Firm-sponsored events strengthen community ties and create opportunities for attorneys to network with potential clients. But the traditional “lunch and learn” format simply doesn’t spark joy with everyone. In this episode, Gail Lamarche, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Henderson Franklin, teaches us valuable lessons about creating unique and memorable law firm events.
Gail shares examples from a 25-year career working with law firms, including a Cigars & Conversations event with cigar and bourbon tastings and an educational maritime law event outside a Southwest Florida yacht club. She also dives into planning Henderson Franklin’s latest event, a gala celebrating the firm’s 100th anniversary, her favorite AI tools for brainstorming creative event ideas, and the importance of incorporating a “Wow” factor in each event.
Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn
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The difference a thoughtful event can make in helping attorneys build authentic connections with people in their community.
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How Henderson Franklin is celebrating and commemorating its 100th anniversary milestone.
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Why Gail champions “not doing the same things the same way all the time” in marketing and business development initiatives.
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Tips for organizing memorable legal events that get firms away from the traditional lunch and learn model — and why they don’t always have to be law-related.
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How Henderson Franklin balances and strategically manages over 100 charitable efforts.
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Gail’s favorite AI tools for enhancing event planning.
About our featured guest
With over 25 years of experience in law firms, Gail Lamarche serves as the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A., a full-service firm with over 50 lawyers across three offices in Southwest Florida. Gail oversees the firm’s marketing strategies, encompassing advertising, branding, budgeting, business development, digital marketing, social media, seminars, events and community initiatives. In addition to her role at the firm, Gail works with an author, speaker and international wellness coach.
A New England native and baseball enthusiast, Gail serves on the Boston Red Sox Celebrity Golf Classic Tournament Committee, which benefits the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida, and has raised over $15 million to date. She is also a member of the Southwest Florida Seminole Booster Club. Previously, Gail served on the Communications Task Force for the Horizon Council of Lee County, was an inaugural member of the Social Media Shared Interest Group Leadership Committee for the Legal Marketing Association, and co-founded the Social Media Club of Southwest Florida, where she also served as president.
Resources mentioned in this episode
Sponsor for this episode
This episode is brought to you by Reputation Ink.
Founded by Michelle Calcote King, Reputation Ink is a marketing and public relations agency that serves B2B professional services firms of all shapes and sizes across the United States, including corporate law firms and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms.
Reputation Ink understands how sophisticated corporate buyers find and select professional services firms. For more than a decade, they have helped firms grow through thought leadership-fueled strategies, including public relations, content marketing, video marketing, social media, podcasting, marketing strategy services, creative services and more.
To learn more, visit www.rep-ink.com or email them at info@rep-ink.com today.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Gail Lamarche: If we're set in a role or we've been at a firm for a long time, it's like, "Oh, we've done this — we've done this forever. This is what we always used to do." My response is, “That's exactly why we should change it.” Bring fresh ideas, bring innovative strategies, bring something new to the table, but still have that same goal of building your relationships, building brand awareness, educating your clients.
[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.
[00:00:42] Michelle Calcote King: Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle Calcote King. I'm your host and I'm the principal and president of Reputation Ink. We're a public relations and thought leadership marketing agency for B2B professional services firms, including law firms. To learn more, go to rep-ink.com.
Events are a strategic investment for law firms. When you're talking about a return on investment with law firm leaders, it's important to communicate that the benefits go well beyond direct revenue. It's also about community engagement, reputation building and cultivating relationships.
Here to talk about this topic and a few others, we're going to get into some other things, is Gail Lamarche. She's the director of marketing and business development at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt. They're also celebrating the firm's 100th anniversary this year. We've got a lot to talk about. Thank you for joining me.
[00:01:36] Gail: Of course. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:38] Michelle: Gail, tell me a little bit about your background. I know you've worked with law firms for over 25 years. Tell me about your background and a little bit about the firm you're with now.
[00:01:46] Gail: Sure. Thank you. Before I went into law firms, I actually was in the hospitality industry. I was a sales manager at a hotel in New Hampshire. Developing those skills for events planning, coordination and execution have been incredibly helpful now in my career with law firms. I started in law firms in 1998 at a full-service firm in New Hampshire, and was hired as a secretary for the commercial litigation department chair. Through almost 10 years there, I was a paralegal trainer, IT help desk, and eventually the marketing assistant, which I much rather preferred than typing and teaching people how to type a brief.
In 2007, my husband and I had the opportunity to move to Florida and the location of the Red Sox spring training park down the street from this office was a big pull for me to get to the Fort Myers area. Yes. When I came to the firm, legal marketing was a little different back then. A lot of money, even up north was spent on Yellow Pages, Martindale-Hubble listings, print ads. Quite frankly, I don't think lawyers spent a lot of time on business development then as they do now. I think now the competition is so fierce and our clients and especially business clients are much more discerning.
