Blank Rome Creates Chief Strategy Officer Role

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Blank Rome has named Beatrice Seravello to the firm’s newly created position of chief strategy officer. In this role, Seravello is responsible for working directly with department heads and practice group leaders to develop and implement strategies and policies aligned with the firm’s goals and overall strategic growth plan.

She will manage the firm’s practice support organization and work with department, practice and administrative leaders on business plan development, financial performance analysis, marketing strategies, staffing strategies, information management and training and development.

Seravello, who will be based in New York, will report to Patrick O. Cavanaugh, partner and chief operating officer of the firm.

Cavanaugh said the new position will subsume old roles within the firm’s practice group management. It will focus on bringing financial and strategic analysis to how the firm interacts with its client base and prices matters.

“The practice of law these days is extremely competitive and more business-oriented and we need to take advantage” of financial software and analyze how the firm is providing value to clients and what value it is getting back, Cavanaugh said.

The firm’s search for a chief strategy officer began several months ago through a recruiter and culminated with Seravello coming on board last week.

Prior to joining Blank Rome, Seravello served as firmwide practice group director at Dechert out of the firm’s New York office, where she led the global practice group infrastructure and developed standards and best practices for all practice groups. Previously, she was managing director of international marketing with the New York Stock Exchange, and prior to that she served as executive director of Davis & Gilbert.

Gina Passarella is the senior reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted by e-mail at gpassarella@alm.com or phone at 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter at @GPassarellaTLI.

Comments

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I am always happy to see more and more women in head roles in the financial world. Maybe we live in a paternal world but women are good at economic and financial issues such as men are.