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Martindale-Hubbell : Law firms continue to drop out of directory

By Kevin O’Keefe
January 3, 2008

Martindale-HubbellLaw marketing expert, Larry Bodine, posted yesterday morning that more law firms are dropping their listing in the Martindale-Hubbell legal directory, long viewed as the bible of lawyer directories.

Though law firms realize that some general counsel may still be using the Martindale-Hubbell directory during the law firm selection process, the cost benefit analysis doesn’t stand up. More law firms are finding Martindale-Hubbell costs too much when comparing the benefits received from a listing.

Larry first references the informal survey of Philadelphia firms by Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group showing that ‘more firms are eliminating or scaling back their Martindale-Hubbell’s directory listing.’ According to the groups founder, Stacy West Clark, having to pay by the word or ‘unit’ is causing ‘enormous pain’ for law firms.

Though formulating a list of law firms who have exited Martindale-Hubbell has been elusive, here’s who Larry has confirmed as leaving the directory.

Word across the Internet and behind closed doors at law firms is that we’re going to reach a tipping point on law firms using Martindale-Hubbell. Law firms, by and large, have found a Martindale-Hubbell listing necessary because all the other law firms were listed. When all the other law firms are not listed in the directory, a Martindale-Hubbell listing will no longer be needed. The pendulum will have swung.

Amazing part in Martindale-Hubbell’s slide is their total lack of an effective Internet presence to combat this discussion. Martindale-Hubbell’s internal people and outside PR professionals have done little, if anything, to stem the tide of the discussion eroding their very core. Martindale needs to become more transparent and enter into a real discussion with their customer base and the influencers of those customers.

Microsoft was once viewed as the evil empire by the development community and many of their customers. A thousand plus blogs from Microsoft employees made the company’s methods and goals much more transparent. In addition, such blogs generated a discussion between Microsoft developers and customers leading to improved products (in same cases) and viral discussion about new launches. Customers feeling part of Microsoft’s development plans were much more likely to purchase and use the company’s products.

Google had significant problems, and still does, with privacy issues. A few years ago the company did not have an effective Internet presence. When a story broke across on the net about Google’s caching impacting users privacy, all Google could do was issue press releases and hold a press conference. Despite the efforts of Google’s PR professionals, the story broke very poorly in the Wall Street Journal and other main stream media.

No coincidence that Google now has probably 75 blogs published by various individuals and development groups in the company. When a negative story breaks, those bloggers, with a readership in the thousands, can respond with blog posts about how an issue or problem arose and how Google is addressing it at that very minute. In addition, those bloggers help frame Internet discussion on new products Google’s working on. All of that blogged information is consumed by amplifiers of Google’s message – other bloggers and the media (trade & mass media). Effective PR? You bet.

LexisNexis can choose to have their Martindale-Hubbell brand trounced in blogs, listservs, news websites, and offline trade publications. They’re doing a nice job of it using PR methods of days gone by with expensive PR agencies monitoring net discussion, framing PR responses for the company, and dabbling on the side with a few bloggers.

But if Martindale-Hubbell is serious about saving themselves they are going to need to wholeheartedly endorse online networking through blogs. The outcome would be both a gradual pick up of allies along the way as well as learning how to improve their services from their very customers – law firms and consultants already taking part in this online discussion.

I am not talking 75 blogs mind you, but how about starting with one or two from people in leadership positions at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell? When they work, add a couple from IT development and business development folks. Will there be some work in figuring out how to use blogs? Sure. Likely to stumble once or twice? Yep. But the down side of inaction will be the loss of a long standing product that’s generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues year after year.

And bottom line doesn’t it make sense for a company that says ‘…our innovation drives your success’ to show a little innovation in saving the Martindale-Hubbell lawyer directory. It’s a legacy product that deserves saving with the right services, pricing, and positioning.

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