The Seventh Annual MLF 50: The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Business Development

Other areas of technology that the top firms are using this year include the development of “apps” and mobile websites to enable clients to truly have their firms in the palms of their hands. Firms are showcasing their rank and file by adding videos in record number to websites. Never before have legal consumers had such access to their lawyers. What an exciting time for us all.

Every MLF 50 firm is to be congratulated for their courage and daring to risk innovation and moving beyond their comfort zone (and their management committees') to advance their firms' growth and business goals. We at Marketing the Law Firm salute you.

It is with great excitement, then, that we introduce you to the 2011 MLF 50.

NUMBER ONE
KING & SPALDING

Under the able leadership of CMO Katherine D'Urso, King & Spalding exemplifies everything today's law firm marketing departments can possibly do right. A superb combination of intelligent use of technology, knowledge of the marketplace, and doing the right things at the right time have made this firm a model for the rest of the country to follow.

King & Spalding is not a small firm. Now in its 127th year, the firm has more than 800 attorneys here and abroad. But it's not size that makes its marketing so special. It's effort and attention to detail. Clients can be electronically connected to the firm on a 24/7 basis via a secure extranet that enables them to keep abreast of everything connected with their individual issues, from case matters to billing. The extranets have been so popular with clients and attorneys that the firm now has over 400 users averaging more than 5,000 unique logins per month and housing more than 1.25 terabytes of data in order to share documents needed for cases and deals ' often with other outside counsel as well.

The site itself offers a clean, clear user experience that showcases the firm's tremendous content ' from press releases and media coverage to events and thought leadership. “We see kslaw.com as a central component in our overall communications and information sharing strategy. It operates as a showcase for the firm and its lawyers, encouraging visitors and clients to stay connected to us through our extranets, events, publications, downloadable v-cards and link-sharing functionality,” D'Urso explains.

Technology and care for the client are the hallmark of the firm's ability to communicate at all times in any time zone. And straightforward communication between firm and client is only one part of the effort. Careful use of techniques such as “friendly URLs” help optimize the site, making King & Spalding's practices and its individual lawyers easier to find across the ether. The work paid off ' after optimizing the site in late 2010, organic search results jumped by 60%-70% in the first 90 days of 2011. Firm events are marketed extensively, and are all searchable by practice and industry, with relevant lawyer contacts presented for each to encourage connecting to the firm. As a further convenience, most events present an icon that, with one click, adds it to your calendar.

Among many other services, the firm offers an e-learning program for its clients: “Our e-Learn programs are a series of one hour Web-based programs presented regularly by King & Spalding lawyers that cover 'hot' topics and qualify for CLE credit in many jurisdictions, enabling client lawyers to meet CLE requirements. Clients can participate from their own computers at no cost,” says D'Urso. In addition, the King & Spalding Healthcare team offers topical, industry “roundtables” by webinar every few weeks, with particularly popular programs recorded and available to clients for subsequent viewing at their convenience.

Mobility is a key focal point going forward. King & Spalding offers its lawyers and staff a mobile version of the firm Intranet available on BlackBerry, Android, iPad and iPhone, as well as a secure partner voting app to enable partners on-the-go to vote on important firm business. Having laid the foundation in 2011, plans for 2012 include launching an online Alumni community that will leverage LinkedIn, as well as exploring client-facing mobile apps, “quick response” bar codes for marketing materials, and possibly video content. “It's a team effort ' pulling all the content, technology and programming together can only happen with when we collaborate across departments and practices,” says D'Urso.

As for efforts in diversity, the firm has long been recognized for its forward-thinking, “put your money where your mouth is” efforts regarding women, minorities, and the LGBT community. An ongoing Diversity Committee includes every stratum of the firm; there are also minority retreats, which, says the firm, focus on “our continued commitment to provide a diverse workplace in which all attorneys can grow and succeed. The retreat typically includes workshops on mentoring, law firm economics, creating a professional development plan and personal development.”

This same level of commitment is reflected in the firm's pro bono and community outreach programs:

“Firm-wide, over 500 people annually volunteer their time through firm-sponsored activities outside pro bono legal representation, contributing an additional 4,200 hours of volunteer service to our communities. Activities include renovating homes for low-income, elderly or disabled homeowners; classroom reading and career days for inner-city students; food, clothing, book and school supply drives; preparing meals for the homeless; participation in city-wide efforts such as Hands on Atlanta Day and the New York Cares Coat Drive; coaching high school mock trial teams and providing other law-related enrichment activities; in-house blood drives; special projects for senior citizens, veteran and military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan; numerous walks and races including AIDS walks and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure; and various holiday projects benefiting children and families in need. We have built seven homes with Habitat for Humanity since 1993.”

This complete attention to the client and to the staff, aided by up-to-the-minute technology and community service, makes King & Spalding unbeatable.

