Of the approximately 17 traditional law firms that sponsored and exhibited at the 2019 CLOC Vegas Institute in Las Vegas last week, seven stood out, from my perspective and in my professional opinion. Below are the traditional law firm exhibit booths that stood out to me, and why.
Morrison Foerster (MoFo) – Most of us have enough swag to last two lifetimes, so the MoFo booth was my personal favorite because I would rather give than take, both professionally and personally. What MoFo did to lure attendees and get them engaged was genius, in my opinion. They made this offer to each visitor: “Give Like a MoFo.” Here’s how it worked: After greeting a visitor, a MoFo representative offered a simple pink sticker to adhere to a chart that listed three charitable causes: Annunciation House, One Justice and Community Food Bank of Clark County.
Each visitor was encouraged to place the sticker under the cause they personally most wanted to support, with MoFo donating $5 to the cause for each sticker. The pic on the left shows how many stickers visitors placed on the chart the first day and the picture on the right shows how many stickers were placed by the end of day two. So, MoFo truly gave back by donating approximately $1,000 total to the three charities as part of its participation in the 2019 CLOC Vegas Institute. Kudos to MoFo for being so pro bono-centric and bringing that brand message alive!
Winston & Strawn and Baker McKenzie – Brilliant minds often think alike, and both Winston & Strawn and Baker McKenzie had a very similar idea of how to draw attendees into their booths. Both lured in passersby by asking them a question. Winston & Strawn formally posed the question: “How can your law firm help you achieve your goals?” and invited visitors to write their response on a Post-it note and adhere it to the appropriate category on a chart (see picture below). Excellent.
Baker McKenzie also asked passersby a question – “Where are you investing your time as a legal operations function?” – and invited visitors to put a red ball in the tube corresponding to their answer (see pic below – there were a lot more balls in the tubes by the end of the conference!).
This “pose a question” approach is a great way to tee up and start a relevant business conversation. Plus, the aggregated responses to the question will make great fodder for a follow-up article or blog post. But if a preplanned booth system was not in place to note and track who was interested in what and what was discussed with each visitor, then the individual responses gathered may not be useful for long-term relationship development.
Ballard Spahr – One of a few traditional law firms that does not simply pay lip service to client value, the firm has developed a proprietary suite of legal operations applications, called Ballard 360, which the firm showcased at its booth. Available to all firm clients, Ballard 360 consists of several technologies, including secure, private extranets; ClientView and ClientConnect, and ValueMatters; DocBuilder; and CaseTracker, all designed to reduce the amount of time and increase the efficiency and cost-effective delivery of legal services.
Thompson Coburn – In terms of messaging directly on point for all legal operations to make legal service delivery more efficient and cost-effective, Thompson Coburn did a great job. The firm brought to life the “Be curious and take measured risks” theme of the conference, which was explained by CLOC’s current president, Mary O’Carroll, director of legal operations for Google, during her opening address. Thompson Coburn used a “Be a Firewalker” theme in its booth and during its presentations to showcase the firm’s outsourcing work with various clients.
Chapman and Cutler – At their booth, Chapman and Cutler showcased Chapman Closing Room, highlighting that they are the only traditional law firm that has invented and developed its own technology application designed for legal operations, then sold it to a major legal technology vendor. So, Chapman and Cutler’s experience and qualifications in the area of legal operations and more specifically in creating and deploying technology to improve legal service delivery is second to none.
Rebranded as SetBuilder (formerly Chapman Closing Room), the deal management application was sold to NetDocuments in early 2019. SetBuilder is designed to streamline transactional closing processes by providing an intuitive way for deal teams to coordinate on closings, automates manual closing binder processes, eliminates the need for physical closing rooms, and drastically reduces the time, cost and effort of producing closing binders for clients and third parties.
Mayer Brown – The firm’s booth did the best job of positioning itself for high-end, complex legal work. At its booth, Mayer Brown showcased legal project management and technology solutions the firm developed for and with clients, including its “Global Guide to International Arbitration,” a Brexit assessment tool and a Dawn Raids app. Mayer Brown likely sponsors CLOC because many of its clients are members that send general and in-house counsel, legal operations professionals, and/or procurement professionals to CLOC events each year. The firm works to have deep and wide relationships with its clients and wants to be sure they all are aware of the high-end, complex, global, bet-the-company types of cases the firm excels in handling and resolving for clients. So, even though not every legal operations professional has decision-making authority, roles or influence when it comes to short-listing and hiring outside counsel or firms (especially for high-end, complex legal work), most general counsel do, and there were at least a few dozen general counsel (many of whom are Mayer Brown clients) registered to attend the 2019 CLOC Vegas Institute.
Each sponsor was given a scanner to scan each visitor’s name badge to track who stopped by. But each sponsor/exhibitor was responsible for ensuring there was always at least one firm representative at their booth (i.e., that the booth was continually staffed). But many times throughout the conference, several law firm booths repeatedly had no one at their booths, and some had no one there every single time I went to visit (at least four times). So I was not able to engage with each one.
The traditional law firms above stood out to me at the 2019 CLOC Vegas Institute, but other attendees likely have their own favorites. Which were your favorites, and why?
About the Author: Julie Savarino holds an MBA, a JD, and is a licensed attorney. Over her 30+ year career, she has built a reputation as a leading business and client development and service strategist, coach and content producer for lawyers, law firms, and other professional services providers and firms. She has successfully served in-house in client and business development positions for the law firms of Dickinson Wright and Butzel Long and for the accounting firm Grant Thornton. Connect with Julie on LinkedIn or contact her at +1 (734) 668-7008, [email protected], @JulieSavarino.
