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Subject: RE: Dealing with Christmas/season greetings
From: Tina Gates
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 11:19:56 -0500
We are not sending Christmas gifts this year either. The firm is sponsoring a Salvation Army Corporate Angel Tree. I have made arrangements with a very popular restaurant to provide the venue for the tree. 150 tags will be hung on the tree and patrons of the restaurant can select an angel from the tree and the firm will make arrangements for the package pick ups. The key to this promo. is we will be sending out letters inviting clients and prospective clients to go to the restaurant to participate in the Angel Tree. Each letter will have a coupon for a free appetizer. It is a win-win for each, the restaurant increases sales while we increase exposure and begin our phase of community development. I think the Salvation Army Corporate Angel Tree program is great. Last year in Birmingham, over 7,000 children were given gifts. Make a difference in the heart of a sweet angel! Sponsor an Angel Tree!
Tina Gates
tgates@dyslaw.com
Duell, Yearout & Spina, P.C.
 Subject: RE: Dealing with Christmas/season greetings
From: "Sharen Viola"
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 7:3:34
Rather than sending individual gifts, like gifts baskets, to our clients, each year around the holiday, we make a donation to a children's charity on behalf of our clients and friends. This year we donated $5000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As a result, a little girl and her family were sent to Disney World. We are putting this on our holiday card and also are including the "wish" story on the back of the card. Not only do we save money in not purchasing 100s of gift baskets, we show our clients that we have our priorities in order.
Sharen Viola
Director of Marketing
Stradley Ronon
Subject: RE: Intro & Holidays
From: Jeffrey L. Nischwitz
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:04:14 -0400
For years we insisted that all attorneys (4-8) sign every holiday card. We felt that engraved cards with the firm name or a single signature were too impersonal. We have not stopped sending holiday cards at all and instead make a charitable contribution each year and send those that would have received a card a letter (signed by all) stating that we have made a contribution in lieu of sending cards and identifying the charity. The only "issue" has been selection of the charity.
Jeffrey L. Nischwitz
Nischwitz, Pembridge & Chriszt Co., L.P.A.
Cort Shoe Building, 4th Floor
1265 W. 6th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1326
216-861-8100
216-861-8180 (fax)
www.npclaw.com
Subject: RE: Intro & Holidays
From: JBoehm@gt.com
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:19:20 -0400
Good luck with this one! I don't think anyone/office could ever top my experience at my last law firm (and there are quite a few people on this list that know that I am not exaggerating). I think I calculated my time last year as taking a total of 40 hours to handle the holiday cards and gifts -- that is one week of time in the month of December -- it was unbelievable.
However this was an improvement over the year before, so there is some hope -- I was able to streamline everything creating spreadsheets to keep track of gifts sent (that can be reused/modified each year), giving specific deadlines, making the secretaries responsible for the cards, etc. I made sure I was not the one to handle the cards, each attorney had a mailing
list... the attorney would get enough cards for each name on the mailing list and the labels for the contacts. The secretary was then in charge of getting the cards signed and sent out. If the attorney preferred that the addresses be handwritten, the secretary did it. We arranged with our
message center to have holiday stamps available and the secretary did that also. As for the gift side, I handled that... the attorneys were given their mailing list and they decided who they wanted to give gifts to and what those gifts were (the had more choices of gifts then I would have
liked, but we were working on that). When the lists were returned to me, I entered the information into a spreadsheet (a different spreadsheet for each vendor) information included contact and address, attorney it was from and what the gift was. When it was time to order, I just faxed the spreadsheet to the vendor. Luckily most of the vendors we worked with were very good and I didn't have to worry much about gifts not getting delivered.
