Here are screen grabs of the published summary of the various awards together with comments from the judging panel.
The judges noted (page 15) that “Clark Hill was a clear winner in this category, with its Simply Smarter rebrand and market engagement campaign standing head and shoulders above the rest. This campaign showed clear strategic understanding and deployment of brand as the identity and DNA of the firm’s people”.
Thank you, Beth Little Bell, for joining Rob and me today! You are such an authentic soul with a keen eye toward story-telling and culture building. #LMAmkt is truly fortunate to have you in our community. Appreciated how you painted a clear picture of the life of the solo marketer as brand and culture builder and how you use social media, community engagement, and thought leadership to support the DeFur Voran team.
And that team LOVES you – I don’t think in the history of the show we have EVER had so many of a marketer’s attorneys watch and express their heartfelt appreciation. You are clearly doing something right! Congrats on that new grandbaby, and thanks for all you do for Wabash College as well. Thanks one more time to Greg Castanias for connecting us.
Show description: Roy’s guest on our October 6 show was Elizabeth Bell, who leads marketing efforts for DeFur Voran LLP. She has also worked in the legal space as a law firm administrator and paralegal. Spoiler alert: she, like Roy, is a Hoosier AND has a storied background with his alma mater Wabash College. (And she just may have attended Wabash’s fierce rival school DePauw University … so sparks may fly!)
Beth is currently building a marketing program at her firm, and can speak to the opportunities and challenges facing the solo marketer. Roy and Beth unpack how one can leverage servant leadership to help support a small firm on its growth journey and how to build out the resources needed to “do all the things” required for effective law firm marketing and business development when you are a mighty team of ONE!
Legal Marketing Coffee Talk is brought to you by: By Aries and Kates Media: Video Production.
Thrilled to be moderating the opening session of this essential #legalmarketing boot camp. Thank you, LMA Northeast Region, Michelle Upchurch Murray, Jennifer Manton, Deborah Scaringi for your leadership here in bringing this to our Legal Marketing Association – LMA International members.
SESSION DESCRIPTION: We are privileged to work in a dynamic, rapidly evolving industry. The legal marketing and business development profession has a multiplicity of career paths and opportunities. Since hustle is our middle name as legal marketers, our own needs sometimes get lost in the shuffle of being in service to others. Being intentional about aligning your talents, desires, interests, and aspirations is more crucial than ever to continued success.
Please join us for a candid, lively conversation with leading lights in our industry on how they themselves shaped their careers amidst an ever changing landscape. We will highlight the career tracks available to you – business development, technologist, marketing and digital strategy, events, branding, coaching, consulting, and so much more – as well as projects you should pursue to maximize your visibility and impact. We will cover the importance of your own personal branding, how to stay relevant and known in this industry, and the importance of leaning on this LMA community to enrich your career.
Panelists:
Moderator – Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing, Clark Hill Law
Robyn Addis, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, Legal Internet Solutions Incorporated
Michael Coston, CEO, Coston Consulting
Melissa Ertek, Chief Development Officer, Winston & Strawn LLP
Audra Triplett, Senior Manager, Business Development & Marketing, Foley & Lardner LLP
Beth Little Bell, rock star!! Can’t wait! Thanks to fellow Wabash College alum and Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity brother Greg Castanias for introducing us!
Roy’s guest on our October 6 show will be Elizabeth Bell, who leads marketing efforts for DeFur Voran LLP. She has also worked in the legal space as a law firm administrator and paralegal. Spoiler alert: she, like Roy, is a Hoosier AND has a storied background with his alma mater Wabash College. (And she just may have attended Wabash’s fierce rival school DePauw … so sparks may fly!)
Beth is currently building a marketing program at her firm, and can speak to the opportunities and challenges facing the solo marketer. Roy and Beth will unpack how one can leverage servant leadership to help support a small firm on its growth journey and how to build out the resources needed to “do all the things” required for effective law firm marketing and business development when you are a mighty team of ONE!
An episode you won’t want to miss. Join us live this Thursday, October 6th at 3 PM right here on Facebook.
Legal Marketing Coffee Talk is brought to you by: By Aries and Kates Media.
