This week kicks off our member event, International Expansion. We will be discussing the wide range of issues involved in expanding internationally, hosting a free a webinar, and posting exclusive content in the Lex Mundi Connected group. Connected members can check out our Event Page for a convenient road map of how to get involved, and if you are not yet a member of Connected, sign up for free today.
Michael Chang, Senior Counsel at Warner Brothers, and event leader says the following about the need for an event like this on International Expansion:
As the global markets continue to integrate and developing countries join the ranks of, and even compete with, industrialized countries, it is likely your company will do (or already does) business globally by entering new markets. Conducting business in the new markets often involves dealing with a whole new set of rules you may never have encountered before. Take this opportunity to learn the best practices for market entry and international business expansion.
Here are some details about the event:
Dates: 3/1/2010 to 3/15/2010
Register for our free webinar on International Expansion taking place on Thursday, March 4 at 12pm EST. Our panel for the webinar consists of:
There will also be guest blog posts in the Lex Mundi Connected group by event leaders and various members of Lex Mundi. Next week we will post a new Connected Pulse video on our Martindale-Huubbell YouTube Channel with Antone Johnson, former GC of e-Harmony and founder of Bottom Line Law Group. We hope to hear from you during the event, and let us know in the comments below if there is anything specific you would like our event leaders to cover,
I’m pleased to announce that Martindale-Hubbell Connected was just named one of only three finalists for a 2010 CODiE award for Best Social Networking Solution and Martindale.com was named a finalist in the Best Online Directory & Business Leads Service. For those of you not familiar with the CODiE Awards, it is one of the software industry’s most prestigious awards, created by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). It is the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program – meaning we are being recognized by information industry experts, peers and competitors – not “friends and family” of Martindale.
Being selected as a finalist is especially gratifying recognition for two reasons. First, many called it a pipe-dream when we started on our journey to evolve the Martindale-Hubbell legal directory to become an online network with a robust collaboration community for lawyers. This recognition by SIIA provides additional validation that Martindale, renowned for over a century as the resource for connecting corporate counsel with outside counsel, remains at the forefront, with a new, growing and vibrant online community.
Second, this nomination represents additional validation that Connected’s strategy, technology platform and content are world-class. We designed and are evolving Connected to be more than “just another” networking site – there’s already a crowded field of broad networking sites that have captured millions (if not billions) of peoples’ time and attention. We are constantly asking ourselves “why would a lawyer want to come to Connected when there are more established sites out there?
Part of the answer is that we are listening to our members and building hooks into critical LexisNexis and third-party content – tailored to the people and issues members care about (ie Legal Library, corporate counsel Client Reviews of outside counsel, Legal Career Center) with more on the way in every release. Our community managers are hosting legal-specific events, CLE’s and other programming tailored for lawyers. And, our members are responding with rapidly increasing participation and engagement in the community. Speaking of that….Are you Connected? Join now!
Transforming the Martindale business through an “online community” strategy hasn’t been easy and early on we definitely had more critics than supporters. Still, we knew from our research and from your input that it was the right path for the business. Discussions with hundreds of legal industry veterans and now the accolades from others seemed to confirm our beliefs. Growth (nearly 30,000 members and counting!) and member engagement within Connected have been the most important affirmation of our efforts over the past year. But peer recognition like this sure helps too!
For the last week of February, we are presenting an event called “Standardizing Litigation Guidelines: A Case Study in the Insurance Industry.”
After three years of collaborating with hundreds of insurance companies and corporations, law firm lawyers and general counsel, litigation and risk managers, and adjusters, Council on Litigation Management proudly presents their litigation guidelines standardization project. The goal is to earn industry wide adoption of these guidelines in the insurance industry. The best practices and policies for lawyers managing litigation matters are being presented to 350 insurance companies in the organization to ratify without change and apply to corporations that have large insurance programs. As Adam Potter, CLM’s founder and executive director, said in an article at the project’s launch, “insurers spend tens of billions of dollars a year on outside counsel. By working together, we can provide a better way to manage resources and achieve better results.”
Register for our Webinar: Join us for a 60-minute Webinar at 4:00 pm Eastern time on Wednesday, February 24. We will discuss the Council on Litigation Management report detailing their three year collaboration effort with hundreds of insurance companies, corporations, law firm lawyers, general counsel, litigation and risk managers and adjusters. The drafters will discuss:
- What was the problem we were trying solve?
- How did CLM go about finding a solution?
- What does that solution mean for the insurance industry and the wider legal community?
