Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at Clark Hill, has been named one of Michigan’s 2024 Most Valuable Professionals by Corp! Magazine. The recognition highlights Sexton’s significant contributions to his firm and the broader business community in Michigan.
With over 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning, Sexton leads Clark Hill’s marketing, branding, and communications efforts. His work emphasizes collaboration with a skilled team to deliver exceptional service to clients. “We recruit and develop talented individuals and empower them to contribute to our rich diversity of legal and industry experience,” Sexton stated.
Sexton was named one of INvolve People’s 2023 Top 100 OUTstanding LGBTQ+ Executives internationally. He was listed in Crain’s Detroit Notable LGBTQ in Business in 2021 and Notable Leaders in Marketing in 2023, and he was a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Unsung Legal Hero in 2018.
Sexton’s leadership extends to his role as the 2023 International President of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA), a position he has used to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). “I’m proud of how DEI has become so fully integrated into my professional efforts in this world. As international president of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) in 2023 and as immediate past president this year, we have kept inclusion front and center,” Sexton said. Under his guidance, the LMA has launched member resource groups and enhanced its inclusive talent pipeline.
His efforts at Clark Hill have also led to notable recognitions, including Mansfield Certification for DEI efforts and awards from the Managing Partners’ Forum for marketing campaigns focused on values, diversity, and inclusion. Sexton’s team has been instrumental in advancing the firm’s digital and social media presence, producing strategically organized content for clients and prospects.
Sexton is also active outside his professional responsibilities. He serves on the board of Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit and is a published author of two books. Additionally, he hosts the monthly Expert Webcast series “All the World’s YOUR Stage: Authentic Culture Drives Authentic Growth,” where he discusses inclusion, allyship, authenticity, and branding with nationally recognized executives.
Reflecting on his career, Sexton emphasized the importance of thoughtful communication and collaboration. “Always take the pause. This is advice my wonderful boss, our Clark Hill Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer Susan Ahern, has imparted on me regularly,” he commented. He also shared personal wisdom from his late mother: “Tell people what they mean to you in the moment when it will mean something to them.”
“Playing comedy is hell. The necessity to have an audience love you is perhaps more overwhelming than in any other form of entertainment. With singing, dancing, acting you don’t know until it’s over if you’ve had acceptance or rejection. The comic knows sooner. The audience laughs or it doesn’t.” – Imogene Coca
One might describe marketing and business development similarly. In fact, there is one unicorn in this industry who is adept at BOTH: Brenda Pontiff. We are thrilled that Brenda is joining host Roy Sexton to talk about how business development and stand-up comedy are in fact two great tastes that taste great together!
Born and raised in Texas, Brenda Pontiff left for graduate school in Kansas and wound up touring the country with the Complex Improv Theater. She returned home and began working on her stand-up comedy skills at The Houston Comedy Workshop’s Comixh Annex, the infamous club that spawned the likes of Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison. A few years later, she moved to Los Angeles and became a New Face at the famed Hollywood Improv. She was also a regular at Igby’s and toured as a feature act for franchise clubs including Punchlines, FunnyBones, and Laff Stops. She took a 14-year break in the early 2000s to focus on her global business development career but has happily returned to bring her Texas meets California perspective to the stage. Brenda believes comedy is like the Mafia, you can never leave.
During said global business development career, Brenda founded Partner Track Academy after years of watching young accountants and lawyers, often part of a group challenged with inclusion barriers, panic over business development expectations related to making partner. So often firms’ marketing staff members are not trained to support non-partners’ revenue generation efforts or they simply do not have the bandwidth to do so. This missing component can be filled through individual, customized coaching or periodic workshops and presentations that provide tools, tips, and best practices that lead to improved networking habits, client satisfaction, revenue growth, and ultimately, a coveted seat at the partners’ table.
Brenda has:
· More than 25 years in accounting and law firm sales and marketing.
· Sold services on behalf of an AmLaw 100 firm, exceeding sales and new client acquisition goals for almost eight years.
· Worked as a professional speaker, stand-up comic, writer, and actress, winning several national awards.
· Created a new sales process for a Big Four accounting firm, taking revenues from zero to $3.7 MM in the first year.