They want more. They want more than just a golf outing and a lunch. To be educated, they need to meet their marks and meet their metrics, too. Over the years, we've blended some traditional relationship-building tactics with some data-driven campaigns that we've tested and tried. We try to do these event-driven marketing initiatives, like seminars and webinars, with a different spin. Also, our community outreach initiatives — we try and just reach new audiences in different ways. Using all these multiple approaches, I think, has benefited the firm, especially with its longstanding history and legacy that we have here.
[00:03:59] Michelle: Yes, I love that. One, I love how you've seen the changes. I talked to my employees a lot who, a lot of them are younger, they don't know a world without the internet. For them, they don't understand that — how business was conducted before the internet. You're right, lawyers did just sort of, it was that whole — if I do good work, work will come to me. I love that you've got this perspective now and you've really seen that, look, lawyers have to be involved nowadays and clients are asking for more, there's more competition.
Tell me, well, one, so I have this question prepped and it's a good question. I want to ask about it before we get into some other things. What do you think you do differently than other legal marketers? What is something that's something that you really champion?
[00:04:56] Gail: One of the things that I try and do the most —I also do some coaching for our lawyers, too. One of the things is really bringing out their authentic self with those business development activities. Some of my lawyers have voiced their concern that — I feel like I'm building fake friends when I go to a chamber event or when I go to network, I feel like it's not authentic. It's like bringing out what feels comfortable to them outside their box a little bit, working with their unique strengths to align that with the firm's overall goals.
It's important to — they might not feel comfortable going into a business setting. So finding those — or a big group to speak in front of. So finding those unique pathways to bring out that individual lawyer is really what makes me shine. I feel most accomplished when they realize something that they didn't think was possible and then they achieved it and they just be — that's where I find my joy, yes.
[00:06:00] Michelle: That's great. Yes. Because people can tell when somebody is not being authentic. It does come through and it comes through especially in networking. I feel it myself because, yes, I have to network and if you're not happy or comfortable, you're not going to be effective in those settings. Absolute same with public speaking or writing or any of that, those activities, 100%. In the same vein, what do you think are some of those important qualities to excelling in legal marketing and how is that changing with these changing times?
[00:06:44] Gail: Oh, that's a great question. The skill set of a legal marketer is always changing. Just look at the last year that we've had with AI introduced into every single industry that we're working in. It's important to be strategic, but also be adaptable. You can have your plan mapped out for you for your day, but if a partner walks in at nine o'clock, your schedule is going to change. It's being adaptable to having a deep understanding of that lawyer's responsibilities, their goals, what they want to accomplish, and then blending that in with the firm's goals and also with effective communication is so important. For yourself, building those relationships with your attorneys so they can know, like and trust you just as we want our clients to know, like and trust them.
[00:07:33] Michelle: Yes, absolutely. Yes. It's a lot of the same skill sets, right? It's relationship building, it's understanding how to be authentic in that. Let's talk a little bit about the 100th anniversary before we get into events. We are going to get into events, but, I see, anniversaries can be an effective tool because they can demonstrate longevity. Tell me a little bit, your firm is the oldest firm in Fort Myers. Tell me how you're recognizing the anniversary and how are you using it to enhance the firm's reputation and your existing marketing activities?
[00:08:17] Gail: It's been a lot of fun. I've been with the firm for almost 20 years now. Finding those stories that happened back in 1924, through the Great Depression, through the World Wars. Through everything, this firm has been standing and through our practice areas. We do real estate and estate planning, but also land use and zoning. We have our hands in a lot of things. Uncovering the projects that we take for granted today, like the bridge connecting Fort Myers to North Fort Myers, developing projects that have been groundbreaking for our region and our country, actually.
It's been amazing to be able to promote that. We're focusing on different projects where we have a bigger focus for being out in the community, having that hands-on, get your hands dirty. We just did a thing at the local soup kitchen. Sorry, my mind went blank. There's so many events happening right now. It was so much fun. We got there really early and helping them do the meal prep for Meals on Wheels delivery. Then serving our community is really what we're all about. That's actually why I joined the firm. When I learned of all their community endeavors, that was the right fit for me.
Bringing that out to the forefront for our anniversary is just a great thing. Another thing we're doing is we're planning our 100th gala with our staff and clients, referrals and members of the community. That's coming up rather quickly. That's been a joy. Yes, that's a lot of fun. Then we're ending it with a strategic ad campaign for digital and print to just memorialize our commitment to the community.
