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 By Larry Bodine, a business development advisor with Apollo Business Development. He has helped law firms nationwide attract new clients and generate new business by using strategy, business development training and individual attorney coaching. See www.ApolloBusinessDevelopment.com. He can be reached at 630.942.0977 and Lbodine@LawMarketing.com.
Arnold & Porter is the first AmLaw 100 law firm to publish an iPhone app, pioneering into new areas of marketing with technology. The firm publishes the Consumer Advertising Law Blog, which provides commentary and news on emerging legal issues in consumer marketing, advertising and promotional activities. The iPhone application takes the content from the blog and makes it more easily accessible with an iPhone. Additional features are included, such as:
- Offline access to the blog's postings.
- Saving “favorite” articles for viewing on or offline
- An easy sharing of articles via Email, Facebook or Twitter
- Viewing of web content without leaving the application.
Two-lawyer firm offers iPhone App. See below.
To distribute the blog’s content as widely as possible to current and potent clients and readers, the firm distributes versions of blog postings via RSS feed, Twitter, and Kindle. In addition, Arnold & Porter publishes a Consumer Products Marketing Newsletter. That newsletter contains blog content as well as additional features for those clients and readers who prefer that format (printed or not).
"The iPhone app provides clients and interested readers a unique way to access the high-quality reporting and analysis created by our multi-disciplinary consumer protection and advertising practice group," said Neil Rosenbaum, New Business Opportunities Manager for the firm in Washington, D.C.
The idea for the blog was an extension of that approach. The blog editors and Rosenbaum discussed the concept of creating the mobile application in connection with the blog.
Why create an iPhone app?
There were three main reasons why Arnold & Porter developed its first iPhone application for its Consumer Advertising Law Blog:
(1) "The firm constantly thinks about ways to reach out to clients and readers in ways that will be convenient to them. We thought it was important that our blog content be easily accessible on a platform being used increasingly by our business clients and blog readers," Rosenbaum said.
(2) As a firm with a significant consumer protection and advertising practice, the team felt that it would be important to mirror what many of their clients are already doing -- creating their own iPhone apps.
(3) "With the growth of smart phones, Arnold & Porter felt that it was important to take this modest step to begin understanding mobile phones as a platform to reach out to and interact with our clients or others," Rosenbaum said.
 Learning lessons for the future
"While the firm did not specifically hear strong demand for an iPhone app, we could see that this was a direction that many industries were headed and felt it was important to get the experience early in the process so that Arnold & Porter could take the lessons we learn and apply them to future efforts. That being said, within minutes of announcing the iPhone App on our blog, one of our attorneys received an e-mail from a major client that said, 'Cool!'" according to Rosenbaum.
The design for the application was created by the firm’s internal graphics department using the look-and-feel of the blog to develop the needed graphic items for the app.
What did it all cost? "Based on an honest, upfront discussion of what Arnold & Porter was looking for in an app, we negotiated very reasonable terms for the production of the application," he said.
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 The Cueto Law Group, a two-lawyer practice in Coral Gables, FL, has launched an iPhone app.
"Our law firm launched its own App several weeks ago. Its a mobile version of the International Business Law Advisor blog. The App is yet another way we can add exceptional value to our clients and potential clients. Like the A&P App, our App allows users to take advantage of the latest social media tools. With the App they can share each blog post with friends and colleagues through email and twitter--ensuring that everyone stays on top of breaking news and emerging trends in global business."
"The International Business Law Advisor App is available as a free download here through the iTunes App Store. You can read more about our App at http://tiny.cc/sQPFl For a law firm there is no better way to stand out from the crowd than with having your own iPhone App. Of course, this will change in the next year or so as more firms create their own Apps.," said partner Santiago Cueto. |
Idea to reality in four months
The entire process at Arnold & Porter – from the day the idea was raised until the day the app went live -- took four months. The developer had an account with Apple's App Store to submit the compiled computer code for Apple's approval. Once the application was complete (i.e., internal beta testing), it took a few weeks to get approval from Apple. Initially, the application was rejected due to an icon within the program that Apple did not like. The law firm replaced that icon, and the resubmitted application was approved. Apple does not charge for submitting applications, but one must have a developer's account to submit an application; the annual cost of that account is $99.
To get the app, an iPhone or iPod Touch user goes to the “App Store” via iTunes and downloads the app from there for free. You can also download the application over the air with the App Store application on the device itself (i.e. one does not need to use an iTunes application on a computer).
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can download the application by clicking here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=343353425&mt=8 |
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