Question of the Week
Do you market yourself proudly, reluctantly or not at all?
Posted Dec 10, 2008 2:46 PM CST
By Sarah Randag
We’re admittedly a few weeks late to this particular discussion, but couldn’t resist pulling our readers in, especially as we call special attention to legal bloggers this month with our Blawg 100 feature.
“In the past week or so, the great debate in the legal profession—legal marketing—has reared its head, again. And it has brought out the zealots on both sides. Within the profession, legal marketing is a hot-button issue like abortion, gay rights and stem cell research,” blogger Susan Cartier Liebel wrote at Build a Solo Practice (click here for the rest of her post), seemingly in response to posts by Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice about lawyers marketing themselves on via legal blogs and / or devoting blogs to the topic of legal marketing.
“The problem is that this obsession with marketing makes the legal profession, if you're not laughing when I use the word profession, look pathetic,” Greenfield wrote. Click here for the rest of that post. In a subsequent post, he wrote, “I believe that the legal marketing trend is one of the most destructive forces to the legal profession there is, and I am against it. … Lawyers do not need to demean themselves to make a living. They need to know how to be great lawyers.”
Liebel again: “To say in any way shape or form that lawyers, new or old, should not market, shows a lack of understanding about what marketing is. It is my experience that those who claim lawyers 'shouldn't market ... it's not dignified' are not really talking about marketing at all. We all market in everything we do, intentionally or not.”
This prompts us to ask you: What do you do, if anything, to promote yourself as a lawyer? And what would you never do in the name of self-promotion?
Answer in the comments below.
Read last week's question and answers about your reading list.
Our favorite answer from last week:
Posted by Alabama: "I like to read the obituaries every morning to see who accomplished something with their life versus those who billed 2250 hours and had no life."
- How B of A’s GC Got Fired: Leave Now, and Leave Your BlackBerry Behind
- Schools Ranked by 'Super Lawyers' Produced
- Law Firm Price Wars Break Out as Some Try ‘Loss Leader’ Bids for Work
- Five Questions for Law Firms Abandoning Lockstep Compensation
- Judge Jails 2 Attorneys for Contempt in 4 Days
- Reed Smith Will Ask Nonequity Partners to Pony Up Possibly 15% of Pay
- Court Deputy Ordered to Apologize or Face Jail After Taking Lawyer's Paperwork
- Skadden Jumps on the Bonus Bandwagon
- ABA Executive Director Resigns
- Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in E-Mail Cost 2 Their Jobs
Should Supreme Court Justices Be Able to Review News Accounts Before Publication?
Comments
B. McLeod
Dec 10, 2008 3:19 PM CST
Only in the sense that trying to do a good job would be “marketing” according to one of the cited authors.
The problem with other forms of “marketing” has been ongoing for at least two decades now. About 17 years ago, a partner in a local law firm asked me to review a book he was considering buying, concerning “Marketing the Law Firm.” The notion that you would try to attract and retain clients by actually doing competent legal work, and at a fair price, appeared for the first time in Chapter 7 of the book. I guess the author felt compelled to mention it as a possible desperation strategy, if all the BS in Chapters 1-6 proved insufficient. The problems is, the book must have been a best-seller, because law firms have been following that same approach. The problem with law firm “marketing” in this country (maybe the world) is that doing a good job for a fair price is still languishing back there in Chapter 7. As a result, many clients, and no few law firms, have also ended up in (a different) Chapter 7. It is demeaning to law as a profession because so much inconsequential and valueless crap has been put ahead of skill and professionalism in the competition for clients.
Flag this comment
Charles J. Cochran, Jr.
Dec 11, 2008 1:41 PM CST
We market with every action, word and deed and that type of marketing probably has the most long term effect. I see nothing wrong with bringing out your particular talents and abilities for a greater base of people to see. I thing that the way this is done is probably the greatest problem that we face when the word marketing is used. It will always be a problem in our profession since there is such a pull between the words profession and business. It will remain the duty of the Attorney who is marketing to walk that fine line between those two words. I do actively market my abilities but mostly on a one on one basis and that is probably what attorneys have done for themselves since the profession began. I belong a bar sponsered legal referral service but any marketing they do is for the group as a whole. My sole print marketing, other than a general business page phone book two liner, is by listing myself and my specialty at the bar association website. However, what we do is both a profession and a business and I would like to think myself flexible enough to see an opportunity and move into it without castigating myself for being too commercial. It would be nice to have a clear answer to this question but like most things in life I question whether one exists.
