Law firms need to find ways of replicating those “water cooler” moments
BY:
Alexis de Hahn
Avocat Reporteur
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
14 September 2020 (Paris, France) – When it comes to communication, what is your law firm’s favored method? Does a branded email drop into your inbox every week? What about social media? Have the powers that be embraced LinkedIn?
If you find yourself perusing LinkedIn more frequently since you’ve been working at home, you’re not alone. Usage of the network rocketed in March, with the number of conversations between members up by 55 per cent on the previous year – a trend that is set to continue.
NOTE: one of our lodestars for understanding how law firms benchmark against their competitors re: digital marketing performance, and understanding all of the key digital marketing analytics metrics in the law industry, has been Digital 100. Much of their material is free but their best is via subscription services. This post is a mash-up from both sources.
Without the face-to-face meetings and the opportunistic hallway catch ups, LinkedIn offers an alternative way of staying in touch as well as making new contacts. Where else might you find a revealing post about how RPC’s new senior partner, Oliver Bray, once rode a volcanic wave in Nicaragua – a nice snippet should you ever cross paths, or that certain partners are back at their desks.
The platform has also become an essential tool for law firm leaders, helping them add a personal touch to how they keep in contact with their firm and clients. And yet, when it comes to social media usage, it’s the regional firm leaders who have become more reliant on LinkedIn. According to analysis by thedigital100.com, in the six months to 29 August, Clifford Chance senior partner Jeroen Ouwehand, Allen & Overy managing partner Wim Dejonghe and Linklaters senior partner Charlie Jacobs racked up a combined 154,800 impressions on their respective LinkedIn pages. But that figure is dwarfed by the number of impressions notched up by Shakespeare Martineau chief executive Sarah Walker-Smith, who with 475,095 hits, has firmly established herself in another stratosphere when it comes to LinkedIn influencer status.
Just last month, in the midst of the A level exam fiasco, Walker-Smith used the platform to show her support for students, declaring:
“To anyone worrying about A level results at this extra difficult time, I got 2 Cs and an E – your A level results do not define you or your future success unless you let them.”
Any lawyer or potential client with A level age children would no doubt feel comforted by such frankness, helping Walker-Smith raise her profile and seal connections.
In the South East the merger of Southampton’s Moore Blatch and Guildford’s Barlow Robbins went ahead in May despite the pandemic. For managing partner Ed Whittington (112,805 impressions), LinkedIn helped build relationships between the firms but also gave him the space to speak directly about the stark realities of combining in a pandemic.
Last month Whittington publicly thanked staff and lawyers for agreeing to a three-month pay cut to ensure the future of the firm – “one of the hardest requests I’ve had to make in my career”. New instructions were down 60 per cent on the previous year, which, said Whittington, was “frankly terrifying”, and everyone at the firm made “huge sacrifices” to maintain merger momentum.
While more people are returning to the office, it’s unlikely that firms will be at full capacity for some time, meaning that leaders need to find ways of replicating those water cooler moments. LinkedIn could well be the answer.
