Anna B. Hedgepeth

Anna Hedgepeth is passionate about the business side of law and combines that passion with her legal education, development, and marketing experience to maintain a client-focused, teamwork strategy for the firm. Anna’s career has been driven by understanding the dynamic between business development and strategic growth. The cornerstones of her career have been taking ideas and turning them into actions that result in both growth and positive cultural shifts.

Anna currently serves as the Director of Strategy & Business Development for Cranfill Sumner LLP where she advises the firm’s Management Committee on the firm’s strategic position while also leading the strategic planning committee and business development and marketing team. Over the years, she has held multiple positions at Cranfill Sumner LLP. Most recently she served as the Director of Business Development and was responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s core values, business development coaching programs, and various client value-add programs, including client training programs.

Anna is actively involved in both her professional and local communities. She has served as the Chair of the Legal Marketing Association’s Raleigh City Group and on the advisory board. She currently serves on the Helton Scholar Endowment Fund Committee for the WakeMed Foundation.  She is a member of The Circle, a leadership training and development program for top-tier legal marketing professionals from firms nationwide. The goal of the program is to help enhance leadership and collaborative skills among participants and offer a support network for personal and professional growth. She is a former Board Member of the Triangle Literacy Council where she was involved in legislative efforts to secure state funding for the expansion of the Juvenile Literacy Program. In addition, she has served on the advisory board for a local business with multiple locations across the state and on the advisory council for the legal clinics at Campbell Law School.

In 2022 she received the Cranfill Sumner LLP Core Value award, which recognizes employees who exhibit the firm’s core values of teamwork, client service, and reputation. In 2014, she was recognized with a Your Honor Award by the Legal Marketing Association Southeast Chapter (comprised of 10 states across the Southeastern United States) as the Member of the Year. In 2016 she received her second Your Honor Award in Social/Interactive Media for an internal business development initiative at Cranfill Sumner LLP that she helped create and lead. In law school, Anna served as Student Bar Association President and received the David Roy Teddy Innovative Leadership and Service Award and the Student Bar Association’s Service Award for her dedication to making the Campbell Law Community a better place. She also served as a Webster’s Scholar for Webster’s Real Estate Law in North Carolina.

In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her husband and their three children.

Speaking Engagements

In addition to regularly hosting Cranfill Conversations, a monthly deep-dive into legal topics and trends with legal experts within the firm, Anna regularly speaks on all things strategy and business development related. Her prior speaking engagements include:

2022 – Anna was a guest on Passle’s CMO Series podcast. She spoke on her personal story about leading change management within a legal business development and marketing team.

2022 – Raleigh-Durham Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators – Anna presented “Equipping Your Team for Change,” where she spoke on best practices for implementing change at the organizational level and how to help a team prepare to handle changes in the workplace such as family leaves, onboarding a new team member, or learning to work remotely as a team.

2022 – Virtual Seminar hosted by the Legal Marketing Association of the Southeast Region – Anna presented on “Equipping Your Team for Change” and provided best practices for preparing marketing teams for adapting to changes in their offices without losing sight of their big-picture goals and focus.

2022 – Emcee and Host, Cranfill Sumner Legal Summit

2021 – Webinar presented by LexisNexis® InterAction®, Panelist for Best Practices and Tips for BD and Marketing for law firms Panelist

2020 – Emcee and Host, Cranfill Sumner Fall Seminar

2019 – Alternative JD Careers Panelist, Campbell Law School, Raleigh, NC

2019 – Webinar presented by the Legal Marketing Association, spoke on “BD Coaching for the Small Marketing Department: Tips, Tricks and Truths”

2019 – Emcee and Host, Cranfill Sumner Fall Seminar

2018 – Panelist at Accelerate Conference and spoke on “Your Systems: End User Adoption” which explored how law firms use artificial intelligence to train attorneys and provided tips for successful end-user adoption, Cary, NC

2018 – Interaction Conference panelist for a discussion on global sales and support personnel for the InterAction client management platform. Panelists discussed Why InterAction? How does InterAction fit into your workflows? Where does a CRM system make the most impact? Where could AI most impact your daily routine? Tips and Tricks to help Simplifying the Business Development Process, Raleigh, NC

2014 – Association of Legal Administrators Chapter panelist on recent business development and marketing trends

2014 – Campbell Magazine Features Anna Hedgepeth (page 19)

2014 – Conference Emcee of the first Alt. J.D. Conference of the N.C. Bar Association and the Center for Practice Management. The conference examines career paths and options for legal professionals who have an interest in pursuing jobs beyond practicing law.

2014 – Campbell Law School Alumni Panel –  The panel addressed a group of admitted students and examined their experiences as students of the school, the culture of the school, and the benefits of attending the school.