<b>Op-Ed:</b> The Year of the Dinosaur: Being Oblivious to the Obvious

What makes this trend all the more interesting is the fact that coupled with these departures is a sense that the firms from which the partners are leaving seem to be oblivious to the obvious: You, and you know who you are, have become irrelevant and for lack of better terminology ' You are a dinosaur! These are the firms that once were the bastions of greatness; where every young law student vied for a position as a summer associate and with any luck a permanent position with the “chance” to capture that brass ring and become a partner; and where just uttering the name of the firm conjured up … ah yes … “being among the elite.” Not anymore. These firms who relish in Chippendale furniture, important art, Bokara rugs and spiral staircases are now looking at the prospect of having to face up to the fact that they need something more than a name to keep people engaged.

And what about their image? Enter marketing … well sort of. While these firms have created marketing departments with countless numbers of staff, the leaders of these firms haven't a clue as to what marketing is or what it can do or cannot do. These “titans” have made it clear to the Chief Marketing Officer that “We really don't need marketing so here's what we want you to do … nothing. Well maybe you can keep our name out there, but not out there too much because our clients don't like that; and well maybe you can have some of us speak at conferences, but not too many conferences because after all … everybody knows who we are; and we certainly don't need to work together (in an interdisciplinary practice group setting) because our “eat what you kill” (or worse yet “lockstep”) compensation system keeps all of us who are important happy, fat and fed.”