Jonathan Glater’s excellent article in today’s New York Times shines the spotlight on a few law firms that are finally getting serious about marketing themselves. This is significant because, like doctors, lawyers had traditionally felt marketing was unseemly and not appropriate to their business model. Declining revenues and heightened competition have forced many law firms to change their tune.

Having advised many law firms, accounting firms, consultants and business schools, I know that these types of organizations can be a real challenge to "brand." For one thing, they all say exactly the same thing about their practice, range of services, years in business and managerial talent. For another, each partner is a CEO unto himself/herself. So a positive article about one partner or practice area will often engender scorn, envy or outright hostility from a different partner or practice area in the same firm.

Another big challenge is that nine times out of 10, law firms cannot identify their clients by name (which the media insist upon in order to provide coverage). We typically get around that obstacle by identifying trends, undertaking proprietary surveys and having the firm host local market or industry specific roundtable discussions in order to debate issues in their areas of expertise.

Law firm marketing isn’t for the faint of heart. If one can satisfy the egos involved, uncover some distinct points-of-view and, most importantly, find some nugget that will differentiate the law firm from its thousands of competitors then, dear reader, you’ve got a good shot. Your witness.