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Client Intelligence: Q & A with Emily Cunningham Rushing
CI professionals come to the profession with a variety of experiences and perspectives. Recently, I had the good fortune to be introduced to Emily Cunningham Rushing, the CI Specialist at Haynes and Boone LLP. Emily boasts an impressive education and background: She has earned JD and MLIS degrees, and was previously a Research Specialist at King & Spalding LLP. I spoke with Emily about CI at her law firm, how her education has shaped her career, and how she sees CI evolving over time.
Q.: How many attorneys/marketing staff/researchers are at Haynes and Boone LLP?
A.: We presently have almost 550 attorneys, almost 600 total staff, 20 marketing/business development staff, and six library staff. We have one Competitive Intelligence professional.
Q.: Which department are you in?
A.: I am embedded in the Marketing/Business Development Department. I report directly to both the Director of Business Development and the Chief Marketing Officer. I also support the BD Managers who are themselves embedded with the various practice groups, so it's an organization chart that radiates out into the practice groups. In addition to supporting my department, I coordinate with the Managers to provide CI services to all firm's leaders, in all practice groups and all offices.
Q.: How is CI/strategic information/intelligence utilized at your firm? (This is intentionally open-ended!)
A.: Routine intelligence requests include: 1) profiling competitors' practice areas and clients; 2) identifying business development opportunities for the firm among existing clients and developing strategic targeting programs; and 3) developing intelligence in preparation for business development meetings with existing or potential clients. In addition to these routine requests, I support both major strategic firm initiatives and “toughie” research questions. The role of CI/strategic intelligence is used at a very high level in our firm. I have the opportunity to work directly with the firm's decision-makers to provide intelligence to support critical decisions. It is certainly a two-way transaction in which the CI role is apprised of strategic initiatives and asked to provide input to support a course of action.
Q.: How has the CI changed at your firm? How do you see it evolving in the future?
A.: I suppose the most significant change in CI at our firm has been the implementation of the role and the program. I was hired in the summer of 2008 and, with the foresight of our CMO and firm management, we have created a dynamic, empowered CI position. In the capacity of CI Specialist, I coordinate with Marketing Operations, Business Development, the Library, Accounting, Knowledge Management, IT, and firm leadership to develop, collect, analyze, and deliver critical intelligence. I anticipate that the CI role will continue to effectively collaborate across departments and work to automate some basic functions while expanding custom intelligence services.
Q.: What is your biggest CI win?
A.: We have had a number of successes with our CI program. CI has been involved in several Business Development initiatives resulting in new or increased business. CI also played a critical role in the firm's recent merger with a California firm and firm management's strategy for developing the firm's presence in two new markets. This was an outstanding opportunity for the CI role and BD department to increase our exposure to firm leaders and to really express the value of CI in critical decision-making processes. As a new position, CI in our firm had already garnered some attention internally, but the high-profile merger shed new light on CI as a dynamic resource.
Q.: What do you wish your internal clients understood about CI?
A.: For a relatively new program, I think our internal clients have a great understanding of the value of CI. I certainly stay busy! The one thing that I wish everyone understood better was that CI is both the process and the product. It's never enough to simply request a report or a spreadsheet. To be truly effective, CI must be engaged in all phases of the question-asking, information-seeking, and decision-making. It is all too common for a CI request to be made at a very late stage in the game. CI can still be very effective, even in the final stages approaching a decision or event, but to really emphasize the value of critical intelligence it is necessary to bring the CI role to the table as early as possible. This way, CI can inform management's thinking from the start and help frame the intelligence process as efficiently and effectively as possible, ultimately leading to the firm taking the best-supported decision possible.
Q.: Who has been a mentor to you in your career and development? How have you gone about gaining mentors, and in which areas (for example, in research, analysis, presentation, etc.)?
A.: I have had some wonderful encouragement from my colleagues and mentors as I've learned about law firm CI. Ann Lee Gibson and Greg Lambert are legal CI leaders whom I have the privilege to call friends and mentors. Within my firm, I look to our BD and Marketing Ops Directors for their wisdom and inspiration. Laura Walters, Mark Gediman, and Patrick Fuller are also great resources for sharing ideas, and a laugh! I've connected with colleagues and mentors primarily via Twitter and professional associations. I have also been referred to colleagues as “must know” people and I make every effort to meet those folks. The library and CI community is wonderfully open and sharing, which makes it easy to meet the right people.
