2020 > Vision > 2020: on the road to change for legal marketing.

• Author: Calve, Joe
• Position: Cover story

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Make Way for Tomorrow

A brave new legal world is in the offing. Are you up for the challenge?

In his new book, "Tomorrow's Lawyer," Richard Susskind introduces us to the "incremental revolution" he expects for the legal industry. To hear him tell it, the emphasis is very much on "revolution."

Driven by three forces--the more-for-less challenge, liberalization and information technology--Susskind posits a legal landscape that bears about as much resemblance to the increasingly quaint world of the Am Law 200 as the terrain of Maine does to Mars. Indeed, he sees nothing less than "pervasive, irreversible, and transformational" change in the not-too-distant future.

"I am not suggesting that this means the legal sector will be turned on its head over the next three to six months," he writes. "But I am confident we will see some fundamental shifts over the next three to six years."

Susskind, widely heralded as one of the legal world's most insightful thinkers, explores in "Tomorrow's Lawyer" the same timeframe that we asked our contributors to explore in this special feature, 2020>VISION>2020: on the Road to Change for Legal Marketing. Given the many changes to this magazine, we thought it would be fun to create a centerpiece that itself is about change. So we sought a broad cross-section of the community and asked them to buff up their crystal balls and tell us what's ahead for legal marketing and business development between now and 2020. What big changes do you see in the middle distance for the legal market generally and legal marketing and business development in particular?

Why 2020? It's kind of a Goldilocks frame--not too long and not too short. And, truth be told, given our audience, it makes for a catchy and convenient marker for marketers. We hope you agree that the results, from some usual and not-so-usual suspects, make for an interesting read.

We did not, however, strictly yoke ourselves to prognostication. We also asked a few folks to look back before looking ahead. So the four inaugural inductees in 2007 to the LMA Hall of Fame--Ross Fishman, Norm Rubenstein, Sally Schmidt and Merrilyn Tarlton--graciously agreed to tell us about the biggest changes they've witnessed in their enviable careers before looking ahead and telling us what they expect tomorrow. As you might expect from such a group, it's good stuff.

We hope you enjoy the changes revealed by our experts, as well as the changes unveiled in this issue of Strategies. Please contribute to the dialogue and tell us what you see ahead. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter and let your voice be heard.

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Joe Calve is CMO at Morrison & Foerster. He leads the firm's global business development, marketing and media relations efforts. He can be reached at jcalve@mofo.com.

From Shoe Shines to Service

Firms that fail to see client happiness as their No. 1 priority are doomed

The business of law has always been decades behind "real" business. That hasn't changed in the last 30 years. From hiring cruise ship singers as directors of marketing, to dense brochures that no one ever reads, right through today when "chief" marketing officers are treated by managing partners with the same degree of consideration given to the guys who shine shoes at the airport, marketing has never had the role in law that it has in business.

Will that change by 2020? For firms that want to thrive, it has to. The relationship between firms and clients is failing, broken by a model that causes firms to pursue management schemes that put the firms at odds with clients. Pricing is one example. And think about how firms define productivity. Is it any wonder clients are upset?

But clients are the lifeblood of every firm. Firms that fail to recognize that client happiness must be their No. 1 priority are destined to fail. Firms that do recognize the supremacy of client happiness will need to integrate marketing, client service and business development into the DNA of the firm. This will be accomplished, in part, by substantially expanding the role, influence and power of the marketing director.

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Patrick Lamb, a founding member of the Valorem Law Group, is a trial lawyer and frequent author, speaker and commentator on client service. He is the author of "Alternative Fee Arrangements: Value Fees and the Changing Legal Market (2010)." He can be reached at Patrick.Lamb@valoremlaw.com.

To the Resilient Goes the Race

Client engagement will be highly customized

A significant evolution of legal marketing and business development that will occur over the next five-plus years will be the role legal marketers will play in fostering client and lawyer engagement to address the dramatically increased competitive landscape. This engagement will be both within the law firm among lawyers and outside the firm with clients.

Client engagement will take on a highly customized approach that will see legal marketers leading continuous client feedback programs, and developing highly customized client communications that are targeted to the issues and needs of clients--all delivered in real time and via mobile devices. The need for legal business developers to be nimble and resilient in their approaches to spotting trends, identifying needs and synthesizing solutions will differentiate those who contribute to their firm's future success from those who maintain the status quo.

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Within the law firm, legal marketers will drive their lawyers to develop relationships across industries, geographic regions and practice areas. They will lead their firms' efforts to engage with one another to institutionalize client relationships and identify client expansion opportunities.

The approaches legal marketers use to foster client and lawyer engagement will be centered largely on technology-based solutions, namely new media and social media channels. Marketers will use these channels to engage clients, prospects and lawyers around the solutions and results that their firms may achieve.

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Despina Kartson is the chief client development & marketing officer for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where she leads the firm's global client development and marketing strategies across 24 offices. She can be reached at dkartson@morganlewis.com.

Behold the Trusted Curator

A well-curated online or retail experience motivates the user to act in a particular way.

The lawyer as trusted curator is an emerging role that will become more fully embraced between now and 2020.The curation movement already underway in other industries (think travel, food and beyond) is catching up to law.

I predict that it will no longer be sufficient for most attorneys to function merely as trusted advisors. Would-be clients at all levels of the market increasingly are able to access information about law on their own. At the same time, most of the public does not even recognize a...