Knocking at the right doors

Eliminating cultural barriers to unlock marketing potential.

By Kate Clifton

Marketers and lawyers have always had very different backgrounds and character traits, which have tended to clash somewhat over the years. This has often slowed the onslaught of sophisticated, strategic marketing programmes at many a law firm.

An ingrained image problem on the part of marketing – combined with cynicism among lawyers – has most commonly been blamed for the multitude of marketing efforts that have fallen by the wayside over the years.

Consultants have long argued that for marketing to succeed, lawyers and marketing professionals need to make accommodations for their different business approaches and attitudes, while focusing more on playing to each others’ strengths. After all, in an environment where client-relationship management has a huge bearing on the destination of law-firm marketing and business-development activity, surely those lawyers that work so hard to nurture their client relationships are highly useful. And on the other hand, if marketing can demonstrate its success with tangible facts that prove its value – that it is an investment, not a cost – then lawyers will certainly take notice.

Change in attitudes
Over the past few years, however, this has gradually become much less of a problem. And the change really is noticeable. Not only in the realisation that marketing is an integral part of any firm’s structure, but also in the understanding of exactly what successful marketing can achieve in terms of general business benefits.

“There’s a greater acceptance, in fact, expectation in many respects,” says Despina Kartson, chief marketing officer at international firm Latham & Watkins LLP. “Lawyers really understand that marketing in legal services is important to developing their practices.”

To a certain extent, the growth in acceptance of marketing can be attributed directly to the changing role of the legal marketer, many of whom are more actively involved at the management level.

New ideas and influences are also coming to the fore. More and more skilled marketers from backgrounds outside the law, and professional services in general, are entering law firms. A few years ago, this may not have been so warmly received. “Some partners would have been more comfortable with someone who was a lawyer transferring into marketing, or who had a law-firm background,” says Beverly Landais, director of marketing and business development at international firm Baker & McKenzie.

It is also taken as a given that successful marketing requires full backing from a firm’s partners and senior management. These individuals are instrumental in ensuring that marketing staff have the support they need to drive through behavioural and strategic change. To some extent, too, a firm’s management is ultimately responsible for making sure that those who actively participate in marketing are rewarded and those that continue to give it a frosty reception are made aware that this is unacceptable.

When management is committed, the individuals who drive the firms’ marketing strategies forward have much more scope in the activities they are able to pursue. For Andrew Powell, director of marketing at UK firm CMS Cameron McKenna LLP, this means a more active role in client relationships – something that he and his team have been concentrating on for some time. “We try to build up with short steps,” says Powell.

This means advising partners and lawyers and helping them to prepare for client meetings, as well as attending those meetings with them. There is a real focus on proving the marketing team’s business-development capabilities and client-management skills, while building trust and cooperation with partners. “We’re not trying to move into a position where partners are comfortable with us going out and selling on their behalf,” says Powell.

Indeed, the majority of firms now fully understand that effective, innovative marketing strategies are born out of a supportive, forward-focused culture, where the marketing function is ‘cherished’ at all levels of the organisation.

This culture, says Kartson, has long been established at Latham & Watkins. “The firm has been very supportive of the business-development department and the marketing initiatives we put forth, for a very long time,” she says. “It isn’t necessarily a new shift in attitude.”

However, there are still a number of grey areas for marketing professionals to navigate. While understanding and acceptance of law-firm marketing is improving fast, there is still some stigma surrounding relationships between lawyers and marketers. This is evident in those firms where change takes years rather than months – if it happens at all. And where lawyers continue to struggle to recognise the role they play in firm-wide marketing efforts, or do not see how marketing becomes a revenue generator, not merely an outpouring of resources.

“Marketers spend their time going back and forth between organisational change and pure external-facing marketing,” says Anne Malloy Tucker, chief marketing officer at US firm Goodwin Procter. “You’re always trying to align the entire organisation because marketing is everything. It’s everything you do, everything you communicate. So, the organisational change, education and alignment process involves a lot of focus on the internal structure.”

For Malloy Tucker, this is all part of a natural learning curve. You will never get people to change their behaviours completely, overnight. The most important thing is that the marketing wheels, so to speak, have been set in motion. And those few individuals that may be slow on the uptake of new practices will eventually come through. “People understand the marketing ‘marching orders’ and ‘directives’, but they haven’t quite made it part of their day-to-day behaviour yet,” she says.

And marketers are realising that they are ultimately responsible for ensuring this happens. While it is easy to blame lawyers for cynicism towards marketing, which affects their ability to embrace new ideas, it is not always the case. Instead, training, communication and a well-thought out marketing structure are required.

Marketers are more aware that the obstacles they face actually occur in any business where change is implemented. And, as marketing in law firms is still relatively young, it is in the hands of the marketing department to communicate its goals, demonstrate cost benefits and formulate an effective business plan.

“I do think that marketing people have the responsibility to make what they do personal, specific and relevant to lawyers,” says Landais. “Sometimes, we can fall into jargon and talk about abstract concepts. And talking about something like branding in an abstract way is almost certainly going to create confusion.

Powell agrees. “We’re our own worst enemy in that we like to talk in concepts,” he says. Lawyers are usually more comfortable when they can discuss ideas and actions in more concrete terms. They like to be shown exactly what will happen if a firm completes a certain programme. They like to know exactly how it will impact them. “I think if you can broach things in these terms it becomes a little bit easier to convince them, but there is still some cynicism,” says Powell.

At her firm, Landais actively encourages her team to relate exactly what it does, and is capable of doing, to lawyers as much as possible, while making clear the contributions that they can make towards overall marketing goals. A development framework also helps to define individual roles. “It’s about making lawyers understand that they have something genuinely useful to offer,” she says.

Most important in achieving success, however, is gaining buy-in from senior and managing partners. Gillian Khan’s time as director of marketing at UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner has seen her perform some advanced marketing with the full support of her managing partner, which has enabled her to push through change relatively quickly for this type of environment.

She is a firm believer that top-level buy-in to marketing is crucial. Once you have the backing of certain, prominent individuals, it is fairly easy to trickle this message down throughout the firm. You should not set out merely to change the opinion of ‘doubting Thomases’ – use the support that you already have. “You should knock at the open doors and work with those who ‘want’ marketing,” says Khan. “There will always be marketing-orientated partners and if you work successfully with these, others will follow. Some will never join in. However, it’s bound to take a little while – it’s a natural evolution. I think the people who have succeeded are those who have enjoyed that challenge.”

One thing is for certain: marketing culture at law firms has come on with leaps and bounds. This is clearly demonstrated in those improving relations between lawyers and marketers.

There also seems to be less of a gap between the activities being practised in law firms and at other, non-legal companies. “Other sectors aren’t really doing anything differently to us now. I wouldn’t have been able to say that five years ago,” says Khan.

The lesson that can still be learnt by those in the profession is that it takes a lot of time and energy to bring around doubters to your way of thinking. But it is not impossible – and the situation is, in fact, much improved compared to attitudes ten or 15 years ago.

Excellent marketing requires forward-thinking management and strong leadership, combined with a sturdy infrastructure, effective communication and staff training. Now that behavioural barriers seem to be lifting, the rest is rapidly becoming more easily achievable.