October 27, 2011
National ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference in Philadelphia November 8-9
The American Bar Association’s only standalone law marketing conference happens just once every two years, and it is less than two weeks away.
For a few hundred dollars and less than two days of your time, bring back to your law firm the latest in business development tools and information—on social media, measuring return on investment, lawyer rankings, ethics, use of video, business development training and many more topics.
The conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia includes five networking meal functions--two breakfasts, two lunches and a cocktail reception.
Conference Highlights:
• Dan Hill, the leading expert on facial coding, discusses the management of emotion in lawyer marketing.
• Peter Shankman, innovator and entrepreneur, talks about the ever-changing landscape of the Internet and its impact on the legal profession.
• The Power of Video in Lawyer Marketing and the Golden Gavel Awards shows the influence of videos on law marketing. Nearly 100 videos from some of the nation’s most prestigious law firms submitted videos to the Golden Gavel competition.
• Ethics, ROI, Social Media, Business Development Training, Lawyer Rankings, 10 x 10…more than 10 hours of educational programs in a day and a half.
Visit the conference site…
www.lawpractice.org/marketingconference
If you have any questions or would like access to my ABA conference friends & family rate, contact me directly at micah@htmlawyers.com
Posted by Micah at 01:43 PM
January 26, 2011
ABA New Partner & New In-House Counsel Conference
If your law firm is not yet sending people to the ABA’s New Partner and In-House Counsel Conference in Philadelphia on February 25-26, you are missing out on one of the premier business development opportunities that will come your way.
Besides a ridiculously low registration cost for a two-day conference at the Four Seasons Hotel ($385 before February 1), there are two tracks—one for new partners and another for new in-house counsel. The networking opportunities, including dinners and receptions, afford a chance to mingle with many major in-house corporate attorneys that are looking to work with firms like yours each and every day.
This is designed as an intimate conference that allows for a lot of interaction among people in positions to give out work and refer work to others. Consider forwarding this information to your firm’s newest partners and professional development staff. They will find that it is a low-cost, high impact, CLE opportunity.
I am proud to be serving on the planning board (and speaking) at the conference, as a guest of the ABA Young Lawyers Division (who are putting on the conference, with significant support from the ABA Law Practice Management Section and the ABA Litigation Section).
To see articles on the related topics, authored by many of the speakers, see the November issue of Law Practice Today, dedicated to the conference.
Posted by Micah at 01:44 PM
March 13, 2010
U.S. News Law Firm Rankings Are Poised to Change the Ratings Game
ABA Law Practice Today Webzine - March 2010 - Marketing
Chair's Column
By Micah Buchdahl
This is part one of a two-part column on the hotly contested topic of law firm and lawyer ratings and rankings services. Part two will detail the results of the program and accompanying attendee survey from November’s ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference.
Part Two of the Column will appear in the April issue of Law Practice Today.
Posted by Micah at 01:48 PM
February 13, 2010
Free Online Marketing: Billable hour cost - $468.75
A quick look at my blog will confirm to you that I need to practice what I preach...and that I'm a terrible blogger. The problem with playing in the online world of blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and their brethren is that they do not work for a lot of people like me--that have no billable time left in the day for business development.
Of course, I basically teach business development for a living. So you would think that after a day of yelling at the attorney who tells me he or she can not find the time to market that I might set a better example.
So while preparing a law firm's lesson plan for a how-to on utilizing social networking effectively, I decided to try and set a better example. First, I negotiated with the wife to take the kids out of the house on a Saturday for a few hours. Second, I in turn had to trade off a weekend visit to the gym to conduct this bold experiment.
I timed how long it took to promote an upcoming CLE speaking gig on a bunch of web sites...at no cost to me but my time...after finding the link to the CLE on the Pennsylvania Bar Institute web site, I proceeded to promote the program on one of my web sites, on this blog, on Avvo, on Justia, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Martindale Hubbell Connected...and 90 minutes later...that one upcoming event had been posted all over the place. My cost in time? $468.75.
I'm going to need to skip a lot of visits to the health club, because I'm probably about three dozen publications and at least another dozen speaking gigs behind...easier said than done.
The moral of the story...pick the one or two places you think will best position your data for success.
Posted by Micah at 02:13 PM
Friday, Februry 19, 2010--CLE with the Sixers: Lawyer Online Marketing Ethics – Dos and Don’ts of Advertising Your Law Practice in a Web 2.0 World
What better place to repeat the ever-popular "online marketing ethics" course for lawyers than in my old stomping grounds, before a Sixers game at the Wachovia Center...where I was an in-house attorney back in the day.
This new PBI program includes an hour of ethics CLE and a Sixers game against the San Antonia Spurs. To learn more or to register, visit the PBI Site.
The possible tools are endless – web sites, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, search engine optimization, referral resources, e-mail, etc. – and so are the ethics opinions, rules and interpretations of state bars coast-to-coast. Thinking about the states where you are licensed, where you have offices and where you seek clients…and staying compliant is enough to make your hard drive crash. This one hour program will examine the tools and the rules, so you can go out and use the business development opportunities on the Internet without running astray of the Rules of Professional Responsibility.
