Tag Archives: general counsel

Latest “All the World’s YOUR Stage” – Leaving the Margins and Grabbing the Spotlight with Aarash Darroodi

10 April 2024

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Latest episode here.

At six months old, Aarash Darroodi’s parents, who were foreign students in the US, sent their son back to Iran to live with his grandparents so they could complete their graduate studies at the University of Houston. That was 1979. A year later, the Iran-Iraq War erupted. It took seven years and attempts in many countries to get a US visa before Darroodi would reunite with his family in America. That experience, Darroodi says, shaped his life, which would forever be changed.

As General Counsel & Executive Vice President of Fender, Aarash Darroodi has developed a successful 20-year in-house legal career on the idea of melding a traditional legal education/experience with business acumen and business intelligence. He leverages his personal history to lead with empathy and pragmatism. Aarash is quite simply and beautifully a connector. He also has developed the course “How to Build a Rain Machine” through which he teaches lawyers what in-house clients really want. Equipping outside counsel with the secret skills and tactics to maximize client billings, client retention, and client satisfaction. Learn more here: https://www.rainstaracademy.com/. 

“Everybody has a story when you connect to humanity,” Darroodi says. “What you realize is that those stories bring a lot of life learning, and there is a lot of power that’s locked up within people that they feel that they should hide it away and not embrace it. I fundamentally disagree. I think you embrace it because those are where the learnings come from. … I just don’t want to see the resume, I want to know the story. What were some of the challenges you faced in your life? How did you overcome them? What did you learn from those challenges? How do you think those challenges will help you in the future? That’s valuable. That’s what I want to see. I want those people, the ones that have overcome difficulties and challenges. … People are more capable than they know … But people themselves, a lot of times, we need somebody to see that within us and push us, and then we can achieve greatness we never thought possible.”

The fundamental power of storytelling, of reclaiming our individual narratives, and of celebrating our differences will be the focus of this episode. The human condition can be one of “categorizing” others, and thereby limiting potential. Aarash and Roy will discuss how important it is to break that cycle and how each individual can embrace respective heritage as a means of authentic differentiation and professional branding. They will also address the business benefits to leaders who model this for their colleagues and their teams.

Darroodi is an in-demand speaker and pundit, having offered commentary to Bloomberg Law, Thomson Reuters, The Legal 500, TedX, the American Bar Association, American Lawyer Media, South by Southwest, the Association  of Corporate Counsel, the Legal Marketing Association, Fox Business, The Los Angeles Times, and the Maryland State Bar Association.

“All the World’s YOUR Stage” … Stop overthinking and just connect with Jay Harrington

11 March 2024

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View latest episode here.

Jay Harrington is president of his eponymous agency Harrington and is one of the country’s leading consultants and strategists in the areas of legal marketing, PR, and business development. His consulting work includes helping clients define strong market branding and positioning, develop effective thought-leadership strategies, gain visibility through public relations, and generate new business through the execution of marketing tactics.

Jay practices what he preaches. He doesn’t merely consult with clients about the importance of thought-leadership PR and marketing—he is an active content creator himself. He frequently speaks and writes on important issues and trends in legal marketing. His writing is featured in columns for Law.com, JD Supra, and Attorney at Work. He is also the author of three books: The Productivity Pivot, The Essential Associate, and One of a Kind.

Following February’s conversation with Laura Gassner Otting about “getting unstuck,” Jay and Roy discuss how important thought leadership is to personal and professional branding and provide tips on how to stop overthinking and just connect, leveraging the power of social media and digital channels.

Jay leads a vibrant attorney coaching and training practice, through which he provides one-on-one coaching and group training to attorneys and law firms, with a focus on issues related to business development, productivity, and thought leadership.

Jay is a sought after speaker who frequently presents to law firms and legal industry associations on a range of topics including branding, thought-leadership marketing, and business development. His unique approach blends storytelling, strategy, behavioral science, and practical, actionable advice.

