If you know me, you know I LOVE the Legal Marketing Association … I’ve never thought of myself as a “joiner of clubs” (although looking at my life, I am dead wrong about that!), but LMA is something special, a community that has literally lifted me up and transformed my career in ways I could have never anticipated.
So it’s a gift when wonderful souls like Strawberry Nevill of Strawberry Nevill Communication Consulting, and Alissa Pinck of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP and LMA’s own Anna Horner and Kristin Frankiewicz are kind enough to include me in a conversation near and dear to my heart – the power of brand to transform and galvanize culture – as an educational offering to our members and beyond.
You can listen to our chat “Back to Basics: Why Branding Is More Than a Visual Identity” here.
Strawberry did a fabulous job framing and leading the conversation on a topic recommended by Alissa. Hope you enjoy!
EPISODE DESCRIPTION: A successful brand is about much more than a logo, color palette, or website redesign. In this episode of the LMA Podcast, Strawberry Nevill (Strawberry Nevill Communication Consulting) sits down with Roy Sexton (Vedder) and Alissa Pinck (Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis) to explore the fundamentals of branding and how legal marketers can leverage brand strategy to drive business goals.
Drawing on decades of experience leading branding and rebranding initiatives, they discuss the critical role of internal alignment, stakeholder engagement, change management, and client feedback in creating a brand that people embrace and use.
Covering everything from rebranding to demonstrating value to firm leadership to measuring impact, this conversation offers valuable takeaways for legal marketing and business development professionals at any stage of their branding journey.
Tune in to learn:
Why branding is about the client experience, not just logos, websites, and visual identity.
How internal alignment can make or break a rebranding effort.
Common branding challenges legal marketers face and strategies for overcoming them.
How to build buy-in across large, complex organizations.
Why successful rebranding often requires significant change management and education.
The importance of tying brand initiatives to business goals and strategic priorities.
Why the real work begins after the brand launches and how to keep your brand alive and evolving.
POP CULTURE CONFESSIONAL …For some, this has been the summer of The Odyssey or of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but for others of us, we can’t get enough of Madonna’s Confessions II. Madonna is my favorite … IYKYN … her music has literally soundtracked my life. What you might not know is that it wasn’t always this way.
I spent a summer in Japan in 1990. Back then, my love of comic books overtook all things. I bought a cassette copy of Madonna’s Dick Tracy-inspired I’m Breathless album from a street vendor in Tokyo, so I could have some music of home. It was only THEN that she became my totem and safe harbor.
With that album, all present and future loves converged: super heroes, Sondheim, and Madonna. And I never looked back. With this in mind, and alongside my present obsession with Madonna’s latest offering, I have been thinking about her studio albums all summer … 36 (!) summers after I bought that cassette of I’mBreathless which I still own and treasure. I have been reflecting on how her voice of independence and joy, of inclusion and, well, feistiness continues to impact and inform my worldview.
Soooo, here is my ranking of her studio albums … a list for which no one asked.
I’m Breathless … see above … most people feel this isn’t a proper studio album, rather a soundtrack. I disagree. First, “Vogue.” Second, it may be her most fully realized, thematic offering. Utter fun. And a total left turn as only she could offer.
Erotica … my sophomore year of college … still finding myself. Here comes this icy yet heartfelt, percolating indictment of American puritanical hypocrisy. I’m Breathless comforted my homesick soul. Erotica radicalized me.
Confessions II … the summer of our discontent. Here she comes again, bringing her trademark (and healing) brew of intoxicating rhythms, honesty, critique, silliness, and provocation. Just when we all needed it most.
American Life … many artists were low key canceled in the awkward oughts, daring to criticize the fraught post-9/11 moment for what we all so clearly now see that it was. Remember this assessment 25 years from the fraught moment in which we now find ourselves …
Madame X … I love it when pop stars get deliriously weird. ‘Nuff said.
Ray of Light … earth goddess meets Studio 54, post-Cobain. Per usual, no one saw this coming.
Bedtime Stories … her Sex book apology tour was actually a hidden middle finger to the critics who tried to silence her, wrapped in the gauzy bubble wrap of mid-90s R&B. And Bjork.
Like a Prayer … seminal work. Should be my #1. Isn’t. But … “Express Yourself,” “Oh Father,” “Dear Jessie,” “Till Death Do Us Part,” “Cherish,” “Keep It Together.” Like a Prayer walked so Confessions II could run. One of two albums on this list scored from my dad’s Columbia House/BMG Record Club memberships.
