Think Inside The Box

As much as we might try to brand, differentiate, cross-market, and otherwise distinguish our law firms in the legal services marketplace, a law firm's success ultimately comes down to individual lawyers. They are the ones who must bring in the business, retain it and grow it. That is good reason for law firm marketing departments to focus on their internal clients first and foremost. Think inside the box, then build outward to devise strategies and tactics for building and retaining external clients.

Enhance Your Marketing Initiatives by
Appreciating the Challenges Your Attorneys Face

We have all heard this refrain, and probably all of us in the legal marketing profession have uttered variations of it at one time or another ' 'Some lawyers just don't understand.' It is a two-way street. Law firm marketers must truly understand their lawyers.

Take a look at the everyday forces impacting our lawyers. Competence, professional excellence, and performing the actual work are just the price of admission. Properly staffing matters and managing other attorneys' work product always is a work-in-progress. Keeping current on ever-changing laws in multiple legal disciplines and jurisdictions is a must. New technology means ever-more work in the same number of hours. Add to this mix increased client scrutiny over bills and ongoing pressure to reduce costs, decisions about write-offs for certain work performed, alternative billing requests, and client objections to charges for overhead reimbursement. It also is important for attorneys to have trusted contacts at other firms ' when the need arises to refer individual matters in conflict situations without losing the client's remaining and future business.

Other things that cause attorneys to lose sleep include concerns over the different ways valued clients can be lost ' through convergence programs reducing the number of outside counsel, competitive RFPs for future work, acquisition by another company, change in management, change in geography and going out of business, just to name a few. Then there are the myriad internal issues regarding client origination/billing credits, internal client conflicts, advancement, compensation, participation in various practice group and firm committees and the firm's future direction. On top of all of that, they must market, too. Many attorneys find marketing a pleasant experience, but for those who relegate it to the level of a duty and not a joy, it can be understandable why.

Consider these factors as you strive to get your lawyers to focus on marketing.

Know Their Agenda Before Trying to Impose Yours

Make your own mark ' that is a hallmark for successful law firm marketers. But learn the internal culture first before exposing new ideas that will quickly get shot down by old ways of doing things. Think evolution, not revolution. Address your internal clients' needs and interests so that they will understand their need to be interested in adopting your marketing program.

Your Focus Also Should Be on
Helping Those Who Help the Lawyers

Include the secretaries, paralegals, clerks, information technology professionals, the mailroom, and virtually everyone at the firm in your internal marketing program. The fact of the matter is that many lawyers ask their secretaries, paralegals and clerks to assemble marketing information aside from, or in cooperation with, the Marketing Department. Make it easy for them to work with you. Often, they will have knowledge about a particular attorney, client or practice that the Marketing Department does not have. These colleagues can be particularly valuable at crunch time for bet-the-client RFP responses.

Learn the Language

Many law firm marketers have practiced law or had legal training. Many others have not. Regardless, having a familiarity with legal terminology is critical to enhancing internal marketing (it also is valuable for external marketing, too) so that you and your clients are speaking the same language. The Legal Marketers Association (LMA) and its various regional chapters can be a resource to assist law firm marketers in this regard.

Learn Your Law Firm

You need to know the product you are selling. Internal marketing requires a careful study of every practice group capability document and a familiarity with individual attorney biographies. Know your practice group's structures and which attorneys practice what. Chances are, especially in larger law firms, that most of the attorneys will not know each other. But your marketing group should. Become the go-to source when attorneys in one legal area need to know who practices in another area for purposes of a client RFP or presentation. Be a resource to help attorneys put together cross-marketing and industry teams.

Your institutional knowledge will provide an invaluable service to your internal clients. For example, we have taken this a step further at Schiff Hardin. The Marketing & Communications Department is the entry point for all calls that come into the firm's switchboard from individuals seeking legal counsel who do not have a pre-existing relationship or attorney contact at the firm, as well as inquiries from attorneys at the two legal referral networks to which Schiff Hardin belongs. The department then determines if the potential client is appropriate for the firm, and if so, get the right attorney(s) involved, or refer the caller to other firms for specific types of work.

