May 27, 2009 5:30 AM

THE CHURN: CMO Edition

Posted by Drew Combs

With Citigroup marketing executive Jeanne Sdroulas joining Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as chief marketing officer earlier this month, Orrick's effort to fill the CMO position, which had been open since December, came to an end. (Sdroulas replaced John Hodder, who left to take the top marketing job at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.)

But the search continues for several other law firms. Those with vacancies in top marketing positions include: Morrison & Foerster (Susan Klein started in April 2008 and left late last year); Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (Liz Pava started in June 2006 and left last August); Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (Bob Gero joined the firm in June 2005 and left the firm last December); and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (Brian Lambert was hired in February 2008 and was gone from the firm sometime by the end of the year). Just last week, Duane Morris CMO Edward Schechter announced his departure from the firm after a comparatively long eight-year tenure. Add yet another job opening to the list.

Given the demands placed on top legal marketing executives from varying, and sometimes competing, sources these jobs are naturally subject to a certain amount of volatility and turnover, according to industry observers (we spoke with recruiters, law firm marketers, and lawyers).

These factors are also why courtships between firms and applicants for the positions can be drawn out over several months. "It's ideal for firms to be patient and recruit the right person because these positions work closely with firm management," says Patrick Bustamante, who last month joined Kansas City-based Stinson Morrison Hecker as CMO after working as director of communications at Heller Ehrman. "They have to understand the firm's culture and business priorities," he says.

But industry watchers also say instability in the legal market, changing priorities, and a desire to keep expenses down also are factors in some of the vacancies. "A chief marketing officer is a big-ticket item," says Jennifer Johnson, a recruiter at Wisnik Career Enterprises, Inc., a placement firm specializing in legal marketing positions. "It is a high dollar amount for a firm to pay out to a nonfee earner when it may be letting go of lawyers." According to industry sources, annual salaries for a firm's top marketing officers usually range from $250,000 to $400,000; marketing directors or officers at the top 20 firms of The Am Law 100 can command $450,000 and higher.

Keith Wetmore, the chair of Morrison & Foerster, among the firms looking for a chief marketing officer, declines to talk about specific personnel issues but says his firm remains committed to the position. The firm has been without a CMO since Susan Klein left late last year. Sonnenschein's CMO also departed late last year after a relatively short tenure that didn't reach a year. Brian Lambert was resident in the firm's Charlotte office, which is no more; he joined Sonnenschein from Wachovia Corporation, where he was head of business development for the bank's Treasury Services Division. According to a firm spokesperson, the firm plans to fill the CMO position and is actively searching for one.

Wetmore contends the value of marketing and business development has increased as a result of the economic downturn and related developments. "There has never been a time when we have been more engaged in pushing our ideas out there," he says. "We have put out hundreds of client alerts on things that are happening in the markets and with regulations."  There has been another notable change, he says: "less swag."

Jennifer Manton, the chief marketing officer at Loeb & Loeb, concurs that while the legal industry may be facing an overall decline in demand, marketing departments have been quite busy. "Lawyers are out pounding the pavement," she says, "so marketing departments are strapped to get product out the door." The product includes conducting market and client research, and preparing RFPs and practice plans.

While general branding campaigns may be less of a focus right now, marketing initiatives such as business development training still remain popular, law firm marketing executives say. "The value of a new Web site or brochure can't be measured in dollars," says Heather Milligan, the director of marketing at Los Angeles-based Barger & Wolen, "but business coaching and training for attorneys can be more clearly converted into money."

In addition to new priorities and less swag, marketing departments at law firms are making due with less people. As law firms have made lawyer and staff cuts in response to falling revenue, marketing personnel also have faced cuts. At Orrick, Sdroulas will oversee a downsized department--in March, Orrick laid-off 100 lawyers and 200 staff members, some of which were in the firm's 50-person marketing and business development teams.

But even as the legal industry faces major challenges and contraction, at times the churn of marketing executives can appear rather ordinary. Allan Whitescarver, previously of Orrick, joined Paul Hasting as director of public relations earlier this month. Whitescarver says even with all the changes in the legal industry, marketing professionals "can still have a positive impact on driving revenue."

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