Law marketing-europe.com

Question by Bert Kerkman, lawyer, managing director of KerkmanLaw (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) 

 

A poor international presence may lead us to lose clients. If one of your clients knows, or supposes, that you cannot help him abroad, he may contact another firm and you may end up losing the client. You should avoid the “advisor test�. 

It is surprising how some small and medium-sized practices that are a reference at local, regional and even national level have few, or no, international connections in the world we live in. A world in which clients are expecting their legal advisors to operate at international level increasingly more. The reason I hear most is that “Our clients don’t need itâ€?. On the other hand, when the clients that “do not need itâ€? know that their lawyers can help them in their investments or business in other continents, opportunities begin to blossom. This is a recurring phenomenon: the mistake of assuming that we know what clients need. 

Traditional agents or innovative alliances may be of use to you depending on what you want. For example, I know a lawyer who works in a chamber of commerce. This professional’s practice provides support to companies from its country abroad by means of a network of agents. From the standpoint of potential clients, agents have at least one problem: they may be “invisibleâ€? to the potential client. Thus, for example, in a recent legal publication, a law practice stated that it had an alliance in Turin. But the advertiser’s web site made no reference to the Italian city or to the name of the practice. Invisibility hardly helps a potential client to decide to hire a firm. 

Unlike agencies, alliances or networks tend to be visible. They are brands: in some cases only a registered name (and not always); in others, a registered name with an investment in marketing. 

The loss of independence tends to be a frequent criterion which leads certain law practices to decide not to become part of an alliance. This is absurd. It is absurd to assume that a practice loses part of its independence if it joins an alliance. Everything depends on the concept of alliance. There are alliances formed by independent practices. There are even alliances whose clients are not clients of the alliance, but rather of the member practices, who present estimates and fees directly to clients. There are also alliances in which if one member of the alliance does not trust another member enough, it is not obliged to refer cases to it, and may choose, for example, a non-alliance practice it trusts more. 

 

Criteria for selecting lawyers-agents or an international alliance of practices

1. Define your business vision and objectives. Know what you need from your agent or from the alliance.

2. Know your agent or the alliance: Are the management teams in tune with each other, and is there mutual trust? 

3. Compatibility with the objectives and with the way you work. 

4. Similarity of practices: size, organisational structure, resources, skills, countries covered by the potential partner and passion for the common project. 

5. Preparation of a collaboration protocol and common operating standards to guarantee the quality of service rendered by each one of the practices. 

6. Flexible and creative values to leverage differences. 

 

If you think you have an original alliance concept, take the initiative, create it. If you choose to join an existing alliance, evaluate the practice you are going to be associated with. 

 

 

© 2007, Francesc Dominguez, marketing consultant. www.francescdominguez.com.