Market Wisely: Taking Advantage of the News
Yesterday’s New York Lawyer contained an article about a law firm that formed a global warming practice group. According to the article, the Climate Change and Renewable Energy Group at McCarter and English “is a team of lawyers from several offices and legal disciplines within the firm. The unit was developed over the past six months to provide business counseling to a broad array of industries impacted by risks and opportunities associated with climate change.”
Most lawyers market themselves based upon their technical proficiency, and then make vague statements about ‘service.’ This is an example of a firm that’s watching the news, observing a trend, and taking advantage of it. Global warming is a ‘hot’ issue right now. Taking advantage of this ‘hot’ issue, the firm has decided to create a practice group specifically geared toward this issue. And they’ve taken advantage of the marketing opportunity as well – somehow, the word got out to the press that there was a ‘global warming’ practice group. Since it’s hot, and global warming practice groups aren’t standard issue, it’s newsworthy.
Did the firm hire new attorneys or do any major reorganization? I don’t know. Based on the article, the group was formed by putting together lawyers from different offices and different disciplines within the existing firm. It sounds like the firm viewed the market in a different way based upon what’s happening in the news and then used its existing resources and framed those resources and the firm’s technical expertise in a different way to make it more attractive and more marketable to their clients. They rearranged their resources to provide a service that the firm believes its clients need.
It’s that flexibility, creativity and innovation that makes all the difference – you don’t necessarily have to take on a ‘new’ practice area in order to keep up with the changing marketplace. Sometimes, reorganizing your existing services in a way that’s more attractive to clients or that addresses their needs more directly can put a new face on your firm, and make news — which will attract even more clients.
What trends in the news or in the marketplace are relevant to your client base? How can you rearrange your existing services or change your marketing message to reflect those trends?