I just read an article at BusinessWeek online entitled “Disaster Leads to Law Firm Marketing Coup“, which made me consider some interesting questions about legal marketing.
The article talks about the Boston firm of WilmerHale, which has been chosen to represent Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney against the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Matt Amorello. For those unfamiliar with the situation, here’s a nice recap. In short, a concrete slab fell on, and killed a passenger in a car driving through a Big Dig tunnel. Governor Romney is now putting the blame on the head of the MTA, Matt Amorello, and wants him removed from his post. Governor Romney has now turned to WilmerHale to represent him in his case to oust Amorello.
With that said, the article goes on to talk about how law firms do pro bono work because it can often be a good marketing opportunity. From the article:
“Pro bono legal assistance is generally thought of as something that law firms provide as part of their civic duty, to help indigents charged with a crime or nonprofit organizations with miniscule budgets. In fact, WilmerHale says on its Web site that its pro bono program is “based on the belief that there is more to our professional mandate than advocacy for the most powerful and successful members of society.”
……What’s really happening here is more about marketing than helping the underdog. In the murky world of legal marketing, where opportunities for publicity and access to influential decision-makers are key to a firm’s success, this nonpaying assignment is a marketing coup for WilmerHale.”
While I agree that the publicity WilmerHale will receive from representing Governor Romney pro bono will far outweigh the costs, I’m a little bit at odds with the “murky world of legal marketing” statement. For some reason the article really rubbed me the wrong way. It’s tone is accusatory, and gives me the following mental image:
It’s 1:00 am on a rainy Tuesday night. A representative from the WilmerHale Secret Legal Marketing Conspiracy Squad pauses on a street corner, leans against a street light, and lights a cigarette while drips of water from his hat drop into a puddle below. As he takes a drag, a man walks out of the nearby dive bar, nods his head, and says “We’re ready for you.”
Over the next several hours, the man from WilmerHale and representatives from the Romney administration hammer out a complex plan for world domination, starting with ousting the head of the Turnpike authority, ending at the White House.
Am I wrong here? Is there something about legal marketing that is inherently “murky”, secretive, and manipulative? Granted, when you talk to someone and saw the words “lawyer advertising” the idea of personal injury attorneys with 1-800 numbers during breaks in the Jerry Springer Show come to mind, but every industry has the exception to the rule.
Am I wrong in that I see absolutely nothing wrong or dishonest in what WilmerHale is doing?
Popularity: 10% [?]
July 24th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
You asked for reactions, so here’s one from a business-type (not a lawyer.)
Like you, I see absolutely nothing wrong in a law firm deciding to represent someone or some body free of charge because of (or in part because of) the publicity and marketing benefits that might accrue. That’s a free-market society right.
However, it could, in my assessment, be treated as disinegenuous (spelling?) if the firm tried to repreesent this activity automatically as a “pro bono contribution.”
Not all work done for free is “pro bono” and we, the audience, shouldn’t accept that definition or alllow people to play fast and lose with the term. Alas, I do think I have seen cases where firms are trying to subtly misrepresent their motivations - and THAT i think is worthy of scorn.
July 24th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Poor newswriting and editing here… by simply dleting the word murky, which to me is editorializing, the wirter cold have siad the smae hting without confusing readers.
July 24th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Perhaps the reason that legal marketing is viewed as somewhat “murkier” than other types of marketing is that marketing very often focuses not just on making sure that if someone is in the market for a widget, they come and buy YOUR widgets, but in creating in the general population a burning perceived need for widgets. Virtually no marketing campaign for any other kind of good or service confines itself to “well, if you were going to buy a new car this year anyway, you should probably buy one of ours”, but rather “your life will be instantly altered if you recognize the need to buy a new car–ours–immediately!” Whether or not that’s what marketing has to be, it’s what it IS in our society today…and so, the phrase “legal marketing” brings to mind not just attorneys making their best attributes known so that those in the market for legal services will choose them, but a campaign to persuade the world that it’s in need of our particular widget.