LEGAL NEWS PHOTO BY CYNTHIA PRICE
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
A new face at Warner Norcross + Judd also represents a new way of looking at the business aspects of the legal field – both at that firm and across the industry.
Thomas D. Smanik became Warner’s Director of Business Development and Marketing at the beginning of September.
“Law firms have been relatively late to the game in doing business development, whereas the other professional services have been doing this for years,” Smanik says.
That makes Smanik a good fit, because his career has included both those other professional services and, most recently, law firms.
Smanik was a dedicated runner, so after he received his degree in English and Communications from Cleveland State University, he thought he might want to do sports writing. But writing for and editing an electronic components magazine at the end of his college career led him to a job writing proposals and specs for an architectural engineering firm. That in turn led him to marketing and business development.
He augmented his expertise working for various engineering firms, including in the architectural, energy and environmental fields, followed by stints at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and then Cap Gemini Ernst & Young before he started at law firms in 2003.
“What’s interesting is that in my prior experience I was seeing so many things that the legal industry is now facing: the challenges of the different types of competition, of clients expecting attorneys to bring all the services the firm offers, not just the particular one he or she excels at. That’s why it’s an interesting challenge to me,” Smanik says.
The first firm he joined, Hahn Loeser & Parks, was based in Ohio but had offices in four states. There he was Chief Marketing Officer and his strategic planning (as well as implementation) of marketing and business development contributed to multiple years of record sales growth.
Following that, and immediately prior to joining Warner, Smanik joined McGlinchey Stafford, which has 180 attorneys across 14 offices in 11 states and Washington, D.C.
That is smaller than but roughly comparable with Warner Norcross, which has over 230 attorneys in eight offices, but Smanik says that Warner offers one huge advantage that he calls “compelling” and “ exciting.”
Warner follows a lockstep form of compensation, which means that attorneys working there who are at the same stage in their careers receive the same pay as their colleagues. (This is not to say that there are not ways to compensate and incentivize exceptional performance, just that there are no penalties for referring cases or aspects of cases to other Warner attorneys.)
The reason Smanik regards this as such a good opportunity is that he subscribes to the view of business development which says it is all about the teamwork.
“Our approach to teaming is such an asset with clients,” Smanik says. “Clients see it as high value, and they’re just thrilled when it’s explained to them.”
The lockstep structure was, in fact, a very strong factor that induced Smanik to take the job and move from his native Cleveland, where he had lived all his life previously.
Another factor was Grand Rapids itself. “When we visited, we absolutely fell in love. It has a small town feeling but big-city amenities,” he says.
He and wife Tammy are the parents of four grown children who are “scattered all over the place.” The couple moved to Kentwood, but in singing the praises of this area, Smanik says, “We’ve just been thrilled with not only Grand Rapids but also the whole surrounding area. We intend to explore a little bit of everything, from the dunes of Northern Michigan to the local-food restaurants to the big lake near here.”
Active in his field’s associations nationally, Smanik also did a great deal of volunteering when he was in Cleveland – everything from serving on the school board to working with the food bank – and said he expects to continue that pattern, in keeping with the community service philosophy of both himself and Warner Norcross.
Such service, broadly construed, is a big part of what Smanik advocates as part of business development. It is all about communication, he says, and the more Warner Norcross + Judd lawyers and other professionals get out into the community, the more they will be able to communicate the excellence of the firm.
“My job is a little bit of training, but it’s a little bit of coaching too. We hope to empower the attorneys so that when they’re talking to a client or prospective client they share with them the things that the recipient of the information will value,” he says. “That helps the firm, it helps the attorneys, and it helps the clients.
“We know that there are enough requests of their time that it could fill any calendar, with no time left to be a lawyer. So we’ll help them sift through all the options. The reality is that we all have our preferences, so we’ll help them evaluate and engage.”
Smanik’s duties will also encompass expanded use of client feedback programs and tools, and working to sort out which platform is best for each message, whether social media, dedicated firm blogs and newsletters, or traditional print.
“Tom has a track record of success in helping professional services firms create strategies and implement programs designed to enhance the bottom line,” stated Warner Managing Partner Douglas A. Dozeman. “We look forward to tapping into his knowledge base to strengthen our business development and marketing programs in order to better serve our current clients – and to attract new ones.”
The admiration is mutual. “Being here offers me so many opportunities to create the proverbial win-win,” Smanik says.
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