Posted by Micah at 12:53 PM
September 08, 2009
NLJ Op-Ed Piece Addresses Lawyer Advertising Rules
OPINION
Archaic rules hobble attorneys
Businesspeople and consumers would laugh at advertising limits on lawyers.
Micah U. Buchdahl
September 7, 2009
As the economy sputters and every morning's inbox is greeted with news of law firm layoffs and "out of business" signs, it highlights an obstacle to the business of law that is unique to this profession — often-stringent state bar rules of professional conduct related to advertising and marketing. For the past 30 years, state bars have taken a roller coaster approach to regulating lawyer advertising. However, the rules continue to block entrepreneurial lawyers and firms from soliciting and acquiring business at a time when "anything (ethical) to survive" should be the mantra.
Consumers and businesspeople alike would probably laugh at the regulations that are in place nationwide. In what essentially amounts to a federalist debate, attempts at national uniformity by entities such as the American Bar Association are met with resistance by the real owners of power, those who regulate all of our law licenses at the state level.
There is a laundry list of requirements in some states that range from preapproval filings of all lawyer ads to clumsy disclaimers. Enforcement arms of the state bars range from near-fanatical oversight to general uninterest. In a multijurisdictional practice world, firms need to monitor changing rules in dozens of states, with the result being that practice capabilities and competitiveness are hampered in a major market because of the need to comply in a small "satellite office" state. For example, a 500-lawyer firm with 495 attorneys in Washington, D.C., three in Florida and two in Connecticut would have to comply with the two latter-named states, even if the practice there was limited to a particular client or practice group. In a world dominated by online communication, this is more troubling than it might appear.
Attempts at heavy-handedness meet with mixed results in states such as Florida, New York, Connecticut, Louisiana, Missouri and New Jersey (to name a few). In recent years, some of the world's largest and most prestigious corporate law firms were forced to either scrap or change the way they sent out informational client alerts, due to the implied need to slap the phrase "ATTORNEY ADVERTISING" on the subject line of an e-mail. Pardon me, but I highly doubt the recipient, perhaps the general counsel of General Electric Co. or Johnson & Johnson, is hornswaggled (a legal term of art) by the trickery of a tax law update from Sullivan & Cromwell. I think the "this is not legal advice" disclaimer on the bottom probably would suffice.
Historically, through a slew of ethics opinions and court challenges, nobody has ever been able to show any data that suggest people have been harmed by lawyer advertising — accurate, misleading or otherwise. The concept that a loud and splashy TV ad for a personal injury firm, a law firm-sponsored "divorce seminar" at the Holiday Inn, or simply a brand-identity print ad in an industry publication involves varying degrees of trickery is simply unsubstantiated. And the underlying anti-advertising critics at many state levels are simply attorneys who just do not like it — and get on a small committee that can do something about it. Such is the way that law firms and the bars that regulate them operate.
Listen — (some) lawyers are smart people. We specialize (a word you better not use in your lawyer advertising…lots of words are violations) in the art of finding loopholes in laws, statutes and cases. The result is that the controls do not work anyway. Those harmed are often the average Joe or Joan Attorney just trying to promote his or her practice. A review of rules and opinions shows that those on the regulating committees are often out of touch and far removed from the realities of business development. Even in traditional advertising circles, trying to make sense of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and search engines can be a challenge. For old-tyme practitioners, it is just ridiculous. The opinions often show a lack of understanding. They are still stuck on Yellow Pages advertising (now that is archaic). The results are often laughable. Marketing methods continue to evolve — these folks are way behind the curve.
What exactly am I advocating here? Let ambulance-chasing lawyers run amok? Isn't that the real image and concern behind these arcane rules? Open the floodgates with distasteful and unprofessional billboards, Web sites and commercials? No — just let law firms market the way nearly every other business does. There are state and federal regulations that address consumer fraud and misleading claims. Let them deal with it. Many lawyers and law firms are trying to survive and prosper. The very people who should be helping them should start thinking about not being obstacles to their ability to earn a living. (Some) people are smart. They know the difference between a commercial and the news. I think they can figure it out.
Micah U. Buchdahl would like to say that he is an attorney who specializes in law firm marketing and business development, with particular expertise in advertising ethics. However, the words specialize and expertise would be a violation of lawyer advertising regulations. He is chairman of the American Bar Association's Section of Law Practice Management. He can be reached at micah@htmlawyers.com.
Posted by Micah at 11:35 PM
August 15, 2009
ABA Law Marketing Conference "Early Bird Rate" Expires August 31
The ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference takes place November 12-13, 2009 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. If you want to attend the nation's leading "by lawyers, for lawyers" marketing and business development conference, the expiration for the $595 early bird registration expires August 31.
Compare the program, faculty, venue and cost to any law marketing program...including two breakfasts, two lunches, networking reception, and two elite keynote speakers.
Topics covered include:
PR and Media Relations
Social Networking
Women Rainmakers
Advertising Ethics Issues
Rankings and Ratings
Technology Tools
Branding
Client Satisfaction Interviews
Niche Marketing
Community Involvement
Associate Development
Seminars
Due to space restrictions, the conference is limited to 200 participants.
Posted by Micah at 05:16 PM
