Legal public relations: the verdict is in.

A major increase last decade in the number of practicing lawyers, intense competition among law firms and a growing tendency of clients to shop around for legal services has forced some dramatic changes. Today, law firms must actively seek innovative ways to improve their images, promote their services and win new clients.

Welcome to the world of legal public relations, one of the fastest-growing PR specialties around.

In the legal industry, public relations and marketing are closely aligned, often handled by the same person, although job titles and duties vary from firm to firm. Media relations, image building, business development and crisis communication are some of the skills most in demand.

"Law is a crowded field," says Peter Segall, executive vice president and general manager of Dorf & Stanton/Washington, a public relations firm. "There are many competitors out there looking for creative ways to distinguish themselves. The trick is to have a law firm's name come up at the precise point that a client needs its services."

A landmark decision opens the floodgates

Touting their services, however, has always been a touchy subject with lawyers. In 1977, in a landmark decision regarding Bates and O'Steen v. State Bar of Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that lawyers could advertise, opening the way for broad promotion of legal services.

The trick is to figure out how to get visibility without losing credibility. One technique is to position lawyers as expert sources for the media. "If a lawyer specializes in securities and bonds, for example, I'll find out who's reporting on these topics and offer the lawyer as a resource," says Anne Gallagher, principal of Group Gallagher, a Chicago public relations firm.

Many law firms develop customized seminars and workshops to demonstrate their expertise and provide prospective clients with the latest information on critical issues.

Sills, Cummis, Zuckerman, Radin, Tischman, Epstein and Gross, a Newark, N.J. law firm, hosted a conference on hate crimes as part of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. "We had seven or eight articles appear as a result," says Carol Alien, director of business development.

Research studies are another proven technique to reinforce a firm's expertise. Mary Jane Pioli, client development director for Perkins Coie, a law firm in Seattle, Wash., teamed up with Oregon Business magazine to organize a campaign called Big Deals. "We surveyed the state's business community and produced a list of Oregon companies involved in 'big deals' -- mergers, acquisitions and so forth," she says. "The magazine interviewed some of the CEOs and did a cover story. Later, we cosponsored a breakfast forum for the executives and invited a guest speaker."

The Big Deals campaign has become an annual event. "It gives our Portland office a lot of editorial coverage and creates a useful reference piece for the business community," Pioli says. "In law, you have to be creative in a different way. You simply can't do something because it's fun. You have to consider your audience and act on a more strategic level."

Maintaining and enhancing a firm's reputation as part of its overall business development plan is one key to its growth. Public relations and marketing tactics need to be designed with a specific client and measurable objectives in mind. "Find the right tools for your client and leverage them," counsels Gallagher.

A holistic approach drives some legal firms

Some law firms, such as McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago, however, are using a different tack. "We're taking a holistic approach," says Kathryn Jandeska, the firm's director of communication. "We're looking at our firm from a broader communication perspective, internal and external. Communication, after all, drives the process in professional service firms."

Although Jandeska employs many of the same marketing tools as her colleagues, her department also oversees a charitable giving program, an aggressive media relations program and, currently, the creation of a new identity system. "We're redesigning our logo and all visual representations of our firm-- from letterhead to signs," she says.

An evolving industry with many challenges

Legal public relations is an evolving field and practitioners face some interesting challenges. It should come as no surprise, for example, that lawyers and PR specialists seldom think alike. Lawyers complain that public relations practitioners don't understand legal issues; PR professionals complain that lawyers don't like to appear to be promoting themselves, yet they have certain expectations about the kind-- and the amount -- of publicity they can generate. "There's a communication gap," agrees Doff & Stanton's Segall. "Many lawyers hold PR types in disdain. They say without a law degree you can't understand what they do. Well, as a lawyer and a PR professional, I refute this proposition."

Similarly, lawyers and the media often don't mix. "Many lawyers are unwilling to release information to a reporter," says Jannet Hurd, director of business development for the law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in Washington, D.C.

"Basically it's a matter of education. Many of the associates don't even know what terminology to use with reporters -- what it means to be 'off the record,' for example."

Such education is critical. Marketing managers say they spend a good deal of their time simply marketing, explaining to the partners just what it is they are doing and the dollars it produces. "Law marketing is a new field," says Gallagher. "Lawyers have to know what to expect and how the system works."

Lawyers who are more PR savvy, however, are actively seeking recognition.

"There's been a rapid change in the last decade," says attorney Kenneth Linzer of Linzer & Associates, a Los Angeles law firm. "It's become more acceptable to announce to the legal community and the public at large the major transactions you've handled and the results you've obtained. Purchasers of legal services are sophisticated enough to be shopping around for representation. Publicity is one source of knowledge."

But publicity under the constraints of client confidentiality and professional ethics is difficult. "You might have a terrific client story," says Leslie Meagley, vice president of Communication Northwest, Inc. in Seattle. "The case was won, it was exciting and newsworthy, but the client won't talk about it. This forces you to be creative, to come up with a different way of packaging the story. You may end up talking about a company in the abstract --'a major software company,' for example."

Carol Allen agrees. "The media would like a spokesperson to go out on a limb, but a lawyer will not or cannot do that," she says. "You want coverage but it must be tempered by judgment."

A growing field with some growing pains 

A law firm is a partnership organization; consequently, public relations professionals have many bosses to please. "Getting things done can be difficult," says Perkins Coie's Pioli. "Before I took this job, I was told that marketing in a law firm is like herding a bunch of cats. We have 160 partners so I have 160 bosses. They all have a say in the business, which is how it should be."

Despite these obstacles, many law firms continue to cautiously embrace public relations and marketing activities. One P.R. professional estimates that 75 percent of all major law firms now use PR consultants. Membership in the National Law Firm Marketing Association (NALFMA) has grown from 12 in 1985 to nearly 1,000 today.

But there is a down side. The average tenure of a law firm marketer is brief-- 2.1 years, according to a 1990 NALFMA survey (up from six months, however, in 1987).

And a 1991 survey of more than 400 U.S. law firms found that 48 percent had marketing directors, down from 66 percent the preceding year. Job prospects aren't likely to improve until the economy turns around.

What does the future hold? Former lawyer-turned-PR professional Gallagher notes that law firms that turned to PR agencies in the mid-1980s are now hiring in-house marketers, retaining outside counselors on an as-needed basis. "Outside professional counsel can help with PR, marketing research, advertising or crisis communication," she says, "whatever specific needs go beyond the expertise of the in-house marketing director."

Verner Liipfert's Hurd thinks that legal advertising will "explode" in the next 10 years. "Law firms typically spend one-to-two percent of their gross receipts on marketing," she says. "Accounting firms spend more than 10 percent. There's some catching up to do."

NALFMA predicts that law firms will move from hiring one multi-skilled practitioner to establishing a full-scale department, responsible for marketing management and planning, public relations, research, database development, desktop publishing and special events.

Whatever the future holds, the verdict seems clear: In many law firms, public relations professionals are well on their way to helping guide their firm, successfully and profitably, into the 21st century.

Rita Cipalla is a free-lance writer and public relations consultant based in Seattle, Wash.