Most attribute the trend to a new-found realization among attorneys that if a firm is going to compete and succeed in a down economy, it has to make sure that potential clients know it's out there.

This month, Minneapolis-based Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP launched a bold new campaign that features a 25-foot-long, 6-foot-high display ad in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The 3-D display shows, a gazelle chasing a cheetah. "All are equal under the law," the tag line reads.

"We wanted to do something to make people stop and say, 'Oh, who are they and what do they do?'" said Kathy Gross Schoen, director of marketing and business development at Robins, Kaplan.

The airport ad targets potential clients across the nation, she said.

"We want to raise our identity," Schoen said. There were a lot of law firms out there."

Later this year, Robins, Kaplan will launch print campaign for the Minneapolis market. The "sleeping CEO campaign" will feature several prominent local CEOs resting peacefully in their beds. The ads will try to make the point that the firm's clients sleep soundly because they are in good hands.

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi is not the only firm hoping to turn heads with marketing campaigns.

"The economies of law firms have been such that firms are competing harder and looking for business," said Brian Freeman, director of marketing and public relations at Faegre & Benson LLP in Minneapolis. "It's not surprising that you are seeing more of them using advertising to compete in tough times."

Client recruitment

Last year, Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg & Gotlieb in Minneapolis partnered with an ad marketing agency, Minneapolis- based Group One, to launch its first round of creative print ads. Appearing in publications including Minnesota Law & Politics and Mpls.St.Paul magazine, the ads were created to increase brand awareness of the firm.

"We wanted to let people know that we're out there," said Mitchell McMillen, director of marketing at the law firm, who was hired in 2000. "It's worked tremendously. Not only have we increased brand awareness, we've seen an increase in business and revenue, and that's in a down economy."

McMillen said the new business is coming from clients of other firms.

"Since we began running those ads, we've recruited a number of big-name clients from other firms," he said. "They say they came to us because of our marketing efforts."

According to legal marketing experts, more law firms understand that to survive in the tight economy, they have to attract clients away from their competition.

"Law is a very mature industry, so to speak," said Larry Bodine, an independent strategic marketing consultant based in Glen Ellyn, IL. "There's not a lot of room for growth. Every company that has any legal work to be done already has a law firm. The only way to get new business is to take it away from someone else."

From the inside out

A number of law firms are focusing on targeted marketing via revamped internal departments.

A few months ago, Dorsey & Whitney LLP hired Silvia Coulter, former president of the Legal Marketing Association, as chief marketing officer. Stephen Dupont, former partner and director of media relations at Carmichael Lynch, joined Minneapolis-based Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP as director of marketing and public relations just over a year ago.

The fact that firms are hiring marketing veterans like Coulter and Dupont is proof of the value that they now place on marketing, experts said.

"There was a time when law firms were accepting of a marketing department that did the basics," said Laurie Zenner, chief marketing officer at Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly. "Now they are looking for results."

Law firms also are increasing marketing budgets. A few years ago, fewer than 5 percent of law firms across the country had strategic business plans, much less marketing budgets, Bodine said.

Today, firms are not only deciding to develop a strategic plan, they are insisting that marketing be a part of that plan.

According to a 2001 report: lay the Glenview, IL-based Legal Marketing Association's Research committee and Harris Interactive of Rochester, N.Y., marketing budgets made up only about 2.4 percent of a law firm's budget. However, the report found that 44 percent of respondents with a marketing budget said their firm's marketing budget was increasing.

"From meetings that I've gone to around town, I've noticed that marketing budgets have started to increase," McMillen said. Within a year of joining Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg & Gotlieb, his marketing budget was increased to five times what it was when he started.

"They've quickly become believers in marketing," McMillen said. Firms also are partnering with public relations firms to increase their exposure in the media. Merchant & Gould hired St. Paul-based Snow Communications last year to help position the firm as the leader in intellectual property.

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