Martindale-Hubbell Connected was recently honored with the Commendation of Excellence Award by the Society for New Communications Research as part of the 2009 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards. The Society honors “innovative organizations that are pioneering the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, and collaborative technologies in the areas of media, marketing, public relations, advertising, entertainment, education, politics, and social initiatives.”
Connected was honored by the judges as one of the year’s best in the “External Communications & Communities” category.
At the risk of sounding like an Oscar winner droning on while the “cut-it-short” music plays in the background, I don’t want to miss this opportunity to thank a few people. Obviously we are grateful to the judges and to SNCR staff who coordinate this awards program every year. I also want to recognize the efforts of Vanessa DiMauro and her team at Leader Networks. Vanessa has worked closely with us since the beginning in developing and executing on a strategy that balances the unique networking needs of the legal community and the goals of the business to create and grow the Connected community in a way that continues to serve all well.
Last but certainly not least, I want to thank the hundreds of lawyers and legal professionals who have provided input and feedback since we first shared our plans to build the world’s premier online network for legal professionals. Connected has grown by leaps and bounds since its official launch earlier this year and we continue to seek outside input as we refine and expand this unique online community in the months and years to come. As always, I encourage readers of this blog to contact me directly with your suggestions, feedback, ideas and criticisms.
The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) recently released the results of their fourth annual Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms. The survey tracks the progress of women lawyers at the nation’s 200 largest law firms and the results from this year’s survey show a troubling and continuing compensation gap between men and women attorneys at every stage of practice. Male lawyers continue to out-earn women lawyers, hold the vast majority of ownership shares, dominate firm governing committees and represent the overwhelming number of major rainmakers in firms despite the fact that for over 20 years women have graduated from law schools and started careers in private practice at roughly the same rate as men.
Here are a couple of sobering statistics from the study:
- Nearly half of major U.S. firms indicated that they have no women among their top ten rainmakers, while another third reported that only one of their top ten rainmakers was a woman.
- Women constitute fewer than 16% of equity partners, only 6% of firm managing partners, and barely 15% of the members of a firm’s highest governing committee – percentages which have not changed from 2008 and have barely advanced since the Survey began exploring these data in 2006.
While no single factor or cause explains the entirety of this disparity, we can say with certainty that until women reach the highest level of firm leadership in greater numbers, they are unlikely to be able to influence firm policies and corporate culture in a way that makes firms more responsive to the career needs of women lawyers.
As a Martindale-Hubbell Connected Alliance partner, NAWL maintains a dedicated networking community within Connected as well as a public NAWL group within the network that is open to all Connected users. “Women in the Law” was the October theme in Connected and on October 26 we held a roundtable webinar in which we discussed among other things, the extent to which men and women lawyers may have differing career goals and whether law firm policies do an adequate job of permitting a lawyer to combine personal/family responsibilities with the job. I encourage you to join Connected and join the ongoing discussion within the NAWL group regarding this important topic.
The full NAWL Survey Report can be accessed by clicking here.
There is nothing like a $15,000 fellowship award to make a law student’s day. This year we are happy to announce in today’s press release not one, but two winners for the 2009 LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Connected Fellowship Awards. Established through an alliance with the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), the $15,000 Fellowships celebrate the launch of the MCCA community on Martindale-Hubbell Connected, and honor third-year law students who have demonstrated academic excellence, leadership, community service and commitment to advancing diversity in the legal profession. This year’s recipients are Michelle A. McLeod, the University of Maryland School of Law, and Andrew C. Montoya, Florida Coastal School of Law.
A J.D. candidate at the University of Maryland Law School, Michelle McLeod spent most of her formative years within Maryland’s foster care system. She never let the difficulties of life get her down, instead, she used personal challenges to propel herself forward. Living on her own since the age of 16, Michelle worked full-time and attended five high schools. While peers played Play Station or hung out, she dedicated herself to learning by reading the newspaper everyday, watching CNN to keep on top of current events, spending time at the library, and studying to graduate high school. Michelle graduated from high school with honors and attended East Carolina University where she graduated magna cum laude in 2004 with a degree in journalism.
