About this episode

Dave Southern discusses how client collaboration can enhance the effectiveness of lateral hiring in law firms.

It's well documented that better client-based collaboration can boost business development results and build stronger, long lasting relationships between law firms and their clients. What isn't as clear is how firms can turn that collaboration into a real payoff when it comes to lateral hiring. Today on the CMO Series: Laterals & Mergers, we are revisiting an episode with Dave Southern, former Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, now Director of Communications at Mayer Brown, to discuss how greater client collaboration can make lateral hiring pay off. In this episode Dave discusses: His career journey so far and how his experiences have influenced his philosophy on client collaboration Why closer client collaboration is so important How to improve the results of lateral hiring How to apply this process to all clients of the firm and examples of how this has worked How this approach fits within the overall go-to-market strategy of the firm Advice for legal marketing and BD professionals looking to improve their client collaboration

People in this episode

Guest: Dave Southern

Topics covered

• client collaboration
• lateral hiring
• business development
• law firms
• marketing strategy

Keywords

• client collaboration
• lateral acquisitions
• business development
• law firms
• marketing
• client relationships
• go-to-market strategy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mayer Brown, Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP

More episodes of Passle CMO Series Podcast

• Episode 7 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Heidi Gardner and Ivan Matviak on How Law Firms Can Turn Relationships into Revenue · September 3, 2026 · 36 min
• Episode 6 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Mark Levin of Marshall Gerstein on The Lawyer Who Cracked the NFL's Hiring Code and Brought It Back to Big Law · August 27, 2026 · 28 min
• Episode 5 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Kathryn Whitaker of Burr & Forman on Turning Lateral Moments Into Momentum · August 20, 2026 · 20 min
• Episode 4 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Craig Budner of Budner Performance Group on Unlocking Law Firm Growth Through Laterals · August 13, 2026 · 18 min
• Episode 3 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Adam Severson of Baker Donelson on The Marketing Playbook for Laterals And Mergers · August 12, 2026 · 25 min
• Episode 1 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Will Brewster on The Communications Lens on A Law Firm Merger · August 5, 2026 · 17 min

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