NUMBER TWO
McGUIRE WOODS

Chief marketing and business development officer Jim Durham, changed pretty much everything about the marketing and business development functions at McGuireWoods in his first year at the firm (see last year's list). But the intrepid Durham managed to take things to yet another level in the past 15 months.

Working closely with the firm's leadership, the marketing department created a scorecard that measures specified activities (and results), apart from revenue (which is, of course, tracked). With a combination of training, research, client team management, cross-selling plans and careful tracking, “we increased our Anchor Client base by more than 30%. This intense program was led by the business development managers on our team,” Durham says.

To ensure that the firm delivers value through service, Durham conducted almost 20 client service programs for the staff firmwide. These 90-minute sessions stressed that every interaction every person in the firm has with clients impacts the firm brand and the client's level of satisfaction. The sessions included a discussion of individual communication styles, and resulted in hundreds of suggestions for continued client service improvement.

The firm also created a new management position, Deputy Managing Partner for Business Development, “helping us focus our current strategy on developing and expanding the firm's industry teams. By creating new scorecards and higher levels of accountability, we are expanding our penetration of industry markets and increasing the number of industry teams.”

To supplement its Anchor Client and industry-focused business development efforts, Durham and staff have ramped up efforts to get professional development plans from all partners. Working with the executive committee, Durham's team developed not only a model business plan, but also provided eight pages of example goals and related activities to assist the lawyers in making smart choices in building their plans.

In an effort to ensure greater ROI for the events McGuireWoods both hosts and sponsors, the firm created a position of Manager of Business Development for events. “This person works with all participants on our team to handle strategic event planning, budgeting and event management,” says Durham. Technology is key when it comes to media relations (the firm does not use an outside agency), and for internal communications, including the firm's internal website (the Portal).

“Our internal communications team has devised an aggressive communications strategy to make the Portal a critical knowledge management center,” says Durham. “This plan is just launching, but we have already made important improvements, including the posting of brief videos (shot by our team). These videos feature ' our attorneys discussing trends in their industry or changes to the law, and are also posted on the firm's external website and corresponding blogs.” There is also an audio version of Durham's book, “The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering,” available on the Portal, to support the firm's broader client service strategy.

And that's not all. McGuireWoods also launched a brand refresh campaign.

“Looking ahead to a more comprehensive redesign in FY12, the team used the refresh to transition the firm's existing marketing templates, sponsorship ads and other materials to a more consistent format. At minimal expense, this initiative allowed the Marketing team to educate the internal audience about the importance of consistent brand standards.”

Over the past 12 months, the firm has increased its social media presence, adding new blogs and developing a Facebook page; the number of followers on the firm's Twitter account has increased by several hundred in just the past few months. “The firm and our lawyers have received more than 1,000 Twitter mentions so far this year,” says Durham.

“Like all large marketing and business development teams,” continues Durham, “we do all the usual blocking and tackling, but we are continually trying to innovate and improve.”

It shows! Congratulations to Durham and his team.

NUMBER THREE
GOULSTON & STORRS

This firm has long held a place in the MLF 50 since the list was begun ' and with good reason. The firm is rightly proud of its innovations that have kept it in the marketing forefront. These include: 1) Client interviews: “While relatively new to the legal industry at large, G&S has been conducting formal client interviews for more than two decades”; 2) Co-Branding/naming: “Our firm became the first one in the nation to co-brand product/services when we struck a deal with The Boston Garden's Premium Club, home to the Celtics and the Bruins”; 3) Office high-rise elevator advertising: The firm mounted an ad campaign using high-def digital screens in the elevators of hundreds of office towers in Boston, Washington, DC, and New York City. According to the marketing department, led by Beth Marie Cuzzone, Director of Client Services and Business Development, this medium has an estimated 97% viewing rate and has raised the firm's brand awareness by 50%.

“The marketing and business development department's mantra for the past 12-24 months, however, has been do more with less ' our department has adapted to smaller budgets and other fiscal challenges ' and emerged leaner, smarter and able to better position our firm. Our small but mighty marketing and business development department (four people!) was chock-full of talent. So, our department set out to find ways to add value and services to clients aside from legal advice. That's when we began to offer our department's services to external clients and prospects ' not just to our lawyers.

The marketing department helped the firm's clients with business and sales plans, acted as brand consultants and provided sales coaching using existing in-house expertise. Clients tap into the firm's marketing and business development staff when they need guidance or help ' sometimes asking for things as small as drafting a press release or helping a client manage an event of its own.”

All of these client development services were delivered at no charge to clients and at no expense to the firm.

But, says the firm, “few initiatives have been more creative and provided a bigger bang for the buck than the 2010/2011 launch of a proprietary iPhone app.” With this free app, the firm's clients can gather customized information on current business topics directly from their iPhones. Within a few days of its launch, this G&S app “generated hundreds of followers and grabbed the attention of our attorneys, clients and peers. In addition, the firm communicates with its clients via podcasts, client case studies, an online concierge and subscriptions to a wide variety of information.”