· Led a Big Four sales support team during the demise of Arthur Andersen, winning 67% of the regional client base while competing against three other international accounting firms.
· Maintained a 100% success rate while working as a Big Four global strategist to retain critical, at-risk clients.
· Created a cross-selling client team that increased an AmLaw 200 firm’s revenue by $900,000 through one pitch meeting.
· Spoken frequently at association events and corporate retreats regarding account-centric methodologies, best practices for networking at conferences, diversity and inclusion change management, harnessing stress for better productivity, navigating the book of business demand, and embracing resiliency.
Thank you, Clark Hill and Corp! Magazine, for this recognition. It truly means the world. I do the best I can to focus on helpfulness and team-building and community and celebrating the authenticity in everyone, so a nod like this really puts the wind in my sails. I’m grateful I get to work for such an incredible organization as Clark Hill as well as support my professional community in the Legal Marketing Association. I’m truly a fortunate soul!
And thank you, Joel Epstein, Leslie Smithson, Jennifer Kluge, Alexis Yaeger (Jakowinicz), for your friendship and support on this. I appreciate you all very much!
From INvolve – The Inclusion People: “Can you recognize myths and misconceptions from reality? 💡 For Pride Month 2024, we spoke to three of our 2023 Outstanding Role Models who debunked some misconceptions and myths about LGBTQ+ communities. Hear what they have to say here.
“Hear from: Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing, Clark Hill; Joelle Archer, Vice-President Research Creative Suite, Morgan Stanley; Deon Pillay CMgr MCMI, Head of Marketing Technology Enablement and Governance, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) … who are using this space to debunk misconceptions.
“Allies – you are crucial for change. Take on board the learnings that these Role Models are sharing and consider how you can best avoid slipping into biases, or perpetuating misconceptions and also how you can leverage your power, influence and platform to support and elevate your LGBTQ+ colleagues.”
TRANSCRIPT for my contribution: So for me, at least in my lived experience the last few years where I’ve had some increasingly visible leadership roles, it’s that well-meaning allies think I am open to unsolicited advice.
Truth of the matter is, it has taken me 51 years to get to the place of authenticity, where I feel comfortable in my own skin, and when allies come forward and try to manage me for style, offering me points on how I dress, or how I speak or how I use social media or how visible I am …
It’s not helpful. It’s actually debilitating.
What we really want is support on substantive issues and opportunities where we can be present with our authentic selves.
So if you are thinking that as a gay man, I’m interested in your advice on how to dress for success?
We live in interesting, sometimes exhilarating, often sad times. You might ask why am I sharing this image? There is a point here. And it’s not to garner sympathy. You might also ask why do I put myself through this? I’ve developed a pretty thick skin the last couple of years, and I’m quite proud of that honestly.
But I sometimes hear – and recently did – that we’ve come so far, and the world has changed, so how much visibility is really still needed? I would simply point your attention to these reactions to my Facebook post of this interview. Now I have a public profile, on purpose, and most of these are reactions from people I do not know. And I’m fine with that.
More than half of the 127 reactions have an angry or a laughing or a crying emoji, perhaps in some kind of judgment. These are exactly the people I want to reach. These are people who need to remember our common humanity. And the price of admission for me is that they get to believe they are mocking me from behind a cell phone screen or computer monitor.
They aren’t. They are merely shining a light on how much work we have yet to do.
P.S. File under bittersweet but optimistic joy … just wrapped my last in person meeting on the Legal Marketing Association – LMA International board. I still have six months ahead yet to serve, but in the spirit of fiscal responsibility and keeping resources directed to member value, we will have virtual meetings the rest of 2024.
The past two days have been incredible as President Kevin Iredell and CEO Ashley Stenger alongside incomparable Jonathan Lurie navigated us through robust and inspiring strategic planning conversations. The future is bright indeed with the marvelous, collaborative, forward thinking, kind group of talented humans on this board. It was lovely catching up, commiserating, thinking among friends old and new.
Excited to see where the road takes LMA and grateful I’ve gotten to be some small part of this journey the past five years. Onward and upward!
Register for the camp and you’ll gain access to 18 live panel conversations and six live podcast recordings this July and August.
