Joining us this episode is Carrie Hanna, Chief Strategy Officer at Gunster — a century-old firm that is one of Florida's largest, with around 340 attorneys across offices statewide. A legal-marketing professional by background with more than thirty years in the field, Carrie has spent the majority of her career at Gunster, first as a consultant and then stepping into the CSO role when the firm launched its strategic plan in 2007. She brings a rare vantage point on a hard problem: how you build one cohesive strategy inside a professional-services firm full of independent, self-directed practitioners. In this conversation, we explore how a law firm — an industry built to be siloed — created a single North Star, and what any strategy leader can borrow from it.
Things covered:
- Why law firms are structurally siloed, and how Gunster built a collaboration-first, people-first culture instead - The four pillars of the firm's five-year vision — the "Gunster Way," market presence, client relationships, and technology — and how to define a pillar broad enough to pivot but specific enough to direct - Where a legal CSO looks for inspiration: borrowing the corporate operating model and lessons from the Big Four - How to get independent practitioners to care about the firm, not just their own P&L — through story, data, and the client voice - The difference between an answer and a decision, and why who is in the room determines which one you get - Building a leadership pipeline through a bespoke "Future Leaders" programme, and running an annual planning "report card" - Why Gunster aims to be a "bronze medalist" in AI — a deliberate near-follower stance in a fast-moving field
From forcing the hard conversations to reinvesting in future leadership, Carrie offers one of the most practical, grounded views you'll hear on turning a fragmented professional-services organisation into a cohesive whole. For any strategy leader building an office from scratch, her advice on ownership, accountability, and treating the plan as a living process is worth the listen alone.
Additional Resources:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-hanna/ Gunster: https://www.gunster.com Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/outthinker-networks
Thank you to our guest Carrie Hanna for such a generous and practical conversation.
Learn more about Outthinker's community of chief strategy officers - https://outthinker.com/
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