For Law Firm CMOs, PR Firms Are Often the Missing Piece
You’re the head of marketing or business development at your law firm. You’ve spent months crafting a strategic plan, aligning marketing initiatives with business development goals, and rallying the attorneys to engage. Despite your expertise and relentless efforts, they’re buried in their caseloads. They nod along in meetings, agree with your recommendations, and then—nothing. Emails go unanswered, deadlines slip, and initiatives stall. Not because they don’t value your work, but because their priorities are elsewhere.
Frustrating? Absolutely. But this is where outside support can be the missing piece.
Sometimes, it takes an external voice to reinforce what an in-house marketer has been saying all along. An outside agency brings not just fresh perspectives but the authority and bandwidth to get things moving. It validates your strategies, lights a fire under the attorneys, and ensures execution doesn’t fall through the cracks.
This shift in mindset is already happening. According to a recent Law360 article, law firms are investing more in Chief Marketing Officers, recognizing their role in driving business growth, enhancing branding, and securing new clients. But is a single in-house hire enough?
The Case for Fractional CMO Services
There’s another way. A way that combines the benefits of having a dedicated CMO with the power of an entire team of specialists. This is where agencies that offer fractional CMO services come in.
A fractional CMO model provides law firms with senior-level marketing and communications leadership without the overhead of a full-time executive. But the real advantage comes when that fractional CMO is backed by an entire agency of experts—from PR strategists and content marketers to digital specialists and brand consultants. With this approach, firms get the high-level strategy they need while also having access to a team that can execute at scale.
The Power of Outside Support: A Marketer’s Perspective
Having worked as a solo marketer inside a law firm, I saw firsthand how overwhelming the demands of legal marketing can be. Law firm marketing teams—especially those operating with lean staff—are often pulled in multiple directions. One moment, you're strategizing business development initiatives; the next, you're managing social media, handling press inquiries, planning events, and supporting attorneys with their personal brand-building efforts.
This is where outside support makes a difference. Bringing in an agency doesn’t replace internal marketing professionals; it strengthens them. The right agency acts as a force multiplier, helping in-house teams scale efforts, introduce fresh ideas, and execute with efficiency.
How Agencies Elevate Law Firm Marketing
Comprehensive Expertise: While an in-house CMO brings strategic leadership, agencies offer specialists across multiple disciplines—branding, content, PR, digital marketing, and more—ensuring every aspect of the firm’s marketing is covered.
Scalability & Flexibility: Marketing needs ebb and flow. Agencies provide flexibility, allowing firms to scale efforts up or down without the commitment of hiring additional full-time staff.
Immediate Impact: Instead of waiting months to onboard, train, and integrate a full marketing department, firms can leverage an agency’s existing infrastructure and hit the ground running.
A Powerhouse for CMOs: For firms that already have a CMO, an agency acts as an extension of their team, executing their vision with precision while allowing them to focus on high-level strategic goals.
The Future of Law Firm Marketing
Law firms don’t have to choose between hiring in-house talent and working with an agency. The smartest firms recognize that the future isn’t about one or the other—it’s about integration. Whether through a fractional CMO model or by supplementing an existing CMO’s strategy with agency expertise, firms that embrace this hybrid approach will position themselves for long-term success.
As law firms continue to navigate an increasingly competitive landscape, the question isn’t whether marketing matters—it’s how to do it better. And in many cases, the answer lies in the power of external support.
To learn more about how an outside PR firm can help your firm scale, reach out to us below. We would love to connect.