The three member panel of judges was assembled and chaired by Catherine MacDonagh, Esq., President of Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO). The other members of the panel were: Martha Fay “Marty” Africa, Managing Director of Major Lindsay & Africa consultants; and Gabe Miller Esq., General Counsel of The Law Offices of James Sokolove.

Catherine Alman MacDonagh, J.D.
President and Co-Founder, LSSO
92 State Street, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02109
617.726.1500
cam@legalsales.org

Catherine Alman MacDonagh is a former corporate counsel who now speaks professionally and provides consulting to law firms and legal departments. She produces innovative business development training and coaching programs as well as retreats for lawyers and the professionals who work with them. She is known for her pioneering initiatives, particularly in the areas of client development, women lawyers and law firm associations and process improvement. Catherine is an effective change agent with more than fifteen years of successful professional services strategic planning, marketing, sales and service excellence experience with both small and large law firms.

She is the President and Co-Founder of the Legal Sales and Service Organization. LSSO is exclusively focused on sales, service excellence, and process improvement. LSSO also presents the annual RainDance Conference™. Catherine directed and presents results of LSSO’s groundbreaking studies, Women Lawyers: Sales and Business Development Issues in 2004 as well as a women lawyers benchmarking survey for law firms. She is currently leading the development of the next women lawyers survey, which will launch in the summer of 2008.

Catherine is the co-author of the best-selling book, The Law Firm Associate’s Guide to Personal Marketing and Selling Skills, and accompanying training manual, which were published by the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section in 2007. She is a contributing author to Silvia Coulter’s The Women Lawyer’s Rainmaking Game: How to Build a Successful Law Practice and has published many articles on sales, service and business issues affecting the legal industry.

A self-described “recovering lawyer,” Catherine remains a member of the New Jersey and New York bars; the American Bar Association (Law Practice Management Section, Women Rainmakers, Strategic Marketing Group). She is a recognized thought leader in legal marketing and sales. Some of the honors and awards Catherine has received include: Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, two years on the prestigious MLF 50 (Marketing the Law Firm Top 50) List, and several Legal Marketing Association Your Honor Awards. Catherine served two consecutive terms as President of Legal Marketing Association New England, many years on that board, and in several national committee positions, including the Sponsor Relations Committee, for which she was an inaugural co-Chair. 

Martha Fay Africa
Managing Director, Major, Lindsey & Africa
877-482-1010
mafrica@mlaglobal.com

Among the joys of being part of Major, Lindsey & Africa is the great learning that comes from interacting with clients and candidates from all over the world. Formerly a Placement Director at Boalt Hall School of Law, Martha Fay Africa (Marty) occasionally thinks that her job has not changed much since leaving academia. Helping a client or a candidate get from point A to point B is still at the heart of what she does and that is why she loves it.

Working on searches at all levels from general counsel to executive director to counsel for varied organizations like MIT, The Nature Conservancy, Texas Pacific Group, Silicon Valley Bank, Stanford Research Institute, the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO), the University of California, Blue Shield of California, Epicentric, Inc., to give a representative sample, consumes perhaps half of her time. Retained and contingent law firm searches at all levels from partners and/or groups to associates, writing and public speaking about issues of interest to lawyers and law students, and service on non-profit boards consume the remainder.

Marty is active in the American Bar Association, having served as liaison to the Commission on Women from the Law Practice Management Section and having founded Women Rainmakers, an organization devoted to training women lawyers in the art of networking and practice building. She also serves on various committees addressing concerns relating to minority lawyer advancement, principally for the Bar Association of San Francisco. She is a member of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Council, among other outside interests.

Marty lives beside a creek in a redwood forest where, in her spare moments, she listens to jazz and thinks about the future of the legal profession.

Gabriel Miller, Esq.
General Counsel
The Law Offices of James Sokolove, LLC 

Gabriel Miller oversees all legal activities involving the firm. As a member of the Senior Management Team, Gabe is responsible for implementing the ongoing national growth of The Law Offices of James Sokolove, LLC. His legal oversight extends to national marketing and relationships with affiliate firms as well as day-to-day firm operations.

Gabe served as General Counsel in a variety of industries before joining The Law Offices of James Sokolove, LLC. He was General Counsel for Captivate Network, a media company reaching over 2 million viewers each day. Prior to that, he was General Counsel for Fleet Real Estate Capital, a multi-billion dollar commercial loan originator and servicer and Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel at Fleet Bank, responsible for real estate issues involving several thousand domestic and international facilities. Gabe started his career as a commercial litigator at Cohen & Wolf.

Gabe is a contributing author to Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel published by Thomson West. He also writes a regular column for New England In-House Magazine and has trained thousands of lawyers and business development specialists in legal marketing, sales, and service.

Gabe has a B.S. from the University of Connecticut Honors Scholars Program and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.