One of the product enhancements Kate is currently focused on is the search engine optimization project. “It will make the site easier to be found through any search engine.” She is currently working with Alacra to clean up links and do a lot of reprogramming using CSS, a programming language, instead of nested tables. “It will help clients and customers find what they are looking for much easier,” she explains.

Kate is also in the middle of launching the sales of three new published survey reports (the Law Firm Business Development Practices Survey; the Outsourcing Survey; and the Global Law Firm Knowledge Management Survey), after having shepherded the surveys through the survey process, from questionnaire development to report design. And she is working to expand the presence of ALM Research at various trade shows and conferences, identifying new venues, enhancing ALM Research’s presence at core shows and “booking” speaking engagements, including her own presentations of the results of the new Business Development survey, Kate describes her background “eclectic.” While completing her undergraduate degree at New York University, she worked for the Alzheimer’s research division at the NYU Medical Center. One of her first assignments was to act as courier for the brains used in research, carrying them in buckets between NYU Medical Center, Bellevue Hospital, and an MRI facility, to be scanned for the Alzheimer’s program. She also learned to use a rather obscure piece of software to produce drawings of brain scans which produced volumetric data, and her own brain scan was featured on the cover of Dementia Magazine. She was also listed as a contributor, along with the doctors and researchers in the Alzheimer’s program, in a 2001 issue of The Neurobiology of Aging.

But a year after graduation, Kate decided not to stay in the medical field. For several years, she worked with two small but well-known New York City musical venues (Irving Plaza and The Bottom Line), and then she moved into real estate, becoming the marketing director for a boutique real estate brokerage that specialized in high-end retail stores and office space.

“The common thread is marketing and working directly with people,” Kate points out. "I graduated with a degree in Cultural Anthropology because no matter what I do, I will be working with people. Knowing and understanding people is the key to marketing. Even at the NYU Medical Center, I would prepare the PowerPoints that the doctors would use to present their findings at conferences.” The key to good marketing, Kate says, is knowing your audience. “You have to understand what fits with your customer or client, and how to tailor your communications to them.”

When the position of marketing manager for ALM Research opened, Kate says she jumped on it. She had been looking for a way to work for a larger company, and the ALM Research division was just getting off the ground in 2004, under the leadership of Vice President of Licensing and Business Development Ellen Siegel. Since that time, Kate has been part of the team that has made the online database a reality, and has seen the database grow gradually more robust. She gets excited talking about it.

“Our law firm info is the industry standard,” she says. “No one has this data, this breadth and depth of data about law firms. And it is growing and developing, both through natural accumulation and through added content.”

Other growth areas include the expansion of original research projects, such as the three survey reports that Kate is marketing currently. And ALM Research is in the process of developing strategic alliances with other research organizations in order to enrich the database content. There has also been an increasing demand for regional information, Kate says. And, while the current database includes some regional information and products (the Am Law-like lists reported by each of the regional newspapers; the By City results from the Associate Surveys; the Branch Office information from the annual NLJ 250 Survey), there are other possibilities she is exploring with the department.

This Fall, Kate started the Executive MBA program at Pace University in New York. It is a program designed for people like her who are already in the workforce, working full-time while completing their degrees. This may mean that she will have to give up some of her extra-curricular activities – playing on two softball teams, one for the company (the Pigeons and the REM Bots) and one volleyball team (the ALM Aces). But she will still be attending conferences on behalf of ALM Research. In particular look for her at the annual LMA conference and chapter events and LSSO Raindance, and tell her you read about her here. She will be very pleased.

And finally, full disclosure: Kate and I share the same last name because she’s my daughter. Ironically, Kate began working for ALM after I left my staff position on the editorial side of the company and became a consultant and freelance writer/editor for ALM Research. We frequently work together (I hand over my newsletter copy to her and she oversees getting it into electronic form), but we work well together. And she’s so smart. But then I’m slightly prejudiced; I’m her mother.