Presenters:
- Adam Potter, Executive Director of CLM
- Drafters of guidlines: Domenick DiCicco Jr., Christopher A. Carucci, and John Mannato
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Time:
1:00 pm Pacific
2:00 pm Mountain
3:00 pm Central
4:00 pm Eastern |
|
9:00 pm GMT
9:00 pm UK |
Duration: 60 minutes
What are you thoughts on Standardizing Litigation Guidelines? Check out this heated discussion in the CLM group on Connected (registration required; don’t worry, it’s free!). Also, go to our Event page to see a profile on Adam Potter, Executive Director of CLM.
Holly Gebert, an Assistant Marketing Manager in our Dayton, OH office, is also a First Lieutenant in the 445th Aerospace Medical Squadron, part of the 445th Airlift Wing (USAFR) stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Juggling both work and military commitments is a difficult challenge for thousands of Americans who hold down regular jobs and who are also members of the National Guard or Military Reserve. Recently, Ms. Gebert needed time off from LexisNexis to get certified as a Health Services Administrator as part of her military commitment. Her Manager, Janette Hausler, was honored with a “Patriot Award” on Tuesday by ESGR (Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve) for Janette’s leadership and support in facilitating Holly’s leave request and enabling Holly to honor her military commitment.
On hand to present the award was CSM (Ret) Arthur G.A. Maggs, Jr., Co-Employer Outreach Director (ESGR-NJ). Photos of the award presentation have been uploaded to our Flickr account and can be accessed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35038020@N06/sets/72157623322780779/
The Patriot Award was created by ESGR to publicly recognize individuals who provide outstanding patriotic support and cooperation to their employees, who are National Guard and Reserve members.
While Janette was recognized for her individual leadership, the military also recognized LexisNexis as a 5-Star Employer based in large part on employee policies that are supportive of those whose military responsibilities sometimes interfere with work duties.
Additional information about the Patriot Award can be found here: http://esgr.org/site/Programs/PatriotAward/tabid/171/Default.aspx
We’re proud of all those who serve in the military whether on active duty or in the Guard or Reserve. We also strongly support LexisNexis employees who need to balance both work and military obligations. Kudos to Holly Gebert for achieving her certification as a Health Services Administrator and to Janette Hausler for her outstanding leadership and support in facilitating Holly’s achievement and military commitment.
We had over 40 new corporate counsel members register in the last week of our 2010 Get Connected for a Cause Campaign, which benefits Smile Train.
Registered members of Connected can click the links below to meet our new members and welcome them to the community. If you are not yet a member of Connected, registration is free and easy, sign up today.
We highlight companies on this post who had the strongest showing in Connected for the week. This week it is the Rite Aid Corporation that takes the honors. Here is some information from their company website:
Rite Aid Corporation is one of the nation’s leading drugstore chains with more than 4,900 stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia, with a strong presence on both the East and West coasts, and 109,000 associates. Rite Aid is the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast and the third largest drugstore chain in the U.S. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RAD.
Here are the companies who joined Connected in the last two weeks:
Last November, we presented the newly transformed Martindale-Hubbell Ratings at the ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference. All the major U.S. ratings and ranking services, including Avvo, Best Lawyers, Chambers, Lawdragon, Martindale-Hubbell and Super Lawyers, were invited to present their ratings methodologies and share how the resulting ratings and reviews provide value to users. (Chambers declined to participate.)
Following the presentations, program attendees, a broadly qualified audience of lawyers that included a dozen in-house counsel from large corporations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Toys “R” Us, Comcast and Boeing, completed a questionnaire about law firm ratings and rankings. Among the key findings, the ABA reports, “Martindale-Hubbell was given the most credibility among lawyer respondents.”
We’re excited and proud to have such significant recognition from an audience whose opinions are among the most valued by our business. As I mentioned in previous posts, last year’s ratings transformation was designed based on extensive research and feedback from the legal community, whose thoughts and input inform our business decisions every step of the way.
Now the community has spoken, and what they say validates what we have long claimed: Martindale-Hubbell Ratings are a credible and reliable tool to evaluate and select lawyers and law firms. In fact, in a head-to-head comparison by our most informed audience, Martindale-Hubbell comes out on top.
Read more about the ABA Ranking the Raters; Rating the Rankers program:
If you have been following our @MHTweets account on Twitter, you have probably had a chance by now to hear about our monthly Connected events, where we host numerous experts on a specific topic, to discuss their subject matter of expertise, either via blogging, forum discussions or a webinar.
If you have not heard or participated in such an event before, let me give you a flavor of what’s a Connected event: You can think about an event as a mini conference – focusing on a specific topic, it offers ‘panelists’ in the form of guest bloggers and webinar panelists, a ‘main event’ in the shape of a webinar, both of which automatically bring up lively discussions about the topic. Each Event is hosted in a specific Connected Group, where the discussions, blogs and webinar keep on living after the event has resumed.
