Law firm owners have more marketing options than ever, and more voices telling them what to do with their marketing budgets. Agencies, platforms, and AI tools all promise more cases. The harder question is whose advice to trust.
The people on this list have earned that trust through years of work with law firms. Some run agencies, some coach lawyers one on one, and several still practice law. Together they cover the skills a growing firm needs: search and AI visibility, content and social media, websites, business development, and the systems that turn leads into signed clients.
How we chose: everyone here works mainly with law firms, has a public track record that’s easy to check (books, podcasts, speaking, industry recognition), and was actively teaching or advising in 2026.
1. Piotr Szalkiewicz
Founder & Managing Partner, Pioneerly · New York, NY
Piotr Szalkiewicz is a marketing veteran whose work centers on revenue growth. He co-founded Pioneerly with Matt Sarson in early 2026 after leading growth and marketing at Joorney, an immigration firm. Working with more than 1,000 law firms there gave him a close view of why some firms grow while others struggle. That experience shaped his approach to Pioneerly: treating a law firm as one business, where marketing, intake, and revenue have to work together.
Piotr introduced the Growth Counsel role: a dedicated marketing and growth operator who leads the team serving each client and takes responsibility for results. Pioneerly has no sales team. Instead, it works closely with each firm’s daily operations to identify marketing and growth opportunities, with a focus on increasing revenue while respecting the firm’s mission and values.
Piotr continues to work directly with clients as a Growth Counsel. He advocates using data to guide decisions and delegating repetitive, non-creative work to AI. Together with his team, he built the U.S. Legal Market Health Index, which ranks all 50 states and DC on demand, opportunity, and growth. He also published a comprehensive set of 2026 marketing benchmarks for personal injury firms. Much of his current work focuses on AI search, helping firms get recommended when prospective clients ask tools like ChatGPT or Google’s AI Mode to find a lawyer.
Piotr chairs the American Attorney Marketing Association and is a member of the American Bar Association. Beyond his work in legal marketing, he is a dedicated scientist, co-founder of the biogerontology research lab Danaba Institute, and a member of the American Aging Association.
Known for: Expertise in law firm marketing, AI search, and technology; advocacy for responsible AI use in legal practice; and research on legal marketing and legal markets.
Background: More than 20 years building and growing companies across legal, tech, and media, including immigration firm Joorney and Boston-based tech unicorn LiveChat
Notable work: U.S. Legal Market Health Index, Law Firm Marketing Benchmarks
Find them: pioneerly.com | LinkedIn
2. Kevin O’Keefe
CEO & Founder, LexBlog · Seattle, WA
Kevin O’Keefe has been making the case for lawyer blogging since the early days of the legal web. He spent 17 years as a trial lawyer in Wisconsin, then moved into online legal publishing, first with Prairielaw.com, which LexisNexis acquired, and then with LexBlog, which he started in his garage in 2004. LexBlog has since grown into a publishing community of more than 30,000 legal professionals.
His core idea has held up for two decades: lawyers win work through relationships and reputation, and publishing useful insight under their own names is one of the most reliable ways to earn both. He lives by that advice. His blog, Real Lawyers Have Blogs, has passed 6,000 posts, and he still writes regularly about legal publishing, social media, and how AI is changing the way people find and read legal content.
Known for: Legal blogging and publishing as a way for lawyers to build reputation and relationships
Background: Trial lawyer for 17 years in La Crosse, Wisconsin; founded Prairielaw.com (acquired by LexisNexis) and later served as a LexisNexis vice president; finance degree from Notre Dame and JD from McGeorge School of Law
Notable work: Founded LexBlog in 2004; author of the blog Real Lawyers Have Blogs (6,000+ posts since 2003); named to the ABA Journal’s first class of Legal Rebels (2009)
Find them: kevin.lexblog.com | LinkedIn
3. Gyi Tsakalakis
Founder & President, AttorneySync · Chicago, IL
Gyi Tsakalakis came to marketing from the practice side. He worked as a lawyer before founding AttorneySync in 2008 to help firms turn their websites and search presence into a steady source of new clients. Nearly two decades later, he’s one of the most respected voices on law firm SEO, known for plain, practical advice on what brings in clients.