[00:10:09] Michelle: Oh, lovely. I love the gala idea, because that sounds like that's a way to say, this is about you guys, the people, and let's have fun and let's celebrate and really enjoy this. I also love telling the stories, the history, because that really brings the firm to life and makes people, one, learn things they might never have known. They might not know the background and how things started or key cases or matters that the firm worked on. Yes, that's the benefit of a history or an anniversary to me, because I hear sometimes people debate about, “do we even do anything with an anniversary?”
Yes. I think it can be a vehicle for telling some stories that you might not have a reason to tell otherwise.
[00:11:01] Gail: Very true. We've got some alumni coming back that were here for years. We've got some attorneys still practicing that have been here for 40, 50 years. Their stories are just — it's just the older I get, the more history I like, and these stories are just amazing.
[00:11:16] Michelle: Yes. For other legal marketers who might be out there about to plan an anniversary, now that you're looking back, you've gone through a lot of it, is there anything you would have done differently or is there any tips on, if I had to do this over again, I'd do something or I'd definitely do this again or anything like that?
[00:11:37] Gail: Yes, there's a few couple of things. The first thing that comes to mind is — we're very short, well, not short staffed, but I wish I had a bigger staff and a bigger budget. We all want a bigger budget, right? One of the things I wanted to do is do a video interview with a lot of key clients, alumni, and really put a really good piece together of capturing those stories. To do that, though, you need a good team, you need a good budget, and you also need a lot of time. We've got clients and alumni all over the world. Zoom is now a perfect way to do some interviews and things, but capturing that on film, I think, would have been a really cool idea.
The other thing I wish, because we could be so effective with our marketing campaigns, our attorneys don't have as much time as I would like them to do to be back in the community, because they have that good old billable work that they have to do. Juggling those billable hours, the community commitment, and just getting out there is two things that I would love to change if I had a magic wand.
[00:12:47] Michelle: Yes, I hear you. When you were talking to my fantastic producer, Sofia, you mentioned that you make an effort to not do the same things the same way all the time with business development. I'd love for you to expand on that. Tell me what you mean by that.
[00:13:04] Gail: It's funny you say that, because I think if we're set in a role of — we've been at a firm for a long time, it's like, “oh, we've done this forever. This is what we always used to do.” My response is, "no, that's exactly why we should change it." Bring fresh ideas, bring innovative strategies, bring something new to the table, but still have that same goal of building your relationships, building brand awareness, educating your clients.
There's a couple of different ways that we did that this year. One of the ways is collaborating with other companies. This past year for International Women's Day, we created an event, Unveiling Purpose, and we had conversations with Collier County's Trailblazing Women. We had an incredible panel. One was the head of the Naples Wine Festival that focuses on children and education. The other one was a mother-daughter dynamic real estate team from New York and Naples. The last one was an entrepreneur female who is changing the landscape of dining in Naples. All three of them, I'm sorry, all four of them were just so inspiring.
We had standing room only, it built community, and it really showed and showcased — if you're really strong in the community in your work, you need to be that way philanthropically as well. The two have to blend together. That event really stood out that it wasn't a regular old reception. We had an event with a purpose and with a purpose related to a national holiday for International Women's Day, but it was really amazing.
[00:14:49] Michelle: I love that, yes. Tell me, because you mentioned some other events like Cigars and Conversations. Do you do that like with each type of event? Do you look at it and go, what can I do that might change this up? We're tired of this lunch-and-learn format. Because I could see that it's like, especially after COVID, getting people to leave the office is very difficult.
[00:15:18] Gail: It is very difficult and actually great point since COVID and we're down here, we're in Southwest Florida. Hurricanes, too, and work from home, it's hard to get somebody out of their house and you're asking them to take time away from their family if you're doing it at night. Having these unique events, for some of the — especially the Cigar and Conversations — we did a bourbon and cigar tasting. We were very strategic with those invites and women were also invited, surprisingly, you might think that women might not do that, but we got a lot of — it was a small crowd, but the ROI from that event, it's relaxed, it's doing something they like to do and it's educational with bourbon and cigars, not law.It doesn't always have to be law, but having a relaxed setting where you can have good conversations and it was great.
Another one that we did was really fun right after COVID was coming out of it was a maritime law at a yacht club in Fort Myers. We had a senior community, but we were all outside. My maritime lawyer did a Q&A and the engagement was so much fun. We would give out prizes for correct answers and you're in a yacht club setting. It was gorgeous. We had some hors d'oeuvres and it was a lot of fun and it educated the audience and it was a memorable event. Those are the things that I want to do more of that are memorable.
