Director of Marketing

Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck offers a unique professional position combining marketing, business development, and community affairs. This role presents a tremendous opportunity for you to significantly impact the firm's continued growth and success.    

About the Firm

Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP, a Chicago-based law firm, is one of the country's largest divorce and family law firms. Founded in 1981, the firm is internationally recognized as a model for family law practices, focused on helping high-net-worth clients achieve the best possible outcomes. We have the experience, talent, and sophistication to represent clients with unique challenges.  Using a team approach, our attorneys concentrate on specific practice areas and litigation within matrimonial and family law. Clients benefit from the extensive resources of Schiller DuCanto & Fleck, which include lawyers who are experts in divorce, tax matters, accounting, financial planning, employee benefits, and child custody issues.  We have represented clients throughout the greater Chicago metropolitan area and the Nation from our three Illinois offices. You would be joining a team with a reputation for excellence and a commitment to serving our clients with the highest standards of professionalism.  The Firm’s website is www.sdflaw.com.

About the Position

This is a senior management level position reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and having day-to-day operational interaction with the Firm’s management and lawyers.  The role will involve three primary areas – marketing, business development, and community relations - and the position is responsible for developing and implementing a highly strategic and integrated marketing and business development plan that will continue to (a) grow the Firm’s client base, (b) build the Firm’s national brand and (c) position the firm as an influential thought leader and the law firm of choice for high net worth clients. Some of the responsibilities and duties of the position include the following:

Marketing

• Develop an in-depth understanding of the Firm, its culture, strategic direction, target client base, and each lawyer's product and service offerings.
• Develop an integrated approach to branding, marketing, and reputation enhancement.
• Evaluate and recommend changes in marketing philosophy.
• Track and analyze competitors’ marketing activities.
• Plan, direct, coordinate, and oversee all of the Firm’s branding and promotional activities, including media ads, the Firm’s website, printed literature and presentation materials, and firm-sponsored seminars.
• Provide advice and assistance to the Chief Operating Officer, Firm Managing Partner, Marketing Partner, and the Marketing Committee on promotional and marketing issues.
• Manage relationships with outside providers of public relations and advertising services.
• Develop, present to Firm management, and manage the marketing budget; develop methods for demonstrating return on the Firm’s marketing investment.
• Serve as a reference source for lawyers on the best practices in ethical law firm marketing.

Business Development

• Serve as the “voice of the client” within the Firm by reinforcing and offering opportunities to operate in a client-centered manner and enhance the delivery of client services.
• Assist lawyers in identifying and cultivating prospective new clients.
• Assist the Firm in reinforcing relationships with existing clients, including by developing and facilitating client service teams, methods to enhance and measure client satisfaction, and client-lawyer succession plans.
• Develop programs to develop pitching techniques based on client/prospective client needs.
• Coordinate market research and competitive intelligence.
• Institutionalize and enhance the Firm’s CRM system, HubSpot.
• Using HubSpot, track and manage relationships and referral sources.
• Participate in strategic planning activities at the Firm and Partner levels.
• Coach and train individual lawyers in business development activities.

Community Affairs

• Continue to advance the Firm’s image in print and electronic media, as well as non-profit, professional, and civic organizations.
• Reinforce the Firm’s image of dignified gravitas and influence based on a recognized array of competencies, impeccable integrity, ethics, and being a solid corporate and community citizen.
• Assist in positioning and developing senior lawyers for board positions with community and non-profit organizations. 
• Coordinate submissions to lawyer rating organizations such as NALP, Chambers, Best Lawyers, Vault and the National Law Journal, US News, and World Reports.

About the Person

The ideal candidate for this position will currently be in a senior marketing or business development position in a mid-sized multi-office professional services or consulting business with experience in sophisticated professional services marketing and client service delivery.  The candidate is expected to have at least seven years of marketing or public relations experience, at least three years of which they were the primary professional responsible for overall marketing management for a company or business unit.  Significant marketing or business development experience in a law firm is preferred.  A bachelor’s degree in the liberal arts, preferably in marketing or communications, is required.

The candidate must be client-driven, highly professional, discreet, and enthusiastic.  They must exhibit confidence, be an independent thinker with strong problem-solving skills, and be capable of offering creative solutions.  The ability to think strategically about brand positioning and opportunities is essential.  The successful candidate is expected to possess leadership skills, effective communication skills, and the credibility and ability to motivate, persuade, and gain the confidence of others (including lawyers and clients).   The candidate must demonstrate the interpersonal skills and ability to work tactfully and cooperatively with lawyers with a wide range of experience in and understanding of marketing strategy.

The individual should also be experienced in acting as an organization’s public face and have successfully built networks and liaisons with community organizations, local governments, and civic associations.