Reinventing Professionals

I spoke with Kevin O’Keefe, the founder of LexBlog, one of the largest and most successful platforms for blogging and social media in the legal industry, at Avvo‘s recent Avvocating conference in Seattle. We discussed the evolution of how professionals are raising their profiles, techniques for leveraging technology to build a reputation, and proven methods for enhancing relationships. Among many other great points, he noted that “Content is not the most important thing; listening is the most important thing.”

I spoke with Dan Toombs, the founder of Grow Your Firm, an Australian web marketing company that assists professional services firms with enhancing their digital presence. We discussed the state of the Australian market and the benefits of leveraging Vizibility, among other topics.

I spoke with Mark Britton, the founder and CEO of Avvo. We discussed the genesis of the 2012 Avvocating conference and what attendees can expect.

I spoke with Todd Moster, the director of recruitment & placement for Moster Legal Placement in Beverly Hills, about his new book, The Underground Guide to Job Interviewing (CreateSpace, 2011), which he describes as “entertaining and funny as a teaching device to keep the reader’s attention.” He notes that “there is no silver bullet; the main rule is preparation in job interviews.” His tips include: Think about whether you want to make a job move and if it is appropriate. Find out as much information as possible about the position, e.g., day-to-day responsibilities, what happened to the last person in the role, and the reporting structure, among other elements. Practice articulating highlights of your experience in a way that should be clear to the interviewer. Think about questions to ask; not having questions could be fatal. That is a one-way ticket down the elevator shaft without an elevator. Know the questions you should not ask, including what the position pays or the amount of training involved.

I spoke with Charlie Gollow, an investment manager with IMF Australia, a publicly traded Australian company that finances legal claims in excess of AUD $5 million, which recently launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, Bentham Capital, in New York City to fund large-scale cases in the U.S. We discussed IMF, its goals for 2012, the state of the litigation funding market, and the advantages/disadvantages of enlisting a financial partner of this type.

I spoke today with Robert Hilson, the editorial director for the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists, which is hosting its 2012 Annual Conference next week (April 2-4) at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Florida. We discussed the organization’s growth, its impact on the legal community, and his expectations for the upcoming event.

I spoke with Simon Truskett, a Sydney-based senior partner at Clayton Utz in the firm’s Corporate Advisory / M&A group, who is the new chair of Lex Mundi, a global association of independent law firms, with 160 member firms in 102 countries. The association features a client advisory council in which leading in-house counsel advise on ways to improve client service. Members also exchange information on practice management, administrative support, and technology usage. In terms of trends, he noted Lex Mundi’s interest in broadening its reach in Africa and Asia because of increased competition from international firms and a more globalized client base that expects its professionals to provide services where they are.

I spoke with Jim Hammond, the Vice President for Global Marketing at Aderant about the company’s recent acquisitions and the cohesion of its various brands. He noted that the new company has a wider footprint in legal, financial, and practice management systems with Client Profiles, is fully integrating Compulaw for seamless integration, and has a larger market share with CRM for business development used by firms all around the world. He described it as “one company with multiple products” that is focusing on providing high value to its clients.

I spoke with Tim Sparks, the CEO of CLM Matrix about contract lifecycle management. He noted that the company’s Matrix software solutions are uniquely designed for Microsoft SharePoint, automatically draft contracts in Word, and dynamically create an essential workflow.

I spoke with Eric Elfman, the CEO of Onit at Legal Tech NY 2012. We discussed the company’s business process and productivity apps designed to solve very specific problems, including contract review and approval, ethics violation tracking, and whistleblower reporting.