Vertex Advisors leverages our experiences and perspectives from leading professional service firms (and businesses) to empower mid-sized firms and enhance larger organizations via targeted projects. Since launching in 2018, we are proud to have become a trusted advisor to both large and small organizations helping them envision, shape, and transform their operations and future.
Robert Kamins has over 20 years of operational and financial experience working in/with leading law firms. He is a leading strategic thinker and advisor on “the business of law practice” having served as the COO of the ninth largest (by headcount) Am Law 100 firm and the Managing Director of Practice Management for another Am Law 100 A-List firm. In these roles Robert led transformative collaborative projects across finance, operations, information technology, knowledge & practice management, talent & business development, and real estate.
Robert is known for his forward-thinking vision and team-first leadership style to empower firms to reach their objectives while tackling their greatest challenges. He continually bridges productive relationships and is inspired to modernize law firms to the standards of the world’s leading organizations and not merely other law firms.
Robert participates in many legal industry professional groups and has been a speaker on subjects including: strategic business planning, pricing and alternative fee arrangements, law firm economics and compensation models, and lateral due diligence and mergers. Previously, he was an investment banker on Wall Street for a market leading firm, a corporate operations manager, a leader in two legal process outsourcing businesses, and a management consultant.
Robert earned a BA in Social Science from the University of Michigan and JD and MBA degrees from the School of Law and Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. Robert lives in Pasadena with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time he dabbles in rugged gardening, studying mid-century art & architecture, outdoor pursuits and swimming.
Kathy Hancock has over 30 years’ experience in operations and issues management; leadership coaching; growth and combination strategies; strategic planning; and marketing & business development. She brings empathy and incisive thinking to law firms and businesses as a direct advisor and problem solver.
She most recently was the COO at one of the country's 250 largest law firms serving 19 years through recessions, new market expansions, and acquisitions. Kathy participated in the management committee and worked with the managing partner and firm chair on strategic growth and planning. Among initiatives led, Kathy drove the development and implementation of a highly successful innovative new partner business development training program. She also was a billable professional helping clients with issues management, communications and government affairs.
Previously, Kathy was a partner in a leading Southwest public affairs firm working with health care, mining, energy, real estate development, manufacturing, banking, and transportation clients. Earlier she managed investor relations, public affairs and marketing for a Fortune 500 forest products company, reporting to the CEO.
Kathy is a passionate supporter of vulnerable populations and veterans. She is a founding member of national non-profit, Veterans Community Connections, and a board member of First Place, a non-profit fostering independence and improved life quality for adults with autism, Asperger’s, and Down Syndrome. Due to her business, civic, and charitable activities, Arizona Business Magazine named her one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Arizona Business in 2013.
Kathy graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia with honors and a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in journalism. She is married to an architect and retired Naval officer and they enjoy hiking with their two Brittanys, boating, and enjoying fantastic Arizona sunsets.
Frank Gillman has more than 30 years of executive technology experience in the legal field, including 25 in the Chief Information Officer/Chief Technology Officer (CIO/CTO) role for three notable firms in the Am Law 200 including one of the ten largest in the United States.
He has also worked as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) alongside former federal cyber attorneys (U.S. Attorneys, DOJ & FBI) to assist companies in every business sector in preventing or responding to data security incidents, from simple data theft to complex and catastrophic data compromises.
Frank has led and implemented first to market initiatives regarding several legal technology solutions during his various tenures in areas such as infrastructure, telecommunications, mobility and data security. His experience includes multiple significant financial system conversions. He is a frequent national presenter and writer on emerging technology trends for the legal industry and has served on numerous advisory boards for major market companies.
Frank earned his BA in English Language and Literature/Letter from Boston University.
