In order to transform something you must be innovative. Being innovative means doing something first, ahead of your compitition. Lawyers and Law Firms are not known for being first for much. Two books you must read now are "Blue Ocean Strategy", by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, and "Our Iceberg is Melting", by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber.

In the first book, "Blue Ocean Strategy", it paints a vivid picture of what is possible when you go out and get ahead of your competititon. The second, "Our Iceberg is Meltin" is a very clever story about how to get people to move with you into uncharted territory. The are both quick and valuable reads-enjoy!

Recently I have been in talks with two National Canadian firms. One is investing in their people this year the other is not. Can you guess what the next few years are going to look like for the firm that is investing? Here are some hints: better retention, higher revenues, increased client loyalty, and on it goes. So ask yourself is 2010 going to be the year you go for it or are you going to let the other guys get there first?

With most law firms frozen in their tracks and budgets cut or illiminated, it would be so easy for those who have even just a bit of courage to stand out in the marketplace.

 Want to know how? Email me for our White Paper on Law Firm Innovation. gary@gemcommunications.ca

In these tough economic times lawyers and law firms should be focusing their attention and efforts on helping their clients find and create more value. Your clients are feeling more pressure than ever to find value for their organizations. So don’t wait for them to come to you, go to them first, be proactive. Learn everything you can about their business so you are better equipped to understand what and how you can offer more value. Let’s take a look at three key areas where you can work to provide your clients with more value.

1. Your services- Are there ways for you to bundle certain services together to offer more value. Or how about un-bundling to match the exact needs of your clients. After having spent more time getting to understand their business you will be in a good position to offer new ways of providing more value to your clients.

2. Alternative billing strategies- Are there alternate billing strategies that you could be offering your clients. While the dialogue around the billable hour has been going on for years, those firms that are first to come up with alternatives giving their clients more value will come out of this economic cycle way ahead of their competition. So get out there and talk to them. Find out what makes sense for each of your clients. So may be perfectly happy with the billable hour model. Fine, at least you have taken the time to offer them an alternative showing you truly care about their wellbeing.

3. Value based relationships- While it’s nice to take your clients out for lunch or dinner, what they really want, what they really need is for you to spend more time with them trying to find ways to offer more value. So help your lawyers understand the need to be proactive in their client relationships. As a firm, In stead of throwing tens of thousands of dollars at your annual client event, which rarely produces more than a few hang-overs, take some of that money and hold quarterly dinner meetings with a select group of your clients; in effect creating a client advisory board. Share best practices and help your clients learn from each other. This will go a lot farther then simply entertaining them.

Again, in tough times those firms that can truly find ways to offer more value to their clients will be in a position of strength coming out on the other side. This approach builds solid long term and loyal relationships.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being one of the speakers to delegates at this year’s Globalaw America’s Regional Conference in Banff. Speakers included Michael Fogel, Director of Leadership Development with GEM, Michael Rabinovici, VP of AR Communications, David Bilinski of Thoughtfullaw, and Charles Casey, with Martindale-Hubbell. Many thoughtful discussions insued and one thing became very clear. The delegates who came from all over South America, the Carribean, North America and Europe all share the same challenges and concerns.

So if everyone agrees that changes must be made to the way law firms operate as a business, why has there not been more movement to make these changes? FEAR! The fear of being first; trying something new. Surely there must be thought leaders out there willing to capitalize on this economic cycle and move quickly to make changes to better serve clients. The opportunities for those firms willing to re-invent themselves are boundless. Most will sit on their hands, and bury their heads in the sand to ‘wait it out’. So it would seem logical then, that the firms that even make slight changes or innovations to the way they serve their clients can position themselves way out in front of their competition and come out of this cycle stronger for it.

What does this require? Leadership.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to have the willingness to try new things. Not only think outside of the box, but get rid of the box entirely. Recycle it. Let your competition use it.

So where are the leaders?

In times of economic uncertainty, one of the first places law firms look to cut is from the marketing budget.
If you’re a marketing partner or marketing professional, now is the time to present a 2009 marketing plan that proves your worth (and saves your job!).

