The Honorable Allyson Maynard
Gibson, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, opened the ILN
Business Session on Friday, November 17, 2006 by welcoming all of the members
to the Regional Meeting of the Americas.
Lowell Lifschultz also extended a special thank you to our hosts, Halsbury
Chambers.
Alan Griffiths began the
Business Session by noting to the assembled delegates that for the second time,
the ILN business session was being broadcast over the internet. The broadcast was available to all ILN
members. Alan then introduced the
ILN?s newest members in the region, Berninzon, Loret de Mola & Benavides,
Abogados in Peru and Mejia-Armenteros & Abreu, S.A. in the Dominican
Republic, and those attending their first ILN meeting. He invited Mr. Santiago Mejia Ortiz to
give a short presentation on his firm to the assembled delegates, noting that
the other firm presentations would be given the following day.
Santiago thanked Alan and the
ILN for welcoming his firm into the Network. He noted that the firm was founded in 1990 and focuses on a
close, personal approach in doing business. Using both internal and external lawyers, they practice
corporate, business, intellectual property, litigation, aviation, real estate,
and energy law for both domestic and international clients.
After Alan thanked Santiago, the
moderator, Michael Slan, introduced the client/attorney panels. The client panel consisted of Mr. Alan
Wolfert, the Associate General Counsel for Real Estate Operations for the IBM
Corporation, and Mr. Kevin Quinley and Ms. Cindy Khin from Medmarc Insurance
Group. The ILN attorney panel
included Mr. Jeffrey Shapiro of Arnstein & Lehr in Miami, and Mr. Branville
McCartney of Halsbury Chambers in Nassau. Michael noted that the topic of the panel would be a
discussion of what clients are looking for when hiring their outside counsel,
and what the firms should be doing to keep their clients happy.
Michael introduced Alan
Wolfert and invited him to speak.
He noted that Alan had first been introduced to the ILN when some real
estate issues arose as a result of the sale of IBM?s PC division to Lenovo. Alan added that his interaction with
the ILN had been satisfactory, and that he would be happy to use the ILN again
if the opportunity arose.
With regard to hiring outside
counsel, Alan said that the most important factor to him is finding someone who
is technically competent to do the work and who can give a realistic assessment
of their ability to succeed. He
noted that the latter is difficult, because there is an inherent struggle
between wanting to take the case and succeed, and a sometimes more realistic
view that there is only a 30% chance of success and a settlement should be
made. He provided an example of a
case in which IBM had a 50,000 square foot facility outside of Washington, DC
(Space A) with 300 employees in it.
They were in the process of building a new space (Space B), but were
coming to the end of their lease term in Space A before Space B would be
complete. They went to the
landlord for an extension, and were granted an additional thirty days. The landlord then went on an extended
vacation where he was unreachable.
As the end of the thirty day extension was approaching, IBM realized
that Space B would still not be ready and they would need fifteen more
days. Since the landlord was on
vacation, they went to the property manager to secure the extension. The landlord returned before the thirty
day extension was up, and refused to grant the fifteen day extension. Since the extension was necessary, IBM
sought legal counsel and found a lawyer who said the case was a ?slam dunk.? The filed for a declaratory judgment in
which everyone agreed on the facts, and only the law was in question –
specifically, did the property manager have the authority to grant the
extension? The briefs were filed
and the oral arguments were held in Virginia. IBM?s lawyer argued that they had been working with the
property manager for some time, and that he had apparent authority, which they
had acted on by not looking further for additional interim space. The landlord argued that IBM had been
working with him and not the property manager, and thus knew that he didn?t have
the proper authority. From the
bench, the judge ruled for the landlord and would not direct the landlord to
give them even a few additional days.
Fortunately, IBM was able to negotiate a deal with the landlord for an
extension, but it was a situation where the lawyer was so driven to take the
case that it almost caused them a problem. Alan said that it would have been helpful if the lawyer had
advised them that at the time, it was a very landlord-oriented court system in
northern Virginia, and the landlord was a well known, locally respected
businessman while IBM was looked on as a corporate giant.
