Marketing Attorney BlogLP Magazine – Getting to In-House Without Ending Up in the Outhouse
Yes, I went with the lowest hanging fruit of topics for my marketing column in the July/August 2021 issue of Law Practice, Getting to In-House Without Ending Up in the Outhouse, by doling out pearls of wisdom as it relates to a law firm’s successful pitching of corporate counsel. It never fails to draw an audience.
Unfortunately, one of the key pieces of advice is simply this—everyone is different. It is a very subjective measuring stick. And for some reason, many articles written, and programs presented respond to a handful of in-house folks’ personal philosophies as if they were trends in the industry. When I drafted the column, I used as an example the Benjamin Moore & Co. decision to dismiss its entire legal department. Spoiler alert—it was not a trend. It was a one-off. And if I were writing the same column from scratch today, I’d replace that example with the recent uproar created by Eric Grossman, Morgan Stanley’s longtime chief legal officer, who sent a “warning” to the bank’s outside law firms about their policies allowing remote work and “the lack of urgency to return lawyers to the office.” Hey, if that is a “requirement” for Eric and/or Morgan Stanley—then perhaps my law firm would comply to get or retain the business. Because, as I said, it is a subjective target.
Of course, putting the squeeze on law firms to get attorneys back into the office is probably a little tone deaf today. Most of the law firms I work with and interact with most certainly would like to see attorneys and staff back in the workplace—but not at the expense of health and safety. They also must balance the happiness of associates—who are often in positions to bolt for greener pastures if they don’t like the arrangement. Work from Morgan Stanley would be great; but if you don’t have lawyers to staff it, then you lose regardless.
Earlier this week, I read an interesting article about how business travel will never fully return, because you can just go on Zoom, saving a ton of time and money. The story and premise all made sense until a quote at the end saying that the first time someone lost a sales pitch to a competitor that presented in-person—they’ll be right back on those airplanes. And I shook my head knowing that was so true.
There was some sense of irony that on the same day the latest issue of Law Practice arrived via the U.S. Mail that I was in Philadelphia talking to the Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association at their 2019 GPLLA Institute Bringing a Marketing Mindset into the Law Library program at Drexel’s Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy. You may be wondering how I am going to tie in that speaking engagement into the subject for my marketing column in the November/December 2019 issue of the ABA Law Practice Magazine, 
In the nearly 20 years that I’ve run my law marketing consultancy, 
I read many articles on the morning after an Eagles win in my local newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. On the day after a loss, I read a few less—but win or lose, I enjoy the Up/Down drill that points out the highs and the lows with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or simply two thumbs going sideways. So I thought I could copy the concept in what I plan on having as an annual column, 
Perhaps life has really been about search all along. We search for the right job, the right spouse, the right schools, the right restaurants, pretty much the right everything. So Google has either made searching easier, or harder, depending on how you look at it.
Whenever I pass a roadside diner promising something like “world’s best cherry pie,” I think about lawyer advertising restrictions. Because no law firm or lawyer could tout themselves as the best or greatest—and many of the taglines, phrases and symbols used to market products and services to consumers are restricted or outright prohibited in the legal profession.
Oh, remember the ‘80s? Alf, Madonna, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Garbage Pail Kids? I was in New Orleans to see Keith Smart’s last-second shot for Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosier over Syracuse in the NCAA Championship Game in 1987. I watched the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1983 World Series (when the O’s still were more important to me than the Phillies). And I was at the Stanley Cup Finals between the Flyers and the Edmonton Oilers in 1985 and 1987. Those were just some of the games I attended in person. I worked in the Major Indoor Soccer League and the NHL during the 80s—attending hundreds of games. I remember the end of high school, my college years, first jobs, and the start of law school. Little did I (we) know at the time that those babies being born were—Millennials! And that—in the here and now—it would all be about them.
When I wrote my marketing column for the November/December 2017 issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Magazine, 