Jeff Schwarz is a seasoned consultant with over 25 years of law firm experience – first at an AmLaw 20 firm where he was a partner, and later at another AmLaw 100 firm where he was CIO and then COO.
These diverse roles, combined with his background in strategy, data analytics, finance and pricing, have given him the expertise and knowledge required to advise law firm leaders on how to improve performance and optimize profitability.
As a strategic advisor, he has seen firsthand how greater profits drive what matters most in a law firm: attracting and retaining top talent, funding growth, securing the best clients and achieving market dominance.
Founding Concata
Jeff’s background as a healthcare transactional attorney gave him a front-row seat to the changes sweeping the legal industry. As a practicing attorney, he was often frustrated by the lack of easy-to-use pricing and profitability tools and reports. In addition, he saw that clients wanted greater “value” from legal services and more transparency into how matters were being priced.
Jeff was inspired to create some of the first tools for managing matters and delivering greater client value. Later, as he moved into his CIO and COO roles, he was able to put these ideas into more widespread use and see how firms could benefit from their utility and value.
All of these experiences led to the founding of Concata, whose mission is to optimize the performance and profitability of law firms.
Skilled Change Leader
Jeff’s leadership roles, both within law firms and as a consultant, give him the expertise to lead large-scale change projects. In his roles as CIO and COO, he planned, managed and successfully executed numerous projects:
- Developed a system to successfully onboard and integrate an average of over 100 new attorneys per year;
- Founded the Practice Services Department, an internal consulting function tasked with providing firm-wide project management services;
- Planned and implemented acquisitions of several firms, multiple lateral groups and expansions into many new cities;
- Built data analytics capabilities, including rebuilding the general ledger, establishing and implementing a data warehouse and dynamic reporting tools; and
- Developed and implemented client collaboration tools to provide real-time metrics and information to help attorneys and clients better manage matter portfolios.
Education
- J.D. May, 1992; Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Honors: Summa Cum Laude
Case Western Reserve Law Review: Editor, 1991-1992; Associate, 1990-1991
Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law: Staff Member, 1989-1990 - B.B.A. August, 1986; Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
- Finance major with emphasis in Computer Science.
Memberships & Publications
- Admitted to the College of Law Practice Management in 2013.
- Founding Board Member of four legal executive forums, CLOC-CXO, Legal Lab, the Legal IT Leadership Summit and the G100 Legal CIO Forum.
Contact Information
You can reach Jeff at Email or give him a call at: 312.282.5201