<b>Special Issue:</b> The Fourth Annual MLF 50: The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Communications

Herewith, the submissions of the Top Five firms in this year's rankings.

NUMBER ONE:
PROSKAUER ROSE

Proskauer, last year's top-ranked firm in the MLF 50, is again at the top and after you read about them, you will know why.

The firm has sustained the momentum it began building on Oct. 1, 2005, when the beginnings of a new marketing and business development team joined the firm. Under the leadership of Chief Marketing Officer Joseph Calve, the group has moved quickly to reinvent the firm's go-to-market strategy and transform virtually all aspects of its marketing and business development operation. Going forward, the firm is poised to accelerate the efforts that led MLF first to name it to the Top 10, and then, after just three years, to honor it with the top ranking in two consecutive years.

Flash back to Proskauer in the summer of 2005. The marketing department consisted of some 20 people, all but two located in New York and half of whom worked in its creative services group as designers, desktop publishers and Web administrators. Most of the balance of the group was scattered among events and database administration, with just a handful of junior staffers devoted to business development.

Proskauer had no department leader and no directors, managers or coordinators. Virtually everyone was a specialist, administrator or assistant. As mentioned above, only a small number of staffers, most junior-level, were devoted to business development and no one focused on important areas such as communications or competitive intelligence.

The firm was saddled with a first-generation Web site, it had no CRM system (the firm's contacts were maintained in an inflexible and inefficient DOS-based system few could operate), there was no experience database, making it a fire drill to respond to RFPs or get directory submissions and proposals out the door, and there was little if any professional collateral to speak of. Various business development initiatives had been attempted, but nothing had been sustained. The department budget, including salaries, was less than 1% of firm revenue.

That was three years ago.

As of today, the staff has more than doubled, and it has been completely reshaped. The firm has hired three experienced directors who cover marketing, communications and client development, along with a talented staff of managers, specialists and coordinators spread across offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, London, Paris, Chicago and Boston. The staff includes two dedicated competitive intelligence professionals, a small group of knowledge managers, three experienced database managers, and a top-notch communications and design team. The new team members brought experience from a variety of AmLaw 100 firms.

The department's budget has more than tripled, and, according to the firm's chairman, Allen Fagin, who led the effort to transform the operation after taking the reins in 2005, the group has successfully met his initial goals of transforming the firm's mindset about business development and setting in place a state-of-the-art infrastructure ' people, systems, attitudes ' that would help the firm successfully execute its aggressive global growth strategy. This strategy has seen the firm grow to more than 800 lawyers, with additional offices in London, Sao Paulo, Chicago, Hong Kong and, sometime next year, Beijing. The firm has been named the fastest-growing in Boston for three straight years, and has aggressively built its offices in Paris, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and New York. It is coming off its best year ever ' and one of the best years recorded by any AmLaw 100 firm in 2007 ' with revenue and profits growing at robust double-digit rates.

Perhaps the best evidence of the success of this group is reflected in the role it plays in planning and strategy at all levels. Indeed, the firm decided earlier this year to add oversight of firm strategic planning to the marketing and business development team's already substantial portfolio. This is one group that very definitely has a “seat at the table.”

Neither Rome nor Proskauer were built in a day. The firm has no intention of pausing and has a number of major initiatives underway and big plans for even more.

A major theme for the department has been to achieve a strong balance between the reactive and the proactive by making sure it has the people and systems in place to handle the inevitable tide of last-minute requests for pitches, research, collateral, etc. This has allowed the group to shift more and more of its resources to business development and to take on a more weighty role, including substantial participation in the firm's lateral hiring and integration programs, strategic planning, practice development, and contingency planning.

A major driver of this shift was the firm's continuing buildout of its technological infrastructure in marketing and business development. This has included:

• The rollout of a state-of-the-industry client relationship management system and the hiring of three experienced database managers to assure that CRM is at the heart of its client development efforts;
• The development of an alumni portal;
• The redevelopment of the firm's Intranet site; and
• The development of a business intelligence and marketing database that allows the staff to manage and readily access marketing collateral, pitches, experience, and internal financial data about clients and matters.

The business development team has also been involved in the firm's redevelopment of its business intake system to gather more robust and dynamic information about client relationships that is valuable to business development.

Also underway are two major initiatives designed to transform the firm's image in the marketplace:

• A top-to-bottom rebranding that is a joint project of the firm's communications and design team and Greenfield Belser; and
• the complete redevelopment of its Web site, a joint project involving members of the Proskauer staff, Greenfield Belser and Hubbard One.

Proskauer has some very exciting business development initiatives underway. When the economic storm clouds started to gather, they put in place an initiative aimed at informing its lawyers about the changing landscape. This included daily e-mail alerts from the firm's competitive intelligence staff, and the retention of a well-known economist who predicted the financial meltdown a few years back at Davos. This economist has spoken to the firm's lawyers and the business development staff about what he sees on the horizon. This is just one of a number of outside experts Proskauer has brought in to educate the firm, including its business development staff, so that it can make sense of things for its clients.

One very interesting initiative that Proskauer has undertaken involves one of the firm's newer attorneys, a former top lawyer at AT&T, who has been named the firm's first client relationship counsel. The firm's business development staff is working with him, supported by the Zeughauser Group, on a robust client survey program that involves personal client service interviews with various points of contact at key clients, with the information fed back to the firm in ways the firm believes will drive forward certain client teams and a key account management initiative currently being developed. This effort is well into its planning and will be launched with the first interviews next month.

Proskauer has spent a tremendous amount of time this year working with its newest offices ' Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, London, Chicago ' and with those offices where it has added significant capacity, such as Paris. As noted above, the firm spends a great deal of time on lateral integration in an effort to assure that its new lawyers understand the client base and capabilities, and the firm's existing lawyers understand the same about the laterals and that they connect as many dots as possible.

Much of the work with laterals is related to handling internal firm communications. This is a key element in Proskauer's cross-selling program ' using an ongoing internal communications campaign to spread information about its capabilities and clients. The firm does this through daily firm news stories posted to its Intranet, monthly speeches by the chairman to the partners in which the firm highlights successful collaboration among partners, having select partners present to their colleagues in other departments at departmental meetings, and other communications. The firm is currently planning a new device, a weekly online video, featuring one or more lawyers talking very briefly about their practices and their clients. These types of activities constantly reinforce the message that cross-selling is valued and important to the firm's growth while simultaneously driving up product knowledge across the firm.

Proskauer's internal and external communications activity extends to work they do on behalf of other departments such as recruiting, pro bono, diversity, etc. To give just two examples, the firm developed a newsletter for its pro bono initiative and a well-received multimedia presentation by the firm's chairman to summer associates that showcased the varied work we do for our clients.

Marketing and communications is also very actively involved in all of the firm's major events and sponsorships, including a number of signature events such as the Women's Law Forum, an annual gathering of women in business and industry that combines learning, charitable giving and entertainment. This year's event featured a special luncheon keynote presentation by Soledad O'Brien, CNN Special Correspondent, CLE workshops and a special shopping experience and cocktail reception at Bergdorf Goodman with a style presentation by Joe Lupo and Jesse Garza, authors of Nothing to Wear? A 5-Step Cure for the Common Closet. (You know this type of activity has a special place in my heart!)

The department is also doing a substantial amount of training, including regular presentations by the CMO, the Director of Business Development, Carolyn Rumpf, and various BD Managers to practice groups and associates on topics such as managing a sales pipeline, developing strong business development habits, and client service.

The department also participates in all major firm initiatives such as its annual Partner Retreat, its quarterly Leadership Retreats and various ad hoc efforts. Its role extends beyond event development and administration to development of the content at the heart of such initiatives and conducting certain segments relevant to business development.

Like last year, Proskauer is ahead of the curve in all respects. Joe and his staff are to be commended for their capabilities and for shaping what I believe to be the “new Proskauer.”

NUMBER TWO:
K&L GATES

K&L Gates, which was Number 16 on last year's MLF 50, takes its place for the first time among the Top Five, coming in at Number Two.

K&L Gates LLP is a global law firm of approximately 1,700 lawyers located in more than two dozen cities across the United States, Europe and Asia. The firm has grown considerably over the last several years, including the execution of four major law firm combinations since 2005: Nicholson Graham & Jones (January 2005), Preston Gates & Ellis (January 2007), Hughes & Luce (January 2008), and Kennedy Covington (July 2008). During this time, there has also been vast international firm growth, including offices in London, Berlin, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong.

The K&L Gates marketing department has expanded and evolved as well throughout this rapid firm growth, now comprising roughly 60 professionals across 15 offices. Led by Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Berardi, the department is charged with supporting the marketing and business development activities of all K&L Gates lawyers.

The firm believes that a deep appreciation for clients' concerns, challenges and business objectives is the foundation for successful business development. To that end, K&L Gates has created a substantive and sophisticated brand and positioning platform that aligns its interests with those of firm clients. The brand communicates K&L Gates' unified commitment to providing the highest level of client service and quality legal counsel in all firm offices, and is strengthened by continuous and active measures to support, enhance and bolster the valued relationships that K&L Gates maintains with clients. In its 2008 Survey of Client Service Performance for Law Firms, the BTI Consulting Group reinforced the firm's commitment to clients by naming K&L Gates one of the top 30 law firms in client service as compared with more than 500 other leading firms. The rankings were the results of more than 250 independent, individual interviews with corporate counsel at Fortune 1000 companies and other large organizations.

The K&L Gates marketing department supports firm lawyers with an array of services aimed at increasing the value provided to firm clients, and the team works with practices and offices to develop and implement integrated programs and targeted activities, such as client feedback programs and internal client service teams that help ensure the retention of existing clients and enable the steady growth of new business. As the firm has grown through various mergers and combinations, it has been essential for the department to integrate quickly and efficiently, successfully joining together different cultures, styles and personalities. Furthermore, the department has been able to effectively manage costs by developing the vast majority of design, production and public relations work in-house.

The team actively collaborates with recruitment professionals to enhance their outreach to law students and lateral associate and partner candidates, with the Pro Bono Committee to facilitate continued growth of the firm's efforts in this area, and with K&L Gates' Director of Diversity to ensure outreach to a diverse professional population. As part of a joint initiative between the marketing and professional development departments, the firm also offers a substantive Client Development and Relationship Management (CDRM) curriculum for K&L Gates partners and associates across the firm. The CDRM curriculum includes Business Intelligence programs, moderated partner panels to discuss aspects related to career progression, networking skills training, and numerous other workshops.

Beyond the obvious internal and external marketing challenges
that are presented by law firm combinations, such as team integration and branding, it is also essential to consider the legacy firms' existing business development and client relationship functions. In the case of the January 2007 combination of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham and Preston Gates & Ellis, the challenge facing Jeff Berardi was how best to meld the two firms' specific business development activities in order to create one formal client-focused tracking and measurement program.

K&L Gates' successful business development re-engineering efforts began with combining two distinct proposal tracking programs. First-year results of this integration showed a 20% increase in the firm's responses to RFPs, a 40% increase in the firm's proposal wins, and a 17% increase in the firm's win ratio.

At the heart of K&L Gates' business development function is a system created to track, report and ultimately refine the firm's client development efforts. All opportunities for new business ' requests for proposal, requests for information, responses to client inquiries, identified prospects ' are entered into a central repository, along with corresponding detail on practices, offices and lawyers involved, type of work, value, referral sources and next steps for follow up. The data is entered and maintained by the firm's business development team, and monthly pipeline reports are generated from the repository and used by the team to follow up with the lawyers involved.

K&L Gates' marketing department places a high level of emphasis on qualities such as teamwork and collaboration, and consists of a set of professionals that interact frequently with lawyers to define and implement strategic initiatives. Divided into two main functional areas ' central marketing and business development ' the department approaches overall operations as an intertwined balance between awareness-building activities related to marketing, and revenue building activities related to business development.

The firm develops nearly all of its design materials in-house, and manages internal and external marketing campaigns from concept to production. On the business development side, the team takes an innovative approach to measuring and tracking progress, as well as directing a robust client development program.

The integration of new members of the marketing staff through the firm's recent combinations (which have added team members in London, Seattle, Dallas and the Carolinas, as well as other locations) emphasizes the department's commitment to teamwork, often beginning months prior to the combination's announcement or effective date. Marketing efforts around recent combinations have included a high level of interaction between team members from both firms, often in the form of regular group calls focusing on detailed checklists of activities required f
or Day One of the combination and beyond.

In the past year, K&L Gates' visual brand has evolved alongside the firm's cultural and physical growth. Moving beyond standard business development and operational materials, the marketing group collaborates with other internal departments to position the firm as a forward-thinking, global legal services provider. Partnerships with other departments produced several noteworthy pieces this year, including the semi-annual pro bono report, an annual diversity video created for the Corporate Counsel Women of Color Career Strategies Conference, an innovative recruiting campaign and several professional development programs.

Of particular note is the “Change Your World” recruiting campaign (www.klgates.com/changeyourworld), created in response to a desire to be more environmentally conscious by reducing the amount of printed material and logo merchandise given to law student candidates. Partnering with the recruiting team, marketing created a dynamic, engaging, standalone Web site that communicates information previously found in printed materials and offers an online trivia challenge to drive traffic to the site. The challenge is tied to a charitable donation on behalf of the firm, using funds previously dedicated to giveaways, and the initiative has garnered positive feedback from recruiters and law students alike.

K&L Gates' advertising also continued to be measurably effective during the past year. A Baxter Research readership survey of a magazine ad that ran in May, for example, found that the firm's two-page, four-color “Intensity” ad had the highest recall “seeing” score of the all the ads in that issue. “Seeing” score refers to the total percentage of readers who indicated they had been exposed to an item by either seeing or reading it.

Devoted to providing even greater value and service to its clients, K&L Gates' innovative client team initiative focuses on understanding the ongoing needs of firm clients. The business development team obtains this information through the consistent gathering of data about clients, their industry and current socioeconomic trends in the marketplace ' all at no additional cost to the client. Comprising lawyers in multiple offices and practices across the firm, the teams also include lawyers who may not currently work for a client, thereby allowing the firm to share thoughts and ideas related to the business of a client, without focusing only on those areas that K&L Gates currently serves.

Team members actively collaborate on ways the firm can add value to its clients, whether through in-house CLE programs, alerts/white papers on a critical legal topic, the development of a client extranet, or conducting face-to-face client feedback interviews to learn more about key issues the client considers most relevant. Currently, the firm manages more than 20 active client teams ' an increase from eight teams in 2007 and three teams in 2006. The firm's commitment to integration and collaboration is evidenced by the fact that in 2007, more than 400 of its 500 largest clients used lawyers in two or more of the firm's offices, and 10 of the firm's 17 largest clients used lawyers in 10 or more of its offices.

In its May/June 2008 cover story, Law Firm Inc., a sister publication of MLF, named Jeff Berardi one of only five law firm C-suite Innovators of 2008. Jeff certainly deserves that accolade and more.

NUMBER THREE:
JENNER & BLOCK

Jenner & Block moves up from Number Seven to Number Three on this year's list.

The Jenner & Block Marketing Department, led by Chief Marketing Officer Theresa Jaffe, distinguishes itself by seamlessly integrating into one of the industry's most dynamic and well-regarded law firms. Just as best-in-class business relationships are typified by an alignment of values and culture, Jenner & Block's Marketing Department is aligned with the partners at every level. This alignment allows the marketing team to develop programs, alliances and protocols that anticipate the needs of the partners and the firm on an enterprise level. Jenner & Block has about 500 lawyers and offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, DC. The firm has earned a place on The American Lawyer's A-list three times since its inception in 2003.