Prior to co-founding the agency 15 years ago, Jay practiced law as a commercial litigator and corporate bankruptcy attorney at top law firms, including Skadden Arps and Foley & Lardner. He also co-founded and ran a boutique corporate restructuring law firm. He has an undergraduate degree in journalism and earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. During his time practicing law, Jay learned what it takes to market successfully and develop business for sophisticated professional services, and he applies those lessons while working with clients today.

Keep on movin’… inclusion, community building, authentic storytelling

22 February 2024

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Thank you, Anna Spektor, Alex Kasdan, and Expert Webcast, for hearing my voice, seeing something in my perspective, and encouraging me to build on momentum from 2023. I’m one for synergies. Any marketer worth their salt is. And this is a lovely and unique opportunity for worlds to collide, elevating all in the process.

Original post here.

“We are pleased to welcome Roy Sexton, Clark Hill’s Director of Marketing and Immediate Past International President of the Legal Marketing Association, to the Expert Webcast Advisory Board. As a thought leader and marketing expert, Roy, in this volunteer role, will continue to champion inclusion, community building, authentic storytelling, and value creation. Roy hosts Expert Webcast’s ‘All the World’s YOUR Stage’ series, focusing on how these qualities lead to growth in one’s personal and professional brand. He has 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning across a number of industries, including legal, healthcare, higher education, nonprofits, and consulting.”

From The Sun Times: “Saline’s Roy Sexton is Hosting a New Show Featuring Accessible, Fun and Authentic Conversations”

24 January 2024

2 Comments

Thank you, Sun Times News! Original post here.

Roy Sexton is excited to share some inspiring stories with the world.

Joining with Expert Webcast in launching a new series, Sexton is hosting a new show called “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth.” 

Sexton, a Saline resident who is the Clark Hill Director of Marketing and Immediate Past International President of the Legal Marketing Association, said this new show is an exciting opportunity to share his friends’ stories.

“I’m thrilled to be able to share my friends and their inspiring stories with the world. These professionals all have incredible and varied careers, rich with life lessons that can help others succeed and thrive in their respective work,” Sexton said in the Expert Webcast announcement. “I come from a long line of storytellers, and I think the best way to learn and to be inspired is by sharing our journeys with each other.”

Sexton leads Clark Hill’s marketing, branding, and communications efforts in collaboration with the firm’s exceptional team of marketing and business development professionals. He has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning.

Sexton’s show is expected to feature discussions “with notable business leaders on why culture matters, how one’s personal and professional brand are inextricably linked, and how to leverage your innate authenticity to create growth and spur sustainable organizational change.”

Expert Webcast is a woman-owned company and is a leading source of transactional wisdom and market intelligence for the professional and the business communities locally, nationally and cross-border. 

Producing the industry’s leading panel discussions and interviews covering corporate, M&A, restructuring and finance topics, Expert Webcast said it “addresses timely and relevant issues faced by general counsel, C-level executives, boards of directors, business owners and their advisors, as well as institutional investors.”

Anna Spektor, Expert Webcast’s Founder and CEO, said they are looking forward to what Sexton’s show will bring.

“We partner with leading media outlets and organizations to expand the reach and impact of the platform, and to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among industry peers and stakeholders,” Spektor said in the announcement. “Roy is a welcome addition to our voices. We’ve already recorded our first episode [with Blaine Fowler], and I’m just thrilled with the direction. I think our viewers – attorney leaders, executives, professional services practitioners – will gain great insight from these accessible, fun, authentic conversations.”

Spektor added, “As an acknowledged business leader and a top legal marketing, communications and strategic planning executive, Roy will add a new dimension to the Expert Webcast legal, finance and transactional programming by interviewing entrepreneurs, media personalities and other business leaders, focusing on business culture, growth and collaboration.”

Sexton is described as being passionate about problem solving, facilitating business growth, crafting communications strategy, and enhancing law firm culture. He works closely with the marketing team to advance the firm’s digital and social media presence and external engagement, using multi-channel distribution and data collection. This enables the team to quantify results and use those results to produce thoughtfully and strategically organized content for clients and prospects.

Sexton also advises attorneys on marketing and business development strategy by curating relationships among external publications and media outlets and creating the appropriate platforms and opportunities for attorneys to promote their knowledge and practice.