ANSWERING LEGAL PRESENTS: Law Firm Summer Reboot Camp
Come join us at our 3rd annual Law Firm Summer Reboot camp! This year’s camp, which remains completely virtual, is expanding to two weeks. We’ll be hosting panels from July 23rd thru July 26th, then again from August 13th thru August 16th.
By signing up for our camp, attendees will gain access to 18 live panel conversations and six live podcast recordings, in which they’ll receive expert advice on reinventing their practice for the final stretch of 2024 and beyond.
This year’s camp will cover a wide variety of different topics!
July 23rd and August 13th will feature legal tech discussions.
July 24th and August 14th will feature legal marketing discussions.
July 25th and August 15th will feature law office management discussions.
July 26th and August 16th will focus on a variety of different topics, with special guest hosts.
All camp attendees will get to follow our live conversations virtually, and can submit questions for guest panelists via chat. Once registered, you’ll receive email reminders of when camp conversations are set to begin.
As the weather heats up, we’ll be gradually announcing the special guests who will be joining us virtually at summer bootcamp.
Thank you, The Professionals: Inside Professional Services Marketing magazine, for this feature and shout out.
EXCERPT: “AI is certainly not a new phenomenon, and many firms and individuals within professional services firms are experimenting and even using it to save time. However, for many firms, its full potential to deliver and enhance their business development and marketing efforts has so far not been successfully tapped. To assist with this, a leading professional services BD and marketing agency, The BD Ladder, has released a thought leadership eBook, The Impact of AI on Business Development & Marketing in Professional Services, which features eight articles from leading independent BD and marketing consultants and practitioners within the professional services. …
“In comparison to this Roy Sexton’s article offers a contrary view on the widespread rush to adopt AI. He emphasizes the importance of thoughtful, strategic adoption of AI rather than chasing trends. Sexton warns against superficial compliance and advocates for a deeper understanding of AI’s potential and limitations.”
“The latest in The BD Ladder’s quickfire views of the Business Development and Marketing Leaders series features Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at Clark Hill Law, and International Past President of the Legal Marketing Association – LMA International.
“Find out what led Roy into a career in legal BD and marketing, how he stays on top of upcoming trends, and what he thinks is key to a successful career in marketing and BD within legal and professional services.
“Learn from Roy how to find that ‘Memorable moment.’
“This is one episode you won’t want to miss!”
P.S. Thank you, Ryan Koral and Tell Studios, for this lovely case study on our work together for Clark Hill …
Journey to Triumph: Clark Hill’s Award-Winning Re-Branding Campaign
This is how we crafted compelling videos that vividly showcased and amplified the rebrand of one of the nation’s leading law firms, driving vast engagement and clinching industry accolades.
Overview
Enter the world of Clark Hill: a dynamic international team of legal advisors with a singular mission – to drive transformative growth for businesses. With a sprawling presence across 27 global offices and a formidable team of over 700 attorneys, Clark Hill stood at a pivotal juncture. Their challenge? To craft a brand message that resonated with their rich culture and showcased their revamped, sleek brand identity. The answer? Video, and a partnership with Tell Studios.
The Challenge
Rapid growth and expansion brought Clark Hill to a unique challenge: How to unify the diverse narratives of its expansive team into a cohesive brand story? The complexities of the COVID-19 era further underscored the need for a solution that transcended geographical boundaries, echoing the unified voice and values of Clark Hill’s global family.
The Solution
Teaming up with Tell Studios proved transformative. Together, they birthed a series of videos, each narrating a distinct facet of Clark Hill’s rebranding journey. From brand announcements to heartfelt testimonials and industry-specific spotlights, every video was a mosaic piece of Clark Hill’s renewed identity. The process was marked by collaboration, warmth, and a commitment to ensuring every attorney felt seen, heard, and valued.
The Results
The numbers were nothing short of spectacular:
A staggering 500,000 views in year one, soaring to 750,000 by year two. 📈
Social media reach catapulted from 7 million to a jaw-dropping 12 million, with engagement rates skyrocketing by 69%. 🤯
But the crowning glory? Clark Hill clinched the 2023 Managing Partners’ Forum Marketing Excellence Award.🏆
“Clark Hill was a standout in this category. Their ‘Simply Smarter’ rebrand and engagement campaign was a masterclass in strategic brand deployment, reflecting the very DNA of the firm’s people.”
