Research and Lunch

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell continues its third year of hosting international marketing lunches throughout Europe. Since this past spring we’ve seen first-time meetings in Madrid (May) and Paris (June and October), and fresh topics for return meetings in Brussels (June and October) and Milan (October).

Madrid

Martindale-Hubbell hosted its very first marketing lunch in Madrid on 22nd May 2006. About 20 delegates enjoyed a presentation of key findings from a recent Martindale-Hubbell study, “Financial Benchmarking Study of Leading Law Firms in Europe 2005.” A discussion followed, focusing particularly on the study responses from Spanish firms. Delegates welcomed the findings and gained some useful take-aways to discuss with their partners to help their own firms benchmark themselves against the respondents.

Paris

June saw the first Martindale-Hubbell marketing lunch in Paris.  Senior marketing managers and business development partners from a select group of subscribing law firms in France joined Sam Hemamda, Martindale-Hubbell Global Key Account Manager, and Laurent Marlière, founder of the north European M-Club (mclub.

biz) at the prestigious hotel St James Paris. Richard Tromans, Paris correspondent for The European Lawyer, presented “Paris as a growing legal market: the international perspective,” about how French law firms interact with the international market.

The conversation concentrated on the latest law firm league tables for M&A work in France, highlighting the in-roads foreign law firms have made in the local market in recent years. M Tromans also explored how local firms might best position themselves to take full advantage of this highly lucrative and buoyant sector, in particular by taking on the competitive threat posed by US and UK firms.

Senior marketing managers and business development partners again gathered at the St James for our October marketing lunch. M&As and IPOs, key areas for the French legal sector, were the topic.  Frank De Dieu, a journalist for L’Expansion and Damien Noël, founder of Fusacq, both experts in M&A matters, reviewed the latest trends emerging from recent large transactions. They also looked at deals “in the pipeline,” examining possible key opportunities for French law firms. The discussion took a very practical turn as the group assessed the right way to pitch for this type of work.

Brussels

Martindale-Hubbell and the MClub reprised a successful January meeting in Brussels with a second marketing lunch in June. Piet Bevernage, member of the Executive Committee of Ackermans & van Haaren NV, and vice president of the Belgian Institute of Company Lawyers (IBJ/IJE), gave a talk on the latest trends in the Belgian private equity market, a topic that proved to be of great interest to the delegates in attendance.

October saw the third marketing lunch in Brussels. Anne De Wolf, general manager of IBJ/IJE, and Jettie Van Caenegem, secretary general, the European Company Lawyer Association (ECLA) made a presentation on corporate lawyers, recent key changes in their function, and how external law firms can strive to improve their cooperation with in-house counsel.

Milan

Following successful lunches in Paris and Brussels, we wrapped up October in Milan, where James Harley, Martindale-Hubbell international marketing director, kicked off the session by presenting key findings of our 2006 study, “How mid-sized companies in Europe select and review their legal services providers” (see “An untapped market: European mid-size companies”).  The 80-strong audience listened intently to the results of this cutting-edge research on the buying behaviour of European in-house counsel.

A distinguished panel then explored highlights of the presentation, ending with a lively question-and-answer session. Panelists included Giovanni Cerutti, incoming president of AIGI (the Italian chapter of ECLA); Cristina Casiraghi, general counsel of Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Debora Giacobbe, general counsel of Eurofly; and Leigh Dance, president of ELD International. Afterward, attendees caught up with each other over lunch. 

Martindale-Hubbell marketing lunches provide an excellent venue for law firms to attend presentations on topics relating to the legal sector, and an opportunity for law firm marketers to share best practices with the professional services sector.

If you would like to know more about Martindale-Hubbell’s marketing lunches please contact Sam Hemamda on +44 (0)20 7911 1920 or by email at sam.hemamda@martindale.com.  Or you can visit the M-Club website, http://www.m-club.biz/.