Since July last year we have been dedicating each month to a specific event, some of the events we discussed: Social Media Policy and how to set it up in your organization ; NAWL 2009 survey results; Inside/Outside counsel relationship; how Social Media changed the way lawyers do business; Legal Marketing and Navigating Social Media ethical pitfalls and the current event, What In House Counsel Want. Some of the upcoming events are Standardizing Litigation Guidelines: A Case Study from the Insurance Industry and International Expansion, stay tuned for details.
We heard great feedback on these events and would like to create more that suit your interests – we want to hear from you which topics should be discussed more. If you have any idea or a suggestions for different event topics, please contact Rory, Mike or me.
Fortune has released their 2010 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, and this year six law firms made the list. According to a press release from Bingham McCutchen, FORTUNE picks the companies for the list by conducting an extensive employee survey. The “Trust Index” makes up two-thirds of a company’s score and is composed of a sample set of random answers from employees who are asked questions about “management’s credibility, job satisfaction and camaraderie.” The “Culture Audit” makes up the rest of a company’s points and asks employees about “pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring, communication and diversity.”
We would like to congratulate and highlight three of the firms who are part of the Martindale-Hubbell family:
- Bingham McCutchen - with one of the best law firm websites I have ever seen (great design, navigation, and information) Bingham McCutchen is a firm that thinks about the now and the next. Based on the principles “Work Hard,” “Make Sure Your Eggs Are In Multiple Baskets,” “Remember the Business Cycle,” “Understand Your Clients Well Enough to Invest in What they Need,” and “Be Patient” they make firm values sound cool, something you’d expect from Google, who famously incorporated the business motto “Don’t Be Evil.” With a large and talented staff, Bingham serves the many needs of 10 primary practice focuses: (1) Corporate, (2) Finance, (3) Securities, (4) Litigation, (5) Legislative and Government Affairs, (6) Environmental and Real Estate, (7) Telecommunications, Media and Technology, (8) Insurance, (9) Industry Practices, and (10) Estate and Charitable Planning.
- Arnold & Porter – a true thought and practice leader, A&P produces a wealth of podcasts, articles, presentations, webcasts, and other materials all available for free on their website and on Martindale-Hubbell Connected (registration required) where members can interact with the authors. With a global reach and a history that spans the best of 80-years, A&P has a profound commitment to pro bono work (averaging 150 hours per year per lawyer), client results, and innovation as seen by their multimedia contributions. Specializing in 20 distinct areas of law, from Antitrust and Competition to FDA and Healthcare to Subprime Lending Regulation and Enforcement, A&P offers a range of trusted expertise and experience.
- Baker Donelson – they put clients first. Read the firm description and you’ll see the first three paragraphs are dedicated to talking about how they do that. By reaching across offices and borders in a diverse legal practice, Baker Donelson does what is necessary to serve their clients. As an innovator and technology leader, the firm developed BakerNet to connect the nodes of their offices and share knowledge. I counted up to 36 distinct practice areas with many subcategories that the firm specializes in from Gulf Coast Recovery to Business Technology. Truly a champion of diversity through the provision of scholarships, support to causes dedicated to eradicating racism, and providing opportunities, Baker Donelson practices what they preach and “is committed to recruiting, hiring, training, retaining and inviting to Shareholder status attorneys from under-represented groups.”
Congratulations again to these firms on such a tremendous achievement!
On January 22 at ACC San Diego’s 7th Annual GCRoundtable, I moderated a Session entitled “Taking Control: Meeting the Challenges to Becoming a High-Performance Legal Team.” Alan Tse, GC of LG Electronics Mobilecomm USA, was the featured panelist.
Alan covered a wide variety of issues around building out his high-performing legal department. He stressed such topics as defining goals and objectives of the business; cost cutting; managing outside counsel; measuring successes of the department and communicating them to the larger team; hiring the best “athlete” — entrepreneurial types capable of learning new areas and excelling; providing challenging work and growth opportunities, and many other topics.
One particular area that garnered a lot of interest and input was in the area of benchmarking. Alan is a big believer in measuring results against goals. Annually, he surveys his internal clients to gauge how LG’s lawyers are doing in areas such as speed and timeliness of service, quality of service, quality of the interaction, usefulness and ease of use of the legal services provided, and overall satisfaction.
Given the high level of interest in the benchmarking survey, Alan generously allowed us to upload his survey into Martindale-Hubbell Connected (Registration Required). Corporate counsel can access a copy of the survey here, in the In-House Counsel Group File Library. Since sharing his survey, Alan Ong, GC of Nokia Oyj in Finland has weighed in, and shared the survey he uses.
We encourage other corporate counsel to share their client satisfaction surveys in this confidential inhouse group.
How are other legal departments building high performance teams and measuring their successes? Join the discussion.
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