Jenner & Block's mission statement was developed eight years ago as part of a major strategic planning process the firm undertook. It reads: “To exceed our clients' expectations every day by providing the highest caliber of legal counsel and advice, to contribute to the legal profession, to maintain our long tradition of public and community service, and to provide our people with outstanding and challenging career opportunities.”

In 2000, as part of the firm's new strategic plan, the marketing department was formed. The marketing department has its own Mission Statement: “To provide strategic counsel, programs, solutions, tools and services Firmwide to help secure prospective new business opportunities; strengthen and expand existing client and other Firm relationships; achieve increased market position; strengthen the Firm's visibility and name recognition; and improve profitability and market share,” which supports the firm's mission.

Since its beginnings eight years ago, everything that the Jenner & Block marketing department does is tied to the firm's mission statement and strategic plan. The department always has the “big picture” in mind. It supports all key activities of the firm ' including the practice groups, legal recruiting, pro bono, diversity, human resources, and professional development.

The marketing department conducts market assessment, builds brand awareness, performs lead generating activities, manages business development activities including the proposal process and builds strategic alliances all of which are in lockstep with the mission of the firm and the Department.

The marketing department at Jenner & Block has been highly successful because it has influenced others in the organization to actively embrace marketing practices and principles. Therefore, the execution of activities is highly leveraged and the Department has achieved remarkable results. For instance, the marketing department will design and lead a project with the execution done by another department. An example of this is database management, which is led by the marketing team and executed by the technology department. The impact of the department's work is measured every month via a set of metrics designed around the services it provides. Yearly reports are prepared showing the results that have been achieved documenting the year-to-year growth and impact of the
department.

Through thoughtful selection and deployment of strategic alliances with Bar associations, interest groups, publications, and others to further the firm's goals, the marketing department has been able to reinforce the firm's brand identity and give its attorneys visibility in forums that are crucial to its success.

With the rapid escalation in the costs and number of sponsorship opportunities, the long-standing integration of the department with needs of the firm allows the marketing professionals to quickly assess and evaluate opportunities. The key is making sure the partners are getting the opportunity to connect, directly and in a meaningful way, with those who make the hiring decisions for outside counsel services for their respective companies.

As a result, the professionals in the marketing department forged alliances with the local ACC chapters and established strong connections with key publications read by buyers and influencers, long before others in the legal industry even ventured into marketing alliances. They have developed excellent relationships with the family of Incisive Media publications, Martindale, Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw and leading industry groups such as DRI and the ABA. As a testament to the Department's alignment with the firm's key value of public service, the senior professionals in the marketing department are active on relevant not-for-profit boards, including the Chicago Bar Association, Chicago Bar Foundation, Illinois Legal Aid Online and the CBA Editorial Board. As Marketing Chair of the Chicago Bar Foundation, Theresa Jaffe spearheaded the design and execution of the “Investing in Justice” campaign, which raised $905,000 in a two-week period to supplement salaries of legal aid attorneys in Chicago.

Similarly, the department's press activities carefully follow the strategic plan. Jenner & Block does not seek press opportunities merely for the sake of putting together a thick book of clips. Rather, the firm wants to have its partners quoted and to have them write bylined articles in the leading business and trade publications that are read by its clients and potential clients. In the last 12 months, Jenner & Block partners authored over 70 articles and the firm received in excess of 1,500 mentions in the media.

The firm uses public and media relations to position itself so that attorneys making presentations to potential new clients have the benefit of knowing that the prospective client already has a positive view of the firm and of its capabilities.

The department is led by a team of talented and experienced individuals. Three of the four department managers have served the firm for five years or more, which is rare in an industry where two years of service in a particular firm is often the norm. Every manager in the department has at least one graduate degree, and three of the four managers are licensed attorneys. This level of experience and depth of understanding of business process and consulting skill has produced a level of operational excellence allowing for exceptional leverage and impact.

The department has developed protocols and processes that allow it to use a highly leveraged staffing model. Every process is documented in detail and consolidated into a departmental book given to all members of the team. The book contains every operational element necessary for a team member to succeed, from the firm and departmental mission statements, to biographies of each team member, to step-by-step directions on every major process in the department and much more. As a result, cross training is facilitated, staff turnover is low and, when a new team member joins, the learning curve is accelerated even though the department has been in place for eight years and is involved in numerous complex and lengthy projects. This focus on documented and continuously improved processes and protocols allows the senior members of the department to focus on anticipating the firm's needs and providing resources and support on a just-in-time basis. Using this approach, the department can use a lean staffing model while providing excellent service with costs well below the industry average for firm the size of Jenner & Block. In fact, virtually every key metric tracked by the department has increased in the past five years while the actual number of marketing professionals has decreased.

There is much talk in our industry about marketing professionals getting “a place at the table.” The vision the Jenner & Block partners had for the marketing department at its inception eight years ago, which is now in sharp focus, was to develop a marketing function with the same level of skill, dedication and impact as the attorneys of Jenner & Block provide to their clients. With the hiring of Theresa Jaffe, who built a team of skilled professionals with a diverse and unique set of skills, this vision was brought to life. This uncanny mix of strategy, tactics and skill has produced a marketing function unlike any other in the industry. The department's skill set is strong and flexible capable of supporting a significant number of simultaneous marketing initiatives.

NUMBER FOUR:
GOODWIN PROCTER

Thought leadership and effective positioning has long been core to Goodwin Procter's marketing and business development strategy, and 2007/2008 was no exception. From early in the new millennium, the firm has gone to market by industry practice groups, several of which are considered its “areas of strategic focus.” These practices include private equity, tech and life sciences, intellectual property, real estate/real estate capital markets, financial services and product liability/mass torts, and are supported by significant “core” practices such as fund formation, securities litigation, white collar crime and government investigations, financial restructuring and tax.

A key driver of Goodwin Procter's overall marketing plan is positioning the firm by focusing on its areas of strategic focus ' and a key driver of positioning the firm's practices is through leveraging its intellectual capital through thought leadership initiatives. Under the superb leadership of Chief Marketing Officer Anne Malloy Tucker, these initiatives include the integration of targeted tactical activities such as: client alerts, custom publications, op-ed and opinion pieces, targeted media placements and commentary, speaking engagements and roundtables, customized events (some solely produced and others co-sponsored) such as breakfast briefings, Webinars and client-relationship building activities such as in-house training programs or external programs offering CLE credit.

Why are these and other thought leadership initiatives so effective for law firms and other professional firms generally? Goodwin's experience has been that if the topics are timely, focused on client needs and market demands, managed professionally, and leveraged appropriately across practices and geographies firmwide, there is not a more cost-effective way to position a firm, its practices and its individual attorneys concurrently.

In the past 12 months, Goodwin has been involved in over 300 external events that were built on the concept of “leveraged” thought leadership. For their purposes, this means that the event involved multiple practices (for example, private equity investing in financial services) and/or multiple geographies (for example, holding the same event on the East and West Coasts), or “piggybacking” on an existing event sponsorship (the firm's involvement in a “State Technology Index” for California as part of its ongoing relationship with the Milken Institute). This year, the firm's L.A. Office Chair Lewis Feldman again led a high level pre-event briefing as part of the firm's involvement in the global conference.

The other factor in leverage is the ability to repurpose or repackage content. This might include expanding a client alert or bulletin to be the basis of a seminar or Webinar, or similarly creating and placing an opinion or op-ed piece, or taking general, timely content and tailoring it for different industries.

The materials generated can be further repurposed in a variety of ways, including posting on the firm's iNet for internal training purposes, expanded into broader sets of materials and used for client educational purposes in-house.

Another vehicle that Goodwin has used successfully to position itself in the area of thought leadership is custom publications. One example is the Year-End Toolkit for Public Companies. The Toolkit is developed annually as a resource and tool for Goodwin Procter's public company clients. The goal of the Toolkit is to provide clients with access to the collected intellectual capital of the firm's leading attorneys as well as to provide forms, checklists and other time-saving documents for use in preparing for year-end reporting and the annual meeting season. The Toolkit is available via a secure Web-based micro site, accessible only to clients who have been issued logins and passwords.

