That's where the marketing director comes in. Their duties vary from firm to firm. They create branding campaigns, do promotional work, help plan strategy, put out in-house newsletters and publications for clients, plan seminars and special events, handle client entertainment, and maintain Web sites. Some help train lawyers on how to communicate better with clients. Others may handle media or government relations.
Marketing is relatively new to law firms and there's a lot to do.
Whatever their exact duties, the expertise of these nonlawyer executives has led to a huge demand for their services. Deborah McMurray, who runs Deborah McMurray Associates in Irving, which does strategic marketing for law firms, says she was the first senior marketing director hired for a Texas law firm. Since that time, in the early 1980s, firms have become more serious about marketing because of the increased competition for business, she says. Not only are more firms adding branches in Texas, but nonlegal sources, such as accounting companies, are vying for some of the same clients, she says. McMurray says marketing directors' salaries have as much as doubled in the past five years and can go well into the six figures.