Associates are your future partners and business developers; consequently, you cannot afford to ignore associates, but you also cannot afford to send them out without Public Reputation training. Many law schools do not include marketing classes, so marketing managers need to educate associates on PR best practices. Here are six tips to add to your lesson plan:
- Designate associates to track client engagements and courtroom successes. This will give them face time with busy partners.
- Deputize associates as part of your RFP response team. Drafting responses requires knowledge of the law that your staff may not have and that partners won't always have the time to provide.
- Invite associates to attend business development events, stressing the importance of networking before the event and that it's neither acceptable nor good business sense to "dine and dash" or just talk to other associates.
- Encourage associates to co-author articles for legal journals and contribute to other mainstream media with partners.
- Include associates whenever feasible in partner media briefings and ask them to help formulate talking points or to gather information for interviews.
- Direct some business development dollars toward associate entertainment. Associates' undergraduate and law school friends are also climbing the corporate ladder and could be future clients of your firm.
Giving associates an early start in business development basics helps them develop their own client base while moving both associates and the firm up the public reputation curve.