[00:16:49] Michelle: Yes, I like that. Because one, you've got the challenge of getting people to go, but you're creating an atmosphere for those relationships to be built. The right tone has to be struck. There's so many aspects that go into it that people don't quite realize how difficult these things are to get right and really how important they are in the greater — I'm like you, the older I get, the more you're able to look and get perspective on things. I'd heard how much relationship building was in my younger days and you don't quite get it until you're older, I think. And you understand what that means. Creating those avenues for those attorneys to build those relationships is so wildly important.
Tell me about the charitable giving. I saw that you guys support over a hundred. I can imagine that's challenging that many. Tell me one, how do you balance it? How do you strategically look at that? How do you decide what to support? Then how do you balance that many? What's your strategy, I guess, with that?
[00:18:08] Gail: It's very challenging because we wish we had an unlimited budget and could support every organization that has asked us for money and asked us to support. It's very challenging. We weigh in sponsorships. One is whether we have an attorney in a leadership position. If they're in a leadership position, they're usually there because it means something to them. It's purposeful. We want to, of course, support them in that organization. That takes top preference as well. Of course, when clients ask us to support something that they're passionate about, we want to support our clients and their efforts as well.
It's not just striking a check. It's, can we get involved? Can we get our hands dirty? Can we make a meaningful, not only a donation, but can we help spread the word about the event itself? For me, that's putting it on social media and sharing it. Join us at this event, sharing it in our newsletters. Each firm has a robust client list. Help show the community where you're going and encourage others to do the same thing.
[00:19:20] Michelle: Yes, that's great. Yes, absolutely. I do want to ask about AI. You had told Soia that you use AI to help jumpstart ideas, which I think is honestly AI's real value right now at this stage, besides distilling data and for marketing. Tell me, are there any specific tools you're using that help you with that brainstorming process?
[00:19:48] Gail: There's a couple I use on a regular basis. Of course, ChatGPT.
[00:19:52] Michelle: ChatGPT, yes.
[00:19:53] Gail: Perplexity AI is very useful as well. Perplexity AI will give you the backup resources with links so you can fact-check very easily. That is helpful as well. But for brainstorming and ideas, Chat has been the easiest and really most friendly. Putting something even as an activity for a firm retreat. Putting in that we're going to be at a beach setting. I have multiple generations. What are team-building events? It was great. It came up with — list me 20 — and we ended up, actually came up with two for years back-to-back. One was a sandcastle-building contest where we had teams. Of course, we had criteria with firm logo branding and all that good stuff. That was a lot of fun. Then this year, we came up with a scavenger hunt and weaved in anniversary and law firm history with the clues to be part of the scavenger hunt. It was so much fun. It was all — helping with ChatGPT to come up with these fun things. Something that might have taken us a while to get all the kinks out, Chat did it in 30 minutes or less.
It's like, don't be afraid to use it. Make sure you don't quote something that's inaccurate, of course. We all know those stories right now. Use it to help steer some ideas because it's a lot of fun. Stuff that you wouldn't think of.
[00:21:30] Michelle: We use it a lot for that kind of thing. A hundred percent. Yes. We have like a weekly question that we ask the team for like bonding and stuff. We use ChatGPT a lot to brainstorm that question. Yes.
[00:21:44] Gail: Yes, exactly.
[00:21:46] Michelle: Yes, it comes up with some fun questions that — just to get the team talking and that kind of thing. I'd love to let you give us one final, if there's something you can share from your — you're a very experienced legal marketer — for other legal marketers who want to learn from your experience, is there something you'd like to leave our listeners with, any tip or a helpful hint or lesson?
[00:22:16] Gail: Oh, it's hard to sum up, but there's a few that are really important. One is to partner with great people and to trust them. I couldn't do my job without a great team and especially with events, without great vendors. Trust them, treat them with kindness, treat everyone with kindness. We need more of that in the world. Let’s leave it like that. Be willing to challenge the status quo. If you're brand new in a firm or if you've been there for a while. If they say, "Hey, but we've always done it this way." Say, what about this? What if we try to do something different or just give me a shot at this and then see what happens.
Always try and challenge that status quo. Just be open and be willing to listen to your attorneys’ ideas. Maybe they might be a little different than what you think would succeed, but find ways to maybe incorporate that and areas of that suggestion into future things. For me, it's always leaving something with a wow factor. If it's a seminar, if it's a cigar, or if it's a big gala, I want the wow factor. I want people to remember they were there. I want them to remember the firm for what we have stood for the last hundred years.
[00:23:34] Michelle: I love that. Really great insights. We've been talking to Gail Lamarche of Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:23:45] Gail: Thank you, Michelle. I loved the opportunity to spend time with you.
[00:23:51] 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.
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