Two external events include:

• The Directors Forum, which is co-sponsored with Dartmouth Tuck's School of Business. This invitation-only event, which is capped at 100 attendees, is geared towards directors of public companies and features a full-day program of high profile speakers and keynote addresses. The firm's Chairman and Managing Partner Regina Pisa sets the stage for the event with an introductory keynote.
• Board Member Inc' s 2008 Mid-Cap Board Committee Peer Exchange. This invitation-only conference brings together directors from a variety of industries to discuss topics of particular interest to them. Invitations are limited to General Counsel and the chairs of Audit, Nominating/Governance and Compensation Committees of mid-cap public companies. Goodwin Procter is the sole law firm sponsor and sends attorneys to act as advisers to each of the discussion groups. Partners who participated this year represented different practices and different offices firmwide.

Thought leadership initiatives at the firm are sandwiched on the front end between targeted marketing, careful planning, high-end content development and crisp execution and tracking, ongoing followup and ROI measurement on the back end. For FY09, the marketing team is developing a tighter set of metrics and tools to better track results over a longer period of time and to report and share the results in more visual ways. However, even with the use of more basic tools and tracking systems, the firm has been able to show an increase in its visibility and market share in each of its target areas through the consistent implementation of thought leadership initiatives.

Anne Malloy Tucker has been honored with many awards. She and her team are so deserving.

NUMBER FIVE:
DUANE MORRIS

After seven years at the helm, Chief Marketing Officer Ed Schechter can point to a marketing program at Duane Morris that has reached a level of maturity rare in law firm marketing. Ed has instituted a team-oriented, ego-suppressed approach that focuses on thorough planning, meticulous execution, and ROI assessment of all activities surrounding marketing and business development. The firm's leadership, partners and associates are all involved in the efforts of this dynamic group. Looking toward what the marketplace may have in store for the industry, Ed says, “While the economy has provided new challenges, this is not the time for law firms to slack in their sales and marketing initiatives to drive client satisfaction. We must maintain successes through focused energy and a more targeted approach to business.”

Duane Morris has always been at the forefront of ROI maximization of marketing and business development. The team utilizes decision matrices to evaluate the potential value of new client pursuits, marketing sponsorships, media opportunities and more. Post-activity ROI evaluations feed the system enabling even better informed decisions moving forward. This discipline has positioned Ed's program well to anticipate a moving marketplace and focus the firm's marketing investment and energies.

The maturity of the program, and the success in making the lawyers active participants in it, has enabled Duane Morris to do more with less. A few years ago, when Duane Morris began getting attention for its marketing efforts, the 600+ law firm had a marketing department of more than 40 people, with one marketer for every 14.5 lawyers. Through consolidating responsibilities and smart-sizing the team, the firm now has a full-time marketing staff of fewer than 30 people (with one marketer for every 23.25 lawyers). While this transition occurred, Duane Morris continued to ramp up its marketing and business development efforts, year after year increasing the number and quality of its client pitches, communications, events, etc. (For example: In 2008, it produced twice as many proposals, twice as many client alerts and three times as many firm-hosted events compared with 2006.)

All of this is made possible by Ed's penchant for attracting top people from other law firms and from outside the industry. His most recent coup was to lure Susan Shallcross from Washington, DC, where she served for almost 12 years as marketing and communications director at an AmLaw 100 firm, to be his new Marketing Director based in Philadelphia. Susan's 20 years of professional services marketing and communications experience adds yet another seasoned professional to an already impressive group. International business development and leadership coach Jeff Harth recently relocated from Buenos Aires to San Diego to lead Duane Morris' team of business development managers in their next phase of instilling the firm's partners with what they need to become ceaseless rainmakers. And Ed nabbed Hewlett-Packard's marketing lead for its Information Management practice, Michael Powers, to oversee the marketing efforts of Duane Morris' Corporate, Bankruptcy and International practices (key areas considering current economic conditions).

Duane Morris continues to be a pioneer in the area of technology, demonstrated by its excellent Web site, research and CRM tools.

In the past year, Duane Morris' marketing department redesigned the firm Web site, incorporating Web standards to ensure that the site works across a variety of Web browsers and allows for maximum SEO. Duane Morris also refined its site search functionality on DuaneMorris.com to deliver more targeted results.

Not only has the look and feel of the firm Web site improved, but its content has deepened. In February, the firm launched the Alumni area on DuaneMorris.com as a recruiting and marketing tool, making it among the first to include news and in-depth interviews and profiles of alumni without password protection. In May, the firm launched a Women's Initiative (love it!) area that includes news, awards, events, speaking engagements and bylined articles that directly relate to the firm's Women's Initiative program. Also in May, Duane Morris completely revamped its Diversity area on the site, adding testimonials from clients and other executives, as well as success stories and other news from around the firm. All three of these areas have been frequently refreshed since launch with new content.

The firm's Intranet has also been revamped, with a business development research page with links to industry and other resources accessible to all attorneys and staff. Also, the marketing department will soon launch a real-time news platform to share info on client transactions, litigation updates, business development successes and attorney activities.

Other upgrades have been made in the firm's research capabilities. The marketing department is working to integrate the recording, archiving and reporting of research activity with its opportunities module and company records in their InterAction-based CRM system. This important integration puts the most recent research at the fingertips of all of the firm's InterAction users. Also at the fingertips of attorneys and staff is the firm's user-friendly, robust representative matters database. The database gives users the ability to access descriptions of more than 7,000 of the firm's cases and transactions, searchable by practice, attorney, industry and a dozen other criteria. (In the past year alone, Duane Morris has added nearly 2,000 new matters to its knowledge base.)

Duane Morris, known in the marketplace as an early adopter of the latest technology in marketing and business development efforts, this year has worked with other professionals at the firm to create analytics tools to improve the firm's overall reporting and decision-making. One such initiative included marketing providing training in atVantage (Lexis Nexis' competitive intelligence Web interface) to members of the firm's accounting and records departments to leverage this tool to quickly and efficiently screen and research potential new clients.

In a year when the volume of both the communications and media relations activities increased exponentially, Duane Morris dealt with one of the toughest challenges faced by corporate mouthpieces: a leadership change. Joshua Peck, handling with his usual aplomb, got wide press coverage for the transition in January from Sheldon Bonovitz to new firm chairman John Soroko, securing prominent and positive articles in general circulation newspapers, business trades and national and international legal publications.

Ed Schechter and his team are again this year in the Top Five.

Conclusion

Over the next few months, many more of the firms listed on the MLF 50 will be featured in this newsletter. Congratulations to all ' well done!

See the MLF 50 list here (in PDF format).

Elizabeth Anne 'Betiayn' Tursi is the Editor-in-Chief of this publication, and a principal of Tursi Law Marketing Management. Ms. Tursi focuses on helping law firms attain and sustain market share by developing successful marketing, business development and communications programs. She also works with public companies in the creation of programs designed to partner with law firms for the purpose of creating business development opportunities.

Managing Editor's Note:

Some of the law firms mentioned in this issue have provided Marketing the Law Firm with marketing materials for consideration for inclusion in the MLF 50. There is no connection to any editorial contributions from the firms and the commentary is solely that of the author, who does not receive any compensation from the firms mentioned.

With the current downturn in business, one would think that perhaps marketing and communications might be taking a holiday. The good news is that for 50 firms, marketing is front and center. To say the least, it has been an interesting year. We have all read about the layoffs, the restructuring of some firms and even the demise of others. What went wrong isn't important. What is important is that many firms are utilizing the capabilities of their marketing and communications departments in ways that they believe can capitalize on the downturn and even create profits. I want to say that it doesn't really matter where a firm ranked on this list. What does matter is that the firms on the list are examples of how first-class, first-rate marketing and communications can move the agenda of a law firm forward in a strategic manner and in so doing become invaluable to the success of the firm.

