For lawyers who have successfully blanked out their contract law exams, ad idem is a Latin phrase meaning “meeting of the minds”, the point where two parties truly understand each other and agree on the same objective.
That idea sits at the heart of how Julie Draper approaches law firm marketing.
A law degree, a CIM qualification and two decades in legal marketing
Before any marketing strategy, SEO campaign, content plan or lead generation exercise begins, there has to be alignment. A law firm and its marketing consultant need to understand each other, work towards the same commercial goals, and share a realistic understanding of what success actually looks like.
Julie’s route into legal marketing was fairly inevitable. She completed a law degree because she genuinely enjoyed the law, but quickly realised she lacked one essential quality required to become a solicitor: the ability to enjoy meticulously reviewing the same document for six uninterrupted hours while debating the importance of a comma was not for her!
After university, Julie completed postgraduate qualifications with the Chartered Institute of Marketing before beginning her career in healthcare and insurance marketing. She later moved into legal marketing, securing a role as Head of Marketing at Grindeys Solicitors (now part of ONP Solicitors), a regional multi-practice law firm, where she remained for ten years.
Ten years inside a law firm, two decades of Legal Marketing
Grindeys Solicitors, based in Stoke on Trent, offered a wide range of legal services, from residential conveyancing and family law through to corporate transactions and commercial disputes. Working across multiple departments gave Julie an unusually broad understanding of how different areas of law are marketed, how clients search for legal services, and the commercial realities law firms face behind the scenes.
In 2015, after relocating south to Hertfordshire, Julie moved into consultancy. Her former employer became her first retained client because finding a replacement of her calibre turned out to be considerably harder than anticipated (says Julie).
That relationship also shaped the way Adidem Marketing operates today. Julie has deliberately never built a traditional marketing agency. She enjoys being at the ‘coal face’ and believes law firms benefit more from working closely with someone who understands both strategy and implementation.