Marketing in the place of the legal profession

THE intendment of this discourse is to examine the role of marketing in the place of the legal profession, which by all standards, is the most conservative profession in Nigeria.

However, before embarking on this discourse, I shall, as a prelude, briefly define some basic relevant concepts such as “Market”, “Marketing”, “Marketing Strategy” and “Marketing Mix Elements”.

An understanding of these concepts would be of helpful assistance in elucidating the discourse under reference.

A “market”, contrary to wide scope mistaken belief, can be defined as a group of persons with needs and wants and capabilities with interest to meet these needs and wants. A market connotes the following: buyers, consumers, customers, clients and relevant audience. Thus, quite contrary to perpetually held mistaken belief, a market is not a place e.g. Oyingbo Market, Alaba Market ,Oil Mill Market, etc.

“Marketing” can be defined as an exchange transaction or relational activity, which result or leads to mutual satisfaction of the relevant parties involved.

“ Marketing strategy” or “strategic marketing management”, which is a subset of strategic management is the science or art of analyzing, formulating, implementing and evaluating gross functional decisions that enables an organization to achieve its goal and objectives’.

“Marketing mix elements” may be conceptualized as those things which the marketer has efficiently and effectively done or intends to do in order to convince, make or structure the market to buy or show positive behaviour towards his organization’s products, service or idea. These things are good product, good distribution, good mega marketing, etc.

Applying the above concepts to this discourse, we begin by saying that the basic law codifying and guiding the legal profession in Nigeria is the Legal Practitioner’s Act 1975.

Before this time (1975) though, there had existed legal practice in Nigeria as far back as the 1890s. The old Legal Practitioner’s Act 1975 is now codified as the Legal Practitioner Act 2004 LFN.

The said Act established the General Council of the Bar, which is a body charged with making rules and regulations for the legal profession in Nigeria.

Basically, the legal profession in Nigeria can traditionally be classified into Barristers (Advocates) and Solicitors. This is the basic classification as contained in section 24 of the Act. These days further classification may be added thus: in-house counsels, external solicitors, law lecturers, police/custom/EFCC lawyers, judges, magistrates, state counsel, etc.

That the legal profession in Nigeria is very conservative is a fact that cannot be over-emphasized. It is a profession, which is not easily amenable to changes especially with rules guiding professional practice. The legal profession is basically a service-oriented profession.

The characteristic of service include intangibility (it cannot be touched or seen or evaluated prior to its purchase); inseparability (legal service cannot be separated from the legal service provider); perishability (it cannot be stored to secure inventory) and variability (legal service change in quality from one legal service provider to the other. Legal service is people based. It is produced mainly by a person for another person.

Advertisement, (which is a key element in marketing mix elements) is strictly banned in the legal profession. Rules 33(a) of the rules of professional conduct made pursuant to the aforesaid Legal Practitioners Act specifically provide thus: “33(a): It is contrary to professional etiquette for a lawyer to solicit professional employment by circular, advertisement, through touts or by personal communications or interviews. Indirect advertisement for professional employment such as furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments, or procuring his photograph to be published in connection with causes in which the lawyer has been or is engaged or concerning the manner of their conduct, the magnitude of the interest involved the importance of the lawyers position, and other like self-aggrandizement, offend the tradition and lower the tone of the profession and are reprehensible; but the customary use of simple professional card is not improper.”

It is of utmost importance to note that what the above rule prohibits clearly is advertising and not marketing .It is my humble submission that advertising is just a substratum of marketing and cannot necessarily be equated with marketing.

With the sweeping effects of marketing activities and the wide scope of marketing to basically all areas of human endeavor (legal profession inclusive) lawyers and legal practitioners world over and more also in Nigeria have devised means of marketing (not advertising) their trade without necessarily or deliberately infringing on the aforesaid rule 33(a) of the rules of professional conduct.

Legal service marketing involves personal marketing and in some big legal outfits, mega marketing strategies are adopted to capture the market (clients) of interest.

Dr. Osuagwu (2002) identified the following strategies for marketing legal services. These are: Product strategy -The quality of service rendered by the big legal offices. Top renowned and experienced lawyers in legal chambers can enhance this through handling of client’s needs problem.

Promotional strategy – Here, some law firm offer scholarship and maintain educational foundation as a way of promotion or creating awareness about their law firm. Personal selling and public relations also come in here.

Pricing strategy – Some law chambers offer free legal service pro bono service to indignant persons. The effect is that you will get the big jobs later.

Mega marketing – This involves high level corporate lobbying, contacts, connection and power to ensure marketability of a firm’s legal service. Listings with international directories e.g. Martindale Hubel Law Directory, belonging to international Associations e.g. International Bar Associations Commonwealth Lawyers Association etc.

Jemide (2006) identified the following strategies for lawyers to win briefs without “putting themselves up for sale”, These he calls the 3 ps: Product, Proximity and Performance: Product- A lawyer’s product consist of the following five things: Personality, Intellect, Antecedents, Reputation and Infrastructure.

The question to be asked here is: how does a lawyer package his product? “Can you define yourself who you are professionally in just two words?”

Proximity - The law of proximity works in every business, legal service inclusive. The law of proximity simply says go to the client. Once you create opportunities for proximity you would make good to harness and maximize these opportunities. To maximize proximity, be relevant in the gathering but in your area of strength .Be an attentive listener. Be positive and be a bridge builder. In your encounter with people as you frolic in these gatherings, the attraction for a potential client may be: Intelligent conversation, appearance listening understanding ,understanding their business, making good suggestion ,a sense of humor, integrity, etc.

Performance: A first-time good performance opens the next opportunity for business. And constantly good performance keeps the business and wins you referrals.

Conclusion: From this paper, we have been able to highlight the fact that though advertising is sternly prohibited in the legal profession being a very conservative profession, the applicability of marketing activities to virtually all areas of business endeavor has ensured the enfoldment of strategies for marketing in the legal profession without necessarily infringing on the relevant guiding rules of the legal profession in Nigeria.

References:

Dr .Linus Osuagwu (2002),”Marketing: Principles Management”, 2nd edition,Surulere, Grey Resources Ltd.

.T.Orukpe Orumor ( November,2005) , MBA 823 seminar presentation notes for continuous assessment presented in November 2005 .”Marketing in the place of the legal profession”.

. Ayuli Jemide (2006),” Marketing for Nigerian lawyers”, The Guardian, Tuesday, July 18, 2006, Page 70.

?Orumor is a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner