I rarely miss a general counsel panel at any conference, but I did miss it last week at the Legal Marketing Association‘s annual conference.
Not to worry, the LMA Tweeters were tweeting away, and Lindsay Griffiths put together an incredible two-part recap.
Change or Die? A General Counsel Program
Sounds like an incredible program, and, while sorry I wasn’t in the audience, Lindsay did such a great job in her recaps that I don’t feel as if I missed out on anything.
There were ominous warnings:
There will be new business models that come into place. We’ll build them if you won’t. We don’t need YOU to survive. We need the [legal] industry to survive.” – Jeff Carr of FMC Technologies
Key insights:
… her (Janet Dhillon of JC Penney) job is about balancing her clients’ business objectives with their legal requirements.”
Great stories:
Janet illustrated this idea of staying focused on client intelligence with a story – the day after the Christmas holiday one year, a news story broke about her company, involving a plant in a foreign country. One of their firms emailed them to let them know that they had a partner vacationing in that very country, who was on the ground to assist them if needed. Although they didn’t require his assistance, it was invaluable that the firm had taken the time to stay updated on the issues affecting the company, reach out to them to offer their assistance, and did so even during the holiday season. That has stayed with her.”
Warnings:
The traditional law firm model is dying. Get over it and understand what the new world is going to be. There will be new business models that come into place. We’ll build them if you won’t. We don’t need YOU to survive. We need the industry to survive.”
And truths:
Quality is not a differentiator; get over it. Quality is the price of admission.”
Go back and read both posts. They’re worth the price of admission.