Michael agreed that local
knowledge is extremely important and said that one of the hallmarks of the ILN
is the local and regional knowledge that the firms have. Jeff added that Medmarc usually asks
the lawyer for a sense of the judge as well, which would have been useful
information in this case.
Michael then introduced Kevin
Quinley, Senior Vice President of Risk Services at Medmarc. Kevin began by saying that his
perspective was of insurance companies who purchase legal services. He said that while technical competence
is key in hiring outside counsel, he also wants attorneys who really listen to
their clients and ask the right questions. He recommended a few key questions to ask. The first was, ?What are your biggest
issues or concerns with outside counsel??
Clients have often had past issues with billing problems, service lapses
such as unreturned phone calls or musical chairs in staffing cases, bad
outcomes or courthouse step cave-ins on liability or valuation. Kevin indicated that problems clients
have normally center around three themes: cost, service and results. When asking a client about their
issues, the answers can often indicate what their hot buttons are. His second question was, ?What are your
hot buttons?? The question is a
way to approach the same issue from a different angle to identify what the
clients? likes and dislikes are.
Some clients may prefer detailed reports, while others would rather
shorter executive summaries. Some
clients would like their attorneys to give them advice, while others may see it
as overreaching. He pointed out
that one size doesn?t fit all, so it is important to find out the clients?
preferences. His third question
was more specific to insurance carriers – ?What is your claims
philosophy?? Kevin said that this
is important to know before making a pitch or handling their work, because some
clients may see paying nuisance value claims as a pragmatic business decision
while others think that it only encourages additional nuisance value
claims. He noted that a lawyer?s
case handling will change based on a client?s claims philosophy. His fourth killer question was, ?The
firms that you use are good. Can
we offer some points of contrast with them?? It is a deft way to compare a firm with its
competition. Since compelling
answers are rare, highlighting positive points of contrast, such as formally
surveying clients annually, offering a quarterly review meeting at no charge,
no 2,000 a year billing quota, and put a firm ahead of the competition without
denigrating them.
Kevin then offered a few other
points that are important for outside counsel to keep in mind. Respect the clients? time – don?t
call them when the points of the conversation will be repeated in a letter or
email. Make a point of noting if a
decision or action is needed and what the recommendations are. Help the client to categorize the
written work product by using descriptive subject lines. Add value by adding analysis –
report the demand, give an assessment, outline the options, make a
recommendation and let them know when a decision is needed. Respond promptly and honestly about the
worth of the case, the chances of winning the motion for summary judgment, the
chances of a defense verdict, the cost, and what to expect in the next thirty,
sixty, and ninety days. One of the
most important tips was to distill the adjectives and language down to numbers
so that the claims person can understand it.
Michael noted that an attorney
at his firm would dictate an update to one of his clients every single month,
because that was what they wanted, even if nothing was happening on that case
that month. He then introduced
Cindy Khin, the Assistant Vice President of Insurance Operations for Medmarc.
Cindy?s comments focused on
the top ten ways a firm can lose its clients? business. She started by asking the question,
?What is your primary job as my counsel??
Jeff Shapiro answered that it is to make the client look good. Cindy?s top ten included:
#10 Over-reliance on others: A
client needs to know who they can call with a question, problem or
concern. Often, they are marketed
to by law firms as a firm, when they hire lawyers not law firms.
#9 Long reports that don?t say
much: The client wants the firm to get to the bottom line, because they are
often managing a number of cases.
Case citings are not useful unless specifically requested.
#8 Expense budget overruns and
even more overruns: Many clients are now requesting budgets in advance. These budgets don?t need to be etched
in stone, but the lawyers should be able to provide a reasonable cost estimate.
#7 Block billing and excessive
expenses: Cindy suggests practicing the golden rule of legal representation
– handle and bill the case as if it was the lawyer?s own money.
#6 Mediation or settlement
opportunity avoidance: She noted
that she has had experience with some cases where attorneys have intentionally
not disclosed these opportunities and further stated that the best lawsuit is a
settled law suit.
#5 Failure to return calls or
respond to written correspondence or emails: Lawyers should always get back to
their clients in a reasonable amount of time.
#4 Surprise your client: Cindy
suggests that lawyers should also be looking for the exit strategy throughout a
case. Define what the win is for
the client, and then try to get them to that point.
