We are witnessing the start of the “great legal marketing validation”. Legal marketers are feeling stronger as suddenly they are the talk of the town. All it took was Fried Frank to grab up 6 marketers from Cooley. Now law firms are realizing how important marketing is — and will be.

Fried Frank’s move set the legal marketing world abuzz about whether or not the ‘Second-Class Citizen’ Treatment of Business Pros will ever change. But, ready or not, change is rearing its head. It’s not going away.

How and When the Big 4 Changed Their Mindset

In the accounting world, for example, you have many partners who are not CPAs and include marketers who work on the client side and internally. They went through a long transition period of hiring different skill levels in marketing before getting to where they are today. Mandatory retirement starts at 62 and doesn’t go much higher. So, the partnership goes through many changes over a decade. And they have closed compensation — they don’t share what marketing people get paid. At some point, they upped the salaries and talent pool.

The mindset changes when there is an external shock — like when audit clients decided there was no real difference in the Big 4 and started hammering fees in the early 80s. Accounting firms made capital calls and lost money, and 2 national firms went bankrupt. Key people were declining partnerships because of the cut in pay.

But that won’t happen in law firms. Something else will — like a merger of 2 Wall Street firms or the tech-oriented law firms from the West Coast surpassing NY firms in PEP.

Also — look for another firm to raid a marketing department. This will up the game and begin the normalization of moving lateral marketing groups. It will become part of the landscape.

As law firm partnerships grow there will be fewer partners with marketing skills and less anti-marketing bias. The marketers will become part of the lifeline to new business — and more embraced by the firm. A new mindset is born.

How to Start Changing the Mindset Today

Leadership often has different thoughts about Marketing and Business Development than the other partners. There will always be a group of attorneys who have little respect for Marketing and Business Development. This is true for any firm with more than 10 partners. This is also true at most professional services firms.

The best CMOs/CBDOs connect with leadership and embrace those partners who are supportive — and to the extent they can — ignore the skeptics. These marketing leaders have great success as the supportive partners drown out the rest. But you can’t do this without committed leadership.

Leadership commitment and the ability to show the skeptics what you can do with supportive partners is the most effective strategy for success. I have seen skeptics convert — but have never seen the supportive go the other way.

Law firms are already in the next generation of growth and competition. CMOs/CBDOs are compelled to perform more due diligence about leadership commitment and expectations — and be candid with some of their plans and strategies to get a read of their commitment. This goes for people making moves, those with new leadership, and individuals considering a move. It also helps those who plan to stay where they are.

Law firms will also be well served by developing contingency plans in case of a raid. Lay out what you will do if and when it happens. They can also beef up training to always be developing skills — this will create a ready level of talent to step in — and make people want to stay.

Fried Frank is the opening salvo. Look for law firms who want to ramp up their game to take teams from firms with high performing marketers. And target firms will bolster efforts to retain their key marketing leaders. They will bring them even more into the culture of the firm; by sharing future plans, offering a stronger voice, listening more, and bringing them to clients.

The great validation will be one more step in separating law firms in the market. The believers will invest and position themselves for the next phase of legal marketing — and move ahead of those who don’t.

Your client’s litigation spending is anything but uncertain in this uncertain economy.

Litigation is set for its 3rd year in a row of increased spending. Granted it’s more selective than in the last 2 years — and law firms will have to work harder to capture it — but those who do will be handsomely rewarded.

We just released BTI Litigation Outlook 2023: Litigation Spending in the Uncertain Economy and Beyond, based on more than 350 in-depth client interviews. Here are 8 of the key trends:

1.  Just over 10% of clients plan to cut their litigation budgets — the majority won’t

Litigation issues are too compelling to withstand reduced spending. The range of issues combined with increasing urgency leaves few clients in a position where they can decrease spending.

2.  Caseload growth fuels relentless demand

Reversing last year’s trend, the growth in the litigation caseload exceeds the increase in spending. New spending dynamics invite alternate fees and demand more budget scrutiny. More and more law firms are offering advanced budget monitoring tools to help gain an edge over other law firms.

3.  New types of litigation popping up — grabbing client mindshare and budget

Clients are experiencing new types of litigation issues including backlash from social media posts, ESG, workplace dynamics, and the highest union activity in more than 40 years. Law firms are the only place where clients can gain access to such a wide range of resources to deal with each of these issues simultaneously. Not to mention state-level initiatives to regulate data privacy.

