Bingham named one of Calif.'s Best Places to Work

Bingham was one of 20 winners of California's Best Places to Work, as chosen by the Los Angeles-based Employers Group, a human resources consulting and educational company for California employers.

It's most recent recognition of the firm’s culture and working environment. Bingham, with nearly 1,000 attorneys in 13 offices, was selected  in the large company category out of more than 400 entrants. Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp won in the medium company category.

“This is the second competition that has named Bingham as a Best Place to Work this year, after being named for the fourth straight year to FORTUNE magazine’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list. We hope to build upon this momentum in 2008 and beyond,” said Bingham Chairman Jay Zimmerman.

The ranking was based on more than 400 companies’ responses to a survey of employers and employees in nine categories, including: pay, benefits, training and advancement opportunities, work-life balance, diversity programs, turnover, perks, employee voice and workplace culture, and community involvement.

• In January, Bingham was named for the fourth straight year to the FORTUNE magazine “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The firm ranked 41st on the list, up from 94 in 2007, with the percentage of women and minority employees noted as a main factor for the firm’s selection.
• In September 2007, the Los Angeles Business Journal ranked Bingham’s Los Angeles and Santa Monica offices No. 7 on its “Best Places to Work” list.
• Bingham also was the only large law firm named to the Boston Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” list for 2007, ranking fifth. The firm was one of only four companies that has made the newspaper’s list each year since it was launched.
• In August 2007, Working Mother magazine named Bingham one of the top 50 law firms for working mothers and flex-time lawyers.
• Bingham was one of only 30 law firms and 195 major U.S. companies to score 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2007 Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, customers and investors.

LMA Gives Out Awards for Brochures, Ads and Marketing Initiatives

Last week the LMA gave out its annual Your Honor awards.  Taking a cue from the LawMarketing Portal, the LMA put up the list of the winners online (Click here for an excel file for the full results) and actually printed a 48-page glossy brochure describing what the winners did to get the award.  (Click here to download the 2008 Winners Book (it's a 7.18 MB PDF file).

Several of the winners have already been featured on the LawMarketing Portal and Blog:

• Bingham took first place for firm identity and their famous "Grizzly Bear Holding a Baby" ad -- see Bingham Sweeps New England LMA Chapter Your Honor Awards 
• Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds got an award for their clever holiday card. See Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds Knows the Elements of a Fun Holiday Message and their clever branded gifts: Law Firm Dispenses Medicine to Understand Boston Accent
• Foley Hoag's offbeat advertising campaign: NY Times Features Foley Hoag Advertising Campaign
• Choate Hall's web videos that mimicked the "Mac vs. PC" TV campaigns: YouTube and The Law Meet on Choate Recruiting Website
• Morrison & Foerster's creative recruiting website: MoFo Mojo Workin’ on Student Recruits 

Of course, I couldn't anticipate all the winners, and I'll be contacting several of them to find out key info, such as what the programs cost and what results they brought -- topics that were not thoroughly covered in the winner handbook.  I'll keep you posted on what I find out.

To review the list of first-place winners, just click the link Continue Reading...

Following are the first place winners in the 12 categories of the Your Honor Awards:

Category

Entry Name

Entrant

Title

Company

Identity

 

Kristin Savarese

Editorial Coordinator

Bingham McCutchen LLP

Brochure

Practice Group Brochures and Thought Leadership e Books

Jeffrey R. Scalzi

Director of Marketing

Foley Hoag LLP

Annual Report

2006 Annual Report

Lisa Meyer

Marketing & Client Relations Dir.

Preti Flaherty

Announcement

2007 Holiday Card

Jennifer Phillips

Director of Client Relations

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

Other

Sedgwick Women's Forum Display Boards & Ads

Kathleen Flynn

Chief Marketing Officer

Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP

Single Ad

Diversity Ad

Patty S. Castillian

Communications Coordinator

Holme Roberts & Owen LLP

Campaign

 

Kristin Savarese

Editorial Coordinator

Bingham McCutchen LLP

Multi-Media Campaign

"A Law Firm That Really Moves"

Kelsey Hamblen

Marketing Director

Goldberg & Simpson PSC

Exhibits/Trade Show/Novelty

Lab Tested, Clients Approved- Making a Mega Presence at a Mega Conference

Audra Callanan

Director of Marketing

Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C.

