With a new executive director at the helm, the Legal Marketing Association is looking to connect the dots between its international members.

The LMA has more than 4,000 members across 26 countries, but its members primarily hail from North America. LMA executive director Danielle Holland said the association plans to grow beyond the existing eight regions it services across the United States and Canada.

Since becoming LMA executive director in June, Holland said she has identified a mutual interest in the European market where the LMA hopes to grow its international footprint, particularly with a mind toward England and Germany.

Holland spent more than a decade in association management before joining the LMA. She was previously president and CEO of the Financial Managers Society, senior vice president at Insured Retirement Institute and a senior manager at AARP.

“When this opportunity presented itself, it was an exciting challenge,” Holland said. She said she wants to focus on strengthening the association’s relationships with members across its eight North American regions, grow its international ranks, and focus on giving its members the professional resources and networking opportunities to be successful.

While the LMA is relatively young compared to other trade associations—it formed in 1985—Holland said the organization has a vibrant membership that services a seasoned industry.

The LMA announced Wednesday its anticipated 2020 board of directors, consisting of members spread across the U.S. and Canada at operations of all sizes, including large firms such as Jones Day and Clark Hill.

Holland noted that the LMA has seen its members increasingly take a seat at the table of decision-makers at their respective firms. In a 2018 LMA survey of legal marketers and attorneys, 62% of respondents reported that their firms were increasing the importance placed on marketing and business development initiatives.

Some 41% of attorneys surveyed said increasing the size of the marketing staff was one of the top new investments in the previous two years at their firm. Such data may give legal marketers cause to be optimistic about the future, and Holland said the job market for legal marketers is “dynamic.”

“I don’t think that this industry is immune to consolidation we’re seeing across other industries,” Holland said. “That said, what we’re finding is that this industry is growing.”

Law firms are notoriously slow to change, and legal marketers may have less success at getting their employers to swiftly adopt new technology and social media in furtherance of the firms’ goals, compared to other industries. Holland said firms are “still wading through” how and when to use social media, but that the LMA has and will continue to produce white papers and webinars on how to best leverage social media—particularly LinkedIn.

The LMA’s educational initiatives include promoting legal marketing as a career open to young professionals, and Holland said the LMA divides its recruitment efforts fairly evenly between marketing and communications graduates and law school graduates.

Holland said the legal marketing industry requires more expertise than a generalist’s understanding of marketing. The high-stakes nature of legal work can be both stressful and rewarding, and Holland said legal marketers similarly will find that they get from their jobs what they put into them.