As for signing the cards -- we had one department who handled everything on their own -- they got special cards and handled their own mail list. They tried signing them two different ways. One year they had all the labels put on the envelopes and placed in the cards. The boxes of cards were set up in a conference room for a week and when they had time, each attorney went in and signed the cards they wanted. If they didn't get around to signing them, their name didn't get on the card. The next year the same department just sent the boxes of cards around to each attorney and each attorney signed every card. Then we had someone stuff and label the envelopes. This was very effective (one reason was the partner in-charge was pretty good at
getting people to sit and sign the cards).
Anyway, I think one of the keys to being successful taking the responsibility off of yourself. It sounds as though it is just you and your marketing director (I was in the same situation) -- one of the best things my marketing director did was agree to the gift process, but take the card
responsibility and put it on the secretaries. We coordinated it, but they executed it! When I said I spend 40 hours on gifts and cards last year that did not include any stuffing, labeling, or stamping. That was just the coordination of the cards and gifts and the execution of the gifts.
Jennifer D. Boehm
Marketing Coordinator - Baltimore
Grant Thornton LLP
Accountants & Management Consultants
Two Hopkins Plaza, Suite 700
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-244-3279 - Phone
410-837-0587 - Fax
jboehm@gt.com
www.grantthornton.com
Subject: Re: Intro & Holidays
From: Jennifer Yax
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 13:27:10 -0700
The best thing we did last year was to put all of the cards into a conference room, alpha by company, and keep them there for a couple of weeks so that attorneys could go in at their leisure and sign whichever cards they wanted. Not a perfect solution, but better than finding unsigned and unsent cards in an attorney's office 3 months later, or hearing complaints that they never got access to the cards, etc.
And as long as we're on this topic....has anyone used CardStore.com before? I'm considering trying them out for our holiday cards this year.
Jennifer A. Yax
Practice Development Coordinator
Severson & Werson
One Embarcadero Center, Suite 2600
San Francisco, CA 94118
jay@severson.com
www.severson.com
Subject: Re: Intro & Holidays
From: Catherine Bishop
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 13:59:15 -0700
We print a small card from our database which lists the attorneys who are associated with a particular card recipient. Each small card is assigned a # and is attached to the holiday card which is then routed interoffice to each individual listed on the "small card." At the end, the cards are returned to marketing and the #s on the small cards are tracked to identify missing cards. We use the secretaries to facilitate the process but we perform the quality control. If a recipient is also to receive a gift, the "small cards" are printed in a different color so that those holiday cards
are then drop shipped with the client gift. I am not claiming it is the most fabulous process, but it is a different approach than putting the cards in a conference room.
Catherine Bishop
Marketing Manager
Preston|Gates|Ellis &
Rouvelas|Meeds LLP
1735 New York Avenue, NW Suite 500
Washington, DC 20006
202-661-3792
catherineb@prestongates.com
Subject: RE: Intro & Holidays
From: "Gill E. Wagner"
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:20:06 -0500
Addressing the time you'll spend doing a holiday mailing, I know a woman in St. Louis who could handle the entire holiday card process for you, if you want to outsource it. (My wife met her when they were both training for the Leukemia Society charity marathon.) Karen's company is called Time Finders and saving executives' time, by handling pain-in-the-rear projects such as you describe, is exactly what she does for her clients.
As for innovation, Karen can even have handcrafted cards created, where each card is a work of art. The cards can include embossing, the addition of ribbons, a variety of folding options and so on. (I know all this, because that's what I'm having done this year.) To have the cards created runs $10-20 each depending on their complexity and the number purchased.
Granted, $10-20 for one holiday card sounds expensive, but I figure that if I'm going to send holiday cards “just like everyone else” I need to find a way to stand out. I'm betting that customized handcrafted cards will accomplish that, especially since the envelopes are customized to match the cards!
Anyone who wants Karen to give them a call can send me their contact information at gwagner@honestselling.com. (I'll forward the information to her and have her get back to you.)
As for the signature process, I'm sure she'd be able to help you figure that out and would be willing to coordinate whatever was decided.
And, for those who may be wondering ? no, I don't get a commission off Karen's business. She's simply one of the nicest people I've ever worked with and I am pleased to recommend her.