“Hey podcast listeners. I’m Taryn Elliott, Director of Client Success + Marketing at LISI and I will be your host for this episode of LISI’s All the Things podcast. I’m joined on this month’s episode of One More Thing by Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at Clark Hill Law, and an old friend from my early days with the Legal Marketing Association – LMA International. Roy and I got together to talk about what he hopes to accomplish next year and his term as the 2023 Legal Marketing Association International President. Knowing Roy for as long as I have, I knew this conversation was going to be fun and I was not disappointed, but we touch on some important topics as well, including volunteering, self-care, acknowledging our differences, and how to amplify yourself along with the work you do. Here is One More Thing, this week’s episode of LISI’s ‘All the Things’ podcast. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it.”
Indeed, we did, Taryn! So grateful for our longstanding friendship and for your positive influence in my life. As is my wont, I shout out to a LOT of people and how grateful I am for them: Maureen Fechter Farr, Gina Furia Rubel, Heather Morse-Geller, Gail Porter Lamarche, Nancy Leyes Myrland, Lindsay Griffiths, Laura Toledo, Terry Isner, Jennifer Manton, Deborah Scaringi, Michelle Upchurch Murray, LMA Northeast Region Boot Camp, Robyn Addis, Audra Triplett, Michael Coston, Melissa Ertek, Brenda Plowman, EJ Stern Bearman, Bobbie Conklin, #LMA23, Wabash College, Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), Corporate Legal Operations Consortium – CLOC, Michigan Society for Healthcare Planning and Marketing, Susie Sexton, #TheLordOfTheRings, and #pasta. Happy listening!
Important, sobering, essential analysis done by ALM. Thank you, Kayla McCaleb, Patrick Fuller, and team. Change is needed. Yesterday. Thank you, Patrick Smith, for the wonderful chat today and for including my reactions in this coverage.
McCaleb said she was also disappointed, but not surprised, to find that even as salaries for chiefs and first-chair directors went up across all firm size segments, men were the beneficiaries of the majority of those gains.
“Probably the single most shocking finding for me was that despite the overall average annual salary increased by a stable 11% in each of those versions, the pay gap between men and women increased by 50% from 2018 to 2020 and 40% from 2020 to 2022—both of those percentages being substantially higher than the 11% overall average salary increase,” McCaleb said via email. “In 2018, men out-earned women by $50,000. In 2020, that number increased to $75,000. Now in 2022, $105,000 separates men and women chiefs and first chair directors. It just makes me wonder what that wage gap is going to look like in 2024.”
Although this pay gap exists, for most firms, it is not an intentional or malicious decision to pay women less, according to several observers. Yet, here we are, and good intentions and happy thoughts don’t fix problems.
Roy Sexton is the director of marketing for Clark Hill in Detroit and the 2023 Legal Marketing Association International President. He has been in the legal industry for over a decade.
He believes there are a series of factors that play into creating these gaps, ranging from retrograde thinking on women’s role in the workplace to how marketing and business development are viewed in the legal industry.
“There are those of us who may have felt, at our core, that we are not wanted,” Sexton said. “Historically, some organizations have treated women, as well as people of color and the LGBTQ community, that they should feel grateful to be there.”
He said this thinking perpetuates behaviors such as not asking for a raise or a larger bonus because one doesn’t want to rock the boat and be replaced by someone who can be counted on to not do so.
“We need to arm people with negotiation skills and the fortitude to walk away from a job that is underpaying them,” he said. “But there is fear, perpetuated by that ‘grateful’ mindset, that they won’t find another job. So they just accept where they are.” …
Patrick Fuller, vice president and general manager and another author of the study, said, “Over the past decade, law firms’ concerted efforts to improve diversity and inclusion amongst FTE attorneys produced steady year-over-year improvements. As the marketing and business development compensation survey data shows, law firms must also focus on compensation equity for business professionals. It is beyond unacceptable that women comprise 75% of large- and mid-market chiefs or first-chair directors, yet earn, on average, 30% less than their male counterparts.”