#3 No clear action plan geared
towards resolution: Start with the
end in mind and then work backwards.
#2 Overly wide evaluations and
settlement ranges: A lawyer should stick his or her neck out a little and not
waffle. As a client, she wants
more realistic evaluations, and although 50/50 is an answer, it?s not the best
answer.
#1 Style over substance: This
includes attitude as well as reporting.
Don?t use pages to say what can be communicated in a paragraph and let
clients know what their reasonable chances are. Reports should be ended with who is to do what next and
when. Attorneys should continue to
learn, adapt and innovate when it comes to their clients.
Michael thanked Cindy and then
invited Jeff to say a few words about developing relationships with his
clients. Jeff said that in the
case of Medmarc, they have been working with them for a few years and it is an
organization that demands excellence.
He said that because the long term relationship is what matters, it is
important to give clients the bottom line on cases, and give them an honest
analysis.
Michael then posed a question
to Branville, asking in a jurisdiction such as the Bahamas which is a smaller
market where relationships are obviously important, is there a different
approach taken to developing relationships? Branville responded that it was similar to many of the
comments that had been made already, but added that in the Bahamas, reputation
is extremely important, not only in the area of law, but also for honesty and
communication.
Michael thanked the panelists,
and then asked if there were any questions from the floor. Peter Altieri asked whether any of the
clients had had experience with consolidating the firms they work with. Alan responded that he had not
been through the process because his work is specialized enough that he does
not have to follow the dictates of the corporate general counsel?s office. However, he said that he had had some
difficulties with firm mergers, such as in the case of a firm he had worked
with for a number of years in San Francisco who merged with a firm that had
done some litigation work for IBM that hadn?t gone well. As a result, he was told that IBM was
ending their relationship with the merged firm. Kevin said that Medmarc had also avoided consolidation, but
wasn?t sure if this would always be the case. They currently use 200-250 outside counsel. However, he said that if they were to
enter into that process, it would put into more stark relief his earlier
points. He recommended that firms
show why they have the expertise that fits with the client. Then, show how easy the firm is to do
business with in terms of the written work product, the electronic work
product, adaptability and flexibility in customizing services, and cost
structure. Also important are the
geographic spread of offices, lack of billing quotas, and other
efficiencies. Cindy added that
it?s also important to build on pre-existing relationships, and being aware of
hot buttons can help in a beauty contest that is often uncomfortable for
everyone involved. She also feels
that consolidation can cause problems by putting all of their eggs in one
basket and making it difficult to get anything of substance.
Michael said that in his
experience, they find consolidation occurring in a lot of commodity-type work,
and the lesson that they have learned is that they need to be flexible and
listen to the client. They are
also more focused on ensuring that the work is the right business for them
before proposing on it. Alan added
that it is easier to consolidate in some disciplines, or parts of some
transactions, but in other cases, it is important to have that very local
knowledge that a mega firm may be incapable of handling. Developing a cadre of these firms and
building trust with them takes time, not just the reputation of the firm.
Lowell thanked the panelists,
and Alan Griffiths noted that the group would take a short break before
gathering for the breakout sessions.
After
a short break, the delegates reconvened in separate rooms for the morning?s
breakout sessions.
Gary P.
Kaplan chaired the Tax Group session.
A case study was presented in which US persons establish and/or are
beneficiaries of a Bahamian or other non-US trust (both foreign grantor trusts
and foreign non-grantor trusts were considered). The participants discussed the US tax implications of
establishing and operating a non-US trust as well as the treatment of
distributions to the US beneficiaries. The case study focused on the following:
Sam, a U.S. individual, has requested advice on
the U.S. taxation and reporting.
Requirements under each of the following
scenarios:
- Sam,
a noted brain surgeon, is concerned about asset protection. Sam transfers assets into a
Bahamian trust for the benefit of himself and the members of his family.
- Sam?s
aunt, Mary, is a non-citizen and non-resident of the U.S. Mary has decided to set up an
irrevocable Bahamian trust for the benefit of Sam and the members of his
family. The trustees have
discretion to make distributions of income and/or principal. The trust is expected to invest in
passive investment assets.