In formulating the criteria for this year, special emphasis was placed on firms that did more with less. While some law firms on the MLF 50 have not decreased their budgets and, in fact, many at the top of the list have increased their budgets, others have developed creative strategies that didn't “break the bank.”

Once again this year, many firms submitted detailed descriptions of their marketing, business development and communications programs. Some of the firms that are listed provided no information. As with past practice for those firms, extensive research was conducted. It should be noted that while I would have liked to feature examples of the ad campaigns that some firms created, this particular cover story is about strategy and the success of that strategy. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Bill Crooks of Priority Search and a member of our Board of Editors for assisting me with follow-up on several firms.

Herewith, the submissions of the Top Five firms in this year's rankings.

NUMBER ONE:
PROSKAUER ROSE

Proskauer, last year's top-ranked firm in the MLF 50, is again at the top and after you read about them, you will know why.

The firm has sustained the momentum it began building on Oct. 1, 2005, when the beginnings of a new marketing and business development team joined the firm. Under the leadership of Chief Marketing Officer Joseph Calve, the group has moved quickly to reinvent the firm's go-to-market strategy and transform virtually all aspects of its marketing and business development operation. Going forward, the firm is poised to accelerate the efforts that led MLF first to name it to the Top 10, and then, after just three years, to honor it with the top ranking in two consecutive years.

Flash back to Proskauer in the summer of 2005. The marketing department consisted of some 20 people, all but two located in New York and half of whom worked in its creative services group as designers, desktop publishers and Web administrators. Most of the balance of the group was scattered among events and database administration, with just a handful of junior staffers devoted to business development.

Proskauer had no department leader and no directors, managers or coordinators. Virtually everyone was a specialist, administrator or assistant. As mentioned above, only a small number of staffers, most junior-level, were devoted to business development and no one focused on important areas such as communications or competitive intelligence.

The firm was saddled with a first-generation Web site, it had no CRM system (the firm's contacts were maintained in an inflexible and inefficient DOS-based system few could operate), there was no experience database, making it a fire drill to respond to RFPs or get directory submissions and proposals out the door, and there was little if any professional collateral to speak of. Various business development initiatives had been attempted, but nothing had been sustained. The department budget, including salaries, was less than 1% of firm revenue.

That was three years ago.

As of today, the staff has more than doubled, and it has been completely reshaped. The firm has hired three experienced directors who cover marketing, communications and client development, along with a talented staff of managers, specialists and coordinators spread across offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, London, Paris, Chicago and Boston. The staff includes two dedicated competitive intelligence professionals, a small group of knowledge managers, three experienced database managers, and a top-notch communications and design team. The new team members brought experience from a variety of AmLaw 100 firms.

The department's budget has more than tripled, and, according to the firm's chairman, Allen Fagin, who led the effort to transform the operation after taking the reins in 2005, the group has successfully met his initial goals of transforming the firm's mindset about business development and setting in place a state-of-the-art infrastructure ' people, systems, attitudes ' that would help the firm successfully execute its aggressive global growth strategy. This strategy has seen the firm grow to more than 800 lawyers, with additional offices in London, Sao Paulo, Chicago, Hong Kong and, sometime next year, Beijing. The firm has been named the fastest-growing in Boston for three straight years, and has aggressively built its offices in Paris, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and New York. It is coming off its best year ever ' and one of the best years recorded by any AmLaw 100 firm in 2007 ' with revenue and profits growing at robust double-digit rates.

Perhaps the best evidence of the success of this group is reflected in the role it plays in planning and strategy at all levels. Indeed, the firm decided earlier this year to add oversight of firm strategic planning to the marketing and business development team's already substantial portfolio. This is one group that very definitely has a “seat at the table.”

Neither Rome nor Proskauer were built in a day. The firm has no intention of pausing and has a number of major initiatives underway and big plans for even more.

A major theme for the department has been to achieve a strong balance between the reactive and the proactive by making sure it has the people and systems in place to handle the inevitable tide of last-minute requests for pitches, research, collateral, etc. This has allowed the group to shift more and more of its resources to business development and to take on a more weighty role, including substantial participation in the firm's lateral hiring and integration programs, strategic planning, practice development, and contingency planning.

A major driver of this shift was the firm's continuing buildout of its technological infrastructure in marketing and business development. This has included:

• The rollout of a state-of-the-industry client relationship management system and the hiring of three experienced database managers to assure that CRM is at the heart of its client development efforts;
• The development of an alumni portal;
• The redevelopment of the firm's Intranet site; and
• The development of a business intelligence and marketing database that allows the staff to manage and readily access marketing collateral, pitches, experience, and internal financial data about clients and matters.

The business development team has also been involved in the firm's redevelopment of its business intake system to gather more robust and dynamic information about client relationships that is valuable to business development.

Also underway are two major initiatives designed to transform the firm's image in the marketplace:

• A top-to-bottom rebranding that is a joint project of the firm's communications and design team and Greenfield Belser; and
• the complete redevelopment of its Web site, a joint project involving members of the Proskauer staff, Greenfield Belser and Hubbard One.

Proskauer has some very exciting business development initiatives underway. When the economic storm clouds started to gather, they put in place an initiative aimed at informing its lawyers about the changing landscape. This included daily e-mail alerts from the firm's competitive intelligence staff, and the retention of a well-known economist who predicted the financial meltdown a few years back at Davos. This economist has spoken to the firm's lawyers and the business development staff about what he sees on the horizon. This is just one of a number of outside experts Proskauer has brought in to educate the firm, including its business development staff, so that it can make sense of things for its clients.

One very interesting initiative that Proskauer has undertaken involves one of the firm's newer attorneys, a former top lawyer at AT&T, who has been named the firm's first client relationship counsel. The firm's business development staff is working with him, supported by the Zeughauser Group, on a robust client survey program that involves personal client service interviews with various points of contact at key clients, with the information fed back to the firm in ways the firm believes will drive forward certain client teams and a key account management initiative currently being developed. This effort is well into its planning and will be launched with the first interviews next month.

Proskauer has spent a tremendous amount of time this year working with its newest offices ' Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, London, Chicago ' and with those offices where it has added significant capacity, such as Paris. As noted above, the firm spends a great deal of time on lateral integration in an effort to assure that its new lawyers understand the client base and capabilities, and the firm's existing lawyers understand the same about the laterals and that they connect as many dots as possible.

Much of the work with laterals is related to handling internal firm communications. This is a key element in Proskauer's cross-selling program ' using an ongoing internal communications campaign to spread information about its capabilities and clients. The firm does this through daily firm news stories posted to its Intranet, monthly speeches by the chairman to the partners in which the firm highlights successful collaboration among partners, having select partners present to their colleagues in other departments at departmental meetings, and other communications. The firm is currently planning a new device, a weekly online video, featuring one or more lawyers talking very briefly about their practices and their clients. These types of activities constantly reinforce the message that cross-selling is valued and important to the firm's growth while simultaneously driving up product knowledge across the firm.

Proskauer's internal and external communications activity extends to work they do on behalf of other departments such as recruiting, pro bono, diversity, etc. To give just two examples, the firm developed a newsletter for its pro bono initiative and a well-received multimedia presentation by the firm's chairman to summer associates that showcased the varied work we do for our clients.

Marketing and communications is also very actively involved in all of the firm's major events and sponsorships, including a number of signature events such as the Women's Law Forum, an annual gathering of women in business and industry that combines learning, charitable giving and entertainment. This year's event featured a special luncheon keynote presentation by Soledad O'Brien, CNN Special Correspondent, CLE workshops and a special shopping experience and cocktail reception at Bergdorf Goodman with a style presentation by Joe Lupo and Jesse Garza, authors of Nothing to Wear? A 5-Step Cure for the Common Closet. (You know this type of activity has a special place in my heart!)

