• Marketing Partner of the Year: Pressly M. Millen, a partner with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Raleigh, N.C.
• Marketing Director of the Year: Mark Beese, Marketing Director, Holland & Hart in Denver.
• Marketing Initiative of the Year: Darryl Cross, Chief Marketing Officer of Benesch, Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff in Cleveland.

Marketing Partner of the Year

Pressly M. Millen has been chair of the client development committee for three years at Womble Carlyle. Under his leadership, the firm created one of the first law firm sales forces, and broadcast drive-time radio advertising in Washington, D.C. (featuring Winston, their Spokesdog). Millen did all this while maintaining a full-time litigation practice, with clients such as GE Capital and Microsoft.

Millen led a year-long effort to build support for and then launch a dedicated, full-time direct sales organization. It is staffed entirely with experienced non-lawyer sales professionals, led by Steve Bell (see http://www.lawmarketing.com/publications/news/pub288.cfm). Overcoming obstacles posed by culture, financial constraints, ethical concerns and marketplace pressures, he created in mid-2001 what is reputed to be the first-ever Director of Sales position in a U.S. law firm.

“Our core principle is that we don't take our model from other law firms – we take it from other professional services firms like investment banking, accounting and consulting, because they are ahead of us in marketing,” Millen said. “If somebody says ‘no other law firm is doing that,’ we consider it a positive. If someone says ‘there are 15 other firms that are doing it, why aren't we?’ we say we don't want to travel with the pack, we want to be out ahead.”

Based on good results, the sales force was doubled in 2002 and is expected to grow further during 2003.

In another move to break out of the clutter of law firm advertising, Millen personally championed the firm’s move into advertising on commercial news-talk AM radio station during the morning drive time in major markets. “You can imagine it took some selling internally to have a "Spokesdog" – but our point was to stand out from the crowd,” Millen said.

The firm created several of 30- and 60-second humorous radio spots featuring a talking version of the firm’s bulldog mascot, “Winston” (For more, see http://www.lawmarketing.com/publications/legalmarketingtech/pub356.cfm).

After a successful debut in the Washington, D.C. marketing in mid-2001, the campaign expanded to Atlanta and Raleigh, N.C. in 2002.“You can't be afraid to push your partners out of their comfort zone,” Millen said. “You also need to have people on the marketing and sales staff who aren't afraid to upset apple carts either. You’ve got to be an evangelist for type of things you want to do. You must be willing to jawbone naysayers and ultimately to ignore them.”

Marketing Director of the Year

When Mark Beese, the “Marketing Guy” of Holland & Hart in Denver, was given the Marketing Director award, he said, “It was team effort, I accept on behalf of the marketing team.” His willingness to share credit is one facet of his marketing success.

Starting at H&H in April 2001, Beese found the marketing department consisted of one person, a 13-year old database and a one-year backlog of projects. He quickly hired seven additional people and then took them on a retreat. “We talked about how we would handle the increasing quantity of work, discussed who our clients were – the attorneys of Holland and Hart -- what they expected, and what would keep us coming to work on Monday morning,” Beese said.

They created an in-house marketing agency called Imaginate that treats lawyers like clients, has its own brand and Web site, gives lawyers pre-project memos and project invoices. “Wanted to lead by example, still be creative, responsive and practice what we preach. Wanted not to be just doers, but thinkers and be rewarded for our expertise,” he said. (For more, see http://www.lawmarketing.com/publications/news/pub331.cfm).

Within the first 18 months, the agency installed the Interaction client relationship management system (CRM), designed a new logo and brand campaign, launched a dozen new websites including a redesign of www.hollandhart.com, ran 120 events and sponsorships, got national media coverage, created a proposal center, launched a new client service program and produced an ad campaign that earned the “highest recall in legal category” according to third-party surveys.

Imaginate surveys the lawyers, who “give us a 96% positive referral rate – they would have no problem referring us. Some of them still don’t get it, we won't get 100% client satisfaction. But the lawyers know that now they've got a real marketing department,” Beese said. “We do more than fill tables at a March of Dimes event. You should contact us when you've got a new business proposal.”

Marketing Initiative of the Year

Few in the legal industry were familiar with the Cleveland law firm Benesch, Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff before Darryl Cross started work as Chief Marketing Officer in April 2002. Now the firm has an active business development (meaning: “sales”) culture and is known across the nation.

A veteran of news and hospital marketing, Cross is a member of the executive committee of the 130-lawyer firm. To change the culture, he created a business development advisory board of 24 attorneys who share best marketing practices at monthly meetings. The board identified the need for sales training. As a result, he personally conducts one-hour sales training classes, attended by at least 15% of the attorneys every week. Attendance is officially recommended by the executive committee for associates to become a partner. “Rainmaking is not a divine gift; it's a technique that can be learned,” he said.

“Some law firms would consider creating a sales culture to be heresy, blasphemy or sacrilegious. It could get you burned at the stake in other places,” Cross said.  “Our firm is a maverick. They like to do business development.”

He built a new CRM system to be a business development machine. In addition to the typical contact management function, the CRM system will include a sales pipeline and a probability and forecasting function to track business development.  The Interaction CRM system connects to the Elite time-and-billing system. As a result, financial information on key clients will be available firmwide. “When everybody can see the figures, it's amazing how it creates interest in business development.”

“We developed a true Dale Carnegie type sales funnel strategy with eight defined stages that allow us to comply with ethics rules, while still effectively targeting prospects and turning them into clients,” Cross said.

He created new budget process to analyze return-on-investment on marketing activities. Expenses are classified according to what their intention is, so that $50,000 spent on a charity dinner can be distinguished from $50,000 spent on a business development advertising campaign. He got cooperation from the finance department, the executive committee and all 12 practice group leaders. “A marketer must be a good behind-the-scenes politician, like a majority whip lining up votes in favor of ideas. You have to remind the managing partner need to pipe up and say something in favor of the idea at key moments,” he said.

The awards were presented by Christopher K. Poole, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Elite Information Group, Inc., a provider of business software for the professional services industry. The judges included:

• Silvia L. Coulter, Chief Judge, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Hale and Dorr, Boston.
• Larry Bodine, Web and Marketing Consultant, Glen Ellyn, IL, serving as Judge Emeritus.
• Debra Fischer, Partner, Bingham McCutchen, Los Angeles.
• Dianna Kempe, Senior Partner, Appleby, Spurling & Kempe, Hamilton, Bermuda.
• Craig Levinson, Marketing Manager, Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman, New York.
• Roberta Montafia, Global Director of Marketing, Baker & McKenzie, Chicago.
• Norm Rubenstein, Partner, Zeughauser Group, Washington, D.C.