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The ABCs of the SAC: a Primer on LMA’s Strategic Alliance Committee by Marni MacLeod
As a relative newbie on LMA’s Strategic Alliance Committee (SAC), I spent my first year playing “decipher the acronym” and trying to follow conversations comprised of strings of letters punctuated by the odd verb. This was sometimes challenging because if you don’t know the players, the dialogue starts to sound a bit like alphabet soup. So, for those of you new to LMA or those of you wondering what the SAC does, here is a primer. Let’s start with what you know. Legal marketing is incredibly diverse and legal marketers are often called on to identify and learn to use an ever-expanding range of tools and resources. What you may not know is that the SAC’s mandate is to help secure access to quality resources, knowledge and training to help LMA members succeed in their increasingly demanding roles.The SAC actively seeks out connections with associations, organizations and service providers that contribute directly or indirectly to LMA’s goal of creating a vibrant community of legal marketing professionals and that demonstrate LMA’s values of professionalism, integrity, leadership, innovation, collaboration and a commitment to education. To fulfill its mandate, the SAC identifies, assesses and explores what other professional organizations related to the legal industry have to offer, with a view to augmenting the legal marketer’s tool kit. We accomplish this through the auspices of SAC ambassadors who volunteer their time to build relationships with groups the committee has identified as sharing and supporting LMA goals and values. Once the ice is broken, the committee assesses and evaluates whether the particular entity is an appropriate candidate for a strategic alliance. In this case, a strategic alliance is defined as “A purposeful relationship with an association, organization or service provider, which may or may not be contractual, in which specific benefits have been negotiated for both parties and in which there is an expectation of mutual accountability for delivery of such benefits.” Just to make it fun, there are several different categories of alliances: Affiliates, Partners in Education & Programming (P/EP), and Friends of LMA. Affiliates: LMA members enjoy the exchange of the affiliate organization’s publications, access to Web sites and participation in seminar programs and conferences at member rates. Currently, LMA’s affiliates include:
LMA LM A Vi Visi sits ts th thee ACC Meet Meetin ing g by April Jones Last October, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) hosted its annual meeting in Seattle. ACC welcomed more than 2,600 attendees, speakers and sponsors to the four-day event, which included more than 100 CLE programs.
Value Challenge ACC also used the conference to showcase its findings from the ACC Value Challenge. Over the summer, focus g roups from law fir ms and legal departments around the country met to reexamine how firms provide services and value to in-house clients.The ACC Value Challenge is a major initiative for ACC and its regional chapters, and the hope is that the lessons learned will generate a dialogue to help identify best practices for the relationship between in-house counsel and their law firms. Susan Hackett, ACC’s general counsel, has also presented the findings of the study to multiple LMA chapters. Despite the economy, ACC recently announced that its membership is growing, and according to LMA member and ACC Director of Business Development Lucy Jones, “has reached the 25,000 mark.”The 2009 ACC Annual Meeting will be held in Boston. I April Jones is marketing manager, Financial Advisory Services, Deloitte Services LP and a member of the LMA Strategic Alliances Committee. She serves as LMA’s SAC ambassador to the ACC. Jones can be reached at apriljones@deloitte.com or 202/378-5517.
> APSMA (Asia-Pacific Professional Services Marketing Association); > PSMG (the Professional Services Marketing Group); and, > SCIP (the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals). Partners in Education & Programming alliances provide LMA members with discounts at P/EP events, access to each P/EP organization’s research and more. LMA’s P/EPs include: Continued on page 18
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Doing Well by Doing Good Continued from page 16
through its pro bono work helps cultivate new clients, referral sources and prospective recruits. Pro bono and other volunteer activities are ripe for marketing opportunities, including press releases for media coverage as well as announcements in the firm’s newsletter, Web site and blog. Be sure to display articles, posters, plaques, awards and other items commemorating the firm’s pro bono and volunteer work. In addition, ask the non-profit(s) that the firm assists to include the firm’s name on their Web site and in their marketing materials, if they don’t do so already.
Pro bono work enhances the firm’s credibility and visibility; it also cultivates relationships with clients and future business referrals. One case study for pro bono work involves a St. Petersburg attorney who became an overnight celebrity in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area through his volunteer work. Despite running a busy commercial and real estate practice, Murray Silverstein devoted 500 hours of non-billable time last year to reuniting two Hurricane Katrina victims with their dogs. The indigent family from Louisiana sought help from a legal aid organization in St. Petersburg after learning their dogs had been adopted by two local residents, one of whom was a well-known state prosecutor. Knowing that Silverstein has a soft spot for dogs, the organization
The ABCs of the SAC: a Primer on LMA’s Strategic Alliance Committee Continued from page 12
> LSSO (the Legal Sales and Services Organization) and > SMPS (the Society for Marketing Professional Services). Friends of LMA are professional services marketing organizations that share LMA’s dedication to performance standards and professional development and provide access to international resources. Those include: > Legal Marketing Italia; and > PMN (the Professional Management Network) in Germany. Once we’ve established a relationship, we nurture and monitor it to ensure it continues to provide mutual benefits. We also have ambassadors actively networking with the ALA (Association of Legal Administrators), the AALL (American Association of Law Librarians), the ABA (American Bar Association), the PRSA (Public Relations
recruited him to take the case.After a formidable year-long legal battle, Silverstein and the hurricane victims prevailed when both adopters agreed to return the pets. The story was widely publicized in local newspapers and legal publications. Although Silverstein regularly handles multi-million dollar cases, his pro bono victory brought him more media coverage than he had ever enjoyed in his career. When it comes to pro bono work, sometimes time is better than money. Although non-profit organizations rarely object to financial donations, the value of free legal services provides an equally significant – if not greater – benefit, given the high cost of attorney fees. For example, when a lawyer whose typical hourly rate is $250 spends 14 hours drafting discovery responses, preparing a motion and attending a hearing on behalf of a legal aid client, that lawyer donates the equivalent of $3,500. The legal aid organization would otherwise have to collect donations from 10 people at $350 apiece to pay for those services. In addition to the personal fulfillment inherent in pro bono and other volunteer work, law firms can benefit greatly from a marketing standpoint. Publicizing and actively promoting their pro bono efforts through online, media and personal channels allows firms to build brand recognition, reputation and relationships with clients and referral sources. I Jowita L.Wysocka is a former civil litigation attorney and now serves as marketing director of The Fleming Law Group, P.A., a criminal defense firm in St. Petersburg, Fla. She is also executive director of Lawyers for Literacy, a non-profit that offers tutoring services for struggling third-grade readers. She can be reached at jwysocka@fleminglawgroup.com or 727/323-4020. Society of America), the AMA (American Marketing Association), the ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) and ILTA (International Legal Technology Association), among others. In the near future we plan to post a full list of our ambassadors along with their attendant acronyms and information on what these organizations, associations and service providers have to offer LMA members.You can also find out more information about the SAC on the LMA Web site at www.legalmarketing.org/about-lma/committees/alliances/. In short, the SAC exists to give you access to the tools, training and information you need to succeed in your careers. The alliances we have worked to form are there for you to explore as needed and in turn, we hope you will share your ideas for new resources with us. So, if you don’t see your favorite combination of letters here or you think we are missing out on a great opportunity that would benefit the LMA and its membership, by all means feel free to send me a quick email and tell me about it. I will happily share the information with the SAC. I Marni MacLeod is client services director at Skunkworks Creative Group Inc. and a member of LMA’s Strategic Alliances Committee. MacLeod can be reached at marni@skunkworks.ca.
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