At this point in her life she decided to work directly with others to make an impact. Taking a job as a Residential Counselor at Boys Hope Girls Hope, she mentored at-risk youth, before taking a job as a Playroom Coordinator for terminally ill children and their families at Ronald McDonald House. Seeing how working with kids made a difference, she decided to go to law school with the goal of one day using her degree to help families. As an attorney and hopefully one day as a family court judge, Michelle plans to focus on protecting the rights and interests of children. She is expected to graduate in May of 2010, and currently ranks in the top 20 percent of her class.
Andrew Montoya is a man with a mission. He sees that despite the progress this country has made over the past fifty years in remedying racial and sexual discrimination, disability discrimination continues to fly under the radar. Raised in a traditional Mexican household where his aunt and grandparents had physical and mental disabilities, Andrew saw first-hand the need people with disabilities have for advocacy.
As a J.D. candidate at the Florida Coastal School of Law, he currently ranks in the top 18 percent of his class, and he already knows what he wants to do after graduation. Andrew began working for a grassroots disability rights organization called the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC), after receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University at Pueblo in May of 2005. Upon graduation from law school, Andrew will continue his work in public interest advocacy, providing legal services to CCDC and changing the world one case at a time.
Last night marked the release of the new martindale.com Legal Library, and we are so excited to get the word out! In 2003, martindale.com first began publishing lawyer and law firm authored articles online. The repository has been steadily growing to include over 35,000+ legal articles, but we’ve heard from some of our users that they are unaware all of this great content exists on the site. Though linked to firm and lawyer profiles, we needed a better way to surface this dynamic content, thus, the Legal Library was born!
The Legal Library is much more than its Legal Topics predecessor. For one, we are highlighting a few key elements: most recently published content (to show what’s hot in the legal world), most viewed documents (to show what our users are most interested in) and top law firm contributors (to show what firms are positioning themselves as industry thought leaders). Another big change: in addition to topical legal news articles, and articles from Counsel to Counsel Magazine that have always been available, the new Legal Library allows firms and lawyers to include white papers, presentations, legal forms and court documents. Even more content types from which to glean insights from the lawyers and firms making strides in the industry. The full content of all documents are accessible to all users – no registration required!
Don’t have the time to check out the Legal Library everyday? Let us bring the content to you! Subscribe to our RSS feeds, either by practice area of interest, or for documents on all subject matter. Just one click puts the content at your fingertips.
Is there anything else you’d like to see in the Legal Library? Your comments are encouraged and welcome – help us keep the Legal Library growing!
Meet Teresa Carpenter. As the former regional marketing manager for powerhouse firm Baker & Mckenzie, Teresa is now the Senior Brand Marketing Manager for Martindale-Hubbell Large Law. She comes from the windy city of Chicago, a place she calls “the best city in the world” and she should know; Teresa has lived in 10-other US cities. She’s had quite a journey, which landed her at one of the largest law firms in the US, but what strikes me most about Teresa is her experience living on the cutting edge.
Baker and Mackenzie was one of the first US law firms to develop a truly global presence, and it was this spirit of innovation that Teresa came to know and love while at the firm. Although she will be the first to admit that the firm’s US office was not the first one to embrace social media. “Our Amsterdam office brought us onto Linkedin and social networking in general,” she says, but what made the US office stand out was that it “ brought together so many different people from different languages and cultures, which has put us at the top for online marketing.”
Now, Teresa looks to leverage her experiences with diversity and innovation as she joins the Martindale-Hubbell team. She sees the winds of change brewing in the legal industry as new tools are changing the way we do business. Despite law firms being “resistant” to this change she says that “few lawyers are truly engaging in these networks now, but eventually they will see the benefits of these tools, which include meeting new people through networking, real-time information sharing and feedback through blogging, and potential work for lawyers in developing social media policies.” (Martindale-Hubbell Connected members please see our Social Media Policy group for more on this topic).
