The Case for Beautiful Design in Law Firm Websites; a conversation with Janet Odgis

This conversation with Janet Odgis is the first of a four part mini-series on web design for law firms. Janet and I discuss the business case for beautiful design and the design process at her agency Odgis + Co. Janet’s cross industry experience gives her an expansive perspective on how to effectively communicate a firm’s story through its website. She sees a websites functionality inextricably linked to its form: good design leads to effective functionality.

Recorded January 10, 2017 @ the offices of Odgis + Co. in New York City.

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Survey Says: What 2016 Staffing and Training Trends Suggest We’ll see in 2017 with Eva Wisnik

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Eva Wisnik, founder of Wisnik Career Enterprises, launched the 2017 Legal Marketing Studio season with a conversation about what she saw from a training and placement perspective in 2016 and what these insights suggest we’ll see in law firms’ priorities in marketing and business development in 2017. Key takeaways: leadership and a clear vision is key to strong firms’ performance; with many larger firms having clarified their branding and collateral, the emphasis in hiring is moving to PR and business development roles; alumni programming is being brought into the BD fold; and writing skills and a service orientation are key to succeeding in marketing and BD roles.

The Wisnik Career Enterprises’s Fall 2016 Salary/BD Survey that Eva and I discuss in this episode can be found here.

Recorded January 10, 2017 @ the offices of Wisnik Career Enterprises in New York City.

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Using Print; Balancing Marketing, Business Development and Business Process Improvement: a Conversation with Mark Messing

Mark Messing, the CMO of Duane Morris, kindly joined me on the Legal Marketing Studio’s last episode of 2016. What was originally intended to be a conversation focused on the way Duane Morris uses print publications within (and throughout) its marketing ended up covering quite a bit more ground. Mark generously shared his thoughts on the relationships between marketing, business development and business process; forging strong client relationships; building engaging pitch teams (and the need for them to rehearse!); the perception gap between a given marketing tool’s aesthetic value vs functional value; and where Mark sees the legal industry and legal marketing moving over the next few years. All in all, lots of really interesting insights in this fascinating podcast.

The print publications discussed in the episode can be seen on the firm’s website here.

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Recorded October 11, 2016 @ the offices of Duane Morris in Philadelphia.

Writing Well and Writing Effectively for Legal Marketing; a discussion with Edie Reinhardt

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At the heart of nearly all marketing materials are words. How well those words are written will determine how effectively they reach the intended audience. Edie Reinhardt and I sat down to discuss writing well, writing with purpose and writing to strategic effect. With a background in both the law and publishing, Edie has a unique perspective on how to tailor one’s writing for a particular audience in a consistent, personal voice and maintain that writing over the long time span required of content marketing. Whether you’re writing for a legal audience composed of other lawyers or seeking to reach potential clients who are not legal experts, you’ll find plenty of insight in this conversation.

Once you’ve had a listen, please remember to subscribe. Links to both our Soundcloud and iTunes feeds are in the menu on the left.

Recorded September 23, 2016 @ Michiko Studios.

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Edie’s company, RDT Content Marketing helps professional services firms use content strategically to distinguish their brand and build their business.