Carl Whitaker

As President of Whitaker Communications, Carl Whitaker assists law firms and non-profits with public relations and marketing matters. With 25 years of law firm and consulting experience, Carl provides focused, practical advice on public relations, positioning, marketing and communications planning, and website development.

Carl provides strategic public relations support to national and regional law firms and their clients. He has special expertise in the area of litigation public relations and advises lawyers on case-specific public relations strategies. A skilled writer and story-teller, Carl helps clients distill and communicate their key messages. He has worked effectively with the legal and business press in the San Francisco Bay area for the past 20 years.

Another focus of Carl's practice is executive communications. He works closely with executives of both for-profit and non-profit companies on external and internal messaging, including assistance with blogs, speech-writing, and media interviews.

Carl has extensive experience developing strategic marketing initiatives for law firms at the firm, office, industry and practice group levels. He was Director of Marketing at Morrison & Foerster, a 1,000 lawyer international law firm, from 1992 to 2003. His deep understanding of the law firm environment and the legal marketplace, especially in California, provides clients with a competitive edge in the design and implementation of their marketing plans. Since 2003 Carl has advised a number of the leading small and mid-sized law firms in the San Francisco Bay Area on marketing and public relations matters.

Carl also advises non-profit organizations on communications issues, including media relations, the creation and editing of organizational newsletters, development of websites and print collateral, and overall communications strategy. He provided hands-on communications support to Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation from 2003-2011 and The Kidney TRUST from 2007-2014, where he was responsible for developing and implementing strategies to increase public awareness and visibility of organizational programs.

With an extensive background in both marketing and information resources, Carl provides clients with expert guidance in the development of effective websites. He leads an experienced web development team, which provides a full range of design, development, and editorial services. He has also created a number of innovative web-based communications programs designed to update internal and external audiences on key legal and management issues.

Carl is a member of the Board of Directors of Equal Rights Advocates – a non-profit civil rights law firm, fighting to expand the rights and opportunities of girls and women. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Toolworks – a San Francisco-based social enterprise providing economic and social opportunities for people with disabilities. Carl is a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco and served for many years on the Executive Committee of the Law Practice Management Section.

Carl received a Bachelor of Arts, with Distinction, from Sonoma State University and his Masters degree from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of California, Berkeley.