When Practice Means Business: Legal Marketing’s Future Is Now

What is going in the world of marketing and business development for law firms? Who is doing what? How do these departments collaborate with the firms’ attorneys? What does the future hold? In order to gain insight into these — and many more — questions, Bloomberg Law, in collaboration with the Legal Marketing Association, conducted a deep and far-ranging survey of legal marketing and business development professionals (many of whom are the department heads at their respective firms).

In Las Vegas earlier this week, Bloomberg Law’s Nancy Furman Paul shared the results and some analysis of the survey findings in a well-received, well-attended, and data-rich session at the annual LMA conference.  Here is a non-exhaustive round-up of key takeaways:

1. The Cross-selling Conundrum

The Bloomberg Law/LMA survey found that “cross-selling existing clients” was, by a significant margin, the No. 1 marketing/business development priority for 2017. The catch, as Nancy Furman Paul acknowledged during her session, is that cross-selling is also the No. 1 pet peeve of general counsel, who are quite obviously something of an important constituency in the business development universe.  Threading this needle is among the marketing and business development professional’s fundamental challenges.

2. Setting Strategic Priorities

Most would agree that we are witnessing a paradigm shift, from the practice of law to the business of law. Hence, marketing and business development are increasingly relevant and central to law firms. Yet, the proverbial “seat at the table” remains elusive: While 97% of the Bloomberg Law/LMA survey respondents reported marketing/business development professionals as being at least somewhat involved in supporting and implementing their law firm’s strategic priorities, only just over one-third report being highly involved in setting them. For now, marketing/business development departments wait and see if this gap closes.

3. Differentiation Disconnect

The research surfaced a disconnect between what firms are actually doing most often to differentiate themselves (i.e. “thought leadership” and social media outreach) and what marketing professionals perceive to be the most effective means of differentiation, namely “investing in client experience.” Isn’t there something oxymoronic about firms “differentiating” themselves by doing what all firms are doing? A focus on the  individual concerns of actual clients would seem the antithesis of a generic strategy.

4. CX^[1] is coming to Lawland

Speaking of clients. In 2017, clients feel entitled  to counsel who are deeply fluent in the intricacies of their specific industries and particular business problems. “Practicing law” in and of itself won’t cut it. Client expectations have changed and successful firms will adapt to meet them. The Bloomberg Law/LMA survey findings strongly suggest that marketing and business development leaders grasp this: “investing in client experience”  and “Developing greater knowledge of and expertise in our client’ businesses” were cited as important by nearly 9 out of 10 respondents.

[1] Oh, just Google it.

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Brian Dalton is the director of research for Breaking Media. Feel free to email him with any questions or comments.