He has been heavily involved regionally and nationally in the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) as a board member, content expert, and presenter. He currently serves as Past President of LMA. He also serves on the governance board committee of Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit and was marketing chair for Ronald McDonald House Charities Ann Arbor’s board.

Sexton was named one of INvolve People’s 2023 Top 100 OUTstanding LGBTQ+ Executives internationally. He was listed in Crain’s Detroit
“Notable LGBTQ in Business” in 2021 and “Notable Leaders in Marketing” in 2023, and he was a Michigan Lawyers Weekly“Unsung Legal Hero” (2018).

In 2022, Clark Hill’s marketing campaign, which Sexton played a key role in developing, received the Best Marketing Campaign award from the Managing Partners’ Forum in London, celebrating professional services organizations. The campaign was noted for its focus on values, diversity, and inclusion. The Clark Hill marketing and business development team was also awarded “Best Marketing Initiative” by Managing Partners’ Forum in 2020.

Sexton is also a published author of two books: Reel Roy Reviews, Volumes 1 and 2and he was named “Best Actor in a Musical” by BroadwayWorld Detroit in 2017 for his performance as Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood at Ann Arbor Civic.

Sexton’s first season’s guests will include:

  • 96.3 WDVD’s morning show co-host of Blaine and Lauren Blaine D. Fowler
  • The Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Wonderhell and Limitless
    as well as keynote speaker and coach Laura Gassner Otting
  • Author/coach/recovering attorney/president of Harrington Communications Jay Harrington
  • Fender Musical Instruments Corporation General Counsel/Executive Vice President/Corporate Secretary Aarash Darroodi
  • Counselor and spiritual coach Julie Booksh, MA, LPC
  • FOX 2 Detroit prime time anchor Roop Raj
  • Eastern Michigan University General Counsel and Executive Director of The Penny Seats theatre company Lauren M. London
  • Keynote speaker/corporate comedian/client care strategist Brenda Pontiff of Partner Track Academy
  • Professor of Psychology, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Area, University of Michigan and author Stephanie Preston
  • President and CEO of Detroit Regional Partnership Maureen Donohue Krauss, FM
  • Storyteller + Strategist: on stage and behind the scenes, award-winning voiceover artist Ratana
  • Communications Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering Dana C. Harvey, MBA

“I’m thrilled to be able to share my friends and their inspiring stories with the world.” Dbusiness covers launch of “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth”

23 January 2024

5 Comments

Thank you, R.J. King and DBusiness Magazine. You are always very kind to me. You do so much good for our Metro Detroit community. And you are appreciated.

Read article here.

Roy Sexton, director of marketing for Clark Hill Law, will host a new show called “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth” for Expert Webcast, a woman-owned company and source of market intelligence for the professional and the business communities locally, nationally, and cross-border.

It produces panel discussions and interviews covering corporate, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and finance topics, expert webcast addresses timely and relevant issues faced by general counsel, C-level executives, boards of directors, business owners, and their advisors, as well as institutional investors.

Sexton’s webcast will feature discussions with notable business leaders on why culture matters, how one’s personal and professional brand are inextricably linked, and how to use innate authenticity to create growth and spur sustainable organizational change.

The first season’s guests will include Blaine D. Fowler, 96.3 WDVD’s morning show co-host of “Blaine and Lauren;” Laura Gassner Otting, The Wall Street Journal best-selling author of “Wonderhell” and “Limitless” as well as keynote speaker and coach; Jay Harrington, author/coach/recovering attorney/president of Harrington Communications; Aarash Darroodi, vice president and corporate secretary and general counsel for Fender Musical Instruments Corporation; Roop Raj, prime time anchor for FOX 2 Detroit; and Lauren M. London, general counsel for Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and executive director of The Penny Seats.

“I’m thrilled to be able to share my friends and their inspiring stories with the world,” says Sexton. “These professionals all have incredible and varied careers, rich with life lessons that can help others succeed and thrive in their respective work. I come from a long line of storytellers, and I think the best way to learn and to be inspired is by sharing our journeys with each other.”

Sexton leads Clark Hill’s marketing, branding, and communications efforts in collaboration with the firm’s team of marketing and business development professionals. He has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning.

