In conversation
You definewhat a leaderlooks like.
Diana Lauritson learned the legal industry’s template for leadership in rooms where she did not fit it. Now she is the incoming 2027 president-elect of the Legal Marketing Association, in line to become its first Black president, and she has a clear view of the people the template keeps missing.
Diana Lauritson
Associate Director of Business Development, Baker McKenzie
Host, Breaking Rank
Diana Lauritson · Baker McKenzie · October 2026 · Photo by Adedayo “Dayo” Kosoko, The Art Hype
The through line
Overlooked, not missing.
The call came through on Teams. Diana Lauritson was at home, a board meeting just behind her, when John Byrne, a past president of the Legal Marketing Association, and Ashley Stenger, its chief executive, came on screen to tell her how the nomination process had gone.
She had already decided how it went. “I was convinced I wouldn’t get the presidency,” she says. “I had a bit of imposter syndrome going on and had all of these reasons in my head why I wouldn’t be chosen.”
Then they told her she had been chosen. “I almost cried. I remember John’s words, ‘this is historic.’”
It took a moment to land, and when it did, it landed as something larger than a promotion. She would be the first Black president in the association’s history. “I had dreamed of this moment,” she says, “and it actually happened.”
She does not pretend the fact is small. “I am proud of the fact that I will be the first Black president of LMA,” she says. “It seemed to be a reality that was out of reach. I knew it would happen one day, but I didn’t know that it would be me.” There are many leaders in the industry who look like her, she points out, but set against the size of the profession, and against how few BIPOC professionals hold senior titles, she had reason to be skeptical about the timing. “How amazing to be chosen as the first.”
Lauritson is an associate director of business development at Baker McKenzie and sits on LMA’s international board. The presidency is the headline. Underneath it is the story of how someone who spent years being told, in rooms and in silences, that she did not look the part came to hold the most visible seat in her profession, and what she intends to do with it.
“I had dreamed of this moment, and it actually happened.”
Act I
Approved for business
Ask her to describe the template and she reaches for a picture, not a statistic.
“When I think of looking the part, I think about all of the managers and bosses that seem to come from very homogenous backgrounds,” she says. “They seem to carry themselves in very similar ways, dress in a particular way, and seem to fit the mold that corporate has stamped as ‘approved for business.’”
She came to that mold from outside it. Her background was a hard one, and she arrived in legal without parents or role models who had worked in corporate settings and could teach her how any of it worked. “I never fully felt like I fit in when I entered legal, but I learned to play the part.”
Her read on why the mold holds is structural rather than personal. “I think the legal industry is very risk averse, and it rewards those deemed safe and a bit more predictable. I am an outlier, and that can be risky.” For professionals of color, she says, the cost shows up at a predictable altitude. “We tend to hit a senior manager ceiling, and the ones who make it past that are unicorns.”
Act II
The room with twelve people in it
The sharpest picture she has of the template is a room she walked into years ago.
She was a finalist for a senior manager role at a firm she does not name. She had cleared the early interviews, and the last step was to meet a few of the partners in person. “I walked into the room and was shocked to find that there were 12 people there waiting to interview me.”
The final interview
They sat at a table. She looked around. “I quickly realized that I was the only Black person in the room.” The room was mostly white men, with perhaps three white women. “I suddenly became very aware of what I looked like. I had braids in my hair and brown skin and felt completely out of place.”
The questions came one after another, for an hour. “I felt like I was getting grilled and all I wanted was to get out of that room.” When it ended, she practically ran to the elevator.
She did not get the job. “I was never so relieved.”
What she carried out of that room was a rule. “That interview taught me that interviewing the firm was just as important as being the one interviewed,” she says. There had been signs, and she had talked herself past them because she was so excited to reach the final round. “I realize now that I would have been miserable at that firm if I would have gotten the position. Someone was looking out for me.”
Act III
Eighty lawyers to three thousand
Her career climbs one firm size at a time.
One firm size at a time
First firm. New to legal marketing, marketing and communications.
Regional role. Arizona to Washington, D.C., every practice group.
More than ten practices, and a colleague who taught her the business of law.
Regulatory work, international experience, and the hardest lesson.
Baker McKenzie. Managing teams across borders.