Rebel Heart … so many good tracks. SO many tracks. SO many versions. The first time in Madonna history I lost the narrative of what was what. Here at #9 for the brilliant title cut. Inexplicably a song only released on deluxe special wazoo edition 912.
Madonna … how it all began. “Holiday.” All you need. But if you need more … “Lucky Star” and “Borderline.”
MDNA … she was divorced, and she was pissed … but she had a Super Bowl halftime to plan. Decisions, decisions.
Music … this ranking and the next are likely controversial. Perhaps indicative of my chaotic life at the time. As much as I love the title track, “Impresssive Instant,” “Don’t Tell Me” (one of my absolute faves), and “What It Feels Like For a Girl,” I rarely revisit this one.
Confessions on a Dance Floor … blasphemy, I know. “Hung Up” (which is my ringtone), “Sorry,” “Issac” … all perfection. But perhaps I was alone in feeling this was a safe and uninspired turn after several albums where Madonna signaled she didn’t really care if you liked her anymore. Can’t blame her. Smart move. But not my fave.
True Blue … lovely, pleasant, boring album. Many hits. I love “Open Your Heart” and “Live to Tell.” I never, ever listen to this. Respect it, but don’t care to hear it. Two of two albums on this list scored from my dad’s Columbia House/BMG Record Club memberships.
Like a Virgin … second bit of blasphemy. Her Thriller. The moment the world fixed its collective gaze on her. I was being tortured in junior high by girls dressing like her. Picked on by boys twice my size on the bus home as these songs droned on in the background. Perhaps too much pre-pubescent PTSD wrapped up in this album for me. Own it. Will never play it. “Material Girl” and “Dress You Up” notwithstanding.
Hard Candy.* Ew. Just ew. (*Except “Miles Away” … that song belonged on another, better album. ANY other album.)
Well, that was therapeutic. Even those albums at the bottom of my list I have pretty much committed to memory. I adore Madonna, and I always shall. She has given voice and perspective to so many facets of life for me. She has been both a healing and a motivating force … and for that I am forever grateful.
My dear friend Jessica Aries – an absolute rock star of a human being and one of our best AI and legal marketing/business development strategists – shared this prompt yesterday, encouraging us all to give it a whirl: “Describe me like you’re trying to warn someone about me before they meet me.”
Whirl I did. 😅
WARNING: Before You Meet Roy Sexton
Do not be fooled by the law-firm CMO title and the MBA. Yes, Roy can talk brand strategy, budget lines, and business development with the best of them — but underneath the blazer is a full-blown theatre kid who will, without warning, pivot a conversation about quarterly marketing metrics into a passionate monologue about a movie you’ve never heard of and definitely won’t see coming.
He has an MA in theatre. He uses it. Often.
He has opinions about “whatever film has been most obnoxiously hyped, marketed, and oversold in any given week” — and he will share them, whether or not you asked. There’s a blog. There are two books. Approach with caution if you don’t have twenty minutes.
He is disarmingly good at making you feel like the most interesting person in the room — this is either genuine connector energy or expert-level networking technique, possibly both, and you may not be able to tell the difference.
Do not underestimate him in a room. Colleagues warn he’s “not suffering fools” under all that warmth — the charm is real, but so is the sharp assessment happening behind it.
Comic books may come up. Musical theatre may come up. Do not express doubt about either.
Edition One recognised twenty chiefs. Edition Two builds on that recognizing more than those on top.
Forty five people across thirty five organisations who built the reputation of a law firm or a legal company. Chief marketing officers, yes. Also the directors, the senior directors, the vice presidents, and one chief operating officer who came up through brand.
Thirty eight years at one firm, library technical services to chief marketing officer. Twenty one years at another, event manager to chief communications officer. A federal courts reporter now running a fifty person team. These careers were never linear, and the recognition systems built around them still assume they were.
So this edition is grouped by organisation instead of ranked. Where a firm has depth, the chief and the leader beneath them appear under one header, the same size, on the same page. A growth function is a bench, not a person.
Every seat was confirmed against the person’s own record in August. Where a firm page disagreed with that record, the person’s own record won. That check moved nine titles and caught one person who had changed employers entirely.