Flag this comment
Matthew Austin
Dec 12, 2008 6:41 AM CST
We specialize in representing management in the niche area of National Labor Relations Work (everything pertaining to unions) and spend very little money on marketing our firm. Although we have just four attorneys in our Columbus, Ohio firm, we have developed a great reputation as being tough negotiators and achieving our clients’ goals which directly translates into word of mouth marketing from satisfied clients. As a result, we have clients spread all across the state.
I used to work at a much larger firm where marketing/advertising was king and the firm’s name was on stadium billboards, etc., but I can’t say that much revenue was ever derived from that form of advertising. I believe that advertising has a place for certain areas of law, i.e. personal injury, dui, etc., but not for the area that I practice.
The greatest form of marketing I use is simply letting people I meet know precisely the type of law I practice. Whenever I’m asked “what do you do,” I go beyond the typical, “I’m a lawyer” response and give my 10 second elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a great ice breaker to further market yourself and your firm through follow up questions and conversation, and eventually, referrals will come your way.
Flag this comment
Elisabeth S
Dec 12, 2008 7:48 AM CST
As a small town ‘family law only’ lawyer, who arrived just 2 years ago ‘from way’, marketing means a web presence, membership in the local Chamber of Commerce with the catchy elevator speech at functions, but most of all delivering excellent client service, with empathy. The clients come by word of mouth. That said, driving a big F150 truck with bush bar and cross country lights (needed in snow country living on a cattle farm) with my firm name and telephone # and the words"Family & Collaborative Law” tastefully (yes, tastefully, not garish) stencilled on the back and side doors gets you noticed everywhere. Amazing how many clients hold the idea that if ‘a lady’ can handle a truck, she sure can handle their case…
Flag this comment
Stone
Dec 12, 2008 8:19 AM CST
What good is quality legal work at a fair price if nobody knows about it?
I started looking for business right out of law school and I did not grow up here. That means nobody has heard of me and I do not have a lot of wealthy family friends that can hire me. But I can do good work at a competitive price, and I need a way to tell people that fact.
Networking is the sole of marketing. Word of mouth is what gets you the good business, and everything else in marketing is just to generate that word of mouth. So I have built a website, gotten listed in local phone directories, given free seminars to the community and become active in my local Chamber of Commerce. What is tacky about any of that?
Flag this comment
deirdreoc
Dec 12, 2008 8:43 AM CST
Lawyers have to get out of the high horse mindset that what they do is so “special” that it is demeaning to have to market themselves (or provide good customer service, which to me is the same thing). Lawyers provide a service, just like any other service industry, and with rare exception, there are plenty of attorneys who can provide the same service that you provide.
As a general counsel who hires attorneys across the country, my baseline expectation is that any attorney I hire is going to give me quality legal work. I distinguish who to hire or who to continue to give work to based on the way they provide the other intangibles of customer service; prompt responses, sharing of information on topics of interest to my company and reasonable billing. As has been stated above, networking is the key to marketing and nothing works better for generating new clients than having your exisitng clients recommend you. It is the primary way in which I find new attorneys, and I regularly do the same for other in-house counsels and friends and professional contacts in business.
Flag this comment
Ed Poll
Dec 12, 2008 8:57 AM CST
Everyone markets ... all the time. The only issue is whether you market poorly or whether you market well. Marketing is nothing more than persuading another of the validity of your idea, or your availability and ability to help the person deal with their challenge. Given that, then whether you are the person the prospect wants to engage ... Thus, marketing includes how you dress, how you eat, how to speak, what you say ... everything about you and how you present yourself and your ideas.
Flag this comment
Mark Wing
Dec 12, 2008 9:17 AM CST
Speaking as a brand strategy consultant I can tell you that a professional services business needs to think just as seriously about how it goes to market as a consumer oriented business do. I’d be happy to explain how a law firm can “proudly” market itself while at the same time building a positive brand reputation. You can contact me via www.marquewing.co.uk
Flag this comment
JessicaB
Dec 12, 2008 9:19 AM CST
Definition of Marketing
The following definition was approved by the American Marketing Association Board of Directors:
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
I believe that people who think that marketing doesn’t have a place in the legal profession do not understand what it is. It is sad to see so many people who think that marketing, business development, advertisting and public relations are one and the same and simply dismiss it as something you do when you don’t have a product or service of value.
Flag this comment
Richard Potter
Dec 12, 2008 9:41 AM CST
Ed Poll has it right. After three decades of practice, I became the Director of Marketing and Business Development at the same large Canadian law firm. At a seminar I gave to young lawyers on how to better connect with clients, I can still recall with fondness (and some surprise) that a young lawyer suddenly said (as if a cartoon light bulb had switched on over her head): “oh - you mean marketing is just asking the client what they need and then working to fill that need?” QED.
