Law firms shed reluctance, take advertising plunge with professional marketers

Attorneys did not always market their services. Like medical offices, they were more like a partnership of necessary professionals than a business. But times have changed.

?Law firms as a whole understand that now, they need to run like a business,? said Lisa Simon, president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA). ?Lawyers are much more comfortable with the concept of advertising than they used to be. They are advertising more, and finding better ways to hit their target market.?

Because more and more law firms had been hiring inside and outside marketers to advertise and otherwise promote their business, in 1985, the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) was founded in Washington, D.C. At the time, it was known as the National Association of Law Firm Marketers. The non-profit group offers professional and educational support to legal marketers.

The Rocky Mountain Chapter was founded in 1997. Although most of its members work in Denver, the organization is open to the greater Front Range region, Simon said.

?In Denver, we’ve seen a rise in technical and telecom companies, which has attracted a lot of large, national law firms,? said Mark Beese, LMA member and director of marketing with Holland & Hart LLP in Denver. ?That has caused local firms to invest more funds in advertising.?

Publishers, sensing an opportunity, have ?gone after law firms aggressively,? Beese said. ?For larger firms that want to maintain a presence and smaller ones that want to gain a presence, there’s more pressure to advertise.?

Amy Morfas, marketing manager at Faegre & Benson LLP in Boulder, and also a LMA member, agrees that competition has driven the need for marketing professionals, but other factors have influenced the change.

?As our clients’ business becomes more sophisticated, they are looking for sophisticated law firm,? she said. ?Marketing keeps your name in front.?

Much of the pressure to keep on top as a law firm is therefore transferred to the marketing department, which provides the ?face? of the firm to the public. Marketers, in turn, can provide valuable feedback regarding what the public wants.

?We’re starting to see that marketers are taking part in executive decisions as to where the firm will go,? Simon said.

?Law firms as a whole are becoming more comfortable with having a non-lawyer taking part,? she added, ?and legal marketers are becoming more comfortable with stepping up to the plate to make those decisions.?

The goal of LMA is to equip legal marketers for the challenge through local chapter meetings, conferences, a monthly newsletter, awards programs, www.legalmarketing.org, job bank, leadership training and industry-specific white papers. The Marketing Directors Institute, for example, provides training for both veteran and new legal marketers.

?Legal marketing is such a young profession in general,? said LMA member Linda Sparn, who manages the Boulder office and performs marketing for Hogan & Hartson LLP. ?This organization is a central clearinghouse.?

Membership in the LMA costs $300 for national enrollment, plus an additional $60 in local dues. Firms enrolling several members may receive discounted rates.

Some LMA members are attorneys who provide marketing services for their firms; others are educated and experienced in marketing that may not include the legal industry.

?The kind of education we get is huge,? Simon said. ?There’s no certification process yet, but there’s a constant communication between different chapters and members on what’s working and what’s not working.

?Like any other trade organization, we share ideas. We find out how other people have been successful.?

Sparn, who was also a past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter, agreed.

?LMA offers a lot of resources and adds another element of professionalism,? she said. ?On the national level, there’s a lot of information from consulting and research.

?I’ve been to the national conferences, and they bring in managing partners and people from all over to give presentations.?

Meeting topics include marketing databases and how to interact with the press, for example.

Another topic, continuing education, is important because it is difficult for marketers to receive formal education in legal marketing. ?The whole field is so different from marketing a product,? Sparn said. ?How do you market a professional service when most MBA and undergrad marketing classes stress a product and not a service??

LMA members also appreciate the professional camaraderie the organization provides. ?A support system is one of the greatest benefits,? Simon said.

The local group meets monthly for social networking and annually with other chapters. ?The greatest benefit as a member is at the local level,? Simon said.

LMA has about 20 chapters, which includes more than 1,200 members in 43 states and nine countries. A board of directors, comprised of volunteer members, oversees the organization and the volunteer committees that work to meet members’ needs.

In an industry once made up of only lawyers and minimally educated administrative staff, degreed marketing professionals have many career and personal obstacles to overcome.

?As a group, we support each other and become stronger,? Morfas said. ?We have a lot of roundtable discussions. I learn a lot from my colleagues.?

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