Designed for public relations and Web professionals, this track includes four concise and detailed sessions conducted by leaders in the law firm communications field.

Morning Break-Out I:
It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your Web site is? Measuring and Accounting for Web Performance
Sonny Cohen, Duo Consulting

Millions of dollars have been spent by law firms on their Web sites. Awards for Web sites are meted out at legal marketing conferences according to specious criteria. But do legal marketers really know whether their Web site is working to achieve business objectives? If your firm’s Web site were an employee, how would you review his or her performance?

With accountability becoming an increasingly important component of legal marketing, marketers can mine performance measurements from their Web sites. In this non-technical presentation, attendees will learn about Web site key performance indicators and how one goes about uniquely defining them for their firm.

Learn the techniques associated with measuring online communication & marketing initiatives and how you can:

• justify budget and resource allocation for online marketing initiatives
• provide useful competitive intelligence
• be a thought leader in your firm
• migrate decision-making from hunches to data-driven informed choices

Morning Break-Out II:
Litigation Communications 101: Leveraging Litigation to Build Visibility
Amy Greenfield and Lori Teranishi, Van Prooyen Greenfield LLP

Managing the court of public opinion surrounding high-stakes, high-profile litigation has become an imperative rather than an elective part of any litigation team’s strategy.

The need for litigation communications has arisen because of the public’s fascination with legal cases and their misguided general assumption that businesses are guilty if they are involved with litigation. Litigation communications can help legal a legal team’s arguments to resonate with the public better than many courtroom arguments. In addition, it is necessary to include a communications component in high-profile litigation because plaintiffs’ counsel are generally very media-savvy and frequently utilize the media to their advantage to force settlements.

Legal marketers of all experience levels should become familiar with litigation communications for several reasons:

• Litigation communications is a new and growing area of legal public relations and was recently listed by Law Office Management & Administration Reports “What’s Hot and What’s Not” as an emerging area of public relations.
• Helping a firm’s attorneys build on and advance legal arguments with litigation communications can help their clients win in the court of public opinion, and define terms of the case for key stakeholders including the media, employees, consumers, opinion leaders and government officials.
• Knowledge of litigation communication strategies and execution is an important added-value service for a firm’s clients. As professional communicators, legal marketers may be asked to work closely with their firm’s attorneys on publicly contested cases to reinforce legal tactics in the media.
• Not only can a well-executed litigation communications plan can protect the image of a firm’s clients facing litigation or the prospect of litigation, it can also serve to raise the profile of both the firm’s attorneys involved in the case and the law firm itself. This can help build reputation in a particular practice area and can help to gain new business for the law firm.

Afternoon Break-Out I:
When a Crisis Strikes
Nick Kalm, Jane Devron, and Megan Hakes, Reputation Partners LLC

It’s 8:32 on a Monday morning. A producer from “60 Minutes” is holding for you and they want to discuss the sexual harassment allegations being levied against a partner at your firm. What allegations?

The managing partner at your firm just informed you that three prominent equity partners have announced they are leaving your firm, effective immediately, for positions at one of your top competitors. He’s concerned that clients will follow and other employees may leave. The Chicago Tribune wants to know why and needs a statement by 4:30…it’s 4:00.

Your highest profile client fired your firm yesterday. Today, he was approached by a reporter and made damaging comments on camera about his displeasure with your firm’s legal strategy in his case. NBC 5 is running his statement on the 6 p.m. news along with the details he’s sharing on his new blog.

When a crisis hits, it's too late to develop a communications response plan. During this session, participants will gain necessary tools and techniques to help them plan for and handle a crisis quickly and effectively. Using case studies and examples of how some local and national law firms handled crises like these, participants will acquire the knowledge necessary to understand the wide variety of potential threats, develop a detailed crisis plan, create and mobilize the crisis response team, select the most appropriate spokesperson, and create a system to effectively disseminate information to all stakeholders before, during, and after a crisis strikes.