Meet Molly Mattessich, Marketing Coordinator at Van Ness Feldman
Molly Mattessich has been Marketing Coordinator at Van Ness Feldman, P.C., an 80-lawyer Georgetown firm, for three years. Each of those years, she says, has brought a mini-revolution that has given her ever more valuable experience. One of those “revolutions” was a nearly complete rebranding of the firm, including the rollout of a new Web site and marketing collateral. “When you have some simple and clear messages, such as the depth and breadth of experience in our energy and environmental practice areas, it’s easier to market the firm and be proud of its work,” Molly says.
Molly notes that “being one of a two-person Marketing Department is an unusual opportunity.” The other half of the firm’s marketing team is Director of Client Development and Marketing Nathan Darling, a former Capital Chapter president.
“I consider myself really lucky to work with Nathan,” Molly says. “We both get our hands dirty. He is the savvy, involved visionary, while I handle the details to help put things into place.” Molly’s day-to-day activities include keeping the Web site up to date, assisting with proposals, handling details for sponsorships and conferences, and maintaining the firm’s contact database.
In September, Molly helped the firm launch its Weekly Climate Change Update. Starting with a list of 80 recipients, the firm now has 350 subscribers who receive the update from the Marketing Department. Even more impressive, another 350 subscribers receive their updates directly from attorneys by personal e-mail. The subscriber list is growing, and the firm receives a 30 to 40 percent click-through rate on each issue.
Molly’s biggest challenge in this position was learning about the energy industry. She says, “I never thought I would need to know so much about global carbon emissions trading, for example, but given the world political climate today, it’s helpful to use this awareness of the issues to understand how and why decisions are made and their impact.” She recognizes that in order to be an effective legal marketer, it’s important not only to learn about the legal industry, but also about the industries that the firm’s clients are part of.
Molly is the first non-attorney member of her firm’s recently formed and growing environmental committee that is intended to help make Van Ness Feldman more “green.” Her role is to research what other firms are doing to reduce their environmental impact.
“It’s one of my goals in life to make a difference,” says Molly. She lived out that dream by spending two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa. “I wanted to be out in the world, doing my part to improve others’ lives, and I had always been intrigued by the African cultures and music,” she says.
Following a six-month application process, Molly’s first three months of intensive training while living with a host family in Mali included four hours of language lessons every day, two hours of technical training, and two hours of cultural education. She was then sent to live in a mud hut in a village of 600 people where there was no electricity or running water. She kept up with news of the outside world by listening to BBC radio, which was available for only four hours each day. Temperatures were 90 to 100°F every day, and there was no such thing as a “real” shower. She ate millet and peanut sauce and became fluent in the local language, Malinké.
Molly remembers her experience with pride. “I felt like an ambassador for the United States in my own way,” she says. “I helped to repair water pumps and worked on well-digging teams, taught health education and some English classes — I even helped the villagers pick peanuts, whatever was needed at the time. I hope to go back to visit my village someday.” Molly remains active with returned volunteers and currently serves as the Vice President of the organization RPCVw, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, DC.
Before joining the Peace Corps, Molly earned a B.A. in psychology from Wellesley College. She then spent a year working as a Research and Publications Coordinator at the Marketing Science Institute, where she learned about event planning and market research.
Upon her return from Africa in early 2005, a temporary contract with Akin Gump as an event planning assistant led her to legal marketing.
She attended the LMA National Conference in 2007 and speaks of it as another turning point. “It offered me some perspective of what other legal marketers are doing … in addition to learning strategies that I could implement right away at my firm, it brought me out of my office and gave me a grander vision of what legal marketing was all about.”
Written by Elaine Clem, principal of Noble Pursuits, a graphic design and branding firm in Alexandria, Va.