The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Wednesday morning round-up of stories in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer. All of the links below will take you directly to today’s stories, or you can head straight over to The Legal’s homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

Today’s top story is Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Sandra Mazer Moss rejecting Pennsylvania as a forum for a Texas plaintiff’s asbestos case. As reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel writes, the plaintiffs argued that Pennsylvania was an appropriate forum because the defendants they are suing “willingly marketed” asbestos-related products in Pennsylvania, among other reasons. But Moss wrote that all of the alleged exposure to asbestos occurred in Texas, making the Lone Star state a better forum.

Also above the fold on Page 1, Amaris Elliott-Engel writes that Senior Judge Benjamin Lerner said in a report issued yesterday that the pay given to private defense lawyers for defendants facing death row is “grossly inadequate.” He also said that low pay has led to a shortage of lawyers willing to take the cases.

Below the fold on Page 1, reporter Zack Needles writes that a Delaware County trial judge has ruled that a school’s ban on employees with certain prior criminal convictions does not apply to current employees. Two Penn-Delco School District employees were fired following a recent amendment to the state’s Public School Code over prior convictions disclosed at the time they were hired.

In more Regional News on Page 3, reporter Gina Passarella writes that real estate finance is on the rise again, after the practice area plummeted during the recession.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section, including the U.S. Supreme Court revisiting the divisive issue of affirmative action in higher education as part of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

As it is Wednesday, this week’s GC Mid-Atlantic column is on Page 5, as Catherine Dunn of Legal affiliate Corporate Counsel writes that pro bono work is being inhabited more and more by in-house legal departments in recent years. Esther Lardent, president and CEO of the Pro Bono Institute, said, “It’s like a quiet revolution.”

In a Legal Marketing column on Page 7, Stacy West Clark writes a blueprint for achieving results with your firm’s marketing committee. Her tips include making an agenda for meetings and establishing authority within the committee.

If you have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole, we invite you to e-mail any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal.

 

A Law Firm Brochure is Never Enough for Lawyer Marketing

I often advise lawyers to document the frequently asked practice-area focused questions they receive in order to draft meaningful articles or blog posts for their public relations efforts. It is always best to write about what you already know. One of the questions I get most often is, “What do you think we should do to market our business?” That question is then almost always followed by, “we think we need a brochure,” or “we want to redo our website” without any further thought to the big picture of legal marketing.

My typical answer is that attorneys and law firms need an integrated communications plan because no single discipline or tactic can stand alone and be truly meaningful. For example, today’s online viral videos are disseminated via social media, hyped up with publicity, added to advertising campaigns with QR codes, strategically branded and thus often shared worldwide. Just creating a brochure is no different than going to trial without having conducted discovery, researched and written trial briefs, and prepared a trial plan.

In the big scheme, integrated law firm communications is the overall umbrella under which many forms of communications fall. The various disciplines under the umbrella include advertising, branding, social media engagement (which I believe is a discipline in and of itself and not just a vehicle for disseminating messages), traditional marketing, public relations and media relations. It is within those disciplines that various tactics like branding, advertising, media relations, brochures, websites, article placements and CLE presentations fall.

It is important to take an integrated planning approach to all law firm marketing in order to identify the key messages that are your firm’s alone. Those messages then need to be conveyed in ways that your target audiences cannot ignore. It is about defining a message, reaching your audience, knowing who to tell and how, and then persuading them at every touch point to “buy” your services. This is what builds a firm’s brand, shapes public opinion, changes attitudes and beliefs and helps build retention and acquisition of a law firm’s book of business. Then, don’t forget that all attorneys and staff must do their part to deliver exceptional services.

When developing an integrated communications plan, it is also important to demonstrate the value these programs deliver by defining measurable objectives. Understanding business or performance goals while preparing the plan is the first step to supporting objectives and demonstrating program success and accountability.

Here are some questions your firm should be asking internally when preparing a law firm marketing plan:

• Who are we and what makes us different?
• What are our core communication objectives?
• Who are our target audiences?
• Do we have all of the foundational elements in place (such as a business plan or a compelling website) and if not, what is missing?
• What is our overall marketing budget?

Then, and only then:

What tactics should we use in an integrated fashion to generate leads, cross-sell our services and increase new business?

Your answers may surprise you.

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney, public relations and marketing expert, Rubel is the author of “Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers.” Gina and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, web and graphic design, strategic planning and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a contributor to National Law Review, The Legal Intelligencer Blog and The Huffington Post. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel . For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com .