- Same
as (2), and the trust sets up a non-U.S. subsidiary corporation through
which its investments are made.
- Same
as (2), but the trust is revocable by Mary.
Corporate Group
– Coral Ballroom Salon A – Alex Read – AIM – An Update
on the Growth of the AIM Market in Recent Years
Memery
Crystal has advised on over 20 AIM IPOs in the last 12 months, according to
data compiled by www.commerciallawnoticeboard.com and published in a new
report. Alex Read chaired the
Corporate Group.
All Litigators and the
Medical Device & Drug Manufacturing Litigation Group –Coral Ballroom
Salon C – Jeffrey Shapiro – A discussion about topics of concern to
all Medical Device & Pharmaceutical companies
Jeffrey
Shapiro chaired the Litigation and Medical Device & Drug Manufacturing
Litigation Group session, where the participants discussed preemption, punitive
damages, and the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.
Lowell welcomed the assembled
delegates to the Saturday business session.
Alan then invited Mr. Eduardo
Benavides to give a short presentation on his firm to the assembled delegates,
noting that the other firm presentations would be given the following day.
Eduardo gave a brief overview
of Peru, which is on the Pacific coast of South America. There are 24 million people in Peru,
with one third of these in Lima, the capital. They have a democratic system with a social democratic
president and a congress. Peru
recently signed a free trade agreement with the United States, which is close
to being approved by Congress.
With regard to the firm, it
was started in 1999 as a result of a merger of two practice groups, the
corporate partners of one law firm with a tax boutique. They began with 10 lawyers and have
grown to 24, which is mid-sized for Peru.
They are a full service firm, covering all major areas of business
law. They bill an average of 90
clients a month, with some of their clients included Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas,
Reebok, Disney, Warner Brothers, and PSE&G. Their firm philosophy focused on practicing law according to
the standards of international excellence and ethics and focusing on long term
relationships with their clients.
After thanking Eduardo, Alan
introduced two guest firms, Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz LLP from Delaware
and Hale Lane from Las Vegas. He
invited Mr. Matthew Greenburg from Connolly Bove to give a short presentation.
Matt thanked the ILN and the
assembled delegates on behalf of himself, Chip Connolly, and Frank
DiGiovanni. He noted that the firm
was founded in 1944 and was traditionally an intellectual property firm. Over the
past 15-20 years, the firm has expanded the growth of the business law section
and has become a full service firm.
They focus on intellectual property, corporate and commercial
litigation, and Delaware and alternative entity law, since 60% of Fortune 500
companies and 50% of all publicly traded companies are incorporated in
Delaware. The firm has three
offices: Wilmington, Delaware, with 65 attorneys; Washington, DC, with 25
attorneys; and a new Los Angeles office with 10 attorneys. The business law group makes up one
third to 40% of the firm?s practice, and intellectual property is also an
important practice group for the firm.
The firm represents a number of national clients on a regular basis, and
Matt noted that a recent success for them was their representation of Pfizer as
the primary counsel for defending the Lipitor patent.
After thanking Matthew, Alan
invited Mr. Stephen Peek to give a short presentation to the assembled
delegates.
Stephen thanked the ILN and
the group for the invitation to the 2006 Regional Meeting of the Americas. He noted that Nevada is one of the
fastest growing states in the US, with two major cities, Las Vegas and
Reno. The firm has offices in both
cities, as well as in Carson City.
The firm focuses on real property, corporate and securities law,
healthcare law, gaming, governmental affairs and lobbying, energy and public
utilities, bankruptcy, tax and estate planning, and litigation. Nevada fosters a favorable corporate
climate, and the firm works with a number of local and national clients.
Alan began the Administration
update with an overview of the Administrations activities. He noted that he and Lindsay work full
time for the ILN and are happy to assist in the business of the Network twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week if necessary. To breakdown the activities that the Administration focuses
on, Alan stated that 20% of their time is dedicated to recruitment, 20% is goes
to meeting planning and development (although this percentage is higher for
Lindsay), 40% is dedicated to member communications in some form, and 20% goes
to specialty group activities. To
this final point, Alan added that the specialty groups add a great dimension
not only to existing members, but also as a feature when recruiting new
members. Lowell added that Alan
and Lindsay serve a great function when involved in firm referrals. He used the example of the IBM referral
to illustrate his point.
