The Detroit City Group has taken a hiatus from official gatherings since our November holiday social, but Steering Committee members remain in regular contact with one another.
Like many City Group members, I have spent this time focusing on my annual marketing budget and plan. Most years, this process includes identifying outside consultants to handle projects ranging from graphic design to copywriting to executive coaching to strategic planning.
The planning process reminds me of a significant benefit of our group’s affiliation with LMA Midwest: the opportunity to meet consultants with legal industry expertise. For legal marketers in Michigan, identifying marketing consultants with significant experience in our industry usually means looking outside our state’s borders. There certainly are some talented professionals here who do great work for law firms, but when it comes to marketing and business development experts with specific insight into business lawyers and law firms, there are not many of them.
Marketing experts who don’t typically serve law firms often don’t understand how we do business. For example, they may think that all lawyers spend their lives in trial because the lawyers they see on TV are always in court. Plus, many don’t know the nuances of law firm culture. I have on occasion coached vendors or consultants making presentations to call the firm “the firm”; not “the company” or “the corporation.” Such a slip-up in front of senior lawyers will immediately brand the consultant as a novice—a potentially fatal flaw.
Whether through speaking engagements to the city group or introductions at chapter functions, LMA Midwest has provided a rich source of new contacts with a range of marketing specialists who otherwise may not have focused on Michigan firms. While Michigan is a decent-sized legal market, it pales next to Chicago. By way of comparison, the top 25 firms based in southeast Michigan have a combined total of just over 3,000 lawyers worldwide, about the same number as the top TWO firms based in Chicago. Our association with LMA Midwest has literally put us and our firms on the map for a number of top experts who might otherwise have considered Michigan “flyover” territory when making the rounds of client and potential client firms.
We look forward to a productive 2012 schedule and to connecting with many more talented consultants through our relationship with LMA Midwest.
Update on MRPC 7.3: Last summer, I wrote about proposed changes to Michigan’s Rules of Professional Conduct that would have imposed sweeping restrictions on many common law firm marketing practices. For example, as originally written, the proposed changes may have forced lawyers to slap the label “Advertising Material” on every client communication not directly related to a pending matter, including all the handwritten notes and personal email messages with attached articles of interest that we try to get our lawyers to send to their clients.
I am happy to report that in December, the Michigan Supreme Court entered an order closing the file on the proposed changes, leaving the existing rule intact. Meanwhile, the Michigan State Bar’s Representative Assembly has proposed new, much narrower changes that directly address the concerns of the drafters of the original changes. The new rules would impose limitations only on lawyers soliciting business from individuals involved in a family law matter for a number of days after the matter had been filed. Many Michigan legal marketers are undoubtedly breathing easier with this matter apparently settled.
Tony Allegrina is Director of Business Development at Bodman PLC and a member of the Detroit City Group Steering Committee. Contact Tony.