TMG's Take... on Law Firm Marketing
A perspective on legal management issues from The McCormick Group

The editor-in-chief of a major publication on law firm marketing has caused quite a stir by the brilliantly-titled article, “Law Firm Marketing: Is it So Over We Need a New Word for Over?” The article, written by Elizabeth Ann “Betiayn” Tursi, Editor-in-Chief of ALM Marketing the Law Firm, has produced a number of responses in the blogosphere, including one from the president of the New York Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association.

Tursi pointed to a variety of factors that supports her theory. Among them were:

• Failure of the firm to provide the CMO with the resources and buy-in to implement their objectives
• Providing too much authority to a marketing committee made up of individuals who often have varying agendas
• The implied trend that CMOs are more often reporting to COOs, rather than the managing partner (or at least a marketing partner with real clout)
• An expectation from the firm that a return on investment has to occur within a predetermined time frame
• An emphasis on growth of the marketing department by CMOs, who tend to equate ultimate success with the ability to accomplish more tasks
• Lack of education for law firm marketing professionals, noting that most of the real issues (mentioned above) are never addressed

As an initial point, law firm marketing is far from over, and the pithy title aside, we don’t think that Tursi really believes that it is. Rather, we think that Tursi’s article reflects the increased frustration in relating marketing and business development activities to the bottom line, particularly when, as opposed to other professional services firms, business development professionals aren’t doing the actual selling.

Just because they’re not selling doesn’t mean that firms shouldn’t insist on a return on investment within a reasonable time. Maybe the time frames set out by firms are unreasonable, and maybe it’s unfair to place the entire burden on the CMO, but a failure to measure results would be an even larger problem.

We have been handling law firm marketing and business development searches for nearly a dozen years, and most of the issues raised by Tursi are a central focus of both of our initial inquiries, and certainly are on the minds of all sophisticated candidates. A solitary reporting structure to either the COO or a committee is an automatic red flag, for example, because top-line candidates realize the importance of direct access to the key strategic decision maker within a professional services organization.

Instead, we see a different problem that is an outgrowth of Tursi’s observation that an increasing number of CMOs are coming outside of the legal industry. Law firms have been slow to adopt integration and on-boarding initiatives. Recently, we’ve seen some progress in integration, at least with regard to lateral hiring of partners (see attached article by Steve Nelson, “Recruiting From the Inside Out”). But there’s virtually no attention to integrating a new marketing or business development executive, who often have no law firm experience, and always have no experience with a particular firm’s culture.

In our experience, when things go wrong, it’s rarely because the new hire can’t handle the responsibilities of the job. More often, it’s because there is no preset agreement on expectations on both sides or the new CMOs are not equipped to handle the delicate balancing act that is necessary to move things forward in most law firms.

TMG has found that helping clients and new hires through the delicate process of integration and acculturation is well worth the investment of time in the final payoff – a better, smoother working relationship in the long run. Time spent in pre-hire discussions of goals and expectations, and early discussions of progress and perceptions will go a long way in terms of return on investment.
  
TMG's Take is a regular e-mail advisory produced by The McCormick Group. The company's Law & Government Affairs and Law Firm Services groups combine the expertise of more than 15 Consultants to help law firms fulfill all of their lawyer and administrative recruiting needs. TMG's Take covers topics across the spectrum of law firm management, including associate and partner compensation, growth strategies, marketing and business development, operations and facilities management, finance and accounting, professional development, and technology. Please direct all inquiries to Steve Nelson, Managing Principal, at 703.841.1700 or snelson@tmg-dc.com.