Successful Rainmakers Stay the Course

By Kimberly Alford Rice
Special to the Legal

Taking proactive, consistent steps to build and strengthen professional relationships is imperative to developing a solid practice. In fact, research teaches us that in order to even appear on prospects' mental radar, one must make contact with them at least seven to 10 times in a calendar year. Yet when some lawyers sense they are not yielding the results they expect, they often become frustrated and simply give up. To that I say, stay the course.

One of the main character differences between lawyers who give up on their client development activities and successful rainmakers is that the latter are committing to staying the course despite lackluster short-term gains. We all "know" that there is no substitute for thoughtful efforts targeted to getting in front of qualified prospects on a regular and consistent basis. Despite that simple truth, lawyers (especially those who do not have and/or execute an integrated marketing plan) frequently employ a gunshot approach that renders few or no meaningful results.

Though I am not the greatest sports fan, I do know that in baseball if a batter hits 30 home runs in a full season of 600 at bats, he will most likely be named an All Star and receive a hefty salary increase. An important point to remember, then, is that in addition to implementing a focused approach to building professional relationships that are likely to result in increased client retentions, you must be prepared to strike out on occasion. Do not be dissuaded.

Successful rainmakers understand this concept thoroughly and embrace it. They build relationships constantly with clients, referral sources and prospects by being helpful to others and by making connections. They recognize that to build a relationship is to stay in the top of potential clients' minds when business and legal issues arise. 

They also know that generating work means taking calculated risks and that only 20 percent of their activity will ultimately yield direct results. They also know that while it is critical to be strategic about where to invest their time and energy, it is impossible to know in advance which of the 80 percent of their activity will be wasted.

In many ways, direct rejection is easiest to accept. "Our company has decided to hire firm Y because they have more experience handling securities fraud" does not leave much room for ambiguity. You will not be retained. It's clear when you receive this feedback that it is time to move on. However, you can leave the door open for other types of work. Perhaps the client will retain your services when they have matters in which you do have extensive experience.

Another matter altogether, though, is the unanswered phone call or e-mail. This is much more challenging and presents some of the greatest obstacles for lawyers working diligently to build a practice.

As we all struggle to effectively manage our communications, everyone has a preference in how they want to communicate. In light of that and the sheer volume they receive, some folks simply do not respond to or even acknowledge all of their messages. 

It is frustrating when someone does not respond to a message that we have sent via e-mail, left on voice mail or with a secretary; it feels like rejection. When two or three messages go unanswered, most will give up. To save our bruised egos any further indignity, we simply stop trying. However, to do so, we leave opportunity on the table.

Here is the good news: Silence is not a "no;" it can merely be the temporary absence of "yes."

Until a prospect tells you directly that she or he is not interested, you have no idea why they are not responding; and if the individual is someone with whom you really want to do business, you should keep trying.

Using a "multimedia" approach can also be helpful: send an e-mail first, then call and leave voicemail, followed by checking with a secretary, and then possibly even sending a letter -- mix up your approach.  Be sure the contact is on your frequent contact list to receive articles and updates, etc.

In some ways, it is vain to perceive that a lack of response has anything to do with you. There are many reasons why someone may not be returning your call, responding to your e-mail or other communication.

Coaching lawyers over many years, I have heard countless anecdotes along the theme "I met this potential client nearly five years ago, hadn't connected in months and out of the blue, I receive a call that he has a matter he wants me to handle."  Who hasn't experienced or at least heard a similar story?

In most cases, my clients were eventually retained and the new clients apologized for being so unavailable for a time.  In these scenarios, the potential clients' unresponsiveness had nothing to do with my clients and they would have forfeited a new client had they not persisted.

The bottom line is this: Building a healthy practice requires you to persevere despite immediate circumstances. If you have a strategic plan of action in which you target qualified prospects in a meaningful way in a consistent and persistent manner, you will ultimately develop the business you are working for and your professional satisfaction will grow as a result of it.

Kimberly Alford Rice is principal of KLA Marketing Associates, a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services. As a law marketing authority, she helps law firms and lawyers develop practical business development and marketing strategies that lead directly to new clients and increased revenues. Additionally, she provides career management services to lawyers in transition. She can be contacted at 609-458-0415 or via e-mail at [email protected].

Using LinkedIn to Build Professional Relationships

By Gina F. Rubel
Special to the Legal

Where do you stand on LinkedIn usage?

