This mini-series examines an issue which has confounded the profession for decades — how to bridge the disconnect in the legal market. The previous lesson (4-25) looked at a fictitious story (based on several true ones) about Diamond LLP and how they had devised a marketing plan called "Operation Sparkle." We saw how they had tried to polish up their marketing collateral by loudly trumpeting their awesomeness.

This lesson looks at the same story from the client's standpoint. Our fictional GC, Midge, had heard of Diamond LLP. Nothing bad, nothing great and nothing unusual. But then came Operation Sparkle, and Midge could hardly fail to notice the glossy brochure, the emails and the big media push.

Diamond were trying to say that they had smart lawyers and a deep bench, so they could offer a top-quality service. But that's not what Midge heard. When Midge got this messaging, all she heard was "we won this case, we closed that deal, we have a track record." None of this resonated with her. It told her everything about other assignments for other clients, but nothing about what the firm stands for, and how those values could relate to her problems. Diamond's objective of showing its core values to potential clients failed. Midge saw the message as just more law firm boasting, and left her shaking her head at the continued disconnect between law firms and corporate clients. At least Diamond saw there was an issue and tried to address it. They get points for that.