By: John D. Barber, Marketing Coordinator, White and Williams LLP
On April 17, 2014 the Legal Marketing Association - Philadelphia Metro Chapter met to discuss "What Do Attorneys Want From Legal Marketers?" The all-attorney panel consisted of Meredith S. Allen, Partner, Morgan Lewis; Thomas K. Johnson, Partner, Dechert LLP; and Kevin E. Raphael, Partner, Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti LLP.
Meredith, Thomas, and Kevin discussed the traits they believe successful legal marketers possess and the services they want legal marketers to provide to facilitate them having successful practices. The panelists want legal marketers that are intellectually curious, proactive, team players that are invested in the success of their attorneys. Successful legal marketers have a thorough understanding of their attorneys' business. They know their attorneys' clients, their practice, and the industries that they service.
One of several key points the panel came back to several times was the fact that they want their marketers to be proactive partners in business development. They want their business developers actively reaching out to them with news and information related to their clients. Even if the information is unrelated to the matters for which the attorney services the client, it may be a great opportunity for the attorney to reach out and strengthen the relationship with their client. They also discussed that with all the demands on the attorneys' time, they may not always act in their best interest with regards to doing the marketing and business development work that is required of them to grow their practice. In many circumstances, they need legal marketers to proactively serve as partners in making sure business developments tasks don't fall off their radar.
Legal marketers need to understand the people with whom they are working. They need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of the attorneys with whom they work, not only from a legal skills perspective, but also from a personality perspective. Some attorneys may work well with others when putting together a CLE panel, while some may be better writers than speakers. Some may prefer setting up one-on-one meetings with prospective clients rather than meeting with larger groups. Knowing the individual attorneys requires that one on one time be spent getting to know their skills and preferences. By knowing the individual attorney's abilities, legal marketers can capitalize on business opportunities with the attorney's strengths in mind.
Legal marketers should also target their intellectual curiosity at the practices they service for the firm. Who are the clients? What types of matters does the practice handle for those clients? Are those clients being serviced effectively and are they happy with that service? Does the practice service a particular industry or set of industries? Being able to answer these questions will allow the marketer to be more successful in recognizing opportunities for strengthening relationships with existing clients and growing the practices business.
Ultimately, attorneys want their marketers to be hard working, effective individuals that are engaged and invested in the success of their attorneys. Marketers must be driven to learn as much as possible about the attorneys and their clients. And, they must be creative and aggressive in using that knowledge to put their attorneys in the best possible position expand and retain business.
Click here to access the event recap video.
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