This focus on technology expanded when the marketing department partnered with the IT department to create a client matchmaking tool on the firm's Intranet ' “at no hard costs to the firm. [Our] attorneys use this portal to help match clients who have complimentary needs by identifying potential joint venture partners or matching potential buyers with potential sellers, and so on. Many client deals/introductions have been generated by our client Intranet ' along with a lot of priceless goodwill.”

Goulston & Storrs also inserted a QR code into its print ads. Readers who scan the code with their smart phone apps will be led to the “What's New” section of the firm's website.

All of this attention to detail and the bottom line has once again landed Goulston & Storrs on the list. Congratulations!

NUMBER FOUR
K&L GATES

In late 2010, K&L Gates' marketing department adopted an ambitious agenda for the coming year. Priorities included increasing firm visibility in the global legal marketplace, more effective leveraging of new technology, and ensuring a continued integrated and efficient response to the needs of both firm and clients. And as it has in the past, the marketing team rose to meet those challenges in 2011, demonstrating measurable growth for the global brand, facilitating the successful introduction of two international offices, and unveiling a completely redesigned website, all after helping to push K&L Gates past $1 billion in revenue for its second consecutive year.

With 65 professionals across nearly two dozen offices, K&L Gates' marketing department supports the firm's brand-building efforts as well its client development activities. CMO Jeff Berardi annually sets the broad strategy for the department, and refinements to the business plan are made throughout the year, as growth is measured and priorities are reevaluated. This year, according to the firm, “K&L Gates is on pace to respond to more than 1,000 pursuit opportunities. The firm also tracks proposal win ratios, media mentions, and website statistics, among others ' all of which displayed considerable improvement comparing year-over-year statistics.”

As with all the Top Five winners, the firm understands the increasing importance of internal and external communications efforts, as lawyers across K&L Gates' global platform rely on the marketing department to “connect the dots between people, places, and practices. With nearly 20% of K&L Gates' lawyers based outside the United States,” the firm explains, “it is critical for the department to leverage international cross-selling opportunities using communications programs that promote business development.” To that end, Berardi personally circulates a monthly internal communication about highlighted practice capabilities and recent developments to all firm partners.

The firm's Global Government Solutions (GGS) initiative is another example of “a true market differentiator,” says the marketing department. “Marketers work with the GGS group to produce biannual reports examining the relationships between businesses and governments around the world. Designed using in-house resources, the 2011 mid-year report contains 36 articles from 60 professionals across 15 different offices, and was shared with firm clients, media outlets, and professional service organizations. The recipient of a second-place national 2010 LMA Your Honor Award, the reports showcase K&L Gates' broad knowledge and offer a valuable resource to clients.”

This year alone, the firm has hosted more than 100 events, including workshops, information sessions, webinars, speaking engagements, and meet-and-greets. Regionally, annual oil and gas seminars have attracted hundreds of clients and prospective clients. A recent event drew more than 300 people from 160 companies. Seminars have also proven successful in securing work from existing and new clients.

Berardi, the 2011 recipient of the Hubbard “Marketing Professional of the Year” award, reports directly to the firm's Chairman and Global Managing Partner and attends all management committee meetings, “providing the department with an advocate for the marketing function at the highest level,” says the firm. At a more granular level, integration statistics are measured to determine the effectiveness of the global platform. On behalf of new laterals, department members cooperate to ensure that new lawyers are familiar with the firm's network of resources and opportunities.

The marketing team also works closely with the firm's professional development department to create a Client Development and Relationship Management (CDRM) curriculum for lawyers, with Berardi leading numerous CDRM workshops each year, including business intelligence programs and moderated panels regarding career progression, networking, and client development skills training.

This summer, K&L Gates launched its redesigned website, the culmination of a three-year project that involved numerous teams of marketing and IS group members. More than 11,000 pages were updated and nearly 20 videos were produced as part of a complete overhaul of the design, content, and functional structure. The new design features a cleaner, more modern look. The home page features rotating highlights of services, special events, and other items to spotlight key site content.

Additionally, K&L Gates' practice groups maintain six active blogs. The number of K&L Gates' client service teams has continued to grow and now totals 41 active teams ' up 25% from 2009 and more than double the number of client teams in 2008. An average of six offices and four practices are involved in each team. BD support members are involved in active targeting and cross-selling efforts with the ultimate goal of recognizing and capitalizing on opportunities and improving overall service and communication with clients. Additionally, the department has launched more than 15 online client team sites to enable effective knowledge transfer between offices and practices.

