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Many law firms have come to realize that legal seminars for existing and potential clients can be excellent business-development tools. But the sheer physical logistics of attendingseminars – travel, time and expense – are often impediments that can dampen interest and reduce participation.

But a low-cost solution is gaining popularity in the legal community: the web-based seminar, or “webinar.”

Employing phone lines, the Internet, and software provided by a vendor that pulls everything together, webinars createa virtual conference room in which hundreds of lawyers and clients can assemble, learn about new legal developments and exchange information.

“What we hope is that webinars are an easier way for clients to get information they need without having to fight traffic,” said Hans Tresolini, marketing manager at Arent Fox, a 300-lawyer firm in Washington, D.C. and New York City that has sponsored six webinars since July 2005. “We believe it’s an interface that works better than the standard teleconferencing approach.”

How It Works

Law firms that sponsor webinars follow a similar procedure in planning and orchestrating the events. Once a topic is identified, the lawyer or group of lawyers who will be presenting the seminar creates a PowerPoint presentation and then contracts with a vendor who will put it into a form that can be viewed on the Internet.

Next they put the word out, via e-mails and postcards to clients and potential clients, that a webinar will be held at a specific date and time.

Most law firms that are doing webinars view them as a client service and marketing tool, so they foot the vendor bill and offer them for free. People who are interested in participating are then invited to visit a website – either that of the vendor or the law firm which links to the vendor – where they can sign up. Once they register, they receive the PowerPoint document and log-in number that gives them access to the webinar.

When it’s time for the webinar, participants dial a toll-free number and log on with their access code. The PowerPoint document then appears on their computer screen, along with a small box in which they can submit questions and comments as the presenters, whom they hear over the phone, give their talks. The phone connections, also controlled by the vendor, allow only a one-way audio flow from presenter because a two-way conference call involving hundreds of people could be unworkable.

Webinar software typically enables presenters to use graphic devices – highlights, underlines, arrows – on the PowerPoint slides. Participants’ questions appear in a box on the presenters’ screen. Often, presenters will put someone in charge of selecting relevant questions that presenters can answer on the spot. Other questions are usually answered later, via e-mail.

Enthusiastic Participation

King & Spalding, an 800-lawyer firm with offices in five cities, including London, is a leading webinar provider that has offered a monthly “E-Learn” series since 2002. The series is an outgrowth of “K&S University,” the firm’s internal training program for lawyers, according to litigation partner Richard (Doc) Schneider.

The firm started using webinars as a training tool “and then we started to include clients as well,” Schneider said. “That’s how E-Learn started.”

Lisa S. Keyes, a lawyer who is director of professional development at the firm, said the reaction has been enthusiastic since the beginning.

“With our clients spread all over the world, webinars give us a way to reach them more conveniently than if they had to come to our offices,” she said. “And the production costs are relatively low.”

Keyes said that King & Spalding uses a vendor called Mshow and the cost to the firm is between $5,000 and $10,000 per event, depending on the size of the program. Vendors typically charge per-minute for each participant – typically around 25 to 35 cents per minute – and the firm picks up the cost. Participation has ranged from 50 to 200, but Keyes believes the actual number may be much larger.

Larry Bodine, a legal marketing consultant in Glen Ellyn, Ill., has done surveys which suggest that Keyes is right. Bodine also conducts webinars and he’s found that participants usually connect their computers to conference-room projectors so that more people can watch and listen. Unlike law firms, Bodine relies on webinars as a revenue stream and charges a flat $300 per webinar participant.

When the webinar is concluded, King & Spalding makes the PowerPoint available for downloading from its website and burns the audio portion onto CDs that it provides free upon request.

Other firms, including Arent Fox, provide the audio portion on their website as streams that people can listen to immediately on their computer’s audio players. Arent Fox also included the question-and-answer transcript of a Dec. 1, 2005 seminar, “Threshold Issues in Setting Up a Business in the U.S.”

Elizabeth Cohen, a partner in the firm, has presented two of the firm’s six webinars, including the first one, “Staying One Step Ahead: Trademarks, Advertising & the Internet.” More than 90 people signed up, and Cohen was surprised to see that nearly all of them remained connected throughout the 59-minute presentation.

“It’s fun,” she said. “You get to give a talk without having to sign up and get on a program. And I like the interaction with the audience.”

Now, she said, “we have a firm-wide commitment to do these webinars because the client response has been so overwhelming.”

Technology’s ‘Long Tail’

Webinars are a good example of the “long tail” concept of technology, which holds that the more sophisticated the technology, the longer its tail or reach, said consultant Andy Havens, who was formerly the marketing director at Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease in Columbus, Ohio.

For example, if only 100 hundred people are interested in an esoteric legal topic, the webinar might be the only way they could assemble for a real-time meeting of minds, he explained.

Attorney Gerard M. Stegmaier wholeheartedly agrees.

Stegmaier, an associate in the Reston, Va., office of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, has developed a niche practice involving privacy issues related to intellectual property and the Internet. He believes that the “six or eight” webinars he’s conducted have allowed him to “nationalize” his practice more effectively than any other marketing method.

“Webinars are an excellent way for subject-matter experts to become known on a national level,” he said. “They can expose people in different areas of the country to lawyers they otherwise wouldn’t meet.”

Stegmaier’s law firm has offices in eight U.S. cities and webinars have also been used as an internal training tool that’s useful in connecting lawyers in its various locations to learn and discuss new legal developments.

Webinars are also attractive to lawyers seeking CLE credits, according to Rachel Silverman, a lawyer who is the manager of practice development at Epstein, Becker & Green, a 400-lawyer firm with offices in 11 U.S. cities.

But she points out that not all states recognize webinars as valid sources for CLE credit.

Like other multi-office firms that have ventured into webinars, Silverman said her firm uses them internally as a training tool. Although her firm does offer webinars to clients, it does not do this on a regularly scheduled basis. She believes there can be a risk in doing too many of them.

“We don’t want Epstein, Becker & Green to become known as the webinar firm,” she said. “We’re a law firm, and we don’t want people to forget that.”

Although large firms currently dominate the legal webinar field, there’s no reason smaller firms and even solos can’t utilize the technology, according to Bodine.

“If I was a small-firm lawyer, I’d use it not only for my existing clients, but for prospective clients,” he said. “You could put an ad in your local paper saying you’re going to provide free legal information on the web about how to care for elderly parents. If you can do PowerPoint and talk into a phone, those are the only skills you need.”

Bodine and others believe the use of webinars by lawyers will continue to grow – and change. In the future, the use of video images will bring presenters’ themselves onto participants’ computer screens. Keyes said that when King & Spaulding started doing webinars in 2002, the bandwidths at many firms limited the use of the new technology. As bandwidth continues to grow, she said her firm’s “E-Learning” programs are likely to cross over into video – although there are no actual plans to do so.

Havens, the Ohio marketing consultant, believes the future for webinars is boundless.

“Webinars provide many helpful, compelling ways to interact with clients, prospects, employees and colleagues,” he said. “Competition among vendors has driven prices way down, the technology has come a long way in the last few years, and it’s really very easy to use.”

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: dick.dahl@lawyersweekly.com

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