The Global Legal Post is holding its annual Law Firm Marketing Summit on 7 November, and in advance has commissioned a report that finds lawyers couldn't give a stuff about their marketing and BD teams.
Just 18% of the lawyers asked say that their marketing and BD team is 'highly valued', and a further 33% saying it is 'of some value'.
By inference, this report is saying that 82% of fee-earners think that their marketing and BD team is a complete waste of time.
Now, admittedly, the report doesn't say how many people they asked - I'm guessing not many. But, this is still as depressing as it is shocking.
I remember some 20 plus years ago, one of the speakers at this event holding serious discussions with their then employer - a law firm that no longer exists - on getting rid entirely of the marketing and BD team. It seams that not much has moved on.
But it has. Law firm marketing teams are incredibly sophisticated, delivering projects, new clients and work that lawyers themselves could simply not do.
Yes, they still do lots of stuff - and it is perhaps that stuff that is more visible. Marketing teams, for example, will for the next few weeks buried in Legal 500 and Chambers submissions.
Perhaps now is the time to say 'stuff it' to stuff, and give that time over to marketing the marketing department.
Many law firms do not value their business development and marketing executives and fail to measure return on investment on initiatives from the departments. According to new research, only 18 per cent said their marketing and business development functions are highly valued whilst 33 per cent said they were 'of some value'.
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