When it comes to pro bono, the firm continues its oustanding outreach. The marketing team, in conjunction with the firm's Pro Bono Committee, produces an annual pro bono report that highlights K&L Gates' ongoing work in this area. The firm routinely participates in various diversity-related organizations and events and continues to be the lead sponsor of the Corporate Counsel Women of Color's Annual Career Strategies Conference.

As in years past, K&L Gates is a worthy member of the MLF 50 Top Five. Congratulations to Berardi and his team!

NUMBER FIVE
GOODWIN PROCTER

This year, CMO Anne Malloy Tucker focused her submission on a single category. It turned into an award winner! In Tucker's words, “Online marketing initiatives represented a major investment for Goodwin over the past year. Two of this year's most successful programs involved completion of the launch of our Founder's Workbench microsite and implementation of a new program to expand our social media presence on Twitter.”

Goodwin Procter has seven strategic practice focus areas, one of which is technology (including clean tech and life sciences). According to Tucker, the firm is “highly committed to working with start-ups, emerging companies and the entrepreneurial community. In an attempt to lure young companies as clients, smaller law firms have been offering founders miscellaneous free start-up documents. We wanted to go well beyond what others were doing and offer a comprehensive set of free documents, coupled with high value guidance and advice, not only from our own lawyers, but from an array of outside industry experts.”

The Founder's Workbench initiative targets founders of new companies and provides free access to critical forms, memoranda, best practices and other resources to enable capital-efficient company formation. The site includes an interactive online product (Document Driver) and a blog where Goodwin Procter provides regular insight on topics of interest to founders, from both inside and outside the firm.

“The main message for our target audience is simple: Goodwin Procter understands what it takes to become a successful company, and we will provide you the highest quality legal service to help you achieve success,” says Tucker. “We understand that it's very difficult to get a company off the ground when start-up costs greatly exceed available capital, so we will provide you with a cost-effective, superior solution that will help you get there faster.”

Before embarking on this project, Tucker's team conducted an extensive audit of websites that offered free start-up documents, noting the quality and value of the documents provided in each instance. They also surveyed the firm's clients, and asked for their input. “The overall challenge was finding and developing the right technology to provide easy access to forms and documents, while also developing a strong website and communications plan that fit with our target audience,” says Tucker.

After an initial soft launch, the marketing department used metrics and feedback to make significant changes and improvements to the site. They are using Twitter as a means of spreading the word and publicizing the site (a member of the PR team regularly posts to Twitter), and have established an editorial calendar and lineup of writers to create frequent blog posts.

Since its inception in October 2010, Founder's Workbench has received over 35,600 visits with an average of 103 visits per day. The Twitter account @FoundersToolbox currently has 463 followers and with a total of 683 tweets to date. According to Tucker, “We are particularly excited about the quality of some of those followers (i.e., recognized industry leaders, with followers that number in the thousands).

We can directly tie three new clients to the site, which we value initially at several hundred thousand in billings. In addition, we're attracting high-quality partners who want to be part of the initiative, including some well-known VCs and networking/resource groups.”

Founder's Workbench has attracted awards from inside and outside the industry. It was selected by the Legal Marketing Association for its national awards program as “Microsite of the Year,” and served as the basis for Goodwin being named to both the CIO 100 list and the InformationWeek 500 list of the most innovative users of business technology.

The firm's attention to social media is equally strong. Goodwin Procter has devoted significant time and resources to expand its social media reach via Twitter. While the many law firms that have a presence on Twitter limit their activity to non-personalized RSS feeds, focused only on their firms, Goodwin has taken an aggressive approach.

In the relatively short time that the firm has devoted resources to improving its Twitter usage, the number of people following @goodwinprocter has doubled, and it has had a number of our tweets retweeted (including alerts, resulting in a significant bump in the firm's external site page views). Goodwin has also used Twitter to identify prospective clients and connect them with our attorneys.

As if that weren't enough to accomplish in one year, the firm also modernized its primary website (http://www.goodwinprocter.com/) with a stronger, bolder design and audience-targeted content. And it began exploring new e-communications technologies that would enable itto engage with clients and prospects more effectively.

“Finally,” says Tucker, “we greatly expanded our traffic reporting and analysis capabilities with implementation of more sophisticated Google Analytics and internal monitoring tools, and the establishment of detailed monthly reporting across all external and internal sites.”

All this effort has paid off. Congratulations to Goodwin Procter for rounding out this year's unbeatable Top Five!

See the MLF 50 list in PDF format here.

Despite dreary economic conditions, 2011 proved to be a highly energized year for law firm marketing departments. Responding well to the “doing more with less” mantra from management committees, talented legal marketing professionals moved their firms to gain substantial market share and expansion at home and abroad.

A hot buzzword in law firm marketing departments today is technology. Never before in the history of legal marketing have we seen such a powerful convergence of strategic marketing principles and today's mind-blowing advancing technology. Social media, still in its infancy for most businesses (and definitely law firms), is coming into its own as a necessary component in the marketing mix. Blogging, tweeting, “linking in,” and Facebooking have made their way into the law firm arena with a major blast.

