Andrea Saravia of F.A. Arias & Muñoz (San Salvador) is welcomed to Boston for the Interlaw Marketing Meeting.








Three Interlaw special business teams, Women Lawyers of Interlaw-Americas, Marketing Partners & Professionals, and the inaugural meeting of the Latin America IP/IT group met face-to-face this quarter.  Both the WLI and Marketing used the opportunity to tackle ambitious agendas including the hosting of exceptional guests, discussions of best practices (including current challenges) and collaborative business projects.  Latin America’s IP group laid the groundwork and established goals for the coming year.  Additionally, the Board of Directors launched the Business Development Task Force (see Executive Director’s Docket) and initial discussions for other teams are underway.

Women Lawyers of Interlaw-Americas
October 22-23, Mexico City

Hosted by Stephanie Lejonc of Mexico City’s Capin, Calderón, Ramírez y Gutierrez-Azpe, S.C., the meeting was opened with a joint cocktail reception with the Interlaw Board of Directors and followed by a full day of meeting, workshops, and networking.  Co-chairs Lisa Landy and Maria Virginia Anzola de Maldonado opened the substantive meeting with an introduction by Marta Fernandez of the guest speaker, the Hon. Maria Eugenia Brizuela de Avila who addressed, “One Woman’s Personal Oath to Success-Traits, Choices and Challenges.” Ms. Brizuela de Avila, the president of the largest bank in El Salvador, Banco Salvadoreño, and that country’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed the contribution women can make as leaders.

Maria Eugenia Brizuela de Avila addressed Women Lawyers of Interlaw-Americas co chaired by Maria Virginia Anzola of Rodríguez & Mendoza (Caracas) Lisa Landy of Akerman Senterfitt (Miami)





Interlaw’s Regina McConahay addressed “Expanding Your Business Potential: Leadership in Rainmaking through Social Networks” and the group broke into separate group discussions to examine effective pathways to personal effectiveness.  Following “report outs” the women broke for lunch and returned to a workshop, “Getting to ‘The Ask’”.   The afternoon’s meeting concluded with the group focusing on the specific companies the members could collaboratively approach as a joint client.

One month later the group met via teleconference and reported on the existing relationships of the identified companies and the Secretariat began initiating contact with the general counsels to introduce the targeted companies with the capabilities of Interlaw member firms. At the teleconference WLI members from Los Angeles invited the Special Business Team to meet again in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Regional Meeting of the Americas.  Delegates included:

• Anne Meyer, Real Estate Transactions, Goulston & Storrs (Boston)
• Roxella Cavazos, Labor & Employment, Thompson & Knight (Houston)
• Amy Hirter, International Transactions, Sherman & Howard (Denver)
• Lisa A. Landy, Corporate & International, Akerman Senterfitt (Miami)
• Jill Coleman, Finance and Insolvency, Neal Gerber & Eisenberg llp (Chicago)
• Gretchen Méndez-Velella, Environmental Law, Goldman, Antonetti & Cordova, P.S.C. (Puerto Rico)
• Victoria Donati, Labor & Employment, Neal Gerber & Eisenberg (Chicago)
• Marta Fernandez, Labor & Employment, Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro llp (California)
• Maria Teresa Alonso Pardo, Labor & Employment, Brons & Salas (Buenos Aires)
• Maria Virginia Anzola de Maldonado, Taxation, Rodríguez & Mendoza (Caracas)
• Andrea Chávez Longyear , Corporate, Capin, Calderón Ramírez y Gutiérrez-Azpe, S.C. (Mexico)
• Stephanie Lejonc, Corporate, Capin, Calderón Ramírez y Gutiérrez-Azpe, S.C. (Mexico)
• Marie-Beatrice Noble, Corporate, Noble & Scheidecker (Luxembourg)
• Lucie Laplante, Corporate, Corporate, Capin, Calderón Ramírez y Gutiérrez-Azpe, S.C. (Mexico)
• Lilian Zelaya, Corporate, F.A. Arias & Munoz (San Salvador)
• Cheryl M. Teron, Taxation and Corporate, Owen Bird Law Corporation (Vancouver)
• Montserrat Uriarte, International transactions, Capin, Calderón Ramírez y Gutiérrez-Azpe, S.C. (Mexico)
• Diana Woodman, Insolvency, Thompson & Knight (Texas)
• Regina A. McConahay, Global Director, Marketing & Communications, Interlaw, Los Angeles

Marketing Partners & Professionals
October 20-22, Boston

Captivate Network General Counsel Gabe Miller meets with Interlaw Marketing professionals.







