LMA Metropolitan Philadelphia Newsletter

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Message from the President
By Holly Lentz

Summer kicked off with our social at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. What an amazing evening our membership enjoyed. From the cool jazz to the guided gallery tour, it was great to socialize with everyone. I hope that you enjoyed some vacation time and are rested and ready for the whirlwind of marketing activity law firms encounter in the 4th Quarter.

So you don’t have time to head back to school, well hopefully you will make time for the upcoming mini-MBA program hosted at Duane Morris on Sept. 20th. With rave reviews I trust all participants will walk away with useful business tools for their firm. Also on October 11th we will host BTI Consulting at Woodcock Washburn LLP. Mark your calendars and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Hold On To Your Hats
By Jennifer Smuts, Director of Marketing, Woodcock Washburn LLP

Although Spring is usually the season where we find new life creeping up all around us, for law firms this happens in the Fall. The new associates are on board! (Smiles everyone, smiles.)

The training programs are rolled out, mentors and mentees are getting to know each other and this is a good opportunity for Marketing to introduce itself. Many firms have mixed feelings about whether it makes sense to provide a legal marketing overview to this new batch of young lawyers. I think an introduction is important!

Carpe Diem
New Associates come into the firm with enthusiasm, the desire to integrate and lots of new ideas. Tapping in to this energy is a good exercise and typically lends Marketing new ways to look at old ideas. For example, a new associate is likely to question a process or add a suggestion to better a process.

Valuable Resources
The Associate poll comes to the firm with a lot of talent and not all of it is legal. Most recently an enthusiastic associate volunteered to translate collateral into Chinese. This is a project that she thought would be "fun" and she would only work on during her “non-office” hours.

What Marketing Can Not Do
Before I begin to explain the role of Marketing to the new associates I emphasize that their primary responsibility is to be a brilliant lawyer. It doesn’t make sense to invest budget dollars in any marketing outlet (advertising, collateral, membership, sponsorship or entertainment) if there isn’t a skilled lawyer to work with. Ultimately clients purchase the service of a trusted advisor that understands the law, knows their business, regularly communicates and cares about making the client look good.

Relationship building
Finally, first impressions are priceless. When Marketing has the opportunity to interact with new lawyers this meeting provides a basis for a long term relationship. Continue to integrate and develop these lawyers as they grow their practice.

In this section Diane Roka, Practice Development Manager, Post & Schell asked the Metro Philadelphia Chapter members "Did you have an unusual former job or career?” and below is what we learned.

Pat Purdy, CRM Manager, Duane Morris: "I owned a balloon and party store. I dealt with the public every day in high stress situations. Brides, kids about to be Bar Mitzvahed, you name it. My funniest memory was an ex-wife who sent balloons to her ex-husband for his 50th birthday. On birthday minus 50 days, he got one balloon. And on birthday minus 49 days, he got two balloons -- all the way up to 50 balloons on his birthday. It was kind of like a stalking thing, because she always knew where he was. So on some days I took those balloons to his office, and on some days I took them to the bowling alley. It was really quite interesting. A lot of fun, though."

Jamie Mulholland, Jamie Mulholland Marketing: "My very first job was as a server at my grade school’s rectory, Holy Cross in Springfield, PA. There were six priests living there, and they had a cook and a housekeeper and I was like the “Benson” of the rectory. I had to ring a little crystal bell each night at precisely 6pm to announce that it was dinnertime (as if they needed the bell, since they appeared so fast after its ringing that I was sure they had their ear

s up against the doors waiting for it), and announce each dish as I presented it at the table. 'Peas.' 'Carrots.' You get the drift. The wackiest thing they had me do was ensure that the butter was PRE-CUT in little pats on the butter dish. But hey, it was a job. My first purchase from my new salary: a Rick Springfield album."

Karen P. Kruza, Marketing Director, Archer & Greiner, P.C.: "Here are two jobs I'd like to forget: Sold copiers door-to-door. Worked as a cocktail waitress on beer and nacho night."

Nellie Spencer, Marketing Coordinator, Pepper Hamilton LLP: "I'm afraid I'm not that interesting- my ‘career’ has always been in marketing. During college and post college, I scooped ice cream at Baskin Robbins and loved it. I'd still be doing that today -- if it would pay the mortgage - ha ha."

An Intern’s Perspective on Legal Marketing

Marketing within the legal profession was surprisingly different than what can be expected with marketing for a regular company. Coming into a law firm for the first time, I expected to be advertising and using my creativity to invent ways to drive the firm through the marketing department. While this was absolutely true, I was also introduced to new computer programs and ways to distribute news and information firm-wide as well as collecting and organizing marketing materials that supported the firm. I didn’t expect to be entering data and using many new programs, but quickly learned that this is one of the most important aspects of legal marketing. Updating attorney profiles and posting articles to the webpage were some of the most important tasks that I took on through my internship. I was given the opportunity to help decide the format of these materials so that they would be most effective to our clients.

Organization and patience are two of the most important characteristics that I feel one must have in the legal marketing profession; materials come in and out and priorities are constantly changing, which is why it is incredibly important to be organized and have patience while alterations are being made. I felt that I fit right in with these characteristics and was able to enjoy the work being completed while learning so much along the way. Networking and clear communication are also some keys to being successful in this area, which I became much better at during my time at Woodcock Washburn. I was able to create some new relationships and meet people who taught me how to get the job done right and tips to carry out tasks easier, which will benefit me in the future.