"I have a personal LinkedIn account and ...
a. I actively update and manage."
b. it is managed for me by marketing."
c. I rarely use it."
d. I don't remember my login."

Or, e. "I do not have a personal LinkedIn account."

The majority of lawyers that I've polled have a LinkedIn account and rarely use it, or they do not have a personal LinkedIn account. For those of you who answered the question with letter A, kudos to you. For those of you who answered with letters B, C, D or E, it's time to get with the program.

LinkedIn is the most well-established and professional social networking platform on the Internet. It was designed for professionals and continues to maintain a level of business integrity unseen by all of the other social networking platforms. It is an online directory of professionals that is highly visible in search engines.

There are various ways to use LinkedIn to build relationships; here are a few tips.

Build a Robust Profile
Take the time to set up a detailed profile. Be sure to include the words "attorney" and "lawyer." This will help people find you when they search using one term  or the other. Include your areas of practice, the cities and states within which you practice and the types of problems you solve for your clients. Then schedule time to update your profile once every three months for 15 minutes to a half hour. This will keep your content relevant and fresh.

Connect
Take the time once a week for 15 minutes to send invitations to people you know. There are a few ways to find them: use the search tool and look up names of people you know; connect your LinkedIn profile to your e-mail database and let it search for people you know; search the people connected to companies where you've worked or with which you do business; search for other alumni from the schools you've attended; search for other members of organizations to which you belong; and search the profiles of people you're already connected to, to see who you know that they're connected to.

Share Content of Value
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is not a platform to share your family vacation photos or social agenda. Rather, it is a great platform for sharing articles you've written or read that may have value to your target audience, events that you may be attending or where you may be speaking, industry statistics, relevant business news and more. Be sure to join and actively engage in groups where you can target your shared content even more specifically.

Answer Questions
As a professional, you have knowledge that can be helpful to others. While being careful NOT to provide legal advice online, you can still answer questions and provide value to others.

Remember that people do business with those they know, like and trust.

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney, public relations and marketing expert, she is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. Rubel and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, web and graphic design, strategic planning, and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, and you can find her on LinkedIn  or follow her on Twitter.  For more information, visit www.FuriaRubel.com.

Three Local Firms on 'Best Law Firms for Women' List

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Three Pennsylvania firms can be found among the top 50 law firms nationally for women to work.

Ballard Spahr, Drinker Biddle & Reath and Fox Rothschild were named to the list, compiled by Flex-Time Lawyers and the National Association for Female Executives.

The organizations offered quick facts about each of the winners to demonstrate how the firms support women.

Ballard Spahr: "Of the seven lawyers promoted to equity partner in 2010, three were women, and two of this firm's 13 offices are managed by female partners." Women comprise 25 percent of the firm's equity partners. The firm only has one partnership tier.

Drinker Biddle: "Women reside on every firm committee, and there are several women on the two most important, management and allocation." Women make up 25 percent of equity partners and 30 percent of non-equity partners.

Fox Rothschild: "Eighty-six percent of female lawyers returning from maternity leave in 2010 worked reduced hours for a period of time, and the firm's chief talent officer works directly with each returning attorney to ensure that the transition back is mutually beneficial." Women make up 17 percent of equity partners and 27 percent of non-equity partners.

The 50 firms are not ranked numerically, but rather are listed alphabetically. According to a press release about the awards, women at the 50 firms comprise an average of 19 percent of the equity partner tier, which is higher than the 15 percent nationally shown by the National Association of Women Lawyers.

All of the winning firms have written reduced-hour policies and 78 percent offer full-time telecommute policies.

Eighty percent of the firms offer mentoring programs for women, and 90 percent offer management and leadership training.

"By offering leadership and business development opportunities for women, along with generous flexibility, parental leave and childcare programs, these firms are better poised to retain and promote the brightest legal minds, with the goal of reaching parity for women in the profession," Deborah Epstein Henry, founder and president of Flex-Time Lawyers, said in a statement.

At the 50 firms, women hold 18 percent of compensation, 19 percent of executive, and 23 percent of equity partner promotion committee seats. And 78 percent of the firms offer backup childcare and 62 percent offer subsidized in-home backup childcare.

The full list of winners can be viewed here.

Gina Passarella is the senior reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted by e-mailing [email protected] or calling 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter at @GPassarellaTLI.

Back to School for the Legal Industry?

