Foundational Resource Defines the Core Skills Necessary for Legal Marketers to Succeed
April 4, 2024 (CHICAGO, USA) — The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) is proud to announce the release of the third edition of its Body of Knowledge (BoK). Originally published in 2016, the BoK was created in collaboration with LMA’s Education Advisory Council (EAC) and various legal marketing specialists and experts. This resource serves as a blueprint and roadmap for professional development opportunities for those in the legal marketing and business development profession.
In this third edition, the EAC, under the guidance of LMA Education Director Holly Amatangelo, thoroughly reviewed each domain, competency and skill. The third edition of the BoK features more advanced skills across all domains, new competencies within the Client Servies, Communications and Technology Management domains, as well as the expansion of competitive and business intelligence skills and an increased focus on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout all areas of the BoK.
The BoK is organized into six domains, each with its own set of competencies and corresponding skills broken into essential and advanced levels. The building blocks of the BoK are its six domains:
- Business Development encompasses driving new business, market share and profitable revenue for the law firm — directly and indirectly — through client and prospect outreach, lawyer coaching and mentoring, and market intelligence.
- Business of Law includes understanding the legal sector, evaluating firm financial and operational performance, building strategies to leverage market opportunities and implementing practices that maximize performance.
- Client Services consist of the developing and delivering strategies, techniques, processes and standards around the client experience.
- Communications entails developing internal and external strategies to articulate a firm’s value proposition, create plans to protect reputation and implement those strategies through various communications disciplines.
- Marketing Management and Leadership consists of establishing and effectively managing a highly functioning marketing organization through people, processes and technologies that foster collaboration and drive overall business objectives.
- Technology Management includes strategic analysis, needs assessment, identification, implementation and effective management of the technologies and technology staff that enable marketing and business development initiatives.
The BoK is an essential resource for professional development at every level, evaluating prospective employees, writing job descriptions, employee assessment, team management and more. LMA members can also use the competency analysis tools for each domain to assess staff or personal professional development opportunities.
As a compendium of skills legal marketing professionals bring to the table, the BoK provides a view into the diverse ways legal marketing professionals can and do impact the success of their firms on a daily basis. “We are thrilled to debut the 3rd edition of the LMA Body of Knowledge which is the result of 12 months of thoughtful and meticulous work by LMA, the EAC, and dozens of subject matter experts,” said Amatangelo. “We know how valuable a resource the BoK has been for the legal marketing community and this updated and future focused edition continues to set the gold standard for firms and legal marketers for years to come.
The BoK is available to members on the LMA website in digital format. A printed version of the document may be purchased for an additional fee and is available for purchase by attorneys and hiring managers who are not members of LMA. In addition to the BoK, members have access to competency analysis tools for each domain that can be used to assess staff or personal professional development opportunities.
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ABOUT THE LEGAL MARKETING ASSOCIATION
Founded in 1985, the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) is the voice of the legal marketing and business development profession. This unique community gathers professionals from all levels and firm sizes, as well as consultants, vendors, lawyers and marketers from other professions to share their collective knowledge. LMA has eight regions and more than 40 local groups across the United States, Canada and Europe. Its nearly 4,000 members hail from 48 U.S. states and more than 20 countries. More than 90% of the largest 200 U.S. law firms employ an LMA member. Members at every stage in their career development benefit from participating in LMA’s wide array of programs, services and resources. For more information, visit www.legalmarketing.org.
Media Contact:
Taylor Marks
Marketing and Communications Manager
Email: tmarks@legalmarketing.org
Phone: +1 312 673 4853