Alan showed a slide of the new
firms that have joined the Network over the past eighteen months, noting that
the focus has been in Europe over the past three years. He said that the new focus for
recruitment is the Americas.
2006 – January
to June Referral Activity and Analysis:
Alan moved on to discuss the January to June
referral activity and analysis. He
recommended that when making referrals, attorneys copy him on their emails so
that there is an additional level of contact and to ensure that communication
is delivered.
For July 2005-December 2005, the estimated value
was $1.5 million and for January 2006 – June 2006, the estimated value
was $2.6 million, a substantial increase when combined with the total number of
referrals. Alan reiterated that
the numbers of referrals are underreported, even by firms with good internal
tracking procedures. He also noted
that the referrals that are shown reflect only the new referrals made during
this period, and not any ongoing referrals. While the Administration does not currently have a way to
track ongoing referrals, they will look to determine what percentage of
referrals made turn into short or long term ongoing referrals. With regard to new referrals, the
numbers have increased 20% since the last period. Alan noted that the Administration has developed a database
which allow for greater ease in tracking the referrals, their estimated values,
and what types of matters are being referred.
When looking at the regional activity analysis,
it is clear again that interregional referrals are the highest percentage. They account for over 60% of total referrals
in Europe, more than 50% in North America, and almost 50% in Asia. This reflects the importance of
regional recruitment and participation in regional meetings. The table also identifies key areas for
recruitment needs, specifically Central and South America, and Africa.
Further analysis showed that 50% of the referrals
fall into the $5,000 - $25,000 range, 2% fall between $25,000 and $50,000, 4%
fall between $50,000 and $100,000, and 2% is in excess of $100,000. The types of matters that are referred
can often apply to more than one category, but the top referrals are made
within corporate (40%), litigation (15%), and tax (10%). Alan noted that the Administration
would like to eventually correlate these referrals with the activities of the specialty
groups to determine how best to increase these numbers.
With regard to the specialty groups, Alan noted
that the groups are in various stages of development, with ongoing goals, which
are regularly reassessed. He said
that the most important aspect of the specialty groups is the additional layer
of relationships that they create.
He touched on the activities of the Medical
Device Group, who have just finished a virtual roundtable on the topic of
Electronic Discovery and Spoliation.
Steve Rathke of Lommen Abdo in Minneapolis took the lead to develop a
series of questions, which he and seven other participants answered. The resulting document is now available
on the ILN website, and was circulated to the members of the specialty group,
as well as the marketing group. In
addition, the Administration distributed it at the Global Counsel Forum in
September, for which the ILN was a media partner.
The International Tax Group is focusing more on
the technology side. Alan showed
an example of a teleconference and web broadcast that the group participated
in. He went through the mechanics
of participation, saying that the Administration would provide a web address
that the participants go to. They
can then either log in with a user ID and password, or log in as a guest. The view they see is pre-determined by
the group, based on the topic, and the participants are provided with a
telephone number to call. The
teleconference is then combined with the web broadcast, with only a slight
delay in any video processing taking place. The whole meeting can then be recorded and saved for future
purposes on their servers. The
group used this for the first time in Geneva, when they broadcasted their
breakout session over the Internet and were joined by other tax professionals
within the ILN.
Alan said that while useful for the specialty
groups, the Administration would also be able to use the systems to allow firms
to present webinars to their clients.
The Administration is also currently working with some of the member
firms to develop a series of client and attorney webinars that would be of
interest to clients around the globe, including India and their outsourcing
capabilities, doing business in China, and investment opportunities in eastern
and central Europe. The first of
these will be held by Michael Slan?s firm, Fogler Rubinoff, in conjunction with
Ravi Singhania from India.
ILN Future Programs
& Technology:
To further discuss the topic
of technology, Alan focused again on the ILN website to make the delegates
aware of what is offered there. On
the home page, visitors can download the most updated contact list and the ILN
brochure. The news items are also
kept up to date, and along with being shown on the home page, are attributed to
their individual authors and firms.
Events are also listed on the home page, from ILN events to those events
produced by the ILN?s media partners.