Joy Holley finds purpose in nurturing transformation and helping organizations solve complex business problems. She has more than 25 years of experience as a business leader, operations professional, and practicing attorney Joy created and directed a highly-engaged, cross-functional department of lawyers and technologists offering flexible staffing and innovative technology solutions at a leading Am Law 100 law firm for 15 years. There, she helped practice groups increase revenue by expanding their service and support offerings using alternative fee structures. Joy also acted as a senior liaison with corporate executives in large-scale legal engagements and represented clients in complex disputes before courts around the country.
Joy further possesses an in-house legal department perspective from her experience building and directing a legal operations function within a premier Fortune 300 financial services company. She has deep assessment insights into legal operations maturity levels and aligning legal department goals with enterprise strategy. Joy is recognized as a legal technology thought leader, actively participates in several prominent industry associations, and maintains a broad contact network across the legal ecosystem.
Joy is passionate about professional mentoring and thrives in connecting legal professionals’ unique capabilities with organizational strategy. She has altruistically leveraged her expertise for technology and program initiatives – beyond law firms and legal departments – by empowering low-income legal consumers with access to justice support programs. Joy graduated magna cum laude with a J.D. from St. Louis University School of Law and received her B.S. in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri—St. Louis. In her spare time away from the legal marketplace, she enjoys travel, Cardinals baseball and spending time with family.
Michael Prohias has 25 years of broad legal and technology expertise creating client value via financial analysis, information systems, and business intelligence. He champions data-driven decision making and elegant information design.
Michael was the Chief Information and Practice Officer at an Am Law 100 firm with 1,200 attorneys and 42 offices. He led improvements to cybersecurity, email infrastructure, and remote computing. He also introduced efficiency to workflows, attorney recruiting, and attorney performance.
Previously Michael served as a Director of Knowledge Management, Analytics and Pricing leading a team that created a full-service operational intelligence platform to manage attorney compensation, lateral acquisitions, performance measurement, and pricing.
At a prior Am Law A-List firm, Michael was a Practice Manager leading strategic financial analysis, rate negotiations, and Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs). This followed historical technical and project management roles in that firm’s IT Department.
Michael earned an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at the University of California, Los Angeles and a BS in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Beth Cavagnolo, JD, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP has over 17 years’ experience designing and implementing inventive, strategic, data-driven talent development programs to redefine human resources and enrich company culture.
Throughout her career Beth has led full-scale candidate selection and recruiting programs, enacted professional development policies and initiatives, and modernized human resources departments and processes. She has extensive experience with organizational development and design, strategic planning and execution, and data-based change interventions.
Beth graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in Organizational Psychology, specializing in Change Leadership. She also earned her J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, and a B.A magna cum laude in Political Science from Georgia State University.
Crystal is an experienced billing management and financial operations professional who held leadership roles of increased responsibility in an Am Law 200 firm over the past decade. She is known for her organized, detail-oriented, personable and enthusiastic professional demeanor across years of comprehensive excellent support service in fast-paced and deadline-driven premier law firms.
Crystal is proactive, self-motivated and driven to problem-solve to improve accuracy and efficiency. She is adept at developing and managing team operations and improving processes and empowering positive change. Thus, Crystal’s experience is of tremendous value to Vertex Advisors’ clients to bolster, shape, and transform their billing and financial functions while increasing interconnectedness.
Her particular expertise areas include: organizing cross-office firm billing teams, establishing workflow assignments, training and mentoring financial staff, partnering across finance segments (Accounts Payable, Client Trust, Cash Receipts), key client account management, e-billing process refinement, and optimization of new financial systems.
Crystal earned a BS in Accounting and an MS in Administration of Justice and Security from the University of Phoenix. When not detangling collections cycle challenges, Crystal enjoys hanging out with her five young-adult children plus seven grand-dogs, road trip adventures, reading, and visiting extended family.
Brodie Brickey has over 20 years of information technology experience in the legal and financial sectors, architecting complex solutions bridging diverse technologies. Brodie leads Vertex’s Financial System Solutions team, overseeing various aspects of accounting system implementation, including integration with RidgeHawk and other third-party products.
