Mark Beese

Mark is President of Leadership for Lawyers, LLC, a consultancy focused on helping lawyers and other professionals become better leaders. He provides training, coaching and consultation to firms in the areas of leadership development, innovation and business development. His clients range from small, single office firms to Global 10 firms. He founded Leadership for Lawyers in 2008, and has since served hundreds of law firms, professional associations and global legal networks.
He is a frequent speaker on topics of leadership, innovation and design thinking to law firms, professional associations and law firm networks. He has spoken at regional, national and international meetings of organizations such as the American Bar Association (ABA), Legal Marketing Association (LMA), Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), Professional Development Consortium (PDC), International Trademark Association (INTA), Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), Ark Group, ALT Legal, Legal Week, as well as global law firm networks such as Lex Mundi, Terralex, Meritas and many others.
Mark developed the first Leadership Competency Model for law firms that was presented to the PDC Annual Conference in 2019. The model outlines leadership competency behaviors for both lawyers and professional staff, by level and role. The Leadership Competency Model is the basis for planning leadership development programs in law firms.
Mark has co-authored three research studies on how the global pandemic has impacted professional development efforts and results in law firms and the future of professional development in the legal profession. He also co-facilitates a monthly virtual global roundtable of Chief Learning Officers, with participants from Amlaw 200 and Global 50 firms. In 2017, Mark launched the Design Thinking Legal initiative, which is an effort to educate and support leaders in legal organizations to use the Design Thinking process and modern change leadership models to drive innovation and change in law firms and legal departments. He has trained thousands of lawyers and business professionals in change management and design thinking practices, including legal departments for Fortune 100 companies, global legal networks and many law firms.
He is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and is an inductee in the Legal Marketing Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement.
Mark has more than 25 years experience as a chief marketing officer for professional services firms. He has served as Chief Marketing Officer for Holland & Hart, a 450-attorney law firm based in Denver, Director of Marketing for the New York based law firm of Hodgson Russ, and Director of Marketing for Kideney Architects in Buffalo, NY. He is a professional member of the International Leadership Association, the National Speakers Association, the Legal Marketing Association and the College of Law Practice Management. He formerly Chaired the Lawyer Leadership Group of the American Bar Association, Law Practice Management Division. Mark is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver Sturm School of Law, where he teaches Strategic Marketing and Business Development. He is certified and trained to administer several assessments, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DiSC, FIRO-B, Smart Collaboration Accelerator (SCA), the Change Style Indicator (CSI), Influence Style Indicator (ISI) and the 360 Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). Mark is a former adjunct faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). Mark has received numerous marketing awards and accolades. The Marketing Partner Forum named him Marketing Director of the Year. He also received the IQ Award for innovation by the Boulder County Business Report. American Lawyer Media’s Marketing the Law Firm Journal named Holland & Hart among the top 12 law firms in the United States for marketing excellence. The Legal Marketing Association bestowed five Your Honor Awards to Holland & Hart under Mark’s direction, in the areas of community involvement, branding, multi-media advertising, market research, and events. PR News also awarded the firm the prestigious PR Legal News Award. Holland & Hart’s web site was named the top law firm web site in the United States, by internetmarketingattorney.com. Mark received his B.S. and M.B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Buffalo. He is a graduate of two community leadership programs, Leadership Denver and Leadership Buffalo. He is a former board member of the International Legal Marketing Association and past president of the Rocky Mountain Legal Marketing Association. He is a past chair of the Marketing Committee of Terralex, an international association of law firms. He served as a faculty member of the Marketing Directors Institute and is a frequent speaker at the Marketing Partner Forum and the Legal Marketing Association conferences. Mark is the former chair of the national LMA Your Honor Award Program and judge in the Marketing Partner Forum Elite Awards for Marketing Excellence and the Association of Accounting Marketing Awards Program. He is a frequent contributor to law practice management publications. An Eagle Scout, Mark volunteers with the International Committee of the Boy Scouts of America and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). He is currently coordinating the marketing and communications functions for the 2023 World Scout Jamboree in South Korea. Mark is the former chair of the Leadership Denver Alumni Association, and a past board member of the Denver Metro Chamber Foundation. The Denver Business Journal named Mark as one of Denver’s 40 under Forty leaders. Married to Denise, he has three children. They live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Evergreen, Colorado.