Law and Justice

Posts Tagged ‘Successful’

Success can be measured in a variety of ways– accumulation of wealth, recognition by one’s peers, a lifestyle of luxury, etc. When it comes to defining the success of a law firm marketing strategy, it can best be summed up like this: “The ability to find and retain more and better clients”.

Over many years, the comprehensive study of successful marketing for lawyers has revealed ten proven principles upon which each firm should begin to build its marketing platform:

1. People: Who is your Ideal Target Market (ITM)? Who are your best and worst clients; how much do you know about them? What makes your clients choose you to work with? Without a clear understanding of the people you are targeting, your legal marketing efforts will be doomed.

2. Product: Which services do you provide? How do you describe your services to prospective clients? What does the client perceive they are buying from you?

3. Positioning: Know your competitors! Who are they? What makes you better or different than your competitors? What do you offer prospects that no one else can? If you don’t know who/what “you’re up against”; legal marketing will be difficult, to say the least.

4. Packaging: What does your law firm marketing image “say” about you and your company? What type of image do you want to present to prospects? High end? Low cost? Impersonal and corporate? Friendly and personal?

5. Place: Where do prospects find out about your firm? What techniques do you employ to find new clients?

6. Price: No legal marketing can be successful without understanding the importance of pricing. How do you price your services? What’s the competition charging? How can you convince prospects they’re getting “more for their money” working with you? Where do your prices fall in terms of price range? Are you the most costly, the least expensive or somewhere in the middle? How can you earn top dollar and keep more clients?

7. Promotion: Are you marketing your services to the right prospects? What legal marketing techniques do you utilize to weed out the good clients from the bad? What types of people are responding to your promotions?

8. Persuasion: Legal marketing requires persuasion; sometimes a good deal of persuasion. How do you convince “lookers” to become “buyers”? How much time and effort are you putting in to building long-term relationships with clients? How do you go about relationship-building?

9. Performance: Is your client turnover rate high? Why? Law firm marketing and referral sources simply cannot succeed without client retention. How do you identify your best clients? What types of things are you doing to keep them happy? If you are not putting in the effort to keep your valuable clients, there are many other firms that will be waiting in the wings to take them away from you.

10. Plan – Answering the first nine questions will enable you to take the first steps toward developing an Action Plan for successful law firm marketing.

Following these ten principles of legal marketing will significantly increase your chance of success.

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In victories against piracy, Nintendo Co Ltd (Nintendo) successfully protected its copyright. These cases illustrate that infringers can be tracked down and with serious consequences

The facts

James Burt, 24, of Sinnamon Park, Brisbane copied New Super Mario Bros — one of Nintendo’s new Wii games — and uploaded it to the internet a week before its official Australian release on 12 November 2009.

Under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth), Burt should have sought Nintendo’s permission, as the copyright owner, before copying and distributing its games.

As a result of Mr Burt’s conduct, thousands of people around the world downloaded illegal copies of the game causing substantial loss to Nintendo.

What action did Nintendo take?

Once notified of the breach, Nintendo engaged a private investigator to apply sophisticated technology to determine the identity of the infringer, Burt.

On 23 November 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court order to search Burt’s residence. During the search, Nintendo seized property to use as evidence to substantiate its claims against Burt. The Court ordered Burt to allow access, including passwords, to his social networking sites, email accounts and websites.

What was the outcome?

Nintendo then sued Burt in the Federal Court of Australia. Under an out-of-court settlement in January 2010, Burt is required to pay Nintendo $1.5 million in damages to compensate Nintendo for the loss of sales revenue and a further $100,000 to pay Nintendo’s legal costs.

Copyright infringement is taken seriously by the courts. This case illustrates the broad range of orders and remedies that can be obtained from the courts to successfully protect your copyright.

The lesson

This case highlights the severe penalties that are imposed on individuals or companies that infringe copyright laws. Be cautious when dealing with copyright material. Even if your breach is unintentional, action can be brought against you. Companies such as Nintendo are becoming more pro-active and innovative in pursuing offenders. In a statement, Nintendo commented that it guards its intellectual property rights to protect the interests of its consumers, its own interests and the interests of game development companies.

Another win for Nintendo

Since this decision, Nintendo has won another Australian Federal Court case. This case was against online console and accessory seller IT Solutions Pty Ltd trading as GadgetGear — involving the gadgets known as R4 cards, which pirate games for its handheld DS system.

GadgetGear and its directors have acknowledged that:

the game copying devices infringe both Nintendo’s copyright and Nintendo’s trademarks; and
they are illegal circumvention devices.

As a result of this case, GadgetGear and the directors have agreed to permanently refrain from importing, offering for sale and/or selling game copier devices.

GadgetGear and directors Patrick and James Li were ordered to pay Nintendo $620,000 in damages and hand over all their stock of copiers to Nintendo for destruction.

