Search generation

On September 4, 2007, I got off the elevator on the 47th floor of this ivory tower and set about creating a marketing and business development program for Barger & Wolen LLP as their first marketing director. It has been quite a journey. We survived a recession; changes to our clients’ industry; the advent of social media; the passing of the torch from one generation to the next; and a merger with an AmLaw 200 firm.

It’s been seven years, five months, 16 days, and in a couple hours I will leave behind my keycard and a lot of memories as I head to Century City and take the helm of the marketing operations for another firm (details on Monday).

Today is about reflecting on my experiences and what working for this firm has meant to me, and a few of the life and business lessons that I am taking with me.

When I first started out in legal marketing, the average tenure of a legal marketer was about 2.5 years, and my resume affirms that this was true for me as well.

A couple years ago, while serving on the Legal Marketing Association’s board of directors, we ran the numbers: Approximately 3/4 of LMA membership turns over every four years. With a membership of more than 3000, that’s a lot of people. Some stay in the industry, not renewing their memberships, but many more leave.

I have come to learn that it takes a certain type of personality to stay and work in-house as a senior legal marketer year in and year out. Most senior legal marketers jump out to consult at some point. More just jump out to other industries along the way.

Having been at my firm for almost 7.5 years I have a new perspective on the advantages afforded both the law firm and the legal marketer that comes with longevity in the role.

Deeper and personal relationships = honest conversations

I was speaking with a partner last week and he remarked that I spoke to him like his wife does. Smiling I replied we worked together longer than most marriages last.

My longevity at my firm has allowed me to build true and personal relationships with many of the lawyers that extend beyond nine to five and Facebook. I have the ability to walk into a partner’s office and tell him or her the truth, or ask the difficult questions, sometimes in a not too subtle way.

Deeper and personal relationships allow us to speak candidly with one another. While we might not always agree, we are honest with one another.

Culture changes take time

In Leading Change, the author suggests that it takes three to 10 years to shift culture. Without longevity in a position the legal marketer will either never affect a culture change, or will never see the fruits of their labor. For me, seeing those changes has been the most rewarding aspect of my job and tenure at the firm.

I often tell the story of a senior partner who raised his voice at me during my first few weeks at the firm. He had no interest in this “marketing mumbo-jumbo” and didn’t understand why we had to do it. Fast forward seven years and our conversation turned to how I had to “come along” in the merger because of my importance and value to him, his practice, and the firm.

I could have missed it all.

A true team allows you to get things done

In law firms the lawyer default in regards to business development always circles back to “cross-selling.” Truth be told, cross-selling rarely works. Why? Because there is no team. You cannot throw a group of people in a room and expect them to give away something they have in hopes of getting something that really isn’t guaranteed from someone they do not really know, perhaps they do not like, and who they definitely do not trust.

It’s the same with the administrative departments. We compete against one another for resources (time, money, people). But for a well-run firm, you need these departments to work collaboratively to create a functioning business, and time affords you the opportunity to develop these teams, and there is nothing like a challenge to bring everyone together.

I don’t know any firm that over the course of 7.5 years did not have a challenge or 10 to over come. Revenues down. Recession. Boom times in the wrong area. Scandals. Partner departures. Layoffs. Market crashes. Office moves. A merger. All of these provide opportunity for the administrative leaders to band together and solidify themselves as a team working on common goals.

Opportunities abound

Last year my firm supported my participation in the SmithBucklin Leadership Institute. It was a lot of time out of the office: five trips to Chicago over the course of six months. Prior to that the firm supported my leadership role on LMA’s board of directors, with four in-person board meetings per year and lots of office hours devoted to my projects.

My eye has now turned towards George Washington University’s Masters in Law Firm Management program. It’s going to be impossible to convince a group of strangers that they should welcome and support sending me away for what constitutes a couple weeks of additional paid time off to do something that may or may not provide a direct benefit to the firm.

