Event Review - CMO Panel

On Thursday, March 20, 2008, more than 60 legal marketing professionals gathered at Ballard Spahr to listen to a panel of Chief Marketing Officers from five of Philadelphia’s largest law firms discuss their best practices and tricks of the trade.

The following event summary was written by Richard B. Alonso, Communications Coordinator at Blank Rome LLP:

Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court tossed out the notion that the legal profession was above advertising, in Bates v. Arizona State Bar. Bates’ newspaper ad that began “Do you need a lawyer? Legal services at very reasonable fees.” found protection under the First Amendment. Today, Am Law 200 firms usually have marketing departments, and some even have chief marketing officers. Furthermore, “legal marketing” and “business development” (a/k/a sales) encompass a lot more than just advertising.

The Philadelphia Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association sponsored a panel discussion of five law-firm CMOs who discussed provocative questions on the challenges—even for the biggest firms—of marketing attorneys and their practices. Steve Barrett, CMO of Drinker Biddle, moderated a panel including CMOs Catherine Bishop of Blank Rome LLP, Edward Schechter of Duane Morris LLP, Julie Amos of WolfBlock, and Anne Casey of Cozen O’Connor.

These CMOs—whose combined marketing experience exceeded a century—ranked the return-on-investment (ROI) of common legal marketing activities. Topping the list of greatest ROI were: client teams, client feedback programs, at-client seminars, attorney relationship-management and marketing training, electronic CRM (client relationship management) systems, and one-on-one client entertainment. In the CMOs’ views, their lowest ROI came from the “traditional” legal marketing activities of brochures, pro bono, newsletters, event sponsorships, mass client entertainment events, advertisements, and seminars.

Now here’s the problem—you could nearly turn the ROI list upside down to replicate a second list of the biggest marketing staffing and budget items in today’s large law firms: CRM systems, event sponsorships, seminars, and mass client entertainment events. Meanwhile, some of the smallest shares of marketing budgets go to the high-ROI client teams, client feedback programs, and at-client seminars. Why?

One CMO of a large, international firm explained that the top items on the ROI list were relatively new strategies, which are added to the mix of older marketing activities without displacing them. Legal marketers have found it challenging to withdraw resources from traditional marketing activities even when they are not bringing business in the door.

Another CMO agreed, but added that client teams and client feedback are not new to marketing—only new to lawyers. If we do not know what a client feels about us, how can we improve and drive revenue? A true focus on clients yields invaluable information.

A CMO of one of the U.S.’s largest firms noted that the most successful firms and attorneys are moving from the passive, “easy” marketing of just spending money on things like receptions, to the active, “harder” marketing of personally connecting with live people.

Clients do not just want legal advice—business clients want attorneys who are business advisors with inside-understanding of their industries. Legal marketers can help attorneys and law firms focus on what clients really want.

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