The Eighth Annual MLF 50: The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and ...

The Eighth Annual MLF 50: The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Business Development

November 2012 By Kimberly Alford Rice, Wendy Stavinoha and Steven Salkin

Big Surprises and a Tie in This Year's List!

This year's submissions to the MLF 50 were so uniformly excellent, innovative and enthusiastic that it was almost impossible to choose the winners, let alone the Top Five.

Every month, our pages extoll the best of marketing and business development -- from current trends to innovative ideas for the future. To see these ideas, and many, many more, in action is a tribute to law firm marketers all across the country.

Like last year, the focus in successful law firm marketing departments is technology. But now it has become much more refined. Innovative marketers are using their firms' online presence not only to reach out to clients, but to educate and teach their own attorneys. At the touch of a fingertip, clients, the press, attorneys and even the public at large can see what these firms are doing at any given minute -- allowing them to assume a "real" presence that has never been there before. This is being accomplished through apps, streamlined and user-friendly firm websites, videos, and strong, sure information management.

No longer does a potential client click on a firm's website to be met with a long, dull listing of lawyers. Now, there is every type of information possible, easy to find, easy to read, and above all, intensely useful.

It is astounding to see the great strides that our winning law firms have made in what is still a very tough economy. It takes guts, imagination, and strength to put one's firm at the top of the heap in clients' minds, and all of our winners have done so. It is with great excitement, then, that we introduce you to the 2012 MLF 50.

NUMBER ONE: BAKER, DONELSON Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, is a huge firm. It has 639 attorneys and advisers across 18 offices in seven states and Washington, DC. The firm's Marketing and Business Development (MBD) Department includes 23 team members and three college interns, and a budget that represents a 15% increase over last year

NUMBER TWO: K&L GATES This firm is consistently in the Top Five, and for very good reason. Few law firms can rival the growth of K&L Gates. During the past two years alone, the firm opened five offices, in Brussels, Doha, S?o Paulo, Charleston and Milan. Now, with its recent discussions of a possible combination with Australian national law firm Middletons, K&L may expand to a fifth continent, opening four more offices throughout Australia to create a firm of more than 2,000 lawyers in 45 offices.

NUMBER THREE: TIE! ADAMS AND REESE; McGUIREWOODS From time to time throughout the eight years of creating the MLF 50 list of marketing excellence, our judges have found it impossible to separate certain firms. This year, we have a tie for Number Three, two venerable firms that have always appeared on the list.

We start alphabetically with Adams and Reese.

ADAMS AND REESE The Adams and Reese Marketing Department is run by Chief Marketing Officer Ann Wallace. Her department coordinates the marketing efforts for the firm's 14 offices. Last year, the firm ranked No. 39 on the MLF Top 50 List. What made the tremendous difference this year? Let's review. AdvanceLaw. Wallace worked with the firm's managing partner Chuck Adams to make Adams and Reese a member of AdvanceLaw, which helps member-company general counsel identify and retain quality law firms that have been vetted for their ability to provide strong value. Selected firms demonstrate profession-friendly practices, such as a commitment to diversity and alternative fee arrangements, among many other criteria. Business Development. In terms of business development from a marketing standpoint, Adams and Reese business development managers, four of whom are located in four of the regional offices, meet with the firm's top practice teams at least once a month to discuss potential clients and areas of growth within the practices. Prior to these meetings, and any time attorneys need information on potential clients for proposals, the team prepares customized corporate profiles with recent news, immediate and latest client needs, financials, 10Ks, billing information, historical relationships and other pertinent information, as well as legal work conducted for the companies by other firms. Team Handbook. In addition, the marketing department has created "client team handbooks" as reference tools. It provides information such as corporate profiles, financials, key executives, strategy, facilities, locations and types of business facilities,

news, in-house counsel, litigant profiles, annual reports and presentations, firm billings and opportunities for the future, the relationship history with the firm, and much more. Proactive Research. The marketing department offers proactive research to notify the firm's attorneys if their clients are being sued, to identify potential cross-selling opportunities and to announce market trends in general.

McGUIREWOODS This spectacular firm is no stranger to the MLF 50. Its marketing department is unfailingly innovative, and this year was no exception. McGuireWoods LLP has more than 900 lawyers in 19 offices around the world, including the UK and Belgium, collaborating with colleagues and managing resources in the Nordic countries, Russia and Eurasia, Eastern Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East, India, Spain, Portugal and South America.

NUMBER FOUR: BENESCH In a unique move, Benesch created a collaboration between Recruiting and Marketing. Chief Marketing Officer Jeanne Hammerstrom thus became Chief Marketing and Recruiting Officer (CMRO). In this capacity, she is at the center of the firm's growth and expansion strategy by working with the Managing Partner and Executive Committee on lateral acquisitions of individuals, small practice and industry groups, and law firm mergers.

NUMBER FIVE: GOODWIN PROCTER CMO Anne Malloy Tucker focused her entry this year on Goodwin Procter LLP's allimportant Marketing/Business Development Strategy.

Conclusion Congratulations to all our Top Five winners this year, and kudos to every single firm on the Top 50. Once again, they have shown that marketing and business development are key to their success in these very tough times.

Editor's Note: Some of the law firms mentioned in this issue have provided Marketing the Law Firm with marketing materials for consideration for inclusion in the MLF 50. There is no connection to any contributions from the firms and the choice of winners. Choices are solely that of LJN's editors, who do not receive any compensation from the firms mentioned.

Kimberly Alford Rice, Editor-in-Chief of this newsletter, is the principal of KLA Marketing Associates,Cherry Hill, NJ. She can be reached at kimberly@. Wendy Stavinoha and Steven Salkin, Esq., are the Editorial Director and Web Editor, respectively, of Law Journal Newsletters, a division of ALM that publishes this newsletter.

? Copyright 2012, Law Journal Newsletters

The Eighth Annual MLF 50: The Top Law Firms in Marketing and Business Development

Ranked Firms

MLF Rank

1

Firm Name

AmLaw 200 Rank

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz 114

MLF Rank

26

Firm Name Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

2 K&L Gates

23

27 O'Melveny & Myers

3 Adams and Reese

173

28 Foley Hoag

3 McGuire Woods

62

29 Latham & Watkins

4 Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff

N/A

30 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

5 Goodwin Procter

44

31 Nixon Peabody

6 Goulston & Storrs

185

32 Cooley

7 Barnes Thornburg

N/A

33 Locke Lord

8 Leonard Street

N/A

34 Dickstein Shapiro

9 Mannat, Phelps & Phillips

109

35 Faegre Baker Daniels

10 Crowell Moring

N/A

36 Hughes Hubbard

11 Sills Cummings & Gross

195

37 Pryor Cashman

12 Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis

N/A

38 Ice Miller

13 Gibbons

184

39 Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

14 Lane Powell

197

40 Thompson & Knight

15 Neal Gerber

N/A

41 Morrison & Foerster

16 McKenna Long & Aldridge

104

42 Carlton Fields

17 King & Spalding

34

43 Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis

18 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

32

44 Sidley Austin

19 Davis Wright Tremaine

111

45 Bingham McCutchen

20 Patton Boggs

N/A

46 Mayer Brown

21 Arnold & Porter

51

47 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

22 Winston & Strawn

39

48 Kramer Levin

23 Haynes and Boone

N/A

49 Troutman Sanders

24 Littler Mendelson

84

50 Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle

25 Duane Morris

88

N/A: Not listed on AmLaw 200 Rankings

AmLaw 200 Rank 69 36 165 4 18 85 63 87 111 119 N/A N/A 174 24 138 26 158 156 12 31 19 35 N/A 95 153

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