By Julia Claire
Special to the Legal

In the "good old days," late summer meant bright-eyed law students with stacks of books and eager, freshly suited young associates ready to play lawyer. When the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal took an interest in the legal industry, it was to glamorize large firm salary wars for top grads in terms that would make F. Scott Fitzgerald blush. In six years, much has changed.

Now, law books are downloaded ... by fewer customers. Law school enrollment has dropped 11.5 percent. And will likely drop further as publicity of poor job prospects and Enron-style accounting of employment statistics by law schools reaches a crescendo.

Big Law has cut hiring programs. With a glut of experienced lawyers seeking work, smaller firms have little incentive to invest in the inexperienced. Current headlines echo back to Steinbeck, chronicling a world of lawyers who are unemployed, working in factory conditions and suing their law schools.

Even lawyers on the top floors of high-rent skyscrapers can hear the chopping of the cherry trees as The Economist details the rise of alternative legal models, which employ lawyers trained by the very firms from which they are luring clients. These trends have created a generation of lawyers -- trained with a theoretical education dependent upon unofficial client-financed apprenticeships -- with scarce training opportunities.

Until the stream of new lawyers slows to a trickle, experienced lawyers retire, and the legal education community finally implements a long overdue practical curriculum to preserve their profitable business, we have the question:

What is to be done? Will there be a 'lost generation of lawyers'?

A profession built on ambiguity and "multi-factor" tests has had an ironically singular solution to career preparation: find a job. Out of necessity, many new lawyers are employing a multi-pronged approach. In 2009, the percentage of law school grads immediately going solo increased to 5.5 percent from 3.5 percent. Freshly barred attorneys are using technology to run practices with low overhead and billing rates.

In the best cases,  pro bono work and mentoring fills the significant training gaps, with experienced attorneys swapping practical knowledge and Twitter tips with their younger counterparts. Under- and otherwise employed lawyers are also finding benefits in pro bono work. They gain an opportunity to help others in bad economic situations, while also acquiring experience and a sense of purpose from a degree that could symbolize defeat.

New lawyers are now forced to network and make their own opportunities. This resourcefulness is an important skill for all lawyers -- one that much of the industry previously considered scrappy. Shielding new lawyers from clients and maximizing their billable hours was considered more genteel. With attorneys forced to think entrepreneurially and new legal concepts appearing monthly on site ranging from the Google-backed Law Pivot to the controversial Shpoonkle, few can deny that innovation and entrepreneurship are finally finding their way into a stubbornly static and gated industry.

I'm not claiming that bliss is around the corner for the legal industry, nor that some of the concern from the old guard surrounding these shifts is unwarranted. I'm merely suggesting that those of us who could comprise a lost generation of lawyers have few choices but to follow the advice of FDR: "Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else."

Julia Claire, Esq. is a co-founder of Hire an Esquire, which enables law firms and legal departments to locate, manage, and pay freelance attorneys with ease online. In addition to practicing law, she has taught legal writing as an adjunct professor in Temple University Beasley School of Law's International LLM Program and as an online lecturer at Quimbee.com. She can be reached at [email protected].

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

Welcome to your Monday morning round-up of stories in today's edition of The Legal Intelligencer. Click the links below to access stories directly, or head to The Legal homepage.  (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

Leading the front page this morning, U.S. Courthouse Correspondent Shannon P. Duffy has an interview with Reginald T. Shuford, the new executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Also available on our website as a complement to the article is a videotaped portion of the interview -- simply click here to view it, or head to the homepage and click on "Featured Video."

Sharing the top of the page, senior reporter Gina Passarella has the localized results of the AmLaw's midlevel associates survey. According to Gina, "The bulk of Pennsylvania firms did a better job keeping their midlevel associates happy this year than they did last year. That comes amid a national picture that presented the lowest associate satisfaction score since 2004, according to the magazine’s 2011 Associates Survey."

Below the fold, reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel writes that a Philadelphia judge has ruled the $27.6 million awarded to a woman and her husband who said she was injured while taking part in a promotional video for an artificial knee implant should not be reduced.

Reporter Zack Needles has today's Page 3 Regional News story, reporting that Philadelphia-based Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin is now Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, marking the firm's first name change since its founding in 1994.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section.

Today's Page 5 "Family Law" column is by Albert Momjian of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, who asserts that while family law may not make the practitioner a multimillionaire, it certainly is fascinating. Sometimes the facts of the cases are more unusual than the fiction created by soap opera writers. Sometimes the issues are more interesting than the tests created by law school professors.

