I am thankful for everyone who reads my blog and all who care enough about it to pass it on to others. As I sit in the Philadelphia Admiral's Club waiting for my delayed flight to take off in this driving rain, I write this as a sincere thank you. […]
Have you heard about “Twitterology?” It’s the latest hot new science.
Ben Zimmer is a self-described all-around word nut. He is the former On Language columnist for The New York Times Magazine, the executive producer of VisualThesaurus.com (an entirely useful tool when you're looking to add color to your prose) and vocabulary.com. In a recent New York Times Sunday Review column […]
How does the “last mile” relate to lawyers’ website biographies?
The “last mile” is a supply chain management term (and a single released by hard rock/glam band, Cinderella, in 1989, and also a play and movie from the 1930s) that refers to a product’s last mile before it gets to market and on store shelves. Apparently, it’s the hardest and most […]
The Social Media conversation we should be having – Part 1.
There is still a lot of hand-wringing about social media by law firm partners. A surprising number of firms still don’t have approved policies – they are in permanent “draft” mode, perhaps because they don’t really want to commit to anything they don’t fully understand. I have given several presentations […]
Women stunt their careers – unintentionally. (Comments on a post from HBR Blog Network)
Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath and Mary Davis Holt start their HBR Blog post like this: “Having combed through more than a thousand 360-degree performance assessments conducted in recent years, we’ve found, by a wide margin, that the primary criticism men have about their female colleagues is that the women they […]
Considering a website redesign? Make sure it’s better than it was before.
Three major companies have recently redesigned their websites – American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Amazon. I frequently use all three, so I was intimately familiar with the previous sites' user interfaces and overall usability. The Amazon experience isn't functionally much different than it was before. But the design style is updated, it uses softer […]
Generation Generosity – A new way to look at the legal profession
My company, Content Pilot, is a founding partner of a bold new initiative called Generation Generosity. The initial exploration was done by Akina, and as soon as they broached the idea with me, we were enthusiastically on board. As you can read on the “Gen-Gen” blog, www.generationgenerosity.org, here is the idea: […]
Steve Jobs tribute – “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
I can’t imagine any world leader today who will have at his or her death more news coverage or outpouring of grief by the masses in the world as Steve Jobs. The ubiquitous, yet iconic nature of Apple products has infiltrated the world of more men, women and children than anyone in […]
Martindale’s Counsel to Counsel Forum – Managing Investigations, Compliance and Audits in Today’s Tough Markets
I have facilitated Martindale Counsel to Counsel forums all over the world since 2000. These discussions are “best practice” exchanges by corporate counsel and law firm lawyers about a particular topic. Consistently, they are the best received CLE programs by buyers of legal services and senior law firm partners of […]
The Relaunch of MoFo Mojo (the MoFo website)
There has nary been a brouhaha about a law firm website as there was about the former website of Morrison & Foerster LLP. The Google analytics traffic stats were undoubtedly boosted by the lookie-lous, responding to friendly viral urges, "You just have to see this." Well, MoFo has launched its new […]
One of the next big things in law firm websites: Video done right.
Everyone who knows Adam Stock, the Director of Marketing and Business Development at California law firm Allen Matkins, understands that he is an early adopter of most things technology. He’s a capable developer, program and website designer and, in his spare time, he is Chair of the upcoming 2011 Legal Marketing […]
Law Firms on Facebook – More than a toe in the water
If I had a nickel for every time a lawyer asked me, “Should we be on Facebook?” . . . I’d be – well, you know. JD SUPRA has identified several firms that have established a great presence on Facebook, and the article notes why. For those lawyers and firms […]
Happy 20th Birthday World Wide Web!
August 6, 2011 was the twentieth birthday of the first website being launched. For the hundreds of millions of hourly web users across the world, the day came and went without so much as a piece of cake or a candle. As Mark Giangrande noted in his August 10 Law Librarians […]
Only 5 months left to meet your 2011 marketing goals
I received an email this morning from the CMO Council on its “Marketing Outlook for 2011.” While the research study made more sense to report in Q1, it’s worthwhile to use as a check-up as we edge into August 2011. The Study reports that marketing budgets are on the rise, with […]
Social media for introverts – Guest post by Paul S. Grabowski
I have worked with Paul Grabowski, Esq. at two well known Texas law firms, Andrews Kurth and Porter Hedges, where he led the marketing departments. He just wrote this post for Thom Singer’s blog (Thom Singer is also an Andrews Kurth marketing team alum), which should resonate with many of the lawyers who […]
How you can monitor social media buzz about you
Rob Kahn, Director of Business Development at Fenwick & West LLP, and Elizabeth Lampert, owner of Elizabeth Lampert PR, just wrote an article for the National Law Journal about social media. The publication date was July 4, 2011. After reading it, I searched for "social media" on the NLJ site - http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/index.jsp - and got […]
Commentary on Law360 Post, “How to Make it Rain by Marketing Individual Lawyers”
A legal marketing friend, John Eix, head of Regional Business Development – Texas for Hunton & Williams, sent me a June 24, 2011 Law360 article that I finally had a moment to read. It covers the age-old question of, “Do clients hire law firms or lawyers?” I have always insisted that they hire both, […]
What lawyers can learn from the high standards at Niman Ranch
Last night I attended a special event at Abacus, one of my favorite Dallas restaurants — a Niman Ranch dinner hosted by chef Kent Rathbun and Niman Ranch farmer, Paul Willis. If you enjoy four and five-star restaurants, you will be familiar with Niman Ranch products and its mission of: “… raising […]
Calling in-house legal marketers and business development professionals – A Survey
There is one day left to be a part of Content Pilot’s survey called, “Survey on Law Firm Proposals, RFPs and Managing Experience.” This is the second such survey, the first being conducted on a smaller scale in early 2010. Prompted again by recent conversations with C-level marketing/BD leaders and marketing directors […]
Three tiers of law firms and the Transatlantic Elite “Sweet Sixteen”
Given that we are still waiting for the results of the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, I thought it was apropos to mention TheLawyer.com’s Transatlantic Elite Sweet Sixteen that it published in Q4 2010. Read about the firms that have been elevated to this coveted position. Briefly, they are: Allen […]