Venue (#01-02 January-February 2016)

Promotion and Development: Secrets on Air

At the end of 2015 the III International Forum for the Promotion of Legal Services held by Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing brought together the legal market to reveal the secrets of promoting services during a turbulent and challenging period. Legal practitioners, marketing and BD executives, representatives of professional media and consultants from Ukraine and abroad came to exchange the latest developments in promotion and development, discuss the best ways of attracting clients, effective communication channels, reputation risks in business and share their forecasts for 2016.

Fresh experience

Within the framework of the first session, Armen Khachaturyan, senior partner at Asters, presented an overview of the latest developments and underlined that the legal market appeared to be rather stable last year. He admitted that among the brightest trends was the mass move from the legal practice into politics. Tetyana Gavrysh, managing partner of ILF, shared the experience of ILF brand evolution throughout the last 20 years. Among the first challenges for business in 2003 was development of a billing IT solution, which was written especially for the firm and its needs at that period of time, and is adapted for up-to-date requirements. Diversification of the client base was another challenge for ILF. As a result, a partnership system was introduced. According to Ms. Gavrysh, the firm introduced standardization of procedure at the next stage. “Optimization of project management system enabled us to reduce costs by up to 30%. It also enabled us to plan our costs for every single project and carry out budgeting and determine prices”, she said.

Denis Lysenko, managing partner of AEQUO, touched upon the problem of clients’ expectations. He assumes that the main secret lies in the fast and meaningful response on the part of clients’ demands. Timely receipt of information on possible risks, applicable balance between price and quality are mostly respected by clients. In her turn, Yulia Chervonookaya, PR/BD director of AEQUO, described the ways of launching a new brand on the market. The first step, she advised, should be to formulate a clear plan. Using the form as a case in point she stressed that AEQUO’s corporate style was developed in a rather short timeframe. Another working tool that proved its efficiency was establishment of a PR and BD committee, composed of partners and subsequent specialists. The mission and aims of the new firm were discussed by the whole team, and it helped to indentify corporate positioning and market standing.

Expansion of new markets

The second panel gathered partners of law firms that have undertaken expansion to other jurisdictions. As the discussion revealed, it is not only clients’ needs that determine this process.

Thus, Mikhail Ilyashev, managing partner of Ilyashev & Partners, explained that the Moscow office opened due to the desire of the firm’s clients to receive the same services which they were used to in Ukraine. “Starting your business abroad you have to rely on local lawyers, as they know the peculiarities of the market from inside out”, he noted.

Maksym Uslystyi, head of AstapovLawyers office in Kazakhstan, stressed that at the beginning they were afraid of prejudicial treatment towards a Ukrainian firm but these fears proved groundless. The office currently competes for local clients, and is devoted to transactional and arbitration support.

Valentyn Gvozdiy, managing partner of GOLAW, shared the firm’s experience of entering the German market. “To start with, you have to receive the status of a foreign attorney but this procedure occupies quite a lot of time. And only on receiving such status you get the opportunity to register a law firm”, he said. Such notion as “promotion of legal services” is not developed in Germany. Lawyers normally just sit and wait for a client to come.

Characterizing the Austrian legal market, Maksym Lavrynovych, managing partner of Lavrynovych & Partners, named it one of the most promising as the profit received from purchase of business or commercial property there may range from 5.5% to 10%.

Compared to other companies, International Legal Center EUCON didn’t enter the Polish market but established offices in Poland and Ukraine from the very beginning. According to Yaroslav Romanchuk, managing partner, the office in Poland gives Ukrainian investors an opportunity to apply economic tools that exist in Poland. The attractiveness of Polish jurisdiction inside the EU gives attractive prospects for Ukrainian business on its move to Europe.

Olexiy Feliv, who joined Integrites as a partner and head of the European desk, explained that the firm does not plan to become a full service law firm in West European countries. Integrites is positioned not as a Ukrainian but international law firm. “In Europe we attempt to become a facilitator for those Western clients that enter the CIS region and those CIS clients that plan expansion into Europe”, he stressed.

Search and retention

The third session was devoted to the issues of attracting and retaining clients.

Saniya Perzadayeva, managing partner of Colibri Kazakhstan law firm, provided an overview of the legal markets in Central Asia, and depicted trends that are typical for Kazakhstan. The jurisdiction takes about 90% of foreign investments in the region. The speaker paid attention to the newly-adopted law on the international finance centre in Astana. Starting from 2018 the financial centre, which takes up the model of the Dubai Financial Centre, will start to operate. “The centre will have its own special regime where an arbitration court with English law will be created. At present time English law is being actively integrated into Kazakh legislation”, stated Mrs. Perzadayeva. The practice of Islamic finance was also mentioned as one of the new trends on the market. Among the other challenges, she underlined future accession to the WTO, EXPO 2017 — the huge scopes of construction in Astana, development of legislation according to the “green economy” model.

Managing partner of Antika law firm, Alexey Kot, described painful points in relations with clients. Price transparency is the best advice in this situation, according to him. Revealing how prices are determined can help the lawyer to explain an increase in fees in terms of budget caps and limits.

The peculiarities of legal work in Belarus was described by Valery Papakul, partner at Stepanovski, Papakul & Partners. In addition tothe economic crisis, this market feels the continuous increase of competition from private attorneys. The speaker admitted that under such circumstances his firm conducted an audit of clients and carried out a review of the services offered by the firm.