Q.: You have an impressive education! Can you talk a little about how that has helped your understanding of law firm CI specifically?
A.: Thank you! I'm the nerd who actually liked school growing up, so I had a lot of fun with my education. I believe that the law degree has been a real asset to me in my career but, as anyone would tell you, law school is no picnic and I don't recommend that route for everyone. I do, however, recommend an information science program for anyone interested in intelligence, statistics, data, research, or who just loves information. Library school was so much fun and so fascinating. Some schools, like the University of North Texas program directed by Dr. Yvonne Chandler, offer a legal subject-specialty in law librarianship and legal infomatics, which is great preparation for a career in legal CI.
Q.: What professional development activities have helped you in your role? What are some professional development opportunities that you recommend?
A.: I participate in a number of professional associations and find an enormous amount of value there. For professional development on a budget, I am active on Twitter and professional blogs as sources for current events, news, best practices, and new resources. I also take every opportunity to write and present on legal CI to attorneys, BD professionals, and law librarians, and hope to do even more speaking and writing in the future! For anyone just starting out or looking to increase their involvement in CI, I would encourage attendance at local and regional professional association meetings and events. The annual national conferences are great, and not to be missed, but there may be networking and learning opportunities right in your own backyard.
Editor's Note: Emily can be reached by e-mail at emily.rushing@haynes boone.com or on the phone at 214-651-5422. She is also on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/egrushing), Twitter (www.twitter.com/emily_rushing) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/egrushing).
Emily's Go-To Resources
Professional associations: LMA, SCIP, SLA, AALL, ILTA
Internal resources: document management, billing/accounting, CRM/ERM, KM, Peer Monitor
Litigation analytics: atVantage/CourtLink, Litigation Monitor, Bloomberg
League tables: MergerMarket, CapitalIQ
Industry analysts: Incisive Media legal publications, Altman Weil, Hildebrandt
Social media: Google Reader, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, law blogs, Fee Fie Foe Firm
Shannon Sankstone, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is the Marketing Research Analyst at Quarles & Brady, where she is responsible for the marketing and competitive intelligence research function. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 312-715-5251.
CI professionals come to the profession with a variety of experiences and perspectives. Recently, I had the good fortune to be introduced to Emily Cunningham Rushing, the CI Specialist at Haynes and Boone LLP. Emily boasts an impressive education and background: She has earned JD and MLIS degrees, and was previously a Research Specialist at
Q.: How many attorneys/marketing staff/researchers are at Haynes and Boone LLP?
A.: We presently have almost 550 attorneys, almost 600 total staff, 20 marketing/business development staff, and six library staff. We have one Competitive Intelligence professional.
Q.: Which department are you in?
A.: I am embedded in the Marketing/Business Development Department. I report directly to both the Director of Business Development and the Chief Marketing Officer. I also support the BD Managers who are themselves embedded with the various practice groups, so it's an organization chart that radiates out into the practice groups. In addition to supporting my department, I coordinate with the Managers to provide CI services to all firm's leaders, in all practice groups and all offices.
Q.: How is CI/strategic information/intelligence utilized at your firm? (This is intentionally open-ended!)
A.: Routine intelligence requests include: 1) profiling competitors' practice areas and clients; 2) identifying business development opportunities for the firm among existing clients and developing strategic targeting programs; and 3) developing intelligence in preparation for business development meetings with existing or potential clients. In addition to these routine requests, I support both major strategic firm initiatives and “toughie” research questions. The role of CI/strategic intelligence is used at a very high level in our firm. I have the opportunity to work directly with the firm's decision-makers to provide intelligence to support critical decisions. It is certainly a two-way transaction in which the CI role is apprised of strategic initiatives and asked to provide input to support a course of action.
Q.: How has the CI changed at your firm? How do you see it evolving in the future?
