Maximizing the Value of Legal Marketing Departments
Notes taken by Elora Schatzker, Freelance Law Firm Marketer
Law firm marketers know that one of the best ways to achieve respect within a law firm is to treat the lawyers as clients of the department. We also know that the best service is tailored to the specific needs of the client. And that no two clients are exactly the same. This was all demonstrated nearly perfectly by the four lawyers who appeared on this panel.
Moderator Kelly Smith (Marsden) took partners Paul Harriks (Gowlings), David Bristow Q.C. (Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber), Douglas Best (Miller Thomson) and Jim Holloway (Baker McKenzie) through an interesting and entertaining dissection of the relationship between the Marketing Department and the lawyers it serves.
Highlights of the conversation included:
- The partners expressed a variety of opinions on the optimal form of their relationship with Marketing. David Bristow likes having a close working relationship with his head of marketing, but he expects deference to his opinion, whereas Ellen Bessner noted that she appreciates working with a visionary who will push her outside of her personal comfort zone.
- When asked what they considered the top priority for marketers, the responses were varied. Ellen feels it is very important for Marketing to understand her and her business development goals, while Jim Holloway said that Marketing provides the best value when it demonstrates a deep knowledge and understanding of his clients and targets.
- In describing their highly-structured practice groups and business development planning processes, Jim Holloway and Paul Harricks joked that they appear to work for the same firm, while David noted that one of the benefits of working in a smaller firm is that planning and communications can be more free-flowing, while still being effective.
- Regarding the future of the law firm marketing department, Paul noted that firms are steadily evolving to include marketing as a key support group, but that we will need to trumpet our successes to gain the respect of the partners. David Bristow noted that many of the market forces outlined by Richard Susskind in his recent book ‘The End of Lawyers’ can be applied equally to the marketing department. Although he hinted darkly that some marketers might be one day “replaced by robots”, he also made the point that marketing can also be at the forefront of showing the firm’s partners how to be more efficient. Jim noted that while Baker & McKenzie has already ‘off-shored’ certain marketing functions, the firm’s partners trust their business development professionals to handle client satisfaction interviews alone.
- A question from the floor sparked some debate among panel members: Do you believe that sales and marketing are interchangeable terms, or do you believe they are distinct with different skill sets? In the end, the panel agreed that sales and marketing are different functions, requiring different skill sets, but are absolutely interdependent. The message was clear – regardless of the terminology, both skill sets are important and we need to work seamlessly across them.
- The four panel members were in agreement on at least one topic – the issue of the reluctant lawyer. David suggested offering these lawyers the occasional writing or other stepping stone opportunity, while the advice of the other three panellists was essentially, “don’t waste your time”. Ellen and Paul noted that the issue is one for senior management and Jim advised us to take a business-like approach and concentrate on the lawyers who “offer a better ROI”.