The strategy lag.

• Author: Dance, E. Leigh

Global law firms with larger marketing teams tend to have more sophisticated functions simply because of experience and bandwidth--larger staffs, economies of scale and the acceptance of professional functional managers that are not legal practitioners (uncommon in many countries and not feasible with smaller firms). The array of legal services and the way they are offered varies greatly among firms from one country to another, and so the marketing of those services also varies This is a challenge for law firms that merge across geographies, because the marketing (and client targets) may be very dissimilar and difficult to align. I was hired by a leading South African firm to help bring partners up to speed on how clients are buying legal services around the world so the practice groups could prepare themselves to adjust their offerings and service for international clients and to compete with arriving global firms. The same is happening in Australia now with several major recent mergers.

In some U.S. firms--and often in the U.K.--client development, or sales, is more and more often split from classic marketing, which tends to be comprised of traditional communications and events Client development in U.K. firms usually incorporates customer intelligence far more actively than in their U.S. counterparts, and practice group strategy and execution is often very specific and strong. When marketing is good in the United Kingdom, it is really good--a lot of humor and creativity of execution. Taylor Wessing has teamed up with various outside partners to deliver special services to clients. The firm also sponsors the Tate Modern's photography competition, which is a great visibility play that they leverage well Allen & Overy made a big, bold investment in its open access GlobalView website, which enables clients and others to look at financial services regulatory reforms in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and globally via a timeline. It is a very rich resource that few firms could pull off. Eversheds and a number of other U.K.-headquartered global firms have strong materials and visual identities. Eversheds' materials deliver on its brand promise of transparency, predictability and innovation in delivering legal services across multiple jurisdictions. Its look and feel is admirably consistent, and its little booklets are sought after by many in-house counsel.

Recently in U.S.-headquartered firms, true innovations in client service have...