Breaking Down Silos: How to Build a Culture of Sharing in Law Firms

[00:00:00] Brittany Lewis: Don’t underestimate the power of small and consistent changes. We didn’t transform our culture overnight. It started with something as simple as being more active on social media, sharing the wins and successes as they happen or trying to, and then adding in that internal newsletter.

[00:00:26] Announcer: Welcome to Spill the Ink, a podcast by Reputation Ink, where we feature experts in growth and brand visibility for law firms and architecture, engineering and construction firms. Now, let’s get started with the show.

[00:00:43] Michelle Calcote King: Hi everyone. I’m Michelle Calcote King. I’m your host and the principal and president at Reputation Ink. We’re a public relations and marketing agency for B2B professional services firms, including law firms. To learn more, go to www.rep-ink.com.

Law firms traditionally operate with a degree of internal separation. Practice groups function independently, and attorneys focus solely on their own clients. Today, we’re going to talk about transforming that solo practitioner dynamic by creating a culture of sharing and how that translates into real benefits for firms.

I’m excited to welcome Brittany Lewis of Bell Nunnally to the podcast for today’s discussion. She leads the firm’s marketing department and has many years of experience in legal marketing. Welcome to our show.

[00:01:40] Brittany Lewis: Hey Michelle, it’s so good to see you. I’m really excited to be on today. I have to say that this is actually my first video podcast. I’ve done one other podcast before, but this is my first video one. So I’m a little nervous, but you all have made it very easy for me so far.

[00:02:02] Michelle Calcote King: Well, tell us a little bit about your career and what you do at the firm now.

[00:02:10] Brittany Lewis: Sure. I joined Bell Nunnally in 2018, but I’ve been in legal marketing since 2010. When I mentioned this to a group of first-year associates earlier this week, they all collectively gasped that I’d been in legal marketing for 15 years. Honestly, that timeline surprises me too. This is my third firm. I started at a firm in San Diego as a marketing assistant where I learned the full scope of what a marketing department in a law firm does. Then I was at one other firm prior to coming to Bell Nunnally, and here I lead the department. It’s just myself and a coordinator. The firm is very marketing and business development minded, so we have a lot of support behind us, which is great. It’s a firm of about 70 attorneys. For me, I’ve found that the size is really good because you really get to know everyone, which is so helpful in what we do. I actually know all the attorneys.

[00:03:17] Michelle Calcote King: Well, let’s talk about creating a culture of sharing. What does that mean in the law firm context?

[00:03:27] Brittany Lewis: When I say that, I mean publicizing and celebrating the good news, like when we have a case win or a deal closing or one of our attorneys joins the board or chairs a philanthropic event or does something pro bono. It’s about making sure that these successes don’t stay hidden.

[00:03:48] Michelle Calcote King: And why do you think a lot of firms struggle with that and end up so siloed?

[00:03:55] Brittany Lewis: I think attorneys are trained to be cautious and confidential, which sometimes extends beyond client matters into a general reluctance to promote themselves. There’s also the practical side. They’re focused on the legal work, not necessarily thinking about the marketing value of their achievements. And honestly, some attorneys worry about seeming boastful or self-promotional. Really, sharing these successes helps build the entire firm’s reputation.

[00:04:29] Michelle Calcote King: Yeah, it’s funny. As marketers, we’re trained to think in that sharing way. We’re always looking at content thinking, “Oh, we can redo this. We can take this.” And you’re right. Lawyers have been trained the exact opposite way. So how have you helped encourage that culture at your firm?

[00:04:54] Brittany Lewis: When I joined in 2018, a lot of great work was happening. It was just staying more under the radar. Since then, I’d say we’ve implemented a few key initiatives that really shifted the culture. When I say “we,” I mentioned previously that we’re a team of two, myself and a coordinator. But I also want to recognize the importance of an external PR agency like Reputation Ink and the ones that we’ve used, because they’ve really helped us build out the initiatives and the processes. We couldn’t do it without them.

