Dallas

Speaker: Monica Smith, 2010 LMASE President and Senior Account Supervisor, Public Reputation Services, Jaffe PR

How many times have you heard an attorney say, "Networking events and association memberships are a waste of time" or "The billable hour is more important than marketing”?

As Professional Development professionals you know that the ability to develop business is a key to a lawyer’s success at a firm. Yet many lawyers are resistant to the concept of business development because 1) they don’t have time, 2) they are uncomfortable, or 3) they believe that doing good work is enough. So how do you convince attorneys that they need to develop these skills? And more importantly, how do you get them to act intentionally and proactively in productive ways that will leverage marketing efforts to develop new business? This presentation will discuss WHAT to teach attorneys and HOW to coach attorneys to be more focused and productive in their business development efforts.

Specific learning points will include how to:

• Coach attorneys to conduct business development efforts on purpose and with purpose
• Help attorneys get organized, track progress and measure the results of their business development efforts
• Help attorneys get greater ROI on their existing marketing activities, like speaking, writing and association memberships
• Assist attorneys actually bring in work through an organized sales pursuit process.

Spend time with your peers to speak about job responsibilities, daily duties and the in and outs of working inside the law firm. Affinity groups are:

• CMO's and Directors
• Managers
• Coordinators and Assistants
• Lawyers

A nationally known consultant and recruiter for law firm marketing positions, Sally Schmidt will talk about the transformation that has taken place in the legal marketing industry, and discuss what law firms expect from and are looking for in marketing professionals. Her topics will include:

• Enhancing your professionalism and playing the part
• Developing your expertise and credibility
• Building support and buy-in/Selling your ideas
• Marketing the marketing department

She will also provide tips on furthering legal marketing careers

Speaker(s):

• We will announce our wonderful panelists soon. Please check back. 

Join us as our panelist discuss ways marketing and business development can add more value to your law firm and ways these teams can show their value in this uncertain economy.

• How can marketing departments affect the bottom line?
• How important is success promotion communicated internally?
• What value-added services can marketing and business development team provide to firm clients?

Outstanding client service is built on a clear understanding of client needs. Law firm marketing departments can do more - much more - with less when they seek to clearly understand their internal client needs. Understand different ways to effectively solicit feedback from internal clients so that you can effectively serve your firm both as an individual and a team. Learn how Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP reshaped the firm's marketing department and reinvented the roles of existing staff to better align itself with the firm's strategic objectives and position itself to drive revenue growth.

Topics covered:

• Building a feedback culture
• Assessing needs
• Shaping your role to better meet the firm's needs
• Adding value at every level
• Practice management: Where does it fit?
• Fostering collaboration

Attendees will take away specific tools that the presenters' have used to assess and reshape the services they provide to their firm as well as general lessons learned and best practices from the industry.

Spend time with your peers to specific duties and how you manage the tasks required by the legal marketing professional.

• Marketing Technology
• Business Development
• Branding / Identity
• Public Relations

As with any other business, there are many ways law firms can lose money. As marketing professionals, it is imperative for us to be aware of how firms grow revenue and how all the pieces work together to affect the bottom line. This presentation will give a glimpse of how HR, Technology, Billable Hours, Marketing and other crucial factors of a firm can work together to build the firm and add value.