About the book

We decided to write The Marketer’s Guide to Law Firms: how to build bridges between fee earners and fee burners in your firm because, one day as we were talking over lunch, we found ourselves agreeing that there was a problem in the world of law firm marketing.

 

We had both noticed that most firms, especially smaller ones, were struggling to market themselves. The vast majority were getting themselves tangled in knots, especially as they desperately tried to adapt to the digital era.

 

We then talked to friends and colleagues working in the legal services industry – both marketers and lawyers. The vast majority agreed with us. There was something wrong with how most law firms marketed themselves, and the majority of firms were struggling to adjust to life in cyberspace. Even more importantly, most of them agreed there was a problem with the relationship between lawyers and marketers. Most lawyers rolled their eyes when we asked them about their relationship with the marketers in their firm. Interestingly, most marketers we spoke to had the same reaction when we asked them about their experiences of working with lawyers.

 

Then, we discovered that empirical data supported our views. There was a gap between lawyers and marketers in law firms.

 

As we talked more about the problem, we concluded that many of the problems to do with law firm marketing and the relationship between lawyers and marketers come from a fundamental difference in the way marketers and lawyers think. In addition, most firms are defined by a rigid distinction between fee earners and fee burners. Even more importantly, when lawyers and marketers were able to bridge that gap, they were having some terrific successes.

 

So, we decided to write a book about the thorny issues that cause divisions between lawyers and marketers in firms.

 

The Marketer’s Guide to Law Firms is designed to help marketers and business development professionals gain a more sophisticated understanding of both lawyers and law firms by examining the following topics:

• The trouble with law firm marketing

• Law firm structure

• Law firm culture

• The different ways lawyers and marketers think.

 

The book is designed for two types of marketers and business development professionals:

• first, marketers and business development professionals who are working in law firms and struggling to get projects off the ground

• second, marketers at every level of experience who are new to law firms and finding the culture challenging or even alienating.

 

By taking you on a journey through the structure and culture of law firms, as well as the different way lawyers and marketers think, this book will help you understand what makes both law firms and lawyers tick. We believe that understanding these issues will enable you to build more productive relationships with the lawyers in your firm. In short, it will help you devise strategies to undertake some internal marketing, and market yourself to the lawyers in your firm.

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