For me to do this I will need the support of my new firm. But I have to earn the that support, and that will take time. I won’t make it there for 2016, but I’ll get there.

It’s a truly bittersweet day today. I have packed up my boxes, cleaned out my paper and digital files, tranfered my documents from the older Barger & Wolen server to the new firm’s system, and transitioned my active projects amongst the team back east.

One thing I do know is that my shoes will be filled, and that’s a good and healthy thing. They might not be filled by someone who appreciates Stuart Weitzman as much as I do, or by someone who sees things the way that I see them, but that person will bring their own personality, traits, ideas, and energy to the team here.

And that is perhaps the last things I have learned through staying in my position as long as I have:

Sometimes it’s the right time to go

Marketing is a creative position. You have to grow as a legal marketer, or you will be of no benefit to your firm or your attorneys. But sometimes you have moved the ball as far as you can and it’s going to take someone else to pick it up and take the lead. Stay too long and you become a liability.

I leave here today having done the best job that I could every day for seven years, five months, and 16 days.

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While working at a certain AmLaw 50 firm I submitted to attend the Legal Marketing Association’s annual conference. It was denied.

In speaking with the firm’s managing partner I asked her a few simple questions:

  1. So I’m as good as you need me to be?
  2. I know everything I need do know to do my job not only today, but tomorrow?
  3. You don’t need me to grow past where I am today?

There was an uncomfortable amount of silence, followed by her reply: “Have a great time at the conference.”

Since that conversation, yes, I have left that firm. There was also a tumultuous recession. Blogs were introduced, followed by social media. Firms started to focus on pricing, because clients insisted upon it. Project management is taking root. A generational shift in leadership has begun. The profession of law grew up and became a business

If I do not learn, I do not grow, and I become a liability to my firm, not an asset.

Yes. I will leave a firm at some point. But hopefully I will leave the firm in a different place, headed down a different path, because of the things I have learned at LMA and introduced to the marketing team, the attorneys, and the firm.

Yes, I admit, my attendance at the LMA conference is like a family and high school reunion wrapped in one.

It is also the place where I pick up new tools; meet new people who become colleagues I call upon in the future; am introduced to new products; and find inspiration.

All of these things allow me to do my job better. I always come back from LMA ready to try something new. I have fresh ideas and a new perspective.

Of all the conferences I can attend, I choose to be at LMA. I was on the board when we selected this location. I blocked my calendar off rights then and there. I don’t miss it. I have even had LMA written into my employment agreements. That is how important LMA and the annual conference are to me.

I am just really turning my eye to the conference agenda, but the content is exciting, touches on all the vertices of what I need to do, and is located in my college town (no, I did not go to the “party school” … I went to the “smart school” on the bluffs in La Jolla — inside joke for San Diegan college students), so I get to hang out with my college roommate and introduce her to my LMA peeps … hopefully she won’t tell too many stories.

I plan to arrive in San Diego bright and early Sunday morning. There may or may not be plans to hit my favorite Mexican restaurant/bar in La Jolla, so make sure we connect on Twitter @heather_morse before heading down.

I don’t know what it is with my brain, legal marketing, and pop culture, but while watching the Grammys last night I couldn’t help but find lessons and similarities between the Grammys, lawyers and legal marketing.

What I saw last night was a living, breathing lesson on how to successfully (and not so successfully) evolve an older brand — in this case Madonna, Paul McCartney, and Annie Lennox.

Let’s do it.

#GrammyDon’t

Oh, Madonna. I love you. I prounced around my living room in the ’80s singing along as I shreaded my clothes and wore too many belts at once. But I grew up, and it’s time you did as well. But last night. Wow. Your original fan-base was just embarassed by your get-up, and your attempts to dance like you were still 24. Time to grow up … we sure have.

#LMAMKT Lesson: I am watching the AmLaw 100-200 start to shift their leadership from the older boomers (and the generation before them), to a younger one. These 50, 75, 100+ year-old brands need to carefully evolve themselves. You need to follow your client base’s lead. Some brands alienate their current client base to appease a new and hipper “it” crowd (Brobeck); while others have gracefully evolved without stunts (Skadden) finding relevenace with each new generation.