We are seeing firms drive their online marketing presence to heights once unknown ' using innovative strategies to catapult their brand into the forefront of clients' minds. Not only are they succeeding here in the United States, but in countries we once didn't even know existed. Law firm marketing, strategic execution of marketing, and business development tactics are taking hold in exciting ways.

Other areas of technology that the top firms are using this year include the development of “apps” and mobile websites to enable clients to truly have their firms in the palms of their hands. Firms are showcasing their rank and file by adding videos in record number to websites. Never before have legal consumers had such access to their lawyers. What an exciting time for us all.

Every MLF 50 firm is to be congratulated for their courage and daring to risk innovation and moving beyond their comfort zone (and their management committees') to advance their firms' growth and business goals. We at Marketing the Law Firm salute you.

It is with great excitement, then, that we introduce you to the 2011 MLF 50.

NUMBER ONE
KING & SPALDING

Under the able leadership of CMO Katherine D'Urso, King & Spalding exemplifies everything today's law firm marketing departments can possibly do right. A superb combination of intelligent use of technology, knowledge of the marketplace, and doing the right things at the right time have made this firm a model for the rest of the country to follow.

King & Spalding is not a small firm. Now in its 127th year, the firm has more than 800 attorneys here and abroad. But it's not size that makes its marketing so special. It's effort and attention to detail. Clients can be electronically connected to the firm on a 24/7 basis via a secure extranet that enables them to keep abreast of everything connected with their individual issues, from case matters to billing. The extranets have been so popular with clients and attorneys that the firm now has over 400 users averaging more than 5,000 unique logins per month and housing more than 1.25 terabytes of data in order to share documents needed for cases and deals ' often with other outside counsel as well.

The site itself offers a clean, clear user experience that showcases the firm's tremendous content ' from press releases and media coverage to events and thought leadership. “We see kslaw.com as a central component in our overall communications and information sharing strategy. It operates as a showcase for the firm and its lawyers, encouraging visitors and clients to stay connected to us through our extranets, events, publications, downloadable v-cards and link-sharing functionality,” D'Urso explains.

Technology and care for the client are the hallmark of the firm's ability to communicate at all times in any time zone. And straightforward communication between firm and client is only one part of the effort. Careful use of techniques such as “friendly URLs” help optimize the site, making King & Spalding's practices and its individual lawyers easier to find across the ether. The work paid off ' after optimizing the site in late 2010, organic search results jumped by 60%-70% in the first 90 days of 2011. Firm events are marketed extensively, and are all searchable by practice and industry, with relevant lawyer contacts presented for each to encourage connecting to the firm. As a further convenience, most events present an icon that, with one click, adds it to your calendar.

Among many other services, the firm offers an e-learning program for its clients: “Our e-Learn programs are a series of one hour Web-based programs presented regularly by King & Spalding lawyers that cover 'hot' topics and qualify for CLE credit in many jurisdictions, enabling client lawyers to meet CLE requirements. Clients can participate from their own computers at no cost,” says D'Urso. In addition, the King & Spalding Healthcare team offers topical, industry “roundtables” by webinar every few weeks, with particularly popular programs recorded and available to clients for subsequent viewing at their convenience.

Mobility is a key focal point going forward. King & Spalding offers its lawyers and staff a mobile version of the firm Intranet available on BlackBerry, Android, iPad and iPhone, as well as a secure partner voting app to enable partners on-the-go to vote on important firm business. Having laid the foundation in 2011, plans for 2012 include launching an online Alumni community that will leverage LinkedIn, as well as exploring client-facing mobile apps, “quick response” bar codes for marketing materials, and possibly video content. “It's a team effort ' pulling all the content, technology and programming together can only happen with when we collaborate across departments and practices,” says D'Urso.

As for efforts in diversity, the firm has long been recognized for its forward-thinking, “put your money where your mouth is” efforts regarding women, minorities, and the LGBT community. An ongoing Diversity Committee includes every stratum of the firm; there are also minority retreats, which, says the firm, focus on “our continued commitment to provide a diverse workplace in which all attorneys can grow and succeed. The retreat typically includes workshops on mentoring, law firm economics, creating a professional development plan and personal development.”

This same level of commitment is reflected in the firm's pro bono and community outreach programs:

“Firm-wide, over 500 people annually volunteer their time through firm-sponsored activities outside pro bono legal representation, contributing an additional 4,200 hours of volunteer service to our communities. Activities include renovating homes for low-income, elderly or disabled homeowners; classroom reading and career days for inner-city students; food, clothing, book and school supply drives; preparing meals for the homeless; participation in city-wide efforts such as Hands on Atlanta Day and the New York Cares Coat Drive; coaching high school mock trial teams and providing other law-related enrichment activities; in-house blood drives; special projects for senior citizens, veteran and military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan; numerous walks and races including AIDS walks and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure; and various holiday projects benefiting children and families in need. We have built seven homes with Habitat for Humanity since 1993.”