Subject: Re: Intro & Holidays
From: Crystal Murchison
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 21:21:10 GMT
Last year I took the advice of someone on the listserv and used the conference room method, but had my assistant attach a sheet with the attorneys initials which they would check off after autographing their respective cards. It was a bit tedious, but we had one of the most successful, stress-free holiday seasons ever. For the stubborn attorneys, (we all know who they are don't we?)who couldn't make up their minds who to send cards to, etc. I gave them each a stack of cards and they were on their own. We also send gifts to clients so I had to separate the gift cards and had another conference table set aside for those cards.
Crystal Murchison
Director, Marketing Communications
Stalik & Associates
600 Gateway Boulevard, Third Floor
South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA
Subject: Re: Intro & Holidays
From: Deanne Mccullough
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 14:27:16 -0700
I send the attorneys those cards where no other attorney wishes to sign them. For those clients where more than one attorney wishes to sign, I put those cards into big envelopes, per grouping (Ex: Jones, Miller and Smith; Campbell, Miller and Smith; Campbell and Miller, etc.). On the outside of the envelope I write the initials of all attorneys who need to sign those cards. As each attorney signs the cards, I cross off their initials. I can tell by looking at the outside of the envelopes who still has not signed their cards. To make sure that the cards don't get lost in an
attorney's office, I keep all the envelopes in my office. As an attorney stops by to discuss something with me, I ask them if they have signed their cards yet. It only takes about a week to get all the attorneys to sign those cards.
I also check off when the attorneys have returned their cards that only they sign. They then get the postage put on and are mailed. I learned to put the postage on after the cards are signed because the attorneys seem to find updated addresses after I've printed out the mailing labels, even though I sent them their lists for updating the previous month.
Not a perfect system, but it works enough for us.
Deanne McCullough
Marketing Director
Weintraub Genshlea Chediak Sproul
A Law Corporation
400 Capitol Mall, 11th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
ph: (916) 558-6000
fax: (916) 446-1611
www.weintraub.com
 Subject: Re: Intro & Holiday Cards/Gifts
From: NANCY MYRLAND
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:51:47 -0500
Our attorneys are responsible for buying clients gifts on their own. The attorneys pay for them and take care of the entire process if they are interested. If the gifts need a logo, we work with them to make sure the vendor gets the logo and help proof the placement, etc.
As for cards, we ask everyone in the Firm for the quantity of cards they need a month in advance. We ask our engraver for a few designs based on ideas we (the Marketing Department) send to them. We choose the design. We then simply print out a sheet of paper with the attorney's name and quantity and deliver that many cards and holiday stamps to the attorney. When the cards come in, the entire Marketing Department usually reserves a conference room and counts out the cards and bundles them for delivery. The attorneys and their secretaries take care of the entire addressing process. The number of cards requested continues to rise every year which we like as it means they are staying in touch with more clients. Only one of our teams worried about having the entire team sign the same cards one year. It's our philosophy that if a client has contact with more than one attorney, s/he won't mind getting a card from more than one. I surely
wouldn't (and don't) mind when I receive two cards from the same company as that tells me they both cared to think of me.
Nancy L. Myrland
Director of Marketing
Baker & Daniels
300 N. Meridian Street, Suite 2700
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317-237-1469 (office)
317-237-1000 (fax)
nlmyrlan@bakerd.com
www.bakerdaniels.com
Subject: Holiday card distribution
From: "Pfeifer, Lou Ann" LAPFEIFER@ThompsonCoburn.com
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999
Re/how other firms handle holiday card distribution...
After years of various approaches, we have developed a complicated system that seems to work for us. The key was educating attorneys as to the objective. Once everyone understood what we were trying to accomplish as an institution, the system began to operate quite smoothly.
