The winds of changes are blowing on the legal market. The current financial and economic crisis of course, but also the underlying trends of...

The winds of changes are blowing on the legal market. The current financial and economic crisis of course, but also the underlying trends of...

The recession: short term pain, long term opportunities

My experience is that pitching is indeed on the rise but that most lawyers just hate it and that very few firms succeed in producing consistently high quality proposals. Many have even outsourced it entirely to the marketing departments.

Antoine Henry de Frahan, (afrahan@frahanblonde.com) is partner of FrahanBlondé (www.frahanblonde.com), a consultancy focusing on professional services.

Antoine Henry de Frahan, (afrahan@frahanblonde.com) is partner of FrahanBlondé (www.frahanblonde.com), a consultancy focusing on professional services.

  Antoine Henry de Frahan (afrahan@frahanblonde.com) is partner of FrahanBlondé (www.frahanblonde.com), a consultancy focusing on professional services.   Today's law firms set up key client programs, cross-selling strategies and branding projects, they buy CRM software and pay for PR services. Marketing managers are as conventional to law firms as are legal dictionaries, and lawyers use words like ‘selling' and ‘pitching' without stuttering or blushing.

The legal market doesn't exist anymore. It is breaking down into submarkets with segments dominated by niche firms. The capital mistake is to snub Anglo-Saxon culture and blindly reject the management instruments it uses. Specialisation, independent ones included Antoine Henry de Frahan, (afrahan@frahanblonde.com) is partner of FrahanBlondé (www.frahanblonde.com), a consultancy focusing on professional services.