My session on Tuesday May 24 will be: Redefining the Relationship between the Business and IT Today’s most pressing IT challenges involve changing business processes. This session explores strategies for achieving closer alignment and communication between IT and the business from gaining essential management buy-in to working closely with business personnel to understand requirements and drive change and quality improvements. IT staffers need to be able to relate to the business and ask the right questions, while the department as a whole needs to provide better transparency and articulate more clearly their current objectives and activities. At a philosophical level, both sides need to come to an agreement on the fundamental question of who should drive and own business process change: business or IT. This “by invitation only” event os for the CIO’s and Technology Partners of top global law firms. Advisory Board: 
Mirror mirror, on the wall
Tim Collins, founder of Juris, Inc gets an artisan in Seattle to make mirrors because at Juris, Inc there is one of every desk. Find out why (and decide if you need one) at the morepartnerincome post called: How People Respond to Attorneys and Vice Versa. 
Make Your Lawyers Client Magnets
I am pleased to have been invited to present a Teleseminar for the Association of Legal Administrators and thier lawyer guests called
Make Your Lawyers Client Magnets
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 2-4 pm Eastern 1-3 pm Central Noon-2 pm Mountain 11 am-1 pm Pacific Many lawyers would rather do anything but marketing and selling, while other lawyers thrive on these activities. But the market for clients is becoming more and more competitive. Even long-term clients are shopping around for legal services. It is critical that attorneys, even partners, acquire the skills they need to “bulletproof” their relations with their existing clients and learn how to interest and attract new ones. In this teleseminar, you will learn how to determine who your best clients are and how to glue them to your firm. In addition, you will learn how to use the firm’s inside rainmakers to teach attorneys the necessary skills to build and strengthen their business. Learn how to overcome challenges and to change the lawyers’ mindsets about marketing/client development selling! Hour 1 – Special Opportunity Invite your partners, managing partners, senior associates and marketing partners to attend the first hour of the program that will cover the importance of learning the skills to retain existing “crown jewel” clients and to attract new ones. At the end of the first hour there will be time for Q&A with the speaker. Encourage them to ask questions so they come away understanding how important it is to build the real skills of client development. Hour 2 Learn how you, the firm administrator, can create and implement a program in your law firm to raise awareness of the importance of acquiring business development skills. You will also learn how to teach these key skills to your associates. Find out how to overcome the challenges of lawyers being too busy or too reticent to “market.” There will be additional Q&A following this segment. Click here for registration details.
Billion-Dollar-Deal Law Firm + Videocasts = ?
Here’s a part of what New York and Toronto Law Firm “Torys” says about itself:
Torys LLP is an international business law firm with more than 330 New York and Toronto lawyers. Our strength lies in working with clients on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and major litigation matters. In addition, the firm’s expertise in a wide range of other practice areas enables us to focus on the needs of our business clients. Our New York and Toronto lawyers work together to offer a unique wealth of talent, experience and seamless cross-border service to clients on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border and around the world.
Visit Torys’ Video Center and have a look at the three 3+ minute video casts. PUNCHLINE: The subject matter is pretty esoteric – one question is whether anyone (besides me) watches these presentations. Of even greater interest is the fact that they are doing videocasting at all. Personally I can’t resist the observation that whether anybody is watching or not, they at least look pretty savvy to their existing and prospective clients. Maybe your firm should consider following suit – you will still be early in the game. CREDIT: See the Globe and Mail story “Torys tunes in to latest pop-tech craze” by BEPPI CROSARIOL from whom I learned about this.
Entrepreneurial Marketing Professionals Wanted
Our consulting firm, Edge International, has been engaged by a mid-sized law firm in Virginia that strongly believes in the stick to your knitting approach. They have asked us to assist them in identifying viable companies to which they can outsource their entire marketing support function. My Edge International colleague, Ed Wesemann, has posted about this on his Creating Dominance Blog under the title Sticking to Their Knitting A copy of the Request for Qualifications is available for down load at Ed’s Blog and he has agreed to post about the kind of responses we receive.
PLEASE pass this forward to anyone you know who may be interested in this opportunity. Thank you in advance.
Just take a look – it will cost you only a few seconds, unless
I am not sure that an explanation can do justice to this
so have a look/listen and tell me whether this was relevant to you and why
Try them all – but don’t leave without experiencing variation #11. Whatever your reaction to all this, thank you for looking/listening
Thank you “Law Practice Today”
I owe a big thank you to “Law Practice Today” and writer Tom Mighell for including this Blog in a story about new blogs. Tom says, in part:
It’s really amazing that we have experts in legal marketing providing relevant, useful information on literally a daily basis
Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas, author of the Internet Legal Research Weekly and Inter Alia, a legal research weblog and a member of the ABA TECHSHOW 2006 Planning Board. Check out the article for the other blogs mentioned.
My humble thanks to Ben Cowgill
Once in a while, when you least expect it, something quite moving and wonderful happens to you. While I was presenting to an association of UK law firms meeting in Barcelona last Saturday, Ben Cowgill, lawyer, teacher, consultant and author of Ben Cowgill on Legal Ethics, paid my work a great compliment on his highly-regarded website and weblog devoted to legal ethics and the law of lawyering. Ben was kind enough to comment on my book and Audio programs: The Successful Lawyer (ABA 2005). Thank you very much, Ben – coming from you, a sincere honor.
Bruce Marcus adds blog to Newletter
Bruce Marcus has added The Marcus Perspective (Blog) to the already famous Marcus Letter. Bruce is a prolific author and a pioneer in professional service firm marketing. Check out these excerpts from his bio:
editor of the award-winning The Marcus Letter author of fifteen books speechwriter for many of the Fortune 500 companies, and major national political figures, including Robert Kennedy awarded the Silver Anvil of the Public Relations Society of America served as an adjunct professor at Fordham Graduate School of Business Administration he has been consultant to Goldman Sachs; Lehman Brothers; Blyth Eastman Dillon; Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; CitiCorp and Chemical Bank. He has also been an economic and marketing consultant to the governments of Turkey and Puerto Rico, and is a past President of the New York Association of Business Economists.
Check out the complimentary White Paper, Advancing the Retreat, offered at his new Blog
Law South Barcelona Meeting May 5, 2006
Private posting for members/particpants at Barcelona Meeting – you may now download my presentation. Conference organizers will be contacting you with password. (If you have not received password by the time you see this posting, kindly email me and I will remit it to you promptly. (Member/Participants Only) Many thanks for attending the session.