Beyond accolades, the campaign enriched Clark Hill internally:
1️⃣ Attorneys radiated with renewed confidence, poised to engage with clients. 2️⃣ The videos served as conduits, expanding the client base. 3️⃣ A palpable sense of pride and morale upliftment resonated within the Clark Hill community.
Conclusion
Clark Hill’s collaboration with Tell Studios wasn’t just about creating videos; it was about weaving a narrative of transformation, connection, and legacy.
View here (free login/registration may be required).
Thank you, Anna Spektor and Expert Webcast for the opportunity. We offer words of condolence to Nancy Slome’s family in the opening. And shout outs to previous guests Jay Harrington and Laura Gassner Otting throughout the interview.
In this episode, Roy Sexton and Kacy Fleming unpack the formula for workplace engagement. Spoiler alert: it centers around authenticity and empathy. There are five core concepts involved: investing in leaders, recognition through a feedback loop, empowerment and autonomy, purpose and mattering, and career growth and development.
Kacy Fleming is an award-winning well-being strategist and life-coach, with a Master’s in Organizational Psychology and a passion for building cultures where individuals feel safe and have space to grow and thrive. Having moved from traditional marketing leadership roles to Head of Global Well-being for a Fortune 500 organization—she has gained invaluable first-hand experience driving change throughout complex corporate hierarchies.
In her article “How to Keep Employees Engaged: The 8.8 Trillion Dollar Question” for ThriveGlobal, Kacy writes, “There are a litany of factors that have been shown to improve employee engagement and performance, including autonomy. Over-indexing on where people work appears to have a negative effect on both organizational commitment and productivity. While there is much more research to come on employee engagement in distributed work, organizations must remember that what we reward gets repeated. Recognition and promotion belong to the people who help achieve company outcomes in a way that enhances culture, not those who log the most hours in-office or at the bar after work.”
Kacy has won multiple awards for her work in corporate well-being. She has built strategy for large global employers with populations working in a wide variety of work settings. From traditional knowledge work to the frontline, she has launched, co-designed, and deployed well-being strategies and solutions from the ground up. Her approach is guided not only by 20 years of practical experience working in some of the largest biopharmaceutical companies, but also from her academic research and writing.
Kacy is a sought after speaker and writer. Her TEDx talk on “The Limitlessness of Flexible Work,” was based on her master’s thesis. She has spoken for the Business Group on Health, MH Work Life, Randstad USA, and Wellbeing at Work and has appeared on numerous global podcasts. Kacy is the author of articles on hot topics in the workplace ranging from menopause and mid-life transitions to flexible work, humane leadership, and the key to employee engagement. Kacy loves to share top tips earned from her two decades of experience working in a variety of leadership roles. Learn more about Kacy at https://kacyfleming.com/
Are the kids all right? Are we too concerned with trend-chasing as opposed to delivering real value? Find out my thoughts on marketing, BD and AI in my article in The BD Ladder’slatest eBook.
Download your copy today and read the thoughts and opinions of industry leaders including Ben Chiriboga, Lynn Tellefsen Stehle, Ben Trott, David MacDonald, Megan Senese, Jennifer Ramsey, Richard W Smith, Michelle Howard, and Paul Roberts.
Thank you to Ben Paul and Lucy King who invited me to take part.
The kids are NOT all right … one marketer’s (cheeky) thoughts on trend-chasing and real value
By Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at Clark Hill and Immediate Past International President of the Legal Marketing Association
I suppose I’ve become more of a contrarian as I’ve progressed through my career. I love new ideas, change, and growth, but sometimes my Spidey-sense goes off when I feel like too many people are all rushing off after the same shiny object and I don’t perceive a great depth of thinking in their discourse. Now I’m not saying that’s the case with AI right now.
I’m implying that’s the case with AI right now.