Our holiday cards and gifts are administered by client team. Marketing provides the billing/relationship attorney for the largest 400 clients of the firm a list of contacts for that client. The relationship attorney assembles the team and reviews the list - making changes as needed. They ask the questions:
* Is everyone who needs to be acknowledged at this client being acknowledged by our firm?
* Does that person need a gift?
* Is simply a card okay?
* If a gift, can it be the firm standard gift or does it need to be specially chosen?
* Would an edible group gift make more sense?
* Does the client have a restriction re/receiving gifts?
Each client team has a budget. That budget is determined by the percent of revenue that client represents overall. There are exceptions and an appeal process. Attorneys are free to throw in their own money to supplement the budgets. In addition, they can allocate practice area funds or monies from their individual business development accounts.
If an attorney wants to send a card/gift to someone not covered by the client team - such as a law school classmate - they get 20 cards at firm expense. An attorney can always "buy" additional cards or gifts. Cards are $1 and gifts are $20. Our firm gift this year is a custom-designed ornament featuring "The Courthouses of St. Louis" by a well-known local artist. Secretaries make the changes to the lists in the firm's contact manager system as well as coordinate the card/gift enclosure card signings. It is a huge undertaking - 10,000 cards/2,500 or so gifts.
Lou Ann Pfeifer
Director of Client Relations
Thompson Coburn
St. Louis, MO
lapfeifer@thompsoncoburn.com
Subject: Christmas cards
From: dlh@mpows.com (Deborah L. Harding)
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999
To start the process, the attorneys place a check on our New File Request form throughout the year when they want the person added to the Holiday card category on the database. Then in August I route to each of them their list from the database for updates/final review. We send out approximately 2500 cards which I ordered in August after receiving the lists back from the attorneys. In September, the firms (each office) votes on the charitable organizations they would like their donations to go to.
Once the cards are in, which we have two versions, a Christmas card and a Seasons Greetings card, I take them to a local printer and he prints the charitable information on the inside of the card and also prints our return addresses on the envelopes.
Currently, I am preparing for our annual "Signing Luncheon." The attorneys meet in a conference room, eat and sign, sign, and sign, as we route the appropriate cards around the room. (Some cards may have one signature, others may have six). We will have 29 attorneys signing in our Wichita office this year. Then when they are finished we let them eat. :)
The final step is stuffing the cards into the appropriate envelopes and mailing. I have two people who will help me with the "party" and "stuffing." After completing this process, I have decided that I will not be sending out personal cards ever again. I am thinking about E-mailing a picture of my two daughters and calling that good this year. Happy Holidays to all! and don't let this fun ruin your holiday spirit.
Deborah L. Harding
Marketing Director
Martin, Pringle, Oliver, Wallace & Swartz, L.L.P.
100 North Broadway, Suite 500
Wichita, Kansas 67202
Phone 316-265-9311
Fax 316-265-2955
dlh@mpows.com
www.mpows.com
From: lficano@paulweiss.com
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999
We are drowning in this too right now but have hired someone 3 days a week to help out. We solicit the partners with their holiday list that has been created over the last 5 years. This prompts many of them to make changes and/or additions to both their holiday list and their business contact list. We print the addresses on clear labels for them and we return the labels and the necessary amount of cards and envelopes to them. We hope that they put their own signature above the preprinted name of the firm. It's up to their secretaries to do the stuffing and mailing. Last year we sent out over 15,000 cards and I'm sure we'll break that record this year.
Linda Lee Ficano
Assistant Manager, Practice Development
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019-6064
212-373-3141
212-373-2291 (fax)
lficano@paulweiss.com
 Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999
Author: "Bruns, David R." Bruns_DR@Pillsburylaw.com
At Pillsbury, Marketing orders the cards, envelopes and stamps. We then send the requested amount to the lawyers and hopefully they put more than just their signature inside.
This does not eliminate duplicates, but if we have several lawyers working for a single client or contact then more than one card, IMHO, is OK.
