Mary Ann Walker
Founder and Board of Directors, Walker Advertising, Los Defensores, 1-800-THE-LAW2
Managing Partner, WH Legal LLP

Mary Ann Walker is a results-driven CEO with a 30-year track record of successfully building, operating and scaling businesses. Ms. Walker founded and served as CEO and on the Board of Directors of Walker Advertising LLC, a leading direct response advertising agency serving the U.S. Latino market and legal industry. Walker Advertising LLC invests more than $23 million in national media annually, reaching consumers through its powerful brands, Los Defensores LLC and The Defenders at 1-800-THELAW2. They are dominant brands in the industry. Being bi-lingual and bi-cultural provides Ms. Walker with the foundation for a deep understanding of the market.

A pioneer and entrepreneur in the legal advertising industry, Ms. Walker led the way in developing industry standards and a risk management framework. In the 1990s, Ms. Walker collaborated with the California State Bar to write the rules regulating joint legal advertisers. Currently, Los Defensores LLC, a household name, is a network of over 150 law firms throughout the United States, handling primarily civil cases. In 1987, Los Defensores LLC teamed up with Jaime Jarrin, the Spanish voice for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who serves as the spokesperson for Los Defensores LLC.

Ms. Walker started her career as a court interpreter in Los Angeles during the early 1980s, where she saw Latinos denied fair and equal justice simply because they couldn’t speak English. To address this challenge, Ms. Walker approached the Spanish-speaking attorneys she met in court and asked them if they wanted to jointly advertise their services to the Latino community. Five of them said yes, and in 1984, Los Defensores LLC was born. The success of Los Defensores LLC prompted a second legal co-op network named The Defendors 1-800-THE-LAW2, which serves primarily English-speaking consumers.