Promotional Events

In-House Jeopardy

Theresa Bomba

Marketing & Communications Manager

Goulston & Storrs

Firm, Practice or Industry Site

Firm Web site

Betsy Huntley

Chief Marketing Officer

Choate Hall & Stewart LLP

Electronic Media

Mofo Mojo

Anna T. Pinedo

Partner

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Media Relations

Meet the "New" Pillsbury

Sandi Sonenfeld

Director of Public Relations

Pillsbury Wintrop, Shaw Pittman

Community Relations

Partnering for Pro Bono

Anne Wallace

CMO

Adams and Reese

Internal Communications

"Connect The Dots" Interaction Rollout

Terri Chytrowski

Director of Communications

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Training

Goulston & Storrs University Vignettes

Theresa Bomba

Marketing & Communications Manager

Goulston & Storrs University

Research and Intelligence

Benesch Competitive Inteeligence/Market Intelligence Team

Liz Highley

Comms. & Marketing Coordinator

Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP

Recruiting

Recruiting Program

Betsy Huntley

Chief Marketing Officer

Choate Hall & Stewart LLP

Best Chapter

 

Andrea Stimmel

President

NYLMA

Business Development

CONNECT NOW Business Development Program

Jeffrey R. Scalzi

Director of Marketing

Foley Hoag LLP

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Law Firm Requires New Associates to Have Sales Background

San Diego construction law firm Scholefield Associates, P.C., is hiring new associates with a unique requirement -- a sales background. The firm says it is is borrowing heavily from the corporate world where the role of technical sales is fundamental to most successful business plans.

The 3-lawyer firm is molding their “sales attorney” role to be very similar to that of the typical sales engineer. Both positions require individuals with specialized training to understand the clients’ needs.

“I see no difference in comparing our role as an attorney to that of an engineer solving a problem,”  said Lead attorney Pam Scholefield. “The job function is to offer a results-oriented service that the client needs or wants. It doesn’t matter if it’s legal advice or some sort of technical solution.” 

"It is almost unheard of that a firm of any size would dedicate a new attorney to the role of bringing in new business. Most small firms feel they cannot justify allocating manpower to non-billable tasks," said spokesman Bryan Weaver.

Scholefield herself was once a sales engineer for the General Electric Co., eventually becoming an Area Manager in Southern California. She even holds a Professional Engineer’s (PE) license from Colorado.  “Today, my clients are builders, architects, engineers, contractors, and equipment suppliers, these are the same types of clients I had when I was a sales engineer,” says Scholefield. 

A visit to the Careers page of the firm website reveals an opening for:

Associate Attorney- Client Development

• This is an unprecedented opportunity for the right individual with an outgoing and dynamic personality. If you see yourself more as a rainmaker than you do a litigator, we are interested in your future with us.
• You will be working under the direction of the firm's business development manager, and be a key player in the firm’s client development and legal marketing activities.
• We are looking for professionals with experience technical sales, sales engineering, legal marketing, or executive level business development.
• Previous experience or knowledge of the construction industry is a major plus.
• You will be the first point of contact for prospective clients, so a good first impression is important.
• You will not let your law school education go to waste as you must be admitted to practice in California, and may be expected to advise clients and attend hearings.

Interestingly, new research by Suzanne Lowe of Expertise Marketing, reveals that among professional service firms, 86% of respondents want their firm to hire fee-earners who want to market and sell, 51% have made formal efforts to hire fee-earners who want to market and sell.

Suzanne writes, "First, it’s a challenge to find the right set of marketing and business development capabilities, especially if the firm has yet to define them for itself! A firm’s recruiters and hiring staffers need standards to objectively evaluate marketing and business development skills. They can’t be expected to conjure them up in a vacuum. This viewpoint repeats a theme that, by now, rings loudly through this entire survey: there are widely varying definitions of marketing and business development, and a general lack of understanding of the value these functions could deliver in a PSF."

Meanwhile, Scholefield Associates, P.C., isn't waiting. “We are not your typical law firm,” notes Scholefield, “so we’re not going to follow archaic unwritten rules that say a young attorney’s primary role can’t be a rainmaker.”