Photo: Jason Doiy / The Recorder

Goodwin Procter has created a new C-suite level position to advance the firm's client development strategy, working alongside its traditional marketing department.

The Am Law 50 Boston-founded firm hired Lee Garfinkle in the newly created role of chief client development and relationship officer. Garfinkle previously worked 10 years at Allen & Overy, which has reportedly been in protracted merger discussions with O'Melveny & Myers. Garfinkle was chief marketing and business development officer at the Magic Circle firm.

The new hire, based in New York, reflects that large law firms continue to expand their business development offerings, seeing returns on how sales and business development professionals can drive value for clients and increase revenue.

"There is an evolution going on within the legal industry to focus on client development and relationship building as a complement to traditional marketing, communications and brand building activities," said Goodwin chief operating officer Michael Caplan in a statement, adding that the firm, in hiring Garkfinkle, "found a veteran executive who understands the critical role that the business of law plays in setting Goodwin apart in the crowded legal market."

In an interview, Caplan described the new position as being completely separate from marketing, although the two departments will work closely together. Garfinkle, who will report to Caplan, will partner with the firm's CMO, Nancy Kostakos, who will "continue to focus on the firm's global marketing, communications and branding initiatives," the firm said.

While there is not a universally accepted definition of what business development is responsible for in the legal community, this position appears to be unique in that it is separate from the marketing department, not a combination position of CMO/business development head. The new role is expected to own relationships with clients, something traditional business development roles do not normally do.

Caplan said he recruited for the new position through his business development contacts in the corporate world, finding Garfinkle on LinkedIn. They had a coffee and hit it off, he said.

"He went through process with the other five candidates we brought in for the role and the partners really like him. It was as simple as that," Caplan said.

Caplan said Garfinkle, at the time, was not even looking to make a move. His move was not influenced by any merger talks at Allen & Overy, Caplan added.

Garfinkle has 30 years of business development experience, although only the last 15 have been directly tied to the legal industry. After close to a decade at AT&T in product marketing and sales, Garfinkle spent six years at Deloitte Consulting before taking his first legal marketing job as chief marketing officer at Lowenstein Sandler in 2004. He moved over to Allen & Overy in 2009.

"I'm really excited about being part of the Goodwin team," said Garfinkle in a statement. "Goodwin's approach to client delivery and the importance the firm places on its global operations team really attracted me to the role."

In an email, an Allen & Overy representative declined to comment, citing the firm's policy to comment only on partner departures.

In other legal marketing news:

Lisa Olney, CMO of Berstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossman.

Lisa Olney has joined New York-based plaintiff-side trial firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann as chief marketing officer. Before Bernstein, Olney was the senior director of marketing at management-side labor and employment law firm Littler Mendelson for three years. Additionally, she had stints at Seyfarth Shaw and Epstein Becker & Green, where she also held marketing and business development posts.

Olney will work out of Bernstein's New York headquarters and, according to her bio, handle "branding, client satisfaction and development, and communications initiatives."

Verrill Dana, a Portland, Maine-based firm with more than 100 lawyers, has rebranded and will now be known only as Verrill. The firm's legal name remains Verrill Dana.

The rebranding effort includes a new website as well as an altered logo. The firm, which has seven offices in five states and Washington D.C., said the rebrand is a nod to the evolving makeup of the 150-year-old firm. "The combination of our traditional and more modern elements mirrors the changing demographics of our firm and practices," said the firm's marketing director, Gretchen Johnson, in a statement.

The Legal Marketing Association, which represents over 4,000 marketing and legal professionals in 48 states in the U.S., has released the results of its anticipated 2020 board of directors. Kelly MacKinnon, director of business development for Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York, is the new president-elect of LMA's board of directors. She takes over for immediate past president Cynthia Voth, the director of client engagement and innovation at Seattle-based Miller Nash Graham & Dunn. The full results can be found here. The group also has a new executive director at its helm, Danielle Holland, who joined the role in June.