The Marketing Power List
Counsel Collective · Leaders to Watch
Brand & Reputation
Architects
The people who build the reputation of law firms and legal companies. Marketing, business development and communications, at every level and every title, recognized for what they built rather than for what they spent.
- 65Leaders recognized
- 2Editions published
- 100%Free to appear
The editions
Each edition is published on its own and gathered here. This page is the standing home.
Behind the Brand
Edition Two
Forty five people across thirty five organizations, grouped by organization rather than ranked, so the chief and the leader beneath them appear under one header.
Read Edition Two → Published July 2026Behind the Brand
The Legal Edition
The first twenty. Ten inside law firms, ten at the companies that serve them, and the argument that started the series.
Read Edition One →Everyone recognized
Sixty five people, both editions, every citation in full.
65 leaders
-
Vedder
Roy E. Sexton
Chief Marketing and Client Development Officer
Served as the Legal Marketing Association's 2023 international president. Took Vedder's chief marketing and client development seat in 2025.
Edition Two
-
Clark Hill
Susan Collier Ahern
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer
Seven years running marketing, brand, PR, digital, events and communications, from Dublin, on the senior leadership team of a US firm.
Edition Two
-
Bass, Berry & Sims
Rachel Shields Williams
Director of AI and Knowledge Management
The Legal Marketing Association's 2026 international president, three months into an AI role after seventeen years at Sidley.
Edition Two
-
Bass, Berry & Sims
Kerry M. Price
Chief Strategy and Operations Officer
The structure she manages puts marketing and business development alongside finance, pricing, recruiting and professional development.
Edition Two
-
Gould & Ratner
John Byrne
Chief Business Development Officer
Copy editor, litigator, law school career services, search firm founder, chief marketing officer, publisher. Now ten years running growth here.
Edition Two
-
Gould & Ratner
Keith Ecker
Director of Marketing
Came to law firm marketing from the editor's desk at a national magazine for in house counsel.
Edition Two
-
Baker McKenzie
Angela Petros
Chief Marketing Officer
An M&A associate in Perth and Sydney, then Boston Consulting Group, then software marketing, then eight years as a chief before the global seat.
Edition Two
-
Baker McKenzie
Diana Lauritson
Associate Director of Business Development
Four years leading global business development for a firm's regulatory practices, including a geopolitical risk platform she launched.
Edition Two
-
Kirkland & Ellis
Maria A. Black
Chief Marketing Officer
Thirty eight years at one firm. She joined in 1987 in library technical services and conflicts, and has held the chief marketing seat since 2017.
Edition Two
-
Greenberg Traurig
Joey Kaiser
Chief Communications Officer
Twenty one years at one firm, event manager to the chief communications seat, with every step in between on the record.
Edition Two
-
Greenberg Traurig
Jill Perry
Managing Director
Twenty nine years at one firm. She was its chief marketing officer for thirteen of them, then moved into the managing director seat in 2010.
Edition Two
-
Barnes & Thornburg
Trish Lilley
Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
Federal courts reporter to chief, now leading a fifty person team where client and alumni relations sit inside the remit.
Edition Two
-
Akerman
Iris J. Jones
Chief Marketing and Client Development Officer
A trial defense shareholder representing Fortune 500 companies and municipalities before she moved into client development.
Edition Two
-
Benesch
Jeanne Hammerstrom
Chief Marketing Officer
Twenty one years in the chief seat at one firm. The Legal Marketing Association's 2011 national president and a 2019 hall of fame inductee.
Edition Two
-
Kilpatrick
Iwona Kesting
Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer
Recognized in the first edition and again here. She arrived from Jones Day in June 2026 to a firm mid-reinvention, and Kilpatrick Labs launched two days later.
Edition Two
-
Husch Blackwell
Erin Banks
Chief Business Development Officer
Named the firm's first ever chief business development officer, with marketing, martech, events and key accounts in one division.
Edition Two
-
Husch Blackwell
Katy Admirand
Senior Director, Marketing & Communications
Brand, content and the martech stack at an Am Law 100 firm built around a virtual office.
Edition Two
-
Burr & Forman
Kathryn Whitaker
Chief Marketing Officer
Sits on the advisory board for the Thomson Reuters Institute's annual forum for chief marketing and business development officers.