This complete attention to the client and to the staff, aided by up-to-the-minute technology and community service, makes King & Spalding unbeatable.

NUMBER TWO
McGUIRE WOODS

Chief marketing and business development officer Jim Durham, changed pretty much everything about the marketing and business development functions at McGuireWoods in his first year at the firm (see last year's list). But the intrepid Durham managed to take things to yet another level in the past 15 months.

Working closely with the firm's leadership, the marketing department created a scorecard that measures specified activities (and results), apart from revenue (which is, of course, tracked). With a combination of training, research, client team management, cross-selling plans and careful tracking, “we increased our Anchor Client base by more than 30%. This intense program was led by the business development managers on our team,” Durham says.

To ensure that the firm delivers value through service, Durham conducted almost 20 client service programs for the staff firmwide. These 90-minute sessions stressed that every interaction every person in the firm has with clients impacts the firm brand and the client's level of satisfaction. The sessions included a discussion of individual communication styles, and resulted in hundreds of suggestions for continued client service improvement.

The firm also created a new management position, Deputy Managing Partner for Business Development, “helping us focus our current strategy on developing and expanding the firm's industry teams. By creating new scorecards and higher levels of accountability, we are expanding our penetration of industry markets and increasing the number of industry teams.”

To supplement its Anchor Client and industry-focused business development efforts, Durham and staff have ramped up efforts to get professional development plans from all partners. Working with the executive committee, Durham's team developed not only a model business plan, but also provided eight pages of example goals and related activities to assist the lawyers in making smart choices in building their plans.

In an effort to ensure greater ROI for the events McGuireWoods both hosts and sponsors, the firm created a position of Manager of Business Development for events. “This person works with all participants on our team to handle strategic event planning, budgeting and event management,” says Durham. Technology is key when it comes to media relations (the firm does not use an outside agency), and for internal communications, including the firm's internal website (the Portal).

“Our internal communications team has devised an aggressive communications strategy to make the Portal a critical knowledge management center,” says Durham. “This plan is just launching, but we have already made important improvements, including the posting of brief videos (shot by our team). These videos feature ' our attorneys discussing trends in their industry or changes to the law, and are also posted on the firm's external website and corresponding blogs.” There is also an audio version of Durham's book, “The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering,” available on the Portal, to support the firm's broader client service strategy.

And that's not all. McGuireWoods also launched a brand refresh campaign.

“Looking ahead to a more comprehensive redesign in FY12, the team used the refresh to transition the firm's existing marketing templates, sponsorship ads and other materials to a more consistent format. At minimal expense, this initiative allowed the Marketing team to educate the internal audience about the importance of consistent brand standards.”

Over the past 12 months, the firm has increased its social media presence, adding new blogs and developing a Facebook page; the number of followers on the firm's Twitter account has increased by several hundred in just the past few months. “The firm and our lawyers have received more than 1,000 Twitter mentions so far this year,” says Durham.

“Like all large marketing and business development teams,” continues Durham, “we do all the usual blocking and tackling, but we are continually trying to innovate and improve.”

It shows! Congratulations to Durham and his team.

NUMBER THREE
GOULSTON & STORRS

This firm has long held a place in the MLF 50 since the list was begun ' and with good reason. The firm is rightly proud of its innovations that have kept it in the marketing forefront. These include: 1) Client interviews: “While relatively new to the legal industry at large, G&S has been conducting formal client interviews for more than two decades”; 2) Co-Branding/naming: “Our firm became the first one in the nation to co-brand product/services when we struck a deal with The Boston Garden's Premium Club, home to the Celtics and the Bruins”; 3) Office high-rise elevator advertising: The firm mounted an ad campaign using high-def digital screens in the elevators of hundreds of office towers in Boston, Washington, DC, and New York City. According to the marketing department, led by Beth Marie Cuzzone, Director of Client Services and Business Development, this medium has an estimated 97% viewing rate and has raised the firm's brand awareness by 50%.

“The marketing and business development department's mantra for the past 12-24 months, however, has been do more with less ' our department has adapted to smaller budgets and other fiscal challenges ' and emerged leaner, smarter and able to better position our firm. Our small but mighty marketing and business development department (four people!) was chock-full of talent. So, our department set out to find ways to add value and services to clients aside from legal advice. That's when we began to offer our department's services to external clients and prospects ' not just to our lawyers.

The marketing department helped the firm's clients with business and sales plans, acted as brand consultants and provided sales coaching using existing in-house expertise. Clients tap into the firm's marketing and business development staff when they need guidance or help ' sometimes asking for things as small as drafting a press release or helping a client manage an event of its own.”

