The problem with titles in legal marketing

Let’s talk…         

Let’s talk about the problem with titles in legal marketing.

Many legal marketers take pride in their title as they can accurately reflect technical proficiency, seniority and credibility. There are, however, many examples where this is unfortunately not the case. This presents a tricky dilemma for many team leaders.

For example, is the experience of a legal marketer who holds the title of Business Development Director and who has 25 years of tenure the same as a legal marketer who holds the same title, but who has less tenure? Are the technical demands of a legal marketer who holds the title Senior Manager in a global firm the same as a Senior Manager in a mid-sized firm? Is a legal marketer who holds the title of Director and who manages a team of five in a mid-sized firm more or less qualified than a Director of a team of three in a large firm?

The problem is that there are no standardized rules that are applicable when determining what titles should be used when labeling legal marketers. This really matters because labels are truly just that. They stay with that professional throughout their whole career and people frequently judge others based on those labels. This is despite legal marketers all having different experience in variously sized firms and roles.

Further, layer onto this problem these two additional nuances. First, partners’ understanding about what titles are applicable at each level of a legal marketer is greatly different in each firm. This is because there is still a large variance on what partners think of and perceive marketing and BD roles to be in their firms; they have all started from a different place on the value of marketing. Secondly, firms are not always getting title-to-salary or title-to-experience information correct when making hiring decisions.

The need for standardization     

I’ve asked two legal marketing veterans and CMOs to weigh in: John Byrne and Trish Lilley. Byrne and Lilley each have 30 years of experience leading marketing and BD teams in law firms. Additionally, both have held multiple leadership roles within LMA and currently lead their respective regions, the Midwest and Northeast respectively. Byrne is the CMO of Chicago firm Gould & Ratner and Lilley is the CMO of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan headquartered out of New York City.

Byrne agrees that many small, well-intentioned decisions on titles can lead to a confusing result: “Titles are always a bit of alchemy, especially in larger departments.” He adds “Any CMO wants to be able to build their department the way that it makes the most sense. But often internal processes and policies, and pay ranges, get in the way. Marketing pay ranges are often compared to other departments within the same firm.”

Lilley similarly shares this view: ”There’s a huge need for standardization in this area within legal marketing and business development”. She continues “While we (department heads/team leaders) can craft our own schemata within our firms, we face a dilemma when hiring because there is no uniformity relating to titles and roles across the industry. This makes the candidate assessment and getting stage of recruiting much more labor-intensive and time-consuming than it should be, and that inefficiency often flows into the interview stage of the process as well.”

These comments go to the heart of addressing the lack of standardization that legal marketing leaders are faced with when hiring and building their teams. While the default is to compare and contrast on titles across the industry, when there is no uniformity on titles generally, this task is problematic.

The need for internal differentiation       

In addition to the lack of standardization in legal marketing titles, I also frequently see team leaders struggle to deal with how to differentiate their existing team members to distinguish them and reward them based on their efforts and contributions.

Both Lilley and Byrne also weighed in on this difficult task.

Byrne talked about the limitations within the current structure of titles as we know them. He stated that “there are issues with layering people when they need to move up, but the titles don’t always help that if someone is already a Director, say.”

He continued on to acknowledge how tricky that really is, as these issues impact both the person you’re trying to change the title for to acknowledge their efforts, and then for the other people in the team who may feel slighted because of any title changes around them. He said that in practice what typically happens is that “the title can be the same, but the salary, bonus and raises are far different” for different team members. External people to that team or firm, however, won’t see this internal recognition.

Lilley shared her vantage point on how to adequately structure different team members’ titles, noting the difficulties with more junior legal marketers: “I do think that the greatest disparities and variations we in hiring roles see across positions are found in the ranks of coordinators and specialists. I have come across both very junior specialists and those so senior that they left those roles to take first-chair and/or client-facing positions at other firms. Coordinators and specialists are both non-exempt at certain firms and both exempt at others.” 

This is a practical side effect of wrongly labeled professionals. They have to then explain their moves when seeking external advancement so they can be understood and placed into a certain title bucket that makes sense to the person hiring. And this works well if those buckets are neatly defined; unfortunately, that is often not the case.

Practical takeaways for team leaders to move forward

There are no easy answers to these issues. And proposing significant changes to these issues will of course take time to take effect and create the meaningful change that is needed.

Having said that, there are some takeaways that Lilley and Byrne shared that can help us all in the meantime:

• Lilley stated “Historically, I have partnered with my firms’ talent management departments to establish consistency across titles even when functions differ. For instance, I would establish overall expectations and position requirements regarding project and people management, level of autonomy, and delivery expectations.” Lilley also added that these position requirements would be consistent across the firm and tie into the existing structure of other titles, to establish some uniformity.
• Byrne stated “Adding ‘senior’ in front of the title can help.  Or moving that person up the title ranks one slot but then putting "associate" or "assistant" in front of it to help keep the others at that higher rung from feeling like they've now been put upon by someone else's promotion.” These relatively small title changes can often have the most significant impact on an individual marketer; bestowing confidence and recognition upon their efforts.

For further consideration…

I’ll also add these five thoughts for your further consideration, especially when hiring professionals into your team.
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• Evaluate professionals on more than title. Take someone’s title into consideration, as they can be very meaningful, but don’t look only at title. When you’re looking behind their title, consider their overall years of experience (including any prior non-law firm experience), the firms within which they’ve worked (some firms have very few layers, for example), and the level of sophistication of their marketing and BD experience.
• Remember that not all Managers manage people. Don’t mistake Managers or Senior Managers for people managers. Most at these levels are very strong in project management (that is, managing people on a project-by-project basis), but have no formal people management experience. Those with formal people management experience should highlight this where possible as it sets you apart.
• Preserve the CMO and Director titles for roles with complete ownership. The top title – a CMO or Director - should be fully empowered by firm leadership to develop their firms’ BD and marketing strategy. If you don’t have this empowerment and complete autonomy, you are likely a senior manager wrapped up in a Director / CMO title with limited authority. This title may be nice in the short term, but in the long term it can prove tricky if seeking external promotion. Consider Byrne’s comments here of layering more titles at the senior end of your team if appropriate.
• Elevate those functioning above their title. If Coordinators and Specialists are solely responsible for a Practice or Industry Group, then they are likely operating at a Manager level of technical capability, and you should recognize that. Label their efforts with an elevated title to reward them; if you don’t, they may look elsewhere. Find a way to distinguish them from their peers who require more frequent direction. Keep at the forefront of your minds Lilley’s comments here on how junior titles can equate to significantly different capabilities.  
• Develop your own framework. Despite no standardized rules, develop your own internal rules or policies to help you with your own team. Consider additional layers or client capabilities to differentiate people who have the same title but who have very different levels of experience. Also consider implementing ways to challenge and incentivize at each level and invest in people management experience for your Managers and above. Finally, provide each level with what they need to accomplish to meet expectations at their title, as well as what they need to do to exceed expectations. And importantly, promote those who exceed expectations. Because if you don’t promote them, they will look outside to go up.

 
Legal marketing titles can be accurate or they can be misleading. While we are all in this existing structure together, implement these takeaways to ensure greater consistency for our legal marketing professionals. They work hard and deserve a correctly labeled title and recognition from their peers and leaders.