The department is also doing a substantial amount of training, including regular presentations by the CMO, the Director of Business Development, Carolyn Rumpf, and various BD Managers to practice groups and associates on topics such as managing a sales pipeline, developing strong business development habits, and client service.

The department also participates in all major firm initiatives such as its annual Partner Retreat, its quarterly Leadership Retreats and various ad hoc efforts. Its role extends beyond event development and administration to development of the content at the heart of such initiatives and conducting certain segments relevant to business development.

Like last year, Proskauer is ahead of the curve in all respects. Joe and his staff are to be commended for their capabilities and for shaping what I believe to be the “new Proskauer.”

NUMBER TWO:
K&L GATES

K&L Gates, which was Number 16 on last year's MLF 50, takes its place for the first time among the Top Five, coming in at Number Two.

K&L Gates LLP is a global law firm of approximately 1,700 lawyers located in more than two dozen cities across the United States, Europe and Asia. The firm has grown considerably over the last several years, including the execution of four major law firm combinations since 2005: Nicholson Graham & Jones (January 2005), Preston Gates & Ellis (January 2007), Hughes & Luce (January 2008), and Kennedy Covington (July 2008). During this time, there has also been vast international firm growth, including offices in London, Berlin, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong.

The K&L Gates marketing department has expanded and evolved as well throughout this rapid firm growth, now comprising roughly 60 professionals across 15 offices. Led by Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Berardi, the department is charged with supporting the marketing and business development activities of all K&L Gates lawyers.

The firm believes that a deep appreciation for clients' concerns, challenges and business objectives is the foundation for successful business development. To that end, K&L Gates has created a substantive and sophisticated brand and positioning platform that aligns its interests with those of firm clients. The brand communicates K&L Gates' unified commitment to providing the highest level of client service and quality legal counsel in all firm offices, and is strengthened by continuous and active measures to support, enhance and bolster the valued relationships that K&L Gates maintains with clients. In its 2008 Survey of Client Service Performance for Law Firms, the BTI Consulting Group reinforced the firm's commitment to clients by naming K&L Gates one of the top 30 law firms in client service as compared with more than 500 other leading firms. The rankings were the results of more than 250 independent, individual interviews with corporate counsel at Fortune 1000 companies and other large organizations.

The K&L Gates marketing department supports firm lawyers with an array of services aimed at increasing the value provided to firm clients, and the team works with practices and offices to develop and implement integrated programs and targeted activities, such as client feedback programs and internal client service teams that help ensure the retention of existing clients and enable the steady growth of new business. As the firm has grown through various mergers and combinations, it has been essential for the department to integrate quickly and efficiently, successfully joining together different cultures, styles and personalities. Furthermore, the department has been able to effectively manage costs by developing the vast majority of design, production and public relations work in-house.

The team actively collaborates with recruitment professionals to enhance their outreach to law students and lateral associate and partner candidates, with the Pro Bono Committee to facilitate continued growth of the firm's efforts in this area, and with K&L Gates' Director of Diversity to ensure outreach to a diverse professional population. As part of a joint initiative between the marketing and professional development departments, the firm also offers a substantive Client Development and Relationship Management (CDRM) curriculum for K&L Gates partners and associates across the firm. The CDRM curriculum includes Business Intelligence programs, moderated partner panels to discuss aspects related to career progression, networking skills training, and numerous other workshops.

Beyond the obvious internal and external marketing challenges
that are presented by law firm combinations, such as team integration and branding, it is also essential to consider the legacy firms' existing business development and client relationship functions. In the case of the January 2007 combination of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham and Preston Gates & Ellis, the challenge facing Jeff Berardi was how best to meld the two firms' specific business development activities in order to create one formal client-focused tracking and measurement program.

K&L Gates' successful business development re-engineering efforts began with combining two distinct proposal tracking programs. First-year results of this integration showed a 20% increase in the firm's responses to RFPs, a 40% increase in the firm's proposal wins, and a 17% increase in the firm's win ratio.

At the heart of K&L Gates' business development function is a system created to track, report and ultimately refine the firm's client development efforts. All opportunities for new business ' requests for proposal, requests for information, responses to client inquiries, identified prospects ' are entered into a central repository, along with corresponding detail on practices, offices and lawyers involved, type of work, value, referral sources and next steps for follow up. The data is entered and maintained by the firm's business development team, and monthly pipeline reports are generated from the repository and used by the team to follow up with the lawyers involved.

K&L Gates' marketing department places a high level of emphasis on qualities such as teamwork and collaboration, and consists of a set of professionals that interact frequently with lawyers to define and implement strategic initiatives. Divided into two main functional areas ' central marketing and business development ' the department approaches overall operations as an intertwined balance between awareness-building activities related to marketing, and revenue building activities related to business development.

The firm develops nearly all of its design materials in-house, and manages internal and external marketing campaigns from concept to production. On the business development side, the team takes an innovative approach to measuring and tracking progress, as well as directing a robust client development program.

The integration of new members of the marketing staff through the firm's recent combinations (which have added team members in London, Seattle, Dallas and the Carolinas, as well as other locations) emphasizes the department's commitment to teamwork, often beginning months prior to the combination's announcement or effective date. Marketing efforts around recent combinations have included a high level of interaction between team members from both firms, often in the form of regular group calls focusing on detailed checklists of activities required f
or Day One of the combination and beyond.

In the past year, K&L Gates' visual brand has evolved alongside the firm's cultural and physical growth. Moving beyond standard business development and operational materials, the marketing group collaborates with other internal departments to position the firm as a forward-thinking, global legal services provider. Partnerships with other departments produced several noteworthy pieces this year, including the semi-annual pro bono report, an annual diversity video created for the Corporate Counsel Women of Color Career Strategies Conference, an innovative recruiting campaign and several professional development programs.

Of particular note is the “Change Your World” recruiting campaign (www.klgates.com/changeyourworld), created in response to a desire to be more environmentally conscious by reducing the amount of printed material and logo merchandise given to law student candidates. Partnering with the recruiting team, marketing created a dynamic, engaging, standalone Web site that communicates information previously found in printed materials and offers an online trivia challenge to drive traffic to the site. The challenge is tied to a charitable donation on behalf of the firm, using funds previously dedicated to giveaways, and the initiative has garnered positive feedback from recruiters and law students alike.

K&L Gates' advertising also continued to be measurably effective during the past year. A Baxter Research readership survey of a magazine ad that ran in May, for example, found that the firm's two-page, four-color “Intensity” ad had the highest recall “seeing” score of the all the ads in that issue. “Seeing” score refers to the total percentage of readers who indicated they had been exposed to an item by either seeing or reading it.

Devoted to providing even greater value and service to its clients, K&L Gates' innovative client team initiative focuses on understanding the ongoing needs of firm clients. The business development team obtains this information through the consistent gathering of data about clients, their industry and current socioeconomic trends in the marketplace ' all at no additional cost to the client. Comprising lawyers in multiple offices and practices across the firm, the teams also include lawyers who may not currently work for a client, thereby allowing the firm to share thoughts and ideas related to the business of a client, without focusing only on those areas that K&L Gates currently serves.

Team members actively collaborate on ways the firm can add value to its clients, whether through in-house CLE programs, alerts/white papers on a critical legal topic, the development of a client extranet, or conducting face-to-face client feedback interviews to learn more about key issues the client considers most relevant. Currently, the firm manages more than 20 active client teams ' an increase from eight teams in 2007 and three teams in 2006. The firm's commitment to integration and collaboration is evidenced by the fact that in 2007, more than 400 of its 500 largest clients used lawyers in two or more of the firm's offices, and 10 of the firm's 17 largest clients used lawyers in 10 or more of its offices.

In its May/June 2008 cover story, Law Firm Inc., a sister publication of MLF, named Jeff Berardi one of only five law firm C-suite Innovators of 2008. Jeff certainly deserves that accolade and more.

NUMBER THREE:
JENNER & BLOCK

Jenner & Block moves up from Number Seven to Number Three on this year's list.