Flag this comment
JDirk
Dec 12, 2008 9:43 AM CST
At my firm, we market ourselves through interpretive dance.
Flag this comment
John V. Dowdy, Jr.
Dec 12, 2008 10:01 AM CST
These days it seems to be a novel idea - - - the notion that quality legal work and satisfied clients in whom we take a personal interest are our best marketing tool. I have found this to be my best and, actually, only marketing, outside of a bisic yellow pages listing.
Flag this comment
Angie
Dec 12, 2008 10:03 AM CST
Jessica is completely right. My sister is a Marketing Director with a publishing company. For the last several years I have learned about marketing through her, during both her education and her job experience. Anyone who says that law firms should not market, that it is closer to gay rights and stem cell research or that the practice is disgusting should go to a good business school and take a couple classes in marketing.
Flag this comment
Amanda Boyer
Dec 12, 2008 10:11 AM CST
Let’s begin with a definition of marketing, “an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders”. If you replace the word customers with clients is that not true for the majority of law firms? I find it interesting that people can have this discussion with understanding what marketing is by definition. I guarantee those firms who claim they don’t market their firm, do in one way or another. These firms may be practicing it’s buzz marketing instead of traditional marketing, meaning they are not placing advertisements in publications however they are more than likely utilizing word of mouth opportunities, however they are simply uneducated in the field of marketing which allows them to believe they don’t practice any marketing techniques. Doing great work with your firm and then telling other individuals who have the potential to influence prospect clients, is by definition buzz marketing. In fact here is an even easier example of marketing, any time you do Customer Relationship Management, that falls under the category of marketing. It’s odd to me that people are so appalled at the thought of acquiring new clients through marketing because if you don’t have clients…aren’t you out of a job?
Flag this comment
Gary Winter
Dec 12, 2008 10:17 AM CST
“Demean themselves” by marketing? What an incredibly outdated and narrow minded view of practicing law Mr. Greenfield must have to suggest that communicating what we do and why we are appropriate for a client’s needs is somehow beneath us… I suppose he would also say that lawyers are too good for alternative billing arrangements, higher levels of client / attorney communications, more efficient production of work product using information technology and other needs that our clients are begging for. Wake up. This stodgy industry is several decades behind reality. I hope he stays there. In the meantime, I’ll continue “demeaning myself” while I’m growing my practice by communicating to prospective clients through various methods!
Flag this comment
Allyson Shepston
Dec 12, 2008 10:22 AM CST
If we don’t market, people who need our services don’t know we are here. Not everyone can find the right attorney by word of mouth. Providing legal services with a high degree of professional integrity is the best “marketing,” and beyond that, anything honest should be fine. I practice in a small town, my ad is in the yellow pages and, at times, the local paper. I get about half my business from those two sources, and the other half comes from word of mouth referrals. I think the issue is the less-than-honest advertising/marketing that goes on. The answer is not to stop attorneys and firms from marketing altogether.
Flag this comment
FlaLawyer
Dec 12, 2008 10:50 AM CST
My firm does advertise, but that is distinct from the marketing I do for myself. I use online social networking to interact with my friends and colleagues. I do volunteer work to get involved in my community. I do not troll for clients, but I am aware that I am putting myself out there as a lawyer with my friends, colleagues and community, too. I am aware that those people are my referral base, and that I represent my firm and our profession to them as well. By thinking of those activities as a form of marketing, I keep in mind that the impression I make will be reflected in my business.
Flag this comment
Concerned Law Student
Dec 12, 2008 11:03 AM CST
From an optimistic 3L in Charlotte:
The average first year attorney makes approxiamately $60K. That’s extremely unfortunate for those of us who went to college out of state and then went to law school, like myself. I didn’t have scholarships that amounted to much at either institution. Now, I’m not supposed to market! I suppose if I don’t get a job in this deplorable economy I should just sit at home with the hope that my friends and family bail me out with either money or clients. That way the client will know that they got a better attorney and presume my work product is better because I didn’t advertise (I mean market b/c clearly they’re the same thing - sarcasm in case the tonality and point didn’t properly come across).
All of this is ridiculous conversation with sour ponderings of “to market or not to market”. I don’t believe attorneys are desperate as one commentor stated. I believe they’re by and large ambitious. Studies show that attorneys typically have Type A personalities. Therefore, attorneys will tend to meet challenges and find opportunities as opposed to waiting on good fortune to bless them.
Isn’t it rather nonsensical to believe that any of the large firms that exist today do so or came to be prominent without marketing. I defer to the definition and I believe most of these large firms would have their picture beside that definition if it popped up in a pictorial version of the Black’s Law Dicitionary (not that one exists I was just being funny, sucks for you if you didn’t laugh). Come on people, let’s get informed, let’s stay sensible, and let’s be serious.