Edition Two
-
Burr & Forman
Jessica E. Haarsgaard
Director of Business Development
Nine years at one firm, coordinator to director, and president of the Legal Marketing Association's Southeast region in 2019.
Edition Two
-
Baker Donelson
Adam Severson
Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
Named his office's business services leader of the year in 2025, and a steady voice in the trade press on what marketing departments are becoming.
Edition Two
-
Baker Donelson
Danielle Smith
Director, Baker Women
Five years directing the firm's women's initiative, a seat that sits across HR, recruiting, retention, business development and talent at once.
Edition Two
-
Davis Wright Tremaine
Julia Bennett
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer
A former Shearman and Crowell associate who rebuilt the growth function into one unit spanning practice management, client experience and marketing.
Edition Two
-
Davis Wright Tremaine
Meredith Coppola Rosenthal
Director of Business Development
Business development at a firm that put client experience and marketing under one roof rather than treating them as neighbors.
Edition Two
-
Saul Ewing
Justin Portaz
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer
Took the chief seat in January, arriving from the same role at Jenner & Block.
Edition Two
-
Lathrop GPM
Jasmine Trillos-Decarie
Chief Client Officer
A chief client officer rather than a chief marketing officer, and president of the Legal Marketing Association's West region for 2026.
Edition Two
-
Venable
Paul Bonner
Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
Twelve years at one firm, now across brand, client engagement, events, PR, martech and business development. The Legal Marketing Association's incoming president.
Edition Two
-
Ashurst Perkins Coie
Amber Bollman
Senior Client Relationship Manager
Covered trials for a daily newspaper, then law school, then fifteen years building client relationships across four firms.
Edition Two
-
Foley & Lardner
Koree Khongphand-Buckman
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer
Business development, marketing, client service and branding, all under one mandate since 2021.
Edition Two
-
Paul Hastings
RJ Williams
Chief Marketing Officer
Arrived from Skadden, where he ran global marketing, communications and alumni initiatives.
Edition Two
-
King & Spalding
Kevin A. Cavanaugh
Chief Marketing Officer
Left law firm marketing for communications at a multibillion dollar charitable trust, then came back to run it globally.
Edition Two
-
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
Ian Ribald
Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer
A law degree, an MBA, an adjunct teaching post, and a remit that runs from alumni relations to media.
Edition Two
-
Mintz
Chris Newman
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer
Nine years at McDermott and a start at Cravath before the chief seat.
Edition Two
-
Bressler, Amery & Ross
Shanon Webster
Director of Marketing and Business Development
An attorney who moved into marketing and has run the function for seven years.
Edition Two
-
Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
Ryan R. Daniels
Chief Marketing Officer
Twenty years of marketing built around an energy and natural resources practice.
Edition Two
-
Bookoff McAndrews
Arthur Uratani
Director of Marketing and Outreach
Conflicts analyst, then five years in proposals, then twelve years running marketing at a sixty person patent firm.
Edition Two
-
Axinn
Julie Chodos
Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
Chief of a growth function at an antitrust and IP firm that competes on specialization rather than scale.
Edition Two
-
NetDocuments
Alecha Stackle
Chief Marketing Officer
Chief marketing officer through the year the company absorbed a competitor's document management install base.
Edition Two
-
NetDocuments
Melissa Mickelson
Vice President, Brand Strategy and Corporate Marketing
Brand strategy and corporate marketing through an acquisition integration, the least forgiving moment to hold that seat.
Edition Two
-
Everlaw
Joshua Schnoll
Chief Marketing Officer
Took the chief seat in late 2024 and launched the brand campaign that came with it.
Edition Two
-
Everlaw
Casey Sullivan
Director, Content Marketing
A lawyer who writes. Leads the content team at a company whose own bio says his ediscovery writing has been cited by federal courts.
Edition Two
-
SurePoint Technologies
Olivia Mockel
Chief Operating Officer
Chief operating officer since 2024, with marketing, client success, channel partnerships and payments all inside one remit.
Edition Two
-
Axiom
Andy Burtis
Chief Marketing Officer
The company's in house research on legal AI adoption keeps getting quoted back at the industry.
