Legal Marketing & PR

Lawyer 2.0: The Collaborative Lawyer

By Larry Bodine, Esq.

Follow the high points of the CMO Forum in Chicago on Twitter: #LCMO

First can the lawyer as Valued Advisor, someone whose advice the client trusted.  Second came the Trusted Advisor, a person whom the client trusted.  Now, according to Darryl Cross, VP of Client Profitability for LexisNexis, what clients want is the Collaborative Advisor -- a lawyer who introduces his contacts to his clients and lending sources.

Speaking at the CMO Forum going on now in Chicago, Darryl said it boils down to 10 techniques:

1. Always try to improve the bottom line of your clients.
2. The Collaborative Advisor works with lawyers and law firms to offer a broader/bigger service team to clients.
3. You must already know what keeps your client up at night.  The Collaborative Advisor talks with others who can inform him of the issues facing the client. He visits the client and distinguishes himself by the informed questions he asks.
4. The Collaborative Advisor shares his information internally about the client.
5. He plays matchmaker, introduces clients to each other, finds them financing sources, and enlarges the client network.
6. Copy your collaboration system. During the course of working on a matter of a client, post information on an intranet or internal blog with information you learn about your client.
7. Collaborative Advisors reciprocate.  If the client recommends him, or a referral source sends a piece of new business, the collaborative ad visor reciprocates.
8. Contribute to the conversation online, don't dominate it.  It can be just as effective for business development to comment on other people's blogs.
9. Don't support policies you would never want your client to hear.  In other words, if there are arguments internally about origination, how do lawyers get paid for business development and the hoarding of clients -- it's time to look at the issue from the client point of view.
10. Track your client's profitability as if your job depended on it. If you can demonstrate that retaining your firm will make the client more money, they'll be lining up to retain you.

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on September 15, 2009 (boomark / email).