A few of our grizzled retired partners can recall the primordial mists of the 1960s when a lawyer could get arrested for talking about � or worse yet, appearing to act out � the “marketing” of legal services. Indeed some of the more “white shoe” old firms in New York at that time declined to let their associates have business cards, fearing that leaving a card would violate the old canons of ethics that restricted lawyers from soliciting business.
When the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s ruled that limited lawyer advertising was a First Amendment issue, the hole in the dike rapidly widened until the floodgates of Madison Avenue were overwhelmed. Soon every major firm was battling in the streets with all other service providers for the attention of prospective clients.
But the widespread acceptance of legal marketing has not been without challenges. New corporate realities and global market forces affecting the legal profession have given firms the opportunity to increase market share and capitalize on vulnerable markets. Strategic planning is more critical for firms today than ever before, and in-house marketing professionals are ideally positioned to facilitate and implement the process.
These marketing professionals have seized the opportunity to counsel and lead their firms in a way that has significant impact on firm profitability. By evaluating the revenues that come to the firm, identifying the existing and potential sources of revenue, and developing marketing tools that target these revenue sources � all critical ingredients to good practice management � marketing professionals are proving their worth.
As part of this process, practice groups now create business plans in alignment with firm-wide strategic goals, which include analyses of the client base, client needs, competition, market trends, strengths and weaknesses of the practice, recruiting, staffing, pricing, practice management, and profitability. This in turn leads to developing the goals, objectives, strategy and tactics, or the “where we are now, where we need to be and how we get there” that will propel the firm forward. A firm’s marketing department should have designated staff that can assist in all aspects of developing these plans.
For many firms, the development of the practice group plans and buy-in from the partners was historically the end of the process until it was time to update the plans. With the reorganization of marketing departments to add even more value to the administration and to the firm’s bottom line, this is changing.
In addition to hiring a chief marketing and strategic officer, many firms now hire business development managers instead of marketing managers, empowering them with the primary mission of developing and implementing local and regional action plans that support the specific firm-wide practice strategies. Now the buy-in from the partners is the beginning of the process and facilitated by the business development team.
At one time, marketing professionals focused on responsiveness to lawyers, creativity with marketing initiatives and the ability to negotiate political minefields. While these remain important skills for members of the marketing department, the management committee and partnership now expect the chief marketing officer � in collaboration with the executive director, chief financial officer and chief information officer � to add value by posing the tough questions that firms previously have ignored. Key decisions are best made when the top professionals, along with the management committee, are at the table together. Otherwise, those professionals are forced to implement decisions in which they had no say, but for which they are held accountable.
Katherine Kurtz is the director of business development in the Dallas office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Her e-mail address is [email protected].
