HISTORICALLY, law firms have been slow to adapt marketing strategies and practices to current consumer expectations. The economic downturn of the early 1990s, however, cured many law firms' reliance on this pattern and rocketed management up the marketing learning curve.

So, what's ahead? The marketing practices of high-growth firms necessarily presage the road ahead. After all, they would not thrive without anticipating the expectations of their clients. In speaking with these firms running the gamut of size and practice areas, two trends are apparent: well managed, tried-and-true practices still work well, and innovative new marketing tactics based on close inspection of client needs allow these firms to push the envelope of growth.

No Magic

Michael A. Snapper is a partner and chair of the marketing committee at Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey P.L.C., in Grand Rapids, Mich., a 100-plus attorney business and corporate law firm. The systematic management, coaching and accountability of the firm's marketing efforts through practice group development mirrors the best practices in the corporate world: well managed, multi-level, cross-functional teams deployed through practice groups.

Over a year ago, the firm's management asked all attorneys to become members of at least one practice group. There were some naysayers, but in practice, most attorneys are members of more than one of the 20 to 25 interdisciplinary practice groups (e.g., employment, manufacturing, hospital).

Each group member is accountable for a marketing action plan, complete with deadlines and assigned responsibility. The action items are reviewed quarterly, and an annual score card is linked to compensation. Associates are fully integrated into the groups. By using a carrot - not stick - approach to coaching attorneys and groups, the firm has had one of its best years in history. For example, the employment group publishes an employer's desk reference and holds an annual update meeting. Clients are given the new supplements; non-clients can buy the desk reference materials and updates. The firm has one senior member on the board of directors of the Employers Association, and teams of partners and associates rotate meeting attendance so that Miller Johnson has a constant presence.

In developing successful teams, Mr. Snapper tends to narrow the scope of action items because, as he points out, focusing on a few critical activities yields far better results. New management issues for Mr. Snapper this year reflect his steady, concentrated approach: continue to develop the practice groups, survey clients on quality issues and finish the new marketing database.

Nurturing Success

Some traditional marketing tactics, such as the client seminar, thrive with a new twist. For Sylvio L. Dupuis, executive director of New Hampshire's McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton P.A., one of the largest firms in New England, the new dynamic meant creating a client showcase luncheon at which an invited CEO client talks about his or her business and the industry, and the partners and associates listen and ask questions. Mr. Dupuis found that the standard seminar and luncheon with speaker was becoming hackneyed. The new format translates the firm's stated mission of "helping clients be successful'' by demonstrating the client's primacy to the firm and allowing associates to meet and talk to clients they have worked for but have never seen.

Leveraged technology can also play a part in helping clients be successful. Ann Roberts, information services and marketing director at Richmond, Va.'s McGuire, Woods, Battle & Booth has a license plate that reads "mwbb.com.'' The highly touted Web site that she helped create has unique features that benefit clients and other important marketing audiences.

The speakers bureau section was created to let clients know the firm could help them with attorney speakers for CLE-type programs, trade associations and retreats. The site even allows people to register and pay for firm seminars and materials with credit cards.

The Energy Group's Merchant Power Scoreboard has been quoted in trade publications, and the site pushes e-mail news from general and specialty lists. One subscriber reported forwarding the employment news e-mail to all plant managers. There are also private chat rooms that are password protected. One year ago the firm had some 380 attorneys. Today it is at the 500-plus mark. The Web site supports lawyer recruitment in both usual and unique ways. If a lawyer wants to know what it would be like to work for the firm's Chicago office, he or she can receive "chamber of commerce'' type information on Chicago, including a link to the Bulls Web page.

Not just big firms leverage technology. The Rene Larson Law Office in Thunder Bay, Ontario (www.renelarson.com) is a two-person firm. Mr. Larson and his associate do a 90-second radio show called the "Legal Minute,'' which can be heard on his Web site. The subjects are listed and the immediacy of hearing the attorneys' voices and seeing pictures of them and their staff is dramatically effective. Mr. Larson reports that he gets two files a week from the radio show.

Mark Pruner of Web Counsel L.L.C. (webcounsel.com) points out that effective Web site development starts with analyzing the site's target audience, then developing a site that serves the audience as a resource center, and finally marketing the site. Resource centers created by law firms, such as deregulation.com (Web site of Robinson & Cole in Hartford, Conn.) delivers value that works for site visitors: utility deregulation information, a discussion group and even downloadable presentations. This is a few steps beyond putting up sites as static electronic brochures. What is ahead? E-lawyering. Yes, Web sites delivering unique working value to lawyers and others, such as cybersettle.com, a site Mr. Pruner describes as one of the first dispute resolution services for insurance companies and plaintiff's attorneys. If any one of three bids submitted by either side are within 30 percent or $5,000, the disputed claim settles for the average of the two bids.

Personal Touch

John Maroccia of the Camden, N.J., firm that bears his name, gets 85 percent of his business through referrals, and he is a master of personalized marketing techniques.

Nine years ago, much to the amusement of his colleagues, Mr. Maroccia was one of the first lawyers to produce a cable TV show, "The Law and You.'' Mr. Maroccia's show delivers practical education about law-related topics including auto insurance, a simulated DWI arrest and the use of private investigators in divorce cases. Because Mr. Maroccia believes that everyone he meets is a potential client, he mails out 3,500 newsletters three times a year to his contact list; is immersed in groups in his community; and, if someone sends him a client, he will send send back a handwritten note. Even though his multimedia approach now includes a Web site, Mr. Maroccia contends that the personal touch embedded in his marketing tactics have successfully set him apart.

A picture is worth how many clients? Steven L. Kessler, of Kessler & Kessler in New York, defends clients in state and federal forfeiture and RICO cases. Mr. Kessler gets 100 percent of his clients from other attorneys, many of whom recognize him at court because he always includes a head shot with his column as the editor of the New York State Bar Association's general practice section newsletter. Writing has been Mr. Kessler's primary marketing tactic since an early journal article on New York's forfeiture statute in the mid 1980s. He has written chapters, state and federal treatises, and his latest book on New York civil and criminal forfeitures including narcotics eviction proceedings, is forthcoming. Writing has led to speaking engagements, expert commentary in the print and broadcast media and ultimately to a short, carefully managed list of attorneys who cross-refer _ in essence, a "key club.''

This key club of other attorneys, Mr. Kessler's target audience, is backed by personalized care. When a prospective client asks whether Mr. Kessler knows of an attorney who does what he does not do, he invites the prospective client and his lawyer colleague to meet in his office.

Common Themes

All of these marketing strategies have a significant common underpinning. Each one tightens the connection between the firm and the client and delivers unique values well beyond the mere delivery of legal services. While this evolution toward positioning the "personalized'' client at the heart of the marketing process takes place, it would be unwise to be blind to the roadblocks ahead. As other professional service providers, namely accounting firms, nibble at the borders of the legal market, the competitive strategies discussed above will fade into the realm of the mundane rather quickly. Down the road, successful firms will be those that play to the audience in new ways that outperform the competition every day.

Christine S. Filip, an attorney, is president of New York's Success Group Inc., The Success Group, a company that helps law firms with marketing, public relations and design.

© Copyright 2001, The Success Group

Return to Article Index Page