Meet the new fundamentals.

• Position: PACKAGE INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time, long before the first legal marketers wandered the earth, a great and mighty beast ruled the land. Its name was Martindale.

As legend has it, any lawyer fortunate enough to earn the favor of the fearsome creature would be enshrined in its many-paged "holy book." To the truly blessed would come the ultimate glory: a coveted "AV" rating. This "coat of arms" meant the lawyer's reputation would be unassailable; forever thereafter, the lawyer's success would virtually be guaranteed.

And such was law firm marketing. Oh, how times have changed.

In 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court is sued its landmark opinion in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, it unleashed the dogs of advertising on the legal profession. Corporate firms, by and large, held their noses as lawyers who directly targeted the injured and the unhappily married splashed their pitches across billboards and elbowed for the money positions in their local Yellow Pages. The corporate firms, still holding their noses, eventually produced their own ads.

Once law firms started advertising, it didn't take long for a legal marketing subculture to emerge--along with a set of fundamental skills required for the job. Mostly, at first, it was toe-in-the-water stuff. For example, the newly formed Greenfield Belser shop mustered up the first foot soldier in what would become a battalion of firm brochures. It was a terribly tasteful piece for Richmond's McGuire Woods & Battle (now McGuireWoods) with a design that aped an 18th-century, leather-bound book--a fitting reflection of the tenor of the day that caused The New York Times and Business Week to sit up and take notice of the birth of corporate law firm marketing.

Some adventurous firms plucked a secretary or receptionist from the ranks and anointed their...