Birmingham is heating up. DMA #45 pushes $2 million monthly through legal advertising, growing 18.9% year-over-year. That growth rate outpaces most top-25 markets. And the competitive picture is clean: two firms at the top slugging it out, a third lurking, and everyone else far behind.
Morgan & Morgan leads at $436K monthly (21.5%). Wettermark Keith follows at $342K (16.8%). Together they control 38% of the market. Alexander Shunnarah, the Alabama billboard and broadcast giant, sits third at $180K (8.9%). After that, a steep drop. KRW Lawyers and Dimopoulos each invest $61K (3%).
Broadcast dominates at 69%. Cable captures 12%. CTV sits at 19%. The two-firm battle at the top plays out entirely on traditional channels. For now.
Morgan vs. Wettermark Keith
Wettermark Keith is an Alabama-born firm that built its brand through broadcast television in Birmingham and across the Southeast. Their $342K monthly spend makes them the strongest local challenger to Morgan’s national machine. The $94K gap between them is narrow enough that either firm could hold the top position in any given month.
Shunnarah operates differently. Their Alabama presence extends across billboards, broadcast, and digital. They’ve built a regional brand that spans multiple DMAs. At $180K monthly in Birmingham, they maintain visibility without matching the top two’s television spend.
The 18.9% growth rate means roughly $375K in new monthly spend entered the market over the past year. Where it lands matters. If Morgan and Wettermark Keith absorb most of it, the two-firm dynamic intensifies. If new entrants or smaller firms capture a share, the market diversifies.
Alabama’s PI Market
Alabama’s interstate system and high vehicle-miles-traveled rate sustain one of the Southeast’s most active PI markets. I-20, I-59, and I-65 all converge in Birmingham. The metro area sits at the intersection of routes connecting Atlanta, Nashville, and the Gulf Coast.
ATRA’s data shows $2.5 billion in annual legal advertising nationally. Alabama contributes disproportionately for its population size. The state’s tort environment, combined with high traffic volumes and an active plaintiff’s bar, creates sustained demand for legal advertising.
The result: Birmingham punches above its DMA weight. A #45 market spending $2M monthly at 19% growth rates that rival markets twice its size.
CTV at 19%
Birmingham’s 19% CTV allocation translates to roughly $380K monthly across the entire market. That’s less than what Morgan spends on broadcast alone.
Nielsen documented streaming reaching 47.5% of all TV viewing nationally. Birmingham’s demographics skew slightly older and more traditional than the national average, but streaming adoption grows here too. The audience is shifting. The advertisers aren’t.
A firm deploying $100K monthly in Birmingham CTV would command roughly 26% of the market’s streaming legal advertising. That’s category dominance on a single channel. For context, Morgan commands 21.5% of the entire market across all channels. The CTV math is more favorable because nobody’s claimed it.
Breaking the Duopoly
Competing with Morgan and Wettermark Keith on broadcast means outspending at least one of them. That’s $350K or more monthly just to match. Streaming offers a flanking route. Different channel. Different audience segment. Different measurement.
Shunnarah at $180K already has the budget to pivot meaningfully toward CTV. KRW and Dimopoulos at $61K each could redirect most of their spend to streaming and own a niche within the DMA.
Two firms at the top. 19% growth pouring gasoline on the fire. Broadcast at 69%. And streaming sitting there, uncontested. Birmingham’s two-firm war is fought entirely on old channels. The firm that opens a second front wins.
