A Law Degree for Marketing
TL;DR: Legal writing and strategy requires formulating and presenting your point of view to receive a favorable decision. With a touch of creativity, this skill set can be adapted to market products and services. Also, doesn’t hurt to have someone with Intellectual Property (IP — patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets) expertise providing active input.
Putting a lawyer with the marketing department?
Sound the alarms! They’re putting a J.D. in with marketing? It can be a good thing.
There’s little to no creativity in the legal profession. From my experience I’d say none, but law school wired my brain to not deal in absolutes. Sure, formulating persuasive arguments can require some deep thinking, but it’s more logic based than creative. Each test from the LSAT to the Bar Exam is designed to evaluate logic and reasoning, but not creativity.
Legal briefs and arguments boil down to respectfully requesting the ruling body to provide a favorable result, because of this research I spent hours accumulating and how I was able to analogize it to this instance. IRAC (issue, rule, analysis, conclusion). Connect the dots.
However, this is a valuable skill that I’ve found has helped me in transitioning to a business development role. Immediately after graduating law school, I went to work at a small IP firm. We focused on smaller clients, and beyond patent and trademark applications, we served as business advisers. I even volunteered my time at local tech hubs and incubators to provide the same guidance.
As a side note and some what of a disclaimer, I will say that I did take MBA level marketing courses during law school since the American Bar Association allows a certain number of credit hours to be taken at another graduate level school if it pertained to their coursework. Mine was Intellectual Property, which includes trademarks and copyright, so marketing fit in nicely.
Now, when you file a trademark or patent, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will evaluate your application and either approve, or respond with an Office Action that states the reasoning they believe it shouldn’t be approved. It’s the respondents job to make a case for approval. So, you’re persuading the agent at the USPTO to buy your argument. Every word of a Response to Office Action is meticulously thought out, and carefully constructed to steer the customer (the USPTO) to see your point of view. Now, I know this extends to other areas of law, but my experience is in IP, and it is the most creative and unique area of law.
Applying Legal Writing & Strategy to Marketing
Now at a certain point in my post-law school career something changed. I became more passionate about getting my hands dirty on the business side, rather than just the legal and compliance. Seeing and filing patents for others is nice, but you never get that sense of ownership. You never get to see it grow from the baby it is from CAD drawings or chicken scratch on a napkin, to the teenager it becomes on advertisements, and the adult it grows into in the hands of customers.
In marketing, I’ve got the honorable Judge Public Perception to answer to, where I’m serving on the defense, and the prosecuting attorney is Cust Omer, J.D. It is my job to formulate business strategy geared for the favorable result — turning ideas from conception into sales.
When I sit down to write a proposal or evaluate strategy, I take the same approach as if I’m filing a legal brief. I take this approach by putting myself on either side of the transaction. On one side I’m the seller (defense/applicant), on the other I’m the customer (prosecutor/reviewer) constantly poking holes into the idea of whether or not I need this product or service. There’s a constant question of why does this matter? what does the customer need to know? Am i sending the appropriate message to receive my desired result?
Other Advantages
IP Strategy
Active input is great. There’s always that worry that something is going to get held up in legal. However, having someone with an intellectual property background is great for progress.
Contracts
Also, from a contract management perspective, it rewires the thought process. The words on the page turn from the black-and-white they normally are into more of a holistic viewing. Being active during the business relationship process, you’re able to fully understand how the words within the four corners of the page translate into the business relationship.
Now, not all with a J.D. will be fit for a role in business development, and that’s perfectly fine. It isn’t something to actively seek, but if the opportunity arises, I’ve found it to be a pretty incredible role to fill.
In any department, it’s always ideal to have many different backgrounds, and a touch of a J.D. perspective, doesn’t hurt.
