From Buzzwords to Crickets: What it Means for Legal Marketers When Trends Become Liabilities
Wednesday, July 22 | 8:30 - 10 a.m. MT
Law firms are operating in an environment where today’s advantage can quickly become tomorrow’s liability. What once felt like a clear and compelling position can quietly fade from messaging, client conversations, and firm strategy.
For legal marketers and business development professionals, these moments often arrive without warning and with limited context. You may be asked to adjust messaging you did not help shape, field questions you cannot fully answer, or realize that something you were working on intersects with a sensitive issue being managed elsewhere.
- A firm’s public positioning on a visible issue may need to evolve.
- A partner’s external activity may create unexpected exposure.
- A client engagement may draw internal or external scrutiny.
This program will examine real world scenarios that firms are increasingly encountering as industry priorities evolve. Through the lens of public relations and communications strategy, panelists will discuss how firms assess risk, determine responses, and adjust messaging when topics become more sensitive, controversial, or less aligned with business priorities.
This session will help you understand the strategic framework behind these decisions and how they play out in practice, so you are better equipped to navigate your role when they arise.
Key Themes
- How firms assess whether and when to respond, and who is involved in those decisions
- The difference between proactive messaging, strategic silence, and reactive response
- What “need to know” looks like for marketing and BD professionals during sensitive situations
- How to handle inbound questions from clients, recruits, media, or peers when you do not have full information
- The downstream impact of communications decisions on content, campaigns, events, and client development
- Aligning client expectations with internal messaging and firm strategy
- Where firms lose momentum due to overprocessing or delayed response
- What is working in practice versus what feels reactive or performative
Format: Moderated panel with scenario-based discussion and audience Q&A
Moderator:
- Debbie Campbell
Sr. Manager, Strategic Communications, Holland & Hart LLP
Panelists:- Andy Boien
CEO, dovetail solutions
- Renee Gerni
Labor & Employment Senior Attorney, Clark Hill
- Susan Erlenborn
Director of Communications, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
LMA Body of Knowledge: Business of Law, Technology Management, Marketing Management & Leadership, Communications
Location:
Holland & Hart LLP
555 17th St UNIT 3200,
Denver, CO 80202
Cost:
LMA Members: $15
Prospective LMA Members: $30
For questions or concerns about your event registration, please contact
lmasouthwest@legalmarketing.org