Allen Chichester is chief marketing officer at Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Previously, he was the owner of and a principal at Chichester Consulting. Before that, he was chief marketing officer at Piper Rudnick LLP and then DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. Allen came to legal marketing from the advertising world, in which he held several senior-level positions with Leo Burnett Advertising over the course of 19 years. Allen is currently serving on the LMA Midwest Board as Member-at-Large — Communications.
Q. Much of your time with Leo Burnett was spent in East Asia. How did your time in that region shape you as a professional working for Western businesses?
AC: When I ran Leo Burnett for North Asia, our client mix was about 50/50 local and international. Sometimes it was quite a challenge for me because I worked with ads within so many different cultures and languages. If ever I was too “over the shoulder” or “into the details” as a manager, this experience cured me of it. My greatest opportunity to make an impact was by hiring smart people and then getting out of their way. I believe that what distinguishes an “A” manager from a “B” manager is whom they hire.
Q. What was the appeal of a transition to legal marketing?
AC: In college, I took every one-point extracurricular credit course I could lay my hands on, including billiards, bowling, racquetball, and sport parachuting. I will never forget when I asked my parachute instructor why he risked his life every day showing chumps like me how to jump out of a plane. His response: “I never get bored.” That stuck with me. One of the reasons I chose advertising was because it didn’t sound boring. It was also the reason I took a chance and moved to Hong Kong with Leo Burnett. Finally, it was the reason I jumped into this crazy business. I can honestly say that after about a decade working with law firms, I’m definitely not bored yet.
Q. What are some of the most valuable things you learned in the advertising field that have helped you in your legal marketing career?
AC: Client service. We lived it and breathed it at Leo Burnett. It was a huge part of the culture. It was the first, second, and third most important thing I brought with me when I began working with law firms.
Q. What sorts of strategies that you employed in your advertising career have you found to be highly effective in law firm marketing?
AC: Give the client what they ask for, then give them what they need. If you don’t give them what they ask for, you will never build trust with them; they will never believe you truly respect their opinion. My job is to get partners to do the right thing, not just keep them happy. This means that I need to sell them on the right thing. After they know you are listening to them, this is much easier to do. I’m not saying that this governs every interaction with a client, but it is a great strategy when you are in the trust-building phase with a lawyer.
Q. You’ve no doubt dealt with many strong personalities in a lot of different environments over the course of your career. In dealing with these individuals, what practices have you found work across boundaries?
AC: Influencing people with strong personalities goes hand in glove with any business that services clients, and certainly is huge for us in dealing with lawyers. From my perspective, the basic dynamics don’t change, but the amount of work involved to develop a trust-based relationship with a strong character type can be daunting. It takes preparation, perseverance, and resilience. You have to speak their language, understand what they value, and not let yourself forget that you are there to help them. We all have a line that can be crossed that separates what we consider acceptable behavior from unacceptable behavior. Until that line is crossed, my advice is don’t give up.
Q. What traits — good and challenging — have you found generally common to lawyers, and how do you typically accommodate them?
AC: Red alert! Characterize lawyers at your own peril! I honestly try not to paint with too broad a brush. The key for me is to remember that lawyers are under tremendous pressure, and because they typically bill out by the hour, each hour of the day is precious to them. I don’t want to waste their time. If I keep that front and center, I can usually make headway and not worry about all the other stereotypes we tend to talk about.
Q. What have you found to be some of the biggest differences in dealing with lawyers as businesspeople, as opposed to the professionals you dealt with in the advertising industry?
AC: With some exceptions, I have found that there is generally a lower awareness of business-related best practices among lawyers. This includes general management best practice as well as marketing and business development. It sometimes takes longer to sell-in new processes or techniques, because often we are trying to fix a problem of which there is little awareness.
Q. What do you think makes for an effective chief marketing officer?
AC: If I knew that, I would probably be a consultant to chief marketing officers. I can tell you that the ones I like working with don’t let their egos grow larger as they gain more responsibilities. I think most of us try to avoid working with arrogant people, no matter what position they hold. I’m not even sure I like the title of the position for that reason. It tends to reinforce that whoever has that title is a big shot.
Q. Switching gears, what do you like to do for fun?
AC: Right now I’m pretty focused on beating my 4-year-old twins in Candyland.
Jeremy Persin is Marketing/Public Relations Manager at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. Contact Jeremy