Legal Research

"Dear Attorney -- Listen to Your Marketing Director"

From the blog: "I'm reviewing a cover letter to a proposal. The 24-page proposal is from a law firm that wants to offer legal services to an insurance company. The 650-word cover letter was drafted by an attorney who worked on the proposal.

It's awful (the cover letter) -- two pages of hype that belongs in a brochure. In a cover letter, it sounds insincere and phony. And those are not the adjectives that describe the cover letter of a winning proposal.

My job is easy. All I have to do is call the firm's marketing director, and say this:

Why don't we use the cover letter we used on the last three proposals. Each of those proposals turned out to be winners, so why not follow a proven path?

Then he gets to talk to the attorney. If he can persuade her to use the proven cover letter, great! I can get it ret and set in no time. If he can't, . . . .

Here's my advice to an attorney writing a cover letter to a proposal: Keep it short. It's not a brief. It should consist of nothing more than the following:

1. Attached is the proposal you requested;
2. Please call me if you have any questions/concerns about the proposal;
3. I look forward to being of service to your organization.

That's it. Anything more than 250 words is -- in most cases -- too much.

And listen to your marketing director. You've got your talents, and he's got his."

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Source: Set in Style, 4 December 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).