All of these client development services were delivered at no charge to clients and at no expense to the firm.

But, says the firm, “few initiatives have been more creative and provided a bigger bang for the buck than the 2010/2011 launch of a proprietary iPhone app.” With this free app, the firm's clients can gather customized information on current business topics directly from their iPhones. Within a few days of its launch, this G&S app “generated hundreds of followers and grabbed the attention of our attorneys, clients and peers. In addition, the firm communicates with its clients via podcasts, client case studies, an online concierge and subscriptions to a wide variety of information.”

This focus on technology expanded when the marketing department partnered with the IT department to create a client matchmaking tool on the firm's Intranet ' “at no hard costs to the firm. [Our] attorneys use this portal to help match clients who have complimentary needs by identifying potential joint venture partners or matching potential buyers with potential sellers, and so on. Many client deals/introductions have been generated by our client Intranet ' along with a lot of priceless goodwill.”

Goulston & Storrs also inserted a QR code into its print ads. Readers who scan the code with their smart phone apps will be led to the “What's New” section of the firm's website.

All of this attention to detail and the bottom line has once again landed Goulston & Storrs on the list. Congratulations!

NUMBER FOUR
K&L GATES

In late 2010, K&L Gates' marketing department adopted an ambitious agenda for the coming year. Priorities included increasing firm visibility in the global legal marketplace, more effective leveraging of new technology, and ensuring a continued integrated and efficient response to the needs of both firm and clients. And as it has in the past, the marketing team rose to meet those challenges in 2011, demonstrating measurable growth for the global brand, facilitating the successful introduction of two international offices, and unveiling a completely redesigned website, all after helping to push K&L Gates past $1 billion in revenue for its second consecutive year.

With 65 professionals across nearly two dozen offices, K&L Gates' marketing department supports the firm's brand-building efforts as well its client development activities. CMO Jeff Berardi annually sets the broad strategy for the department, and refinements to the business plan are made throughout the year, as growth is measured and priorities are reevaluated. This year, according to the firm, “K&L Gates is on pace to respond to more than 1,000 pursuit opportunities. The firm also tracks proposal win ratios, media mentions, and website statistics, among others ' all of which displayed considerable improvement comparing year-over-year statistics.”

As with all the Top Five winners, the firm understands the increasing importance of internal and external communications efforts, as lawyers across K&L Gates' global platform rely on the marketing department to “connect the dots between people, places, and practices. With nearly 20% of K&L Gates' lawyers based outside the United States,” the firm explains, “it is critical for the department to leverage international cross-selling opportunities using communications programs that promote business development.” To that end, Berardi personally circulates a monthly internal communication about highlighted practice capabilities and recent developments to all firm partners.

The firm's Global Government Solutions (GGS) initiative is another example of “a true market differentiator,” says the marketing department. “Marketers work with the GGS group to produce biannual reports examining the relationships between businesses and governments around the world. Designed using in-house resources, the 2011 mid-year report contains 36 articles from 60 professionals across 15 different offices, and was shared with firm clients, media outlets, and professional service organizations. The recipient of a second-place national 2010 LMA Your Honor Award, the reports showcase K&L Gates' broad knowledge and offer a valuable resource to clients.”

This year alone, the firm has hosted more than 100 events, including workshops, information sessions, webinars, speaking engagements, and meet-and-greets. Regionally, annual oil and gas seminars have attracted hundreds of clients and prospective clients. A recent event drew more than 300 people from 160 companies. Seminars have also proven successful in securing work from existing and new clients.

Berardi, the 2011 recipient of the Hubbard “Marketing Professional of the Year” award, reports directly to the firm's Chairman and Global Managing Partner and attends all management committee meetings, “providing the department with an advocate for the marketing function at the highest level,” says the firm. At a more granular level, integration statistics are measured to determine the effectiveness of the global platform. On behalf of new laterals, department members cooperate to ensure that new lawyers are familiar with the firm's network of resources and opportunities.

The marketing team also works closely with the firm's professional development department to create a Client Development and Relationship Management (CDRM) curriculum for lawyers, with Berardi leading numerous CDRM workshops each year, including business intelligence programs and moderated panels regarding career progression, networking, and client development skills training.

This summer, K&L Gates launched its redesigned website, the culmination of a three-year project that involved numerous teams of marketing and IS group members. More than 11,000 pages were updated and nearly 20 videos were produced as part of a complete overhaul of the design, content, and functional structure. The new design features a cleaner, more modern look. The home page features rotating highlights of services, special events, and other items to spotlight key site content.

