In Focus

Get legal to bless your campaigns

4. Give credit and praise

Make sure that when the initiative launches and is successful, you give some credit and praise to your legal department for playing a role in the project. After all, success is a team effort and your legal department should be considered part of your team, or at the very least part of most of your project teams.

This approach not only applies to your legal department but applies to all of your cross-department team members. Especially with your legal department, participation in the fruits of the successfully launched initiative is just as important as the initial involvement at the beginning of the project.

At the end of the day, the most important factor is making sure that every department is focusing its decisions on business goals. If you find that your legal team is out of alignment with these goals and exerting its wrath as the "Business Prevention Unit," apply the previously mentioned steps and aim for greater alignment. Your company's success, and your sanity, depend on it.

 

Comments

marq thompson
marq thompson January 30, 2010 at 12:03 AM

This is a wonderful article. The things given are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
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marqthompson
legal marketing

Sean Cheyney
Sean Cheyney February 6, 2008 at 11:00 AM

David,

Thanks for providing the link to your blog post. Great article! I've added your blog feed to my Bloglines account.

I agree 100% that legal must collaborate with the marketing team versus becoming the enemy "business prevention unit." Doing so at the beginning of the process is the key.

David Miranda
David Miranda February 6, 2008 at 9:37 AM

Sean,
I enjoyed your article, but I wanted to share a 180 degree POV. Any marketer can provide frustrating examples of dealings with his or her legal colleagues. Many businesses have, in fact, become "law firms that sell products and services". Sample the "mouse print" in disclaimers that typically have more verbage than the ads themselves. Disclaimers by the way that only another lawyer can understand. Lawyers must consider themselves as collaborative members of the marketing team not the "business prevention" department.
Business prevention is, in fact, anti-marketing.
(I have written an article on my own blog on the subject http://recognitionmarketing.blogspot.com/2007/11/exorcise-seven-deadly-sins-of-anti.html)
Regards,
David Miranda
Recognition Marketing