A.: I suppose the most significant change in CI at our firm has been the implementation of the role and the program. I was hired in the summer of 2008 and, with the foresight of our CMO and firm management, we have created a dynamic, empowered CI position. In the capacity of CI Specialist, I coordinate with Marketing Operations, Business Development, the Library, Accounting, Knowledge Management, IT, and firm leadership to develop, collect, analyze, and deliver critical intelligence. I anticipate that the CI role will continue to effectively collaborate across departments and work to automate some basic functions while expanding custom intelligence services.
Q.: What is your biggest CI win?
A.: We have had a number of successes with our CI program. CI has been involved in several Business Development initiatives resulting in new or increased business. CI also played a critical role in the firm's recent merger with a California firm and firm management's strategy for developing the firm's presence in two new markets. This was an outstanding opportunity for the CI role and BD department to increase our exposure to firm leaders and to really express the value of CI in critical decision-making processes. As a new position, CI in our firm had already garnered some attention internally, but the high-profile merger shed new light on CI as a dynamic resource.
Q.: What do you wish your internal clients understood about CI?
A.: For a relatively new program, I think our internal clients have a great understanding of the value of CI. I certainly stay busy! The one thing that I wish everyone understood better was that CI is both the process and the product. It's never enough to simply request a report or a spreadsheet. To be truly effective, CI must be engaged in all phases of the question-asking, information-seeking, and decision-making. It is all too common for a CI request to be made at a very late stage in the game. CI can still be very effective, even in the final stages approaching a decision or event, but to really emphasize the value of critical intelligence it is necessary to bring the CI role to the table as early as possible. This way, CI can inform management's thinking from the start and help frame the intelligence process as efficiently and effectively as possible, ultimately leading to the firm taking the best-supported decision possible.
Q.: Who has been a mentor to you in your career and development? How have you gone about gaining mentors, and in which areas (for example, in research, analysis, presentation, etc.)?
A.: I have had some wonderful encouragement from my colleagues and mentors as I've learned about law firm CI. Ann Lee Gibson and Greg Lambert are legal CI leaders whom I have the privilege to call friends and mentors. Within my firm, I look to our BD and Marketing Ops Directors for their wisdom and inspiration. Laura Walters, Mark Gediman, and Patrick Fuller are also great resources for sharing ideas, and a laugh! I've connected with colleagues and mentors primarily via Twitter and professional associations. I have also been referred to colleagues as “must know” people and I make every effort to meet those folks. The library and CI community is wonderfully open and sharing, which makes it easy to meet the right people.
Q.: You have an impressive education! Can you talk a little about how that has helped your understanding of law firm CI specifically?
A.: Thank you! I'm the nerd who actually liked school growing up, so I had a lot of fun with my education. I believe that the law degree has been a real asset to me in my career but, as anyone would tell you, law school is no picnic and I don't recommend that route for everyone. I do, however, recommend an information science program for anyone interested in intelligence, statistics, data, research, or who just loves information. Library school was so much fun and so fascinating. Some schools, like the University of North Texas program directed by Dr. Yvonne Chandler, offer a legal subject-specialty in law librarianship and legal infomatics, which is great preparation for a career in legal CI.
Q.: What professional development activities have helped you in your role? What are some professional development opportunities that you recommend?
A.: I participate in a number of professional associations and find an enormous amount of value there. For professional development on a budget, I am active on Twitter and professional blogs as sources for current events, news, best practices, and new resources. I also take every opportunity to write and present on legal CI to attorneys, BD professionals, and law librarians, and hope to do even more speaking and writing in the future! For anyone just starting out or looking to increase their involvement in CI, I would encourage attendance at local and regional professional association meetings and events. The annual national conferences are great, and not to be missed, but there may be networking and learning opportunities right in your own backyard.
Editor's Note: Emily can be reached by e-mail at emily.rushing@haynes boone.com or on the phone at 214-651-5422. She is also on
Emily's Go-To Resources
Professional associations: LMA, SCIP, SLA, AALL, ILTA
Internal resources: document management, billing/accounting, CRM/ERM, KM, Peer Monitor
Litigation analytics: atVantage/CourtLink, Litigation Monitor, Bloomberg
League tables: MergerMarket, CapitalIQ
Industry analysts: Incisive Media legal publications, Altman Weil, Hildebrandt
Social media:
Shannon Sankstone, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is the Marketing Research Analyst at
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