Laura McKnight

Laura McKnight serves as the Managing Director of Practice Development, helping extend the firm’s services into specialized industries and other trusted networks where clients have distinctive needs, such as business ownership, college and professional sports, aviation, law enforcement, dentistry, and entrepreneurship.

Laura began her career practicing tax, corporate and estate planning law. Thereafter, Laura spent six years leading business development and market expansion efforts as the president and CEO of a large community foundation that manages more than $7 billion in assets. In 2012, Laura began working for a private equity firm and assumed the CEO role for a portfolio company that administered nearly $8 billion in donor-advised fund assets on its SaaS platform before later facilitating the company’s sale to another private equity-owned company.

Laura's two books, published in 2012 and 2017, explore trends in philanthropy, especially multi-generational family engagement and workplace culture.

Laura earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Trinity University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her Juris Doctor degree, with honors, from the University of Kansas School of Law, where she served as managing editor of the Kansas Law Review.

Laura lives in Leawood, Kansas, with her husband, daughters and two dogs. She has served on several boards of directors over the course of her career.