, and you can certainly see that by the protests in Tehran in the summer of 2009.  I think Twitter is an excellent medium if you’re going to organize a protest. 

However, when you get to the world of law firm marketing, I noticed that there was a high noise to signal ratio on Twitter.  In the nine months that I have had a Twitter account, I somehow managed to collect 800+ followers, which isn’t much, but I did so without any effort at all. Then I started to see some damning statistics about Twitter.  Only one out of ten people that are on Twitter actually do 90 percent of the posts.  Also, something like 90 percent of users are all dead accounts. 

Adrian Dayton:  Larry, think about a university class.  How many students actually raise their hand and comment, right?  Or even when you present at seminars.  What percentage, even if you have a small group, participate?  You have a lot of passive viewers, and I don’t think that’s any different than what’s going on in the real world, is it? 

Larry Bodine:  True.  Except that 60 percent of Twitter users drop out after using it for a month and never return, so it would be as if you joined a club and you went back to the second meeting and 60 percent of the people were gone. 

Adrian Dayton:  I guess the other way to look at that is if you speak to a group of a hundred people and 60 percent sign up for your next seminar, that’s a pretty good close rate, right? 

Larry Bodine:  You have to do a balancing test.  Of all of the social media that are out there, you’re going to have a much higher return on investment with blogs, having a LinkedIn account or joining Legal OnRamp – rather than spending time with Twitter.  People in the legal profession are not quick to adopt unproven or brand new online social medium.  I have to tell you the truth, when I go to law firms and I ask people how many lawyers have a LinkedIn account and all of the younger people raise their hands. All of the older people who are running the firm ask, “What’s LinkedIn?”

Adrian Dayton:  I get what you’re getting at.  Maybe Twitter is about five steps ahead of where these attorneys need to go right away. 

Larry Bodine:  Yes. 

Adrian Dayton:  I can see that point, and that’s well taken. 

Larry Bodine:  If I am advising a firm and they don’t have a blog, that’s where I recommend that the firm should start.  Then I look the lawyers up on LinkedIn and see how many of them have profiles and then tell them, “You all have to set up a profile by tomorrow because I’m going send you an invitation to connect with me.”  Once you’re on LinkedIn, you can’t stop at having a profile.  Just like a car in the garage, it’s no good if it just sits there; you have go somewhere with it.  You have to join a group, participate in a discussion, ask and answer questions and make something of it.  That’s the point where I see the profession is right now.  Something such as Twitter — I just don’t think the profession is ready for it. 

A look into the future

Adrian Dayton:  That’s your final word on that, and I think we’ll see what’s going to happen.  As for whether Twitter is around in four or five years, who knows?  I just want to ask you: What’s your prediction over the next ten years?  What’s the legal marketplace going to look like ten years from now?  

Larry Bodine:  I think we’ve seen the decline of the high leverage pyramid structured law firm where you’ve got two or three associates per partner — just because clients want a partner, they don’t want an associate.  The firms that seem to be doing a lot better are the ones that are predominantly partners.  They will have a few associates who are brought on with a full expectation that they’re going to make partner. 

The other thing I think you’re going to see is law firms wise up and not wrap themselves entirely around a single industry like all the Wall Street law firms did with financial services.  When financial services tanked, all of a sudden you saw big layoffs on Wall Street.  Or insurance defense — once the insurance companies become clients, the rates start to get pressed down and it becomes a nonprofitable practice.  It doesn’t make sense to wrap yourself around one industry because then your fate is inexorability attached to that industry.  I also think we’re going to see a lot more virtual law firms. 

Adrian Dayton:  That’s a prediction we’ve heard here before, and I think that’s true.

Larry Bodine:  My favorite example is of a virtual firm is the XDL law firm, which does patent litigation, and it exists primarily on the web.  It’s a collection of litigators all across the country in different law firms.  If you have a matter to litigate in Texas or in Boston, or in Richmond, Virginia, they have a lawyer there with lots of trial experience who can handle the matter.  They lawyers just decided to go to market together as a virtual law firm. 

Adrian Dayton:  I think those are some very insightful predictions.  It’s been great having you on the program today, Larry, and we really hope we can have you back again. 

Larry Bodine:  Thanks very much, I appreciate the invitation.  It was a treat for me to talk with you. 

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Contacts: Barry Schneider, 214.315.3212
Larry Bodine, editor, 630.942.0977