Marketing Attorney Blog

Published on: November 8, 2012

LP Magazine – Auditing Your Law Firm Marketing Efforts

In the November/December issue of Law Practice, my marketing column is entitled “Auditing Your Efforts” and discusses the value and importance of a law firm objectively auditing its marketing and business development efforts. Read it to see how I compare myself favorably to Tom Cruise (although the editorial team deleted my reference to Scientology).

There was a time when spending money on an audit would have been borderline crazy–since so little time and effort was being invested–what did you really have to lose anyway? Today, however, law firms are investing heavily in these endeavors and often find that efforts are often…overpriced, ineffective, or simply off the mark. A proper audit is an important accompaniment to a strategic plan and a budget. The time has come where ROI needs to be measured, and a firm’s marketing foundation solidified. It is not all that different from the recent energy audit conducted on my home–imagine how much I would save with the right equipment and resources in place? If your law firm has never conducted a thorough marketing audit, talk to me about it. Year-end and the start of a new year are perfect times to evaluate. As I like to say, stop throwing good money after bad.

Published on: October 31, 2012

Law Firm Branding – Take my conflicts, please!

by Micah Buchdahl

It is not Henny Youngman, but Stoll Berne managing partner Scott Shorr.

With the tagline — Take your conflicts. Not your clients. — the Portland, Oregon law firm of Stoll Berne got some nice play in the Portland Business Journal for its advertising campaign focused on getting lawyers to send them conflict work. When Journal reporter Andy Giegerich called me to get my take on the uniqueness of the campaign, it highlighted once again some greater lengths law firms are going to these days to find additional revenue streams.

Advertising in legal publications for conflict work is certainly not new. I’ve worked with law firms on such ads in the past–albeit with minimal success. As an attorney with a small niche practice, I end up with referral situations practically every week. It would never occur to me to send the work to anyone that I did not personally know. But, again, not every lawyer has a go-to person for every practice and jurisdiction. But I also know that the nature of conflicts in my business development business takes on much the same take as a legal matter. Because I won’t work with competing firms in a market (sometimes geographic, sometimes practice-driven), I often need to send work elsewhere. I’m looking at the same issues–will this person or company steal my client, and/or am I putting them in a better position to compete against me. And, oh yeah, I almost forgot–they need to be good lawyers who will represent the client well. It comes down to relationships, one hand washing the other, and trust. And the old adage, “burn me once,” certainly fits in the world of conflict work.

Published on: October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Presents Preparedness Issues for Law Firms; Potential Legal Issues for Individuals

by Micah Buchdahl

READ the LPT Special Edition: Dealing with Disasters – Emergency Preparedness: A Joint Effort of the Law Practice Management Section and the ABA’s Special Committee on Disaster Response and Preparedness

With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on my backyard (in Southern New Jersey), it reminded me of an all-too-timely issue of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today from last April. For the past two years, I have served as the special issue editor for the Law Practice Management section, working with George B. Huff, Jr., Special Advisor, Special Committee on Disaster Response and Preparedness.

The articles included the following timely subjects, which may be relevant in the days and weeks ahead:

Published on: October 24, 2012

WMT: Law Firm Websites – Ethics and Compliance Issues

by Micah Buchdahl

In my monthly column on internet marketing for lawyers in Web Marketing Today, I tackle the sticky issue of ethics and compliance for law firm websites. If you had told me when I started teaching ethics CLEs on this subject in 1997 that I’d be this well-versed on the subject–and it would become a niche area of expertise for my practice, I’d have laughed. But lo and behold, the Rules of Professional Conduct have become my Ten Commandments. There are plenty of golden calves and false idols–but I won’t name names. Let’s just say that websites are now the tip of the iceberg in a land of Groupons and “ask the lawyer” sites, getting the disclaimer language right should be child’s play.

Published on: October 23, 2012

ALM: New Partners Fear Having to Originate Business

by Micah Buchdahl

The lead story in today’s Law.com distribution of The American Lawyer Daily touted, “Survey: Generally Content, New Partners Fear Lack of Training Will Hamper Ability to Win Clients.” One new partner quoted lamented, “I learned how to practice law, but I was not trained in how to develop business.” Claire Zillman reports on the internal ALM study.

There is no question that this training issue is changing–I would not say rapidly, but there are certainly firms willing to invest significant sums of money in BD training ranging from entry as summer associates right through the partnership ranks. I recently saw a 100-attorney firm invest one million dollars in BD development for partners. More and more firms are taking professional development more seriously. Yet, there are still what might be a majority of firms that don’t truly rank BD capabilities in partnership evaluations. I’ve met many a senior partner that has railed about the laziness of new partners, inability to originate, resting on the work of the past generation, etc., etc. We’ve all heard it.

Read the story and related survey for yourself. Last week, I chatted with a partner at an AMLAW 100 firm that was telling me how his firm did not credit any unbillable time toward year-end compensation. How do you get people to invest for the future, at the expense of the present, without incentive? There is a middle ground, and that should be the goal. Many of my clients refuse to train associates beyond some basics such as legal research. Yet, if I push too hard, the only lost BD will be my own. The truly great rainmakers usually took the long road–and have been able to benefit for the long haul.

Published on: October 22, 2012

WSJ Breaking News: Clients don’t like getting nickeled and dimed

by Micah Buchdahl

On an obviously slow news Monday, the Wall Street Journal front page touts “Law Firms Face Fresh Backlash Over Fees.” Jennifer Smith reports on the “widespread revolt” over big bills for “legal miscellany.” I can tell you that there is nothing new in this news from much of the last decade. But it does allow me the chance to once again discuss the issue of nickel and diming clients–often those that are paying seven figure invoices based simply on billable time.

