Christa Crane on Why Change Management Is a Core Part of Legal Marketing
CREATE Communications is pleased to introduce The Sharp End: Christa Crane on Why Change Management Is a Core Part of Legal Marketing
While it’s not unusual for legal marketing and business development professionals to make the switch from similar roles with other professional services firms to law firms, Christa Crane, chief client and strategy officer with Loeb & Loeb LLP, came to legal marketing by a slightly different path. A change management consultant with Accenture early in her career, her work on an internal business development project for the consultancy prompted Christa to look toward the broader professional services industry and, ultimately, legal services. Over a career that spans nearly 25 years, Christa brought all she learned about leading change to legal marketing roles at several AmLaw 100 and 200 firms, including ArentFox, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (now Freshfields LLP) and Bingham McCutchen. She joined Loeb & Loeb as chief client development and marketing officer in 2014, and just shy of 10 years into that evolving role, she stepped into her current position. As chief client and strategy officer, Christa partners with firm leadership to set and implement broad strategic priorities and launch new initiatives.
The Sharp End recently spoke with Christa about navigating changes in firm leadership, including her own new role, key success factors in rolling out new programs and initiatives, and how her undergraduate degree in psychology has come in handy. She also gave us a peek into how she likes to spend her weekends.
The Sharp End (TSE): You have a background in change management at a Big Four firm. What prompted you to move into legal marketing?
Christa Crane: My first role was with Accenture as a change management consultant, which was fantastic. I worked across a mix of clients and industries, including automotive, retail and entertainment. A few years into my role, I was staffed on an internal business development project for Accenture and I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it — thinking about how important it is to make meaningful connections with people, not just “sell” to clients. I loved the branding and design elements, working with the business development team and learning about a variety of ways to measure results, beyond simply new work in the door. It was that project that caused me to think about what I wanted to do next and helped me focus my career path on professional services marketing.
TSE: How do you integrate your change management skills into your current role at Loeb?
CC: Especially now with my new role as chief client and strategy officer, I use those skills every single day. I’m working with our firm co-chairs and COO on a variety of firmwide, strategic projects that are new for our firm. There is a lot of change underway, and ensuring we’re making an impact while also not changing too much too fast or “rolling over people” rather than “rolling out helpful new initiatives” has been a big part of it.
But honestly, I think I’ve taken that change management mindset with me to every single role I’ve had. That old saying “the only constant is change” is true. Sometimes, as business leaders, we’re the ones that are creating change by way of a new initiative — for example, asking people to think about coming together in client teams or industry groups when they haven’t operated that way previously, or helping them buy into a new branding project. Other times, it comes to us in the form of an acquisition or change in our economic environment. Most people don’t love change, even when they agree it makes sense and is important, so we always have to factor in plans to successfully lead through it.
It’s definitely been a passion of mine throughout my career.
TSE: You’re currently Loeb’s chief client and strategy officer after serving as the firm’s chief client and business development officer for several years. How has your role at Loeb evolved?
CC: I was Loeb’s chief client and business development officer for more than nine years before becoming chief client and strategy officer about 18 months ago. Although my title has changed and I’m orienting around different projects now, my role at Loeb has always included an element of supporting broader firm initiatives, so it’s been a reasonably natural transition.
The firm has gone through three planned leadership changes in the time I’ve been here, and I’ve worked with each of our firm leaders differently. Of course, just about everything related to firm leadership has an internal communications component. Over my 10-plus years at the firm, I’ve been handling more and more of that work incrementally, so playing an even larger role in firm initiatives was a natural progression.
Over that time, I also got to know the firm extremely well and I have built deep relationships. I think it would be hard to come into the role I have now without that history. A success factor in rolling out a new program or initiative is knowing the culture you’re working in and being attuned to political (or other) nuances, and that’s hard to do without a good deal of institutional knowledge.
TSE: How do you adjust to changes in the organization’s leadership?
CC: You have to reset. What worked for the last leadership team may not work for the new one. We’ve been lucky that every time we’ve had a leadership change at Loeb, we’ve known it was coming and, also, it has always been a peaceful transition. With each, I had three to six months during which I was still supporting the outgoing chair while also starting to plan and prioritize with the new one. That time has been important because it allowed for conversations in advance of the official handoff. Having that prep time to talk about the incoming chairs’ priorities and how we’ll work together, talking through what we’ve done in the past and what we might keep the same or change, and agreeing on future initiatives well in advance so we can be thoughtful and orchestrated has helped greatly.
