Alyn-Weiss and Associates Blog

The landmark 2003 study of women rainmakers—the only report of which I am aware that tabulates how much time needs to be spent to create a book of business-- has been updated. Based on 400 interviews, it indicates the threshold for success is for lawyers to devote 8 hours weekly to personal business development. Spend less than eight hours, and originations plummet. Spend more, they soar. The average return when that is done is $59,000 in originations per hour devoted each week. (Ten hours on average spent weekly equals $590,000 in annual originations.) Of course, as we often discover when writing law firm marketing plans and coaching lawyers, the vast majority, male or female, just don’t make the needed time commitment. (Our experience is that male lawyers need to devote similar amounts of time to that shown in the study and to similar activity to build similar books of business.) The report also discusses barriers to success specific to women, firm culture issues, mentoring, and the most effective lawyer marketing activities— networking, joining business groups, leading and speaking. That those are the highest-yield tactics is confirmed by our bi-annual national marketing effectiveness surveys. Developed by the Legal Sales and Service Organization, the executive summary of the report is 69-pages long but in PowerPoint. You can read it in 15 minutes and then go back to those points of greatest interest. One observation I did not see addressed in this executive summary, but which was addressed in the prior report, is that top rainmakers also ask for work and for referrals from clients and prospects. That’s a critical sales skill most lawyers fail to develop and execute consistently— asking for work. Here’s a link to the report: http://www.legalsales.org/pdf/LSSOsWomenLawyersStudiesExecutiveSummarySeptember20091

Labels: lawyer business development, lawyer networking, rainmaking

Talked today with a general counsel and her outside coordinating counsel for a national docket of litigation about how they hire and drop local firms-- they assign 5,ooo cases every year of which about 100 go to trial. When searching for a new firm they create an initial list by asking other lawyers, both in-house and in private practice around the country, for references. They want the name of a lawyer, the person who will be their lead counsel, not a firm name. Once they have those names they cut the list down to four to six lawyers by selecting only lawyers at firms firms where a number of litigation partners are members of groups in which membership is vetted, such as IADC rather than not, such as DRI. (They use firm Web sites to discover this information, they said.) An evaluation of rates, industry experience, availability, conflicts and interviews come next. Their point to me was absent the personal references and individually-vetted memberships, firms don't get consideration. (This is consistent with our national marketing effectiveness surveys which show trade group membership is one of the most effective marketing tactics a lawyer can employ.) Asked why they most commonly drop a firm, they said failure to follow billing guidelines and overly aggressive billing of associates and paralegals.

Labels: best marketing tactics, in-house counsel selection process, trade groups membership