Alan also reiterated the
benefits offered by publishing the International Legal News. He said that the Administration can
identify who is reading various articles and specifically highlighted an
article on China, which was read by 127 of 1,000 general counsel and senior
executives. This newsletter
continues to reside on the ILN website making it searchable and allowing
articles to be read over a long period of time. Alan again requested that firms supply the Administration
with a list of their clients to be added to the email database for this
newsletter, and noted that he could personalize it to show that their firm had
recommended it.
Alan
then invited Lindsay Griffiths to give her update on the ILN?s marketing
activities.
Lindsay began with an update on the Strategic
Differentiation project. She noted
that she had completed phases one and two, and is currently working on phase
three, which has been split into two parts. Phase 3a is dedicated to identifying the ILN?s strategic
message, which she announced is: ?The ILN – Your Partners Around the
World.? She then went on to say
that the next part of phase three will be to define how various marketing tools
will be used to get this message across and writing the marketing plan. Following phase three is phase four,
which will ensure that the ILN?s message is true within the entire
organization.
Lindsay then went on to discuss the ILN?s media
partnerships. These media
partnerships offer a number of key benefits: the ability to distribute ILN and
member firm materials at various events, have the logo and short write up in
conference brochures, websites and all advertisements, and offer discounts to
ILN members planning to attend, and for ALM Events, to their clients who are
planning to attend. In addition,
these relationships will enable the ILN to collaborate with the organizations
to provide speaking opportunities for members. The ILN does not pay a sponsorship fee in return, but
instead affords the organizations with publicity among the membership through
dedicated email blasts, periodic advertisements in the newsletter, and the
announcement of the conference in the events section of the website.
The ILN has formed partnerships with two
organizations. The first is
American Lawyer Media Events, a division of American Lawyer Media, which is a
leading integrated media company.
They publish award-winning publications such as The American Lawyer and
Corporate Counsel Magazine. ALM
Events is the conference division for ALM which produces such events as LegalTech,
the Corporate Counsel Forum, and T3 – Trial, Tactics & Technology. Marty Beirne, of Beirne, Maynard &
Parsons in Houston, was very instrumental in introducing the ILN to American
Lawyer Media Events. The first
event that the ILN partnered with them on was the Global Counsel Forum, which
took place in New York in September.
It was an opportunity to interact with more than 80 general counsel and
senior executives, and to showcase the Medical Device Group for their recent
roundtable publication. The ILN
will next be partnering with ALM Events on their CMO Forum and T3-Trial,
Tactics & Technology, both taking place in New York in December. In addition, the ILN has partnered with
the Asia Business Forum on their Legal Sys Tech conference in November. They are one of Asia?s leading
providers of high-value business information, and they are the only major
conference company with a network of operating offices in Asia researching and
producing business conferences throughout the region.
In addition to developing and implementing these
media partnerships, the Board of Directors agreed in Berlin that it would be
helpful to identify and circulate major legal association meetings where member
firms were likely to have representatives in attendance and ask member firms to
advise the ILN of which of their colleagues was planning to participate. The Administration would then assist in
making introductions to other ILN members in order to stimulate networking opportunities
and where possible, would sponsor ILN ?get togethers? for those members in
attendance. So far, we have
circulated four sets of emails. Sylvia
Linden and Paul McDowall of Hellstrom attended the AIJA meeting, and following
our email to the membership, took the initiative to seek out ILN members. As a result, they met with Alexander
Wildshutz from Fladgate Fielder. Robert
Weiss of Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn also alerted the ILN to a possible
networking opportunity at the 80th National Conference of Bankruptcy
Judges, which took place in early November, and was attended by ILN members
from Arnstein & Lehr, Ryley Carlock & Applewhite, Lewis, Rice &
Fingersh, and Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, in addition
to Honigman.
Lindsay also discussed her attendance at the ARK
Group?s Strategic Marketing Conference in Chicago in September, which not only
allowed her to learn from the conference sessions, but also enabled her to
network with a number of legal marketing professionals. The networking assists in opening up
recruitment opportunities, raising the profile of the ILN, and identifying ways
to make ILN membership more valuable, such as working with Larry Bodine, a
strategic marketing consultant, to put together a webinar series for the ILN.