The first firm had 80 lawyers. She was new to legal marketing and grateful for the scale. “I’m glad it was small so I could acclimate without some of the pressure I would have faced at a larger firm.” The role leaned toward marketing and communications, and she was hungry for business development. She was also one of three Black people in the entire firm. “I never fully felt comfortable.”
The next firm, about 650 lawyers, brought her from Arizona to Washington, D.C., in a regional role she loved. It put her in front of every practice group and showed her how differently each office behaved in its own market. It also put her on a plane almost every week, and after a while the travel wore on her.
A firm of around 1,200 lawyers came next, and with it more than ten practices to oversee and a colleague who taught her a great deal about business development and practice management. She learned the corporate and transactional practices, and more about the business of law itself.
Then came a firm of about 3,000 lawyers, where she worked with regulatory practices and found the area she loves. It was also where she learned the hardest lesson. “I felt like I had to shrink myself and that my leadership style would never be recognized because it was a very homogenous group at the top,” she says. As a senior manager, she was one of the highest-titled Black people in her department. “I learned in this role that it is very important to have mentorship and sponsorship in order to grow and advance.” When neither came, she left.
She kept what that firm gave her: international experience, and a taste for managing teams across borders that set her up for the role she holds now.
Act IV
Hiring people who will outgrow you
Ask Lauritson how she builds a team and her answer starts where most managers stop. “I think leaders ultimately want to hire and manage people that will outgrow and outperform them,” she says. “Someone succeeding or surpassing me doesn’t threaten me.”
Part of that is temperament. Part of it is necessity. She has often worked in roles with no leadership or mentorship from the person above her, so she learned from the people below her instead. “I intentionally seek out people that have skills that I can learn from. I have grown and learned so much from people I have hired or inherited.”
She is honest about what it has cost. “I have given people chances because I related to their background and they looked great on paper, and it has come back to bite me.” Not every time, she says, but often enough to know the price. “A bad hire can cost you your reputation and make your work life very difficult.”
The hires that worked are the part she talks about most easily. Several people she brought on have gone on to do big things, and she still cheers for many of them from the sidelines. “Nothing makes me more proud than knowing that I played a small part in where they are today.”
Act V
Overlooked, not missing
It would be easy to cast her as a recruiter’s cause: bring more people into legal marketing and the numbers take care of themselves. She pushes back on that, gently and precisely.
She came into legal from outside it, and she values the lifers too. Both bring something to the table. The problem she cannot let go of is the people who are already here. “I do, however, feel passionate about people of color and marginalized groups because we are here and we are often overlooked in this industry,” she says. “I can’t begin to tell you how many people of color I know that have been stuck in their same role for years, only to watch others get promoted multiple times.”
The line she draws is exact. “We don’t want any favors, but we also don’t want to be consistently overlooked based on bias or systems that were never designed for us in the first place.”
She would still like the industry to widen its outreach and recruit more inclusively. But the first job, in her telling, is to see the people already in the room.
“We don’t want any favors, but we also don’t want to be consistently overlooked based on bias or systems that were never designed for us in the first place.”
Act VI
Breaking Rank
The podcast started at her kitchen table, in a conversation with a friend. She had the idea in November. By January, Breaking Rank was live.
“I am no expert podcaster, but I felt passionately about my mission and my message,” she says, “which was that people deserve to see leaders in all forms, not just the cookie cutter molds of ‘leaders’ we are fed.” She was tired of watching the same people get promoted and recognized because they fit the status quo and were safe. “I wanted to show that leaders and managers are not the same thing.”
The show profiles people who lead in and out of legal, some of them unconventional, some of them disruptive. A companion campaign, Rank and File, pulls a line from each episode alongside what she took from the guest. Ask her for the one conversation that changed her and she will not choose. “I can’t pick just one conversation that has influenced or impacted me because honestly, they all have in some way.”
Voices in this story
From a few seats away
Seven colleagues contributed to this story. What each of them keeps coming back to is the room she makes for other people.
“She listens carefully, considers different perspectives thoughtfully and constructively, and understands that the best decisions rarely come from one voice alone.”
And the line that follows: “Diana doesn’t just understand that idea. She leads by it.”