Sexton is a published author of two books: “Reel Roy Reviews,” Volumes 1 and 2 and he was named Best Actor in a Musical by BroadwayWorld Detroit in 2017 for his performance as Jasper in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” at Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.

Detroit Legal News covers launch of Expert Webcast series “All the World’s YOUR Stage”

17 January 2024

4 Comments

Thank you, Brian Cox and Brad Thompson! You and the Legal News have been so kind to me for nearly 15 (!) years now!

Original article: https://www.legalnews.com/Home/Articles?DataId=1540542

Expert Webcast has launched a new series hosted by Clark Hill director of marketing and immediate past international president of the Legal Marketing Association Roy Sexton.

Titled “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth,” the show will feature discussions with notable business leaders on why culture matters, how one’s personal and professional brand are inextricably linked, and how to leverage your innate authenticity to create growth and spur sustainable organizational change.

The first season’s guests will include:

  • 96.3 WDVD’s morning show co-host of Blaine and Lauren Blaine D. Fowler
  • The Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Wonderhell and Limitless as well as keynote speaker and coach Laura Gassner Otting
  • Author/coach/recovering attorney/ president of Harrington Communications Jay Harrington
  • Fender Musical Instruments Corporation General Counsel/Executive Vice President/Corporate Secretary Aarash Darroodi
  • Counselor and spiritual coach Julie Booksh, MA, LPC
  • FOX 2 Detroit prime time anchor Roop Raj (TBD)
  • Eastern Michigan University General Counsel and Executive Director of The Penny Seats theatre company Lauren M. London
  • Keynote speaker/corporate comedian/client care strategist Brenda Pontiff of Partner Track Academy
  • Professor of Psychology, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Area, University of Michigan and author Stephanie Preston
  • President and CEO of Detroit Regional Partnership Maureen Donohue Krauss, FM
  • Storyteller + Strategist: on stage and behind the scenes, award-winning voice­over artist Ratana
  • Communications Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering Dana C. Harvey, MBA

“I’m thrilled to be able to share my friends and their inspiring stories with the world. These professionals all have incredible and varied careers, rich with life lessons that can help others succeed and thrive in their respective work,” Sexton observed. “I come from a long line of storytellers, and I think the best way to learn and to be inspired is by sharing our journeys with each other.”

Expert Webcast is a woman-owned company and is a leading source of transactional wisdom and market intelligence for the professional and the business communities locally, nationally and cross-border. Producing the industry’s leading panel discussions and interviews covering corporate, M&A, restructuring and finance topics, Expert Webcast addresses timely and relevant issues faced by general counsel, C-level executives, boards of directors, business owners and their advisors, as well as institutional investors.

“We partner with leading media outlets and organizations to expand the reach and impact of the platform, and to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among industry peers and stakeholders,” Anna Spektor, Expert Webcast’s Founder and CEO, noted. “Roy is a welcome addition to our voices. We’ve already recorded our first episode [with Blaine Fowler], and I’m just thrilled with the direction. I think our viewers – attorney leaders, executives, professional services practitioners – will gain great insight from these accessible, fun, authentic conversations.”

Roy Sexton leads Clark Hill’s marketing, branding, and communications efforts in collaboration with the firm’s team of marketing and business development professionals. He has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning.

“As an acknowledged business leader and a top legal marketing, communications and strategic planning executive, Roy will add a new dimension to the Expert Webcast legal, finance and transactional programming by interviewing entrepreneurs, media personalities and other business leaders, focusing on business culture, growth and collaboration,” Spektor added.

Sexton is passionate about problem solving, facilitating business growth, crafting communications strategy, and enhancing law firm culture. He works closely with the marketing team to advance the firm’s digital and social media presence and external engagement, using multi-channel distribution and data collection. This enables the team to quantify results and use those results to produce thoughtfully and strategically organized content for clients and prospects.

Sexton also advises attorneys on marketing and business development strategy by curating relationships among external publications and media outlets and creating the appropriate platforms and opportunities for attorneys to promote their knowledge and practice.