Kudos to my talented friends and fellow in-house legal marketers and business developers: Susan Collier (Ahern) , Rachel Shields Williams , Kerry Price , John Byrne , Keith Ecker , Angela Petros , Diana Lauritson, MBA, M.S. , Maria A. Black , Joey Kaiser , Jill Perry , Trish Lilley , Iris J. Jones, JD , Jeanne Hammerstrom , Iwona Kesting , Justin Portaz , Erin Banks , Katy Admirand , Kathryn Whitaker , Jessica E. Haarsgaard , Adam Severson , Danielle Smith , Julia Bennett , Meredith Coppola Rosenthal , Jasmine Trillos-Decarie , Paul Bonner , Amber Bollman , Koree Khongphand-Buckman , RJ Williams , Kevin Cavanaugh , Ian Ribald JD, MBA , Christopher Newman , Shanon Webster, Esq. , Ryan Daniels , Arthur Uratani , and Julie Chodos!
And shout out to the fabulous service providers also recognized here: Alecha Stackle , Melissa Mickelson , Joshua Schnoll , Casey Sullivan , Olivia Mockel von dem Bussche , Andy Burtis , Cynthia Gumbert , John Vincenzo , and David Helfenbein
My session description follows … thank you, Tim Hart, Daniel Smallwood, Shana English, Charde’ Carbonell, for helping me look and sound smart:
Building High-Performing Teams: Talent Development and Retention in a Resource-Conscious Environment …
In today’s competitive legal market, attracting, developing, and retaining top talent requires more than simply offering higher salaries. This session explores how law firms can build high-performing teams with limited budgets by adopting a people-first approach to talent development, career progression, and employee engagement.
Attendees will learn strategies for identifying critical talent gaps, creating meaningful career trajectories, and transforming teams from reactive service providers into proactive business partners. Hear innovative recruitment and retention practices, alternative incentives that drive employee satisfaction, and the importance of aligning leadership, HR, and departmental stakeholders around shared organizational goals.
Join this discussion to discover practical approaches for building resilient teams, securing leadership buy-in, and cultivating a workplace culture that attracts and retains exceptional legal professionals.
Honored to be part of a speakers’ cohort that includes many of the best and brightest in our industry and profession – people I admire and consider dear friends: Dave Hambourger, Alex Schnepf, Michael Nogroski, Morgan Llewellyn, Linda Moss, Sivan Koenig Galinsky, Melissa Melinauskas Marshall, James Wang, Mark Levin, Brooke Loucks, Rachel Shields Williams, Sally Rouse, Paula Hincapie Smith, and Jeanne Burger Hammerstrom.
(Now I gotta figure out what in the h*ll I’m gonna say …)
Laura Benanti is a national treasure for those of us in the know. Although she would likely be the first to admit she wouldn’t mind a *few* more folks actually being “in the know.”
From the show’s website: “Direct from an acclaimed run at Edinburgh Fringe and two sold-out Off-Broadway engagements comes Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, a one-woman comedy show from the mind of Tony Award® winner Laura Benanti, with songs co-written with Todd Almond. Known for her dazzling Broadway performances and razor-sharp wit, Benanti takes the stage to share her hilarious, heartfelt, and sometimes brutally honest takes on motherhood, people-pleasing, and the joys of aging. Blending side-splitting storytelling with original songs, New York Times Critic’s Pick Nobody Cares is a love letter to recovering people pleasers, mothers, and anybody working on themselves.”
Spot. On.
We caught the Saturday matinee of Benanti’s first tour stop at Chicago’s storied Steppenwolf Theater, and I can honestly say that I never stopped smiling and laughing during the show’s entire brisk and fizzy 65 minute runtime.
About 12 years ago, my parents and I were privileged to see Benanti perform at Indianapolis’ The Cabaret at the Columbia Club. (Read more about that performance here.) She was touring behind the release of her brilliant live album In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention, weaving familiar and forgotten show tunes and pop songs into a clever and comic tapestry of her experiences as a performer and human.
In many respects, Nobody Cares is both thoughtful expansion and complete reinvention of that concept, in part a spiritual sequel yet also something new, altogether different and rather breathtaking.
Benanti opens the show with a playfully bawdy, slinky funk number “Give It To Me (Your Attention Please),” a clear and present declaration that we’ve gleefully left Eliza Doolittle territory. And when Benanti declares “most of this show is bad words,” well, fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a humpy night.
