World class: what separates the best from the rest in legal marketing and business development? Plenty. Here's what the experts have to say.

• Author: Calve, Joe
• Position: Cover story

It was a happy coincidence. I started my new role as CMO of Morrison & Foerster and my work as editor of this edition of Strategies right around the same time. Why not, I thought, wed the two gigs and use my work for LMA to inform my work for MoFo? I'll kill two jobs with one stone. Sweet.

So I reached out to friends and colleagues in the legal business community and asked for their quick-and-dirty take on this question:

What are the key elements that differentiate world-class from run-of-the-pack law firm marketing and business development groups?

Well, as you might have expected, I got an earful (or is that an inboxful?). The nice thing about our community is that you'd never know we're competitors. When it comes to helping one another, everyone is off-the-chart generous. It's quite extraordinary. So before long I had plenty of fodder from a group of thoughtful and articulate professionals at the top of their game. I had their written responses, and I pulled in more in a series of follow-up conversations.

That's when the flaw in my plan became evident. I figured all I'd have to do is a wee bit of editorial grooming, ship it off to the folks at Strategies and be done with it.

Ha! People in our little subculture are so generous that I had more good stuff than I had expected. No way I could just use it all verbatim. So I actually had to work--winnow it down, shape it up and otherwise find a way to get as much in as possible. And that's what's included in this feature.

So what separates the best from the rest? As many said, it's no one thing. There were, however, plenty of attributes mentioned again and again. In no particular order, here are the top 10:

1. Passionate and vocal support for business development from firm leaders.

2. Real and significant involvement in setting and informing the strategy of the firm and its practices.

3. A shared passion for and commitment to the quality of the work across the group, coupled with a natural tendency to go above and beyond in delivering impeccable client service.

4. True integration of the business development, marketing and communications functions.

5. A hot and active sales program run by staff with a clear grasp of the economics that drive law firms and client buying behavior.

6. Practice and staff leaders who actively filter opportunities and have the spine to say no ... gently.

7. Sophisticated and well-embedded systems and processes--the tools and the talent--that enable the group to get off the treadmill and sprint out front.

8. A client-facing approach that sees the department leading the charge on programs to get out and mix it up in the firm's markets.

9. Incisive business intelligence capabilities complemented by an ability to analyze the data and present it in a clear and actionable way.

10. Smart and simple metrics that distinguish activity from effectiveness by gauging the impact of initiatives that drive business.

Oh, yes, two more things. One was mentioned so frequently by so many people that it would seem to go without saying. So we better say it: resources.

Without adequate resources--people, budgets, training, technology--to meet the day-to-day and strategic expectations of the firm, all the rest of it is pretty much for naught. This is not to say world-class teams can't make marketing mountains out of budgetary molehills--the best in class are masters of the more-with-less school of legal marketing--but to truly ascend to the highest ranks you need more than chewing gum, duct tape and baling wire. You need bucks and bodies. Otherwise, it's all hat and no cattle.

One other thing was not mentioned much at all, which may be yet another byproduct of the Great Recession. Going on two years now, much of the talk among the legal marketing cognoscenti has turned to "making the cash register ring" and such as that. But nary a word about branding. That's a pretty big hole. It's nice, therefore, that the team from Greenfield weighed in with their take on world class.

That's 10+2. So make it a nice round dozen.

Make Strong Lateral Moves

One initiative that we know sets Crowell & Moring apart from other firms is our practice of putting the marketing department at the center of our lateral integration program. Our department assists practice groups in identifying, assessing and connecting with lateral candidates using competitive intelligence toolsets. We are part of the team that meets with the candidate during his or her first visit with the firm. We get to know and own the candidate's business plan very early on. We are part of the due diligence process. Even before the candidate is nominated for partnership we are identifying client expansion and cross-selling opportunities. Our department completes all of the new partners' marketing essentials (website bio, PR plan, internal communications, announcements, photo, etc.) before they start at the firm (Day One). We work with the new partner starting Day One to integrate him or her both socially and from a business perspective. One of the terrific results of all of this is that the new partner knows us and depends on us from the very beginning.

Jose Cunningham is chief marketing and business development officer at Crowell & Moring LLP. He is based in Washington, DC.

Go the Extra Mile

World-class status begins with the group's involvement in helping to set or inform the strategy of the firm and its practices. The most outstanding groups share a passion for and commitment to the quality of the work product across the group. They truly integrate the marcom, biz-dev and communications functions. Group members have a clear grasp of the economics that drive law firms and client buying behavior, and they are supported by sophisticated and institutionalized systems and processes that enable them to function proactively. Finally, on a more personal level, world-class groups are made up of people with two key traits: a natural willingness to go the extra mile in delivering outstanding client service and a shared sense of urgency.

Anne Malloy Tucker is chief marketing officer of Goodwin Procter, where she has led the firm's marketing and business development team for 10 years. She was previously the national director of Field Marketing for KPMG. She is based in Boston.

Forget the Magic Bullets

Drawing from my meetings with managing partners and chairs of top law firms, world-class marketing and business development groups have leaders (whether they're titled CMO, chief sales officer, director or otherwise) and teams that share common traits. At the leadership level, the head of a top group tends to have a business background that extends beyond just law firms. He or she is able to adapt--through extreme patience, of course--business models drawn from that experience to law firms. Successful CMOs employ significant metrics to gauge the profitability of projects that drive new business. They are not micro-managers; rather, they understand the importance of strong team members who are given the space to run their own show, and they constantly demonstrate the benefits of...