Look after your alumni, and your alumni will help look after your reputation

When done right, alumni events can be a powerful force for brand-building and result in manifold positive synergy effects. The problem is that too many law firms either neglect to talk to their alumni at all, or they organise events with the sole and express purpose of winning work from their former employees.

Sure, any business-related networking activity is ultimately performed for the benefit of the bottom line, and this includes alumni events. But it pays off in many untold and ultimately unquantifiable ways to be both subtle and generous in how you go about it. And only inviting along to your shindigs or soirées those of your former senior lawyers from whom you hope to wring referrals, while excluding more junior solicitors and all of your business professional alumni, is neither subtle nor generous. In fact, it’s a downright turnoff, and rather short-sighted and na?ve to boot.

The reality is that if you look after all of your alumni without fear or favour, they can become some of your biggest and most vocal brand ambassadors, cheerleading for you wherever they go throughout the legal world and beyond. And you have to pay them nothing for the privilege, other than the courtesy of inclusion.

And inclusion matters. It’s a real bugbear of mine that many firms do not invite their former business professionals or junior lawyers to alumni events, not least because, too often, the people excluded from the room are also women and ethnic minorities. It also entrenches the awful ‘fee-earner’ / ‘non-fee-earner’ (and how I loathe that label) divide and reveals an off-putting us-and-them mentality.

Yet business professionals are just as likely as most lawyers to have built an extensive professional network of potential referrers that they would be willing to put at their former employer’s disposal, if only they were shown that appreciation. And junior lawyers progress to become senior lawyers, with bigger networks and greater clout than they had at the time of exiting the firm. So you exclude them to your detriment. Especially when they turn out to be the GC of your biggest target client.

In any case, being more inclusive is the right thing to do, as well as making complete business sense.

How to run a good alumni programme

I know for a fact that the Big Four hold regular alumni events that are hugely popular and which bring together former employees from many different professional backgrounds and walks of life, from current and former PAs and managing partners, to retirees in their seventies and eighties.?

There is often an educational element to these gatherings, keeping people apprised of developments at the firm and with their pension scheme; there is certainly a degree of (re-)recruitment going on; and yes, there’s definitely a strand of active BD going on there somewhere – but mainly, it’s people having fun and enjoying seeing familiar faces and reminiscing.?

One particular firm’s alumni programme also offers various discounts to its alumni, puts out a newsletter, and just generally makes sure that its former employees feel like they are forever a part of a big family, regardless of whether they left or retired last year or two decades ago. Just imagine the soft power this generates.

The thing is, it doesn’t take endless resources to recreate something similar on a smaller scale. With the power of LinkedIn, firms can easily curate a list of all their former employees, or at least those who list the firm in the Experience section of their profile. From there, it’s not much more than a hop, skip and a jump to at least put out a monthly/annual alumni newsletter with firm updates and start to think about hosting an event or two that doesn’t discriminate between job titles.

And it’s possible to outsource the management of your alumni programme to a specialised agency, which will run your events and bring a cadence to the whole business of alumni relations that is more akin to a combination of HR, marketing and recruitment. For smaller firms, this is probably the better option until they are able to create and properly staff and resource a dedicated alumni programme in-house.

Attending alumni events

Much like a university reunion, going along to an event hosted by a former employer can be a hugely emotional experience. Law is a sector where far too many people suffer quite badly from imposter syndrome, and it doesn’t necessarily always get easier with age. So it’s not surprising that they feel trepidation at being reunited with their erstwhile colleagues, perhaps believing – however irrationally – that everyone else in the room is happier, more successful and more confident in their career. The likelihood of this being true is, of course, very slim indeed, but tell that to your frightened inner child.

Yet this is the magic of getting to catch up with people after life has taken you in different directions: once the nerves settle and you get talking, you soon realise that you are all in pretty much the same boat. Most legal professionals – heck, most adults – face similar challenges in life, and if we can be honest and just a little bit vulnerable with each other, this becomes readily apparent and we can make life a little easier for one another through our collective empathy.?

That’s real networking in action: finding common ground with your peers, renewing old friendships, making new acquaintances. If this happens within the context of an alumni event, so much the better, because then everyone benefits: the host firm wins kudos points for providing the setting and the occasion, and the attendees get to enjoy socialising and feeling part of something, and hopefully leave feeling warmly towards their ‘alma mater’ and their erstwhile colleagues. It’s great BD, but only when done with real generosity of spirit.

What our readers say about alumni events?

Though it still has three days to run, my recent LinkedIn poll on alumni events reveals some interesting results at the time of writing: of the 83 respondents, 8% say they have been invited to a law firm alumni event/alumni party by all of their former employers; 47% say they have been invited by some of their former firms; and 45% say they have never been invited to such an event.?

In other words, lots of firms are not bothering to host alumni events, or at least not inclusive ones. Which is a shame.

Here is what a couple of our readers had to say about their experiences of attending alumni events:

Anon:

“I’ve been invited to a number and been to a few. I’ve mostly gone to catch up with fellow business professional employees. Where things have gone really well is where the Partners / lawyers have quickly looked at my LinkedIn profile and know what I am up to so that we can have a decent conversation.?

“Where things haven’t gone so well is when Partners use the occasion to ask for business or even a new job (!) or let me know that they have completely forgotten who I am – even if I worked with them for years! Also, global law firms appear to forget that people move countries…I’d love to be invited to events at the past law firms I’ve worked at in London.”

Alix Carpenter, Senior Operations Manager, Finance Practice at Travers Smith:

“I always try and pop in to the Hogan Lovells lunchtime carol service, but there is one firm where I'm not even eligible to sign up for any alumni comms, let alone attend anything, because I wasn't a lawyer there. ?? Linklaters’ whole alumni programme is very good, I still read a huge amount of the content they send out and log into their portal because it's so engaging, and I occasionally pop in for some of the art/music events. What I really love is when firms still invite you as alumni to events that aren't necessarily specifically ‘alumni’-focused.”

So there you have it from the mouths of real people – it’s icky when firms tout for business at their alumni events, and it’s good PR when people are made to feel included, as they then have positive things to say about their former firm.

In other news

Need for speedier legal work drives large majority of lawyers to embrace AI

A recent Lexisnexis survey has shown a remarkable surge in AI adoption across the UK legal sector, with most lawyers (82%) having now either adopted generative AI (41%) or having plans in motion to do so (41%). This is almost four times the number seen in summer 2023. Seventy-one percent of lawyers stated that the top benefit of AI is delivering work faster, ahead of improved client service (54%) and competitive advantage (53%). AI is prompting many to rethink the suitability of their pricing structure (39% of private practice lawyers expect their firm to adjust billing practices due to AI, up from 18% in January 2024).

So what could lawyers do with the time they reclaim through AI? That is the question pursued in this Thomson Reuters article, which examines just how much time corporate counsel could save with AI and the uses they could put it to, from a better home-life balance to expanding their capacity.

SRA’s proposals for unlimited fines criticised as “arbitrary”

As reported in The Lawyer on Monday, the City of London Law Society (CLLS) has roundly condemned the SRA’s planned overhaul and extension of its ability to issue financial penalties, describing the proposals as “arbitrary and not fit for purpose”.

In a statement issued by the CLLS, the chair of its professional rules and regulatory committee (and Kingsley Napley partner) Iain Miller writes: “The more we went into the SRA paper, the more confused it became. It looks as if the SRA has offered a policy without thinking through its ramifications, without a clear grasp of the essentials, and without any proper consideration of the underlying law. We urge the SRA to reconsider its proposals.”

The SRA really seems to be struggling to get its ducks in a row at present. Just see last week’s special compliance-themed takeover edition of Si’s Matters by Eloise Butterworth for some hard-hitting insights on this.

Why you should go long in your thought-leadership campaigns

A recent blog post published by FT Longevity makes a very compelling case for taking a long-term approach to thought-leadership campaigns. As noted in the piece, campaigns geared towards longevity can yield major benefits including greater recognition and an enhanced position in the marketplace, along with the chance to build a loyal long-term customer base. “In short, a chance to really ‘own’ a part of the market.” Well worth a read.

9 Stone Buildings closes after 131 years in practice

On Tuesday, The Lawyer announced that 9 Stone Buildings, one of the longest-established barristers’ chambers in Lincoln’s Inn, was closing its doors after losing a critical mass of its team members. This traditional and commercial chancery set, known for its expertise in corporate and personal insolvency matters, was founded in 1891.?

Head of Chambers Peter Shaw KC,? told The Lawyer: “We decided to dissolve as we recognised we had become too small to become really competitive in the market. We’d spent a long time maintaining our position as a niche set of chambers, but it got to a point where our smaller size wasn’t sustainable, and our members’ practices were best suited by moving to larger chambers.”

Mohamed Al Fayed scandal deepens as Harrods hires Simkins?

As the allegations against Harrods’ late owner Mohamed Al Fayed of rape and sexual assault continue to mount up, the luxury store is believed to have retained the services of Simkins’ head of reputation protection, Gideon Benaim, according to The Lawyer. Benaim has previously represented Sir Cliff Richard, JK Rowling, Naomi Campbell, Roman Polanski, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Gordon Ramsay and The Law Society.

A total of 37 women are being represented in a potential civil claim against Harrods. The case has sparked intense media attention and formed the subject of a recent Panorama documentary, titled Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods.

Chasing Amy

I didn’t actually have to chase Amy Cousineau Massey for this week’s episode of But is it Legal?, as she was very willing to come and talk to me about what prompted her to make the move into highly successful self-employment, about the networking power of LinkedIn, and why she describes herself as a “Marmite character”.

Catch up with the latest episode here:

Youtube: https://lnkd.in/duQfVZ9Y

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dwVr7Q8T

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s edition!

Thanks,

Si Marshall

[email protected]