In the legal field, where rational thought and rules (many rules) reign supreme, marketing and client development—less than perfect sciences—can seem abstract. This makes our roles as legal marketers critical to the success of our lawyers as they seek to develop and maintain their books of business. Whether pushing a recently promoted partner to explore speaking opportunities that get to the core of her target market’s burning questions, working with a new associate on building his web presence in a relatable way, or challenging a rainmaker to consider other angles for cross-practice pitching, we are uniquely positioned to influence our lawyers’ marketing and client development behaviors. With thoughtfulness and a fresh (and often non-legal) perspective, our guidance on these types of activities can produce great results, which serve to build not only our lawyers’ trust in us as advisors, but in themselves as business people.
Former LMA President Adam Severson, who visited the Capital Chapter in May, spoke to us on this very topic—highlighting many ways we can challenge our firms and lawyers to take a fresh look at their presumptions, adjust their approach and find successes in relationship building with clients, all the while, developing their own confidences.
As the Legal Marketing Association celebrates its 30th anniversary, I can think of no better time to appreciate and understand the growing importance of our roles in law firm culture and find ways to draw upon all of the resources this great association affords us to achieve our goals, which first and foremost, include empowering our attorneys to achieve business success. I hope that you’ll find this newsletter to be full of good tips for doing just that and once you’re done perusing the content, I hope you’ll join me in toasting to 30 more wonderfully successful years of LMA. The success of the organization, like that of your lawyers, is tied to you!
By Katie Munroe, Capital Chapter President, Marketing & Client Development Lead for Litigation, Covington & Burling for the May/June 2016 Issue of the Capital Ideas Newsletter.