I think that period is as important for our leaders as it has been for me. It has helped the new leaders feel comfortable that we’ve talked through some of the potential challenges (at least in theory!) and that we’ve gotten to know each other and established our working relationship. This makes them feel more comfortable delegating, and I feel more comfortable forging ahead because I have the basis I need to make smart decisions and recommendations.
TSE: What are your biggest challenges at Loeb currently?
CC: We’re in a period of a lot of change right now, with a variety of new initiatives underway.
Balancing the need for speed with managing how much change we’re asking any one population to absorb at any given time has been our greatest challenge. However, it’s also provided a nice opportunity to get a wider mix of people involved in new initiatives, in an effort to help spread things out. And it’s forced more discipline in sharing plans and projects across our business teams so we can make sure we’re thinking more holistically about initiatives we have running across the firm.
TSE: Can you tell us about the new projects you’re working on?
CC: Like many firms, we’re integrating new systems and technologies aimed both at the ways we serve clients and how we work internally. We’re not only upgrading a variety of our central platforms, but we’re also focused on being able to integrate internal and external data across platforms. This is important for client work, as well as critical for marketing and business development efforts. I know a lot of firms are also prioritizing data integration, and we are fortunate to have a really strong CIO who is especially focused on this. Of course, we’re also looking to embrace AI in a more meaningful way — not just on the client side, but also internally.
We’re also in the process of creating a practice management function at the firm. This has been a particularly rewarding project as it has involved assimilating wide input from our leaders on both the business and legal sides. It has required a healthy mix of rethinking current processes and divisions while also being able to think more broadly about the gaps we have and how best to fill them. We have partnered with an external agency (Calibrate) that is steeped in this space, so I’ve also learned a lot along the way.
TSE: How do you think AI can be used in marketing?
CC: There are some great use cases for AI in marketing. In fact, there is a dizzying array of options and providers, and they just keep coming! The hard part has now become prioritizing providers and use cases rather than searching for potential options.
Some of the more practical use cases include things like using AI for data cleansing; helping generate first drafts of articles, social posts and website content; and brainstorming unique ideas for events. These tools are making life easier for the marketing team, and in some instances, our partners are working directly with these platforms as well. For example, we use Passle, the thought leadership platform, and it has an AI tool that surfaces up summaries from the lawyers’ longer pieces that they can use as a starting point for social media posts, as well as suggested imagery. If they like it, great; if not, they can regenerate it as many times as they like.
TSE: It sounds like you have built a really strong partnership with leadership. What do you see as the biggest obstacles to creating that kind of partnership?
CC: I think it takes a lot of listening and, also, spending a lot of time together in general. It’s perhaps harder these days than it was pre-COVID given hybrid work. We have fewer more natural interactions that help build trust and camaraderie outside of defined meetings. Now, we have to be a lot more intentional about both putting the time in and working to create the more relaxed opportunities rather than just letting them happen.
TSE: Psychology seems to be a big part of your job.
CC: Most days, it does feel like that. This answer will make my father happy, as my undergraduate degree was in psychology. Turns out I am putting that degree to good use, even if in a less conventional way than intended!
TSE: How do you feel about the future of legal services marketing and the role of CMOs or CMBDOs?
CC: I have a lot of optimism. It’s amazing to see how much change there’s been in our industry. The CMO role itself has become increasingly more complex and sophisticated, and also more interesting. The skill set required has widened and, with this, there’s been a positive shift in terms of how law firm leaders are viewing the role and how much room and autonomy they are giving. The stakes are high, but the rewards and opportunities are even higher.
I think our career path options are increasing as well. Roles like chief strategy or chief growth officer are becoming more prevalent and providing new opportunities. Historically, to become COO, you almost had to have been a CFO as a precursor. But now, COOs/CEOs are coming from a wider array of backgrounds, including marketing, and I’m hearing more and more CMOs express interest in these kinds of opportunities as next steps.
TSE: One last question. You currently work in Chicago and were previously based in Loeb’s New York and Los Angeles offices. What would people you work with be surprised to know about you?
CC: That’s a really good question. I think most people at work would say I’m an extrovert and that I’m constantly on the go. And I am. I love being around people, exploring new cities and traveling. But honestly, I’m also a homebody. I think even more so over the last few years, as it’s become my time to really recharge. These days, my favorite weekends are the quiet ones!
