 | The 360 Legal Conference was a great success; market trends affecting the legal sector formed the crux of the talks throughout the day. Viv Williams kicked off the Conference. The treatment of clients and customers by Law Firms was a key issue; are their views taken on board or is it the views of the fee earner? What are the results of increasing demands put on lawyers in a fast paced society? How does this affect the expectation of the client? Plus questions about the Law Firms themselves, such as how easy are firms' services to access? Loaded up with Costa Coffee, attendees listened to the second talk by Andrew Allen (Francis Clark) presenting ‘Structuring for Profit’. Andrew joked about talking finances at just gone 10 in the morning; he seemed concerned he would lose people en route. However, all Jasmine and I saw was the hurried taking of notes as he talked practical ways to save money in the legal sector. After the morning break (and more coffee) it was into a workshop with Joe Reevy on the subject of e-newsletters. With a vast amount of experience on the subject (Words4Business has generated four times more business from their e-newsletter), Joe outlined the best ways to keep or initiate a loyal following in a market which he believes will be saturated within two years. His top tips:
That took us up to lunchtime allowing a little more time for moseying, networking and of course eating. Only gripe – not many places to sit down! Carolyn Mumby was our final workshop of the day. From Employment Law Essentials, Carolyn talked us through her complete HR, employment law package for employers. The presentation was engaging and informative and being her product, (combined with the intimate size of the workshops), attendees were given plenty of opportunity to ask Carolyn lots of questions (which we took full advantage of!). Digital marketing was hot on the agenda back in the main room. Paul Hajek stressed the importance of educating using your experience, primarily through a blog, citing his own ‘All You Need to Sell or Buy a House in 31 Daily Bite-Sized Chunks’, which improved organic traffic to the Clutton Cox website through content that was interesting and relevant to the visitor. Julian Summerhayes was next up. He questioned whether the audiences’ websites' were "distinct or extinct", in other words whether you're using your website for something remarkable. Now that most people search for Law Firms using Google, he reminded the audience that their websites should be a space for something great and unique. He also emphasised using Social Media to earn attention and build a loyal following. (Just make sure that when people are talking on the social networks, they're saying the right things!) Easily Jasmine and mine’s favourite quote of the day was mentioned in the closing talk of the day by Viv Williams. A slight generalisation we know, but based on the majority of attendees at the Conference on Thursday, he summed up that they were primarily ‘male, pale and stale’. What a quote! Anyway, we thought that deserved a second mention. The rest of the speech was very interesting; what do the market trends for the future of legal services hold? Observations:
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