About this episode

Kathryn Whitaker discusses the evolution of marketing strategies in law firms, focusing on lateral growth and the importance of data-driven decisions.

Law firms can no longer just coast on stability anymore, they need to start actively building momentum. Marketing leaders are expected to evolve alongside the business, modify strategy around lateral growth, and provide value through data. As part of our CMO Series: Laterals & Mergers sub-series, we're revisiting this conversation between Eugene McCormick and Kathryn Whitaker, Chief Marketing Officer at Burr & Forman, on how her strategic approach has evolved since her first appearance on the podcast back in 2022. Kathryn broke down how marketing can support opportunistic growth, why firms are shifting toward outcome-driven metrics, and why mid-career attorneys may be the biggest missed opportunity in law firm growth strategy today. In this episode Kathryn discusses: Law firm growth through strategic scaling Lateral integration to build long-term success The importance of data-driven storytelling to inform decisions AI's practical impact on efficiency and visibility The under leveraged investment in mid-career attorneys

People in this episode

Host: Eugene McCormick

Guest: Kathryn Whitaker

Topics covered

• law firm growth
• lateral integration
• data-driven storytelling
• AI in marketing
• mid-career attorneys

Keywords

• law firms
• marketing strategy
• lateral growth
• data
• AI
• mid-career attorneys
• outcome-driven metrics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Burr & Forman

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 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 2 - CMO Series Laterals & Mergers: Dave Southern of Mayer Brown on Making Lateral Acquisitions Pay Off Through Client Collaboration · August 6, 2026 · 16 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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