Sun, sand, beaches… sweet summertime has just begun, but our team has a different take on summer travels. We’ve already made appearances at three different legal conferences this summer including MaxLawCon and PILMMA Super Summit, and we’re just getting started.
These conferences are attended by some of the best-known names in the legal industry. The Hennessey Digital team is honored to be a part of it, strengthening relationships and making new connections at every event we attend.
MaxLawCon (Maximum Lawyer Convention)
We kicked off our summer conference tour at MaxLawCon, aka the Maximum Lawyer Convention. It’s always nice to see the Midwest take center stage for a legal event, and St. Louis also happens to be one of our remote team member hub cities!
MaxLawCon was an intimate event with lawyers from all across the country. The two-day conference was filled with brief sessions of quick, snackable content, and the central theme across the conference was how to be successful in every part of your business and thrive as a law firm.
For MaxLawCon members, the focus is on not just where their firms are today, but thinking long-term and where they want to grow into the future.
With sessions like Breaking Limited Mindset by John Ting, Niche Your Way to Notoriety by Nicole Christie, Unlocking The Key Strategies To Building Your Law Firm Empire by Jessica Gonifas, and Managing Client Expectations by Bill Farias, it was clear to see that law firm marketing was a key theme in everyone’s conversations.
We discovered what a small world the legal industry can be when our Senior Director of Marketing Cindy Kerber Spellman ran into Jim Aspell of The Law Offices of James Aspell, who happened to be reading Law Firm SEO by Jason Hennessey!
This year was Hennessey Digital’s first time at MaxLawCon. It was an incredible event organized by brand manager Becca Eberhart, and attorneys Jim Hacking and Tyson Mutrux are outstanding individuals who have cultivated a tight-knit, community-based conference.
It’s always interesting to be at a legal conference when a major legal trial is on every news station, and this is what we discovered during our time at MaxLawCon. The Depp v. Heard trial was in full swing and we were able to hear the lawyers’ take on this case. As a digital marketing agency, it’s fascinating to get a peek into the legal world!
Lanier Trial Academy
It’s tough to say which legal events are our favorites, but Lanier Trial Academy definitely makes the list as an annual conference that we don’t ever want to miss! Over the three days, lawyers get intense training from one of the greatest trial lawyers in the country, Mark Lanier.
The universe seemed to be against our team, with flights being severely delayed to and from the event. Our Director of Sales Brian Mossman’s luggage was lost and he didn’t get into his hotel until after 1:00 AM, but nothing would stop our team from showing up!
Day one of the event consisted of the golf tour where Brian teamed up with Dan Ambrose of Trial Lawyers University and Paul Faust, aka “Cool Guy Paul”, playing 14 holes in 100 degrees under the Houston sun.
This event was not only a good networking opportunity, but it also raised money for the Braden Bailess foundation. Director of Business Development Rob Coleman chose the indoor offering for day one and toured Mark Lanier’s theological library. A truly impressive collection, it houses one of the only seven replicas of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It’s not just fun and games at Lanier Trial Academy, though. The conference is jam-packed with educational sessions and learning from Mark Lanier himself. We noticed that the sessions are so in-depth and captivating that people hardly got up from their seats except for scheduled breaks. Mark Lanier did a great job incorporating props during sessions that encouraged engagement from attendees and aided with visualization.
We had a terrific time networking in the evenings. Paul Liebman from X Social Media invited our team out to an excellent dinner and Thomas Neel from Multus Medical hosted receptions each evening in the Presidential Suite of the Marriott Marquis in Houston.
The hot topic at Lanier was the Camp Lejeune lawsuit. This group of attorneys deal with a lot of mass torts, and while there is a little hesitation to jump into this one as it’s still early days, everyone’s attitude seemed to be to go full force ahead on this case!
PILMMA Super Summit
The Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing & Management Association’s annual event, or PILMMA, was attended by the country’s powerhouse attorneys. And while we could say the theme was “planes, trains, and automobiles” due to continual travel issues, it was impressive to see how many attorneys and industry partners were committed to making an appearance.
Anybody who’s anybody in law firm marketing was present and the event was well-attended. Everyone we spoke to had a great experience learning about buying and selling law firms, another hot topic at PILMMA Super Summit this year. Each session was so diverse and well-developed, incorporating high-value content with actionable takeaways.
We enjoyed the world-class New Orleans cuisine and ate at some of the best restaurants in the country. Hennessey Digital hosted a dinner at Commander’s Palace, and on the final evening of PILMMA Super Summit, Hennessey Digital and Luke Russell’s team at the Lawful Good podcast socialized together at Galatoire’s. While Luke was unable to attend, Jason brought him to dinner virtually! Luke is a great friend of Jason’s and has featured him on an episode of Lawful Good, which you can listen to here.
As the event came to a close, we couldn’t leave New Orleans without spending time with some familiar faces. We met with Darryl Isaacs, Rob Levine, Jeff Nadrich, Chad Dudley, Alex Valencia, and Steven Smith, and it’s always a pleasure spending time with industry partners and legal titans.
Our key takeaways
- The Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit was hotly discussed at Lanier Trial Academy and at PILMMA Super Summit. Major mass tort cases are always on people’s minds, and this one was mentioned frequently at both events.
- Education is a big focus area at all of these conferences. Attorneys from every state make the time to learn from the best and focus on how to grow their businesses.
- Marketing for law firms played a major role in this round of conferences. It is critical for growth and the ability to thrive in the future.
- Travel issues can’t stop the best of the best from these legal conferences. They see the value these events bring to their business and are committed to being present.
Where we’ll be next
But summer isn’t over, which means we aren’t done traveling. Be on the lookout for Hennessey Digital at Law-Di-Gras in Carlsbad, CA and at AAJ in Seattle in the coming weeks.
Will we see you at upcoming legal industry events this summer? Tweet us at @HennesseyDgtl and let us know where you’ll be!