#GrammyDon’t

When you are known as one of the greatest musicians of all time — a f***ing Beatle, for God’s sake — you don’t play back up guitar and singer to anyone. You don’t align yourself with the flavor of the day to try and find relevance.  It falls flat and the new crowd wonders who the hell you are.

#LMAMKT Lesson: You are your brand. Don’t dilute it or water it down. Why are you lowering your rates? Why are you taking on lesser-valued work? Why are you entering markets where you have no reason or business case to be there? Why are you opening offices in cool, hip areas when your brand is boring and white shoed?

Don’t become the Michael Kors of legal. Don’t become your grandpa trying to be something he isn’t. And just because it worked for Skadden, doesn’t mean it will work for you. Skadden is being true to THEIR brand, and that’s why their evolution works.

#GrammyDo

Oh, Annie. Not only did you smack Ryan Seacrest down with your shade on 50 Shades of Grey, you were the epitome of style and grace on the Red Carpet, and your duet with Hozier was perfection. It was your night to shine last night and you did so by remaining 100% true to who you are and your brand: An accomplished and intellegent woman, and musician.

Last night you not only introduced yourself to a younger generation — who are now excited to learn more about you, your music, and your brand — you did so without alienating your original fan base. You made this GenExer proud.

So what’s the final takeaway?

You cannot slap a cool logo on an old brand and expect a younger generation to fawn over it. The authenticity needs to be there. Annie succeeded where Madonna and Sir Paul failed as she held true to who she was at all times. Her evolution was not awkward or forced, but a progression that made sense and was welcomed by all.

Mark this day down on your calendars, kids. We will one day look back on November 18, 2014, as the first day in the long anticipated end to the dreaded billable hour.

From today’s American Lawyer:

Law firms have been calling for the end of the billable hour for decades. And since the 2008 recession, they have increasingly offered cost-conscious clients alternative fee arrangements.

Now Jackson Lewis says it wants to take the next step in the evolutionary process of alternative fee arrangements by eliminating the billable hour as an evaluative tool for its 293 associates. As of Jan. 1, associates at the labor and employment firm will be assessed on efficiency, client service, responsiveness, team-orientation and pro-bono commitment in an effort to align the way Jackson Lewis “deliver[s] legal services with clients’ needs,” according to firm chair Vincent Cino. (The firm’s compensation model for partners is based on revenue rather than hours.)

“The billable hour is directly opposed to the best interest of the client and to the provider of service because by its very nature it adds an artificial barrier to the accomplishment of the only real objective, which is a quality legal product for a set and expected price,” Cino says.

Whether you agree or not that the “billable hour is directly opposed to the best interest of the client” you have had to wonder, at some point in your career, “Well, how did we get here?”

Continue Reading You had me at “the billable hour is directly opposed to the best interest of the client …”