Benanti is about six years younger than I, and, like most of us who survived and thrived in the 80s and 90s, we all learned from the icons of our era – namely Madonna – that the weaponization of sex can be a powerful framework for art. The comedic vivisection and upending of sexual mores and conventions is one of the best ways to fight the patriarchy, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, racism, and ageism.
In her incisive, whip smart script for this show, Benanti defines her life as a series of run-ins with human beings (mostly, though not exclusively, men) hell bent on painting her talent into a corner: remaining the apologetic ingenue, honoring the contract around being an object of desire, playing the dutiful wife, feeling the shame from all others’ expectations of ideal motherhood.
While Benanti has one of the most glorious vocal instruments on the modern stage, this isn’t a show centered on the music. The five original songs are sharp and riotous with a deep undercurrent of arch poignancy. They serve as punctuation marks or perhaps chapter breaks, cleverly marking the various phases of Benanti’s life. “Good Men,” for example is a catchy AF earworm about men who are anything but …
But, no, this is a show about storytelling, a whirlwind confessional and indictment of the perils of being a smart, ambitious, observant woman in contemporary America. The show is unapologetically feminist, but never a polemic. In fact, you will find yourself so caught up in the hilarity, that the tragic heartbreak bubbling under it all won’t hit you square in the face until 24 hours later.
Keep your eye (ear) on the song “Mommy Lies.” Benanti’s delivery and lyrics twist the knife even as the number tickles your funny bone, spotlighting the peril of raising daughters in a world that has already caused their mother such pain, shielding her daughters from harsh realities while also hoping they will transcend them.
Shout out to director Annie Tippe who has staged the piece for maximum efficiency and impact, focusing all eyes on the nuclear reactor of Benanti’s percolating mind and fiercely vibrant presence. I think I only counted two props deployed during the entire show, both perfectly placed and timed for visual punch. It is theatrical magic when a performer can keep you transfixed on their narrative without the need for any additional stagecraft – that is credit both to Benanti’s exceptional talent and Tippe’s economical direction.
That said, Benanti is aided and abetted by a cracking trio of musicians: Sean Peter Forte on piano, Chuck Webb on bass, and Tom Hipskind on percussion. The accompaniment is tight and rollicking, and it is clear from the onstage dynamic that this quartet (Benanti, Forte, Webb, Hipskind) have good history, deep love, and mad respect for and with each other.
The musicians almost become a kind of de facto Greek chorus, occasionally offering spoken interjections at just the right moments of comic camaraderie, reminding Benanti (and all of us) that no one is alone. And perhaps that’s the most salient message of all, very much needed in these challenging days.
(NOTE: a live recording of the show is available on Audible, though it won’t take the place of seeing the inimitable Benanti live IMHO. Full tour schedule with ticket links here.)
If you missed yesterday’s chat “How to succeed in a new law firm marketing or BD leadership role” with Reed Smith LLP’s Gillian Ward, Ambition’s Ivan Ivanovitch, MBA, and yours truly, hosted by Nexl’s Steven R. Ongenaet, catch the replay and a stellar written summary here.
Thank you, also, to Nexl’s Sarah Beder for the fabulous support, including this excellent write-up, and to Nexl’s Philipp Thurner for the opportunity and support of our community and profession.
EXCERPT: On hiring, he borrows from theater, where a director once told him he cast for culture over talent. “The job description to me is a fishing pole. Yes, this is what we’d like to have, but we might not find this person, and law firms really struggle with that. They think if they don’t hit every bullet in your job description, you must not hire them,” says Roy. “Often the person who fits every bullet point on the job description fails miserably.”
For Gillian, an organizational structure only works when your team can understand where they sit in it, which is why she spends so much time walking her team through the funnel. “You need marketing at the top of the funnel, generating demand, getting your name out into the market, building strong campaigns. Then your business development team is in the middle to convert what’s happening up there into real opportunities, and then sales support at the bottom covers helping the lawyers with sales training, closing, getting your pitch and proposal team together, and all those pieces have to align. That’s when the magic happens.” …
“Is this somebody that has executive presence? Is this somebody who has gravitas? Somebody that people are going to look up to for ideas or mentorship?” says Ivan. “The person has to be authentic. They have to have vision that people are going to follow.” …
Roy’s advice for new chiefs is about where the authority in these roles comes from. He sees people arrive at chief level expecting the title to do the work for them. “You’re basically still the same person you were in those other roles. You still are in service to the organization. Let that be your lift.”
