A Match Made in Innovation?

Based in Chicago, Roy Strom has been reporting on the legal world since 2011. He covers law firms with a focus on how the Big Law business model is changing. He writes a weekly column for Law.com called "The Law Firm Disrupted," covering changes in the legal services market. He can be reached at [email protected].

Deborah is Thompson Hine's firmwide managing partner. In this capacity, she serves as the firm's chief executive officer. She is also a member of the firm's Executive Committee, the principal governing body responsible for its strategic direction, financial affairs and the oversight of its seven-office operations. Deborah has served as a member of the firm's Executive Committee for the past 11 years. She has also served in various management roles at the firm including hiring partner, chair of the 65-lawyer Tax, Benefits and Planning Department and chair of the Lawyer Personnel Committee.

Deborah also spends some of her time as a practicing lawyer in the tax exempt, nonprofit corporate, and health care areas. She functions as outside general counsel to two large exempt organizations. She focuses her tax exempt practice on tax and corporate planning for nonprofit organizations and foundations and health care organizations. Deborah assists clients in the formation of nonprofit entities, qualification of nonprofit entities for tax exempt status, conversions to and from exempt status, corporate reorganizations and liquidations, including reorganizations of exempt organizations, hospitals, and other health care providers, arrangements between for-profit and tax exempt entities, Internal Revenue Service Ruling requests, unrelated business income, lobbying, and political contribution tax compliance, structuring of for-profit corporate sponsorship arrangements, tax reviews, and tax controversy work including Internal Revenue Service audits, appeals, and tax litigation. She advises organizations on nonprofit corporate law issues and nonprofit Boards on fiduciary duty issues. She counsels nonprofit organizations on best practices for corporate governance, including the application of Sarbanes-Oxley concepts to nonprofit organizations. She advises private corporate foundations about permissible charitable programs they may operate to advance charitable objectives for the employees of their corporate sponsors, including programs involving an international workforce. Deborah counsels hospitals, physician groups and health care providers on contractual relationships, corporate planning, acquisitions and legal structures for affiliations, ventures and other business arrangements, including compliance with Medicare/Medicaid anti-kickback and physician self-referral rules.

Linda Novosel serves as Blank Rome’s Chief Innovation & Value Officer. In this role, Linda oversees strategic pricing and legal project management, developing innovative solutions to drive efficiency and enhance client service through effective pricing strategies as well as collaborative and innovative systems, processes, and procedures to monitor and manage litigation, transactional, and regulatory compliance matters and projects. 

Linda has more than 25 years of experience in the legal industry and has held senior management positions at several other Am Law 100 firms where she was responsible for pricing, process improvement, and legal project management.

Linda received her J.D., cum laude, from Widener University School of Law where she served as an editor of the Widener Journal of Public Law and was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. She earned her B.A. in International Relations from Bucknell University.

Mark Smolik leads the company’s legal, commercial contracts management, compliance, and economic development teams. He also serves as Global Chair of the company’s Supply Chain Legal Services Practice Group. The company employs 48,000 associates throughout the Americas and provides third party logistics, supply chain management, and contract packaging services to many of the world’s largest companies. The company also provides general management, professional back-office support and creative marketing services through its Williams Lea TAG operations.

Prior to joining DHL, Mark served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Ethics Officer of Safelite Autoglass where he also led the Human Resources and Government Affairs departments. Prior to joining Safelite, Mark served as Senior Corporate Counsel with The Sherwin-Williams Company.

Mark received his Juris Doctorate degree from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts Degree from John Carroll University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Columbus 2020, the economic development organization for the eleven county Columbus, Ohio region. Mark also serves as a member of the Board of Advisors of Logigforce, and the Board of Visitors of the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He is a frequent speaker, and the author of several publications, on the changing dynamics of the legal industry.

Andy is our founder, chairman and CEO. He previously started Wit Capital (the first Internet investment bank) and Spotzer Media (a leading provider of digital marketing solutions to SMBs.) He also co-founded hedge fund investor Skybridge Capital and sustainable infrastructure investor Ultra Capital. Andy also founded microbrewery Spring Street Brewing Co. after working for six years as a securities lawyer at Cravath, Swaine and Moore. He began his career clerking on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals after graduating from Harvard Law School.