First, we started leveraging social media much more actively. This was one of our earliest changes, getting attorneys comfortable with sharing their wins and their knowledge and their experience online. Then we implemented an internal newsletter, which was huge because once attorneys began seeing their colleagues’ achievements highlighted from case wins to speaking engagements, all that good stuff I’ve mentioned, they realized that they had good news to share too. I think it created this positive cycle for people to become much more comfortable celebrating successes.

And then in 2020, we launched our first annual report, and we’ve done one every year since. We’ve done five so far. Yes, it’s a huge undertaking. The final product is great, and I will say it’s a huge undertaking, but since we’ve established this culture of sharing, people are sharing more throughout the year, so then it’s more about compiling into one piece. We’re trying to get all the year’s information at the end, so that’s key as well. This piece of collateral really captures the entire year in one polished publication.

[00:06:59] Michelle Calcote King: Oh, I love that. Because it’s not incredibly common for firms to do an annual report. Tell me, what does that report look like? Is it success? Is it major cases and matters and awards? Is it really just saying, “Here’s all the things we did this year and why it matters?”

[00:07:28] Brittany Lewis: We always kick it off with a letter from our managing partner, and he discusses the big wins, maybe the themes and the trends of the year. Then we start off with client success because mainly we want clients and prospective clients to know what we can do for them. So we have the case wins and the big deal closings right up at the front. We have a list of our representative clients with their logos, which always looks really nice.

Then we’ll have a section on thought leadership, just a rundown on one page. Here are all the publications our attorneys were featured in. Here are some of the organizations they spoke at. We’ll have new hires, a list of all the new people that have joined with a little blurb about them.

And then community leadership. Our firm is really engaged, so we kind of do highlights of the leadership we have going on. One of our attorneys is on the EDC board. One of our attorneys chairs the state board or the state fair, which is obviously huge in Dallas. So we focus on the more big appointments and then have a listing of all the organizations our attorneys are involved in.

[00:08:52] Michelle Calcote King: Yeah. I love that. Tell me a little bit about the internal newsletter. What type of information are you looking to share? Do you find that attorneys are sort of jockeying to be in it? Does it get to their competitive nature at all?

[00:09:14] Brittany Lewis: I was a little worried about that at first when we started it, but surprisingly, we haven’t really had anybody saying, “Why was this in it and not this?” Because we do have a disclaimer at the top that says this is a sampling. It’s not comprehensive, and we do it quarterly. It’s just like the annual report, but on a much smaller scale. It’s stuff that has been shared throughout the few months prior. So it’s about keeping that process going throughout the year, and then the culmination is the annual report.

[00:09:55] Michelle Calcote King: Right. I can imagine that leads to increases in cross-selling because it’s very hard, even in a firm of your size, for everyone to know what everyone’s doing, what their expertise is, what resources they might have internally. Have you noticed that kind of increase in attorneys working together and tapping each other for more work?

[00:10:19] Brittany Lewis: Yeah, I would think so. I can’t think of a specific example, but I imagine that does play into it. Just being knowledgeable about what other people are doing case-wise and deal-wise. Also, “Oh, you’re involved in this organization. I was thinking about becoming involved,” or “I know of someone that is on there and I’d like to meet them.” That sort of thing.

[00:10:47] Michelle Calcote King: Yeah, absolutely. So as you rolled out these initiatives, what resistance have you encountered? How do you get attorneys on your side about this or show them the value? What kind of pushback are you getting?

[00:11:05] Brittany Lewis: The biggest resistance I would say is that natural attorney caution. They’re worried about client confidentiality, even when wins don’t necessarily reveal sensitive information. There are also some that are more concerned about seeming boastful. And then, of course, since attorneys abide by the billable hour, just not having enough time in the day is also an issue.

To overcome these, I’ve found it’s all about making it easy and safe for them. So myself and my coordinator, Kate, who’s amazing, we help them navigate that client approval process. Along with our external agency, we help draft language that will protect the confidentiality while still celebrating the win. And we always say, “We would never publicize anything without first getting approval.” It’s our firm policy to have client approval in writing too. So we make sure they know that we take it very seriously as well.