Prior to joining Vertex, Brodie was the Solutions Architect at an Am Law 100 firm with 1,300 attorneys and 50 offices where he was project manager for an Aderant financial system implementation and migrating a legacy system. He also created a suite of in-house automations to improve collections speed.
Previously, Brodie was the Senior Database Engineer for another Am Law 200 firm and was responsible for core IT systems including iManage, Aderant Expert, Compulaw, and ViDesktop. In addition to maintaining these systems, he provided sophisticated expense reporting and administered major financial system upgrades.
Brodie is Project Management Professional (PMP) certified and earned a BS in Computer Information Technology from Mt. Sierra College. He is a frequent lecturer with SQLSaturday, which hosts training events internationally for Microsoft Data professionals.
Lili Barba is a Professional Consultant with Vertex Advisors, formerly with a leading turnaround management consulting firm. She exemplifies robust generalist management experience across a multitude of systems and programs to improve client cross-functional team productivity, processes, training, and risk management. Lili is also an experienced project manager who has implemented complex systems including CRM, KPI analytics, and related utility integrations. Central to her process improvement success has been building productive relationships with various organizational stakeholders simultaneously to achieve project ‘buy-in” for overall benefit. Lili similarly looks forward to playing a vital role in financial decision-making, superior analytics, and process improvement for Vertex clients.
Lili attended the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and an MBA from Geneva Business School with a focus on International Relations.
Jay Nash has over 25 years of information technology experience in the legal sector, designing and maintaining network connectivity and functionality including data, voice, video, mobility, and cybersecurity. Jay provides exceptional problem-solving, analytical, technical, and mentoring skills to help clients achieve their information technology goals.
Prior to joining Vertex, Jay was the Senior Network Engineer at an Am Law 200 firm and was responsible for the design, deployment, and ongoing improvement of the firm's network infrastructure and support. Among his many accomplishments there was the successful migration to Office 365 and implementation of Nutanix, Citrix, Cisco VoIP, Meraki, Azure and Duo technologies.
Previously, Jay held a similar role for another Am Law 200 firm and was responsible for the stability, integrity, and operating efficiency of all information systems. Beyond maintaining these systems, he provided technology and system integration services to medium and small businesses in Southern California.
Jay earned a BA in Economics from University of California, Irvine. He has taught classes to clients and consultants on various Microsoft products. Outside of work he serves the community as Advancement Chair for the Canyons District of the Orange County Council of BSA.
Jen Ocampo is a leading finance and accounting professional with 20+ years of diverse experience in professional services firms. She has demonstrated expertise in financial reporting and analysis, budgeting and strategic planning, financial operations, business process re-engineering, system implementations, and talent management.
Most recently, Jen was the Managing Director of Finance for an Am Law 200 firm where she led process improvement, established standard operating procedures & policies, and developed Finance department talent. In those efforts she was responsible for selecting, implementing, and managing new payroll, HRIS, expense management, budget, forecasting, analytics, and financial reporting systems.
Previously, Jen worked for a Big 4 Accounting firm and a boutique finance consulting firm. In those roles she served domestic and international clients across professional services, financial institutions, government entities, and non-profit organizations. She was also a Regional Vice President of Finance for a publicly traded financial and business communications company. In that role, Jen oversaw financial reporting and operations for business units across the United States, Asia, and Europe.
Jen earned her B.A. in Business Economics with an emphasis in Accounting from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Charles Paoletti has more than 20 years of information technology experience in both the legal and software industries as a web/software developer, systems integrator, and project manager. Charles delivers web and application development services for RidgeHawk, Vertex Advisors’ proprietary Operational Intelligence system, including its integration with enterprise platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint and Power BI.
Prior to joining Vertex, Charles was the lead web developer at an Am Law 200 firm where he worked to create integration between core IT data warehouses and the firm intranet. His work included the enhancement of a customer management workflow as well as Business Intelligence solutions for the firm.
