Law firm culture is the primary obstacle to business development, according to LSSO's Women Lawyers Survey: Sales and Business Development Issues. Out of the 418 participants who responded, more than 40% of female lawyers suggest that various organizational and institutional barriers inhibit their ability to be successful at sales.

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Networking has become extremely important for law firms, especially now that the legal business is growing more and more competitive. If your attorneys are not getting out there to stake claim to new relationships (and new matters), someone else will. Fortunately, attorneys and firm marketing professionals who are at the forefront of networking have developed innovative programs to assist attorneys in making a stranger into an acquaintance, an acquaintance into a prospect, and a prospect into a client. Ah ' the circle of life!

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When we are hired to begin a new search, the very first thing we hear from our clients' mouths is 'Ideally, we would like someone with X years in law firm marketing.' If you analyze the AmLaw 100 law firms, which combined have more than 2000 marketing professionals, coupled with the fact that at any moment there are more than 100 open positions nationwide, there are more jobs than qualified professionals to meet these needs. So, how do employers find the 'right' talent for their firm in this competitive environment? How do the people with law firm marketing experience find the 'right' firm, since they are in high demand by every firm? Below we have outlined some tips for those who are hiring and those looking to be hired.

Faced with an overworked litigation support department, as well as an inefficient manual- and paper-based approach, I hunted for an automated platform to help my team streamline our current inefficient processes and more effectively manage the discovery process. The platform needed to set up repeatable processes, facilitate both internal and external collaboration, disseminate information and establish business rules and pricing for vendors.

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Not to be left behind, the legal community is actively engaged in the ever-expanding blogoshpere. With more than 1000 active legal blogs on the Web, firms and attorneys recognize the value of blogs as unique marketing and business development tools. However, for a blog to be beneficial, it must distinguish itself from the diluted market through creativity, consistency, and a strategic media plan.

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Everyone today is on high alert about the threats of Internet fraud, identity theft and white-collar crime ' or if not, they should be. Internet criminals are constantly cultivating new tactics, and law enforcement entities are doing everything they can to head them off.

New amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ('FRCP') identify electronically stored information, tangible and intangible, as discoverable (relevant, non-privileged) information. To ensure compliance, firms are required to adopt policies regarding the preservation, retention, and destruction of all digital data including their metadata. Litigators are pressed to develop some expertise on the types and locations of document, application and system metadata with the expectation that all metadata may have evidentiary value. The demands are on the IT professionals to deliver a copy or description of all relevant electronic media, their location, and category without delay and be able to substantiate the firm's retention policies.

Increasing reliance on e-mail is a fact of life in today's business and legal environments. The falling costs of storing vast amounts of data, coupled with the fear of being accused of destroying material that companies may be obligated to retain, have led to the retention of increasing amounts of data for longer periods of time. Among the problems this creates for litigators is the increased burden of reviewing vast quantities of e-mails, and identifying and asserting claims of attorney-client privilege and work-product protection over electronic documents.