Law and Justice

Posts Tagged ‘Services’

Copyright related advice provided is spread across various industry sectors such as media, technology and entertainment. This includes advice on registered as well as unregistered copy rights. Services offered include:

Registration of copyrights, Advice on copyright licensing, Copyright enforcement including Copyright dispute resolution (includes mediation arbitration and /or Court based litigation), Drafting enforceable copyright protection and assignment clauses in different agreements including employment agreements, shareholders agreements etc, Any related advice with regard to ownership, transfer or assignment of copyrights including but not limited to mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, slump sales, other arrangements and transactions including drafting relevant clauses in transaction documents and conducting negotiations on behalf of the client, Advice on related concepts like moral rights.

B. Trademarks

Lawyers advise on different businesses with regard to protection, transfer, enforcement of its goodwill in the trade name and trademark/s(registered as well as unregistered). Lawyers typically provide the following services:

Trademark registration including filing applications, lodging oppositions and cancellations, renewals etc, Trademark licensing and assignment advice, Advice on trademark related clauses in different agreements including commercial franchising agreements, employment agreements etc, Any related advice with regard to ownership ,transfer or assignment of trademarks during mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, slump sales, other arrangements and transactions including drafting relevant clauses in transaction documents and negotiating on behalf of the client, Advice on trademark infringement, Assistance in trademark protection and enforcement in related dispute resolution. (mediation, conciliation, arbitration and litigation), Trademark search, due diligence and research, Advice on matters related to unregistered trademarks including passing off actions and, Related advice on trademarks including trade names, domain names and service marks.

C. Patents

Lawyers and other professionals advise on non contentious as well as contentious patent and patent related matters. Services typically offered and provided include:

Patent searches for non-contentious, state of art, patentability, novelty, invalidity, opposition, infringement, freedom to operate, right to use, domination, patent watch, technology updates, Patent registration including connected searches, application, filing opposition etc. across (national, community and international)jurisdictions, Patent drawings, Commercialisation of patents including providing licensing and assignment related advice, Advice on patent infringement, Assistance in patent litigation and patent rights enforcement, Patent protection related advice, Any related advice with regard to ownership ,transfer or assignment of patents during mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, slump sales,other arrangements and transactions including drafting relevant clauses in transaction documents and negotiating on behalf of the client, Advice on patent related clauses in different agreements including commercial franchising agreements, employment agreements etc and

10.  Advice on related concepts such as trade secrets and confidential information as alternative modes of protection of intellectual property.

D. Designs

Advice provided typically includes

Filing design applications, Prosecuting design applications, All aspects to design registrations, Conducting design searches, Renewal of design rights, Advice on design infringement and assistance in enforcement of design rights, Advice on design protection in different kinds of agreements including employment contracts, Commercialisation of designs including assignment and licensing and Any related advice with regard to ownership, transfer or assignment of patents during mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, slump sales, other arrangements and transactions including drafting relevant clauses in transaction documents and negotiating on behalf of the client.

E. Trade Secrets and Confidential information

Both non contentious as well as contentious advice with regard to trade secrets and confidential information are provided by lawyers who are skilled at these matters.

F. Other intellectual property matters

Professionals also provide advice on any other kind of intellectual property and connected matters, including trade names, service marks, domain names and moral rights.

If your law firm is not growing (or worse yet, shrinking) and your revenue stream is down to a trickle, it’s high time to start being proactive with your marketing. One of the most important aspects of successful law firm marketing is the ability to clearly define and demonstrate the services which you offer. Put yourself in the shoes of your client for a moment. If you are not employing proven legal marketing techniques to tell them what you have to offer, why should they buy from you? If you don’t tell prospects how you are different from your competitors they will assume you are basically the same and start shopping you on price.

After many years of studying effective law firm marketing strategies, I have seen a common problem. Many attorneys communicate with prospective clients in a way clients do not understand. One of the biggest mistakes a lawyer can make is to use “legal jargon” when speaking with prospects. No one wants to feel stupid and would rather save face than risk embarrassment by asking you to define what you believe is a “common legal term”. Effective marketing for attorneys relies on your ability to be understood; without a clear understanding of what you can do for them, most clients will head for the nearest exit.

