Bridging the gap.

• Author: Gray, Mike
• Position: VIRGINIAS

The Virginias Chapter of LMA was founded in 1999 when a group of legal marketing professionals in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas recognized the need to nurture their professional development. The Virginias Chapter includes most of Virginia and a portion of West Virginia, which adds a geographic component to the challenge of reaching all members. This year, the chapter begins its implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan to meet this challenge.

The chapter board outlined a variety of tools designed to improve the overall cohesiveness of the chapter. One tool is the creation of a Virginias-centric listserve. This listserve will invite collaboration among legal marketing professionals across Virginia and West Virginia. Regionally specific topics such as market trends and state-specific legal rankings may be explored through this platform. A public relations initiative is another unifying mechanism to reach across the entire chapter footprint. Markets such as Charlottesville, Roanoke and Charleston are not as familiar with the Legal Marketing Association and a new outreach campaign has been launched to raise awareness.

Our chapter is particularly proud of its outstanding programming that regularly features nationally recognized speakers. It has been an ongoing challenge to bring these educational opportunities to our far-flung...