Society 54 Board of Advisors
At Society 54, we know that it takes a village to be successful which is why we have assembled an amazing group of individuals to serve on our Board of Advisors. Each person has a unique background and brings their own set of skills and ideas to each meeting to help us build our company one fantastic step at a time.
Stephanie Hinrichs, Business Development Executive, Grant Thornton LLP
As Business Development Executive of Grant Thornton's Carolina’s Territory, Stephanie is responsible for all Grant Thornton services provided across two states – North Carolina and South Carolina. Stephanie helps organizations solve business challenges and drive growth in the Audit, Tax, and Advisory practices with an industry focus on manufacturing, transportation, and legal. Stephanie has over 15 years of experience and over a decade spent in professional services. On her journey to finding the professional services industry, she spent time at two Fortune Global 500 companies in the airline and transportation industries. She also spent time in economic development working for a non-profit fundraising, maintaining, and growing budgets. Most recently, she spent the last decade in the legal services industry. Connecting with clients and helping them find solutions to generate incredible outcomes is her passion.
JILL HUSE, Co-Founder, Society 54; Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer, Bass Berry + Sims
Jill Huse serves as Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer at Bass, Berry & Sims. In this role, she leads the firm’s client growth strategy and brand positioning, with a focus on generating new business, expanding client relationships, and identifying opportunities for collaboration across practices. She oversees the firm’s business development and marketing teams and works closely with firm leadership, practice groups, the client value team, and other administrative departments to advance the firm’s strategic objectives.
With more than 25 years of experience in the legal and professional services industries, Jill brings a combination of in-house leadership, consulting, coaching, and entrepreneurial experience to the firm. Her work has focused on developing growth strategies, strengthening client relationships, building high-performing teams, and creating systems that use data, market intelligence, and accountability to support measurable progress.
Before joining Bass, Berry & Sims, Jill co-founded Society 54, where she served as chief strategy officer and advised law firms nationwide on strategic growth, business development, leadership, coaching, training, and marketing. She also co-founded Society Tech and helped launch INform54, a software platform designed to help law firms manage business development initiatives and track their impact.
Earlier in her career, Jill served as director of marketing and business development at Moore & Van Allen. During her tenure, she restructured the firm’s marketing and business development function, contributed to strategic planning, developed analytics for tracking business development and marketing activity, led website and rebranding initiatives, and identified significant savings in public relations, advertising, marketing technology, and sponsorship spending. She also held in-house business development and marketing roles in the legal and accounting sectors.
Jill is an active leader in the legal marketing industry. She served as president of the Legal Marketing Association International Board in 2020 and was inducted into the association’s Hall of Fame in 2024. She is also a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and a founding member of Law 2.5, an invitation-only roundtable focused on innovation in the legal industry.
She earned a master’s degree in law firm management from The George Washington University. Her professional credentials include training and certifications related to leadership, communication styles, change management, Six Sigma, gamification, coaching, and sales.
Marc Gustafson, Partner, Bell Davis & Pitt
Marc has been litigating for almost 20 years and has represented individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies in employment matters, contract disputes, and a variety of business matters. He also has experience as an in-house attorney for a publicly traded company. He is active in the community, serving as an Elder of First Presbyterian Church and on the Board of the 24 Foundation and having recently served on the Board of the Arts and Science Council and as the Chair of the Public Art Commission. Marc and his wife, Jane, have two young boys, Knox and William.
Chris Lam, Member, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLP
Chris is the managing partner of Bradley’s Charlotte office. He is a skilled business litigator with particular experience in disputes involving contracts, trade secrets, earn outs, product liability, and defamation. He is active in professional and civic organizations, including serving as President of the Mecklenburg County Bar, the Board of Visitors at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), where he is a past chair of the Business Litigation committee. He has been recognized in numerous leading attorney directories, including The Best Lawyers in America®, Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, Legal Elite, and Benchmark Litigation. Chris is married with two young daughters. He grew up in Southern Pines, NC and loves to play golf.
Jon Mattson, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, Stinson
Jon leads business development and marketing initiatives for Stinson, including client generation, revenue growth, brand awareness and client service. He has more than 25 years of business development and marketing experience in helping professional service companies create, embrace and execute strategies to grow revenue. We appreciate Jon’s passion for leadership and coaching combined with his timekeeper experience - he has walked the walk. Jon has tremendous talent helping firms transition from "creating awareness" activities to "creating relationships" activities.