Evolving with the industry.

• Author: Roach, Betsi
• Position: From the Desk of the Executive Director

The evolution of our profession is a living testament to the incredible changes that have occurred in the legal industry throughout the past several years. And as the industry and the legal marketing and business development profession progresses, so does LMA.

To provide transparency around the strategic direction of your association and to ensure this direction reflects the needs and professional realities of LMA members, this executive director's column will communicate LMA's overarching goals and activities. I encourage you to read these columns and share your input about LMA--where we are now and our vision for the future--with me, international board members or your chapter board leaders. Together, we will continue to make LMA an invaluable professional resource.

In this inaugural column, I'd like to discuss LMA's strategic plan. Our current strategic plan began taking shape in summer 2008 when the LMA board asked Russell Lawson of The Virginias chapter to lead a task force charged with identifying goals for LMA over the next several years. After a great deal of research and discussion, the board approved a plan in late 2008 defining tactical implementation steps to achieve four primary goals:

* Be a cohesive global legal marketing community

* Become a respected thought leader

* Be a leading provider of legal marketing learning opportunities

* Have an effective infrastructure--staff, technology, resources, governance

The economic downturn in 2009 forced LMA to rethink its practices and business model, and many implementation steps were put on hold as we adjusted to deal with the new economic situation in the legal industry and world around us. In 2010 and 2011, our objective was to expand programs as cost effectively as possible. We refined and rolled out the LMA Core Competencies for all education offerings; introduced Shared Interest Groups (SIGs) to support knowledge-sharing among LMA members with common interests; implemented a new membership dues structure, including a discounted rate for individuals joining in groups; upgraded the service provider directory; created a speaker database for chapters; improved the Job Bank functionality; and increased collaboration with other legal industries. The objective of all these programs was to strengthen our global community through professional development and networking opportunities.

At our January 2012 board meeting, board members spent strategic thinking time to reassess LMA's goals...