Lindsay
noted that push down is a critical element to ensuring that each firm gets the
most out of their membership. One
of the most successful ways of raising awareness is through Administration
visits to the firms. Lindsay?s
slides showed that there had been an overwhelming response following the ILN?s
request to the firms to set up a push-down visit, with almost half of firms
responding. She said that she and
Alan would be conducting the visits on an ongoing basis, and had already begun
to arrange for visits at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007.
As Lindsay noted at the Annual
Meeting in Berlin, the ILN contracted with Sun Communications Group in January,
to focus on a combination of a domestic and international media relations
program and a strong speaker program for key attorneys within the ILN in
different trade organizations. So
far, the results include: Rebecca Donnini of
Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit, Michigan is writing an article
for the Journal of Financial Planning, Peter Kirpensteijn was used as a source
for Tax Business UK following Gary Kaplan?s contribution to the same
publication, both Bill Milani of Epstein Becker & Green and Paul Starkman
of Arnstein & Lehr were interviewed as sources for an upcoming employment
article in Business Week, and Lowell and Alan recently met with Tom Freeman of
Legal 500, who is the editor of their new business publication, Legal
Business.
In addition to working with Sun Communications
Group, the ILN is continuing to send out press releases. The most recent of these is a release
sent out to announce the membership of DAHL Law Firm in Copenhagen, which was
circulated to major media outlets in Germany, France and the UK through PR
Newswire.
Marketing
Specialty Group:
Lindsay finished up by speaking about the newly
formed ILN Marketing Specialty Group, which was developed from the ad hoc group
formed in November of 2004. The goals
of the group are to serve as a means of sharing knowledge and best practices
among member firms, to assist the ILN Administration in its marketing efforts,
and to serve as a resource to firms in the Network without marketing
professionals or departments. To
push forward these goals, Lindsay formed a development committee, which includes
herself, Fritz Morsches from Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn, Peter Feldman
of Beirne Maynard & Parsons, and Kathy Major of McDonald Hopkins. The development committee met via
teleconference in August to develop a series of action points to aid the larger
group of almost fifty participants in reaching its goals. Lindsay touched on a few of the actions
points identified by the group, including inviting marketing professionals to
attend ILN meetings, organizing a marketing session at every ILN meeting,
arranging for introductions between specific member firms, circulating success
stories, profiling ILN members in high growth jurisdictions and copying
marketing professionals on emails sent to main contacts.
Lowell summarized by saying that Alan had
outlined an ambitious series of themes for the next few years, with only two
employees in the Administration.
He said that the work of the Administration will have an impact on the
firms over the next few years, and he thinks that the group is in terrific
hands.
Alan then invited Michael Slan to give the
Director?s Update.
Michael noted that a large part of the Directors?
meeting was dedicated to discussing the issues that Alan and Lindsay presented
in their comments. He added that
the Board did have detailed discussions regarding recruitment in terms of
developing the grid of cities to concentrate on in North America, sensitivities
in certain geographic areas, and determining the relative importance of the
cities that the Network should be located in. Another topic for discussion was the ability and requirement
for contact people to push down the ILN, and the importance of recruiting firms
that have the right culture of commitment to the ILN. There were a couple of sensitive areas that were discussed,
and an agreement made to discuss with those firms how the Network can also help
them. He summarized by saying that
the Network is continuing to grow rapidly at very little cost.
Alan
thanked Michael for his presentation, and invited Eric Broyles to give an
update on the ILN?s involvement in the GLG Law Council. Approximately half of the assembled
delegates were familiar with the Gerson Lehrman Group, so Eric gave a short
introduction to the Law Council.
The company is an independent primary research firm that was formed
eight years ago to serve the ?buy? side of Wall Street. Traditionally, research was received
through reports, so GLG built a more systematic way to provide information,
bringing together thought leaders in eight practice areas. GLG has almost 600 clients, included
hedge funds, mutual funds, and other leading investors and corporations. Their relationship with the ILN
developed from a need for local and regional counsel to fulfill their clients?
requests. Once a lawyer agrees to
work with the Council, they can sign up individually or with their firm. GLG then sends an email when a client
has a question, and the attorney can opt in if they wish to consult. They then charge GLG an hourly rate to
speak with the client. Some firms
have been able to bring in almost $1 million in business. Carlos agreed that he enjoys his
relationship with the GLG Law Council, and was holding two checks from them in
his hands as proof.
