Selling the GC - Lesson #1

June 3, 2005 | Filed Under Selling the GC 

One topic to launch on this occasional Friday is legal marketing. Selling part of this process. I’d intended to start with what I like–but then a certain email came my way.

Crafted to not clearly run afoul of CAN-SPAM, the message set off an alarm when I noticed it was addressed to “undisclosed-recipients”. Calling a potential client that hardly starts to warm a cold market. (It’s also a sign the mailing list wasn’t opt-in). That’s strike one.

Nevertheless, I read on. Apparently a software vendor and a major law firm (Am Law 100) were inviting recipients to a web seminar on e-discovery. The email went on to say:

This session provides an overview of recent case law and the business requirements for an effective internal and enterprise-class computer investigation capability. It also covers how an organization can leverage its current network infrastructure and enterprise-class technology to meet these critical business objectives.

Hmmm, does receiving spam help me to leverage network infrastructure? No. Strike two.

As my finger paused over the “delete” key, the boilerplate at the bottom came into view:

Note: The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and thus protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. Thank you.

May be privileged? “If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient….” But the recipients are undisclosed! Either way we have strike three, yer out.

Ernie the Attorney has already knocked it out of the park on the issue of legal boilerplate; it is often a sign of over-lawyering. A firm that features it in a marketing communication should probably reassess its strategy before hitting “send” again.

So here’s Selling the GC - Lesson #1:

First impressions count; intrusive and legally incongruous ones don’t.

Update: Less than 15 minutes after posting this, a remote check of office email shows another law firm spam message coming over the transom. When I hit delete, the always-obnoxious Outlook “Request Read Receipt ” box pops up. Bad firm, no cookie. Read Lesson #1, above.

Out of the Box, Into the Bag

January 11, 2005 | Filed Under Selling the GC, General 

One of my goals for this space is to recognize law firms that are moving beyond traditional ways of thinking about the law and the delivery of legal services.

One firm that has caught my eye recently is Reed Smith. This happened over a period of time as I made three observations.

First, I saw a mention of the firm at item #6 in the excellent Change or Die article by Laura Owen of Cisco. I’ll have a bit more to say about her ideas later, but Reed Smith is mentioned for creating an online privacy law database that medical provider clients can access for a fixed yearly price. I like to see law firms venturing beyond the “one client, one hour” approach.

Second, Adam Smith, Esq. profiles the formation of Reed Smith University, a collaboration of the firm and Wharton Business School. The course offerings appear targeted at important law firm strategic and management issues. Beyond that, a firm that encourages their attorneys to spend time away from the office discussing where the practice of law is headed is progress in my book.

Finally, one of the first legal weblogs I stumbled upon many months ago was Denise Howell’s Bag and Baggage. Always interesting and clearly written, she has recently expanded her offerings by producing her first podcast. (Full disclosure: she was kind enough to acknowledge my response after listening.) Although it is clearly a personal weblog, Denise practices with–you guessed it–Reed Smith.

Bottom line for me: Reed Smith appears aware that the market for legal services is changing, and that its lawyers must change as well. That’s not something I see every day, so I thought I’d write about it.

Over-the-Top Marketing

December 24, 2004 | Filed Under Selling the GC 

Law.com reports that the Florida Mediation Group is using a bikini swimsuit calendar as a marketing tool.

I am very offended, on three levels:

1. The blatant sexism of something targeted at the legal community.

2. The middle-school-project look of FMG’s home page. I can’t get the image of the severed-hand animated gif holding cash out of my mind.

3. The lack of a link on FMG’s web site for a free tour of the calendar.

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