As a “culinary Jew” (my family shows up for the food), I was out of the office yesterday so I could join my extended family for lunch. They came from synagogue. We came from the Westside. This side of my family are my mom’s paternal relatives. These are my second cousins. Growing up we got together twice a year as a clan: Rosh Hashanah and Chanukkah, along with funerals, and selected bar mitvah’s and weddings (depending on how close our parents were as first cousins). Growing up, it seemed to me that there were a hundred or more of us at these family parties. What I remember most is the warmth and comfort I found there, and, of course, the food. My grandmother’s kugle, Aunt Sophie’s mendel bread (which I do have the recipe somewhere in my files). There was security in those family traditions. As I sat around a table with some of my second cousins yesterday, we lamented the passing of one of our parents’ cousins, and how a couple others did not come due to personal excuses (not reasons, excuses, yeah, we gossiped). I couldn’t help but think about how special those years were when my grandparents generation was still alive, especially in light of how my mother’s generation is aging and passing away. As we were leaving, my cousin thanked me for taking off work to be with them. Of course. I don’t know how long this magic will last, and I want to capture as much of it as I can. So where am I going here? Last week, sitting in the conference room going over the new benefits and paperwork, we began by introducing ourselves and how long we have been with the firm. With my seven years as marketing director, I was one of the newbies. And this is across all departments, from the attorneys, to the office service representatives. I have worked in enough law firms and corporations to know that, especially in today’s business climate, this is very unique. This is a part of our culture. It is a culture that began with Mr. Barger, and continues today. Simply because our signage, business cards, and log-ins will change next Wednesday, it doesn’t mean we won’t be bringing aspects of our culture with us, because this is a part of who we, as a firm, are. Like any marriage, or a move, now is a great time to let go of some things that didn’t work, embrace new ideas and ways of doing things, and learn to blend together things from each firm that are great. This goes for both firms, as well as individual departments, and people. So what’s on tap today:

  • Firm history written and sent to a couple partners for input and feedback.
  • Redirect of website ready to happen.
  • Shipping a little something-something out to the offices for Wednesday morning.
  • Getting the blogs ready for the transition (logo, adding Hinshaw to the authors, etc).
  • Finishing off a couple practice group descriptions for the new website.
  • Pulled all the current bios off the website and archived them because, yes, someone will ask next Wednesday, “Can I see my old bio?”
  • Yes. I am still herding bios, but making progress.

Tip: Where there is magic, don’t let that go. Identify it. Embrace it. Share it.

Guest post from Hank Stout, Founding Partner, Sutiff & Stout, PLLC

In 2008, I co-founded a personal injury firm with my partner Graham Sutliff. When we started our insight into the world of internet marketing and SEO was limited to knowing we needed a website that was, preferably, on the first page of Google.   Since then we have learned a lot regarding search engine optimization (or “SEO”) and the companies that market such services to law firms. Our firm has hired and fired 5 different SEO companies and interviewed at least 25 others.

This article provides some of the things we look for in evaluating our SEO companies as well as some red flags we have found when dealing with SEO companies. My hope is that other law firms or lawyers can avoid wasting time and thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars on ineffective web marketing companies.

To put it simply, most SEO or internet marketing companies are completely full of “it.” While it is obvious that the emails promising to put you on the first page of Google are not legitimate, it is sometimes difficult to determine if a person or company can really add value to your internet marketing. Here are five signs that you need to consider when selecting an SEO company or when evaluating your current SEO company:

1. Their reporting focuses on “vanity” metrics.

Examples of vanity metrics include rankings for unimportant keywords, information about irrelevant referral traffic, and bare bones social media statistics. By way of example, I don’t care if my firm’s website ranks well for keywords like “Denny Crane” (due to a just-for-fun blog post about the greatest TV lawyers of all time) or some other term that has no relationship to the services I provide. What matters to me is how our firm is ranking for the keywords that drive business, like “Houston Personal Injury Lawyer.” Likewise, while I appreciate that long tail key words (“Houston best personal injury lawyer tx”) may drive some traffic, if this is the only key words you are ranking for then you will likely never be found.

Beware of getting lost in irrelevant numbers and data. There is a tremendous amount of data that is available that doesn’t have any real relationship to lead generation for a law firm. An example from our firm is referral traffic from a scholarship contest announcement that was distributed widely among high schools and colleges. While we are happy to help students who want to further their education, this traffic is fairly meaningless when it comes to lead generation. Also, statistics about the amount of retweets a tweet with a link to a blog post garners means little if the post itself wasn’t linked to by an influencer somewhere else online.

The three things we look at are ranking, traffic and conversions (these are listed in least meaningful to most meaningful). Meaningful performance metrics are those indicating conversion rates. When users come to our firm’s site, do they submit their information through our contact form? Do they spend more than a few seconds on the site, or come back for multiple visits in a 30-day period? When we sign a new client, did he or she find us online through search results? These are the kind of statistics that show whether your website – and your SEO – are really working for you.

