Use IP Pilot to decide which of your existing partners in your target country deserve face time on your next trip. Follow these steps to review your own firm to see active partners and reciprocity, drill into each partner’s profile to understand decision makers, clients, and more to build a short, priority list aligned to your goal (win more inbound work, improve reciprocity, or maintain relationship health).
Before you start
- Identify your goals for this trip:
- win more inbound cases
- improve reciprocity
- maintain relationship health
- or something else
1. Open your firm’s profile
- Go to Analyze → Law Firms.
- Search your own firm and open the profile (select the relevant entities if there are multiple).
2. Limit the view to the country you’re visiting
- Open Case Exchange.
- Set Year Type to Case Exchange Year and choose a recent multi-year window.
- Use the country filter to keep only the country you plan to visit.
- Review the Sent vs. Received flow with partners in that country.
3. Read the charts based on your priority
- Use International Case Exchange to see the sent/received balance.
- Scroll to Important Partners to view partner firms and exchanged volumes for the selected period.
- (Recommended) Set Decision Maker = Law Firm to focus on matters where the partner chose the associate.
- Goal-specific cues:
- Inbound growth: prioritize partners already sending to you, and where Decision Maker = Law Firm.
- Reciprocity: flag partners where your sent/received is lopsided; plan for re-balance.
- Relationship Health: include long-term partners tied to strategic clients even if current flow is modest.
4. Drill into specific partners
- In Important Partners, click a partner’s name to open their profile in a new tab.
- Clear filters for a clean view, or keep them if you want continuity.
- In the partner’s profile:
- Open Case Exchange and set Decision Maker = Law Firm; filter to your jurisdiction to see what they send/receive with you.
- Go to Overview → Important Clients to identify the clients behind the flow and prepare tailored talking points.
5. Create your travel shortlist
- For each shortlisted firm, record:
- Current sent vs. received with your firm (in the target country).
- Key clients from Important Clients.
- Your meeting objective (e.g., “increase inbound on chemistry,” “rebalance EP filings,” “stay top of mind for client X”).
Example Scenario (Canadian firm visiting the US)
- Your profile: Analyze → Law Firms → open your Canadian firm.
- Case Exchange: Case Exchange Year; 2021–2024; Country = United States.
- Prioritization:
- Inbound: Decision Maker = Law Firm; sort partners by received → to your firm; pick top senders.
- Reciprocity: sort by total transferred; include partners where you send more than you receive (or vice versa).
Best Practices & Tips
-
Set a stable window: Use 3–5 full years for trends; skip the current patent year.
- Use Decision Maker: Always check Decision Maker to target true influencers.
- Review before you meet: Review partner profiles and confirm client mix and any associate dependencies.
- Have a concrete Call-to-Action: Clear partner-specific objectives will help the meetings stay focused.
If you have questions or need help with your analysis, contact our support team at support@ip-pilot.com.