David Bruns
Client Development Manager
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP
114 Sansome Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
415-983-1762
415-983-1400 (FAX)
mailto:bruns_dr@pillsburylaw.com
visit our website at: http://pillsburylaw.com
From: brian@copethomson.com
Date: Friday, November 19, 1999
Subject: Re: Holiday Cards
This discussion has come and gone over the last several weeks. It has come to represent for me the larger issue of credibility, authority and the sorry state of attorney understanding that everything we do communicates, though we may not be communicating what we want to.
I hope that I am this articulate on the client report I am about to write!
Not to criticize any member of this illustrious list, but it is too late to be thinking about 1999 greeting cards. There, I said it! Marketing directors have way too much expected of them and way too little real understanding from your employers so this is the last pressure you need at year end.
*Normal* cards with *normal* greetings and *normal* charity offerings say nothing about one's firm. Well, maybe it says the firm is normal, and the same as every other firm. Who wants that label? A client who generates 4,5,6 and even 7 figure bills should be acknowledged sincerely. When forced to comply with the card tradition I suggest that all clients be treated equally and some more equal than others.
Following are some ideas for next year. commission an art student to do one-off line drawings for the top 500 clients - doors and windows are good for their obvious symbolism do a private limited edition print reproduce art from the firm's collection (with the artist's approval of course) ignore the charity de jour and identify with a growing need everyone will be supporting in 3-5 years - elder life quality and independent living should be a good one make a donation - adopt an animal(not an ostrich) at your zoo in honour of your clients
Since firms say they provide unique solutions and a unique team blah...it is critical to reinforce the brand at every opportunity. Unicef cards for instance, no disrespect meant, are not unique. Go ahead and support Unicef if that is your philanthropic goal, but understand that those kinds of cards are a cop out for social responsibility and the need for professionals to support their communities.
Just glad I am not trying to deal with this issue 3 weeks before the cards need to be mailed.
Brian Cope
COPE THOMSON & Associates Inc.
T: (416) 640-4784
F: (416) 640-4785
www.copethomson.com
Toronto, ON M6K 3C5
From: Lisa Ann Fletcher lfletcher@dbsr.com
Date: Sunday, April 04, 1999 6:00 PM
Subject: Attorney Signatures on Holiday Cards
Here's my problem. Our law firm is forever growing and now this year we have over 70 attorneys. Every year we print out mailing lists for each attorney to identify who they want cards to go to. Then after printing out labels we route all the cards to the attorneys assigned to each client, whether there be 1 or 5, all the attorneys personally sign the cards. This adds the personal touch, however it creates hours and hours of time consuming efforts by not only the marketing department, but anyone in the firm who has a free hand.
I am going to recommend that we have a card go out with the firm name at the bottom only, and no personal signatures. I do not know how well this will go over since we have been doing it the other way for soooooooo many years.
Lisa Ann Fletcher
Marketing Assistant
Downey, Brand, Seymour & Rohwer LLP
555 Capitol Mall, 10th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999
Author: "Kathleen Flynn kflynn@marketingvisions.com
Subject: RE: Attorney Signatures on Holiday Cards
I encourage attorneys to sign cards regardless of the hassle, because of the positive comments I've heard over the years from the recipients. Some firms have established some pretty efficient ways of getting the signing done, such as putting all the cards in a conference room, organized by client alphabetically, and allowing the lawyers to stop in the conference room over the course of a few days to sign the cards that are relevant to them. This may take some prodding to get them to take the initiative to stop in and spend a few minutes....perhaps some snacks...food is a wonderful motivator.
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999
Author: "George C. Miller" ASLWest@aol.com
Subject: Re: Attorney Signatures on Holiday Cards
Hello, my name is George Miller and I am the Western Region Manager for All-State Legal, and have specialized in the design and production of marketing collaterals for law firms since 1984...when there were no Marketing Directors!
