Are You an Outlaw? Meet Jennifer Bankston

Who has redefined what it means to think outside the law (aka OUTLAW) and is helping each of us in the process?

Meet Jennifer S. Bankston, President of Bankston Marketing Solutions. Jennifer Bankston has spent her career ACTIVATING IDEAS and elevating brands. With years of in-house experience at law firms, tech companies and start-ups, she has an innate ability for storytelling blended with a technology-driven, pragmatic approach for delivery. On the technology front, she has conceptualized, developed and implemented applications and products for a multitude of business solutions.

Jennifer has served as Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer for three law firms where she led the building of creative and sophisticated service offerings for its clients. Jennifer was a member of the leadership team that transformed an unknown law firm into a leading litigation boutique for global institutional investors and business clients in a highly competitive marketplace.

Today, Jennifer partners with law firms and companies to provide marketing and business development strategies paired with technology solutions at all levels of the organization - from the executive level to sales teams, partners and marketers. Jennifer's vast exposure to global business and culture propagates an exciting, thoughtful, and intelligent perspective to client work.

We asked Jennifer a few questions, and her answers can be found below. Enjoy getting to know this Outlaw!

Q: What is your motto?
A: “Don’t be a bystander in your own life” has always been my motto. I think it is especially relevant today. My mom said it to me one morning when I was 6 and trying to solve a puzzle. We all have a finite set of time to achieve the things we aspire to do. I view it as while we cannot look to others to make things happen, we can be self-motivated to collaborate and work together to achieve goals.

Q: Finish this sentence: “If I could have one superpower, it would be…”
A: The ability to hear conversations from afar, in part, to make me a better listener. Not to spy on people but to actively listen. Too often, people are simply waiting for a turn to talk. I see it as a significant problem in the workplace. It leads to a disconnect in understanding the message of the communicator and to a gap in being able to make connections within an organization. Active listening helps foster better relationships and leads to higher productivity.

Q: What got you into working in the legal industry?
A: After conferring my Master’s Degree focused on international business in the late 1990s, I spent several years working in management consulting. For one major project that involved the integration and implementation of new technologies, I had to work closely with the legal team to hone in on our unique services and related technology. It sparked my interest in legal marketing as I realized I could integrate my creative side to help create innovative and sophisticated service offerings for law firms.

Q: Who are your favorite authors or what are your favorite books?
A: On my nightstand today is Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents about hierarchies in our U.S. society today. It is extremely powerful. I tend to favor biographies and history books, primarily because we need to continue to work to create a living link to the lessons learned from the past. Before COVID-19, I spent a year reading books associated with musical genres and time periods from Roxy Music, to Punk Rock, and Grunge. This included Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge to Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

I have a penchant for classic Russian literature. I have read Anna Karenina, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Doctor Zhivago, and The Brothers Karamazov a multitude of times. In the past year, I have embraced more modern fictional works that I missed over the years from John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany to Lionel Shriver’s The Post-Birthday World. In The Post Birthday-World, I was particularly taken by the notion of alternating narratives, how different decisions do impact outcomes, but sometimes only nuanced.

A little known fact; I write poetry. My early inspirations were Audre Lorde and Maya Angelou. Audre’s poem “Stations,” ends with this stanza Some women wait for something | to change  and nothing does change| so they change | themselves. And it continues to inspire me today.

Q: Your favorite virtue?
A: Authenticity. While in-house managing midsize to large teams, I always appreciated people who were accessible and available, and I ascribed to those words. Whether clients, friends or family and whether in a work environment or otherwise, it is important to be able to reveal your true self. The pandemic has undoubtedly shown that as many of us are still in remote environments. We have been exposed in the workplace to each other’s home lives. At a societal level, my conversations with clients have brought more relatedness and empathy to our relationships. And, I do not think we are going back; we are moving forward on that path. I know in the course of my work day, whether it’s my two mini-dachshund rescue dogs or my daughter interrupting a meeting, I am revealing my true self.