Why do I say this? Well, for one, we’ve all been living with AI in one form another already for 20+ years. It’s baked into just about every cell phone and home media device, ubiquitously scattered across the land. It’s part of all major software applications. It’s part of every shopping recommendation we receive – and heaven knows AI-shopping suggestions sustained my spirit during the pandemic!
But in 2023 it suddenly captured the zeitgeist and, at least in my chosen profession of marketing, it seemed as if everyone feared they didn’t sound “smart” if they didn’t jump into the fray. For a while, it seemed all slapped the sentence “AI won’t take your job, but people who know AI will” into every piece of thought leadership, whether pertinent or not.
It’s AI o’clock … do you know where your children are?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m as enamored of AI-prompts and AI-streamlined tasks as anybody. As a glimmer into my psychology: I remember I fought voice-to-text for years, until my poor thumb screamed “give me a break with all the texting!” And now I haven’t typed anything on my phone for the better part of a decade (I think). I also am not sure I’ve proofread any of my texts in the better part of a decade either come to think of it.
And I guess that’s a bit of my concern. There’s a meme I share on social media every time I see it, and much like Yogi Berra I’m sure I will mangle its verbiage. It’s something to the effect of … “Hey, rather than have AI replace all the artists and screenwriters, let’s have it clean up the oceans.” That speaks to me. I will sound like a tin-foil hat wearing conspiracist but did the accountants get together with IT and say, “You know what … we both hate writing. Can we work on something to replace THAT?” I know AI does SO much more, but this is what hits close to home for me. Truth be told, writers are generally paid a pittance anyway, and I’m not totally convinced that what comes from AI prompts is as compelling as what comes from the human mind and heart. Plus, if the robots are doing all the writing and the responding, who’s doing the reading? Asking for a friend. Isn’t the point of marketing copy to connect with fellow humans and influence their purchasing decisions? At least that’s what I always thought.
What does appeal to me is the idea of AI clearing the decks of tasks that are not value-add and replacing with ones that generate market insight, while expanding the reach of the human minds in the room. I do believe in my bones we are at an incredible tipping point where data is concerned; AI rapidly scouring all the interwebs to inform our creative decisions, to target the right clients and customers just-in-time, and to close the deal will create greater efficiency and outcomes. This will also empower the creatives to do their work, to not have to fight their internal clients endlessly (that’s honestly where all the marketing waste is), and to focus on what they do best: innovate and connect.
I caution us as professionals to not lose ourselves in a sea of buzzwords and trends. For the past decade, every conference season, I slog through a million panel discussions where everyone hyperventilates over the next big “disruption.” Shall I rattle off a few? Big data. Internet of things. Blockchain. NFTs. Um … Clubhouse. I could go on.
What I am interested in is how we can already leverage what we have been using unknowingly for ages, not to downsize teams or confuse an already broad generational contingent even further, but rather to quickly craft holistic solutions that empower creators and consumers alike to connect over what they really need.
We’ve already seen the speed with which digital solutions can disrupt (negatively) real life, particularly the impact that social media has had on community fragmentation, political turmoil, and the dissemination of fraudulent information. When education and human comprehension don’t keep pace with technological advancement, human beings veer into “Dark Ages” dystopian times. Disruption seems clean and sleek and sexy in the rearview, but it is messy in real time. People are messy. We can’t help it. I’m not saying that’s bad and I’m not saying that’s good. I loved Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat as much as anyone. But it remains a concern and as breathless as we are about these new tools and solutions and what they can do for the “bottom line,” let’s also consider what they will do to an already fragile human condition.
I will leave you with this anecdote, names changed to protect the innocent. I have an attorney friend – a Baby Boomer. I’m not being ageist – it’s important context. This attorney reminds me of my beloved late mother. Both reflect a fascination with social and digital platforms and a desire to connect as broadly as possible, seeing the potential in these channels for commiseration on scale and enthusiastically embracing it all. Both also are petrified they are going to “break something” every time they touch social media. Doesn’t hold them back but fear always lurks in the background.
(Sidebar: I grew up in the era when parents told you not to sit too close to the television for fear of ruining your eyesight nor to turn it on and off and on and off for fear of breaking it. In fact, we – gasp! – took our TVs periodically to the “repair shop.” I wonder if this is why an entire generation lives in abject terror over tech. Just a theory.)