As All-State is in the Holiday Card business....we have seen a number of situations where the actual "signing" of cards was a burden to both the attorneys and the Marketing Dept. We have produced numerous cards with a simple imprint of the Firm name. We have however, on a number of occasions, pre-printed lawyer signatures in blue "fountain pen looking" ink, duplicating actual signatures along with the Firm imprint in another color like red or green. We have done this technique with smaller firms, i.e., card is signed by whole Firm...and we have done this by Practice Group whereby the big card run is imprinted first with the Firm name, then thru plate changes at various points in the run, we customize signatures by Practice Group. This can be effective for the large Firm.
George C. Miller
Western Region Manager
All-State Legal
13435 South Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90061
ASLWest@aol.com
Phone: 800-222-0510 ext. 130
Fax: 310-851-4747
 Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999
Author: tkane@saul.com
Subject: Re: Attorney Signatures on Holiday Cards
I concur. If you don't sign them, don't send them. Think about it. Don't you feel real warm and fuzzy when you get a holiday card from an institution that no one cared enough about to sign I know I do Not! (or as my 17 year old says, NEE). In fact, there is a line of reasoning that says it can actually do more damage than good. We are in the business of "personal" professional services. Unsigned holiday cards are way too impersonal
There is another aspect to all this that I think we marketers should keep in mind. Don't confuse EFFORT with RESULTS. Over the last nine years of conducting client interviews, I have heard clients lament that, in their view, lawyers are more concerned with effort than outcome. Of course, hourly billing only exacerbates that problem. Some clients really do think that lawyers are more interested in the process -- drafting wills, complaints, interrogatories, contracts, etc. -- than they are in getting results for the client. This is a gross overstatement, I know, but if one client thinks so, it is one too many. SO, as marketers we should not fall into the same trap. Don't be concerned about the work effort needed to get "signed" holiday cards out, think about the results unsigned cards have the those to whom they are sent.
Thomas E. Kane
tkane@saul.com
Director of Marketing & Strategic Planning
Saul, Ewing, Remick & Saul
1500 Market Street, 38th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Phone: 215-972-7777
Fax: 215-972-2285
From: Imelda_Kenny/Boston/EALaw@ealaw com
Sent: Monday, April 05, 1999
We have over 200 attorneys at our Firm in six different offices and we recommend highly that they personally sign their Holiday cards Unfortunately, I would not recommend it any other way.
Imelda Kenny
Edwards & Angell, LLP
101 Federal Street
Boston, MA 02110
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 1999
Author: "Kimberly Morgan KMORGAN@lewisrice.com
Subject: Re: Attorney Signatures on Holiday Cards
I'm at a firm of 172 attorneys (120 in this office). We do not send holiday cards at all. I think the attorneys may do something on an individual basis to their own clients, though. I believe we don't because of the various religious affiliations of our clients--at least that is the reason I've been given.
Kim Morgan, Recruiting Coordinator
Lewis, Rice & Fingersh
St. Louis, MO
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999
Author: ""Michael O'Horo" coach@salesresults.com
Subject: Re: Attorney Signatures on Holiday Cards
I understand firms' motivation in eliminating a tedious job, but what if your "lack of backlash" reflects that fact that clients don't have time to react overtly to the conspicuous absence of the admittedly de rigeur holiday greeting, rather than their not noticing or caring? In my experience with lawyers throughout the US, few have anything resembling a regular, periodic communication scheme. That means that for a large percentage of people in each attorney's personal contact database, the holiday card may be the only communication from that attorney each year. It's easy to disappear entirely from someone's radar screen, but unnecessary. If you had a reason for entering someone's name and contact information into a contact database, there seems to be a reason for maintaining threshold communication. IMHO, despite the cost and tedium, it's a necessary and worthwhile task.
Mike O'Horo, The Coach
Sales Results, Inc., 1020 N. Monroe St., Arlington, VA 22201
Coach@salesresults.com
www.salesresults.com
888-551-3025 toll free
703-516-4448 local
703-516-4449 fax
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