2. They can’t explain what work has been completed over a given period or why.

Your SEO should be able to tell you what work has been completed in a given time frame and why that work was done. Did your SEO build out 25 new landing pages in one month? Ask them why they did this. They should have a concrete answer about why these pages were necessary and how they will help your firm achieve its goals.

A lot of SEO firms have a cookie cutter approach to the process and that may or may not work for you depending on the competitive nature of the market you are in. When we are looking to only rank for a specific term in a specific area of law, we have had some success with firms who take a cookie cutter approach. However, as the competition increases so too does the need to go away from the cookie cutter approach.

3. They have no clout within their own industry.

Be wary of any SEO that doesn’t have any influence in its own industry. Follow your SEO on Twitter, and connect with account managers on LinkedIn. Your account manager should be blogging regularly about SEO and speaking at conferences whenever possible. Examples of major SEO conferences include MozCon, SMX Advanced, PubCon, and the Inbound Marketing Summit.

Another way to look for clout that matters is to determine what key words are most competitive in your market and then Google such terms in other Geographically competitive markets (i.e. LA, New York, Chicago, Houston etc.). Then look at the bottom of the websites for those firms ranking well. Oftentimes, the name of their SEO company will be at the bottom of the page. While this is approach obviously has some downsides, it is nevertheless a good place to start.

4. The content they publish on your site is not written by an attorney.

If possible, the content on your law firm’s website should be written by an attorney whether that is someone in your office or someone you know who is an attorney. If you hire an attorney to help you with content, don’t be afraid to ask for references, and be sure to evaluate the quality of the content. In the end, high quality content is what really matters when it comes to search rankings.

5. They guarantee “page one” rankings.

If your SEO makes any guarantees about “page one” rankings, RUN AWAY! In SEO, there are no guarantees. Google and other search engines make frequent changes to their algorithms, which are proprietary and not known to the public (including SEOs). Quality SEOs do not guarantee that your firm will wind up at the top of page one of Google search results. However, they should be able to demonstrate past successes and explain to you in plain language how they can help your firm improve its visibility online.

I hope this information helps, and if you have any questions or would like to discuss, please feel free to email or call me.

I know my blog posts have slowed down as of late. On behalf of LMA, I’m in in the heart of a leadership training program, The SmithBucklin Leadership Institute, which is taking a lot of my blogging time (and it is well worth it).

I just returned from session four and very quickly want to share one of those “ah-ha” moments before I dig back into my work here at the firm:

Brainwriting v. brainstorming.

We all know what brainstorming is. Great fun. Lots of people shouting. A white board or giant pad of paper and different colored Sharpies to capture ideas and concepts.

As an extrovert I process externally. I think out loud and then sit back and reflect to find my answers. I LOVE to brainstorm.

Introverts are the exact opposite and brainstorming is very overwhelming for them. They need to collect their thoughts before they can process them, and they do that internally.

So here’s the tip: Next time you are in a meeting, rather than brainstorm an idea, have everyone write down their thoughts for 10-15 minutes. This will give the introverts time to process the information and form their ideas, and keep the extroverts from controlling the dialogue, which is the point to brainstorming: Get all the ideas into the pot so that the group can benefit from the richness of the diversity of thoughts.

Just make sure that when the writing time is over you call on the extroverts first. You’ll know who they are; they are the ones about to burst.

I was having a perfectly pleasant Friday afternoon until a member of the LME posted about the Texas Center for Legal Ethics’ Opinion 642:

CONCLUSION

Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, a Texas law firm may not use “officer” or “principal” in the job titles for non-lawyer employees of the firm.

The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct also prohibit a Texas law firm from paying or agreeing to pay specified bonuses to non-lawyer employees contingent upon the firm’s achieving a specified level of revenue or profit.  A Texas law firm may, however, consider its revenue, expenses, and profit in determining whether to pay bonuses to non-lawyer employees and the amount of such bonuses.