Page 7 is where you'll find a "Commentary" article from our San Francisco affiliate, The Recorder. Frank H. Wu of Hastings College of Law writes, "I remain convinced that a Juris Doctor degree is an advisable investment. I'd like to explain why. I know, of course, that as a law school dean I have an interest in the matter, yet I have the role that I do because I believe in the professional training we offer and not vice versa."

Have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole? E-mail me or any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal!

Jaime Bochet is the Magazines & Supplements Editor for The Legal. Follow her on Twitter at @JaimeBochetTLI or e-mail [email protected].

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal (and Delaware!)

By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

Welcome to your daily round-up of stories in today's edition of The Legal Intelligencer. Click the links below to access stories directly, or head to The Legal homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

Just as Tuesdays always include our Pennsylvania Law Weekly section, Wednesday is the unofficial "Day of Delaware," when we roll out the fresh ink from our First State to the south. That includes the Delaware Law Weekly, available online at www.delawarelawweekly.com, as well as our newest product, the Delaware Business Court Insider, an online newsletter that definitely warrants a look.

But more about Delaware in a bit … let's get to today's Legal.

Topping the front page, U.S. Courthouse Correspondent Shannon P. Duffy has news that former state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo must be resentenced, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, because the trial judge made a series of errors in the sentencing process and failed to explain precisely how he decided to reduce the recommended prison term under the guidelines to 55 months. Voting 2-1, the court found that Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter miscalculated the losses caused by Fumo’s massive fraud schemes in several ways and also failed to impose two key "enhancements" that would have increased the recommended sentence. 

Below the fold, Shannon also reports that an expert witness who testifies equally for plaintiffs and defendants cannot be compelled to disclose how much he earned from all his work as an expert in the past year, a federal judge in Harrisburg has ruled, because the information could not be used to prove bias.

Today's Page 3 story is by editorial intern Jen Zimmerman: When Max Baer, now a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, began serving on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas family division court bench in 1993, he had no background or education in child development or family dynamics, and he was "faced with decisions that were purely in [his] own discretion" regarding children's welfare, he said.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2. The top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section.

Today's contributed columns are our "GC Mid-Atlantic" page, with a story from our affiliate, Corporate Counsel magazine, and the first of two "Legal Marketing" articles by Gina F. Rubel on sorting out social media for lawyers.

As we move south in our weekly coverage to Delaware, we'll stop first at the Delaware Law Weekly, where reporter Jeff Mordock has the top stories. Please note: all of our Delaware coverage is for paid subscribers, but you can register for a free 30-day trial by clicking here.

In the top slot, Jeff writes that a Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge has agreed to approve a $35.3 million settlement between two North American affiliates of a European technology firm and their former employees, who alleged that they were laid off without notice in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, also known as the WARN Act.  

Jeff also reports that the Delaware Chancery Court refused to grant an injunction that would prevent the city of Wilmington from arresting registered sex offenders living in the Harriet Tubman Safe Houses. 

Finally, we'd like you to meet (if you haven't already) the Delaware Business Court Insider.  As the name suggests, this is a national product covering the latest news, analysis and cases from the Delaware Chancery Court, Bankruptcy Court and Supreme Court. The accompanying website is www.delbizcourt.com, where you can go to subscribe to this newsletter weekly. You can also follow us on Twitter at @delbizcourt.

Top stories there include:
- Reversing a Chancery Court decision, the Delaware Supreme Court encouraged applying the "conceivability" test to determine if a complaint states enough facts for a claim to survive dismissal instead of using the "plausibility" test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly.

- The Delaware Supreme Court outlined multiple factors the Chancery Court must consider in applying laches instead of the three-year statute of limitations which typically governs contract disputes after ruling the lower court correctly applied the equitable defense in IAC/Interactivecorp v. O'Brien.

- The Chancery Court issued a declarative judgment for K&K so its business would not be held up by its dispute with Emerick Capital.

Have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole? E-mail me or any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal and our Delaware coverage!

Jaime Bochet is the Magazines & Supplements Editor for The Legal. Follow her on Twitter at @JaimeBochetTLI  or e-mail [email protected].

Should Lawyers Google+?

By Gina F. Rubel
Special to the Legal

As of the first week of August, Google+ reached 25 million "unique visitors" (not users), according to this report.

According to all reports, Google+ is the fastest-growing social network in history. While it is still in beta testing, I think it is important to understand how Google+ plays into lawyer and law firm marketing and public relations right now.

