Legally Bond
Legally Bond
An Interview with Kelly Beauchamp, Legal Marketing
In this episode of Legally Bond, Kim talks with Bond's Chief Marketing Officer, Kelly Beauchamp, about how law firms build trust, not hype, through client-focused marketing strategies. From digital platforms and LinkedIn to AI tools and personalized content, Kelly shares practical steps for attorneys and marketers to grow with purpose.
Hello and welcome to Legally Bond, a podcast presented by the law firm Bond Sheniken King. I'm your host, Kim Wolf Price. On today's episode, I'm excited to speak with Kelly Botan. Kelly is the chief marketing officer here at Bond and leads our marketing team. Kelly has more than 20 years of experience in legal marketing and business development, helping law firms like ours strengthen client relationships and grow their brand. Welcome to the podcast, Kelly. It's great to have you here. Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm very happy to join you today. Terrific. Well, if it's okay with you, I'd like to focus our conversation today, not just on legal marketing and, of course, a little bit about what we're doing here at Bond, but also on where you see the future of legal marketing heading. Is that okay with you? Absolutely. Well, thank you. Okay. So you may have listened to an episode or two as the chief marketing officer. Absolutely. So you know the tradition here on Legally Bond is to start our conversation by asking our guests to share a little bit about themselves so listeners know who's speaking. So if you don't mind, can you tell us a bit about your background?
SPEAKER_02:Sure. So I have been with Bond Schenick since February of 2025. Prior to that, I was at Woods Ovi at Gilman. I'd been there for a little over 20 years as a director of marketing and business development. And I saw a lot of changes over those 20 years, which I'm sure we'll dive into that in a little bit too. Prior to that, I was with a large software company, worked in marketing. Before that, I was with a manufacturing organization in marketing. So I've pretty much been in marketing my entire career. Very good.
SPEAKER_01:So where did you go to school? Do you want to tell us a little bit about that part of your background? Grow up.
SPEAKER_02:I am a very proud State University of New York at Ferdonia grad. And I actually was an economics and finance major with a marketing concentration. Foolishly at one point I thought I wanted to be a stockbroker. And after doing an internship, quickly learned that it was not my route in life. I was not going to be a cold caller.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, thank you. So did you grow up that way?
SPEAKER_02:I grew up kind of all across New York State. My dad was a superintendent of schools at districts, literally from one side of Route 86 to the other. I was born in Binghamton, moved to a little town in Greenwood, New York, then Cuba, New York, and then back across the state to Liberty. And then my parents retired back in Cuba. So I call Cuba my original home base.
SPEAKER_01:Very good. All right. So what was your path to marketing here at Fond or generally speaking?
SPEAKER_02:So I was first approached years ago for the opening at Woods Oviate. A colleague of mine who was there at the time knew me and knew that the opening might be of interest to me, reached out to me. And then after the series of many years, I had actually always been very interested in law. I had thought about going to law school and then just never followed through with it. So when that opportunity came to me, I thought this is perfect. It's like the best of both worlds. I can be in that law firm environment and not have to go to law school and then utilize my marketing background. And at the time it was interesting because marketing was, you know, I think 10 years before that, firms weren't really allowed to market. So it was a fun time to kind of jump into it. Like I developed the first website that the firm ever had. So it was it was interesting.
SPEAKER_01:That's interesting.
SPEAKER_02:And then just throughout the years, I had kind of been watching Bond and saw the growth that was happening here. And when I heard of the opportunity here, I was really excited about it.
SPEAKER_01:So yes, and I was very excited that you were excited. So we're really glad to have you. You're the reason I'm here. Well, I'm really glad you are. So thank you for sharing that background. I think it's great for us to get a sense of who's speaking today. So I guess we need to dive into marketing and legal marketing in particular. I think maybe the first question is, you know, we say marketing and we assume everybody knows what that means. So do you mind talking a little bit about generally like what is marketing as we're talking about it for a law firm? Sure.
SPEAKER_02:So marketing a law firm is a little bit different, I think, than other industries. A lot of other industries don't have as strict of the guidelines that we do in the legal marketing area. So we have to be careful about how we craft that. But we really are, as opposed to doing product marketing, we're doing more of a kind of, I would say, thought leadership marketing, showcasing attorneys' expertise and helping them establish those race relationships with their clients and finding potential clients. And the I think the content, the difference between the marketing and the legal industry, too, is the content is a little bit more serious. There's confidentiality involved. So we just have to be very careful about how we craft messaging, things like on our website. We don't really want to list client information if the clients don't want us to share that. And there's also the business development component of marketing now, which 15 years ago wasn't as prominent as it is now. You know, for attorneys to think that someone needed to help them go out and sell their services and their and their personal brand, didn't really even come across their mind. But because of the competitive nature in the legal industry nowadays, it's really at the forefront of their minds now. They need to have that help from marketing and business development to get them in front of those prospective clients and to continue to maintain their current client relationships.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And so for those who don't know, as attorneys, we have the rules of professional responsibility, and those include how we can market ourselves, what we can say, and those rules count for everything a law firm does. So you know, client confidentiality, as Kelly mentioned, and all of those pieces. So our marketing team is really governed by those rules and all the teams at the firm in the same way that the attorneys themselves are. So it's interesting that you said 10, like, you know, 20 plus years ago, you know, you got in just after marketing was really allowed to be a part of law firms. So how do you see that world, you know, as we stand today since that development?