As a lawyer, you must uncover the words and phrases your clients use to describe their goals, challenges and problems. You must cross their “language barrier” before you can begin to entice them to learn more about how you can help them. For example, unless they have experienced it most people don’t know the difference between Chapter 7, 11, and 13 bankruptcy. Nor do they know the difference between a will, living trust, and an estate plan.

Here is a simple exercise which will help you accurately demonstrate your product and services:

1. Write down the terms and language you use to describe what you do to another professional in your field.

2. Now, write down the key words and phrases your clients use to describe your services to you. (If you can’t complete this step, start asking your clients and listen to them as they describe their problems.) Your ability to succeed in law firm marketing will rely, in part, on your willingness to write down the key words and phrases your clients are using and committing them to memory.

These two lists should be very different. If they overlap by 50% or more, you are probably not listening closely enough to prospects and clients. It is recommended that you go back to square one and ask more questions, listening more intently, if you expect your legal marketing efforts to be effective.

Review your current marketing materials closely.

Are they filled with terms from your list or your client’s list?

Which list of words predominate your legal marketing material, like your website and brochure?

Do your materials read like you are primarily addressing other attorneys or your prospects?

Is your marketing material filled with legal jargon and in-depth technical descriptions of your services? If so, remove them.

Could the “average man/woman” on the street pick up this material and know exactly who your ideal client is and how you can help them in thirty seconds or less?

Failing to cross your prospect’s language barrier is a common mistake seen in all forms of legal marketing. By spending the necessary time to analyze and update brochures, marketing materials and ads you will greatly improve your ability to connect with prospects and convince them to hire you.

What are these new attorney-client matching services? Who are the players? What do they cost? What is the risk to me? What is the return for me? What is the buzz on them? Are they ethical as marketing for law firms? Will they save me money and are they for me? Will they get me clients I would not have otherwise? The answers to these questions was begun in Part 1 which focused on the facts of this marketing for law firms vehicle. This article, Part II, gives you “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would say.

Conclusions and Recommendations on Attorney-Client Matching

Let me list my current thoughts/conclusions in this marketing for law firms niche of attorney-client matching services and from there it is up to you to make your decision:

1.This marketing for law firms vehicle clearly has some merit. This approach can deliver business to you that you would not get otherwise and get it to you now. Yes, you can do better and at least arguably cheaper for yourself through the right Internet attorney marketing strategies (see my website). However, it is not going to happen tomorrow and attorney-client matching can happen tomorrow. You can build your own systems while using these systems and then decide if you want to continue their systems or not. They will always probably get some business you would not have gotten otherwise even if you had your own online systems.

2.Unfortunately you are only “renting” the methods used to get the business you are being sent and don’t “own” the business methods used. If you had the correct Internet marketing for law firms system up you would have a salable asset in those systems and be driving traffic exclusively to you, which is better than this option almost certainly in the long run for most if not all attorneys. Additionally, as a general principle it is not good to be dependent on any one source of referrals as I am sure you know. That said I still think attorney-client matching services are a good option before you have your own Internet marketing systems and/or other marketing systems up. You may even want to continue these services after you have your own systems up. Having your own systems up makes you more secure and now you are at choice about staying with the service or not.

3.Who is this marketing for law firms vehicle for really?

a.Someone who needs more business right now. These systems have a stream of business coming right now and they can send it your way right now. Other attorney marketing systems will take some time to make happen and yield results.

b.Someone who is very, very clear they don’t want to be involved in the marketing process and are willing to pay someone else to do it for them even if it costs them more and they are “renting”. If that is you, then this is probably a good move for you. That said, you still are going to have to “close” the client they send you via email or on the phone so you are going to be involved in marketing at that level, just less marketing. You are never going to get away from that aspect unless you are an associate who does nothing but technical work in someone else’s practice (not that there is anything wrong with that).

c.Someone who is doing some attorney marketing that is not working for them or not working very effectively for them since if you stop what is not working and do this type that is working you may be able to reduce your marketing costs while increasing your revenue stream.

d.Finally, a partner level attorney who has a senior associate that has good people skills that could work this marketing for law firms vehicle and close the referred clients.

