The Emerging Leaders Panel at this year’s annual meeting of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, or NAMWOLF, will focus on business development; specifically, how to generate business with corporate clients.  The panel will feature corporate attorneys from Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Coca Cola as well as Managing Partners of law firms who will share their experiences with hiring and soliciting business. This article will articulate some of the challenges NAMWOLF firms face in getting considered for work from in house counsel, and some strategies to navigate through those challenges.

Minority and Women owned law firms face several challenges when trying to catch the attention of larger companies.  One major challenge is getting the companies to consider smaller firms that they don’t have a relationship with.  Janeen Lofton, NAMWOLF Emerging Leaders Chairperson, says, “When you’re at a smaller firm, you don’t have that long a history with some of these big corporations.  [Inside Counsel] will sometimes want these huge firms because they are known for doing good work, and because everyone has used them in the past.”  Juan Gonzalez, Managing Shareholder of Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo agrees, saying, “the people who come in to interview NAMWOLF firms have history and experience with other firms, established firms, large firms.  Change is alway scary and some might say, ‘if I take a chance and things go wrong, I’ll be blamed.’”  Richard Amador, Managing Partner at Sanchez & Amador says, “There is the challenge of people knowing who you are [when you are at a smaller firm].  The AM Law 100 are instantly recognizable brand names, and with that brand name comes a credibility.  And even if I don’t  know anything specific about the lawyers, the credibility comes from it being an AM Law 100 firm.  With the smaller firms, establishing that credibility can be tougher.”  

In order to establish that credibility, attorneys need to be in a position to meet the decision makers in a company.  Amir Amini, head of the business and real estate litigation team of Sanchez & Amador says, “Getting in front of these Fortune 500 companies is difficult.  Everyone is trying to get lunch with them.”  Amador agrees, saying, “A major national firm has multiple venues to meet potential clients that they haven’t had contact with, but smaller firms have a harder time meeting in house counsel.”   However, this is not an insurmountable challenge.  Many Inside Counsel are looking to establish relationships with minority owned and women owned law firms for a variety of reasons: affirmative action initiatives or a desire to diversify their sources of legal services, and through these goals, and a partnership with NAMWOLF, many companies are forging working relationships with these firms.  Amador says, “NAMWOLF allows in house counsel to meet a whole bunch of different firms and get a feel for who can do their work and who they can have a good working relationship with, addressing that big challenge of meeting potential clients.”    

But an introduction is not enough, the firms must establish their ability to get the work done.  In House Counsel are trusting their outside counsel with important tasks and that can take time.  Joseph McCoin, Vice President and Operating Unit Counsel, Southwest Operating Unit at Coca Cola says, “You want to have the right person for the right job, and so understanding why someone has the reputation and the expertise they have is important.”

Bearing that in mind, it’s not surprising that earning that trust--that relationship--can take time.  Amir Amini points out, “From building a relationship to cultivating it to getting the work, building the trust--it takes time with these big companies, it can take years.”  McCoin agrees, saying, “Having confidence in someone’s work product is something you generally build over time.”  

In order to demonstrate their abilities, many firms need to allow potential clients to learn a little more about who they are.  Juan Gonzalez says, “Once we demonstrate who are our clients are, and our experiences--we talk about handling matters from Class Actions to Ponzi schemes to government investigations.  Once they hear the breadth of experience that our firm has, plus the depth--they understand we have the bandwidth to handle the work.”   The attorneys that staff the firms can also make a big difference to in house counsel in who they work with and how they add value.  For example, Amini says, “We have top notch lawyers who went to top notch schools. We don’t have first year associates, we have experienced attorneys with backgrounds that can add value.”  

Another way to establish credibility is to demonstrate that your firm has a knowledge of the issues in play for that particular company.  McCoin says, “Familiarity with my industry or a willingness and ability to learn about the industry is important.”  Gonzalez says, “We do the due diligence, painstaking work, a lot of hours on the company finding out what kind of cases they are involved in and the background of the people we are interviewing.  Background due diligence has to be done if you are going to be conversant with a potential client.”  Furthermore, doing the due diligence indicates you are willing to do the work to learn about the details of the issue for that client.  Lofton agrees, saying, “In terms of the law, understanding a client’s business can only help you understand where they are coming from in terms of litigation.  So for new clients we try to get a better understanding of what they do, their processes, and how their components work. When people know you are invested in and knowledgeable about their business, they feel they can take a little bit more of a chance because this person is extremely interested.”  

Another challenge smaller, NAMWOLF firms may have is convincing larger companies that they have the bandwidth to handle the work.  Sometimes, geography and location are crucial factors to a matter.  In many instances, collaboration has provided a solution.  Amini says, “We’ve been able to partner with other firms throughout the state [California] that we met through NAMWOLF--we approach clients that want a proposal on a state level and we work together, with different locations, to satisfy their needs.”  Lofton says, “Many firms are in a situation where we don’t have many practices areas--we are specialized, but we can work with other NAMWOLF firms with different practice areas or in different states and we can go after business together.”

The challenges to NAMWOLF firms are there, but familiarity, relationships and collaboration are helping to forge connections.  Gonzalez says, “You don’t just show up and walk away with files, it doesn’t happen that way.  NAMWOLF opens the door, facilitates the contact but to get the first file.  It’s an uphill battle, but an opportunity.  A chance--don’t send us your biggest case, your most sensitive case, but let us handle something so we can demonstrate what we can do.”