His guiding idea is that visibility is only the first step. Once people find a firm, it has to give them a clear reason to choose it. Lawyers know him from conference stages as much as from search results: he co-chaired ABA TECHSHOW in 2023 and spoke there again in 2026. He also co-hosts Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on Legal Talk Network with Conrad Saam, and in August 2026 the two brought their audience together in Nashville for the Lunch Hour Legal Marketing Summit.
Known for: Law firm SEO and digital marketing, with a focus on helping firms get chosen once they’re found
Background: Michigan-licensed attorney who practiced law before founding AttorneySync in 2008
Notable work: Co-host of Lunch Hour Legal Marketing (Legal Talk Network); co-chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2023 and a 2026 TECHSHOW speaker; speaker at Clio Cloud Conference; contributor to the Local Search Ranking Factors survey
Find them: attorneysync.com | LinkedIn
4. Conrad Saam
Founder & President, Mockingbird Marketing · Seattle, WA
Conrad Saam is legal marketing’s best-known skeptic, and law firms are better off for it. He learned the industry from the inside during six years leading marketing at Avvo, then founded Mockingbird Marketing (originally Atticus Marketing), an agency that works only with law firms. His specialty is local search: how firms show up on Google Maps and in the local results people use when they want a lawyer nearby. He wrote the book on it, Own the Map, published by the ABA’s Law Practice Division.
What sets him apart is his readiness to call out bad behavior. He publishes cease-and-desist letters sent to him by vendors he’s criticized, and he once showed how little some paid lawyer awards mean when his chicken, Zippy, received one. Behind the humor is a serious message he repeats in his Search Engine Land columns and on the Lunch Hour Legal Marketing podcast: firms should own their marketing assets and know exactly what they’re paying for.
Known for: Local search and Google Maps visibility for law firms; calling out deceptive practices among legal marketing vendors
Background: Six years leading marketing at Avvo; Google Small Business Advisor
Notable work: Author of Own the Map: Marketing Your Law Firm’s Address Online (ABA Law Practice Division, 2020); co-host of Lunch Hour Legal Marketing; Search Engine Land contributor; speaker at PILMMA and Mass Torts Made Perfect
Find them: mockingbirdmarketing.com | LinkedIn
5. Nancy Myrland
Marketing & Business Development Advisor, Myrland Marketing & Social Media · Indianapolis, IN
Nancy Myrland teaches lawyers how to show up online as themselves. She knows law firm life from the inside: after ten years in marketing at Time Warner, she ran the marketing department at Baker & Daniels, a seven-office firm that’s now part of Faegre Drinker. Since 2002 she’s advised firms and individual lawyers through her own practice, focusing on LinkedIn, content, video and podcasting, and more recently on how AI fits into a lawyer’s content routine.
Her advice is practical and personal: build real relationships, share what you know, and stay consistent long enough for it to pay off. The profession has recognized her work at the highest level. The Legal Marketing Association inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2023, LinkedIn named her a Top Voice in 2024, and she’s served on LMA’s international board. In 2026 she presented two sessions at LMA’s annual conference in New Orleans.
Known for: LinkedIn, content and video strategy for lawyers; widely known as “the LinkedIn Coach for Lawyers”
Background: Ten years in marketing at Time Warner; former Director of Marketing at Baker & Daniels (now part of Faegre Drinker); independent advisor since 2002
Notable work: Legal Marketing Association Hall of Fame (2023); LinkedIn Top Voice (2024); former LMA International Board member; host of the Legal Marketing Minutes podcast; two-time presenter at LMA26
Find them: myrlandmarketing.com | LinkedIn
6. Chris Dreyer
Founder & CEO, Rankings.io · Marion, IL
Chris Dreyer built one of the best-known agencies in personal injury marketing by picking a narrow focus and going deep. After earning a history education degree, he worked at a Southern Illinois high school and coached JV basketball, then taught himself search by building affiliate websites. When Google’s 2012 Penguin update wiped out that income, he moved into legal SEO and launched Rankings.io in 2013, later narrowing its focus to personal injury firms.
That decision became the thesis of his book, Niching Up, which makes the case for serving one kind of client exceptionally well. Rankings.io has since made the Inc. 5000 list of fast-growing private companies nine years in a row, most recently in 2026. Dreyer is also a connector in the PI world. His Personal Injury Mastermind podcast grew into PIMCON, a conference where PI firm owners meet to talk marketing, intake and growth, which takes place in Scottsdale in October 2026.