SPEAKER_02:I've seen a big transition in kind of the traditional marketing strategies that happened. Um, you know, everything used to be very print-oriented, newspaper ads, magazine ads. We're now we're definitely seeing the shift to the digital platforms. And not as many, I don't think you see as many law firms advertising in newspapers like they used to, you know, used and and on TV, there's still the you're gonna see the personal injury law firms advertising on television, but I think the larger, more commercial and business firms are really sticking with the new digital platforms and taking advantage of that. And then we see things like social media really becoming a big part of law firm marketing. You know, Bond has a very, very active social media platform. We're starting to do see more videos. We're doing it ourselves. We're starting to see a lot more videos out there in the industry. So it's definitely changing. Firms have to have had to adapt to be more competitive, you know, and now we see AI coming into it, and that's gonna change things up even more.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And a lot of that is led um the social media and videos by our producer, Kate. So I have to shout out our legally bonded producer. Um but and I think you also had a good point as well, in that it's different for different types of law firms, and we're a business law firm. Right. And so the way we advertise is is different than other types of lawyers. The way we engage with marketing and business development is different as well. We're looking to establish long-term relationships with these clients. And, you know, if you are working in medical malpractice or personal injury, for the sake of the client, I hope there's only one time they need you. Right. Exactly. So it's a whole different sort of way to look at the industry.
SPEAKER_02:There's more of a focus on like that client experience and engagement, you know, where there's more personalized email campaigns, you know, with the with the use of these email systems like Vuture and Constant Contact. We can create material that is specifically focused for our clients in specific practice areas and industries, where before everything used to be just one big blast that went out there. Um, now we're seeing definitely more of a fine-tuning, which is important because I think it makes clients feel more engaged with our attorneys.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think that's a great time to sort of pivot to you know the busyness of our team. And can you talk about some of the initiatives that we're working on?
SPEAKER_02:Sure. Since I've been on board, we've been working very closely with some of the practice groups. Um, we've been engaging with them to develop more of a strategic business development marketing plans. You know, we're collaborating very closely with them, which will help us tailor each group's approach differently. So it's specific to their needs. We're doing a lot of data-driven research to help develop the programs that we want to work with for each of the practice areas, which has been great because it's allowed us to spend time with the attorneys in those practice areas and educate us on what they do. And then it gives us an opportunity to think about what we want to do with them moving forward. But we're also, like you mentioned, Kate Femia, we're also doing a lot of social media work. And we have a new Law and Beyond video platform, which I think is fantastic. Um I think we'll see a lot more coming from that in 2026. I think attorneys are starting to realize it's a really valuable tool for them and it doesn't take a lot of time, which is really important. As we all know, the it's very important for them not to spend too much time away from their clients. And then additionally, for we've been planning for 2026 a comprehensive evaluation of our brand and our website, considering a brand refresh and a website overhaul to make sure we enhance our presence and remain competitive in the digital landscape. So it'll help us do by doing that, it'll help us modernize our look, but we can also improve how we're going to communicate with our clients, making it easier for them to connect with us online. We can use it as more of a resource for them. So I'm we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a good point. You know, obviously your efforts are focused on the attorneys and how to help the attorneys enhance their reach to gain new clients. But you mentioned earlier thought leadership and then how we're focusing on industries. So this, along with these other initiatives you're talking about, they're also here to help our clients, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02:Right. Right. We want to keep our clients informed of urgent information. I was on a call today where there was an update that needed to be shared with clients, you know. So we work very closely with the attorneys to get the information together to send it out to our clients to make them aware of things that are happening in their industry to prevent them from having any issues moving forward. We want to make sure we're engaged with them and keep them up to date.
SPEAKER_01:That's terrific. And you have a great team with a variety of skill sets, right? Where we met with you know the SCU women's basketball coach about how to engage clients with Tim Crosby, the director of business development, yeah, and your director of communications, Courtney Lesk. So works on a lot of different things for us, including our bios and other pieces. So we have a great team.
SPEAKER_02:We really do. We really do. And and it's great because our team really works well together. You know, we we're constantly having brainstorming meetings. There's a lot of, you know, hey, does anybody have a minute to talk about this? So it worked, we work really well together. And I'm really excited because I think there's a lot of great things to come from this team as we move forward.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I appreciate that it doesn't have to be you creating those conversations. I know that Kate and Courtney are talking to each other all the time, and Tim and Courtney and all the different combinations with the rest of the team. So your your leadership there is really impressive and important. So thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:They're a great team to work with, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01:All right. So AI, digital brands, where do you see legal marketing headed in the next few years?