Edition Two
-
Litera
Cynthia Gumbert
Chief Marketing Officer
Hired in January 2025 to unify a brand assembled out of many acquisitions. The company relaunched that brand in July 2026.
Edition Two
-
Exterro
John Vincenzo
Chief Marketing Officer
Joined to move a company known for ediscovery into the language of data risk management.
Edition Two
-
Burford Capital
David Helfenbein
Senior Vice President, Communications
Carries global communications at a NYSE listed litigation funder that has not filled its chief marketing seat since early 2025.
Edition Two
-
Gibson Dunn
Kelly MacKinnon
Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
LMA international past president
Spent years elevating the whole profession, not just one firm.
Edition One
-
Morgan Lewis
Amanda M. Bruno
Global Chief Business Development Officer
Built the programs that put her firm and her own team on the public record.
Edition One
-
Benesch
Jeanne Hammerstrom
Chief Marketing Officer
DeNovo editorial board
Rebranded the firm, then got the trade press to cover the rebrand itself.
Edition One
-
Nixon Peabody
Danielle Wuschke Paige
Chief Marketing & Growth Officer
OnCon top 10 marketer
Rebuilt the brand and the website, with the peer judged awards to show for it.
Edition One
-
Stinson
Jon Mattson
Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
The managing partner went on the record in The American Lawyer three times in twelve months.
Edition One
-
Kilpatrick
Iwona Kesting
Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer
Ex Jones Day
Her arrival was announced in June 2026. Kilpatrick Labs launched two days later.
Edition One
-
Lowenstein Sandler
Vanessa Torres
Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
Oversees marketing and business development at the firm behind VentureCrush.
Edition One
-
Much Shelist
Allison Hickson
Director of Marketing
Former newspaper editor
Volunteers with scholastic press associations. Helped lead the rebrand. No chief above her.
Edition One
-
Levenfeld Pearlstein
Melissa C. Marshall
Chief Marketing Officer
LMA rising star
Mentors in The Future CMO Club, developing the next generation of legal marketers.
Edition One
-
Armstrong Teasdale
Nick Smith
Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications
The 125th anniversary program placed partner bylined letters in business journals across seven markets.
Edition One
-
PERSUIT
Andy Nester
Chief Marketing Officer
Publishes the PERSUIT 50
Built a ranking of law firms from real transacted spend. His product is elevating others.
Edition One
-
Ironclad
Elise Bergeron
Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer
Owns State of AI in Legal and the event programming built to platform in house leaders.
Edition One
-
LinkSquares
Biju Muduli
Chief Marketing Officer
Runs LinkSquares+, a content property built for in house leaders rather than the product.
Edition One
-
Clio
Reagan Attle
Chief Marketing Officer
ClioCon, the Legal Trends Report and The Legal Insider magazine. Three standing platforms for practitioners.
Edition One
-
Juro
Helena Wood
Vice President, Marketing
A GC resource hub, a GC jobs board, and Scaleup GC, a community of in house legal leaders.
Edition One
-
Priori Legal
Trevor Johnson
Vice President, Marketing
Marketing lead at the company whose Client Advisory Board seats legal leaders from Meta, Google and Clorox.
Edition One
-
Brightflag
Jeff Soriano
Vice President, Marketing
In House Outliers, and the Legal Operations Compensation Report, now in its fifth edition.
Edition One
-
Lighthouse
Stacy Ybarra
Chief Marketing Officer
Law & Candor, a long running legal technology podcast, past 80 episodes.
Edition One
-
Epiq
Nicole Giantonio
Chief Marketing Officer
Ex Elevate CMO
Has built this same category machine once before, as chief marketing officer of Elevate.
Edition One
-
Harvey
Rachel Hepworth
Chief Marketing Officer
Ex Notion, ex Slack
Arrived in April 2026 to shape the category narrative at the most watched company in legal AI.
Edition One
No one matches that.
Sponsored
How a name gets here
A peer puts someone forward, or our editors do while building an edition. Both are nominations. We only name a nominator when there is one to name.
Every seat is confirmed against the person's own record before publication. Where a firm page disagrees with that record, the person's own record wins.
Recognition is free and always will be. Nobody buys a place, and nobody buys a better one.
Know someone who belongs here?
This is a living list. Nominations are open year round, and there is no cost at any point.
