Name: Ritchenya A. Dodd
Company: Hill Wallack LLP
Title: Business Development & Marketing Director
Email: rdodd@hillwallack.com
- How did you get into legal marketing?
I am a lawyer by training who never practiced, with a communications background. I worked as a journalist in the legal industry, covering the "business of law" beat for The Legal Intelligencer in Philadelphia, and writing the "Law Firm Management" column for the National Law Journal in New York. Through these assignments, I became interested in legal marketing, and took my first legal marketing position in 2001, after the birth of my son.
- Describe one of your best experiences in legal marketing?
My best experiences are always when a lawyer appreciates that there has been value added by having a marketing professional involved in a project. One of my best experiences has been on the business development side. I was asked to lead my firm through a strategic planning process to develop a firmwide business development plan. After spending several months speaking with the partnership and other lawyers I rolled out a plan that called for every practice group and partner to develop a business development plan, and every associate to develop a marketing plan. By the year's end, every attorney had a plan on paper! I was extremely gratified that we were able to obtain this level of buy-in. Now for the implementation part ....
- What is one of your greatest challenges when it comes to legal marketing?
My biggest challenge, by far, is deciding how to prioritize our efforts given our small staff. We have a very active firm, and could spend all of our time meeting the day-to-day requests for sponsorships, ads, events etc. So we have to really guard our time to make sure we are upping our communications game and working on strategic business development efforts.
- Do you have any words of wisdom to those who are new to the field?
Yes! Marketing is a contact sport, and I would urge new marketers to spend time with their internal clients (i.e. the lawyers). Avoid becoming too tied to your desk. Electronic communications are a great way to coordinate projects, but they are not a replacement for interpersonal relationship-building. The more face time you have with your lawyers, the better rapport you will build and the more effective you'll be in helping to get their message to market. I spend much of my time walking the halls, physically moving projects along. I try to balance the reams of email with a smile and chat in the doorway. Where a phone conversation is more efficient, I hop off of email.
- What is one thing that most people don’t know about you?
I started out as a broadcaster! My undergraduate degree was in communications with a broadcast emphasis, and I used to do the local news for a PBS affiliate in Utah. I did an internship for CNN in Washington, D.C., and thought I was on my way to becoming a TV star, but life intervened. I have these audition tapes in my attic ...