See the Lawyer, Be the Lawyer
September 28, 2007 | Filed Under Law Firm Trends, Selling the GC
The New York Times today takes a peek at the nascent field of law firm videos.
Most are targeted at associate recruitment, such as these from Choate, Hall and Stewart. The YouTube-type format is rather arresting, although the two partners to the left of the videos seem a bit uncomfortable as they float in red space.
More intriguing is the experiment of the Quinn Emanuel, which wanted to go further:
The firm started a Web site, which, among other things, was to feature “A Day in the Life of an Associate.”
The video told the story of Ivey, a young brunette, who is first seen as she develops photos in her darkroom and plays Ultimate Frisbee. Ivey (really an actress) says she has a B.A. from Yale and a J.D. from Stanford, and is seen wearing a form-fitting jersey shirt, blue jeans and chunky necklaces as she consults with the partners.
But when the Web site went live last week, the video did not appear.
The “Work at Quinn Emanuel” page of their web site says the video is “coming soon.” Maybe the original will find its way to the web.
I’d love to have heard the marketing pitch that resulted in a reality-type video for a law firm being shot using an actress.
I think video is going to be much more common on law firm web sites in the future. But if the process is directed solely by marketers, law firms will miss some of the real impact that this personalization of their practice could make.
Gibson Dunn has taken a different and more direct approach with six videos directed at diversity. I find more it much more effective.
What would be real news is when a law firm shoots and places on their web site a video that shows what “A Day in the Life of an Associate” is really like.
The Client Survey Says…
September 26, 2007 | Filed Under The Client Speaks, Selling the GC
The customer may not always be right. But she is still the customer.
This is clear from the recent Chief Legal Officer Survey from Altman Weil and Lexis Nexis. Your humble correspondent was recently interviewed about this survey in the latest issue of Legal Industry Insight, published by Lumen Legal. A reprint of the interview is available here.
The stark reality of the survey for me is on page 7, in the response to the question “What steps have outside counsel taken to improve the working relationship with your Law Department?” A full 40% said “None.”
My take on that in the interview:
“Firms and relationship partners need to have an ongoing dialogue with CLOs and key managing counsel. This provides a foundation for being proactive about finding solutions,” says John Wallbillich, founder and CEO of Lexvista Partners, a legal advisory firm. “Once you improve your communications with clients, bringing forward ideas to improve services or offering topical training to in-house counsel will distinguish a firm from the 40 percent who are doing nothing right away.
“I think there a lot of CLOs who would fall off their chairs if a law firm came to them with unsolicited cost-savings or best practice ideas.”
The point here is not the exact percentage. It is the perception that exists, in almost half of the CLOs surveyed, that law firms are essentially taking the client for granted.
Lumen Legal CEO David Galbenski is clearly one who gets this, and has been a first mover in providing options for firms to take a closer look at how they deliver services and consider unbundling some strategically:
“Law firms that do that get more business because they build trust with their client. They show that their firm is doing what is in the best interest of the corporation they represent. It will ultimately get them more work and lead to greater profitability, even though they initially ‘gave away’ some margin by bringing in contract help.”
In a time of record profits for many firms, it’s understandable to be wary of doing anything to stop the music. Sooner or later, I expect, many clients will start to change their tune.
Update (28 Sept 07): New Conde Nast magazine Portfolio also takes a kick at the can of outside counsel.
Google Docs Roils Legal Tech - II
September 21, 2007 | Filed Under Law 2.0, Technology
After thinking about why Google Docs may matter for the law, a few thoughts.
One key is to foster working together with a simple interface (compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint) at a near-zero price point. That doesn’t mean other application providers are SOL, it just means that the expectations of users have gone up. Many people have Gmail as their personal webmail app, and may start to wonder why this makes it easier to move things forward than some high-priced custom software that requires extensive training and expensive support.
It also makes more people comfortable with software-as-service, which is popularized by salesforce.com.
Getting back to the law, note what is happening here. When you make working together easier, you don’t just do things better. You also do fewer things faster and therefore much cheaper. Much of the business model of the legal industry is based upon doing too many things slower.
This is really all about collaboration, and I’ll give mention to a prime mover (along with a legal example) to subscribers of the monthly newsletter, Wired GC -Select next week.
But in the meantime, the regal legal ship of state sails on with confidence…
Google Docs Roils Legal Tech - I
September 18, 2007 | Filed Under Law 2.0, Technology
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a short video is probably worth a few more:
Here’s the link if you’re reading this off a feed.
So this use of Google Docs involves documents, but it may not even be the best part. Note the video mentioned that you can share presentations (i.e., PowerPoint). Here’s a view of one that someone already figured out how to embed in a web page, with chat enabled.
Think about this for a moment or two, and the legal applications that it “presents.” I have a few ideas already, and I’ll roll out at least one of them Thursday.
Microsoft is probably still reeling from yesterday’s EU antitrust ruling. Google putting a few major chunks of Office in the cloud may be more important in the long run.
I love the low-tech way this idea is presented (designed by commoncraft). It’s about time there’s more substance and less glitzy form to how ideas are expressed on the Internet.
Barbarians Behind the Publisher’s Gate?
September 11, 2007 | Filed Under Law 2.0, Technology
Publishers targeting professional markets have long relied upon high-ticket subscriptions to hard-copy publications to produce good returns for their investors. The times have been a-changin’ and may now be doing so even faster.
The New York Times has a story about Reed Elsevier (they of Lexis/Nexis), and its plans to place various premium medical journals behind the gatewall of a “free” website called OncologySTAT.com. If it sounds like a play for online ads, it is:
Elsevier hopes to sign up 150,000 professional users within the next 12 months and to attract advertising and sponsorships, especially from pharmaceutical companies with cancer drugs to sell. The publisher also hopes to cash in on the site’s list of registered professionals, which it can sell to advertisers.
The good doctors would be well advised to read the site’s privacy policy.
The story goes on to confirm the plight of many publishers:
Although Elsevier’s medical and scientific journal business is profitable, revenue is flat and online readership is growing faster than print subscriptions.
If successful, Reed Elsevier reportedly plans to roll this model out to other medical medical specialties. Can a legal application be far behind?
With no offense intended to the ad at the right (it’s now a bit more svelte, by the way), I think the attempt to monetize eyeballs with online ads is a difficult thing to do well (or profitably). Some experts talk in terms of “banner blindness” and others are even figuring out ways to block ads entirely.
Delivering information digitally is not only seductive as a business model, it’s also demonstrably cheaper for the publisher (no costs of printing and mailing, for starters). Many users like it as well, unless they prefer installing new bookshelves to handle the paper-bound influx. Digital also facilitates better search.
Ideas like OncologySTAT.com may be trying to buck the long-term trend that most information will be free, and only insight and interpretation will gain a premium. If you have the leading website in a market or on an issue, maybe the ad thing works. But only for a while, since new sites sprout up all the time.
The recent sales of professional publishing assets (like ALM to Incisive Media) show that some think it is time to take money off the table. It will be interesting to see who got the better part of these deals.
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