SPEAKER_02:I think it's it's gonna change a lot. I think AI is really gonna play kind of a vital role in the evolution of legal marketing. You know, there's so many AI-powered content generation platforms and datalytics for marketing automation. And for us, we've already been testing it and using it on our team. I use Microsoft Copilot pretty much every day myself, but we're looking even for opportunities that we can use it on the RFP side of the marketing initiatives. So I think AI is really gonna make a big difference. I don't think it's gonna take away roles on marketing because I always need a human set of eyes on things and you know, the the um critical thinking that a human can provide that AI can't. So, you know, you hear people talking all the time about AI is gonna take away jobs, but I in the long run, I don't really think it's going to. I think it's gonna enhance jobs and make people's jobs easier and and more productive. So I think it's exciting.
SPEAKER_01:And I think it's gonna allow people to stretch and grow in different ways, as opposed to just being something that takes away jobs. And just listeners, please know that um all the security that you could possibly want happens with our law firm. Um, as well as all the ethics that employers need to keep in place. But that is a constant conversation, you know, make sure that everything is secure in these environments and that we're following the ethical guidelines in that as well. So it's more sort of multi-layered as we grow in this new digital way. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:And I think there's gonna be some trends that are gonna help us kind of build our clients' relationships even more, just the the client expectations of the open communication, you know, and and quicker communication, you know, where I think it used to be leave them voicemail, they would you know, wait for the attorney to call, you know, now they're you know, email and teams messaging and things like that. I think that's an area where we can start thinking in marketing, like how can we take advantage of some of these AI areas and different technologies to communicate with our clients better?
SPEAKER_01:That's terrific. And so I guess a good question here then is you know, we like to talk to the next generation of people because we're always recruiting for the next generation of professionals at the firm. So what advice would you give to someone interested in legal marketing or thinking, thinking about, you know, getting into the field?
SPEAKER_02:I think the biggest thing is you need to be curious and interested in law. And that's one of the things. When I left my former firm and came to Bond, people said, Really? You're gonna go from one law firm to another. And I said, I love it because I love the information that is inside the law firm walls. And I think anybody going into legal marketing should be curious and adaptable and be able to kind of learn and understand who their audience is and who their clients are. Their clients are the attorneys of the firm, you know. And I would say get in, learn about the practice groups, learn about the attorneys, stay knowledgeable on ethical guidelines and kind of embrace technology as it's coming through. You know, the worst thing in the world is to hear someone say, but that's the way we've always done it. I think if somebody can come into a role and be adaptable and know that things are going to change on a regular basis, they can have a lot of success and really enjoy it too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's terrific advice. Like if you if you're not interested in that decision that came out or that big win or the development project that's happening from the real estate group, then you might not find it as engaging. And you mentioned early on in our conversation today, getting to know what the lawyers do is a critical part of marketing being successful.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Absolutely. I take every opportunity I can to sit in on um department meetings, practice group meetings, talk to attorneys, ask them questions. It's important. It it helps me and it helps the team as well to start thinking about how we can help them, how can we work with them? Great to spend time with attorneys.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. We appreciate that you say that about attorneys. You know, sometimes we get a we get a raw deal on occasion. Well, all right. So any final thoughts on how marketing helps the law firm thrive in this changing landscape?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think marketing can really help the firm by just keeping our name in front of people, you know, working with the bond brand with each of the markets and the attorneys in the different markets. You know, every every market is a little bit different when it comes to how you how you market and how you reach out to prospective clients. So I think it's important for us to keep providing ways for the attorneys to continue to get the bond brand out there, get in front of prospective clients, take advantage of their thought leadership. I think that's one thing that, you know, something like LinkedIn is such a great tool these days for attorneys because it's a really simple way for them to become a thought leader by, you know, getting involved with LinkedIn groups where they can share an article and say, hey, I thought everybody in this group might be interested in this. And that's a simple way for them to just start making those connections. And I always say, you never know, a year from now, somebody will say, Hey, you posted an article about a year ago. I'd like to talk to you. And then the magic happens.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And I think that's a good point too. It is not immediate, it is a little bit of it's a it's we're running a marathon, we're not sprinting here in marketing. Exactly. Well, thank you, Kelly. Thanks for joining us today on the podcast. Thank you for joining us at Bon Chenikin King. I truly so happy to be here. Thank you. I'm so glad you're here. And it's a great pleasure for me to work with you and your team on so many projects. So thanks for taking the time to share your insights, talk about what's ahead. Of course, you know, we're gonna invite you back at some time in the future to uh talk about some updates.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I'd be happy to. And thank you. Like I said, you are truly the reason I came to Bond. So I really appreciate you and all you do with our team.
SPEAKER_01:Perfect. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Legally Bond. If you're listening and have any questions for me, want to hear from someone at the firm, have a suggestion for a future topic, please email us at legally bond at bsk.com. Also, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to Legally Bond wherever podcasts are downloaded. Until our next talk, be well.
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