Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Eight: The Chief Marketing Officer

By Murray Gottheil | December 27, 2023

Photo by Helena Lopes at Pixels

Those of you who have been following this series know said that Part Seven was the final article in the series. It turns out that I lied.

The purpose of the series is to set out the questions which articling students and new associates should ask when deciding whether to stay with their firm over the long-term.

This time, the discussion is about the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Unless your firm is kind of large, it probably does not have a full-time CMO, so for the purposes of this article I will call the most senior person who is in charge of marketing and business development the CMO.

Here are the questions you should be asking yourself about that person:

Does your firm have anyone who purports to be a CMO, whether on a part-time or full-time basis, or under contract as an ‘outsourced’ or ‘fractional’ CMO? If not, the partners may not have figured out that they are running a business. Proceed with caution;
If your firm does have a CMO, is that person a lawyer who has never received formal training in marketing, but figures, ‘How hard could it be?’ If so, that is not a good sign;
Does the CMO have any authority whatsoever, or does their role consist primarily of shouting into the wind?;
What does the CMO actually do? If they simply schedule events, hire caterers, hound the lawyers to write articles, and post fluff on LinkedIn celebrating holidays that you never knew existed, they are actually marketing coordinators. Useful people, but not really CMOs;
Do the partners listen to the CMO, or just overrule the CMO because they know better?;
Does every partner with a book of business of $2,000,000 or more have a veto over any strategy recommended by the CMO, and exercise it to derail anything that does not help them personally?;
Does the firm cycle through CMOs every 18 months or so, or do they stick around long enough to implement strategies?;
Is the CMO a strategist, or will they simply lead you toward the iceberg because some bigger firm was sailing toward it so that must be the right way to go?;
Is the CMO big on grandiose plans and small on granular implementation?;
Does the CMO have a mandate to help each lawyer develop a personal brand and to help the firm develop a firm brand?; and
Does the CMO have a real budget to work with, both for the development of the firm brand and to assist each lawyer to develop their own brand?

If your firm does not have a capable CMO, perhaps the firm is not going anywhere and you do not want to be part of its ill-fated voyage. Or, if they have a CMO but do not make that person available to help you develop your brand and client base, maybe you want to move to a place where they consider you something other than a deck hand.

Murray is a happily retired lawyer who lives in the country, drives a pick-up truck, writes, teaches and mentors. You can reach him at [email protected] or see what he is up to at lawanddisorderinc.com.

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Six: The Law Clerks

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Five: The Chief Financial Officer

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Four: The Chief Technology Officer

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Three: The Chief Operating Officer

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Two: The Practice Group Leader

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part One: The Managing Partner