Redefining Visibility in Legal Marketing: How Helen Burness Is Helping Women in Law Own Their Expertise

For nearly 20 years, Helen Burness worked across global law firms, barristers' chambers and one of the UK's first alternative legal service providers, watching the legal sector from every angle. What she saw again and again was a visibility gap: brilliant founders and smaller legal businesses doing genuinely interesting work, but without access to the kind of strategic marketing support that larger firms took for granted.

That observation, paired with the arrival of LinkedIn and digital marketing as tools that let expertise earn visibility rather than buy it, led Helen to found Saltmarsh Marketing. The timing was also deeply personal: her daughter was born with complex needs, and building her own business was the only way to create the flexibility she needed as a SEND parent. As the work grew, she teamed up with fellow legal marketer Helen Foord to launch Helen Squared, bringing senior marketing strategy to legal businesses without the overhead of a traditional agency.

Today, Helen's focus has sharpened around a bigger mission: closing the authority gap women in law continue to face, and making sure that gap doesn't get baked into the next generation of platforms and technology. Her goal isn't to build the biggest agency, it's to keep Saltmarsh Marketing and Helen Squared thoughtful, sustainable and collaborative, while pushing for a legal profession where people are known for the value they bring, not the size of their marketing budget.

Are you a woman leader with an inspiring journey to tell? Founded by Women is on a mission to elevate and amplify the voices of women making an impact. If you’re breaking barriers, driving change, or paving the way for others, we’d love to feature your story. Get in touch with us today! 👉 hi@foundedbywomen.org

What inspired you to start?

I'd spent nearly 20 years in legal marketing, working in global law firms, barristers' chambers and one of the UK's first alternative legal service providers as it grew through to exit. Seeing the legal sector from so many different angles taught me several things. There were brilliant founders and smaller legal businesses doing interesting things, but they rarely had access to the sort of strategic marketing support that larger firms took for granted. I wanted to bring the thinking and experience you'd find in a big in-house marketing team, but in a way that worked for ambitious smaller businesses.

Second, LinkedIn and digital marketing were starting to change the rules. For the first time, visibility didn't have to be something you bought. You could earn it by sharing expertise, building trust and having something worthwhile to say. 

There was also a much more personal reason for taking the leap. My daughter was born with complex needs, and I needed the flexibility to be present for appointments, therapies and all the unpredictability that comes with being a SEND parent. Flexible working wasn't really a thing back then, so starting my own business wasn't just a career decision, it was the only way I could build a career that worked alongside my life as a SEND mama.

What problem are you solving?

At its heart, I'm trying to solve a visibility problem.

I've never believed visibility should belong to the organisations with the biggest marketing budgets. For a long time, legal marketing has favoured those who could afford the biggest sponsorships, the biggest PR campaigns or the slickest advertising. Meanwhile, some of the most innovative legal businesses, and some of the most interesting people in the sector, were going unnoticed.

That's what I built Saltmarsh Marketing to change.

As the business grew, so did the work. That eventually led me to set up Helen Squared with my friend Helen Foord, another experienced legal marketer, because we wanted to bring together senior marketing brains to help legal businesses think strategically and deliver, without becoming a traditional marketing agency. Clients still work directly with experienced people who understand the legal sector inside out, and who are all called Helen 😂. (Happily you do not have to be called Helen to work with us though.)

More recently, my focus has become more purposeful.

We already know women face an authority gap. As technology increasingly influences whose voices are amplified, there's a real risk those inequalities simply become embedded in new platforms. I'm passionate about helping women in law own their expertise, build their profile and become recognised. Visibility isn't just good for individuals; it's good for the entire legal profession. The more representative the voices we hear, the stronger the legal sector becomes.

What's next for you?

I'm much more interested in building something meaningful than building something big.

People often assume the goal is to grow into a marketing agency, but that's never been my ambition. I would be a hopeless agency owner! I enjoy working closely with clients on their projects, solving interesting problems and collaborating with brilliant senior specialists. I don't want layers of account management getting between me and the work - that's where I think I add the most value.

The next chapter is about growing both Saltmarsh Marketing and Helen Squared in a way that stays true to those values: thoughtful, sustainable and collaborative.

Alongside that, I want to keep pushing the conversation around visibility in the legal sector. My hope is that we continue to build a profession where brilliant people become known because of the value they bring, not the size of their marketing budget or the networks they happen to have access to. The legal sector is at its best when the voices shaping it reflect the diversity of the people within it - and if I can play even a small part in making that happen, I'll consider that time well spent.

Are you a woman leader with an inspiring story? Founded by Women elevates the voices of women making an impact.

Breaking barriers or paving the way for others? We'd love to feature you. Get in touch! 👉 hi@foundedbywomen.org