Make Marketing a Marquee
Service to Attract Key Laterals

It would be nice to think that an attorney or group of attorneys with multi-million dollar books of business would choose to join a law firm solely based on the reputation and capabilities of its marketing department. Such stories, if they exist, would set a gold standard for all of us in legal marketing profession to achieve. That said, marketing departments can, and should, be an important part of the package your law firms assemble in their efforts to attract quality lateral candidates and potential merger partners. Gaining this positioning obviously can result from an external reputation earned by the firm's advertising, Web site and other initiatives that give the marketing department professional visibility. However, it is likely that many of the most important things that marketing departments do ' strategic planning, sales training, customized new business presentations, coaching and mentoring, etc. ' are behind-the-scenes activities. Consequently, internal marketing is key to getting a place on the firm's laterals, mergers, and acquisition team ' another way marketing departments can provide value and be invaluable to the firm's ongoing and future success.

Be Perceived as a Profit Center

Although some marketing departments perform services that are billed out to clients, it still is an administrative/service area of the firm, usually perceived as overhead ' a somewhat dubious distinction. That is why internal marketing by the numbers is critical. To the extent possible, keep statistics on new and retained business. Work within the firm's culture to communicate this information in a manner that firm management appreciates, and watch the marketing department's stature within the firm appreciate.

The Ultimate Distinction:
Become a Trusted Advisor

It is nice to be known for skills, capabilities, creativity, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, experience, reliability, output, and results. That is the basis of any service profession, and there can be very considerable financial rewards for law firm marketing professionals who do all these things well. But there is a higher plane on which law firm marketers can fly ' as a firm's trusted advisor. It is a distinction that is earned over time, not overnight. It is all about gaining trust and credibility so that your advice will be solicited and valued on major strategic and tactical matters beyond the traditional law firm marketing realm. It is all about being positioned to have an objective view of the entire firm and a knowledge of what works, what does not work, what needs to work, and how to get it to work.

Marketing professionals have a lot to offer their law firms outside the box containing traditional job descriptions. Get there first by thinking ' and acting ' inside the box.

As much as we might try to brand, differentiate, cross-market, and otherwise distinguish our law firms in the legal services marketplace, a law firm's success ultimately comes down to individual lawyers. They are the ones who must bring in the business, retain it and grow it. That is good reason for law firm marketing departments to focus on their internal clients first and foremost. Think inside the box, then build outward to devise strategies and tactics for building and retaining external clients.

Enhance Your Marketing Initiatives by
Appreciating the Challenges Your Attorneys Face

We have all heard this refrain, and probably all of us in the legal marketing profession have uttered variations of it at one time or another ' 'Some lawyers just don't understand.' It is a two-way street. Law firm marketers must truly understand their lawyers.

Take a look at the everyday forces impacting our lawyers. Competence, professional excellence, and performing the actual work are just the price of admission. Properly staffing matters and managing other attorneys' work product always is a work-in-progress. Keeping current on ever-changing laws in multiple legal disciplines and jurisdictions is a must. New technology means ever-more work in the same number of hours. Add to this mix increased client scrutiny over bills and ongoing pressure to reduce costs, decisions about write-offs for certain work performed, alternative billing requests, and client objections to charges for overhead reimbursement. It also is important for attorneys to have trusted contacts at other firms ' when the need arises to refer individual matters in conflict situations without losing the client's remaining and future business.

Other things that cause attorneys to lose sleep include concerns over the different ways valued clients can be lost ' through convergence programs reducing the number of outside counsel, competitive RFPs for future work, acquisition by another company, change in management, change in geography and going out of business, just to name a few. Then there are the myriad internal issues regarding client origination/billing credits, internal client conflicts, advancement, compensation, participation in various practice group and firm committees and the firm's future direction. On top of all of that, they must market, too. Many attorneys find marketing a pleasant experience, but for those who relegate it to the level of a duty and not a joy, it can be understandable why.

Consider these factors as you strive to get your lawyers to focus on marketing.