He has been heavily involved regionally and nationally in the Legal Marketing Association – LMA International (LMA) as a board member, content expert, and presenter. He currently serves as Past President of LMA. He also serves on the governance board committee of Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit and was marketing chair for Ronald McDonald House Charities Ann Arbor’s board.

Sexton was named one of INvolve People’s 2023 Top 100 OUTstanding LGBTQ+ Executives internationally. He was listed in Crain’s Detroit Business’ “Notable LGBTQ in Business” in 2021 and “Notable Leaders in Marketing” in 2023, and he was a Michigan Lawyers Weekly “Unsung Legal Hero” (2018).

In 2022, Clark Hill’s marketing campaign, which Sexton played a key role in developing, received the Best Marketing Campaign award from the Managing Partners’ Forum in London, celebrating professional services organizations. The campaign was noted for its focus on values, diversity, and inclusion. The Clark Hill marketing and business development team was also awarded “Best Marketing Initiative” by Managing Partners’ Forum in 2020.

Sexton is a published author of two books: ReelRoyReviews, Volumes 1 and 2 and he was named “Best Actor in a Musical” by BroadwayWorld in 2017 for his performance as Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood at Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.

Expert Webcast series launches! “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth” with yours truly

8 January 2024

2 Comments

Excited to announce the launch of my Expert Webcast series “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth.” Thank you to wonderful Anna Spektor for the opportunity (as well as the delightful brainstorm chats that got us here).

VIEW TRAILER: https://expertwebcast.com/programs/trailer-for-all-the-worlds-your-stage-authentic-culture-drives-authentic-growth

Register here to be notified as episodes are released monthly: https://expertwebcast.com/checkout/new?o=155600

“Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at AmLaw 200 firm Clark Hill and past international president of the Legal Marketing Association – LMA International, chats with notable business leaders on why culture matters, how one’s personal and professional brand are inextricably linked, and how to leverage your innate authenticity to create growth and spur sustainable organizational change.”

Please join me this year as well as these upcoming guests …

  • 96.3 WDVD’s morning show co-host of “Blaine and Lauren” Blaine D. Fowler
  • The Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Wonderhell and Limitless as well as keynote speaker and coach Laura Gassner Otting
  • Author/coach/recovering attorney/president of Harrington Communications Jay Harrington
  • Fender Musical Instruments Corporation General Counsel/Executive Vice President/Corporate Secretary Aarash Darroodi
  • Counselor and spiritual coach Julie Booksh, MA, LPC
  • FOX 2 Detroit prime time anchor Roop Raj
  • Eastern Michigan University General Counsel and Executive Director of The Penny Seats theatre company Lauren M. London
  • Keynote speaker/corporate comedian/client care strategist Brenda Pontiff of Partner Track Academy
  • Professor of Psychology, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Area, University of Michigan and author Stephanie Preston
  • President and CEO of Detroit Regional Partnership Maureen Donohue Krauss, FM
  • Storyteller + Strategist: on stage and behind the scenes, award-winning voiceover artist Ratana
  • Communications Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering Dana C. Harvey, MBA, and more!

VIEW TRAILER: https://expertwebcast.com/programs/trailer-for-all-the-worlds-your-stage-authentic-culture-drives-authentic-growth

Once more with feeling (#LMA16): Perspectives from In-House Legal Marketers on Social/Digital Media

22 April 2016

4 Comments

img_0348If you missed this week’s Social and Digital Media SIG webinar recapping our takeaways from #LMA16, the recording is now posted here: http://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1174915/B5ECC687155CBA1462A3D24E464C0D94. (You have to “register” to watch.)

Thanks to the incomparable Megan McKeon for joining me on this presentation! And listen for shout outs to Nancy Leyes Myrland, Lindsay Griffiths, Tasneem K. Goodman, Jabez LeBret, Jonathan Fitzgarrald, Heather Morse-Geller, Melissa Thomas, Amber Bollman, Bree Harms, Jim Jarrell, Gina Rubel, and more …

“As the influence of social and digital media continues to evolve and cross-over into all aspects of marketing the legal profession, legal marketers continue to become less generalized, and more focused on specific areas of expertise. These varying focuses and roles, result in differing approaches to the social and digital media in our profession. In other words, what a business development professional finds valuable about a digital media presentation, may differ from that of a marketing technologist. As such, the Legal Marketing Association Social Media SIG invites you to attend our LMA Annual Conference Recap Webinar involving in-house legal marketers from various areas of our profession to discuss their favorite digital and social media programs from this year’s conference. Discussion topics include key takeaways from our favorite sessions, general discussion of the hot topics you may have missed, and the impact of the 2016 LMA Annual Conference programming on our behavior as legal marketers.”

