Marketing Costs on the Rise

Law firm marketing budgets tied an all time high in 2011 at 2.2 percent of gross revenues. While the standard of two percent for marketing costs has been in place for large law firms since the 1990’s, there have been some interesting trends according to BTI’s Benchmarking Law Firm Marketing and Business Development Strategies 2011. In hard dollars, marketing budgets are on the rise at both large and small firms but the percentage has remained relatively constant because of the increase in gross revenues. While increases occur across the board, there are two staffing trends. First, the number of marketing staff members has remained relatively stagnant. Second, the salaries paid to senior marketing managers and CMOs is the fastest growing salary category in the legal industry. In fact, we are routinely seeing Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Business Development Officers salaries reach a level above firms’ CFOs and CIOs.

Are You Funny Enough to Work Here?

There is an old joke that an actuary is an accountant without the keenly developed sense of humor. Turns out that accountants may be funnier than we thought. A new survey of Chief Financial Officers by Accountemps finds that 79 percent think that having a good sense of humor is somewhat or very important in fitting into a firm’s culture.

In-house Fitness Centers

Many law firms report that the elaborate fitness centers they build into their office space are rarely used except as a place for joggers to change their clothing. That assessment seems to be supported by a survey that shows that the most popular wellness benefit (after health insurance) are programs offering off-site fitness center discounted memberships. According to the Principal Financial Wellness Index, the three top wellness benefits valued by employees are (1) fitness center discounts, (2) on-site preventative screenings, and (3) access to wellness experts. On-site fitness facilities came in fourth.

Part-time Lawyers

We are accustomed to seeing upward trends in law firm employment policies that support diversity in the workplace. So when law firms talk about alternative work schedules it is generally assumed that they are primarily in response to requests from female associates. It, therefore, came as a surprise to see that the greatest growth in the use of part-time professional positions came not from associates but from partners – male partners.