Integrating Business Development Staff into a Marketing Team

Marketing staffs are growing in major law firms.  Only a few years ago the ratio of lawyers to marketing staff ranged from 35:1 to 50:1.  Today it is closer to 24:1.  Firms are not hiring more PR or advertising folks.  They are investing in business development professionals who help lawyers be more effective in attracting clients, building networks, establishing relationships, and professional sales.  I wrote a brief article on structuring a marketing/business development team on Larry Bodine's LawMarketingPortal.   I'd appreciate your comments on article.

Comments

[Eric Eck]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for entertaining my lunch with your article.
Pretty straightforward as you put it. In the meantime, we find it excessively difficult up to now in (continental) Europe to get lawyers to consider BD as anything else then "coaching" or "getting the PowerPoint done in the next 30 minutes".
As an agency, I would expect law firms to value "market intelligence" delivered simply with recommendation for actions to focus on "important" and "opportunity", but no sale so far.
My team is still filling up "Chambers submissions"... and alike....
Best,
EE