What Business Leaders Need to Know About Leading Through Change: Insights from LP CEO Jessa Baker

As businesses continue to navigate growth, talent retention, and organizational change, strong leadership has never been more important. Since LP CEO Jessa Baker joined the firm in 2025, she has brought her decades of experience with strategic planning, operational efficiency, and talent strategy to leading LP into its next chapter. Jessa recently spoke with Scott Moran, president of business consulting firm Sutker Moran, for his Chicago Business Leaders podcast, to share insights on building resilient organizations, developing talent, fostering collaboration, and leading through change.

Key moments from their wide-ranging conversation include:

• On Jessa’s background: “When I graduated from business school, I had a devil on both shoulders — an M.B.A. on one and a J.D. on the other — and I was fortunate that when I reached out to alumni who had interesting careers, I began to access opportunities at the intersection of those two worlds.”
• On seeing common leadership struggles play out all over: “As a junior consultant, flying around the world to fix broken law firms in places from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to the Dominican Republic to Buffalo, New York, and Omaha, Nebraska, I quickly had to learn what leadership meant. Whatever the location and culture, those law firm leaders faced a lot of common challenges, including how to incentivize behavior, how to motivate teams, how to create efficiencies, how to communicate a strategic goal, and how to get others excited about your vision.”
• On her evolving approach to leadership: “Early on, I thought being a great leader meant having the right answer. As I have evolved in my career, I realized that having a conclusion and being able to communicate that conclusion is important, but what really makes a difference is knowing how to ask the right questions.”
• On the importance of listening: “Often I would have conversations with highly accomplished, esteemed partners who have made incredible impact in their vocation but had a really challenging issue that they weren’t comfortable sharing with their peers. I could come in and have a confidential conversation with them that really made them feel heard, and that was an epiphany for me in my work.”
• On what differentiates LP in the market: “LP is limitless because of its size, dexterity, and agility, and that’s a clear market differentiator. Four pillars guide my decision-making in my role as firm leader: We’re aligned, we’re focused, we’re accountable, and we’re not afraid to shake things up.”

Read more about Jessa’s background and leadership here, and listen to the full conversation.