How to Build a Strong Market Presence with A&O Shearman| CMO Series Live 2025

Chief Marketing Officer of the America's at A&O Shearman, Margie Hinckley, shares how the firm successfully merged two historic brands into a powerful, cohesive digital presence in this exclusive fireside chat at CMO Series Live 2025. Learn how strategic planning, cross-team collaboration, and a content-driven approach built brand authority and client engagement.

Key takeaways: 

How to Drive Alignment Across a Global Organization
"We really had to take the best of both brands... and leave everything else in the rearview mirror".

The firm focused on several different audiences, including the entire A&O Shearman community, clients, prospective talent, and alumni, needing "everyone to understand the brand messaging and the people at all levels, and speak the same language" 

The Importance of a Fresh Perspective
Margie shared how working with external consultants was key to the success of the merger. "Finding the right consultants and working with them and engaging with them and really having a relationship that's flexible in terms of being able to scale up and scale back when needed depending on the phase, is something that I think is why this launch was successful. We would not have been able to do it without". 

"You also get a fresh perspective that you don't have. We needed that outside voice to kind of get us thinking in a direction that was different from each legacy firm". 

The Value of Client Feedback in Future-Proofing Your Digital Identity 
A key focus was establishing a cohesive digital identity that was both impactful and future-proof. The value of client feedback when it came to how they were going to present the new website was really important - the goal was to ensure the website was “built for immediate impact but also in the long term”. The team constantly has to think about the future and where clients are going to be looking.