Is this a marketing issue? It sure can be. While many in big law won’t change things anytime soon, small, midsize and boutique law firms recognize that this provides an opportunity to offer up a “differentiating factor” in selling its legal services. Often lost in price comparisons are the costs that go beyond the billable hour, depositions and filing fees. Those extra costs–planes, trains and automobiles; hotels, dinners, legal research and copying–can inflate the final tally by quite a lot. It is like looking at the $25/day rental car rate, only to find the actual cost to be around $70 after taxes and related charges.

All I know is that when I meet litigation friends in Philadelphia, often in town for a matter in federal court, we are usually getting together at the Four Seasons. Dining ranges from Morimoto to Buddakan; Morton’s to the Fountain. When you are working hard and traveling extensively, I’m not suggesting that we treat ourselves to anything less than first class accommodations. Unless, of course, the corporate counsel is staying at the Marriott. It is important to get a feel for the travel policies of your clients, and come in even or lower. There is nothing more damaging than outclassing the guy or gal that hired you during a trial. And when you get less work later, nobody will ever tell you why–the GC will just remember it when glancing at the final bill.

Published on: October 19, 2012

LPT: Billings and Collections

by Micah Buchdahl

It is my pleasure to serve as Editor-In-Chief for the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today monthly webzine for the 2012-2013 bar year. This month’s theme is “billings and collections.” Thank you to issue editor George Leloudis of the Woods Rogers law firm in Roanoke, Virginia, and Associate Editor Andrea Malone of White & Williams in Philadelphia, for their hard work on this issue.

Among the interesting articles in this month’s issue is Arthur Greene’s “Collecting Your Fees with Ease,” Ed Poll on “effective collection requires a collection policy,” and Richard Goldstein discusses “inspire your clients to focus on the value rather than the bill.” In addition, we have our interesting monthly practice management themed columns.
To read the October issue, click here. And be sure to subscribe to receive LPT at no cost each and every month, compliments of the ABA and LPM.

Published on: October 16, 2012

The Value of a Website Video – or how not to do one

by Micah Buchdahl

In an upcoming column for Web Marketing Today, I am going to discuss the value of videos in law firm marketing, focused on internet marketing efforts. I’ve had the opportunity to work with people that know how to do them, such as my friends at TheLaw.TV. Last year, as chair of the American Bar Association’s Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference, we held the first Golden Gavel Awards, recognizing the best law firm and legal industry videos. Nick Gaffney of Infinite PR organized the video awards and panel, with the end result being some phenomenal videos used by law firms on web sites.

This brings me to my own recent work on redevelopment of the HTMLawyers website. I wanted an effective welcome message, but ended up with something that looks like a bad local business ad on cable television. You won’t see this on the business site, but I did marvel at how my eight year old daughter Lily watched me sweat, flub lines and deliver a mediocre performance–only to have her show me how it is done. I’m not sure if she is showing me the way or mocking me, but I enjoyed her performance far better than mine. Lily first appeared on this blog–in the fourth post–when she was born in May 2004, so this is her triumphant return.

Published on: September 10, 2012

Too Soon! Too Soon! Impact of ABA Model Rule Changes Will Take Some Time

by Micah Buchdahl

If you are like me– seemingly spending half your life reviewing state bar rules, regulations and ethics opinions for my clients that seek to ensure compliance in the states in which they practice–I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully, like most attorneys, you are more of a casual observer. In August, the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association approved a series of changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct. Many in my realm of marketing and business development circles ask how it will impact them and what, if anything, they should be doing about it.

For starters, I remind you that these are “model rules” as opposed to “rules.” As someone long involved in various aspects of ethics and professionalism in the ABA, I can assure you that the time it will take many states to implement all or some of the rules will be “not tomorrow.” I’m pretty sure some states are still mulling over pieces of the ABA’s Ethics 2000 initiative. But it is only 2012 now, and you really just want to update your rules before the year 3000 hits or risk being seen as behind the times. And these changes come from Ethics 20/20, which is 20 years longer than 2000, divisible by 20.

Of course, the impetus for the ABA changes is simple–technology has far outpaced the long arm of the professional conduct law. The Ten Commandments would be delivered today via cloud computing, as opposed to having a long hike and getting stone tablets. Oy veh!

Published on: August 27, 2012

Consumer Reports Says To Get a Real Lawyer, Not a Dot-Com

by Micah Buchdahl

In thumbing through the September 2012 issue of Consumer Reports, my “thumbing” came to a halt, somewhere between best values on cars (my Toyota Highlander ranked high, as did my wife’s Camry) and televisions (I could have done better), when the monthly money column headline “Legal DIY sites no match for a pro” stopped me in my tracks.

Would CR tell its readership that the do-it-yourself web sites for legal information (not “advice”, because we know they can’t do that) would suffice when it comes to the “simple”–a will, a trademark, forming an LLC, getting a divorce, a real estate lease. Of course, if you are an IP attorney, a real estate lawyer, a family law attorney–you would (and should) take offense at the idea that your practice can be replaced by a cyber-lawyer (and I don’t mean a lawyer doing cyberlaw, I mean an automated machine). And thankfully for most of us, CR agrees. You probably need a lawyer to review and/or draft anything that goes beyond the extremely mundane.

The article leads by saying that for a fraction of what you’d pay a lawyer, websites such as LegalZoom, Nolo and Rocket Lawyer can help you create your own will, power of attorney, etc. ..and those sites are full of pleased customers that have avoided dreaded attorney fees from the comfort of a desktop.