______________

LMA 16Reel Roy Reviews is now TWO books! You can purchase your copies by clicking here (print and digital). 

In addition to online ordering at Amazon or from the publisher Open Books, the first book is currently is being carried by Bookbound, Common Language Bookstore, and Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor, Michigan and by Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan.  

My mom Susie Duncan Sexton’s Secrets of an Old Typewriter series is also available on Amazon and at Bookbound and Common Language.

The Digital Handshake #LMA16: ROI (Measuring So You Can Better Manage) … and PechaKucha!

20 April 2016

4 Comments

pecha(Originally written for and posted on Legal Marketing Association Social and Digital Media Special Interest Group blog. This piece is summarizing two sessions I attended at the 2016 annual conference in Austin, Texas.)

 

In her blog entry “Referrals and First Impressions: How Technology Has Changed Them” (summarizing a recent Legal Coffee Break podcast by GNGF founders Mark Homer and Jabez LeBret), Lindsay Griffiths, Director of Global Relationship Management at International Lawyers Network, writes …

When a prospective client Googles you, and the only thing that comes up is a bio that is outdated, with a few lines about your practice, the year you graduated law school and passed the bar, it won’t matter if you are the smartest and most talented lawyer in the world. The firm’s website and your social media profiles are designed to support the word of mouth referral and their decision to hire you, to provide a level of comfort that we all seek when looking online for information these days – that feeling of “oh yes, I’m making the right decision in trusting this person with my business.”

 

What Lindsay has captured here is a key theme that resonated repeatedly for me during the recent Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference (LMA16) in Austin, Texas. The notions that digital and social media somehow exist in a vacuum and are to be discussed as some glorious abstraction or, worse, funky sideline experiment are defunct (not that they ever had any validity to start). We don’t have a special task force for “telephone usage” or “the art of cocktail conversation” (though, in fact, those are not terrible ideas, come to think of it). Social/digital presence is now essential to the business development and marketing conversation, from prospect research through lead generation, from ongoing client engagement to every facet of brand management. Let’s face it. Our digital footprint is often the first thing anyone sees about us these days.

That said, this blog entry, which started life as an assignment to summarize one social media-leaning presentation at LMA16 is going to be a mash-up of takeaways from two utterly unrelated sessions, sessions which nonetheless showed the essential value of digital and social as a matter of accepted course in the world of legal marketing.

Jonathan Fitzgarrald, Equinox Partners, presented “ROI: Measuring So You Can Better Manage,” an effervescent boot camp on law firm managing up and leaning in and breaking out. In the surest sense of “getting more flies with honey,” Fitzgarrald returned frequently to the truism that what you can’t measure doesn’t matter – and more to the point, if you don’t know what matters to your clients, no measurement in the world will help you. And if you are still encountering difficulty selling the importance of digital client engagement to law firm leadership, follow this recipe …

  • Ask your attorneys about their priorities. Don’t assume.
  • Are you mining social media to understand what your clients are seeking and how they are communicating? What are your competitors saying and to whom?
  • Form an unofficial board of advocates in your firm – mix of attorneys & other colleagues.
  • With firm growth priorities in mind, how can social/digital help? What are stakeholder concerns/fears?
  • Socialize unfamiliar concepts using data, outcomes, competitor examples, non-legal examples. Plant the seed, and let others champion the idea. Doesn’t matter who gets “credit,” if it benefits the firm.
  • Measure your social media efforts – quantitatively and anecdotally. Proactively circulate internal monthly measures/outcomes: reach/impressions, shares/likes, media mentions.
  • Actively demonstrate your value and that of social/digital.
  • Help linear folks see in 3D.