One day this attorney asked me why they don’t see the words “[their name] likes this” under posts on social. I said, “Well, when you click ‘like,’ OTHER people see that.” They then got insistent: “No, I want it to say [my name] LIKES this.” I explained again. Then a light bulb went off. I looked at their activity and realized in the time we were chatting they had started typing this as a comment “[their name] likes this” over and over and over under different posts. Paging Amelia Bedelia!
Now flash forward a few months, I get another call. On a Sunday. This attorney is apoplectic. “Why does it show I’ve left all these comments on my very important clients’ posts? I didn’t say these things. I wouldn’t say these things. Can I sue LinkedIn? I’m so embarrassed.” Again, I calmly asked, “Now describe to me what you are seeing?” (I learned this in years of similar panicked chats from my mom. I think I could have a side hustle here.) With some time, I figured out they thought the AI prompts under a given post were a string of comments they had actually left. They were so distressed about it that they had then sent emails to all said connections apologizing. THEN they reached out to me. Not a great look for someone trying to show their facility and agility in this digital age.
So, what’s the problem here? Why am I sharing this? I actually GET why the attorney was alarmed. Now, I knew what I was looking at when I saw those prompts, but they didn’t. Because the tech industry sometimes moves at the speed of “we’ll get to it when we feel like it” and other times at the speed of “we’re changing stuff and not explaining it and you can just figure it out or not,” there is likely a deep rift we will create across generations if we don’t pause a bit and implement things sensibly. Did this attorney NEED a prompt to say, “Congrats on your work anniversary?” Do any of us? Was that actually a problem that needed to be solved? And how many troubles have been created inadvertently in the process?
What’s that line sardonically offered by Jeff Goldblum’s Jurassic Park character Dr. Ian Malcolm (who specialized in chaos theory BTW)? “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
Now, I know those reading this ramble will shake their heads in judgment and think, “I’m shocked. SHOCKED! I had no idea Roy was such a wet blanket luddite.” Listen, I’m not. I love what we are able to do with digital and social tech and how AI can supercharge our ability to connect meaningfully and hopefully change the world for the better. But I’m not honestly seeing much of that yet in the discourse to which I’ve been privy. So just imagine I’m Ian Malcolm here. And remember he’s one of the few characters who survived.
P.S. Confessional … I first asked Chat GPT to write this article for funsies. I hated the result. Tossed it all out. And then I wrote this. You might hate it. But I don’t. And I still think that matters.
P.S. Above depicted one of my most treasured invitations I’ve ever received in 12 years of being a member of the Legal Marketing Association. Thank you, Tahisha Fugate, MBA [she/her]! Love you and love this dynamic, brilliant, fantastic, fun group of incredible human beings.
LinkedIn post from Tahisha: “For the third year in a row, a group of Black Women in Legal Marketing and friends gathered at #LMA24. Women from firms of all sizes, across the U.S. and Canada, connected and engaged. We were thrilled to be joined by some legal marketing business partners, including Chambers USA, Passle, RubyLaw, and Jaffe to name a few.
“A special thank you to my firm Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP for their continued support of this event! I look forward to seeing everyone in DC next year. #legalmkt #marketing #businessdevelopment #DEI”
EXCERPT: “A total of 1,418 CMOs, content marketers and podcast producers registered for the first-ever conference or summit dedicated specifically to branded podcasts. For the first time, branded podcasters from around the world connected online to learn from the experts – and fill the chat box with their own tips and experiences.
“Presented free of charge by the folks at Lower Street, attendees took in sessions from podcast pros, brand marketers as well as content marketing headliners Anne Handley and Rand Fishkin.
“Across all the sessions, the podcast audience came first. This should seem an obvious focus for podcast production. However, the impulse to create a branded podcast often comes from an organization’s instinct to put the brand’s objectives ahead of content that will attract their target audience.
“Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at Clark Hill Law, tackled this head on, advising attendees, ‘Podcasts should not just exist to placate someone’s ego… If it’s not bringing in a lead or awareness or audience growth, you need to pull the plug or re-tool.’”