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Academic success, whichever field you’re in, requires preparation.  If you’re aiming for acceptance in law school, then consider the various extra-curricular organizations you can join during your pre-law.  When choosing an organization during your pre-law, ask yourself these questions: How important is my participation in these activities?  Will these organizations help me develop my skills to be successful in law school?

Your involvement in these organizations can also serve as topics for your winning personal statement law school.  Joining various organizations during pre-law can also serve as preparation since law schools also have various organizations you can choose from to further hone your skills while in law school.  

Joining law school organizations

Law school organizations offer various activities to prepare students for the actual legal scene.  However, joining should not be because you want something on your resume, but because you share the same beliefs that they uphold.  Here are some law school organizations that can hone your skills as a future lawyer.

Student-run journals

Joining a law school journal is one of the most prestigious activities you can do while in law school.  Most schools have several student-run journals.  These include the general journal, also called the “law review,” and specialized law journals (ex: Environmental Law Journal, Global Studies Law Review, Corporate Law Journal, Gender and Equality Law Review, and Taxation Law Journal).  If you have journalistic experience during your pre-law, joining a law school journal becomes easier.  By joining law school journals, your ability to write is further honed.  Keep in mind that excellent writing skills are important when pursuing a legal career.

Legal competitions (moot court and mock trial)

The most common legal competitions are the mock trial and moot court.  In a mock trial, students role-play as attorneys and witnesses.  They present a case to a judge and a jury. Most law schools have mock trial teams that compete against other schools.

Moot court, on the other hand, is a simulated court proceeding which includes drafting briefs and participating in oral arguments.  Even if moot means a gathering of prominent men in a locality to discuss matters of local importance, moot court does not involve actual testimony by witnesses or the presentation of evidence.  It is just focused on the application of law to a set of assumptions based on evidences.  A moot court is considered more prestigious than a mock trial, although involvement in both are attractive to potential employers hiring litigators because a good moot court participant will always make an effective litigator.

Student associations

Law schools also have various student associations.  One comprehensive group that is open to all students is called the “Student Bar Association.”  Also, there are national law student fraternities that serve as social organizations open to all students.  This organizations’ activities include academic conferences, publications, and coordination with other student associations from other law schools.

Debate teams

Communication skills gained from experience in debates and making speeches is yet another parameter for law schools. A potential candidate needs to communicate ideas clearly to be a successful lawyer.

Indeed, extracurricular activities can help you hone your skills as your pursue a legal career.  Your resume will also look good if you’re able to find organizations whom you share your passion and beliefs with.

Despite your very best legal marketing efforts, your firm may fail to reach its potential if you forget one important principle: POSITIONING (Communicating Your Benefits). This principle deserves a prominent place in any law firm marketing plan.

We are all familiar with the saying, “The lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client”. It would be equally foolish, in law firm marketing, to not learn about and understand your competition. How can you possibly use legal marketing to your best advantage if you don’t know what (and whom) you are up against? The importance of understanding your competition can not be overemphasized. Do the work now to learn about them or run the risk of underestimating them and learning via losing a big prospect later.

A crucial component of marketing for attorneys is to understand positioning. The first step to achieving positioning requires knowing and understanding your competition; specifically:

Names of law firms

Names of their partners

Which services they do and do not provide

How much they charge (per hour, any retainer size)

Who they target with their legal marketing efforts

Approximate annual revenues

Which law firm marketing techniques they use to find clients

Growth strategies

If this seems like a great deal of work, remember how absolutely imperative having this information is to your law firm’s marketing success.

Other things you will need to know:

How they position themselves in the marketplace (elite, cheapest, biggest, highly-specialized, bi-lingual)

Their relative strengths and weaknesses

Do they have a reputation for settling out of court or litigate everything

Their win-loss record (if applicable)

Legal marketing does consist of a number of components; this is one that definitely deserves your time and attention. By studying and learning from your top competitors (especially the successful ones) you will reap many benefits. For instance, your research may reveal untapped areas in the current market or discovering benefits they don’t (or can’t) provide which your firm can. By studying others’ law firm marketing techniques, you may find ways that you can better market your own firm; including ways to creatively package your services.

You will want to fully assess and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Remember, every company and every person has them; even you. It is just as important to know your own strengths and weaknesses as it is your competitors. The goal is to build your business around your natural strengths, while developing, delegating or outsourcing areas that are weak.

An important rule of legal marketing to keep in mind: Do not be intimidated by your competitors’ strengths; you can always find ways to use their strengths against them. For example:

If they’re bigger, you are smaller and specialized.

If they offer numerous services, you specialize in two areas and focus capturing a larger market share in those areas.

If they have beautiful, expensive offices, you charge less due to lower overhead.

If they have several associates, your client’s receive the expertise of working directly with a partner without being double billed.

Your law firm’s marketing efforts will be amply rewarded when you find creative ways to use your competitor’s strengths against them.

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