Known for: SEO and growth strategy for personal injury law firms; the case for “niching up”
Background: History education graduate who worked at a Southern Illinois high school and coached JV basketball, then taught himself SEO by building affiliate websites
Notable work: Author of Niching Up (2022); host of the Personal Injury Mastermind podcast; PIMCON conference (produced by Rankings.io); Inc. 5000 nine years in a row (2018 to 2026); Inc. Best Workplaces; Forbes Agency Council member
Find them: rankings.io | LinkedIn
7. Seth Price
Founder & CEO, BluShark Digital; Founding & Managing Partner, Price Benowitz LLP · Washington, DC
Seth Price sees law firm marketing from both sides of the table. He’s the founding and managing partner of Price Benowitz, a Washington, DC firm he grew from two lawyers to more than 40, and he’s the founder and CEO of BluShark Digital, an SEO agency for law firms. What he learned growing his own practice online became the foundation for BluShark, which has appeared on the Inc. 5000 six years in a row.
Buying marketing as a firm owner while selling it as an agency owner gives his advice a sharp focus on return: which practice areas, markets and pages are worth the spend. In 2026 he and David Brenton published Local SEO for Lawyers, a practical guide to winning visibility in Google’s local results. He also co-hosts The Law Firm Blueprint podcast with Jay Ruane and speaks regularly at PILMMA, American Association for Justice and Maximum Lawyer events.
Known for: Law firm SEO and local search, taught by a lawyer who uses it to grow his own firm
Background: BA, University of Pennsylvania; JD with honors, George Washington University; admitted in DC and New York
Notable work: Co-author of Local SEO for Lawyers (2026, with David Brenton); co-host of The Law Firm Blueprint podcast with Jay Ruane; BluShark Digital on the Inc. 5000 six years running through 2025; has written for Forbes, Inc. and The National Law Review; speaker at PILMMA, AAJ and Maximum Lawyer events
Find them: blusharkdigital.com | LinkedIn
8. Ken Hardison
Founder & CEO, PILMMA (Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association)
Ken Hardison teaches personal injury lawyers to run their practices like businesses, and he does it with the credibility of someone who’s done it himself. A North Carolina lawyer since 1982, he built and sold two firms, Hardison & Cochran and Carolina Disability Lawyers, and once grew a firm from $2 million to $8 million in revenue in under five years.
He turned those lessons into PILMMA, which has served PI firm owners in the U.S., Canada and Australia for more than 15 years. PILMMA runs more than 36 live trainings a year on marketing, intake, management and AI, hosts mastermind groups where owners hold each other accountable, and brings members together at events like its Super Summit. Hardison has written 11 books on law firm marketing and management and hosts the Grow Your Law Firm podcast, now past 340 episodes.
Known for: Marketing and management systems for personal injury firms; known as “The Millionaire Maker”
Background: BS and JD, Campbell University; North Carolina lawyer since 1982; built and sold two law firms, Hardison & Cochran and Carolina Disability Lawyers
Notable work: Author of 11 books, including How to Effectively Market Your Personal Injury Law Practice in the 21st Century (2009) and Under Promise Over Deliver (2015); host of the Grow Your Law Firm podcast (340+ episodes); PILMMA Super Summit
Find them: pilmma.org | kenhardison.com | LinkedIn
9. Tyson Mutrux
Co-Founder & Host, Maximum Lawyer; Managing Partner, Mutrux Firm Injury Lawyers · St. Louis, MO
Tyson Mutrux took an unusual road to law firm growth: Army medic, then insurance claims representative, then personal injury lawyer. He founded Mutrux Firm Injury Lawyers in St. Louis in 2010, and in 2016 he co-founded Maximum Lawyer to share what he was learning about running a modern firm. It’s grown into one of the largest communities of entrepreneurial lawyers in the country.
The Maximum Lawyer podcast has published more than 900 episodes, its Facebook group has more than 7,000 members, and its paid community, the Guild, gives firm owners a place to trade systems and results. Each year the community meets in person at MaxLawCon, which takes place in Atlanta in October 2026. Mutrux’s teaching covers marketing, systems, hiring and technology, and because he still runs his own injury firm, his advice stays grounded in the day-to-day of a working practice.
