Catherine is a trusted advisor and longtime consultant to law firm C-suites, drawing on 20 years of experience as a chief talent officer and practice management leader across three Am Law 100 firms.
As a partner at Baretz+Brunelle, Catherine serves as an advisor to managing partners, chief talent officers, and C-suite leaders in pursuit of strategic growth. Drawing on her unique experience as both a CTO and practice management lead, she helps firms realize the greatest benefit from their most valuable resource: their talent. She works with clients to re-imagine the traditional systems through which they support their professionals, identify new areas of investment, and adapt to the expectations of new generations of lawyers and legal professionals. She uses her extensive experience in practice management to help large teams function seamlessly and maximize the functionality of available systems and technology.
Catherine supports clients at the firm, practice, and individual partner levels, helping them match their actions with priority business opportunities. She has significant experience in integrating lateral hires, and has created talent systems to leverage data, track themes, and activate decisions designed to deliver growth. She has also made extensive use of surveys to gain insights into firm practices that impact retention of legal personnel and developed proposals to address the results.
Catherine served as the first chief talent officer at Arnold & Porter, leading a team of 50 professionals with responsibilities spanning recruiting, professional development, career counseling, personnel, diversity and inclusion, and practice management. She also defined the role of chief talent officer at Kaye Scholer before its merger with Arnold & Porter, a combination in which she played a vital role in executing.
Her two decades of experience have shaped her firsthand knowledge of the demands that weigh on C-suite leaders and those who support their leadership. Throughout her career, she has been entrusted to handle matters including internal investigations, lawyer exits, and technology transitions. These sensitive initiatives have been part of her wider, career-long pattern of supporting revenue growth by implementing strategic talent management initiatives in close alignment with leaders.