[00:12:15] Michelle Calcote King: Yeah, I think that’s important for you to make sure you have a reputation with them as somebody who understands these issues. I think that’s often the challenge that we as marketers run into. They’re so worried that we don’t understand the confidential nature and the various risks involved with marketing because it does present risks. The fact that you have 15 years of experience really helps you out a lot.

[00:12:46] Brittany Lewis: I speak attorney.

[00:12:47] Michelle Calcote King: Yes, exactly. How do you encourage attorneys to do the engagement on social media and participate in the PR efforts? What are some ways that you have talked to your attorneys about that and shown them the benefit?

[00:13:08] Brittany Lewis: I found that attorneys get excited about social media when they see it as an extension of what they’re already doing rather than something completely foreign. Most attorneys are naturally passionate about their work and their experience, and social media just becomes another way for them to share that knowledge.

The key for me in coaching them is making it easy and relevant for them. I don’t ask them to become social media experts overnight if that’s not their thing. For some of them, it is. They’re great on social media, but for others, it’s not natural. Instead, I might just say something like, “Hey, you just gave a great presentation on employment law changes. Let’s turn that into a LinkedIn post that could help other business owners.” When they see how their existing experience translates into valuable content, I think they get more interested.

[00:14:09] Brittany Lewis: And I also like to share success stories with them. One of my favorite stories is that one of the attorneys, who is very active on LinkedIn and really good about posting—he’s actually the chair of our marketing and business development committee, so he understands the value—had a prospective client reach out to him simply because he had appeared in his LinkedIn feed.

This client saw him and it prompted the prospective client to remember that this partner does litigation work. This person was looking for litigation counsel, so he picked up the phone and called our attorney, and then it turned into a big case. I understand that this is rare and does not always happen that way. It often doesn’t, but I like to share little anecdotes like that.

[00:15:04] Michelle Calcote King: Yeah, I love that. If you can show them that, look, it is rare, but it happens every now and then. What actually happens more commonly is that’s one part of many touchpoints. We’re all sitting at our computers all day and often checking LinkedIn. We have to be where people are to create those opportunities for this kind of thing to happen. But yeah, I love those case studies. They’re fantastic.

[00:15:33] Brittany Lewis: Yes. It’s about staying visible and top of mind because a lot of attorneys will ask me, “Does LinkedIn really do anything? Does it really matter?” And I tell them, yes it does, because that’s where your target markets are hanging out and they see you. It jogs their memory about who you are and what you do, and you just never know.

[00:15:57] Michelle Calcote King: Absolutely. So I’d love for you to—and I know you have more than 15 years—if you could distill out of your 15 years of legal marketing experience, any kind of final thought or lesson that you’d love our listeners to take away?

[00:16:16] Brittany Lewis: I’d say don’t underestimate the power of small and consistent changes. We didn’t transform our culture overnight. It started with something as simple as being more active on social media, sharing the wins and successes as they happen or trying to, and then adding in that internal newsletter.

Now we’ve gone from 540 LinkedIn followers when I started in 2018 to over 4,000 today. It’s been a big jump, and our engagement metrics, which I track frequently—LinkedIn has a great analytics feature, a tab on the left-hand side, so if you don’t use it, you should—our engagement metrics consistently measure up and rival much bigger firms.

Each step built on the last, and if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of creating this culture of sharing, just pick one thing and start there. I think success breeds success.

[00:17:25] Michelle Calcote King: Love that. And I love that you’re punching above your weight on LinkedIn, so that’s so important. And I love how you can look at competitors and they make it a little competitive for you too on those analytics.

[00:17:37] Brittany Lewis: Yes, which attorneys love to see. We share them at our bimonthly marketing meetings.

[00:17:43] Michelle Calcote King: That’s awesome. I love that. Well, we have been talking to Brittany Lewis of Bell Nunnally, and thank you so much for your time today.

[00:17:54] Brittany Lewis: Thank you, Michelle. This has been so fun. I appreciate you and your team.

[00:18:03] Announcer: Thanks for listening to Spill the Ink, a podcast by Reputation Ink. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.