Previously, he worked for a software company as both a developer and software engineer on a variety of projects involving B2B system integration.
Charles earned a BA from The Ohio State University, a Certificate in Quantitative Fundamentals of Computational Finance from the University of Washington, and is pursuing a Master's degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology focusing on Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Yasmin Anwar is the General Counsel for Vertex Advisors. Known for her practical business-focused approach to legal issues, she provides guidance on general corporate, transactional, intellectual property, and licensing matters. Yasmin truly understands client business objectives and how to accomplish them while overcoming legal obstacles. She achieves this by offering creative solutions, critical thinking, and analytical business insights beyond mere lawyering. Central to Yasmin’s approach is balancing her clients’ business needs with the legal risk faced.
Yasmin advises through her independent law firm providing in-house counsel services to leading and emerging companies. Beyond Vertex Advisors, Yasmin serves as intellectual property and primary trademark counsel to the U.S. subsidiaries of one of the world’s largest chemical companies overseeing its global trademark portfolio and IP agreements. Previously she had in-house counsel roles at several large multinational conglomerates and was the lead corporate counsel at a publicly-traded Silicon Valley software company during the dot.com boom. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Yasmin began her professional services career at a “Big Five” accounting firm and worked as a management consultant to the healthcare industry.
Yasmin dedicates her time away from work to her family and also serves on educational boards/committees supporting diversity, inclusion, and youth sports. She enjoys participating in athletics of all sorts and is most often found outdoors exploring nature’s beauty.
Dani Berry, J.D., is a leading wellness expert who provides wellbeing and legal consulting services to individuals and mindfully-led organizations. Dani’s mission is to help individuals thrive under stress and for organizations to find solutions maximizing individual engagement and wellbeing.
Before Vertex Advisors, Dani was a partner at the 7th largest law firm in the United States practicing employment and corporate law while handling administrative partner duties for its vibrant Atlanta Office. Previously, she practiced at a small boutique firm and currently continues her legal practice as the Managing Attorney of Stanton Law, LLC counseling clients with practical employment law solutions.
Dani is a registered mediator, an active member of the Attorney Wellness Committee of the State Bar of Georgia and a certified yoga teacher. Her unique combination of coaching, employment law expertise, and passion for wellness uniquely position her to help clients approach talent development and personnel challenges. Dani received a JD and BBA degrees from the University of Georgia.
Amy Mallow is an experienced talent management professional with deep knowledge of the legal industry who brings more than 30 years of experience in legal recruiting, legal career coaching and consulting, law student professional development, and the practice of law.
Amy has served as a Senior Attorney Recruiting and Career Development Manager for an Am Law 30 firm where she oversaw recruiting for lateral partners, senior counsel, associates, and summer associates and supported attorney career development for the firm’s West Coast offices.
Her legal recruiting experience includes serving as Executive and Managing Director at two premier national search firms and in house for an Am Law 100 firm. In academia, she has served as the Assistant Dean of Career Services at UCLA School of Law and Assistant Director in the Office of Career Services at Georgetown University Law Center. She has also worked at a national consulting firm where she provided career coaching and consulting services for attorneys.
Amy is a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney, where she investigated and prosecuted civil violations of the federal securities laws for the Division of Enforcement. She also practiced with a premier Am Law 10 firm focused on commercial litigation, antitrust, and labor & employment.
Amy earned her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and B.A. magna cum laude in Psychology from Franklin and Marshall College. She has written several articles on legal talent management, is a co-author of several chapters in The Lawyer’s Career Management Handbook: Your Bridge to a Satisfying Career (West Publishing, 2010), and has spoken frequently at local and national organizations. She is a Certified Master Coach from the Behavioral Coaching Institute. She is qualified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the DISC assessment.
Amy is a dedicated Philadelphia Eagles fan, who also enjoys museums, musicals, and an unwavering routine of morning exercise.