It helped to know that I am not alone and that there are other like-minded women leaders out there.
Capital Partner | Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson
New York, NY
New York, NY
It helped to know that I am not alone and that there are other like-minded women leaders out there.
The Managing Partner Forum is a go-to resource for not only what’s currently important to law firm leaders, but how law firm leaders are dealing with the issue of the moment and preparing for those of the future.
We have enjoyed working with John Remsen and his talented team. The Managing Partner Forum provides excellent content that truly assists in operating a successful business in today’s challenging environment.
The MPF programs always provide relevant, timely educational content. They are high energy and interactive which makes them fun to attend, too.
Great conference, thank you for the invitation.
The information sharing at the MPIEs is especially valuable.
My partner and I really enjoyed the conference and we look forward to attending again next year.
Connecting with other firm leaders, as it felt more like a ‘retreat’ than a ‘conference.’ Fantastic format allowed for great information and advice sharing.
I go to a lot of conferences, and your event is the one I look forward to and gain the most from each year. The power of this group is incredible. So privileged to be a part of it. Thank you for what you do for our industry.
Connecting with other firm leaders, as it felt more like a ‘retreat’ than a ‘conference.’ Fantastic format allowed for great information and advice sharing.
ATL was a great time, and I really enjoyed the conference, as always.
That was my first experience at the conference, and it was tremendously valuable.
Great job! Keep it going. Thank you for the excellent work you do for the profession.
The collegiality and brainstorming opportunities can’t be beat.
The MPF Conference is always a great event. The MPIEs and Workshops were really good this year.
The program topics are timely and well presented. Every time I attend, I learn something new.
MPF is on top of the issues facing firm leaders, often before we even see them coming in our own firms, and provides timely advice from industry experts to see us through them.
I highly recommend the MPF Leadership Conference. I’ve participated many times, as have several of my partners. We leave with new ideas and fresh perspectives every time.
Hands down the best leadership conference for managing partners I’ve ever attended.
This is my 12th or 13th time attending, and it’s always the best conference I attend every year.
The MPIEs are interesting, informative and very useful!
I look forward to this Conference every year. It really helps me to be a more effective firm leader.
MPF provides tremendous value and excellent resources. Great information. Great speakers. Great networking opportunities.
This is your chance to connect with peers and discover strategies for firm-wide development in a fast-changing market. You won’t want to miss the conversations, networking, and practical insights that make this event a must for legal marketing and business development leaders.
LMA is the The Authority for Legal Marketing. A not-for-profit professional organization founded in 1985, LMA serves the needs and maintains the professional standards of the men and women involved in marketing, business development, client service and communications within the legal profession. LMA also is a resource for practicing attorneys and law firm leaders who want to develop their practices and gain competitive advantage.
In case you missed it, our MPF Featured White Paper is the 2024 State of the Corporate Law Department published by Thomson Reuters. In interviews with over 4,500 professionals worldwide, the Thomson Reuters Institute found that:
According to recent MPF surveys, marketing and business development are top of mind among managing partners of smaller and midsize law firms. More and more firms are hiring in-house marketing professionals, increasing their marketing and business development budgets, and shifting resources toward business development, including sales training for lawyers young and old.
In this fast-paced webinar we presented for the Legal Marketing Association, we discussed with three managing partners their insights and perspectives on law marketing and business development.
Click here for the Webinar.
Click here for handout materials.
Through anecdotes, illustrations, checklists and easily adopted tips, The Trusted Advisor ($20, Free Press) is one of the classics and makes the components of trust clear and straightforward in a proven, five-step development process. It should have a prominent place in every managing partner’s library.
Frequently called the “bible” of law firm marketing, Sally’s Marketing the Law Firm is the definitive guide to building, managing, and maximizing an effective law firm marketing and business development program.
In this best-seller, Ferrazzi writes about how to build a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts and friends without becoming a networking jack-ass. Never Eat Alone ($24.95, Doubleday) is on almost every rainmaker’s short list of recommended reading. It makes our short list, too.
