I've found it interesting how legal marketing has changed over the six years I've worked in the field. While good business practices remain constant, industry titles, priorities and predictions constantly change.

Earlier this month, I joined 1,125 other attendees at the 22nd annual Legal Marketing Association Conference in Los Angeles. This year's conference focused on exploring new ideas and trends while also challenging the principles and methods of old.

The marketers

The majority of legal marketing professionals in the United States today are women. While some industry veterans may have gotten their start in firm support services, a new generation of legal marketers has arrived.

Some are former lawyers whose passion for business development led them into formal marketing roles, while many more came from other industries and now call law firms home. At firms across the country, we are seeing an increasing number of experienced and highly credentialed professionals take on chief marketing officer and director titles. And now for the first time, we are seeing talented young professionals actively seeking out legal marketing positions - straight out of college.

With budgets averaging from 2.5 percent (at corporate/defense firms) to 11 percent (at plaintiffs' firms) of total firm revenues nationally, marketing departments, practice groups and industry groups are being asked to execute a growing number of varied tasks.

In response, legal marketing has seen increased levels of specialization. One-time "marketing managers" are being transformed into event coordinators, public-relations specialists, proposal coordinators, database specialists, and business-development coaches. While this trend may be more pronounced at larger firms, it's clear that law firms are hiring professionals with the necessary skills and backgrounds.

Industry trends

In support of these changes, attendees at the LMA conference were offered their choice of 40 break-out sessions - each geared toward different experience levels, skill sets and firm sizes. Attendees included marketing partners, marketers, public-relations practitioners and business-development coaches, as well as other industry consultants.

This year, several key marketing trends were apparent. The first was a continued focus on the client, and the second was a growing commitment to business-development and coaching programs for attorneys.

Client focus

Over the last five years, the industry has seen a large numbers of firms - of varying sizes - incorporate practice groups, client teams, client surveys and even strategic account management into their business-development and client-maintenance strategies. With more than 750,000 lawyers employed in the United States today, law firms face enormous competitive pressures. Successful firms and practitioners must find ways to grow new and existing business while providing their current clients with greater value.

Legal competency is no longer enough. Clients large and small are hiring firms that offer responsiveness and an intimate understanding of their specific business/industry needs and issues. Companies are demanding "business partners" who will help them address issues and achieve organizational objectives while respecting the all-important bottom line. During the conference, such notables as Laura Stein, chief legal officer for The Clorox Corp., and Bill Sailer, vice president and counsel of Qualcomm Inc., spoke in no uncertain terms about this issue.

During the 90-minute panel discussion, members of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) discussed the upcoming fall launch of the Value Challenge Project, an initiative to improve the working relationships between in-house counsel and law firms while also enhancing the legal profession as a whole.

Facing a downturn in the economy, corporations are increasingly challenged to manage budgets better and more creatively. CEOs and corporate board members took note as the mainstream media reported $1,000-an-hour partners and record-breaking associate starting salaries. All these elements were compounded by pronouncements of record profit-per-partner figures in 2006 and 2007. This "perfect storm" caused boards, C-level executives and corporate legal departments to more closely examine the value they were receiving from outside counsel.

Currently, the ACC - with the help of advisory groups comprised of legal departments, law firms and consultants - is developing template proposals, tools, billing guidelines and standards for the profession. The goals of these efforts are to help inside and outside counsel "rediscover a relationship based on shared goals ... and accountability"; reward those law firms that offer value - specifically, the right mix of cost, talent and customer service - with more high-value work; and foster an environment that helps associates achieve greater levels of experience and opportunity within firms.

Business-development training

The importance of quality work product and good client service can never be ignored. However, many attorneys find themselves in unfamiliar territory when it comes to modern legal marketing. The vast majority of attorneys received an education on the intricacies of the law during law school, but never received specific training on business development, which has become increasingly important for partnership today.

Increasingly, firms are implementing attorney business-development programs. These programs help attorneys better understand and utilize the techniques available. In many instances, that means helping attorneys select the marketing activities that best fit their personality, practice and clients.

Mentoring programs and formalized training programs are becoming the norm. For some firms, these activities can be as simple as best-practices sharing among partners, and for others, that may involve ongoing one-on-one - dare I say it - sales coaching by outside consultants. Through training and accountability, many firms are seeing significant returns on their time and money investments.

Final thoughts

I find all the new technologies, tools and trial programs exciting. But each year after the conference, I find myself more committed then ever to a simple truth - fundamentals are the key to a firm's success.

In markets large and small, contemporary law firms are businesses and must be managed as such. But it is crucial that legal marketers never lose sight of the fact that what they do for a living is also a "profession" in the truest sense of the word.

Despite all the competitive pressures and changing internal and external demands, I find that among the truly successful, well-respected firms it is quite simply their focus on their roles as advocates and advisers that makes them great.

Industry coach Deborah Knupp says it best when she describes business development as "a natural outgrowth of an authentic relationship.... Through solid communications and partnership, attorneys should help clients solve problems." Quite simply, if that means embracing new technology and methods of adding value and extraordinary service, then we as legal marketers and attorneys must respond.

If that means more time spent listening to better understand a client's needs and goals, then that's what we must do. If that also requires better business-development programs and attorney mentoring, then our course is clear.

Jennifer Liber Raines is director of marketing and client services at Damon & Morey LLP. She can be reached at jraines@damonmorey.com.