The Importance of Law Firm Alumni Networks
Law firm alumni networks are valuable resources not only for recruiting, but also for business development.
As a Legal Marketing Association (LMA) article points out, professional transitions are common at law firms – people leave for another firm, switch to in-house roles, or leave law altogether.
Lawyers who become in-house General Counsels or take on other senior leadership roles can be helpful contacts at potential clients, and a great source of referrals. Given how influential existing relationships can be for winning new business, it’s important that law firms not let the relationships with their alumni “die on the vine.”
Many of the leading law firms are beginning to realize how important this aspect of their relationship capital is. According to the LMA, nearly 70% of AmLaw 100 firms have a formal alumni program. An American Bar Association (ABA) Journal article quotes Carol Sprague, Director of Associate and Alumni Relations at Skadden: “Not every associate wants to be a partner at their organization. We are more realistic. We would rather facilitate and have them work with our clients than have them go off and disappear.”
But as the LMA article acknowledges, making the most of law firm alumni networks remains challenging. “Many firm alumni initiatives stumble in fits and starts because of other priorities and immediate service needs.”
The remainder of this post will explain how law firms can use RelSci to leverage their alumni networks in a more efficient and targeted way.
Step 1: Create your alumni list in RelSci
The first step is to gather the list of your firm’s alumni. Once you have this list, you can log into your account on the RelSci platform.
To upload your alumni list to RelSci, select the “Lists” feature. Then, choose “My Lists,” and click on the “Upload File to List” button. RelSci allows you to upload any number of lists with a variety of data, and provides an Excel template to standardize the formatting. This blog post goes into further detail about this process.
Many law firms maintain a database of firm alumni and can use this to create their list. If your firm doesn’t do this, however, you can leverage RelSci data to identify alumni. Instead of uploading your list, head to Power Search and use the Career/Boards module. Then, save your search results as a list.
Step 2: Create alerts & notifications for your alumni list
After creating your list in RelSci, you can use RelSci’s 360° Alerts feature to proactively stay on top of news and updates about your firm’s alumni as they progress in their careers.
Law firms can use 360° Alerts to receive alerts any time their alumni are mentioned in the news, but they can also add filters to focus on specific events, such as executive transitions. These alerts are particularly actionable for finding new business development opportunities.
For example, the below screenshot shows a RelSci alert on Teri L. Witteman, an alum of the law firm Latham & Watkins. Teri was recently appointed to General Counsel of Beyond Meat.
In this case, Witteman’s former colleagues at Latham & Watkins could use the announcement as a chance to connect and explore opportunities for Latham and Beyond Meat to work together.
With a curated dataset of more than 1.7 million organizations and over 9 million senior decision-makers, RelSci gives law firms numerous opportunities to better track their alumni and to turn those warm connections into new business.
Learn more about RelSci
RelSci is the most effective tool for relationship-driven business development.
If you would like to learn more about how you can use RelSci’s Lists, 360° Alerts and other features to better leverage your law firm’s alumni network, we’d love to hear from you.
Request a demo to speak with one of our sales representatives.
In the meantime, please see our white paper about how law firms can use the strength of their partners’ professional network to find new clients.