Know Their Agenda Before Trying to Impose Yours

Make your own mark ' that is a hallmark for successful law firm marketers. But learn the internal culture first before exposing new ideas that will quickly get shot down by old ways of doing things. Think evolution, not revolution. Address your internal clients' needs and interests so that they will understand their need to be interested in adopting your marketing program.

Your Focus Also Should Be on
Helping Those Who Help the Lawyers

Include the secretaries, paralegals, clerks, information technology professionals, the mailroom, and virtually everyone at the firm in your internal marketing program. The fact of the matter is that many lawyers ask their secretaries, paralegals and clerks to assemble marketing information aside from, or in cooperation with, the Marketing Department. Make it easy for them to work with you. Often, they will have knowledge about a particular attorney, client or practice that the Marketing Department does not have. These colleagues can be particularly valuable at crunch time for bet-the-client RFP responses.

Learn the Language

Many law firm marketers have practiced law or had legal training. Many others have not. Regardless, having a familiarity with legal terminology is critical to enhancing internal marketing (it also is valuable for external marketing, too) so that you and your clients are speaking the same language. The Legal Marketers Association (LMA) and its various regional chapters can be a resource to assist law firm marketers in this regard.

Learn Your Law Firm

You need to know the product you are selling. Internal marketing requires a careful study of every practice group capability document and a familiarity with individual attorney biographies. Know your practice group's structures and which attorneys practice what. Chances are, especially in larger law firms, that most of the attorneys will not know each other. But your marketing group should. Become the go-to source when attorneys in one legal area need to know who practices in another area for purposes of a client RFP or presentation. Be a resource to help attorneys put together cross-marketing and industry teams.

Your institutional knowledge will provide an invaluable service to your internal clients. For example, we have taken this a step further at Schiff Hardin. The Marketing & Communications Department is the entry point for all calls that come into the firm's switchboard from individuals seeking legal counsel who do not have a pre-existing relationship or attorney contact at the firm, as well as inquiries from attorneys at the two legal referral networks to which Schiff Hardin belongs. The department then determines if the potential client is appropriate for the firm, and if so, get the right attorney(s) involved, or refer the caller to other firms for specific types of work.

Make Marketing a Marquee
Service to Attract Key Laterals

It would be nice to think that an attorney or group of attorneys with multi-million dollar books of business would choose to join a law firm solely based on the reputation and capabilities of its marketing department. Such stories, if they exist, would set a gold standard for all of us in legal marketing profession to achieve. That said, marketing departments can, and should, be an important part of the package your law firms assemble in their efforts to attract quality lateral candidates and potential merger partners. Gaining this positioning obviously can result from an external reputation earned by the firm's advertising, Web site and other initiatives that give the marketing department professional visibility. However, it is likely that many of the most important things that marketing departments do ' strategic planning, sales training, customized new business presentations, coaching and mentoring, etc. ' are behind-the-scenes activities. Consequently, internal marketing is key to getting a place on the firm's laterals, mergers, and acquisition team ' another way marketing departments can provide value and be invaluable to the firm's ongoing and future success.

Be Perceived as a Profit Center

Although some marketing departments perform services that are billed out to clients, it still is an administrative/service area of the firm, usually perceived as overhead ' a somewhat dubious distinction. That is why internal marketing by the numbers is critical. To the extent possible, keep statistics on new and retained business. Work within the firm's culture to communicate this information in a manner that firm management appreciates, and watch the marketing department's stature within the firm appreciate.

The Ultimate Distinction:
Become a Trusted Advisor

It is nice to be known for skills, capabilities, creativity, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, experience, reliability, output, and results. That is the basis of any service profession, and there can be very considerable financial rewards for law firm marketing professionals who do all these things well. But there is a higher plane on which law firm marketers can fly ' as a firm's trusted advisor. It is a distinction that is earned over time, not overnight. It is all about gaining trust and credibility so that your advice will be solicited and valued on major strategic and tactical matters beyond the traditional law firm marketing realm. It is all about being positioned to have an objective view of the entire firm and a knowledge of what works, what does not work, what needs to work, and how to get it to work.

Marketing professionals have a lot to offer their law firms outside the box containing traditional job descriptions. Get there first by thinking ' and acting ' inside the box.