Duane Morris wasted little time in filling its CMO position, which became vacant in May.

The firm has hired Mark Messing, former chief marketing and business development officer at New York's Weil Gotshal & Manges, to serve as its new chief marketing officer.

Messing fills the position left vacant by Edward Schechter who said in mid-May that he would be leaving the post after eight years.

Messing officially began at Duane Morris last Monday and will focus his efforts on the firm's business development and strategic planning, working closely with firm Chairman John Soroko and Chief Operating Officer Charles O'Donnell. Schechter's direct reports reported to O'Donnell in the absence of a CMO.

Soroko had said when Schechter departed that the firm would move quickly on finding a replacement despite the difficult economy. He said last week that he was flattered by the amount of resumes Duane Morris received. The firm did the search internally as word spread throughout the legal marketing community that the CMO position was available.

In 2001, when Duane Morris first looked at hiring a CMO, Soroko said, there were very few candidates who had law firm marketing experience. At that point, such experience was more of a "nice-to-have" rather than a "must-have," he said.

But, in 2009, the legal marketing industry has changed and almost every candidate had prior law firm marketing experience, which was something Soroko said was important in their search.

Messing said his hat was thrown into the ring for him. He said he heard of six or more people who had sent his resume in, sometimes without him being any the wiser. He said Duane Morris' marketing department has "spectacular" building blocks to work with and is part of a firm that is very committed to the function of marketing and business development. He said he just wants to "add some octane" to the department.

"There are a lot of firms that view this as overhead," he said.

Similar to Schechter, Messing brings to Duane Morris an advertising and consumer marketing background.

Prior to working at Weil Gotshal, Messing entered the legal marketing world at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in 2004, where he served for two years as director of business development and client services. He joined Weil Gotshal as director of business development and was soon elevated to CMO.

Before moving to law firms, Messing was the vice president for business development and brand strategy for Best Buy Co. Before that he had worked with several advertising agencies in New York, including J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam, Bozell/Interpublic Group and Scali McCabe Sloves. He has managed business development and client relationships in industries ranging from consumer goods, travel and retail to insurance, media, business services and diversified industrials, Duane Morris said.

As part of what Messing called a slimming down of Weil Gotshal's marketing function in the wake of the recession, he moved into more of a consulting role for the New York firm. He has maintained his offices at the firm for the last several months, consulting for both Weil Gotshal and his own outside clients. He said it was a very amicable situation.

Messing is currently in temporary space in Philadelphia while he and his wife look for a permanent place to live in the city. Soroko said that while the candidates for the position were from across the country, the firm told them all that it wanted the position to be based out of its headquarters where the majority of the marketing function and firm leaders reside.

With the caveat that he has only been on the job for a week, Messing said he sees the firm moving in some new directions and looking "a little different" on the other side. He said there is "incredible potential" for Duane Morris to increase its revenue, profits, brand recognition and reputation and he will organize his efforts against those goals.

While not giving away too much detail, Messing said he would look at new trial methods for business development and client services and bring in more innovative communications methods. Duane Morris, through its internal graphics department, also recently completed a revamping of its Web site to freshen up colors and make it more user-friendly, Soroko said.

At the time of his departure, Schechter said he felt like his work at Duane Morris was essentially complete.

Under his leadership, the marketing and business development functions won awards for their innovation and outpaced most any other firm in sheer relative size of the department. Schechter won the "Marketing Director of the Year" award in 2007 from Hubbard One Excellence in Legal Marketing Awards.

Reprinted with permission from The Legal Intelligencer, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.