Rebecca Wright (Global Head Of Client & Market Development — Clifford Chance) hosted this panel at the lawyer event that featured Anna Gregory (Partner, Director of Marketing and Business Development — Farrer & Co) and Daniela Amaral (Partner, Head of Strategy & Business- PLMJ).  

The internal clients for M&BD teams in law firms are the actual lawyers themselves.  Therefore, it is imperative that there is collaboration and respect that goes in both directions.

Anna explained that she understands this better than most, having sat on the other side as head of the employment team at Farrer for a number of years before stepping into the world of marketing and BD.  Her honest interpretation at the time was that the BD & marketing team were seen as too large, disconnected and expensive to run.  It then became her mission to change this thinking.

How can marketing and BD teams better anticipate the needs of internal clients?

Both panelists talked about collaboration and trust between fee earners and the marketing & BD teams.  Knowledge sharing is also key to helping all involved to understand the client better.  Anna talked about the fact that it is really important to marry the specialisms of the lawyers with the BD teams.  The BD team then must add value and join the dots and this includes having the backs of the lawyers.  

Data can also play a big part in either building or losing trust and credibility.  BD teams have to have a full set of data and be able to understand and interpret it correctly before presenting it to the wider business.

Daniela has employed a data scientist within her team to understand this niche area and get the most out of their data.  Daniela and her team have also invested a lot of effort into identifying, reaching out and building relationships with other law firms to increase referrals and get closer to clients and matters.  As a result, ownership has become a term widely used within both marketing and BD teams.

What does effective collaboration between partners and MBD look like in high-performing firms?

Anna suggests that this starts with a lot of ‘tenacity’ but also a deep understanding that you have to tailor the approach for partners and lawyers — they are all different.  Anna also talked of the fact that feeding back both ways is crucial.  It can't just be the lawyers feeding back as it becomes one-sided and a lack of mutual respect can grow as a result. 

Partners can help the BD & Marketing function by sharing client intelligence, building a culture of championing the team as well as the fee earners.  It also really helps if the BD & Marketing teams are involved in client meetings.  

Daniela believes that it is the marketing and BD teams that need to identify and implement the strategy within a firm and this then leads to the marketing team playing the role of management and the fee earners playing the role of production.  At PLMJ, this relationship is furthered by simple things like having lunch together.

Anna's final thoughts turned to being seen as being a trusted advisor on the same level as a fee earner does really matter.  It became a big thing to move from a fee-earning partner into BD and marketing because she was de-partnered.  Not a brilliant experience, but Anna has since been re-instated as a partner within Farrer & Co.