The 2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey shines a spotlight on the evolving challenges and priorities of chief legal officers. For legal marketers, it’s a wake-up call to finetune strategies and better align with client needs. This year’s findings highlight how chief legal officers are taking on broader responsibilities, facing mounting pressure to control costs, and dealing with increasingly complex legal and business issues. These trends are more than just data points – they’re a roadmap for how legal marketers can sharpen their strategies, build stronger relationships and win more business for their firms.

The 2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey is out, delivering a look at how CLOs are reshaping their roles, tackling rising challenges and finding ways to drive impact beyond the legal department. This year’s findings underscore a significant shift in the role of CLOs. They’re taking on more responsibilities beyond traditional legal work, managing rising costs and navigating an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, all while facing resource constraints. For law firms, these insights offer an invaluable opportunity to tailor their services and deepen relationships with CLO clients.

Many law firms excel at legal work but struggle with consistent, strategic business development. Too often, firms rely on referrals, respond to RFPs and wait for opportunities instead of actively creating them. While good work brings in business, in today’s competitive legal market, it’s not enough. The firms that thrive are the ones that prioritize business development and marketing as a core part of their strategy – not as an afterthought.

Law firms balance a lot – client work, industry developments and business growth, But when marketing and business development take a back seat, firms risk stagnation. A reactive approach only goes so far. The firms that thrive prioritize strategic marketing, proactive client outreach, and relationship-building. Here’s how to make that shift.

A Board Service Initiative is a powerful way for law firms to connect with their communities, foster professional development and make a lasting impact. By placing its lawyers on non-profit boards, law firms can offer their expertise to organizations in need while strengthening their reputations as socially responsible leaders. Here’s why this is a great idea for law firms and how to implement it effectively.

For many law firms, thought leadership content is driven primarily by marketing. The goal? Stay visible, stay relevant and ensure the firm is top of mind. While this approach serves a purpose, it often sacrifices long-term value for short-term visibility. A thought leadership strategy driven by business development, on the other hand, offers a more targeted, strategic and lasting approach.

Does it feel like your social media efforts are lagging behind, like you’re in the prehistoric era roaming around with the dinosaurs? I recently visited the American Museum of Natural History, and while looking at the dinosaur fossils, I started thinking about how this relates to many law firms’ and individuals’ social media posts. The legal industry tends to lag behind others, especially in social media. Many firms and lawyers post the same dry self-congratulatory content. If you follow everyone else and don’t innovate, you run the risk of potentially becoming extinct.

The Vault Law 100 rankings hold significant weight in the legal industry, serving as a benchmark for the prestige and reputation of law firms across the country. These rankings are based on the assessments of more than 20,000 associates from peer firms, who rate the prestige of firms other than their own on a scale of 1 to 10. For law firms, improving their Vault ranking is not just about gaining bragging rights; it’s about attracting top talent and positioning themselves as leaders in the legal field.