35: Fast Forward with Jill Weber of Stinson

 … out of the ‘Valley of Despair’

Nicole talks with Jill Weber, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Stinson Leonard Street; and the creator Fast Forward their Business Development Coaching and Professional Services Training Program. 

 Jill Weber Bio

It’s important to understand a clients business, culture, business philosophy, and the industry in which they operate.

The Fast Forward program works well with partners in ‘the valley of despair’. Second and third year Partners, who’ve gone from being an incredibly successful associate with high billable hours, loved by clients and partners, to no longer being at the right level, the right fit or the right bill rate to do the work.

Meet with people in your focus industry. You may get referrals from other lawyers but it’s helpful to spend time where you’re the only lawyer in the room, with industry executives who need your services.

Changes in the economy have lead to the growth of traditional in-house legal departments and the rise of different ways of managing these in-house departments. Specifically dedicated law department operations functions.

Traditional sophisticated procurement departments are now getting involved in the procurement of legal services. Their need to understand the delivery of legal services has been critical to the education of law firms and has driven firms to be as cost effective as possible while teaching firms how to better aggregate and report back statistics.

Marketing departments used to be more solo; today there is real collaboration between marketing departments and technical teams as technology can drive direct efficiencies.

It’s no longer just about the legal recommendation and whether the issue was handled appropriately, but whether it was done efficiently and effectively.