LMA Question: Tell us how you felt when you found out you were an inductee for the first class in the LMA Hall of Fame.

Rubenstein: I was immensely flattered and doubly pleased to be in the company of Sally, Ross, and Merrilyn.

LMA Question: Over the years, who or what do you feel has been the biggest influence on you personally?

Rubenstein: Although it sounds a little cliché, it’s not one individual, it’s all of LMA. We enjoy an unusually high
degree of collaboration and supportiveness in the association. What I’m most aware of and impressed by is how generous members of LMA have been from the beginning.

LMA Question: What do you think your most satisfying achievement has been?

Rubenstein: I would add to that, for me, there are really two satisfactions. One is really seeing the firms I have worked with enjoy the benefits of the strategy or the positioning in which I have been involved. The other is the incisive and extraordinarily accomplished legal marketers now practicing in the field, who started with me years ago.

LMA Question: What are you doing to learn more than you currently know, and keep your thinking fresh?

Rubenstein: We all tend to function as sponges and try to absorb much of what we see working in law firms. I try to surround myself and collaborate with people who enhance my understanding and see what they bring to the table.A number of my group’s colleagues have expertise in areas in which I lack experience. I also focus on what are called, for lack of a better phrase, best practices–ways that law firms are achieving marketing leadership,ways that those strategies or tools are used most effectively among law firms.

LMA Question: Tell us about the challenges you see ahead for legal marketing?

Rubenstein: I think we’re seeing a new generation at the helm of law firms, focused not on just management but on leadership. Hand in glove with that evolution is the need for law firms to inculcate a marketing culture. Overall, law firms have not placed the right expectations on marketing or done a good job of explaining its roles. I see an increased need to assure that marketers are duly informed about the work that their firms do and the industries they serve. And in that knowledge, they earn the credibility of the lawyers they work with and can play the strategic role that they always sought.