What is the problem that the Texas Center for Legal Ethics is attempting to correct?

While most likely a plaintiff’s firm or SEO marketing company pissed somebody off, the following questions posed could apply to any corporate law firm:

QUESTIONS PRESENTED

1.  May a Texas law firm include the terms “officer” or “principal” in the job titles of the firm’s non-lawyer employees?

2.  May a Texas law firm pay or agree to pay specified bonuses to non-lawyer employees contingent upon the firm’s achieving a specified amount of revenue or profit?

In other words, let’s just prevent a law firm from, gasp, attempting to act like a business.

Continue Reading Dammit. We’re a BUSINESS, Texas Center for Legal Ethics, not just a profession

Don’t camouflage your Twitter address if you want attribution

We had an interesting conversation at the LMA Annual Conference about attribution while live-Tweeting at a conference. Nancy Myrland very nicely captures the discussion in her post, Who Said That? How to Live Tweet a Conference.

To aid attendees at our session on Generational Marketing: Strategies and tactics for engagement with Boomers, Gen Xers and Millenials, Jonathan Fitzgarrald and I deliberately included our Twitter addresses not only on the opening slide, but in the footers. (Click here for the slides)

If we wanted the attribution, we didn’t want to make you work for it.  And it worked. The Twitter thread was incredible, lots of attribution to us both. Lots of feedback. And many new followers.

I just realized today, however, that for those reading this blog and wanting to share it on Twitter, it’s not as easy to find my Twitter address for attribution.

It hit me because I was reading a post from Lloyd Pearson while on my commute this morning, Chambers USA 2014-15: Get Organized via my reader. The post was easy for me to share from my iPhone, but his Twitter address didn’t auto fill. I was about to hit the tunnel, so I sent it off without attribution. Not really like me.

I have become so accustomed when using Bitly or Tweetdeck for the app to auto fill the name, but it doesn’t do so always, making it difficult to attribute on the fly unless you already know the person’s Twitter address, or are really determined.

To make things easier, I just updated my blog image that you see on the desktop to hyperlink to my Twitter profile, and added my address in the caption, and I urge you to do the same.

And when you do the update, check your mobile app version. My image doesn’t show up, so I have updated the subtitle of my blog to include it as well.

Not as pretty, but this is about engagement, conversation, and attribution.

 

It’s Monday afternoon and I have finally cleared my e-mail, spoke to a partner, posted a session recap/guest blog post (with three more in the que), and realize I have not personally provided any major content about the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual conference last week, except for my Twitter feed. Looks like I’m skipping the gym today.

First of all, the LMA annual conference is exactly what Tim Corcoran, our president, described in his opening remarks: part educational & networking conference, part family reunion, part high school reunion. And we all know who the crazy uncle is. There are so many layers to the LMA annual conference, that when I look at the conference from each individual pair of eyes, I find that it only tells one side of the story. Family reunion: It was wonderful to see so many of my former colleagues from across my career in legal marketing. Kevin McMurdo from Perkins Coie, Ellen Musante and Corey Garver from my Pillsbury days. Not to mention all the current and former committee and task force members I have worked with throughout the years at both the local and international levels. High School reunion: Some of my closest and dearest friends I have met through LMA. While we are in constant contact via Facebook, getting to see one another live is beyond measure. We have actually started to form an “after prom” event so we can focus on our business and networking while at the conference, knowing we’ll have our personal social time once the conference ends. Scenes from an LMA Conference Education & networking: Really, there is no better place in the industry for marketing professionals to gather. We are a strange breed, and only in LMA are “competitors” so open and willing to share, help one another as we traverse this road, mentor one another, and on board new legal marketers.

One of my favorite slides, ever, from Matt Homann
One of my favorite slides, ever, from Matt Homann

This year I found the two most powerful sessions, for me, to be the first and the last I attended. Continue Reading Personally yours, from the Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference