Technology for the Client-Friendly Firm

By Larry Bodine

Technology has transformed legal marketing for two major law firms – Cooley Godward and DLA Piper – that harness databases, WebRooms, knowledge libraries, case mapping and budgeting software to attract and hold clients.

“When we go to a client pitch, we show them the technology we use to demonstrate we’ll be as efficient as we can be in their litigation, and that we won’t be reinventing the wheel at their expense,” said Browning E. Marean, a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary in San Diego.  The firm’s WebRooms are so “sticky,” as Marean put it, that when a partner left the firm with a client, the client returned to DLA Piper because it wanted to continue using the firm’s technology.

Marean and Ellen Taverner, Chief Marketing Officer of Cooley Godward in Palo Alto, California, showcased their firms’ high-tech business development methods and products at the Year 2005 Marketing Partner Forum held on January 18-22 at the Four Seasons Resort in North San Diego, California.  This year a record-setting 500 registrants came to the Forum, which is presented by Glasser Legal Works, a unit of Thomson Inc.

“The goal of marketing is to build a sustained client relationship,” Taverner said.  “Technology helps us expand that across the entire firm.”

Tracking deals with SCORE

A perennial problem for marketers is assembling an impressive list of success stories and case histories to include in a new business proposal.  Often the information is compiled in a fire-drill atmosphere by sending broadcast e-mails throughout the firm, pleading for lawyers to supply examples that can be used.

Two years ago, after lawyers complained that they couldn’t get information necessary for pitches, Taverner decided to create a deal-tracking database.  Called Cooley SCORE, it’s operating today to efficiently capture information about Cooley deals, transactions and case work.  The homegrown, proprietary software systematically identifies matters and reduces the time and effort required to assemble impressive statistics.

“It’s been a Herculean task to implement,” Taverner said.  “Each partner must designate a person working on a case who will track a deal.  Each practice group fills in a form that asks a set of questions that the practice group partners designed.”  When a deal closes, it is automatically captured in the SCORE database.

As a result she can quickly assemble examples for a new-business proposal.  Not only that, but the firm uses the data to publish its Private Company Financings Report for venture capitalists, who are a source of new business.  Taverner can also generate information on market trends for inquiring news reporters. “We’ve had a positive response from journalists,” she said.  ‘They want to know what the overall trend is.  It’s not good enough just to say you have three clients they can talk to.”

Product kits and alumni portal

Cooley mined its online knowledge libraries to package key information needed by startup companies: an HR Starter Kit and a Technology Tool Kit.  So far, 10 companies have paid the annual subscription fee to get the kits, which are packaged with a set number of hours of attorney advice and invitations to the firm’s executive briefings.

The firm also created an alumni portal on the Web to provide a way for the firm to network with ex-employees, explore CLE teaching opportunities and help alumni find new jobs.   By staying close to their former colleagues, Cooley gets new business referrals, collects market intelligence and builds its network of contacts. 

The home pages features a spotlight on an alum.  “We go through the alumni list of companies and find who’s on our target list.  We call them and say we’d like to do an interview with them,” Taverner said.  “It’s been a wonderful way to make stars of friends of the firm, and they just love it.”

Sticky technology

Browning Marean, a litigator at DLA Piper with 36 years of experience, is also a lecturer on technology, knowledge management and practice management.  He finds that an excellent way to glue clients to his firm is with WebRooms.  The firm has 475 active WebRooms, which are accessible to lawyers and clients with a password.

The firm can create a WebRoom in 15 minutes using a standard template.  The site is a repository for databases, to-do lists, documents, records and a matter calendar. “It’s changed our work flow by becoming a virtual cabinet for the file.  If a pleading comes in from the other side, it gets posted into the WebRoom so that the client can immediately see it,” he said.

“It’s a sticky technology.  Once a client has seen it, they’re more likely to come back to you because you’ve given them something the other firms do not,” he said.  “It’s doing wonders for our marketing.”  He gave the example of a client who left the firm, only to return because it wanted to keep using the WebRoom technology.

Timelines and budgets

One thing that corporate general counsel say they want from their law firms is predictability.   DLA Piper provides it right in its new business proposals by using CaseMap software to create a visual chart of a case, connecting facts, witnesses and issues together.  Using TimeMap software the firm can also create a timeline of events and display it in a PowerPoint slide. 

“Think how impressive it is to go to a pitch and give your client this file that is already done.  I can figure out from the complaint who the players are and what the chronology of the case will be,” Marean said.  “We can show clients how we will handle their lawsuit in advance.”

Marean also uses Excel to display a litigation budget for a case, showing line-by-line what each event will be – like a deposition or hearing – and what it will cost.  “When you give a client a litigation budget at the beginning of the case, you better have the defibrillators ready, because their hearts are going to flutter,” he exclaimed.

Marean knew that gathering the data for his technology would be difficult, so in exchange for the information he wanted, he offered lawyers in the firm an addictive substance: coffee.  “I got $1,000 of Starbucks coupons and told the lawyers, ‘if you send me good work product examples, I’ll send you a $5 Starbucks coupon.’  I was amazed at how well this method worked.”

Larry Bodine is the Regional Director for North America, PM Forum.  A strategic marketing consultant, he can be reached at 630-942-0977 and Lbodine@LawMarkteting.com