About Us

Jim Hassett is the founder of LegalBizDev, which helps law firms increase profitability by improving project management, business development, and alternative fees. Before he started working with lawyers, Jim had 20 years of experience as a sales trainer and consultant to companies from American Express to Zurich Financial Services. He is the author of 10 books, including The Legal Business Development Quick Reference Guide, The Legal Project Management Quick Reference Guide, and The LegalBizDev Survey of Alternative Fees.  He has also published more than 80 articles in the New York Times Magazine, Of Counsel, Legal Management, Strategies: The Journal of Legal Marketing and other publications. Jim is a frequent speaker at law firms and at bar associations (including the New York City Bar, the New York State Bar, and the Massachusetts Bar), Harvard Law School, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Defense Research Institute, the Ark Group, and at Legal Marketing Association meetings in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Savannah, and Vancouver. He has conducted webinars through West LegalEdcenter, the National Law Journal, The International Lawyers Network, TAG Academy, and the Legal Marketing Association. Jim writes the blog Legal Business Development which was featured at the ABA TECHSHOW in 2009 and again in 2010 (in its list of “60 Sites: Latest and Greatest Internet Hits”) and by TechnoLawyer (in its list of “the most influential legal blogs” in BlawgWorld).  He has a Ph.D. from Harvard and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Boston University.

Steve Barrett has been active in large law firm strategy and marketing for more than 20 years, and has served as chief marketing officer at AmLaw 65 firms in Los Angeles, Seattle and Philadelphia. He has also  presented at partner retreats for more than a dozen major U.S. law firms, led business development training programs at eight law firms, authored chapters and articles for several legal publications, and made more than 25 speaking appearances at legal industry and association conferences.  Steve has also consulted to law firms in the areas of alternative fees, strategy and marketing, large account management programs, CRM system planning, major RFP responses, merger analysis and alignment and lateral partner recruiting.  He previously headed corporate communications for the Aetna Life & Casualty Companies, Hartford, Connecticut, and founded and headed LMS/Barrett Public Relations, in Providence, Rhode Island, a major New England Public relations firm.  Steve received a dual degree in political science and journalism at Syracuse University, with graduate communications study at Boston University.

Mike Egnatchik has been a practicing attorney for over 30 years, and was formerly Associate General Counsel, International at Xerox Corporation.  Prior to that, he worked in the New York and Paris offices of Shearman & Sterling, and earned his JD at Harvard Law.  Mike has several decades of experience in worldwide legal project management and has earned a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt.  At Xerox, he managed and trained a network of in-house and outside counsel in over 100 countries, and had significant responsibility in the areas of international joint ventures, acquisitions and divestitures, compliance, arbitration and dispute resolution.  Mike has been a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel since it was founded in 1982.  He is also a former US Air Force Officer, and a member of the State Bars of New York and California.

Kirk G. Forrest has over 30 years of experience in law departments and in law firms, including senior management positions at three multi-billion dollar companies: as General Counsel at Sam's Club and at Minerals Technologies, and as Associate General Counsel at The Williams Companies. He has also been a litigation partner at Carroll, Burdick McDonough, and served on the legal staff at MAPCO, International Paper, and Xerox. Kirk received his JD from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree from Cornell University. He has extensive experience in litigation, risk management, corporate governance and business counseling, and he led the litigation function at International Paper, MAPCO and Williams. Kirk has served as Vice President of the International Association of Defense Counsel, and on the Board of Directors of several bar associations, including the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. He was a founding member of the American Corporate Counsel Association, and has been writing and speaking about alternative fees for more than fifteen years.

Charles P. Gilliam has more than 25 years of experience in law departments, most recently as an intellectual property attorney at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.  Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel at ContentGuard Holdings, Inc., and as Assistant General Counsel at Xerox, where he was responsible for handling joint ventures, outsourcing, OEM arrangements, commercial contracts, restructurings, and traditional M&A activities. Charles earned his JD from the Michigan State University College of Law, where he was the Managing Editor of the Law Review.  He is also an inventor and holds over two dozen patents for computer related inventions.  In addition to his work coaching lawyers on project management through LegalBizDev, he also teaches courses in business law and corporate finance at the North Carolina State University College of Management.

Matt Hassett was convinced by his brother to begin research on legal pricing, alternative fees, and risk management.   He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Rutgers, and is the co-author of several textbooks and study guides in statistics and actuarial science, including Probability for Risk Management. Matt taught Mathematics at Arizona State University for over 30 years. As a consultant, he helped set prices for mortgage-backed securities (for American Southwest Financial) and for medicare supplement insurance (for Oxford Life Insurance).  He has also served as an expert witness on financial calculations, developed educational programs for actuaries, and worked at CVS Caremark as a director of experience analysis for health plans. As a Principal at LegalBizDev, Matt is currently developing new techniques to enable law firms to reduce risk and improve the pricing of alternative fee arrangements.

Tom Kane, J.D., LL.M, has served since 1986 as an in-house marketer for a number of law firms and as a consultant to the legal industry. His most recent in-house position was as chief marketing officer for a large mid-Atlantic firm with multiple offices. Tom has been involved in all aspects of legal marketing, from training, coaching, planning, project management and public relations to conducting image campaigns, market research, advertising, and client feedback programs. For more than two decades, Tom has written and spoken on law firm marketing topics, including client relations and satisfaction, coaching, alternative fees, and project management.  Since 2005 he has authored LegalMarketingBlog.com, which was included in Blawgworld's short list of the most influential legal blogs. His book, Letters For Lawyers: Essential Communications for Clients, Prospects, and Others, Second Edition, is published by the American Bar Association.

Fred Kinch, MBA, has over 35 years of experience in senior management, strategic planning and business development.  He understands what law firm clients want and need from his years as a director, president and CEO of several consumer, manufacturing and high tech firms.  During his career, Fred managed numerous projects, with budgets up to $10 million, utilizing the latest program management tools and techniques to achieve their objectives, on time and within budget.  Fred has also successfully coached hundreds of sales and marketing professionals to increase efficiency and results.  He has been certified as a LegalBizDev coach, and as a Miller-Heiman instructor.  Fred has a BS in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MS in Physics from Texas Christian University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has taught graduate courses in marketing and management at Northeastern University and Boston University, given talks and seminars to business organizations, and has been a frequent contributor to business journals and periodicals.