A Couple of Months Into a New Challenge
The past four years, my job description could be summed up as “if it touches the internet for North Highland, I probably have some responsibility over it.”
My job description now is pretty much the same, except now it would read “if it touches the internet for Womble Bond Dickinson, I have responsibility over it.”
At the end of August, I took on a new role as the Director of Digital Marketing at Womble Bond Dickinson, a trans-Atlantic law firm that is one of the top 100 law firms in the world. It was a great opportunity to take on a leadership role to help refine the digital marketing efforts of a growing law firm and have more ownership of the end-to-end client experience online.
Why A Law Firm?
I realize, especially with the thriving tech startup scene in Atlanta, it’s not typical for a next move for a digital marketer to be with a corporate law firm. Even at recent tech events I’ve been to, when friends and former colleagues learn I transitioned to legal, the first response is something along the lines of “…really? huh…”. To most, this was clearly not the obvious next step for someone with a technology-focused career path.
Transparently, I also had initial reservations about hearing out the opportunity when the initial recruiter letter hit my inbox. The more I investigated, the more I began to see how this could be a great opportunity. The scope of responsibility fit perfectly into what I wanted my next step to be. Plus, as I started to meet the people at the firm, quickly learned that the culture at Womble didn’t have that “stuffy” feel to it that you would assume a law firm would. Everyone was really nice and the environment was much more laid back than I could have ever anticipated from a firm of this size.
Womble has been a great organization on it’s own. That said, there are some other aspects of taking a marketing role specific to the legal industry that were really intriguing.
The Technology and Legal Spaces Are Colliding
Technology is growing but so are the legal ramifications to each new advancement . GDPR and “right to be forgotten” laws across the pond were just the start. The legal side of tech innovation will be a really interesting space to watch as technology begins to grow and become more prevalent - and potentially more invasive - in our everyday lives. The front row seat I’ll have watching those legal debates and implications unfold will be interesting to watch.
White Space in Legal Marketing
There are some law firms that do a great job marketing but it’s still largely an untapped space for marketing innovation. I’ve learned there are challenges in law marketing that other industries just don’t face, which likely contributes to that fact. The chance to help grow a brand in a niche space that isn’t overly crowded by marketers yet seemed like a really unique opportunity to me.
Opportunity to Build Something
My time at North Highland afforded me the opportunity to help build out a marketing technology stack from the ground up. I helped with the firm’s global Salesforce implementation, implemented Pardot mostly by myself and introduced a few other pieces of our martech stack along the way.
Womble Bond Dickinson gave me a similar opportunity to do the same here. I’ll have the chance to shape our marketing technology approach and become a leader in the legal industry. Building something like this out, especially at the scale of a firm the size of ours, takes time and patience. But the payoff is almost always worth it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but I plan to continue sharing what I learn along the way here. I’m excited about the next step in my career path and look forward to the challenges ahead.