If we could only recommend one book to a lawyer in private practice, it would be True Professionalism ($26, Simon & Schuster)! Maister’s lesson is clear: believe passionately in what you do and never compromise your standards and values. Act like a true professional, aim for excellence and the money will follow. The challenge for leaders is to find the strength and courage to do what we know is right. A must read.
Selling the Invisible ($21.95, Warner Books) is perhaps the best book ever written on marketing professional services. Throughout its 250+ pages, Beckwith stresses the importance of building relationships and providing great service, rather than selling features and benefits. It’s a truly great book and an easy read.
We recommend most everything David writes on law firm leadership and management. The essence having practice groups, says Maister, is the willingness of individuals to contribute non-billable time to the group effort and their agreement to be accountable to the group for what is promised. In this article, he writes that the problem with practice groups in many firms is that most group leaders have poorly defined roles, unclear objectives and responsibilities, and ambiguous authority. He maintains that group leaders must be selected for their attitudes not their accomplishments. They need to be rewarded for the time they dedicate to the role, and they must have meaningful input in the compensation system.
We’re strong proponents of Industry Practice Groups (IPGs) for a variety of reasons. They showcase the firm’s industry expertise; they promote sharing and teamwork among lawyers; and they create a forum for accountability. They’re also a great vehicle to achieve smooth, orderly succession planning.
To be successful, your firm needs to select and empower strong and committed group leaders, and start with a simple, focused approach with clear goals and objectives. This article dispenses some great advice on how to make industry-focused marketing teams happen at your firm.
Gerry Riskin is one of most highly respected law firm consultants on the planet. After serving as managing partner of a thriving Canadian law firm, he co-founded Edge International in 1983. His writings have been published throughout the world, and he is perhaps best known as author of The Successful Lawyer, one of the ABA’s all-time best sellers. In this article, Gerry suggests some effective ways to address client reactions to these five situations:
These are not scripts. Rather, they present ideas to help you think through how you can best respond in your own way.
We originally wrote this article for the Legal Marketing Association in 2008 and it received lots of attention and interest back then. And it’s receiving even more attention after Karle Lester, Managing Editor of Wisconsin Lawyer magazine, asked if she could reprint it in her publication last month. From there, several other state bar magazines picked up the article and it was featured as “Pick of the Week” by www.Technolawyer.com. It’s amazing how much mileage you can get from a timeless, well-written article on a topic of interest to your audience.
Merrilyn is the founder of Attorney-at-Work, one of the most popular blogs for practicing attorneys in the US. With the tagline “One Really Good Idea Every Day for Enterprising Lawyers,” its goal is give lawyers everything they need to create a law practice – and a life -they can love. In addition, Merrilyn is a fouding member of the Legal Marketing Association and past President of the College of Law Practice Management. This is one A@W’s most viewed articles ever published and here are a few of its pointers:
We suggest that you circulate this little gem to others at your firm as an important reminder of how important service and professionalism are for lawyers of all ages.
We believe that every lawyer in private practice should take the time to develop an individual marketing plan. The reasons are many:
And that’s just for starters!
We recommend that partners invest about 200 hours a year in marketing and business development. Studies show that successful rain makers invest much more. To make sure that time is invested wisely, a plan is essential. This article includes our five-page outline that you can easily customize to your firm, as many of our clients (and non-clients) already have.
Today, most law firm leaders today recognize the important and necessary role that marketing and business development play in operating a profitable and successful law firm. But getting lawyers to work together, and invest the non-billable time and effort required to be effective rainmakers – “mist”-makers, anyway – is no easy assignment. Planning, monitoring and accountability are recommended.
We call your attention to an article we wrote 15 years ago on the subject. It appeared in the ALA’s Legal Management magazine. Its lessons still apply – perhaps more than ever – as law firm marketing departments focus way too much time and attention (in our humble opinion) on keeping pace with the social media craze.