I recently had the pleasure of hosting our friend Laura Hudson, CMO at North Carolina-based Ward and Smith, for an Office Hours session with JD Supra clients. Laura has worked with us for many years across multiple firms; she has decades of marketing and BD experience, and is a fixture in the LMA leadership community.

I had been looking forward to our conversation for quite some time, and especially wanted to hear Laura’s insightful perspective on smart marketing and business development activities at a mid-sized firm.

In Laura’s own words, big picture: “mid-sized firms frequently experience a tension between who is the specialist at which marketing discipline, and who supports which internal practice or client team. Unlike larger firms, we don't have separate team members for every marketing function!"

The Ward and Smith marketing and business development team uses a 'liaison' approach to handle and filter the support needs of the departments and practices. Since the team is too small to have one Business Development Manager (BDM) for each practice, all members act as liaisons to a set of industry-focused practice groups, client teams, and geographic teams.

Laura explained, "We come together weekly to talk about what each of the groups needs or wants, and then distribute work to each other to get those needs met. Through this model, each group gets the best of what our team as a whole has to bring to the table.”

“Our firm has a Director of Innovation, and we take process improvement and project management as gospel.”

Getting it Done: Marketing and BD at a Mid-Sized Firm

Within this context, I began our conversation by asking Laura how she handles her many, ongoing responsibilities as CMO at the firm.

Her answer: “It probably depends on the day! Other than that, she offered:

1. Teamwork

The team's excellent members complete all daily tasks. Each team member serves as a liaison to industry practice groups, geographic teams, and client teams, while also having their own area of specialization. Priorities for the day are determined by the communications calendar and upcoming events.

2. Strong Departmental Systems & Processes

Strong systems make a significant difference. For instance, there is a protocol for handling any attorney speaking engagement, including calendaring the event and its promotion, managing communication with the sponsoring organization, providing the bio and headshot, and requesting slide deck support from the administrative assistant for the presentation.

These robust processes enable the team to handle a large volume efficiently and prevent communication issues.

3. Keeping Marketing Staff Focused on Marketing

Efforts have been made to keep the marketing team out of administrative functions. Upon joining Ward and Smith, Laura and her team kept time so they could analyze the patterns in their workflow.

The result: 30% of the team's work was administrative rather than marketing-related. Firm management was approached, and each practice group, geographic team, and department was assigned an administrative assistant to handle tasks such as meeting schedules, reminders, minutes, slide decks, and action item list upkeep.

This allowed the marketing team to focus on their core responsibilities and advance marketing and business development initiatives.

4. Not Just Systems, Also Redundancy

Systems have been developed to ensure daily work continues smoothly when a team member is away. Each team member serves as a functional backup to another, ensuring that the necessary skills are available to maintain daily operations.

Laura said, "For example, I am the backup for our communications function, and can post anything online, Buffer it, and run the content calendar. And due to the protocols we have in place for events, speaking engagements, promotions, proposals, and publishing, we can get most of what we need to get done while someone is away. This ensures there are no service interruptions for our lawyers, and that the team reputation we’ve built within the firm remains intact."

Redundancy is crucial because team members are encouraged to take vacations for their mental well-being. One team member planned a catamaran trip to the British Virgin Islands and intended to bring her laptop. However, Laura said, "I had to talk her out of it, because I want her to forget about us for a while!"

5. Use a Shared Team Calendar

The team uses a shared communications calendar to plan interdepartmental work. This calendar keeps everyone informed about upcoming speaking engagements, webinars, and team member absences and can help with juggling the various priorities. All firm events and meetings are also included to avoid scheduling conflicts. An excellent document management system for marketing materials allows the team to find any necessary experience for a pitch quickly.

6. A Clear Budgeting Process

The team follows a clear annual budget process, with each liaison helping their group or team adhere to their budgets. This rigor has reduced the number of "emergency sponsorships" or "random acts of marketing." The Practice Group and Team leaders generally appreciate knowing their plan, the available budget, and being able to hold their team members accountable for executing the plan.

7. Strategic Priorities

The team's current focus is on implementing the client-facing items in the firm's 2024-2026 strategic plan. This involves working with teams across the firm on various initiatives, from revisiting the martech stack to developing scripts to help attorneys discuss the firm's unique approach to attorney compensation and its benefits for clients.

Additionally, annual attorney marketing plan training will begin in June. Laura explained, "I have my own template for an individual marketing action plan, and I treat it like a menu. Here are all the possibilities, so what kind of experience do you want to craft for the practice you want to build? And what kind of investment of time are you willing to make in this plan? I think those conversations are fun!"

Opportunities for Mid-Sized & Regional Firms

I asked Laura for her perspective on the unique opportunities facing mid-sized and/or regional firms, to which she said:

“I think there is much opportunity for mid-law to innovate the delivery of services with our clients because we are fast and nimble. We don't have to map the coastline of North Carolina to rent a beach house, if you know what I mean!” We don't have several layers of people to discuss new ideas with, we talk with our firm management, and they are blessedly progressive."

Ward and Smith has a Director of Innovation, and Laura noted, "We take process improvement as gospel." Several Ward and Smith team members hold a yellow belt in Legal Lean Sigma, and this training has been a tremendous experience for the firm, which includes IT, Accounting, Marketing, and Attorneys in the process. Legal Lean Sigma training is still used when addressing problems, and it has been instrumental in providing many new online products that clients embraced during COVID.

In terms of marketing, this innovation culture allows for the freedom to try new things and the freedom to fail, recognizing that not everything will work immediately.

Laura feels there is another opportunity for midlaw in regarding the ever-lasting battle for talent. She explained, "In the realm of talent acquisition and retention, I think mid-law is also best positioned to provide so many attorneys the work-life integration they seek—or really, I think it's more work-life blending—that they seem to want."

The recent NALP "Stay" survey highlighted that many associates value work-life balance greatly, indicating a generational shift in attitudes toward work priorities, even among professionals with a "career" mindset rather than a "job" mindset. Mid-law provides an ideal environment for attorneys who value culture, offering a place to build both a career and a life. Laura said, "And yes, I know I'm biased, but people seem genuinely happy here!"

Stay tuned for the second part of my Office Hours recap, in which Laura talks about best practices for implementing and running a content marketing program at her firm, among other topics.

[For the complete recording of my conversation with Laura, log into JD Supra and look for the Office Hours prompt in your account dashboard. Click for the link and passcode for this or any previous Zoom session.]

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Paul Ryplewski is JD Supra's VP of Client Services. Connect with him on LinkedIn.