Legal Marketing The latest headlines and articles from Legal Marketing magazine (c) 2005, Ark Group Ltd. All rights reserved. http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=EE749C25-7EB6-487D-8BB7-9AA69381456C In his role as marketing director at UK firm Irwin Mitchell, IAN POWELL has succeded in creating a successful and well-respected marketing and business development team. Here he offers insight into his journey from marketing junior to award-winning director and reveals how he hopes to see his firm's marketing function develop in the future. Interview by Lucy McNulty. 16 August 2008 http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=79668722-84A5-491F-B73D-98EC7B44D72A When Charles Darwin wrote in his book Origin of Species that: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive or the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change” he could have been talking about an endangered species we know well – law firms which are not adapting to the changing world around them. 16 August 2008 http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=5A16EFF2-544C-4D7D-A328-9FD4A3DB8A8F Although research and analysis is undertaken by lawyers on a daily basis, its more formalised role on the support side of a law firm is still a relatively new development. This case study looks at the way law firm Osborne Clarke has developed a business research and analysis function, which offers a broad range of value-added services. 16 August 2008 http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=049CAE1C-2182-4352-A0B0-EDD1C2B88F35 Getting partner priorities right. I have recently become very involved in helping a number of law firms to define their overall expectations of their partners, (including their management and leadership responsibilities) and the criteria by which partners are assessed and rewarded. 16 August 2008 http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=12EE6392-348E-439C-A1E1-16ECC2DD7F17 As law firms grapple with recruitment and retention issues across both their legal and professional staff, the focus on ‘engagement’ initiatives has moved to centre stage. What was once exclusively the domain of the recruiting and human resources departments has now become – for forward thinking firms – a more holistic functional approach, involving marketing, communications, training and professional development, practice area management and operations. 16 August 2008 http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=17B44D53-B5F0-48BD-B393-128989B132F9 Definitions are always a good place to start. So let’s try separating tenders from pitches. Many law firms call a pitch a tender and vice versa. Odd isn’t it that folk that earn their corn by understanding precisely what words will or should mean when the guns are out and the fighting starts are swapping words that have very different meanings? 16 August 2008 http://www.legalmarketingmag.com/display.asp?articleid=9F9D8918-837F-433D-A10F-91F7FDA8E4C4 Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the buzz phrase of 2008. However, if you think that you can just pay lip service to a passing fad then think again. Where previously formal CSR policies have been the domain of governments and multinationals, business people at all levels are becoming aware that they ignore their CSR responsibilities at their peril. 16 August 2008