You can imagine the job ad now - "Leading global law firm seeks new marketing/BD/Comms. Not required to provide strategic advice on firm's future direction, will often be ignored."
This is, says a survey published in The American Lawyer this week not that far from the truth.
C-suite non-lawyer professionals feel under-utilised with little influence over how their firm is run, despite often managing marketing budgets in excess of US$2m.
Despite many marketing and BD teams pulling their firms up by their bootstraps, the role is still largely unrewarding and unrecognised.
We are, in part, to blame. Unlike our colleagues in FMCG and B&C brands, we do not celebrate our successes and achievements.
Rarely in the past 12 years as editor of the PSMG Magazine have I seem a marketing team approach me wanting to showcase their work or latest campaign. Why not?
Marketing and BD teams need to focus as much on the internal marketing of what they do and their achievements as they do on marketing their fee-earning colleagues.
Are you a law firm executive? Do you feel underutilized by the partnership you serve? You're not alone. A survey released Wednesday by ALM Intelligence found 39 percent of the growing law firm executive ranks did not feel they played a pivotal role affecting the future of their firms. There is no doubt law firm management roles for nonlawyer professionals have blossomed over the past decade. But the survey shows that some firms still struggle with empowering those professionals to manage increasingly complex businesses. Giving C-suite executives greater influence is the last and perhaps most difficult step in the industry's long slog away from being managed solely by lawyers.