The Jenner & Block Marketing Department, led by Chief Marketing Officer Theresa Jaffe, distinguishes itself by seamlessly integrating into one of the industry's most dynamic and well-regarded law firms. Just as best-in-class business relationships are typified by an alignment of values and culture, Jenner & Block's Marketing Department is aligned with the partners at every level. This alignment allows the marketing team to develop programs, alliances and protocols that anticipate the needs of the partners and the firm on an enterprise level. Jenner & Block has about 500 lawyers and offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, DC. The firm has earned a place on The American Lawyer's A-list three times since its inception in 2003.

Jenner & Block's mission statement was developed eight years ago as part of a major strategic planning process the firm undertook. It reads: “To exceed our clients' expectations every day by providing the highest caliber of legal counsel and advice, to contribute to the legal profession, to maintain our long tradition of public and community service, and to provide our people with outstanding and challenging career opportunities.”

In 2000, as part of the firm's new strategic plan, the marketing department was formed. The marketing department has its own Mission Statement: “To provide strategic counsel, programs, solutions, tools and services Firmwide to help secure prospective new business opportunities; strengthen and expand existing client and other Firm relationships; achieve increased market position; strengthen the Firm's visibility and name recognition; and improve profitability and market share,” which supports the firm's mission.

Since its beginnings eight years ago, everything that the Jenner & Block marketing department does is tied to the firm's mission statement and strategic plan. The department always has the “big picture” in mind. It supports all key activities of the firm ' including the practice groups, legal recruiting, pro bono, diversity, human resources, and professional development.

The marketing department conducts market assessment, builds brand awareness, performs lead generating activities, manages business development activities including the proposal process and builds strategic alliances all of which are in lockstep with the mission of the firm and the Department.

The marketing department at Jenner & Block has been highly successful because it has influenced others in the organization to actively embrace marketing practices and principles. Therefore, the execution of activities is highly leveraged and the Department has achieved remarkable results. For instance, the marketing department will design and lead a project with the execution done by another department. An example of this is database management, which is led by the marketing team and executed by the technology department. The impact of the department's work is measured every month via a set of metrics designed around the services it provides. Yearly reports are prepared showing the results that have been achieved documenting the year-to-year growth and impact of the
department.

Through thoughtful selection and deployment of strategic alliances with Bar associations, interest groups, publications, and others to further the firm's goals, the marketing department has been able to reinforce the firm's brand identity and give its attorneys visibility in forums that are crucial to its success.

With the rapid escalation in the costs and number of sponsorship opportunities, the long-standing integration of the department with needs of the firm allows the marketing professionals to quickly assess and evaluate opportunities. The key is making sure the partners are getting the opportunity to connect, directly and in a meaningful way, with those who make the hiring decisions for outside counsel services for their respective companies.

As a result, the professionals in the marketing department forged alliances with the local ACC chapters and established strong connections with key publications read by buyers and influencers, long before others in the legal industry even ventured into marketing alliances. They have developed excellent relationships with the family of Incisive Media publications, Martindale, Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw and leading industry groups such as DRI and the ABA. As a testament to the Department's alignment with the firm's key value of public service, the senior professionals in the marketing department are active on relevant not-for-profit boards, including the Chicago Bar Association, Chicago Bar Foundation, Illinois Legal Aid Online and the CBA Editorial Board. As Marketing Chair of the Chicago Bar Foundation, Theresa Jaffe spearheaded the design and execution of the “Investing in Justice” campaign, which raised $905,000 in a two-week period to supplement salaries of legal aid attorneys in Chicago.

Similarly, the department's press activities carefully follow the strategic plan. Jenner & Block does not seek press opportunities merely for the sake of putting together a thick book of clips. Rather, the firm wants to have its partners quoted and to have them write bylined articles in the leading business and trade publications that are read by its clients and potential clients. In the last 12 months, Jenner & Block partners authored over 70 articles and the firm received in excess of 1,500 mentions in the media.

The firm uses public and media relations to position itself so that attorneys making presentations to potential new clients have the benefit of knowing that the prospective client already has a positive view of the firm and of its capabilities.

The department is led by a team of talented and experienced individuals. Three of the four department managers have served the firm for five years or more, which is rare in an industry where two years of service in a particular firm is often the norm. Every manager in the department has at least one graduate degree, and three of the four managers are licensed attorneys. This level of experience and depth of understanding of business process and consulting skill has produced a level of operational excellence allowing for exceptional leverage and impact.

The department has developed protocols and processes that allow it to use a highly leveraged staffing model. Every process is documented in detail and consolidated into a departmental book given to all members of the team. The book contains every operational element necessary for a team member to succeed, from the firm and departmental mission statements, to biographies of each team member, to step-by-step directions on every major process in the department and much more. As a result, cross training is facilitated, staff turnover is low and, when a new team member joins, the learning curve is accelerated even though the department has been in place for eight years and is involved in numerous complex and lengthy projects. This focus on documented and continuously improved processes and protocols allows the senior members of the department to focus on anticipating the firm's needs and providing resources and support on a just-in-time basis. Using this approach, the department can use a lean staffing model while providing excellent service with costs well below the industry average for firm the size of Jenner & Block. In fact, virtually every key metric tracked by the department has increased in the past five years while the actual number of marketing professionals has decreased.

There is much talk in our industry about marketing professionals getting “a place at the table.” The vision the Jenner & Block partners had for the marketing department at its inception eight years ago, which is now in sharp focus, was to develop a marketing function with the same level of skill, dedication and impact as the attorneys of Jenner & Block provide to their clients. With the hiring of Theresa Jaffe, who built a team of skilled professionals with a diverse and unique set of skills, this vision was brought to life. This uncanny mix of strategy, tactics and skill has produced a marketing function unlike any other in the industry. The department's skill set is strong and flexible capable of supporting a significant number of simultaneous marketing initiatives.

NUMBER FOUR:
GOODWIN PROCTER

Thought leadership and effective positioning has long been core to Goodwin Procter's marketing and business development strategy, and 2007/2008 was no exception. From early in the new millennium, the firm has gone to market by industry practice groups, several of which are considered its “areas of strategic focus.” These practices include private equity, tech and life sciences, intellectual property, real estate/real estate capital markets, financial services and product liability/mass torts, and are supported by significant “core” practices such as fund formation, securities litigation, white collar crime and government investigations, financial restructuring and tax.

A key driver of Goodwin Procter's overall marketing plan is positioning the firm by focusing on its areas of strategic focus ' and a key driver of positioning the firm's practices is through leveraging its intellectual capital through thought leadership initiatives. Under the superb leadership of Chief Marketing Officer Anne Malloy Tucker, these initiatives include the integration of targeted tactical activities such as: client alerts, custom publications, op-ed and opinion pieces, targeted media placements and commentary, speaking engagements and roundtables, customized events (some solely produced and others co-sponsored) such as breakfast briefings, Webinars and client-relationship building activities such as in-house training programs or external programs offering CLE credit.

Why are these and other thought leadership initiatives so effective for law firms and other professional firms generally? Goodwin's experience has been that if the topics are timely, focused on client needs and market demands, managed professionally, and leveraged appropriately across practices and geographies firmwide, there is not a more cost-effective way to position a firm, its practices and its individual attorneys concurrently.

In the past 12 months, Goodwin has been involved in over 300 external events that were built on the concept of “leveraged” thought leadership. For their purposes, this means that the event involved multiple practices (for example, private equity investing in financial services) and/or multiple geographies (for example, holding the same event on the East and West Coasts), or “piggybacking” on an existing event sponsorship (the firm's involvement in a “State Technology Index” for California as part of its ongoing relationship with the Milken Institute). This year, the firm's L.A. Office Chair Lewis Feldman again led a high level pre-event briefing as part of the firm's involvement in the global conference.

The other factor in leverage is the ability to repurpose or repackage content. This might include expanding a client alert or bulletin to be the basis of a seminar or Webinar, or similarly creating and placing an opinion or op-ed piece, or taking general, timely content and tailoring it for different industries.

