Your Honor Award Member Profile:
Nathan Darling, Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer, Beveridge & Diamond, P.C.
Winning Category:
Hall of Fame
Nathan’s legal marketing career spans 20 years, and for most of those years, he has been an active and contributing LMA member. He served the legacy Capital Chapter in various capacities, including as Chapter President in 2005, helping to shape and grow the community into the thriving group that it is today.
Nathan went on to serve LMA International in various roles, culminating in his service as President in 2010. This was a time of major transition in both the association and the legal community. “When I was coming onto the board as President, we were still coming out of the economic downtown. The association faced questions of viability. We sharpened our focus and took a number actions that I’m really proud of in those years.” These included completing the work of LMA’s Strategic Planning and Transition task forces that analyzed the core needs of the organization and led to new investments in education and member services, engaging SmithBucklin as LMA’s management company, hiring Executive Director Betsi Roach as the organization’s first employee in 2009, and partnering with ACI to run the Annual Conference.
He is most proud of creating LMA’s Pathways to Leadership program, intended to heighten transparency about leadership opportunities within the association, showcase examples of leadership, and develop a pipeline of future leaders. “We began communications, webinars, and in-person events that explained best practices and laid out a pathway to gain valuable connections and leadership opportunities that benefit individuals, LMA, and their firms or employers.” Nathan noted that many LMA International and Regional leaders are ‘graduates’ of the Pathways initiative.
It is no surprise, then, that Nathan encourages members to get involved in leadership roles. “If you are doing it right, you should take your volunteer services as an opportunity – or excuse – to call anyone, including very senior people. This helps you to build relationships with people outside your region, which provides another chance to raise your profile, make new friendships, learn how things are done in other places, and improve yourself while working toward the shared goals of the association.”
He strongly supports LMA in its efforts to mirror the legal industry’s goal of enhancing diversity and inclusion. “We’re already a pretty inclusive group, but we need to do better.” As promised during his acceptance speech, Nathan has already reached out to José Cunningham, the co-chair of LMA’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, to discuss how he can support LMA’s efforts moving forward.
Nathan believes that we, as members of LMA, have the opportunity to elevate the role of the legal marketer in order to make big change happen. He hopes the organization will return to thought leadership and advocacy, much in the same way he led LMA’s engagement with the American Bar Association Ethics 20/20 Commission in 2010 when the ABA undertook revisions to its model ethics rules and considered new restrictions on digital content and other forms of legal marketing. He suggests continued advocacy within the legal community, producing original research, and forging ongoing connections with sister organizations like the Association of Corporate Counsel and other groups of legal services buyers, ABA, and ILTA. “LMA can and should be the voice of change and innovation in the way clients select and interact with lawyers. We should own that space.”
Clearly, Nathan cares about LMA. His advice to junior members, “Learn from those who came before you, but also be the change. You are the people who will take it to the next level. As you innovate and do cool, amazing things, take a glance backward and borrow the best of the past to carry with you to the future.” Thank you, Nathan, for all that you have done for LMA, and everything we know you will still do.
By Rebecca Edwards for the September/October 2017 LMA Mid-Atlantic Region Newsletter