May 29, 2009
Will Law Schools Ever Teach Marketing for Law Firms?
Marketing for law firms should be a subject that is taught in law school. A May 28, 2009 article in the New York Law Journal notes that hiring partners, practice chairs and recruiters at law firms would almost universally like to see law schools teach students about business development and networking. According to the article, one solution would be to offer such subjects in the context of non-credit courses. The article further notes that new lawyers need to realize that a law firm is a business and that lawyers need to contribute to the firm's bottom line. New attorneys in law firms need to understand law firm economics.
Although the New York Law Journal does not focus on this angle, the fact is that new media and social media are becoming more and more important in the world of client development and business development for lawyers. The growth rate of Twitter is phenomenal, and law students should be learning about microblogging strategies. Law students should also be learning about blogging, Internet audio creation and distribution, Internet video creation and distribution, and podcasting. In addition, law schools should provide new lawyers with the basics of copywriting and marketing a legal practice.
The third year of law school is mostly a waste of time anyway, and part of that year should be focused on client development. Will law schools take the hint from law firms and economic conditions as to what they should be teaching students to prepare them for the realities of the new economy? Probably not. Law professors generally lack marketing savvy and skills. In addition, elite law schools frown upon practical courses. If law schools ignore the necessity of giving their students grounding in social networking and social media, however, they may find themselves less relevant and in danger of forced structural change.
I welcome your comments below.
Comments on Will Law Schools Ever Teach Marketing for Law Firms? »
Good question. Yes, I agree that law schools need to begin using legal marketing experts to train law students & professors on legal marketing and communication issues.
You should know that Nancy Roberts Linder developed & delivers this training to law schools. In case you'd like to know more, I will paste her information here: Nancy Roberts Linder is the Principal of Nancy Roberts Linder Consulting, a law firm business development and client relationship management consulting practice, located in suburban Chicago. She can be reached at (708) 482-0760 or via e-mail.
Nancy,
Thanks for the information.
Bentley, to further this discussion, I will add that just having marketing and business development instruction as part of law school, which I still think is critical, then expecting new lawyers to "get it," is also not the solution.
As part of my business major in college, I had to choose 3 minor areas of emphasis. They were management, marketing and sales. As you might expect, I had wonderful insruction in each. My career started in sales, for which I am eternally grateful because I now know how to blend and teach the skills of sales/business development and marketing, and how they work together. I was nowhere near prepared to sell when I got out of college. I'm sure I would have done "okay," but not until I had extensive, continuous, on-the-job sales training did I truly engage and understand what I needed to do. Sales, or business development as we are still tempted to call it in the legal profession, needs to be taught at every level; in law school, to new Associates, and even through to Partnership depending on the skill level developed.
Likewise, my marketing education in school gave me a foundation to understand marketing, but not until I joined Time Warner and was around bosses, colleagues and a corporate culture that focused on marketing did I learn how to operate a marketing function.
All that to say that yes, we must incorporate and introduce marketing, business and business development in law school, but no one can expect their lawyers to be taken care of and ready because they've had this instruction.
Firms must still commit time, dollars and other resources relentlessly to helping attorneys become successful in these critical areas if they are to protect and grow their valuable firms they have worked so hard to build.
Nancy, I agree that learning client development during law school is just the start of a life-long process. New lawyers and seasoned lawyers need continuing legal education not just in substantive areas of the law, but also in marketing. One of my partners and I like to joke about the common wisdom that simply "doing good work" is the only business development in which a lawyer needs to engage. You are correct that law firms need to spend resources and time to help attorneys with marketing.