In a column last month, I covered the changing challenges of the media relations function in legal marketing. I’ll cover two others today with three marketing leaders on the front lines, learning about the evolution of law firm business development, and what’s happening with the all-important event—in-person or online gatherings for clients and prospects.

To Amy Shepherd, who’s been at the helm of the Ballard Spahr marketing department since 2017, the big difference in marketing departments is the way they have appropriately stratified into specialties—practice areas such as corporate, litigation, IP and employment law. “Marketing used to be a few people with all-encompassing roles,” she says, until the idea of business development as a focus hit the industry, and soon, “everyone wanted to be a business developer.” But not everyone is.