The problem is that this juror is still out.

Personally, I am a very early adopter of most online platforms. In fact, I have to be in order to do my job well and provide clients with the best possible strategic counsel. So, while I do have a Google+ profile, about I am using it very sparingly and spending more time "listening" to the conversations. In fact, one of the hottest topics on Google+ in the United States seems to be Google+. Go figure.

At this stage, I do think it is important for attorneys to stake claim to their names in Google+. This same statement holds true for Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, Avvo, Martindale, Facebook, FourSquare and many of the other social media tools. As for law firms, Google+ is still closed to businesses. They are testing select business profiles on the platform, but have not yet rolled out business profiles to the general public. In fact, according to Google, they are "actively closing profiles that are being used by businesses."

I read a blog by Cynthia Hsu on FindLaw that seems to position Google+ as a revenue source for law firms.
While I think all social networking provides the potential for lawyers to cultivate existing and new business relationships, it remains to be seen if this is the case with Google+. Time will certainly tell.

There are also a lot of SEO strategists out there who are raving about Google+ and I can't blame them. Remember, Google+ is owned by Google, which is the most highly used search engine on the Web. Google changes its algorithms regularly and often increases the ranking of valid content that is hosted on its platforms. We saw this when Google purchased YouTube. All of a sudden, YouTube content came up much higher in Internet searches.

So here are some other things to know. If your target audience for new business development is men between the ages of 18 and 34, they are currently the largest segment of Google+ early adopters, according to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

You can find additional Google+ statistics here and follow the top 100 people on Google+  -- number one being Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. Now, there's irony for you.

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney, public relations and marketing expert, she is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. Rubel and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, web and graphic design, strategic planning, and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, and you can find her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter. 

Why Firms Should Develop Strategic Plans

By Kimberly Alford Rice
Special to the Legal

When I work with law firms that profess to have strategic plans, I find it bewildering that they often are stored in the management teams' drawers and rarely are implemented. I scratch my head and ask, "Why bother expending the energy and time to develop a course for the firm, if there is no system created to implement it?" What a colossal waste of everyone's time and resources.

The contrast of a profitable and barely surviving law firm can often be traced to how seriously its leadership commits themselves to the strategic planning process and how effectively they have defined the firm's collective mission and business goals, its culture, value system and beliefs, and desire to grow in its marketplace.

The strategic planning process, if well-defined and carefully implemented, will cultivate a greater sense of teamwork and strengthen common goals and direction at all levels of a firm, as well as to strengthen communication and help achieve "emotional equity" among its partners. This is critical for the implementation to be successful.

The real rewards of the strategic planning process are in the plan implementation. Anyone who has worked through this process knows that this is the most difficult part, but one that presents a tremendous opportunity to advance a firm's goals.

Follow these steps for successful plan implementation:

• Leverage the existing organizational structure (management committee, practice group leaders, key
partner influencers, etc.) to develop strong "buy-in" and common vision for what precisely the strategic plan is designed to accomplish.

• Goals and timeframes must be clearly defined and easily measured. Everyone should understand what
success and plan achievement will look like. Additionally, the partnership needs to believe the strategic plan goals and implementation are realistic and worth accomplishing.

• All involved parties must be assigned responsibility and be held accountable for appropriate implementation according to an agreed-upon timetable. This is where the legal marketing adviser can bring value by tracking plan implementation and reporting to the management team regularly.

• Circulate status reports to keep partners apprised of plan activities. Encourage partners to voice input, but not at the expense of derailing the prescribed course of action.

• Recognizing that strategic planning is a dynamic and fluid process, a deliberative evaluation process should be in place to assess plan effectiveness and take corrective action as needed.

• Working with the management team throughout the process to sell the strategic plan and create buy-in by explaining the benefits to be derived as the result of implementation, key non-attorney legal
professionals can leverage their positions to keep implementation momentum at a high level.

The strategic planning process, when thoughtfully developed and carefully implemented, can be an especially helpful tool for firms to provide valuable information for setting short- and long-term goals and objectives, as well as identifying opportunities that may not have otherwise been considered. Failure should not be an option.

Kimberly Alford Rice is principal of KLA Marketing Associates, a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services. As a law marketing authority, she helps law firms and lawyers develop practical business development and marketing strategies that lead directly to new clients and increased revenues. Additionally, she provides career management services to lawyers in transition. She can be contacted at 609-458-0415 or via e-mail at [email protected].