Member firm Goulston & Storrs, and its director of business development, Beth Cuzzone, hosted the marketing partners and professionals to an opening reception at the firm, attended by Managing Partner Kitt Sawitsky, NARE and WLI Member Anne Meyer, and several Goulston’s attorneys and professionals.  Dinner was held at the firm’s luxury box at Fleet Center where delegates watched a Boston Bruin’s ice hockey game.  Use of the box also demonstrated a key “best practice” of the business development team, that of “First to Market” visibility and client relationship by the co-branding of the firm with the Fleet Center.

Many team members chose to arrive early to participate in optional pre-meetings with legal journalists and two company lawyers.  The meetings were arranged by Regina McConahay of the Interlaw Secretariat and included Reporter Sheri Qualters of the Boston Business Journal, Gabe Miller, General Counsel, Captivate Network and the GC of Iron Mountain, Garry Watzke.

Linda Hazelton, a “Friend of Interlaw” consults with Interlaw member firms in the areas of marketing and business development.


Friday morning, delegates gathered for a working breakfast followed by three presentations, a working lunch, and an afternoon of shared best practices.  Each presentation and best practice is available for viewing by contacting the presenter directly.  Presentations included:

1. Beth Cuzzone and Attorney Panel:  Gaining Effective Internal Buy-in for the evolution of the business development culture at Goulston & Storrs “First to Market”

2. Linda Hazelton: Client & Pursuit Teams; a training program by a founding president of Legal Marketing Association and the inaugural member of Friends of Interlaw alumni group.

3. Rosana Rumschisky; Maria Alicia Panting; and Andrea Saravia Sauter:  Targeting, Campaigning for, and Leveraging Global Legal Awards.  Gómez-Acebo & Pombo, a top tier Iberian law firm and F.A. Arias & Muñoz, a leading pan-Central American law firm team up to demonstrate how to target, capture, and capitalize on prestigious business and legal recognitions worldwide.

4. Regina A. McConahay: Rainmaking through Social Networks; an interactive workshop that breaks away from individualism to apply marketing and social networking skills to business development while leveraging the Interlaw network.  

Delegates then shared, through “best practices” the project, campaign, or initiative that provided the year’s most “lessons learned.”  These included:

Linda Anderson Aguirre 
Akerman Senterfitt:
Marketing Analyst                                                                                     Florida Footprint
and
Marie Navarro
Manager, Practice Development                            
Akerman Senterfitt, Florida

Jacqueline Burns 
One-to-One Marketing: A Case Study
Marketing Director                                                                                Asbestos Litigation
Hunt & Hunt, Australia

Bethany Elliott  
Thompson & Knight Methodology for Tracking Proposals
Thompson & Knight llp, Texas                                                         

Linda Hazelton   
Improving Client Presentations: Conversation, not Presentation
Hazelton Marketing & Management                 

Leslie Larson
Firm Name Change & its Branding
Marketing Director
Foster Pepper & Shefelman PLLC, Seattle

Helen Thornhill 
Corporate Social Responsibility
Director of Marketing
SJ Berwin, London

Joseph M. Milligan  
New Website Rollout
Director of Client Services and Marketing
Neal Gerber & Eisenberg llp, Chicago

Maria Alicia Panting    
Associate Training:  Billing
Regional Marketing Coordinator
F.A. Arias & Munoz Corp., San Salvador

Andrea Saravia Sauter  
Attorney & Professional Training: English Legal Writing
Marketing Coordinator Costa Rica                                   
F.A. Arias & Munoz, San Jose, Costa Rica

Regina McConahay   
Introducing Interlaw to Prospective Global Clients
Director, Global Marketing & Communication                       
Interlaw Ltd

The following delegates participated in the interactive discussions of Best Practices, lending insight from their own firm experience:

Thomas J. Diascro, Jr.
Chief Marketing Officer
Shipman & Goodwin llp, Connecticut

Elizabeth Keane
Marketing Director
Shipman & Goodwin llp, Connecticut

 Rosana Rumschisky
Director of Communications &     Marketing
Gomez-Acebo & Pombo, Spain

Michael Shain
Partner
Blumenthal Richter & Sumet LTD
Bangkok

Helen Thornhill conducted a wrap up of the meeting including welcoming the delegates, on behalf of SJ Berwin, to meet in London, October, 2006.

Latin America IP Group
November 21, Punta del Este

Lilian Zelaya, a partner at F.A. Arias & Muñoz (El Salvador) used the occasion of the ASIPI congress in Punta del Este, Uruguay to host a breakfast meeting with IP/IT Interlawyers from Arias Fabrega (Panama), Rodrigo Elias & Medrano (Peru), Brons & Salas (Argentina), Moreno Baldivieso (Bolivia), and Perez Bustamante Ponce (Ecuador).  Topics covered included agreeing on overarching goals, arriving at an agreement about the structure of the organization itself, frequency of teleconferences and face to face meetings, interface with the now-forming global IP Interlaw group, and plans for the annual INTA meeting in Toronto in May 2006.  The team will work collaboratively to service individual and joint clients.