While it’s not unusual for legal marketing and business development professionals to make the switch from similar roles with other professional services firms to law firms, Christa Crane, chief client and strategy officer with Loeb & Loeb LLP, came to legal marketing by a slightly different path. A change management consultant with Accenture early in her career, her work on an internal business development project for the consultancy prompted Christa to look toward the broader professional services industry and, ultimately, legal services. Over a career that spans nearly 25 years, Christa brought all she learned about leading change to legal marketing roles at several AmLaw 100 and 200 firms, including ArentFox, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (now Freshfields LLP) and Bingham McCutchen. She joined Loeb & Loeb as chief client development and marketing officer in 2014, and just shy of 10 years into that evolving role, she stepped into her current position. As chief client and strategy officer, Christa partners with firm leadership to set and implement broad strategic priorities and launch new initiatives.

After serving in high-level communications and marketing roles in Big Law, including at Jenner & Block, Crowell & Moring and most recently Reed Smith, Phill McGowan started his own consultancy, Phill McGowan Marketing, in August 2024. Phill advises major law firms and global organizations on driving growth through data-driven content marketing and communications by aligning marketing strategies with business development goals to deliver measurable results. The Sharp End caught up with Phill to talk about the growing role of content at law firms, the impact of campaigns on business development and building brand, and the evolving strategies for content distribution as web search and AI increasingly aggregate information online.