Kyle Scheele
Motivational Author, Speaker, and Artist
Patron Saint of Crazy Ideas

To lead in a competitive legal market, firms must do more than keep up; they must rethink their approach to business. Kyle Scheele will challenge attendees to reimagine what’s possible by fostering a culture where better ideas are not just encouraged, they are expected. This is your call to step up, stand out, and lead the next chapter.

More about Kyle:
Whether he’s having a Viking funeral for the regrets of 21,000 people, hosting the world’s first fake marathon, or gaining a million TikTok followers in just 25 hours, Kyle is always on the lookout for crazy ideas that produce wildly outsized outcomes. Over the last decade, his projects have been featured in outlets like Fast Company, WIRED, The Washington Post, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, UpWorthy, Goalcast, and more. His videos have been viewed over 250 million times, and he has spoken to hundreds of thousands of audience members across the United States. More than anything, Kyle hopes that his story can inspire others to chase their own crazy ideas and become the people they were meant to be. Get sneak peek here.

Mo Bunnell
CEO & Founder, BIG

Mo Bunnell helps complex organizations grow by scaling business development skills across their organizations and creating a growth-oriented culture. He’s the author of Give to Grow, The Snowball System, the host of the podcast Real Relationships Real Revenue, and the founder of Bunnell Idea Group (BIG), who has trained tens of thousands of professionals.

BIG’s clients have used Mo and his team’s GrowBIG^® training to give their experts a system for growth that creates deep relationships, gives a comprehensive business development framework and dare we say, is fun to use.

Mo started out his career as an expert himself, passing all the actuarial exams to earn their highest designation: Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Today, Mo enjoys working with hundreds of clients, including some of the largest, most prestigious service-based organizations.

Mo and his wife of over 30 years, Becky, enjoy spending time with their friends and two adult daughters. Outside of work, he enjoys working out, backpacking, and playing ultimate frisbee at the national and world levels. Becky and Mo live in Atlanta, Georgia, with their four horses, two cats, a dog, a bird, and a miniature donkey, Louie Hamilton.

Iris Jones is Akerman’s Chief Marketing and Client Development Officer, overseeing the firm’s client development team to advance the overall strategic plan of the firm by continuing to grow the firm’s client base while deepening existing client relationships. She works closely with firm leadership to build the firm’s brand equity and position the firm as an influential thought leader and the law firm of choice for diverse clients in the firm’s key practice areas. Skilled in designing solutions based on analytical needs assessment, Iris directs complex projects from concept to fully operational status. She has extensive experience in coaching, training, and providing business development support to all levels of stakeholders.

Before joining Akerman, Iris served as a chief business development and marketing officer for AM LAW 100 firms in Washington, D.C. and New York. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and previously practiced law in Texas in both the public and private sectors. She gained extensive litigation and appellate experience having served as an assistant attorney general of Texas and director of the City of Austin’s Law Department.

Amanda has significant experience in the legal sector, having worked both as qualified lawyer and in a number of senior business services roles, including knowledge, client relationship management, business development and marketing. In her most recent role as the Market Development Director at Norton Rose Fulbright, she was responsible for driving the marketing strategy across the EMEA region as part of a wider global approach. She led a team delivering digital marketing, content and campaigns, client events and hospitality, brand and creative services and alumni management. Working in partnership with the lawyers, she ensured high quality service delivery with a focus on achieving and measuring commercial success.

Justin Portaz is Principal at LLP Strategies, where he brings more than two decades of law firm experience to collaborate with law and professional services firms, their leaders, and teams to drive sustainable growth through authenticity, empowerment, and a relentless focus on the voice of the client. Justin partners with firms to navigate complexity and uncertainty, strengthen client trust and loyalty, and unlock growth opportunities. He is the former Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Jenner & Block LLP, a law firm with international reach and approximately 500 lawyers across seven offices in the United States and Europe. In this role, Justin oversaw all aspects of the firm’s business development, communications, branding, competitive intelligence and marketing operations. A trusted strategist and collaborative partner to firm lawyers and professionals, he worked closely with firm leaders to develop and execute important initiatives that identified and expanded business development opportunities, enhanced client satisfaction, and improved the firm’s market position and brand. A past president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, Justin provides the firm with his deep experience and leadership in all aspects of legal marketing. He delivers invaluable support on client relationship management, helps guide practice group and industry team strategies, facilitates the firm’s client team program and leads lawyer training on business development, practice management and other key areas. In addition to his work in the legal marketing industry, Justin previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of America SCORES LA, a non-profit organization serving more than 400 public school children in Los Angeles through a safe after-school program that delivers the unique combination of soccer, poetry and service learning. A cum laude graduate from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business with a degree in International Business and Marketing, Justin spent his first two years of university study in Madrid, Spain.