When asked how her experience at her previous job will help her in the new role she says:
My experience at Baker & McKenzie will translate seamlessly because Martindale.com like Baker & McKenzie markets customer intelligence, not ‘just a service.’ Both organizations listen intently to their customers/clients and are inspired by customer feedback. In addition, both challenge B2B paradigms. The process in selecting a lawyer or law firm is more sophisticated than simply evaluating cost to benefit ratios. Unique value propositions, referrals and rankings are highly considered by clients. By providing customers/clients with the deeper engagement (through relationship building and social networking) they crave we set ourselves up for huge change and limitless opportunities.
Teresa feels that we need to look beyond the managing partners when it comes to viral marketing and social media. “We need to reach out to the trenches,” she says, and look to get the lawyers engaged on a specific level for whatever it is they are doing. She believes that change happens quicker among practice groups in large law firms rather than going to the heads of the organization who have much bigger fish to fry. It is this core belief of working with the troops that she hopes to bring to her new role – inspiring and stimulating lawyers at the practice group level.
Teresa has plenty of ideas, many of them good, and it is her awareness of the market that will allow her to deliver the type of messaging and engagement that our customers will benefit from. When asked about her immediate goals, she says:
I want to create awareness of our products to legal marketers (see the Legal Marketers group on Connected). These professionals are given a lot of responsibility and respect within firms of all sizes. They are key decision makers. They manage budgets, conduct competitive research, write business plans and advise partners on client development. Managing Partners and Executive Committees rely on them for their insight and their commitment to following trends in the digital marketing industry. As a former regional marketing manager, I hope to educate my colleagues about the infrastructure, challenges and successes of large law firm marketing professionals.
She understands that the biggest challenge in law firm operations today is a generation gap in the face of a paradigm shift. “You’ve got the summer associate who has had the Twitter account since they opened in 2007 reporting to a partner in her late ‘50’s who just got her first Blackberry,” she says, “glue them together and find commonality and they can teach each other.” It’s about finding the “sweet spot,” expanding existing relationships, and walking away better at the end of the day. How does she see Martindale.com helping to close that gap?
Martindale.com can fill that gap by continuing to amp up the capabilities of Connected, in particular by feeding into the individual motivations of each age range. New associates are more accustomed to marketing themselves as they have come of age in the era of electronic socialization. Serving as their own PR agency comes naturally to many young associates. The experienced partner wants to market his firm. He identifies with his firm’s reputation and understands the importance of the clients’ perception. And although he was never formally trained in client development, he knows what works because he has built an impressive client base on instinct alone. After all, compared to traditional marketing for corporations legal marketing is still in its infancy. The gap will be eventually close, at least half-way, because both the individuals and the firms they represent will embrace promotion to some extent.
We are all excited about the impact Teresa is having already in just a few short weeks, and look forward to seeing her bring these ideas to fruition. You can meet with Teresa on Martindale-Hubbell Connected by going to her profile.
The Law Librarians Blog (”LLB”) posted the first of their findings from the recent Rate Your Legal Resources Vendor Survey. In this “admittedly unscientific survey” the LLB found that LexisNexis excelled over West in both customer service and in the trustworthiness of literature about their products. Other areas were surveyed as well, which the LLB will release over the next few weeks.
Survey participants consisted of the following breakdown: “49% of the respondents, academic law librarians 27.5%, public law librarians 20.6% and others 2.9%.” (see graphic below)
They were asked two questions for this first part of the survey:
1. In terms of detailed and trustworthy information about their products and services in vendor literature and direct communications, how would you rate your vendors?
2. In terms of responsiveness to issues and their prompt resolution for products and services, how would you rate your vendors?