Known for: Building Maximum Lawyer, one of the largest communities of growth-focused law firm owners; practical systems for small firms
Background: U.S. Army sergeant and medic; former State Farm claims representative; BS in business and marketing, University of Missouri; JD, Saint Louis University
Notable work: Host of the Maximum Lawyer podcast (900+ episodes); MaxLawCon (held annually since 2018); the Guild membership community; National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 (2014)
Find them: maximumlawyer.com | tysonmutrux.com
10. Steve Fretzin
President, FRETZIN, Inc. · Chicago, IL
Steve Fretzin focuses on the most personal part of law firm growth: helping lawyers bring in business themselves. For more than 17 years he’s coached attorneys on networking, relationship building and client development, using a structured approach he calls Sales-Free Selling. His work is built for lawyers who are strong practitioners and want a repeatable way to win clients.
He’s captured that work in five books, most recently BE THAT LAWYER: 101 Top Rainmakers’ Secrets, published in 2025. He also hosts the BE THAT LAWYER podcast, where he talks with successful attorneys and legal industry experts about marketing, networking and building a book of business. For firms already investing in marketing, Fretzin’s work covers the next step: turning attention and referrals into signed clients.
Known for: Business development coaching for lawyers; his Sales-Free Selling approach
Background: More than 17 years coaching attorneys on business development, networking and client relationships
Notable work: Author of five books, including The Ambitious Attorney (2019), Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science (2022) and BE THAT LAWYER: 101 Top Rainmakers’ Secrets (2025); host of the BE THAT LAWYER podcast; columnist for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Find them: fretzin.com | LinkedIn
11. Annette Choti
Founder & CEO, Law Quill
Annette Choti brings a lawyer’s precision and a performer’s feel for an audience to law firm marketing. She did graduate work in theatre and film and performed professional comedy before earning her law degree, and she’s been a member of the Missouri Bar for more than 25 years. Today she’s the founder and CEO of Law Quill, a full-service agency that handles branding, websites, SEO, AI search, social media, paid ads and in-depth content for firms in practice areas like personal injury, family law, estate planning and criminal defense.
Every Law Quill engagement follows her QUILL Method, a five-part framework covering alignment, research-backed execution, measurable results, hands-on service and integrity. Her book, Click Magnet, lays out digital marketing fundamentals in plain English, and her Click Magnet Academy offers training for lawyers and professionals building their personal brands. She’s a sought-after keynote speaker for the ABA and bar associations and writes for Above the Law, Attorney at Work and LawNext.
Known for: Full-service digital marketing for law firms; the QUILL Method
Background: UMKC School of Law graduate and Missouri Bar member for more than 25 years; graduate work in theatre and film; former professional comedian
Notable work: Author of Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms (2022); founder of Law Quill and Click Magnet Academy; contributor to Above the Law, Attorney at Work and LawNext; keynote speaker for the ABA and bar associations
Find them: lawquill.com | LinkedIn
12. Karin Conroy
Founder & Creative Director, Conroy Creative Counsel
Karin Conroy has spent her career helping law firms build websites and brands that stand out. In 2010 she started what became Lawyerist’s Best Law Firm Websites contest, which began as a guest post and is now in its 16th year. She launched it after noticing that when clients asked her for design inspiration, many of them really wanted a site to imitate.
Her company, Conroy Creative Counsel, designs law firm websites and brands and works with firms as their Marketing Co-Counsel, helping them set clear growth goals and then reach them. In March 2026 she joined the Lawyerist Podcast to talk about why so many firm websites struggle to convert visitors and how AI is making copycat marketing worse. Since 2021 she’s hosted Counsel Cast, a podcast with more than 200 episodes about growing a law firm, and her writing has appeared on Lawyerist, Attorney at Work, Clio and ABA platforms.
Known for: Law firm website design and brand strategy; her Marketing Co-Counsel model
Background: More than 16 years focused on legal marketing; MBA
Notable work: Started what became Lawyerist’s Best Law Firm Websites contest (2010); host of the Counsel Cast podcast (200+ episodes since 2021); her firm earned top recognition in the Best Law Firm Websites contest (2025); contributor to Lawyerist, Attorney at Work, Clio and the ABA
Find them: conroycreativecounsel.com | LinkedIn
