The relationship between lawyers and marketing and business development professionals at large law firms is changing.
This role has historically been seen as something like a “lawyer concierge,” that is, someone who takes direction from partners in hopes of helping generate more business, but more Firms are starting to empower business development personnel to proactively generate tips and leads for the firm's business.
Industry observers say law firms that continue to limit business development personnel to traditional narrow roles are likely to see job cuts in their marketing departments.
Recently, some law firms have already seen significant changes in their business development, marketing and communications ranks. Last year, Law.com reported on several notable staff departures at Paul Hastings and Cooley, the latter of whom announced that his marketing team would move to Fried, Frank, Harris Shriver & Jacobson in 2022. Did.
But shortly after the team moved to Fried Frank, new CMO Lynne Kirk moved on from Cooley in early 2022 and has since assumed marketing, business development and communications roles at the New York-based firm. At least 15 people have resigned. We also added several new team members. (A representative for Fried Frank declined to comment.)
Employees come and go at every company, but the relative scarcity of business development and marketing professionals with legal industry experience and their growing importance in the client acquisition business cycle Securing human resources is becoming increasingly important.
changing roles
Shade Vaughn, chief marketing and business development officer (CMBDO) at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, said his company's business development and marketing professionals are on the front lines of identifying and pursuing new business. He said he thinks there is.
“We want BD to play a different role,” he said. “We want to give lawyers an idea of when market opportunities arise and how to help clients in that area.”
Much of this, like many things in Big Law, is driven by clients' expectations that their lawyers are more than just legal experts, but understand their clients' business environments.
But one person cannot be everything to everyone.
“If you want to present to a client today, you need to understand their business environment, what their competitors are doing, how their sector is performing, and map that to our expertise,” he says. said.
Calibrate Legal founder and CEO Jennifer Johnson claimed that the company is moving “away from the lawyer concierge model” and toward a more “proactive model.”
“The ultimate nirvana is where they are [business development and marketing departments] It is known as a revenue catalyst. And even though law school grades have gotten better recently, the need will always be there because it's not an innate skill for most lawyers and they're not trained for it,” Johnson added. Ta.
Where is everyone?
“There are a lot of open positions,” said Trish Lilly, CMBDO at Thompson Coburn, referring to business development positions at Am Law 200 firms. “And some have been open for a while. The pandemic and the flexibility it has brought in where people sit has opened up more options for professionals.”
More choice means more competition for talent.
“There's been a game of collective musical chairs over the last few years,” Johnson said, referring to business development executives looking for new law firms. “But those who have tried to transfer for money have done so in the last year or so. Most are now reluctant candidates.”
Mr Johnson said this, coupled with the fact that most law firms prefer to hire from other firms, meant that “options are limited”.
Deborah Farone, former CMO of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Debevoise & Plimpton, and founder of legal industry consultancy Farone Advisors, says that, like lawyers, at the top of the profession there is a lot of competition for talented business development personnel. said to be the most severe.
“Top performers are in short supply,” she says.
Law firms also compete with other industries for talent. Lilly said some business development and marketing professionals feel constrained by working at a law firm.
“It's frustrating for them and it can be a difficult industry to work in,” she says. “While we have some incredibly smart and educated lawyers, many are not very receptive to new ideas, and this industry is not really known as a 'creative' industry. And if you're a creator, it can leave you breathless. ”
And of course, there's the challenge of workload.
Citi recently reported that the law firm is adding business development experts and others to its staff. However, many companies still often do not have enough staff to handle all business development tasks. So the people there have to do even more, which makes them want to leave (either the company or the industry) and the team becomes even more exhausted. If that happens, the remaining members will have even more work to do.
attract and retain
Like lawyers, professionals on a law firm's staff, regardless of their title, are more likely to stay with the firm if they have advancement options, good pay, and respect in the workplace. .
On the latter point, law firms can set appropriate expectations for those who rely on business development and marketing professionals.
“At the end of the day, it's about having honest conversations and meeting internal customer expectations,” said Chris Hinze, CMBDO, Steptoe & Johnson. “It's basically his one of his CMO jobs: to talk to partners or group leaders about how they're using resources and to provide air-he cover to his members of the team. It provides a reality check.”
Law firm professionals also want a clear vision. They want to know what the end goal is. And while that strategic information is often disseminated to lawyers, it may not be communicated to the business professionals they work with.
“We hold quarterly information sessions and use the same slide decks that we do with business development people and partners,” Hinze said. “I would like to know how many other companies are engaging with that level of engagement.”
Meanwhile, Farone said many business development and marketing professionals often don't have a clear understanding of what promotional opportunities are. Without it, they probably won't stay with the company for long.
“The best way to retain people is to have different tiers that they can advance through,” Farone said, referring to incremental advancement opportunities for people in these roles. “Companies often don't think about marketers and business development people in terms of career growth. It's important to apply the same principles in this regard as companies do.”
Vaughn, an Aiken native, said his vision for the team is that many of the current staff won't actually be on the team in five years.
“My hope is that five, six years from now, our team members are CMOs at Am Law 50 companies,” he said. “This shows that we have developed a culture of leadership on our team.”