I won’t discuss the results of the survey or the LLB’s conclusions; check out the original post for that. Rather, I want to make a short comment about our customer service and trustworthiness.
Being one of the “Big Two” can have its advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages: everyone in the legal 
community knows LexisNexis, we have tons of content, and lots of products and services. Some disadvantages: everyone has a favorite (see Coke v. Pepsi), consumer price sensitivity, and the false perception that just because you are big you can do anything. I share these thoughts because we are not a perfect company (I task you to find one that is), but the results of this survey attest to one of the greatest things about LexisNexis: at the end of the day we want to do right by you – whether you are a customer, employee, or competitor. The LLB’s findings confirm that others think that too, and the kudos really go to the great work our customer service department is doing.
As for trustworthiness: a former boss once told me under-promise and over-delivery. The LLB’s survey results about our product literature are encouraging. They show that the folks in marketing and sales are being honest about what we’ve got to offer. We hope to be a company that delivers on its promises and if we aren’t doing that please let us know, either on this blog or contacting us directly. Hey, customer service got great marks in responsiveness; if you don’t believe me, give them a try.
If you are anything like me then you love your iPhone. In my opinion, what makes this device the best piece of mobile tech out there is the ability to add downloadable applications (Apps”). There are literally hundreds of thousands of them available in the App Store, many for free, which give you so many new ways to use your phone. I’m happy to report that LexisNexis has joined the ranks, releasing our very first iPhone App. Oh, and did I mention that it is free?
It is called “Get Cases and Shepardize,” and (as you may have guessed) allows users to get cases from Lexis.com and Shepardize them to make sure what they have found is still good law. Users must have a current account with Lexis.com and a valid password to use the application.
This app allows users to:
- Find and review a case instantly by reading the Case Brief – an overview of the issues, rules, and reasoning (written by LexisNexis experts) just by entering its citation.
- Get an at-a-glance indication of how closely they need to evaluate the case with Shepard’s Signal™ Indicators.
- Get an overview of a case’s legal treatment up front by viewing the Shepard’s Summary, right at the top of your Shepard’s reports.
The app is available for anyone to download for free online at the iTunes App Store, (note: you must be upgraded to at least the iPhone 3.1 firmware to download the app). We hope that you like the first of our LN Apps and welcome your feedback on it.
Want you to tell us what the next LN App should be? Members of Martindale-Hubbell Connected can share their suggestions on this forum post in our community. Not yet a member? Sign up today, membership is free!
In Martindale Hubbell Connected we love theme months. They help to drive engagement by focusing on a specific, overall topic and encourage members to get involved. We are now in our fourth month of themes. Previous themes included: Social Media Solutions (July/Aug), Revolutionary Law (Sept), and Women in the Law (Oct). We now end this exciting year of themes with the following two offerings:
- Maximizing Inside/Outside Counsel Relationships
- 2009: The Year Social Media Changed How Lawyers Do Business
For Maximizing Inside/Outside Counsel Relationships we will be hosting a discussion series lead by guest moderators from some of the best names in law firm marketing in our public forums Managing Outside Counsel and Corporate Legal Department Management.
NOTE: members can access the community links (forums, groups & document libraries); non-members can join here and then access.
Also, we are looking for the best samples of outside counsel guidelines or private practice checklists that you use when trying to maximize your own inside/outside counsel relationships.
We encourage members of those confidential role groups to rate the most helpful of those documents with 1 to 5 stars. We will then feature the top rated documents on our home page and make them prominently available to the respective inside/outside counsel community. Finally, encourage all Connected members to share thoughts on the following topics, either in blog posts or public forums:
- Litigation and dispute resolution strategies that strengthen the business without breaking the bank
- Creating and implementing cost-efficient approaches to working with outside counsel and trusted advisers
- Dealing with discovery without being derailed
- Metrics & measurement: using case assessments and analyses successfully
- Tackling tough situations: class actions, cross-border disputes and trends on the horizon
For those of you who are members of Connected, we hope you will participate. FYI – December is looking like one of our biggest theme months yet with a slew of social media pundits signed up to guest blog, moderate, and participate in a special webinar (stay tuned for details). If you are not yet a member of Connected, what are you waiting for!?! It’s free to join so come on in and let your voice be heard. We look forward to meeting you.