 

As social media has evolved from being a standalone topic to a vital communications/ engagement tool, discussions of use, value, measurement were woven throughout many LMA16 presentations across varied topics. Nowhere was that truer than in Tas Gooman and Jabez LeBret’s “Your Honor Awards Meet PechaKucha,” with presentations by Jann E. Dudley of Archer Norris; Daryl Drabinsky of DLA Piper; Sarah Fougere, of Oblon, McClelland, Maier, & Neustadt; Morgan Hall from McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland; and Andrea (Crews) Maciejewski from Levenfeld Pearlstein.

In fact the very presentation-style of the session reflected how social media has impacted our speaking styles and absorption of information. What is PechaKucha you ask? It’s a timed presentation  – six minutes and your slides keep moving whether you are ready or not – requiring the speakers (in this case the 2016 Your Honor recipients)  to focus on the key narrative points: what they did, how they did it, and what results they achieved.

Here’s the thing. Nearly every one discussed how social media/digital was essential to their strategy: targeting messages by audience segment, creating agility and ability to customize what is viewed/received, and offering bigger impact for lower costs. Some of the most memorable tips …

  • Microsites (as opposed to traditional web bios) for attorneys. One size does NOT fit all. For more digitally/socially active subjects, a microsite rewards by including social links, blog posts, etc.
  • In designing “book of content” style sites/microsites, send out private links for measurement and create customized marquees for respective audience interest.
  • Use images rather than text (which I’m failing at presently), and find ways to present information as stories, as narrative, not as cascades of bragging points.
  • Use social/digital to make your campaigns “come to life” with real voices – people want to talk to people, not entities.
  • What issues are trending on social media (e.g. marriage equality), and does that present a growth opportunity? Move fast, and engage … but “non-lawyer-ly.”
  • Hire a local up-and-coming fashion photographer to differentiate photos used in social.
  • Feature profiles, news in-line with business you hope to attract.
  • Explore platforms that allow you to provide easy-to-share content to attorneys, but avoid dreaded “auto-posting” appearance.

Based on these various ideas ping ponging around my brain (thanks, LMA16!), here are the challenges I see going forward …

  • Think less about social media in a “tactical bubble” and more as the accepted (and at times primary means) of strategically communicating. Why is there this “fire wall” around social/digital?
  • Build social/digital more prominently into reporting mechanisms. Where are our clients learning about us? What are they saying and where?
  • Think visually, communicate concisely, speak personally. There is a necessary precision to legal communications; however, our digital/social presence is competing against millions of messages (legal and non-legal) every day. How can we stand out, while walking that fine line of credibility and promotion?

And remember that the first handshake your attorney may have with a potential client is more likely than ever to occur in cyberspace.

______________

Roy Sexton is Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Trott Law, P.C., a Michigan-based real estate law firm serving the mortgage industry (www.TrottLaw.com). A graduate of Wabash College, he holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and an MA in theatre from the Ohio State University. He has nearly 20 years of experience in strategic planning, business development, marketing and communications, having worked previously at Deloitte Consulting and Oakwood Healthcare.

He is a published author with two books of arts criticism Reel Roy Reviews, compiled from his blog of the same name (www.ReelRoyReviews.com).  He is an at-large member of LMA’s Midwest Board, serves on the state Board of Governors of the Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association, and is a co-founder and board member of Ann Arbor’s Penny Seats Theatre Company. He is active in the Social & Digital Media SIG and is on the advisory board for Strategies. You can reach him by emailing rsexton@trottlaw.com or via the following social media channels:

  • Twitter: @roysexton
  • LinkedIn: /royesexton
  • Facebook: /roy.sexton

______________

LMA 16Reel Roy Reviews is now TWO books! You can purchase your copies by clicking here (print and digital). 

In addition to online ordering at Amazon or from the publisher Open Books, the first book is currently is being carried by Bookbound, Common Language Bookstore, and Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor, Michigan and by Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan.  

My mom Susie Duncan Sexton’s Secrets of an Old Typewriter series is also available on Amazon and at Bookbound and Common Language.