Following
their update, Eric and Derek invited the assembled delegates to join the Law
Council.
Following a
short break, Lindsay introduced Mr. Ross Fishman. Ross is the Chief Exceleration Officer of Ross Fishman
Marketing, Inc., helping law firms and legal industry companies in branding and
advertising, strategic marketing planning, and marketing training and retreats.
Ross gave
an engaging presentation that led the audience through learning to identify a
differentiating message for themselves and their firm, to look at the messages
offered by international legal networks, finding the best methods for marketing
and networking, and how to focus individual and firm marketing. He showed that when many law firms
promote the same messages, such as being global, smart, hardworking, and
talented, there is no reason to choose one firm over another. Similarly networks all say that they are
high quality, global, locally based, and mid-sized. In order to provide a reason for an audience to choose a
firm or network over all others, there must be a solid, differentiating
message.
Ross also
made suggestions for the best methods of marketing and networking, noting that
with one differentiating message, it is easy to choose the marketing activities
that flow from this message and make the best use of the individual or firm?s
time and efforts. He used the
example of Segal McCambridge to show how a firm went from marketing a message
like every other firm – showing columns and city skylines on their
website – to being a creative firm that stands out because their lawyers
make complex cases simple enough for the average juror to understand. Ross challenged his audience to find the
category that they can be first in and to narrow their focus so that they stand
out to their audiences. He
identified several ways to narrow their focuses, such as by product lines,
market segment, target communities, style/attitude, geography, being different,
practice/specialty or industry focus.
He showed an example of Crosslin, Slaten, a full service firm that had a
bug law practice group. The firm
began to market this practice group, and over time became known as the ?bug
lawyers,? increasing their business in this market. Because they were marketing this message to a specific
audience (identified because of the narrowness of their message), there was no
concern that the other practice areas would suffer because there was no
crossover. As a result of their
marketing, in the first year they gained international visibility, had dozens
of feature stories written about them, had industry-wide awareness, the firm
grew by 50%, and their pest control revenue doubled. Ross also used a number of other examples to illustrate his
point.
Ross?
presentation inspired the group to create their differentiating message from
the things that they are really passionate about in their practice. He encouraged them to analyze their
experiences, their clients, and their hobbies to help to turn their passions
into success.
Lowell gave the closing
remarks to the assembled delegates.
He thanked everyone for coming to the Bahamas, and especially thanked Branville
and his colleagues for all of their hard work in organizing the
conference. Lowell then said he
looked forward to seeing everyone at next year?s Annual Meeting in New York,
and adjourned the meeting.
Delegates and companions were
treated to memorable evening at the Royal Deck of Atlantis. What better way to experience the
culture of the Bahamas than to showcase the excitement and energy that is
Junkanoo! For those in the group
that had never experienced the rhythm of the Junkanoo, they felt their hearts
beating with the goatskin drums and cowbells and their eyes sparkled with the
vast array of colors for which Junkanoo is famous. The sights and sounds of Junkanoo surrounded the delegates
and their companions as they entered the Royal Deck. Everyone moved to the rhythms of the calypso band on stage
as the night?s entertainment began.
For anyone who wasn?t swept off their feet by the music, the king of the
limbo certainly dazzled them with his seemingly boneless contortions combined
with fascinating dance steps. We
could feel the heat as the Queen of Fire revealed the secret, tribal magic of
the flame. Finally, it was time
for the Junkanoo, and the horns could be heard calling everyone to get out of
their seats and ?rush!? Fast paced
drums set the pace as cowbells and whistles followed. We could hear them before we could see them, but as they
emerged through the crowd in their handmade decorative costumes, they played
the Junkanoo rhythms that have long been a part of the Bahamian spirit and
everyone was dancing almost involuntarily! The excitement was contagious! It was certainly a spectacular way to wrap up the conference
and remember the Bahamas by!
