Your Firm In A Nutshell
Domestic and international corporations have long used slogans and tag lines as tools to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Think of Avis' "We try harder," Michelin's "Because so much is riding on your tires," and "Thank goodness for Kleenex." Consider as well Coca-Cola and McDonald's.<BR>Decades of research ' and corporate bottom lines ' support branding as a tool to help sell consumer goods. Can law firms use this technique, too?
Rev the Revenue: The Marketing Focused Retreat
Tear the roof off most any major law firm and what do you see? Massive amounts of unfocused marketing energy. From this 30,000 foot, leaders-eye view, responsible stewards of their firms should ask, "how do we harness this energy, how do we concentrate it to achieve our overall goals (assuming we have any), and how do we converge the activities of our individual lawyers, the practice groups, disparate offices, and departments in order to unleash the potential that we know exists?
On the Job
In law firms, it can be difficult ' sometimes impossible ' to get actionable feedback from responsible partners or administrative management on how well a marketing professional is doing his or her job. While nice, I'm not talking about the "attagirl"s or "you go boy"s that might come from many of lawyers and co-workers as support and encouragement or intermittent salary hikes. I'm referring to a regular, systematic process that lets you know whether your assignments and objectives are being achieved as the firm expects.
Ask The Coach
This month's questions:<p>Q: Like many law firms, to create access to new prospects we host seminars on a variety of topics. How can we differentiate our offerings in a virtual sea of seminars?<br>Q: How can we maximize the effectiveness of these investments?
Varied Rulings on 'Screen Scraping'
The courts continue to wrestle with how to map existing law onto the shifting terrain of computer technology. And it appears that new controversies are arising faster than judicial consensus can form. One of the latest controversies surrounds "screen scraping," a process by which a software program simulates a user's interaction with a Web site to access information stored on that site. A screen scraper not only can enter the information a human user would, but also can capture the Web site's replies. This facility may include the ability to extract substantial portions of data stored on the site ' and therein lies the beginning of the controversy.
In The Marketplace
Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.
E-pharmacies in Europe: When Two Regulatory Worlds Collide
The authorities in the European Union (EU) are steadily increasing the amount of regulation over the Internet and aspects of e-commerce in particular. When the sale of pharmaceutical products occurs on the Internet, therefore, a number of regulatory issues need to be borne in mind, and a recent court case has highlighted a number of these issues.
Managing E-commerce Partnerships
Q: What do you risk getting when you mix commerce with the Internet?<br>A: A host of possible legal issues.<BR>Proper planning, however, will reduce the legal risk associated with e-commerce pacts and make for a less bumpy ride should the partners decide down the road that they want to go their separate ways.