Reputation with a political flavor

The final session, moderated by Rustam Kolesnik, the chief editor of Yuridicheskaya Practika Weekly, and Îlga Usenko, chief editor of The UJBL and Ukrainian Law Firms. A Handbook for Foreign Clients, was devoted to reputation in the legal business.

Tetiana Benko, partner of Legal Marketing Solutions, provided for real cases of anti-crisis solutions implemented by law firms around the world, emphasizing the importance of developing an action plan. Svitlana Lazarenko, CEO at GOLAW, touched upon the sensitive but very typical problem of “stars” in the legal profession. In her opinion, despite good skills, such stars may become a source of internal conflicts and pitfalls in relationships with clients.

As Olga Usenko mentioned, the risks to reputation in foreign countries deal usually with exits by a partner or team, splits and professional ethics, while in Ukraine they depend on external and, in most cases, political factors.

Further to this topic, Timur Bondaryev, managing partner of Arzinger, shared his experience of overcoming the results of two of the firm’s partners moving into the civil service and confirmed that the firm is ready to admit them into partnership. “We are considering this thoroughly before we decide to deliver legal support to certain clients. And we have experience of being forced to abandon very solid clients”, he said.

Kostiantyn Likarchuk, director of LBL — Legal Bureau of Likarchuk, who acted as deputy head of the State Fiscal Service, and left that position because of the conflict with the head of the service and Ukrainian Prime Minister, said that his activity touched upon the interests of Ukrainian business groups. The ultimate goals of fighting corruption and counterfeiting were not supported inside the service and government. Answering the question why he did not come back to Avellum Partners, Mr. Likarchuk commented that there had been misunderstandings between him and other partners prior to his departure into the public sector. “My return was impolitic for me because of the interests of some clients of Avellum. I was not ready to give up my public position and leave political discussion”, he commented.

Denys Bugay, partner of VB PARTNERS, stopped at the risks of identifying a client with his attorney, which he experienced in practice. “Do not fight journalists. Further suits cannot reduce the initial negativity published in the media”, he said. He recommended including a price for PR in legal fees, getting approval preliminary from the client.

Valentyn Zagariya, managing partner of Spenser & Kauffmann, characterized the mutual risks for business arising from election as a head of qualification authority of advocates. “The head of this body is a priori toxic as it is perceived as an appellate court for advocates. As advocates governance is quasi-public activity, it is important to consider the risks for legal business”, said Mr. Zagariya, sharing his views.

Sensible networking

Participation in events and networking became the subject of a separate session, where Andrew Webster-Dunn, head of advertising and sponsorship of the International Bar Association, explained the practical aspects of participation in international conferences and associations. The annual IBA event here may serve as a good example of a “money saving exercise” when partners meet colleagues and clients from different parts of the world in one place.

Iryna Khymchak, BD director, Redcliffe Partners, carried out a review of the best international experience of arranging a professional reception dwelling on standards, innovations and cases on the example of satellite events within IBA Annual Conferences.

Nataliia Duginova, head of marketing and PR, Legal Alliance Company, confirmed that educational events may bring in clients only at the start. This tool definitely helps to get proper market standing in a specific industry/niche. But later it becomes less effective in terms of bringing new clients, but serves as additional revenue for the firm.

Communication tools and methods of promotion

Various aspects of communication were reviewed by the next topical session. In this panel Jonathan Bell, business development director, International Legal Division, Globe Business Media Group/Lexology (UK), highlighted the advantages of creating a personal brand in the digital era: content marketing, metrics and more. Among the ways to improve content marketing the speaker listed analysis with clear business-related points, brevity, a catchy title, précis, speed and timing, variety (broad perspective and industry implications).

Alexander Lipsky, director of Lipsky Marketing Group, described the ways to create a professional digital sales team from lawyers. He stressed that the main platform for selling services in evidently is a law firm’s corporate website. “A SEO audit may allow you to correct errors that make your site unable to serve a platform for sale”, he said. Another important issue is generation of valuable contents and dividing responsibility between lawyers for on-line promotion in practice.

Evgeniy Bessarabov,managing partner of PSA Consulting and Management Systems, reminded that the importance of non-chargeable time for marketing and sale is that it stipulates billable hours for requests made by clients. Subsequently, when the client is satisfied and the law firm has won its trust, new orders for legal work are achieved. At the same time, the BD burden rises from associate to partner. As for the automation of marketing processes, it enables systematization of such activities, adjusting of the e-mailing process and the setting and monitoring of KPIs.

Victoria Yesaulenko, marketing director of Asters, singled out brevity, compactness, truthfulness, correspondence to the target audience, consistency and readiness of the audience to receive information as among the main principles of effective communication.

UJBL chief editor, Olga Usenko, presented the results of reputation audit she conducted just before the forum. She announced that many market players experience so-called gaps between self-perception, expectations, and real feedback from different groups of stakeholders. Reputation from the competitors’ perspective revealed that out of young, innovative, dynamic and promising firms, AEQUO law firm received the highest appraisal from peers. Aggressive development strategies are seen at the firms Integrites, Arzinger and AstapovLawyers. “However, this characteristic from GC’s perspective converts into client focus, reliability and fairness”, she stressed. “A reputation audit should be learnt and treated on a systematic basis. Everybody agrees that in legal services reputation builds trust and trust builds business”, the speaker concluded.

Summing up the results of the Forum, BD director of Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing, Evgeniya Ruzhentseva, presented the results of research of the PLS Top Teams (please see the TOP-5 results).

 

 

 

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