How Deep Is Your Law Firm’s Commitment to Growth?

Market budgets continued to climb at law firms of all sizes for the second successive year, according to BTI’s Benchmarking Law Firm Marketing and Business Development Strategies 2008, a recent report produced by the BTI Consulting Group, a research/consulting group. Among the study’s findings:

• Overall marketing budgets are up $1 million
• Marketing spending per attorney has skyrocketed more than 20 percent
• Marketing staffs have grown by more than 30 percent

Clearly, law firm marketing is moving from a back-office function to its rightful role at the management table. In fact, according to the San Diego Business Journal, many national firms spend millions and employ teams of 50 or more for marketing and public relations.

Public relations may be commonplace at most law firms today, but the real questions to ask are: how well do they do it and how deep is the commitment? I think that when it comes to law firm PR, it’s often a matter of the head being committed, but the heart unwilling. Attorneys may recognize the need for public relations, but the function is often hampered by the caution and risk-aversion that is endemic to how lawyers operate. So PR winds up being a shadow of what it can and should be.