TOMORROW'S LEGAL MARKETER: Preparedness Is Your Key to Success.

AuthorShunk, Marcie Borgal
PositionCover story

We live in exciting times. Myriad think tanks, publications and collaborations have been assembled to tackle the daunting task of divining how our industry will respond to a broad range of challenges. However, this crystal-ball prognostication, though thought-provoking and engaging in its creativity, is not what will determine our success.

In their book, "Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck," Jim Collins and Morten Hansen dispel the notion that the most successful companies reap rewards by more accurately predicting the course of future events or more rapidly responding to change (which is somewhat comforting given the death grip most law firms have on traditional business practices). The authors' key takeaway is, instead, that preparedness is the primary differentiator that separates those who succeed from the rest of the pack. Preparedness constitutes many characteristics, including a disciplined, measured approach to growth and a healthy dose of paranoia. Yet according to co-author Hansen, "The key principle is to be prepared before the storms hit."

The change in our industry promises to keep many of us engaged and energized for years to come. For some, it may seem daunting. For many, it opens a world of opportunity. It is our vision that teams of us will come together to bring the specialized skills and resources to help us prepare our law firms for a better tomorrow. Following are some of the many trends we envision needing to understand to become tomorrow's legal marketer.

The T-Shaped Professional: What Is the Base of Your "T"?

The evolution of talent theory advocates for the development of T-shaped professionals --individuals who possess a wide, yet limited, range of general knowledge supported by sophisticated expertise, or depth, in one to two narrow areas. Our role up until recently had been to be experts in legal marketing and students of a broad range of disciplines tied to the delivery of legal services. As our law firms have grown larger and more complex, so has our profession. Today's legal marketers may not be "marketers" at all; they may be communications specialists, technology advocates or business developers (aka salespeople). Tomorrow's legal marketers will be even more specialized and their extended wealth of knowledge even greater.

For those of you who are more seasoned in your careers, success skills for tomorrow's legal marketer include:

* Managing professionals whose depth of knowledge in a specialized...

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