4.Who is this type of attorney marketing not for?

a.Someone who won’t attend to the referrals from the matching service most if not nearly every working day.

b.Someone who does not have fair to good “closing skills” or “bedside manner” (Note: you can get some coaching from these firms to improve this aspect if needed and/or see my website for more information on this skill set). You are not the only attorney getting the referral from the match firm so you need to “shine” well enough to get hired. There is still an element of competition involved with maybe 3 to 5 other attorneys who got the same referral.

c.Someone in a geographic area that does not generate a lot of referrals in your practice area. Like a rural area or small town or maybe an estate planner in a low-income area. So you see this marketing for law firms vehicle is not for everyone.

5.The negative information on LegalMatch and CasePost is somewhat troubling to me even though much of it is from the past and has been positively addressed. The negative information of the past on LegalMatch appears to have not troubled the Utah Bar, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. This is reassuring to me.

6.If you were reasonably sure this type of vehicle is for you I would go with LegalMatch first. I am presuming you are willing to work their system diligently and have at least low average “closing” skills (they will work with you to get your closing ratio up if you need some support in that area). Why LegalMatch? They have over 1500 members currently (a good sign I think), over 90 employees and have been in business longer. I figure that gives them an edge in knowledge, results and staying in business over time. Additionally, their “footprint” of bringing business to their members is almost certainly larger since they have more resources to drive business to their site than the others. If for some reason you are uncertain if this type of marketing for law firms is for you then I would go with LegalFish first. Why LegalFish? The LegalFish option would allow you to get into this marketing for law firms arena now with less expense and less risk than LegalMatch or CasePost. Do realize the LegalFish attorney marketing “footprint” is going to be much smaller than either of the other two services so they won’t be sending as large a volume of business your way almost certainly. Do be sure you have in your agreement with LegalFish that they will not charge you for the months they do not send you business. If you had a good experience working the referrals from LegalFish, diligently worked the system almost daily, realized a good return on your investment and you wanted to do more then I would look into LegalMatch next. Either starting with LegalMatch or LegalFish, if you find that you really liked this approach to marketing for law firms there is nothing wrong with belonging to two or even three of the services.

7.If you decide to become a member with LegalMatch, Case Post and/or LegalFish do remember your financial arrangement and term of membership are somewhat to greatly negotiable. Do negotiate a win/win agreement for yourself. Naturally, if you can get references of current members to contact from them in your practice area and in a similar type market to yours so much the better before you sign your agreement.

8.I probably would not go with Lawyers dot com at this point. Why? First, no guarantee. Next Lawyers dot com does not appear to me to be promoting that part of the site enough. Additionally, I am not sure it is worth the cost of the bio and the fee that together will run at least $2,400 for the year. I suspect this money could be better put to use with one of the “big three”. Lastly, given the consumer has a list of attorneys that could be large (search on the site for your zip code and practice areas and see how large it is for your area) you are going to be in a crowd I fear. Thus it looks like not much business and it seems no way to impact the consumers’ thinking in your direction at the point where they are selecting who to contact. An exception to this thinking is if you already have a bio listing with them (and it is delivering business to you) this add on service might be a useful attorney marketing move given you are only spending $495 more per year. That said keep good records and see if it produces you any business. If not you would stop the service of course.

9.With respect to LegalConnection dot com I probably would not go with them at this point. Why? No guarantee. I do see it as an advantage that it is a stand-alone away from the FindLaw site. For that reason alone I would favor it over Lawyers dot com, however, I don’t see LegalConnection or Lawyers dot com as being in the same class as the “big three” at this point in time.