Practice 360° Offers Attendees Strategies to Innovate in a Competitive Marketplace

Practice 360° Offers Attendees Strategies to Innovate in a Competitive Marketplace

October 11, 2024

By Jeremy Conrad and John Murph

Now in its 10th year, Practice 360º is designed to help law firms and lawyers better leverage their businesses and thrive in the legal market. (Photos by Jati Lindsay)

On October 9, approximately 100 people gathered at the D.C. Bar for its annual Practice 360º, presented by the Bar's Practice Management Advisory Service. The daylong event brought together law firm principals, business and professional coaches, and marketing executives to offer attorneys strategies to boost their services, stay abreast of the latest technological advancements in the legal space, and navigate business and legal ethics concerns.

Practice 360º also covered attorney wellness, with solo practitioners Frank Salvato and Libbey Van Pelt leading the session "How to Be a Human: Honoring Your Humanity in a Profession That Strips You of It." The two panelists encouraged attendees to improve their work satisfaction by designing a practice environment and style that reflects their individual personality.

With study after study showing that lawyers are more prone to mental health issues as well as to experiencing much higher rates of cynicism and negativity, Van Pelt decided to take a different approach to her practice by prioritizing personal value. On her firm's website, Van Pelt states that one can be both kind and a fierce advocate for their client.

"You can do yoga for an hour every morning, but then if you have to go to work and be a lawyer and practice law for 10 years, for 10 hours a day, and fundamentally practice in a way that is incongruous with who you are as a person, it's not going to be satisfying, and you're not going to be happy," said Van Pelt, who started her own firm in 2021 after working in private practice and as an assistant U.S. attorney.

Salvato, who often co-counsels with Van Pelt on cases, said working with another lawyer makes representation less isolating and provides advantages he wouldn't have otherwise. "I am a great believer in co-counseling with people. I think it's great, and I think you will make more money down the road because you just expand that horizon," said Salvato, who has been practicing since 1989, focusing on defense of criminal and traffic offenses.

"I think it's just lonely to be there by yourself, right? How many times have [you] sat in a trial … where you're just there by yourself and the government always has two or three prosecutors, and they always have two or three agents," Salvato said. "They've got 17,0000 exhibits and the judge is like, do you have any objection to exhibits 18-207? … It is so less lonely to have somebody there."

The years of practice and mental anguish dealing with prosecutors, judges, and clients takes a toll, and for Salvato, partnering up has been better for his health. "My stress level has gone down and my blood pressure has gone down … [Having] a running partner … is invaluable because you don't do your family any good if you are stressed and at the doctor," he said.

The Power of Effective Negotiation

In the afternoon session "Advanced Negotiation Practicum for Attorneys," presenters Max Bevilacqua and Naseem Khuri of Mindful Negotiating used a brief exercise to illustrate the adaptive quality of their approach to negotiation.

Breaking up attendees into pairs and asking them to sit across from each other, hands clasped as though they were about to arm wrestle, Bevilacqua and Khuri told participants they would receive a point each time the other person's hand touched the table. Participants were instructed to collect as many points as they could manage over the course of 10 seconds. No communication was allowed.

Except for one pair, participants struggled against each other, and only a few had scored any points by the end of the exercise. By recognizing that neither party had to lose for the other to win, the winning pair was able to score more points than other teams through cooperation.

"We have to be aware, in any negotiation we've got, of what our goal actually is and how we are vulnerable to that goal-shifting based on what the other party does," said Bevilacqua, who has trained Fortune 100 executives, business development teams, and U.S. Special Forces over the course of his negotiation career.

Khuri drilled down on reaching a client's true goals. "Oftentimes, especially if you are the agent, you will be given instructions in terms of position. You will be told you need to hit X number of dollars, or that we need this exact language, etc., and anything short of that might be considered failure. The challenge, I think, for agents, is that [you] need to uncover what the client really cares about." He added, "I can actually unlock more value if I solve for the problems underneath that iceberg, underneath that surface. If I solve for interests, I can unlock more value than if I just solve for position."

Marketing in the Digital Age

Annette Choti, founder of Law Quill, an online marketing firm for lawyers, offered "some tough love" on how attorneys should market their firms, stressing the importance of having a strong digital imprint to be successful in a competitive marketplace.

"Referrals are no longer going to help you alone to run your law firm, even if you're getting referrals," Choti said, citing On the Map Marketing statistics for 2024 that show 83 percent of law firms hire an outside marketing organization.

Choti also directed attendees to the latest Legal Marketing Association report that shows 70 percent of law firms aimed to increase their digital marketing expenses by 2024, and that the average law firm spends approximately $150,000 on search engine optimization (SEO).

Given the high stakes, Choti discouraged attorneys from doing their own digital marketing. "Now, some people have to at the beginning because they are just starting a law firm and they just don't have the budget for it," she said. "But just like a business owner would outsource their accounting or other areas in the business in which they're not an expert, you would look into a digital marketing firm because they have the expertise. And frankly, it's cost effective."

When choosing a marketing agency, Choti advised lawyers to find one that's going to design a package tailored to their unique needs and to watch out for some red flags, including exorbitant pricing, lack of transparency, poor communication, subpar results, questionable tactics, and the agency's willingness to write legally inaccurate and ethically noncompliant marketing spiels.

Choti warned lawyers against predatory digital marketing agencies that see a niche in legal marketing just because lawyers tend to make a lot of money. "They just go in not knowing the legal and ethical requirements. And they are charging you, and you're not getting any SEO [value] or ethically compliant content," she said.

When interviewing marketing agencies, law firms should ask about their experience in the legal industry, if they have an extensive client portfolio in the legal sector, if they have a proven track record of success, and the analytics they use to measure success.

"Be wary of handpicked client samples," Choti said. "That might not be the very best way to figure out whether or not [the marketing agencies] are doing what they say they are doing. Instead, look at their online reviews."

Choti also recommended that firms stay on top of their social media accounts and how digital marketing agencies are using them. She urged law firms to review all social media posts before the agencies send them out. "You should be able to see, and not hope, that you're not embarrassed on social media," Choti said. "You should be allowed to have the highest authority of not only your social media, but your website as well. You should own your website."

Now in its 10th year, Practice 360º is designed to help law firms and lawyers better leverage their businesses and thrive in the legal market. Other topics discussed at this year's event include strategies for business development, best practices for data privacy and cybersecurity, and the ethical usage of artificial intelligence.

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