The materials generated can be further repurposed in a variety of ways, including posting on the firm's iNet for internal training purposes, expanded into broader sets of materials and used for client educational purposes in-house.

Another vehicle that Goodwin has used successfully to position itself in the area of thought leadership is custom publications. One example is the Year-End Toolkit for Public Companies. The Toolkit is developed annually as a resource and tool for Goodwin Procter's public company clients. The goal of the Toolkit is to provide clients with access to the collected intellectual capital of the firm's leading attorneys as well as to provide forms, checklists and other time-saving documents for use in preparing for year-end reporting and the annual meeting season. The Toolkit is available via a secure Web-based micro site, accessible only to clients who have been issued logins and passwords.

Two external events include:

• The Directors Forum, which is co-sponsored with Dartmouth Tuck's School of Business. This invitation-only event, which is capped at 100 attendees, is geared towards directors of public companies and features a full-day program of high profile speakers and keynote addresses. The firm's Chairman and Managing Partner Regina Pisa sets the stage for the event with an introductory keynote.
• Board Member Inc' s 2008 Mid-Cap Board Committee Peer Exchange. This invitation-only conference brings together directors from a variety of industries to discuss topics of particular interest to them. Invitations are limited to General Counsel and the chairs of Audit, Nominating/Governance and Compensation Committees of mid-cap public companies. Goodwin Procter is the sole law firm sponsor and sends attorneys to act as advisers to each of the discussion groups. Partners who participated this year represented different practices and different offices firmwide.

Thought leadership initiatives at the firm are sandwiched on the front end between targeted marketing, careful planning, high-end content development and crisp execution and tracking, ongoing followup and ROI measurement on the back end. For FY09, the marketing team is developing a tighter set of metrics and tools to better track results over a longer period of time and to report and share the results in more visual ways. However, even with the use of more basic tools and tracking systems, the firm has been able to show an increase in its visibility and market share in each of its target areas through the consistent implementation of thought leadership initiatives.

Anne Malloy Tucker has been honored with many awards. She and her team are so deserving.

NUMBER FIVE:
DUANE MORRIS

After seven years at the helm, Chief Marketing Officer Ed Schechter can point to a marketing program at Duane Morris that has reached a level of maturity rare in law firm marketing. Ed has instituted a team-oriented, ego-suppressed approach that focuses on thorough planning, meticulous execution, and ROI assessment of all activities surrounding marketing and business development. The firm's leadership, partners and associates are all involved in the efforts of this dynamic group. Looking toward what the marketplace may have in store for the industry, Ed says, “While the economy has provided new challenges, this is not the time for law firms to slack in their sales and marketing initiatives to drive client satisfaction. We must maintain successes through focused energy and a more targeted approach to business.”

Duane Morris has always been at the forefront of ROI maximization of marketing and business development. The team utilizes decision matrices to evaluate the potential value of new client pursuits, marketing sponsorships, media opportunities and more. Post-activity ROI evaluations feed the system enabling even better informed decisions moving forward. This discipline has positioned Ed's program well to anticipate a moving marketplace and focus the firm's marketing investment and energies.

The maturity of the program, and the success in making the lawyers active participants in it, has enabled Duane Morris to do more with less. A few years ago, when Duane Morris began getting attention for its marketing efforts, the 600+ law firm had a marketing department of more than 40 people, with one marketer for every 14.5 lawyers. Through consolidating responsibilities and smart-sizing the team, the firm now has a full-time marketing staff of fewer than 30 people (with one marketer for every 23.25 lawyers). While this transition occurred, Duane Morris continued to ramp up its marketing and business development efforts, year after year increasing the number and quality of its client pitches, communications, events, etc. (For example: In 2008, it produced twice as many proposals, twice as many client alerts and three times as many firm-hosted events compared with 2006.)

All of this is made possible by Ed's penchant for attracting top people from other law firms and from outside the industry. His most recent coup was to lure Susan Shallcross from Washington, DC, where she served for almost 12 years as marketing and communications director at an AmLaw 100 firm, to be his new Marketing Director based in Philadelphia. Susan's 20 years of professional services marketing and communications experience adds yet another seasoned professional to an already impressive group. International business development and leadership coach Jeff Harth recently relocated from Buenos Aires to San Diego to lead Duane Morris' team of business development managers in their next phase of instilling the firm's partners with what they need to become ceaseless rainmakers. And Ed nabbed Hewlett-Packard's marketing lead for its Information Management practice, Michael Powers, to oversee the marketing efforts of Duane Morris' Corporate, Bankruptcy and International practices (key areas considering current economic conditions).

Duane Morris continues to be a pioneer in the area of technology, demonstrated by its excellent Web site, research and CRM tools.

In the past year, Duane Morris' marketing department redesigned the firm Web site, incorporating Web standards to ensure that the site works across a variety of Web browsers and allows for maximum SEO. Duane Morris also refined its site search functionality on DuaneMorris.com to deliver more targeted results.

Not only has the look and feel of the firm Web site improved, but its content has deepened. In February, the firm launched the Alumni area on DuaneMorris.com as a recruiting and marketing tool, making it among the first to include news and in-depth interviews and profiles of alumni without password protection. In May, the firm launched a Women's Initiative (love it!) area that includes news, awards, events, speaking engagements and bylined articles that directly relate to the firm's Women's Initiative program. Also in May, Duane Morris completely revamped its Diversity area on the site, adding testimonials from clients and other executives, as well as success stories and other news from around the firm. All three of these areas have been frequently refreshed since launch with new content.

The firm's Intranet has also been revamped, with a business development research page with links to industry and other resources accessible to all attorneys and staff. Also, the marketing department will soon launch a real-time news platform to share info on client transactions, litigation updates, business development successes and attorney activities.

Other upgrades have been made in the firm's research capabilities. The marketing department is working to integrate the recording, archiving and reporting of research activity with its opportunities module and company records in their InterAction-based CRM system. This important integration puts the most recent research at the fingertips of all of the firm's InterAction users. Also at the fingertips of attorneys and staff is the firm's user-friendly, robust representative matters database. The database gives users the ability to access descriptions of more than 7,000 of the firm's cases and transactions, searchable by practice, attorney, industry and a dozen other criteria. (In the past year alone, Duane Morris has added nearly 2,000 new matters to its knowledge base.)

Duane Morris, known in the marketplace as an early adopter of the latest technology in marketing and business development efforts, this year has worked with other professionals at the firm to create analytics tools to improve the firm's overall reporting and decision-making. One such initiative included marketing providing training in atVantage (Lexis Nexis' competitive intelligence Web interface) to members of the firm's accounting and records departments to leverage this tool to quickly and efficiently screen and research potential new clients.

In a year when the volume of both the communications and media relations activities increased exponentially, Duane Morris dealt with one of the toughest challenges faced by corporate mouthpieces: a leadership change. Joshua Peck, handling with his usual aplomb, got wide press coverage for the transition in January from Sheldon Bonovitz to new firm chairman John Soroko, securing prominent and positive articles in general circulation newspapers, business trades and national and international legal publications.

Ed Schechter and his team are again this year in the Top Five.

Conclusion

Over the next few months, many more of the firms listed on the MLF 50 will be featured in this newsletter. Congratulations to all ' well done!

See the MLF 50 list here (in PDF format).

Elizabeth Anne 'Betiayn' Tursi is the Editor-in-Chief of this publication, and a principal of Tursi Law Marketing Management. Ms. Tursi focuses on helping law firms attain and sustain market share by developing successful marketing, business development and communications programs. She also works with public companies in the creation of programs designed to partner with law firms for the purpose of creating business development opportunities.

Managing Editor's Note:

Some of the law firms mentioned in this issue have provided Marketing the Law Firm with marketing materials for consideration for inclusion in the MLF 50. There is no connection to any editorial contributions from the firms and the commentary is solely that of the author, who does not receive any compensation from the firms mentioned.