Show them that this crisis actually equals opportunity, by designing cost-effective, high-return strategies that will allow your firm to weather this economic storm and come out on top. For example:

1. Renegotiate client deals

There couldn’t be a better time for innovation in the way you charge for legal services. Not only are some or most of your clients hurting right now, but corporate counsel has long been calling for better value. Help your lawyers to understand why this is important and then suggest ways to offer better service and value to their clients.

The return: Nothing will instil greater loyalty than this one simple step. It will strengthen how clients view your firm and your services, and will virtually make your firm invaluable to them.

2. Improve your firm’s relationship-building tactics

Help each of your lawyers develop a business plan focused on where, how, when and with whom to build relationships. Help them build stronger relationships internally, with their target market, and with new potential markets. Your lawyers are more likely to try new approaches now that the old ones may not be proving as fruitful.

The return: New clients in new markets, and the cultivation of strong referral networks that will keep the pipeline flowing your way.

This marketing crisis equals your opportunity to reinvent your role as a marketer and offer tangible benefits to your firm. When this happens, your firm will not only ride out this economic downturn — you will emerge from the other side much stronger for it.

In Part 2 of this post, we’ll explore two more strategies for marketing through the crisis and seizing the opportunities within.

So is this current economic cycle going to force law firms to operate differently? The answer is-the smart ones will. Moving forward, law firms that wish to excel and continue to operate must do so from a client centric approach. The current law firm business model will not support that.

So, here is a model you might consider. You mirror the best practices of your most successful corporate clients to create a corporate governance. The aim is to create a lean, nimble, proactive management team able to make swift decisions and changes on a dime. Change is all around us and it’s only those firms that are able to be proactive and quickly react to market and client trends that will survive in the long run.

At the top you have one dedicated person, call them what you want, to lead the firm. Their sole responsibility is to lead. Whether that person is a lawyer or not, they are not managing a practice at the same time as leading the firm.

Under them and to support them in their role is a body of people-again, call it what you want. This ‘team’ is made up of people who possess the following skills: communication; leadership; marketing; analytical; management; and team building. They are all highly respected individuals who are able to effectively communicate the urgancy with which to act and make changes. They are also elected to these positions by the partnership.

Under that is a board of your practice group leaders. The catch here is that they too are elected. This time however, associates and contract lawyers are able to elect these leaders. Why include the associates? Who best to choose the most effective leaders than the people most reliant on that leadership. This will help your firm do away with appointments based solely on seniority, politics, large book of business or lacking book of business.

Now of course, there will be variations on this model depending on the size and culture of your firm. But the basic principles of transparent oversight, nimbleness, effective decision making and client centric approach must still apply.

In this current economic cycle you basically have two choices. The first is to be a victim of all the doom and gloom out there, while the second is to look at this time as one of opportunity. That is the first step to your future success is changing your mindset from negative to positive, from scarcity to abundance, from victim to opportunist.

So where are the opportunities? In BEING innovative in the way you connect with your clients and future clients. The greatest impact will come from being innovative in three key areas:

1. How you serve your clients

2. How you opperate as a business

3. How you develop the talent that serves your clients

Serving your clients:

• Look for ways to offer more value (create value-based relationships rather than social-based)
• How can you customize or re-bundle or even un-bundle your services
• Look for alternatives to the billable hour
• Get inside your client organization-get under the skin and learn everything you can about their challenges, goals, threats and opportunities
• Find out what they need and give them more

Operating as a business:

• Articulate the vision
• Streamline decision making to become nimble and proactive to client and market needs
• Adopt the governance of your most successful clients
• Empower more people
• Engage at all levels within the firm
• Leverage the skills and experience of your C-level staff

Developing your talent:

• Top down and bottom up, provide your lawyers and staff with the skills they need to succeed
• Integrate your programs so that the sum of their parts is greater than the individual results and provides long lasting results
• Start with pilot programs where you align your early adopters with practice areas that either have the greatest need for changes, or the greatest potential for growth
• Reward abilities and results

The challenges facing law firms are hardly new. What is different is the way they have all converged at a time of economic uncertainty. There has not been a better time in recent history to capitalize on the fear out their to make effective and lasting changes.