BD and marketing leaders 2020
reports|April 2020Who’s leading the marketing and BD functions at top-tier law firms?
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INSIDE
Who’s leading BD and marketing functions in law firms, how senior are they, who do they report to, and where have they come from?
WHAT'S ALL THIS?
At the start of a new decade, has the marketing and/or business development (MBD) leader at a top law firm increased their influence? Well, the proportion with a ‘C-level’ job title in this year’s Briefing Leaders report is double that of only a year ago (4% to 9%). But does that mean more power to decide what matters, or mere ‘title inflation’ at work? We do know that half also say they have a seat (or part of one) on the board – although twice as many leaders in our smallest revenue band say that compared with direction-setters at the largest global firms. Other promising signs include 40% saying they report to their managing partner; 25% to the CEO. Only 5% say it’s the COO for them. And there’s plenty of variation in MBD team size (getting bigger as firms make more money, just as you’d surely expect) – though as a benchmark figure, a full 82% have a team of 50 or fewer to manage. Elsewhere, there are some arguably more concerning signs – firms today are no ‘better’ at bringing in leaders of this function from a non-legal career background than they were seven years ago (56% arrived from another law firm). There has also been a drop in the number of women BD leaders, notably at the largest firms.
Rising C-levels?
Leaders of MBD functions haven’t always enjoyed unrestrained support – so the increasing proportion of C-levels leaders, perhaps with a seat on the board, should be a welcome development.
Partial to partnership profs?
Legal has long had a tendency to recruit primarily from within its own sector, either from other firms, or by promoting lawyers up to oversee business services functions – marketing and business development is no different.
Two team streams by firm size
Seniority and authority can be measured not only be who a leader reports to, but also by who reports to them – hence our survey of MBD team sizes this year. It’s obvious from the get-go that this metric is closely linked to team sizes.
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