Meet Wendy Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer of Hogan & Hartson
“Now there’s a new enthusiasm by the lawyers for marketing services. Every lawyer wants to take advantage and that’s contributed a lot of energy to what we do.”
As the chief marketing officer of Hogan & Hartson, the largest D.C.-based law firm, Wendy Taylor doesn’t have any typical days. She spends her time strategizing about everything from the firm’s brand to the plans for the partner retreat of a firm with more than 1,000 lawyers in 22 offices worldwide.
“I try to be a change agent at my firm,” Wendy says. As CMO, she supervises 50 people and is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of the firm’s global marketing and business development initiatives. That includes oversight and budget accountability for media relations, internal and external communications, brand management, competitive intelligence, and proposal development.
In fulfilling all these duties, Wendy has tried to create a marketing culture at the firm. “In the past year, Hogan & Hartson has really hit its stride,” she says. “The firm has been successful for a long time, but the competitive nature of the legal community is catching up to us. Now there’s a new enthusiasm by the lawyers for marketing services. Every lawyer wants to take advantage and that’s contributed a lot of energy to what we do.”
Wendy has four marketing directors who help manage her department. “I like to hire people who bring a broad range of experience to the job in addition to passion and enthusiasm,” she says.
Wendy started her career in commercial real estate with Cushman & Wakefield and moved to legal marketing as the first-ever marketing director at Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, a large construction-law firm based in Tysons Corner, where she spent two and half years.
She moved to Boston when she was recruited by Gadsby Hannah as director of marketing. There, she found a more progressive marketing culture. At that firm, she led a rebranding campaign and developed the first full-color advertising campaign for a law firm in the Boston area. Wendy was also responsible for business development initiatives. For example, she ran a program of monthly dinners called the Emerging Business Forum, which provided networking and educational opportunities for firm lawyers and for existing and potential clients.
Wendy moved back to D.C. more than six years ago and took a position with Hogan & Hartson as a litigation marketing manager. After six months, the firm’s marketing director left, but Wendy had already proven that she was capable of filling the role. She received the offer.
When asked to give advice about how to get on the track to become a CMO, Wendy says, “Learn which people at your firm are important to the success of your position and find out what is important to them. In order to be successful, marketing plans and pitches need to be well thought out. With attorneys, you have to make a solid case,” she says, stressing the importance of building credibility.
She also cautions, “Don’t be too specialized. I’ve been in the trenches and it helps to get broad experience in as many areas as possible. Be knowledgeable and learn all you can because you may have to manage people who have more experience in a particular area.” She also hires outside consultants for specialized tasks such as business development coaching and global branding.
As CMO, Wendy often participates in senior-level meetings. She makes an annual presentation to the partners. “I’m on the phone or in meetings all day which doesn’t leave much time for other work, so I try to get things done between meetings and sometimes at night,” she says.
She admits that although the travel can be hard and she would like to have more time at home, “I think it is critical to see people face-to-face—both lawyers and marketing staff—in order to be effective in the job.”
Her husband is a partner in his own law firm. Even though his job is just as demanding, he often has more flexibility.
“I could not do what I do without him,” Wendy says. “He picks up a lot of the slack when it comes to our home life. I feel so lucky that after seven years of marriage, we are still so much in love and have so much fun together. We have a sailboat and a place outside of DC on the water where we go in our downtime. I also am very close with my mother and sister and we try to spend as much time together as we can. My sister and I do a spa weekend every year and when I go to Hogan’s New York office, I stay with her instead of at a hotel.”
Wendy has a B.A. from Brown University and has taken post-graduate courses in communications at George Washington University. To anyone building a career in legal marketing, she advises, “Read everything about legal marketing you can. Every book, every article, anything you come across. It builds your confidence and gives you the ability to ‘pull’ from so many different places. You have to be extremely credible, because you’re going to be tested in this job at every turn.”
Profile written by Elaine Clem, principal of Noble Pursuits, a graphic design and branding firm in Alexandria, Va.