Law firm marketers: Is there a seat for you at the table?

by Janet Ellen Raasch

Janet Ellen Raasch is a writer and ghostwriter who works closely with lawyers, law firms and other professional services providers – to help them achieve name recognition and new business through publication of articles and books for print and rich content for the Internet.  She can be reached at (303) 399-5041 or jeraasch@msn.com.

For many years, law firms were administered by the lawyers themselves – often through part-time managing partners or management committees.

As firms got bigger and administrative demands increased, law firms started to use non-lawyer administrators to take care of these details.  Over the past decade – as competition increased and technology evolved – law firms began to introduce non-lawyer managers and directors in areas like marketing, technology and human resources.  Often, these positions were filled by individuals promoted from a firm’s existing support staff.

Today, the most successful law firms understand the need to be run more like businesses – assigning responsibility for this aspect of the firm to “c-level” executives.  This puts the business side of law firm’s administration into the hands of business professionals, who can act quickly and decisively in the firm’s best interest, and frees the lawyers to do what they do best – practice law and provide excellent client service.

In addition to a CEO, a COO, a CFO, a CIO, today’s large law firm is increasingly likely to have a CMO.  Mid-size and smaller law firms are following suit.  Sometimes – in an attempt to gain a fresh perspective, challenge the status quo and incorporate best practices from the corporate world – these individuals are recruited from outside the legal industry.  Other times, they are recruited from another law firm or promoted from within.

What skill set does it take for an existing law firm manager or director to get a seat at the table within this evolving law firm structure?

“One thing for sure, you cannot just demand a seat at the table and expect to get one,” said Bruce James, managing partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (www.bhfs.com).  “You have to earn it – through careful collaboration with colleagues across the firm and through creation and implementation of successful initiatives.  You will be invited to the table only when you bring value to the table.”

James participated in a panel discussion of “How to Get a Seat at the Table” at the monthly educational meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association (www.rockymountainlma.com), held in Denver Oct. 9 at The Oxford Hotel.

Also participating were Stephen Blackwell, chief operating officer at Holme Roberts & Owen (www.hro.com); José Cunningham, chief marketing and business development officer of Washington, D.C.-based Crowell Moring (www.crowell.com); and Jackie Sweeny Sarlo, director of business development at Holme Roberts & Owen.  Moderator was Mark Beese, director of marketing for Holland & Hart (www.hollandhart.com).

A seat at the table for marketing professionals is currently the exception rather than the rule.  Only eight percent of law firm marketers always attend executive or management committee meetings and only 13 percent always attend partnership meetings.  Half of all law firm marketers are never invited to attend executive, management or partnership meetings.  These statistics were reported in the 2005 LMA Roles and Compensation Survey.

From reactive to proactive

“To achieve a seat at the table, a marketer must be perceived as adding value to the decision-making process,” said Blackwell.  “Most importantly, he or she must be perceived as proactive and strategic rather than reactive and task-oriented.”

At the most basic level, marketing activities are reactive and focus on communications and promotions – production and coordination of collateral materials and newsletters, event planning, directory listings and support of individual attorney activities.  A marketer is asked to perform a task, and he or she complies with this request.

“Attorneys see these efforts as support activities,” said Sarlo.  “It is especially easy for marketers to fall into a reactive pattern if they were promoted into a marketing position from a support staff position.  If you spend most of your time reacting to requests, it will be hard for your lawyers to see you in the capacity of a c-level executive.”

In the corporate model that law firms are starting to emulate, c-level executives are proactively responsible for market research, the development of new products and services, and client satisfaction with those products and services.  They are compensated in accord with these increased responsibilities.

To operate at this level, marketing professionals must be familiar with the firm’s strategic plan and proactively align all of their efforts – whether for individual attorneys, groups or the firm as a whole – with achievement of this plan.  Without a “seat at the table” where these discussions take place, this is hard to accomplish.

The panelists concurred that a marketing executive must proactively identify product and service opportunities and bring these opportunities to the attention of the firm.  He or she must understand exactly how a law firms makes its money (or otherwise defines success).  He or she must devote time to understanding target industries and the legal and business needs of clients within these industries – and sharing this information with lawyers.

“Track in detail everything that you do and share it with your management and executive committees,” said Cunningham.  “I came to the legal industry from a sales background, so I adapted my automated sales pipeline into an easy-to-understand PowerPoint ‘dashboard’ that I use to track, update and share our efforts and accomplishments.”  Accomplishments should also be shared firm-wide.

Responsibilities typically include significant research and development efforts to identify future trends and market opportunities; extensive training of lawyers and staff in client service skills; key client relationship planning; a strong focus on individual and team selling; significant service differentiation efforts; strong internal communications programs; and sophisticated market positioning and image advertising initiatives.

Understanding the environment

Panel participants agreed that getting a seat at the table was a long-term process requiring patience – not a one-time career event.

“Most attorneys in decision-making positions at large law firms appreciate the value of marketing and will support the efforts of a CMO,” said James.  “Many rank and file lawyers, on the other hand, do not and will not.  They love to practice law and the very thought of ‘law as a business’ offends them.  The situation is much better today than it was ten years ago, but we still have a long way to go.”

By nature and by training, lawyers are skeptical individuals.  “When invited to the table, always come well-prepared and expect to be grilled,” said Sarlo.   “Answer questions with ‘research shows’ or ‘experience shows’ rather than ‘I think.’  Choose battles carefully.  Experience any set-backs not as failures but as learning opportunities.”

“To succeed at a law firm, you must be the kind of person who takes private rather than public satisfaction in your accomplishments,” said Blackwell.  “You must enjoy being part of a service industry – without being servile.  If you need a lot of external recognition and praise, a law firm might not be the best place for you.”

If you are curious about business and industry, love a challenge and have a positive attitude, there is much satisfaction to be gained from a seat at the table in a law firm environment.  “Lawyers are smart people who provide valuable services to important clients,” said Cunningham.  “Helping them achieve their marketing and business goals can be highly stimulating and extremely interesting.”