When McKenna Long & Aldridge (McKenna Long) was looking to hire a business development manager in D.C. for its environment, climate change, and intellectual property practices nearly four years ago, it would have been difficult for the firm to find anyone with a better resume at that time than Debbie Leitner.
Although Debbie had never worked in a law firm before, she has a bachelor’s degree from American University in public communication and a master’s degree from the University of Westminster in London, England, in marketing communications – and she had served as vice president of marketing for a British investment firm that specialized in sustainable projects.
When an acquaintance who is a McKenna Long attorney told her about the job opening, Debbie, who had recently returned to the United States, applied and was hired in 2010.
Now, Debbie works with more than 100 attorneys in her practice areas, located in nearly every office of the 575-lawyer firm. She has one coordinator who reports to her.
The climate change group is a multidisciplinary one at McKenna Long, including lawyers in government contracts, corporate, lobbying, IP, real estate, and other specialties, all of whom focus on helping renewable energy companies and projects succeed.
“When I came on board, I played a role in establishing what that group would look like and how it would be organized,” Debbie said. “The issues were the same as I was accustomed to, but being in a law firm was quite different for me. It was all about helping to guide our clients through the uncertainties of regulation and of business and keeping them afloat no matter what comes down the pike.”
Debbie says that in her first few months at McKenna Long, the marketing techniques and the clients’ business goals were similar to what she had dealt with in earlier jobs, but she had to get used to some of the legal terminology that lawyers and members of her department were tossing around. Once she did that, she began to feel herself to be a key member of the team.
Debbie summarizes her work by saying, “I have three practice areas, and my attorneys need to feel that all of them are my top priority at all times.” Among the tactics that Debbie uses to promote her practice groups are:
- Obtaining speaking engagements for attorneys at conferences;
- Getting articles published in the trade press in such areas as intellectual property and national defense;
- Developing media relations campaigns that lead to lasting relationships with reporters and writers in industry publications; and
- Creating educational presentations for clients that can satisfy continuing legal education requirements.
One of the more surprising types of projects that Debbie works on for McKenna Long and its clients involves the military. McKenna Long historically has a strong government contracts practice, and the U.S. military is now committed to reducing its carbon footprint. So Debbie helps the firm’s military contractor clients in their efforts to reduce their dependence on the electrical grid.
Always an avid traveler, Debbie moved to London for her master’s degree after working in D.C. as a program manager at the National Association of Home Builders, where she focused on the impact of construction on the environment. She stayed in London at the investment firm, Climate Change Capital, where she became head of marketing, before returning to the United States.
Debbie grew up on Long Island and still has a good many extended family members in the New York area. She and her husband continue to travel frequently and also take in as many musical theater performances as they can.
By Jonathan Groner, PR Specialist and Freelance Writer for the July/August 2013 Issue of the Capital Ideas Newsletter.
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