Laura Brown
Credit: Zaria Young

Laura Brown, founder of Brown Owl Legal Support, which provides paralegal services, finished second in the “Indies” category of the Legal LinkedInfluencers Q3 2026 rankings. That list covers regulated firms outside the 250 largest.

The rankings are compiled by TBD Marketing, a consultancy which helps lawyers with LinkedIn and business development. For the quarter from 1 July to 30 September, it researched 28,783 lawyers and business professionals. Each person gets one point for each like and repost and four points for each comment on their original posts. People who submit their own analytics are also scored on link clicks, saves and sends.

Ms Brown scored 35,147 points from 348 posts. Only Nic Elliott of Actons Solicitors scored more on her list, with 43,735.

Her total would have put her first on the report’s main list, which covers anyone at the 250 largest UK-headquartered firms. The leader there, Jason Feng of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, scored 32,334. Across the whole report, she ranks an impressive third, behind Mr Elliott and Mark Stephens CBE of Howard Kennedy. Mr Stephens has a place in the report’s Hall of Fame and had the highest score by a considerable margin, at 180,205.

Her best-performing post confessed that her first mobile phone was a Nokia 3310. It drew 1,148 comments, more than any of the 10 posts TBD picked as the best of the quarter. TBD credits her with weekly hashtag series, among them #SundayFunday, #SaturdaySillies and #WaybackWednesday, alongside posts on Scotland’s lower drink-drive limit. Her 10 best posts alone scored 9,020.

Her volume runs against the report’s own advice. TBD’s founder, Si Marshall, sums up the quarter’s lesson as “post less, say more”, noting that people posted 10 per cent more than in Q2 but earned five per cent less engagement.

Ms Brown told SLN: “The score was a surprise, but it reflects something real – LinkedIn is where the legal sector actually talks to itself now. People want practical, human content from the person doing the work, not polished firm marketing. That’s exactly why Brown Owl exists.”

Several other Scottish names also appear in the report.

On the main list of 200:

• Laura Marie Meldrum of Harper Macleod ranks 34th
• Marianne McJannett of Aberdein Considine is 58th
• Julie McConnell of Brodies places 164th
• Ryan McCuaig of Anderson Strathern is 197th
• Garry Sturrock, also of Brodies, comes in at 200th

In the Indies top 100, Fraser Scott of Murray Beith Murray enters at 63rd and Brian Inkster of Inksters Solicitors is 87th. Among in-house lawyers, Grant Walker of Dana Petroleum is 26th in the top 50 general counsel.