LMA is pleased to announce its 2023 International Board of Directors. The slate of candidates was ratified on September 2, 2022, and the newly elected and continuing officers and directors will begin their terms on January 1, 2023. More: https://legalmarketing.org/2023-International-Board
Legal Marketing Association – LMA International welcomes:
President Roy E. Sexton Director of Marketing Clark Hill Law Detroit, MI (Midwest Region)
Immediate Past President Brenda Plowman Chief Marketing Officer Fasken Vancouver, B.C. (Canada Region)
President-Elect Kevin Iredell Chief Marketing Officer Lowenstein Sandler LLP New York, NY (Northeast Region)
Secretary Amy Payton Verhulst Senior Business Development Manager Jackson Lewis PC Houston, TX (Southwest Region)
Treasurer Andrew Laver Business Development Manager Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Philadelphia, PA (Northeast Region)
Treasurer-Elect Rachel Shields Williams Director of Knowledge Management Sidley Austin LLP Washington, D.C. (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Member-At-Large John Byrne Chief Marketing Officer Gould & Ratner LLP Chicago, IL (Midwest Region)
Member-At-Large Jessica Haarsgaard Business Development Manager Burr & Forman LLP Greenville, SC (Southeast Region)
Member-At-Large Diana Lauritson Senior Marketing and Business Development Officer Hogan Lovells Washington, DC (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Member-At-Large Trish Desilets Lilley Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer Stroock New York, NY (Northeast Region)
Member-At-Large Jaime Lira Marketing Director Cohen & Malad, LLP Indianapolis, IN (Midwest Region)
Regional Leaders’ Committee Chair Robin Devereux Gerard Chief Marketing Officer Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth PC Newport Beach, CA (West Region)
Chief Executive Officer Danielle Gorash Holland Legal Marketing Association Chicago, IL
So darn excited to work with these amazing souls, all of our fab volunteer leaders, our incredible membership, and marvelous HQ support team next year. ✨
REGISTER:https://bit.ly/3wwtImc … “Law firms and legal service providers: Know who’s gonna join us for Stack Ranking, Part 2 on 9/30?
“Meet our special guests: Roy Sexton of Clark Hill Law; Drew Hawkins of Womble Bond Dickinson US LLP; and Gordon Braun-Woodbury of Calibrate.
“Our esteemed colleagues will weigh in on the 2022 RubyLaw Legal Marketing Tech Study and opine on our insights. Come hear what they have to say!”
I seem to have started a flame war with Britney Spears 😂 – Britney, we do love you, but please stay kind.
My dad Don Sexton is on fire! At this point DownBeat Magazine should just make him a columnist. He’s got another letter published – and the opening salvo on the page no less! So proud!!
We speak at length about Clark Hill Law, Legal Marketing Association – LMA International, legal marketing , social media , digital marketing , lawyers, thought leadership, media relations, podcasts, technology, and trends.
Shout outs abound, including Wabash College, Deloitte, The Ohio State University, UM-Flint School of Management, Trott Law, Kerr Russell, Beaumont Health, JD Supra, Tanner Friedman, Mary Zatina, Susan Ahern, Megan McKeon, Alex France, Joel Epstein, Dave Trott, Robert Hoban, Sander Zagzebski, and …. cannabis.
Thank you to Carrie LeZotte and Steve Rota as well for their exceptional work on the production of this show.
Special thank you to Tanner Friedman’s Joel Epstein for arranging this fun opportunity. Joel, you are such a rock star and we all love working with you and are grateful for your hustle and your heart. Tara and I are both in the Joel fan club for sure!
Thank you, Robert Clarke and Elevate, for the lovely chat and this interview write-up. I enjoyed our conversation immensely ✨
“Roy Sexton on Teams, Leadership and Learning: ‘You’re only as good as the rest of the cast. Bad actors are the ones who only worry about themselves, whereas good performers think: How can I help the entire cast be good? The audience experiences the entire show, not just one performer – not just the lead. It’s the same in business…’ #elevateelite #leadership #learning Click image for more.”
“After supporting the rebranding of Clark Hill Law, Roy realized just how magical the combination of branding and culture development can be. In the process of branding, you’re uniting company values, the customer experience, and a diverse team, which, in turn, helps develop the true, authentic culture of your organization.”
Reel Roy Reviews 