Marketing in Europe's capital--the view from Brussels.

• Author: Forbes, Jeffrey

The rise of legal marketing in Belgium began in the late 1990s, when British Magic Circle firms--Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, Slaughter and May--significantly developed their local presence through alliances, acquisitions or starting an office from scratch with lateral hires. This was a huge change, and Belgian law firms had to react to this new competition. Some got absorbed and others staked out a niche, but many major firms, perhaps for the first time, had to hire marketers to help establish their position in the market and communicate how they differentiated from the competition.

This was the first wave of in-house marketers that focused mainly on communications and image. It also became trendy to be "full service" even if you were not. And some firms paid heavily by ramping up capacity too quickly.

The backlash came shortly after 2000 with a slowdown in the market. Suddenly clients, who were becoming spoiled for choice, began to demand more services for less money and shop around. Some of the bigger firms reacted by restructuring or downsizing, particularly the Magic Circle firms, who began to focus on fewer but wealthier clients in order to maintain their fee levels. This second period of change helped to pollinate smaller firms with lawyers as well as marketers, and this helped fuel the expansion or establishment of other British and American firms.

The American law firms have been relative latecomers and tend to associate Brussels exclusively with EU and competition law, doing such work for big U.S. and multinational clients. Some have grown a sizable Belgian law practice, but currently only Baker & McKenzie and Cleary Gottlieb are included (in the middle of the pack) on a list of the 25 largest law firms in Belgium. But after London, Paris and Frankfurt, Brussels has the fourth largest concentration...