THE MARKETER'S GUIDE TO LAW FIRMS
HOW TO BUILD BRIDGES BETWEEN FEE EARNERS AND FEE BURNERS IN YOUR FIRM
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Are you a marketer or business development professional who works in a law firm and finds it difficult to get projects off the ground?
Are you frustrated by your firm’s slow decision-making process?
Do you find the lawyers you work with to be both risk averse and resistant to change? Are you concerned that many of them perceive the marketing team as ineffective and unresponsive?
Or are you a marketer who has just landed your first job in a law firm? Do you feel you’ve entered an unfamiliar world defined by hierarchy, as well as a rigid binary distinction between fee earners and fee burners?
If so, The Marketer’s Guide to Law Firms: how to build bridges between fee earners and fee burners in your firm is a must-read book.
In this succinct and insightful journey through law firms, Dr Genevieve Burnett and Sally King demonstrate that the primary reason these organisations struggle with marketing is that, in most of them, there is a fundamental problem with the relationship between lawyers and marketers.
The reality is that most law firms, whether they are located in New York, London or Sydney, are failing to market themselves effectively. They are also finding it challenging to adjust to life in cyberspace. Yet, everyone agrees that firms need to transform if they are to survive both increased competition and digital disruption.
What causes this gap between lawyers and marketers? Why is this relationship so often dysfunctional?
Is it a result of how firms are structured?
Is it due to their culture?
Is it caused by the different way lawyers and marketers think?
This book will help you understand what makes lawyers and their firms tick. It’s designed for law firm marketers who are just starting out, marketers who are more experienced but new to law firms, and for anyone who simply wants to build stronger and more productive relationships with the lawyers they work with.
You will learn about how law firms operate, and the different ways lawyers and marketers think, analyse and strategise. You will also discover the personality traits that are unique to lawyers, and that often baffle marketers and business development professionals.
Most importantly, this book will give you the analytical framework to build more productive relationships with lawyers, so you can work together to create marketing and business development campaigns that deliver concrete results.
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Praise for
THE MARKETER'S GUIDE TO LAW FIRMS
HOW TO BUILD BRIDGES BETWEEN FEE EARNERS AND FEE BURNERS IN YOUR FIRM
'Sometimes when a client poses an insoluble problem, I have said "I wish I had a magic button to push that would solve it for you". For marketing professionals within law firms, this book is the "magic button".
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This work by Genevieve and Sally exemplifies synergy. Together, they demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of both law firms and law firm marketing professionals and how the two might interact in a better world.
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If being a marketing professional in a law firm were a game, then, reading this book would be called cheating because by reading it the marketing professional’s chance of winning would rise meteorically.'
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Gerald A. Riskin
Founder
EDGE INTERNATIONAL: a global consultancy to the legal profession
'The Marketer's Guide to Law Firms is both insightful and succinct with a sprinkling of humour. I believe it should be a 'must read' for anyone working in marketing or business development in a law firm whether they are a coordinator, manager or director. In fact, it should be a prerequisite for any promotion within the marketing team of a law firm.'
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Linda Evans
Partner
CLAYTON UTZ
'An engaging, useful and unflinchingly honest read, The Marketer’s Guide to Law Firms calls out some of the most fundamental barriers to effective collaboration, understanding and respect between "fee earners" and "fee burners". It doesn’t leave it there, though - but goes on to offer practical solutions.
This book is likely to be highly useful to anyone working in a business services or support role within a law firm - not just marketers! Even (ex)lawyers might learn something(!)
Those who regularly work with lawyers and law firms will recognise many of the dynamics that Sally and Genevieve describe, and appreciate the practical and insightful tips for navigating what can seem like insurmountable challenges.'
Stephanie Abbott
Director
JANDERS DEAN
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'The Marketer's Guide to Law Firms is a wonderfully direct and authentic reflection of law firms and the types of personalities you are likely to encounter. From a lawyer's point of view, this book holds a mirror to some uncomfortable truths that really should be faced up to by any lawyer, especially if they want to be instrumental in the management, marketing and improvement of the legal sphere. I can see this being a very useful tool for anyone entering the legal sector, no matter what their entry point is.'
Veronica Hartley
Partner
RIAA BARKER GILLETTE (UK)
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'Readers looking to make a career in law firm marketing will find Genevieve and Sally to be honest, non-nonsense guides through the uncomfortable truths of law firm life. Pithy and easy-to-read, The Marketer’s Guide to Law Firms is rife with insights on how “non-lawyers” can survive and thrive in what can often be an alien and hostile environment.'
Mitchell E. Kowalski M.A. LL.M. ICD.D.
Barrister and Solicitor
GOWLING WLG VISITING PROFESSOR IN LEGAL INNOVATION, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY LAW SCHOOL
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The Marketer's Guide to Law Firms
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The Marketer's Guide to Law Firms
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