Posted on behalf of the UK Martindale Team:
History tells us that now is the best time for any law firm to prepare for the next economic boom, argues Brian Coventry.
For law firm managing partners and marketing managers attending the recent “M-Club” seminars in Brussels and Madrid, Brian Coventry had a surprisingly up-beat message. Mr Coventry, managing director of software solution provider APS – Billback, said that history tells us that all economic downturns are invariably followed by another period of sustained growth – typically lasting between seven to ten years. What’s more, recent stock market rises are providing an early indicator of possible good times ahead. “Stock markets always run ahead of the real economy,” he explained. “They are an indicator of what will happen in the next six to nine months.”
Mr Coventry argued that marketing managers should make use of this understanding of the economic cycle when planning and timing their firm’s future marketing spend. In the current economic climate, many firms’ are under pressure to reduce head count, cut marketing budgets and to reduce costs generally. In fact, Mr Coventry argued that this approach, while understandable, was wrong-headed. If the downturn was shorter than previous recessions, then firms that did so, he suggested, would only have to hire replacement staff once economic growth had returned – by which point, they would be forced to compete for talent. Thankfully, he said that many of the more enlightened firms now understood this dilemma. As a result, some are working on ways to retain key talent during the slowdown, rather than lose them altogether.
Of course, many law firms have also followed the conventional approach, and cut back on marketing in response to the downturn. Such firms typically only began to rebuild their marketing capability once it is clear that growth is returning, said Mr Coventry. Therefore, he argued, firms who continue to promote themselves at the early stages of the economic revival have two key advantages. Firstly, they will enjoy far greater visibility among potential clients. Secondly, having invested money on maintaining existing relationships during the downturn, such firms will be best-placed to win new work – from the moment that growth returns. By maintaining their investment programme, firms have prevented existing clients from entering the so-called “zone of perceived indifference”, which causes them to “wander off” to rival firms. “If firms don’t put energy into a relationship, it dies,” Mr Coventry explained. Likewise, money invested in providing “client relationship training” for partners, some of who were naturally reluctant to promote themselves, would help reduce the danger of them from shrinking back into their “comfort zone”. This too would help ensure that lawyer-client relationships were maintained during the downturn, he argued.
In terms of persuading senior managers of the need to maintain their investment in marketing during the downturn, Mr Coventry has two suggestions. In relation to the firm’s managing partner, Mr Coventry suggested that marketing managers’ argument should appeal personal self-interest, as well as that of the firm. “When you consider the average age of a managing partner, it is likely that they only be working for one more economic cycle. If they are going to get the most value out of the economy – both for their firm, but also for their families – they will need to take decisions that will allow the firm to take full benefit of the entire boom run,” he said. And continuing to promote the firm during a downturn would make that more likely.
In relation to the firm’s financial personal, Mr Coventry argued that marketers must also learn to “speak the same language” as those who controlled the firm’s budgets. A debate where one side was speaking in “marketing” and the other side speaking in “financial” was a recipe for disaster. So, rather than referring to their spending as “marketing” – which carries with it the perception of intangible luxury – be clearer about what the spend relates to for example “client-based management”, is specific he suggested. “Watch the brave managing partner who proposed to cut spending on client-based management,” he said.
Visit our law firm directory, www.martindale-hubbell.co.uk, for more such informative articles and news. Contact us today at +44 (0)20 7347 3700 or international2@martindale.com to get listed with us.
Martindale-Hubbell Connected members can vote in our poll about Planning for the Good Times Ahead: Which Strategy Do You Think is Best? Non-members can register for Martindale-Hubbell Connected – sign up is free.
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