Coaches, mascots or shrinks

The art of multitasking in the legal marketing environment. By Laura Pyke-Jean

A ‘five-legged sheep’ is a French expression – un mouton à cinq pattes – meaning someone who manages to simultaneously fulfil several seemingly unrelated functions. You may already be wondering where I’m going with this, but as a legal marketer based in Paris, this image sprang to mind when I was given the unofficial job description at preliminary interviews for my then to be next job. Of course, rather than explaining that I would in fact be the entire Paris marketing department, the recruitment consultant preferred to say that I would be working in a ‘monoteam’ and used the term ‘standalone’, which is only slightly less opaque. Suitably intrigued, I called up a lawyer friend who suggested I do some research with other legal marketers already in the saddle. A few telephone calls later, it emerged that that ‘standalone’ was indeed right up there with the French five-legged sheep, so my initial impressions were confirmed. I will own up now to the fact that it has occasionally crossed my mind to use either or both of these terms as my elevator pitch, which I know we are all encouraged to create for use in those frantic five-minute slots at networking evenings.

I asked some colleagues in Paris about the extent of their duties and was amazed by their responses. Concierge, perhaps not, but general McGyver-type person to turn to at the eleventh hour, yes, indeed. If I were of a more evangelical disposition, this is probably the point where I would wave a banner saying vive les marketeurs juridiques, or something equally heart stirring. Being British, I shall limit myself to something more restrained, perhaps launching a ‘diverse duties’ competition, where the publishers of this magazine could award a prize for the most enterprising, comical or even just plain bizarre role. It appears that nowhere in the field of human employment has so much been so multitasked by so few.

Richard Branson’s negotiating skills are useful. One colleague at a Magic Circle firm in Paris related how she’d spent the best part of an afternoon fire-fighting over the order of partners’ names on a press release. What a shame those four hours weren’t billable for the firm. JK Rowling’s creative skills – a necessity when writing a partner’s speech for a high-level in-house counsel event. Tony Blair’s oratory skills are essential when presenting a new marketing plan at the partners’ meeting. And Kofi Annan’s diplomatic skills? How else to explain a challenging pitch de-brief or a less than perfect media interview?

Just for the record, there were also some seriously amusing experiences, including advising on which suit to wear for maximum visual impact at seminars and sourcing a ready-decorated Christmas tree out of season. But that’s another story and I don’t want this article used as evidence against me in the employment tribunal.

Ultimately, getting the job done boils down to one critical success factor: developing positive working relationships with the fee earners in the firm. From where I’m standing, after two years in the job, if they treat my office as the unofficial recreation room and if they trust me enough to ask for my help with things that are not necessarily included in my job description, I’m more often flattered than offended. Does that make me dynamic or just plain dim? I would argue that if I have to leave my comfort zone occasionally, and more importantly, if my internal clients witness me leaving it, I stand a much better chance of getting them to leave theirs. After all, legal marketers spend a large part of their working lives dragging fee earners outside of their comfort zone and convincing them to venture there at least once more before retirement, so it seems only fair that it should work both ways occasionally.

Of course the justification for all of this is that, whatever label the department is given, be it marketing, communications or business development, it still acts as a beacon to all those projects that don’t always have an obvious home. Don’t know where to find European benchmarking studies on law-firm remuneration? Ask marketing. Ditto for locating a Serbian interpreter in Paris or setting up a non-profit foundation. But surely that’s half the fun. We all know the scenario off by heart – ploughing through everyday projects like updating the website or making sure everyone’s photo and CV are on the firm database when, boom, a bluebird project appears (marketing speak for a new project that lands as if by magic on your desk). If some enterprising person could only tell me the perfect ratio of everyday to bluebird then I’m sure that would improve matters

So, next time you’re at a marketing event and you hear someone explaining earnestly about standalone five-legged sheep, please don’t give them a strange look or make a quick exit. Just humour them – it’s probably me or another one of those ‘monoteamsters’.

Laura Pyke-Jean is international marketing manager at Eversheds. She can be contacted at
laurapykejean@eversheds.com