Good Fortune,
*Law student from one of the too many new schools accredited by the ABA. Thanks for the shout out!
Flag this comment
alicia frick laguarda
Dec 12, 2008 12:06 PM CST
pickuup trick lady, ed poll and gary winter said it best, and let me add, guys, remember the infamous Marketing Mix or “Four Ps of Marketing”? They include product, price, place and promotion. Promotion is just one of the four, not the only one.
Flag this comment
curtis
Dec 12, 2008 12:22 PM CST
My undergraduate degree is in Marketing. The problem is not marketing, the problem is attorney’s who do not know how to market. The disgust should not be aimed at marketing but at attorney’s who ignorantly attempt to market with no knowledge on the subject. To anyone who think attorney’s demean themselves by marketing, throw away your business cards, for that is marketing.
Flag this comment
James
Dec 12, 2008 12:49 PM CST
Do your own straw poll, and you will find the used car salesmen have moved out front. It is the sanctioned ruination of professionalism. Yes, comment 1. is right.
Flag this comment
Alexis Martin Neely, www.LawBusinessSecrets.com
Dec 12, 2008 1:30 PM CST
What a juicy topic! If you 100% believe in your services, you have a moral obligation to market them effectively so that when people need you, they find you. Otherwise, they’ll find someone else and that someone else may not do as great of a job for them as you will. If you own your own law firm, you are in the marketing business - the business of marketing legal services. If you don’t want to learn to be a great marketer, go get a job working for someone who will market for you and feed you the clients.
Flag this comment
Chelsea Moser, www.personalfamilylawyer.com
Dec 12, 2008 1:42 PM CST
In order to be successful, one must market themselves. Regardless of being an attorney or not. Your crazy if you don’t want to market and promote yourself and your services. Attorney’s need to market themselves so people in need can find them. If you don’t market yourself, you’re simply not doing your job and not helping clients in need. Come on people!
Flag this comment
Very Sad
Dec 12, 2008 1:43 PM CST
I am most saddened by the efforts of marketers here to market their marketing. Lawyers under the semantics, but you don’t understand lawyers.
To the rookies and law student, prove your worth and you will attract clients. No one promised you wealth the moment you left law school.
To the marketers, this isn’t about having business cards. Please don’t insult us. And no, you aren’t “dignified” just because you says so. And no, preferring not to scream “hire me” has nothing to do with client service. Indeed, just the opposite. That’s one part of how good lawyers stay very busy.
We don’t market. We practice law, and if we do it right, the “marketing” takes care of itself.
Flag this comment
Eddie
Dec 12, 2008 1:45 PM CST
My firm refuses to advertise. The senior partner believes that word of mouth brings in good clients and that our reputation is our best form of advertising. Still, I sometimes feel hidden in my satellite office far from HQ. I have spent the past two years “marketing” myself and my firm by providing pro bono advice, by establishing a good relationship with legal aid and other service providers, and by generally being available to anyone who has a question in my field. Volunteering my time and some of my knowledge has paid off in name recognition and, more importantly for my long-term career, respect.
Flag this comment
Disgusted Associate
Dec 15, 2008 9:42 AM CST
I think the reason I have such a distaste for marketing is that when I witness the partners and associates I work with “marketing,” they do seem desperate. People roll their eyes at the “service providers” attending the local business functions as though they are annoying scumbags who came to ruin the party with all of their conceited begging. I’ve often heard partners jokingly refer to themselves (while doing said marketing) as the bottom suckers or some similar derogatory term. When I try to join a local business group, people look at me skeptically as though they’re just waiting for the “ambulance chaser” in me to come out at any moment (they can’t imagine why else I might be there). The other thing I hate is that it seems like my colleagues’ favorite marketing ploy is to suggest or even promise that we’ll be able to use our “connections” to help find investors or business targets. Why isn’t it good enough to just be a good lawyer? Why do I have to promise to act as an investment banker in order to get hired? I think I need a better marketing mentor.
Flag this comment
Ben Salha Med Ouadie
Dec 18, 2008 3:08 AM CST
Marketing as a prosessus to promote a product or service should not be denied to legal professions as a rule. Nonetheless, the way it is done must meet the ethic standard of legal professions, it have to suit the great values at the core of legal professions: justice and equity. Legal services are not like any others sevices and marketing process have to take this in consideration
Flag this comment
M.
Dec 22, 2008 10:05 PM CST
Stone: “Networking is the sole of marketing” is not good marketing.
Flag this comment
Add a Comment
We welcome your comments, but please adhere to our comment policy.
Commenting has expired on this post.