In May, LMA Midwest held a panel discussion called “The Roadmap for Your Future: Navigating and Accelerating Your Career in Legal Marketing.” Panelists, including a chief talent officer and a recruiting manager among others, espoused their views on how to climb the legal marketing ladder. Six months later, LMA Midwest shifted the spotlight onto those who have ascended to the pinnacle of their careers to get their perspectives on what it takes to get to the top.
The panel discussion, titled “CMO-momentum: Marketers Driving Change at the Top of Today’s Law Firms,” featured three law firm chief marketing officers: Elizabeth Byrne, chief marketing and business development officer at Quarles & Brady; Allen Chichester, CMO at Barnes & Thornburg; and Kathleen Flynn, CMO at Bryan Cave. John Byrne, president of Glencoe Media Group and the former CMO of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, moderated.
The conversation revolved around what today’s fast-paced, ever-changing marketplace requires of successful law firm CMOs. As it turns out, it’s an assembly of a variety of skill sets acquired over years of experience, from learning how to be an effective ambassador of change from within, to having the ability to discern a quality team member when recruiting talent.
John opened the conversation by asking the panel how they build a “burning platform” for change within their firms. Allen was first to respond, stating that understanding the pre-existing culture, limitations and challenges of your firm will influence how you inspire change.
“I don’t look at creating burning platforms; I look more at greasing platforms,” Allen said. “By that, I mean I first try to look at the context and value system of the organization in which I’m trying to create change. That way I can better understand the play I’m making.”
Kathleen said to create change internally, a legal marketer has to first demonstrate some degree of effectiveness.
“It’s really important to be a change agent, but you have to prove yourself first,” she said. “Know that there is a culture and a history at your firm, and you have to respectful of that. You can impact change by being sensitive.”
Elizabeth said change can happen, but it has to be metered appropriately.“You have to get buy-in, build rapport and demonstrate quick wins,” she said. “Suggesting too many things at once will rock their boat. Success breeds success. Show success and you can continue to affect change.”
The topic then shifted away from change management and focused on bridging divides between a law firm’s disparate departments and the role the CMO can play in building alliances.
“[Information technology] is important,” Kathleen said. “I’ll have weekly meetings with the head of IT. I also meet regularly with the heads of diversity, recruiting, professional development and, to help me figure out my budgets, the head of finance.”
Allen’s response focused on the importance of keeping things civil between departments and being mindful of not assigning blame.
“We are nutty about not playing the blame game and we go after staff that point fingers at other administrative departments for things that have gone wrong, because it’s the quickest way to lose trust,” he said.
Elizabeth agreed, remarking that “If you build face-to-face relationships, people won’t want to throw one another under the bus. Develop relationships and understand that you are all on the same team.”
John then turned the conversation to bridging the lawyer/non-lawyer divide, a common pain point among legal marketers. For Elizabeth, treating lawyers and non-lawyers as equals has been a successful tactic.
“We rolled out our strategic plan this spring, and we treated lawyers and staff as equals,” she said. “If we did a presentation for one, we did it for the other. You have to demonstrate respect for lawyers and non-lawyers.”
Allen suggests trying to incorporate the marketing department into other areas to try to diminish the lawyer/non-lawyer divide.
“I’m always focusing on swimming upstream when decisions are made and strategy is determined,” he said. “We try to do that so that it becomes second nature for the lawyers to include us in those issues. If we weren’t doing that, there’d be a lot more of that non-lawyer versus lawyer mentality.”
Kathleen said confidence can take you a long way in bridging the gap, and that is a skill that often comes with time.
“Age is a big factor in my relationships. The older I get, the easier it is for me, which I think has to do with confidence and experience,” she said. “And if you don’t have age on your side, pick your battles. You are out to win the war, not the battle.”
Overseeing hiring decisions for the department is another critical role of any law firm CMO. John asked the panel what criteria they use when making hiring decisions at their firms.
“I look for initiative, somebody who can take the ball and run with it and who will come back with new and better ideas to improve a project they’ve been assigned,” Kathleen said.
“Hiring is tough,” said Allen. “They not only have to be leaders, but they also have to be good team players. If they don’t know how to work in a team structure, then do not hire them.”
Finally, the conversation ended on a topic that also arose during the panel discussion back in May: What will be a new job in a law firm marketing department in the near future? While project and knowledge managers were identified as new roles during May’s discussion, the CMO panel cited finance as an increasingly important area.
“Practice economics is going to become more prevalent,” Kathleen said. “It will be more important for finance and marketing to become intertwined.”
Allen echoed Kathleen’s statement.
“There is going to be more financial acumen in the marketing group,” he said. “There is going to be more of a hybrid.”
Keith Ecker is a content strategist at Jaffe.