“Diversity in a City partnership: men in dark grey suits and in light grey suits” The “City” is London and thanks once again to the rollonfriday for yet another interesting post Clients force firms to take diversity seriously… Barclays, the mega UK based bank, has requested diversity stats from prominent City firms including: “Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, DLA, Freshfields, Linklaters, Lovells and Simmons & Simmons. And the bank confirmed that it would soon be requiring this information from every firm it instructs.” Please note that this list includes the largest and second largest law firm in the world. FastForward: Creating diversity quickly is no small challenge. Just ask our law firm clients in South Africa where “Black Empowerment” legislation requires almost immediate diversity. Solutions to rapidly acquiring diversity will in many cases require innovative approaches. I have posted before on creative solutions (see Ingenious Alliance to Create and Market Diversity) and rollonfriday makes reference today to London firm Berwin Leighton Paisner’s non-linear approach in …as BLP introduces alternative to partnership . Regardless of approach, any law firm that ignores diversity is doing so at its peril and will pay a price much sooner than many may have anticipated. The diversity movement is accelerating.
Patrick Lamb’s “Countdown” is Downright Motivational
Imagine that you were working with the law firm of a very prominent blogger on Saturday (In Search of Perfect Client Service)… and that expectations of you were high – imagine that blogger is Patrick Lamb with a highly respected voice that reaches the most influential ears associated with the management and marketing of our profession. That, my friends, is motivation – however Saturday goes, you can bet it will see me expending my very best efforts. Wish me well. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, have a look at Patrick Lamb’s blog post regarding my upcoming visit.
Signs of Bozosity
Guy Kawasaki two days in a row? Not my fault – his. Guy was traveling on: 
from 
to 
when he decided to create this email gem called The Effective Emailer. Guy recites a dozen sensible and perhaps essential rules of email etiquette. I almost called this post: “Don’t FUQ with me and I won’t FUQ with you” but then I thought it may not be so obvious that this Kawasakism really means “Fabricate Unanswerable Questions”. As for the title I chose, when you read #10 in his post you will learn how to avoid “a sure sign of bozosity”! FASTFORWARD: Our Edge International project for a non-email protocol to dramatically reduce emaill within organizations continues. I think we’re ahead of the curve (few people know they want this or care) which is exactly where we want to be. In the meantime, email behaviors neeed all the help they can get and I thing Guy Kawasaki’s contribution is the best I’ve seen recently. Stay tuned.
The Art of Schmoozing – Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki is quite extraordinary (click on his photo to see for yourself)… “evangelist, entrepreneur, investment banker, and venture capitalist” kind of sums it up but not quite. In his post today, he discusses The Art of Schmoozing… his list is not only consistent with some of the best academic work I have seen on the subject but he describes his steps in such a compelling way, for example, his third step is:
Ask good questions, then shut up. The mark of a good conversationalist is not that you can talk a lot. The mark is that you can get others to talk a lot. Thus, good schmoozers are good listeners, not good talkers. Ask softball questions like, “What do you do?” “Where are you from?” “What brings you to this event?” Then listen. Ironically, you’ll be remembered as an interesting person.
PUNCHLINE: Whether you are a Managing Partner or a CMO, share Guy Kawasaki’s 9 step list with your law firm. You may have to translate it a bit (removing words that twist the stomach of most lawyers – like “tradeshows” – gosh, what would a lawyer do at a trade show, or MySpace – heaven forbid.) However the wisdom in this list is far too valuable to overlook.
Mission Impossible: Serve and Satisfy?
Seth Godin provokes our thoughts with a very quick intellectual journey through service to expectations. In his post, What customer surveys measure, he teaches us not that serving and satisfying is impossible but that it is possible to do the former extremely well without doing the latter. TRANSLATION FOR LAWYERS: Excellent legal work is not enough. Excellent work plus managing expectations plus exceeding those expectations is indeed enough. Is your firm doing enough? Are your individual lawyers and client teams doing enough?
Fabulous Article by Bruce Marcus features 65 client teams at Akin Gump
(Click on photo for bio.) Bruce adds this terrific article to The Marcus Letter: ALL TOGETHER NOW – IT’S OUR CLIENT The Client Service Team As A Growing Phenomenon 
The article features Iris Jones who breathed life into this concept at Akin Gump. Bruce speaks very highly of her and her achievements – click on photo for bio. Bruce does a nice job of describing the elements that had to be in place at Akin Gump to support their client team initiative. Visit Bruce’s newsletter regularly. Just click on The Marcus Letter logo below. 
Brilliant or… you decide!
RollOnFriday is making fun of London based law firm CMS Cameron McKenna but do they deserve it – you be the judge. CMS Cameron McKenna is no slouch. According to their web site, they:
* are the primary counsel to 20 of the FTSE 350 * acted for 107 of the FTSE 350 in 2004-5 * have over 55 offices and associated offices worldwide * have over 130 partners and more than 700 other fee-earners * employ 59% female staff * are a founding member of CMS – the alliance of independent European law firms
So what does RollOnFriday find so amusing? It seems that the CMS Cameron McKenna recruiting web site has a prominent flash animation banner that focuses on relationships. What kind of relationships? Ummm you decide. Just click the green banner at the top of this page and watch the animated version for a few minutes – then you tell me exactly how you interpret the information they are presenting to thier recruits. PUNCHLINE: Those who conceived this idea (no pun intended) likely had the best of intentions hoping to demonstrate that if you join CMS Cameron McKenna you will not be operating in isolation. Somehow, I think the execution may have distorted the orginal vision. What do you think?
McEvoy’s Precision Niche Marketing Campaign TeleSeminar
Patrick McEvoy’s has another 90 Minute TeleSeminar scheduled for February 2nd and tomorrow is the deadline for a reduced registration cost. The full name of the seminar is: How To Create a Precision Niche Marketing Campaign That Will Start Bringing Results in 21 Days or Less” His headings look pretty cool:
The “Gigantic 4 Part Obstacle” you face in your niche marketing efforts that will NEVER go away. The ten biggest mistakes ALL law firms make in their niche marketing efforts. The difference between “tactical” and “strategic” marketing and why it’s killing your niche market development plans. Just how much a new niche client is really worth to you–and the answer will surprise you. Seven things you MUST do in your niche marketing and sales efforts to get results quickly. The real problem with law firm niche marketing that no one wants to talk about and–how you can solve the problem simply and mathematically. How to use “Relevancy Based Marketing” in your niche. The five step formula for getting niche prospects to call you. Follow up tools that massively increase niche penetration rates. How to attain your 2006 marketing goals with absolute assurance using the “Execution Imperative.”
For more information about Patrick McEvoy and his TeleSeminar, click here.
Avoiding the Nuclear Option
My colleague Ed Wesemann has a very interesting piece on using retooling as an option to terminating the underproductive partner. He notes that the termination option is often used because: “they simply don’t have the confidence that any other option will work”. In this post, Ed covers: Selecting Partners for Retooling The Retooling Process (Five Steps) Making Retooling Successful Check it out.
Marketing Partner Forum – Materials from Presentation
Private posting for registrants at Marketing Partners’ Forum – 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 thi sposting, kindly email me and I will remit it to you promptly.) Many thanks for attending the session.