4.  Covid 19 Litigation is old news

The new cases are unrelated to COVID-19. They may hold a large place in the backlog — but client radar is attuned to learning about and preparing for the new matters today and those to come.

5.  Union strikes are up 70% and approval is at a 57-year high

The Cornell IRL reports 180 strikes in the first half of 2022 compared to 102 in the same period in 2021. Gallup reports public approval for unions is at a 57-year high. Clients are forming task forces and teams to prepare. They are looking for law firms to be part of these teams.

6.  Workplace issues are approaching a new high

Whistleblowers, investor scrutiny, and public scrutiny are all keeping a keen eye on workplace cultures. Any sign of a hostile, discriminatory, or unjust culture is bringing unwanted litigation and attention. Workforce litigation is having an impact on company valuations and litigation risk. It is receiving the highest priority it has ever received.

7.  In-house turnover is impeding progress

Corporate counsel departments face the same turnover rates as law firms. Unlike law firms who can move lawyers around — corporate counsel suffer more delays on cases or higher costs as outside counsel fills the void.

8.  5 areas of litigation commanding premium rates

The impact of the new and higher-risk litigation drives clients to pay more for help in these areas. Clients will still negotiate their rate but are prepared to pay measurably more in the new and more acute areas. Targeting their top needs helps clients and positions you for more work with these same clients.

You can learn exactly where clients are spending their money and see the law firms best positioned to help them — by name — in 8 key segments of litigation in BTI’s just-released BTI Litigation Outlook 2023: Litigation Spending in the Uncertain Economy and Beyond.

You can discover the new business development tactics working in the uncertain economy and how clients are spending their litigation dollars in 2023 for 8 segments and 18 industries.

More than half of clients are increasing their litigation budgets despite what the pundits say about next year. Learn where and how they will spend it. Order today.

You have between 3 and 7 seconds to convince your audience to click. This click earns you another 3 to 7 seconds to get them to read. And then — you have to keep them reading while everything else in the world competes for their time. How you write your content is as important as your topic to keep them reading.

These 6 proven strategies will make the 7 seconds work for you:

Stop Reading While You Write

Fun fact: A growing body of writers turn their screens off as they create content. They want to get their thoughts down — they know they can edit it all down and correct it later.

People love to read as they write. They want to be proud of what they put on the screen. They will stop and edit, re-edit, correct, almost sentence by sentence. Unfortunately, there are few less productive methods in writing.

Always-on self-editing slows writing but — more importantly — it dilutes your thought process. The best content writers develop new ideas as they write — they don’t stop and edit. They want to get ideas down first. Proper spelling and structure come after the content is down.

Delete Your First Paragraph

Consider your first paragraph your warmup. These are your stretches. You won’t get into your writing groove until you’ve written a paragraph or 2 down. The more experienced you become with the techniques we discuss below, the more your deletions will become edits to the first paragraph.

Pick a Compelling Title Before Your Write

Your title immediately provides you with a framework. Your title sitting at the top of the page provides a guidepost to your destination. Working to hone your title into a conclusion statement brings your mind into your topic — and gets you started more on point.

Know Your Conclusion Before You Start

Clients (and other readers) want your opinion and insight. And they want it fast — in the first line or at least the first paragraph. This demands you start your writing with a clear hypothesis. You can change as you go — but starting with a conclusion helps you gather your own thoughts, be pointed, and further develop your thinking.

Embracing

Words ending in -ing are active. These words are more engaging — they serve to keep the reader interested. Words ending in -ed are passive. They make your writing more distant from the reader as the past tense is already gone.

Don’t Write: Talk through Your Keyboard

Conversations are casual. They lack big introductions and formality. You put your words out there bounded only by your thinking. Writing is formal. It requires a setup, an introduction, and boundless rules. These rules no longer apply to any online content. Talk through your keyboard instead of writing.

One more benefit — it will take you half the time to write the same or more content once you adopt this writing strategy.

Feel free to cheat. Rely on an editor to remove passive sentences. Use them to suggest shortening sentences. This also gives you more time to focus on content.

Top legal decision makers want to see compelling thought leadership and content. They have a deluge of inbound invitations — most don’t make it through the 7-second test. Your ability to break through and then deliver puts you higher on the list of people to call. And this is the beginning of an inbound lead.