Jessica Aries
Founder, By Aries
Serves alongside Diana on LMA’s International Board
“She shines a light on every professional in our orbit, encouraging them to embrace their truths, to bring their full selves to work, and to integrate every aspect of their lives in a way that is balanced and healthy and much needed. She challenges the status quo and steps up to the difficult conversations without fail.”
On what comes next: “To say I am excited that she will be our 2028 LMA International President would be quite an understatement.”
From their years on LMA’s international board together: “She kept me sane. Full stop.”
Roy Sexton Read his story
Chief Marketing Officer, Vedder
Past International President, Legal Marketing Association
“Diana is the epitome of a fearless leader. Through her podcast, she shines a light on people whose talents and experiences challenge the traditional corporate idea of what a leader looks like. Her ingenuity lies in making space for their stories, and inviting the rest of us to think more broadly about who gets to lead.”
Tahisha Fugate
Director, Business Development at Cornerstone Research
“Diana is a ceiling-breaker. A trailblazer. She opens the proverbial door and lets other people in.”
Her closing line: “Diana is singular, and exactly who you’d hope a real-life Wonder Woman would be.”
Laura Gutierrez
Director of Referral Partnerships, JD Supra
Friend and industry colleague
“She has shown tremendous strength in her vulnerability, sharing personal stories and challenges in a way that’s refreshing, empowering, and unusual in this profession. This has created space and power for others to speak their truths and share their struggles, without ever surrendering a scrap of her leadership impact.”
Bree Metherall
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, Stoel Rives
Part of a peer community with Diana for five years
“What I love about Diana is that she is completely and unapologetically herself. She is smart, funny, curious and willing to challenge conventional thinking.”
Later in her note: “She brings people together, asks the questions others may be hesitant to ask, and isn’t afraid to take a different path when she believes there is a better one.”
Nathalie O’Brien
Senior Director of Business Development & Marketing, Dickinson Wright
Colleague and friend
“She has always been authentic in whatever she has pursued, but what has impressed me is her willingness to share her honest life story. That takes more than just courage, but the confidence in oneself to show a willingness to be vulnerable so as to encourage and motivate others that your background does not always define who you are or what you are capable of.”
His last line: “She is living proof of what you can accomplish if you look beyond yourself.”
Brian Lucareli
Director of Foley Private Client Services, Foley & Lardner
Act VII
What the seat is for
Lauritson has been an LMA member for almost fifteen years and has spent the last few on its international board. What she says about the presidency starts with a correction of her own. “The presidency is not about me, it is about hearing the voices of our members and doing my best to take that feedback and turn it into something actionable that serves them.”
What the seat is for
Hear the members
and turn it into something actionable
More people of color
in leadership positions
Legal marketing, known
as a career option
Training, credentials
and certifications
Professionals
in their own right
A more inclusive pipeline
for marketers and service providers
Her list is concrete. More people of color in leadership positions. Wider awareness of legal marketing as a career option. More investment in training, and progress on credentials and certifications that help legal marketers develop and advance if they choose to. A profession that thinks of itself as one: she wants legal marketers to see themselves as professionals in their own right and to advocate for their work “despite being viewed as ‘non-lawyers.’” And a more robust and inclusive pipeline of leaders, for legal marketers and for the service providers who work alongside them.
Act VIII
If I can
Ask what she would say to someone early in legal marketing who has already been told, one way or another, that they do not look like leadership material, and her answer is short and direct.
“You define what a leader looks like,” she says. “Leadership is not some esoteric thing that only some people are gifted with. Leadership can be learned, and leaders come from every background, and every color, shape, and size.”
She knows what her own version looks like: braids and brown skin in a room of twelve, and a Teams call she almost cried on. “I know my value, and I no longer accept hiding or shrinking myself to make other people feel comfortable.”
Then the line she wrote to end on. “I hope everyone reading my story recognizes that if I can be a leader, they can be one too.”
“You define what
a leader looks like.”
Diana Lauritson on LinkedIn · Behind the Brand · The Class of 2027
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Diana’s circle
Diana put forward fifteen people for this story, five past and present LMA presidents among them. All fifteen are invited into Behind the Brand: The Class of 2027. Watch Breaking Rank.