Additionally, K&L Gates' practice groups maintain six active blogs. The number of K&L Gates' client service teams has continued to grow and now totals 41 active teams ' up 25% from 2009 and more than double the number of client teams in 2008. An average of six offices and four practices are involved in each team. BD support members are involved in active targeting and cross-selling efforts with the ultimate goal of recognizing and capitalizing on opportunities and improving overall service and communication with clients. Additionally, the department has launched more than 15 online client team sites to enable effective knowledge transfer between offices and practices.

When it comes to pro bono, the firm continues its oustanding outreach. The marketing team, in conjunction with the firm's Pro Bono Committee, produces an annual pro bono report that highlights K&L Gates' ongoing work in this area. The firm routinely participates in various diversity-related organizations and events and continues to be the lead sponsor of the Corporate Counsel Women of Color's Annual Career Strategies Conference.

As in years past, K&L Gates is a worthy member of the MLF 50 Top Five. Congratulations to Berardi and his team!

NUMBER FIVE
GOODWIN PROCTER

This year, CMO Anne Malloy Tucker focused her submission on a single category. It turned into an award winner! In Tucker's words, “Online marketing initiatives represented a major investment for Goodwin over the past year. Two of this year's most successful programs involved completion of the launch of our Founder's Workbench microsite and implementation of a new program to expand our social media presence on Twitter.”

Goodwin Procter has seven strategic practice focus areas, one of which is technology (including clean tech and life sciences). According to Tucker, the firm is “highly committed to working with start-ups, emerging companies and the entrepreneurial community. In an attempt to lure young companies as clients, smaller law firms have been offering founders miscellaneous free start-up documents. We wanted to go well beyond what others were doing and offer a comprehensive set of free documents, coupled with high value guidance and advice, not only from our own lawyers, but from an array of outside industry experts.”

The Founder's Workbench initiative targets founders of new companies and provides free access to critical forms, memoranda, best practices and other resources to enable capital-efficient company formation. The site includes an interactive online product (Document Driver) and a blog where Goodwin Procter provides regular insight on topics of interest to founders, from both inside and outside the firm.

“The main message for our target audience is simple: Goodwin Procter understands what it takes to become a successful company, and we will provide you the highest quality legal service to help you achieve success,” says Tucker. “We understand that it's very difficult to get a company off the ground when start-up costs greatly exceed available capital, so we will provide you with a cost-effective, superior solution that will help you get there faster.”

Before embarking on this project, Tucker's team conducted an extensive audit of websites that offered free start-up documents, noting the quality and value of the documents provided in each instance. They also surveyed the firm's clients, and asked for their input. “The overall challenge was finding and developing the right technology to provide easy access to forms and documents, while also developing a strong website and communications plan that fit with our target audience,” says Tucker.

After an initial soft launch, the marketing department used metrics and feedback to make significant changes and improvements to the site. They are using Twitter as a means of spreading the word and publicizing the site (a member of the PR team regularly posts to Twitter), and have established an editorial calendar and lineup of writers to create frequent blog posts.

Since its inception in October 2010, Founder's Workbench has received over 35,600 visits with an average of 103 visits per day. The Twitter account @FoundersToolbox currently has 463 followers and with a total of 683 tweets to date. According to Tucker, “We are particularly excited about the quality of some of those followers (i.e., recognized industry leaders, with followers that number in the thousands).

We can directly tie three new clients to the site, which we value initially at several hundred thousand in billings. In addition, we're attracting high-quality partners who want to be part of the initiative, including some well-known VCs and networking/resource groups.”

Founder's Workbench has attracted awards from inside and outside the industry. It was selected by the Legal Marketing Association for its national awards program as “Microsite of the Year,” and served as the basis for Goodwin being named to both the CIO 100 list and the InformationWeek 500 list of the most innovative users of business technology.

The firm's attention to social media is equally strong. Goodwin Procter has devoted significant time and resources to expand its social media reach via Twitter. While the many law firms that have a presence on Twitter limit their activity to non-personalized RSS feeds, focused only on their firms, Goodwin has taken an aggressive approach.

In the relatively short time that the firm has devoted resources to improving its Twitter usage, the number of people following @goodwinprocter has doubled, and it has had a number of our tweets retweeted (including alerts, resulting in a significant bump in the firm's external site page views). Goodwin has also used Twitter to identify prospective clients and connect them with our attorneys.

As if that weren't enough to accomplish in one year, the firm also modernized its primary website (http://www.goodwinprocter.com/) with a stronger, bolder design and audience-targeted content. And it began exploring new e-communications technologies that would enable itto engage with clients and prospects more effectively.

“Finally,” says Tucker, “we greatly expanded our traffic reporting and analysis capabilities with implementation of more sophisticated Google Analytics and internal monitoring tools, and the establishment of detailed monthly reporting across all external and internal sites.”

All this effort has paid off. Congratulations to Goodwin Procter for rounding out this year's unbeatable Top Five!

See the MLF 50 list in PDF format here.