Left to right: CIIO Victor Barkalov, CMO Kevin Iredell, and Director of Pricing & Profitability Mikhail Makarovsky, with Lowenstein Sandler.

Lowenstein Sandler hired away business professionals from three competing Am Law 200 firms to beef up its pricing, innovation, technology and marketing functions.

As part of what managing partner Gary Wingens describes as “a continuation of the mandate” to “up our operations game,” Lowenstein Sandler has brought aboard a new CMO, a chief innovation and information officer and and another professional to lead a new pricing and profitability function.

As of Monday, Victor Barkalov joined the firm as chief innovation & information officer, and Kevin Iredell joined as chief marketing officer.

Another recent addition, as of early May, was Mikhail Makarovsky, who occupies a new position at the firm: director of pricing and profitability.

Barkalov previously was chief information officer and chief digital officer at Jackson Lewis. Iredell came from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, where he was director of business development. Makarovsky previously was director of pricing at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Iredell also spent years as vice president of legal intelligence and marketing at ALM Media, parent company of the Law Journal and its affiliates.

The three are based in the firm's New Jersey main office, in Roseland.

The moves come about a year and a half after Lowenstein Sandler hired Joseph Palermo as its first chief operating officer.

“We're in a much more sophisticated and in some ways complicated business than we were a decade ago,” managing partner Gary Wingens said in a phone interview Monday, joined by Palermo. “The lawyers here require a business services group and senior management team” with deep expertise in their fields, Wingens added.

Barkalov and Iredell fill positions vacated by departures earlier this year.

For Barkalov, however, the role is expanded to include an “innovation” function, not just information-technology, Wingens and Palermo said, noting that Barkalov will be tasked with focusing on more than just technology infrastructure. He'll oversee an effort to more fully virtualize technology functions via managed services, the said. Data security and legal research strategy also will be among his responsibilities.

“Law firms should be getting out of the business of managing their own IT infrastructure,” said Palermo, who had been with K&L Gates prior to joining Lowenstein in January 2018.

Makarovsky is tasked with using analytics to help the firm's lawyers set prices, particularly for work billed on alternative arrangements, and will interact with clients.

Palermo described the job as “working with our partners to find the right way to price the work.”

Wingens estimated that more than 20% of Lowenstein's legal work already is done on alternative fee arrangements, especially in the intellectual property and litigation practices. Those arrangements include flat fees, milestone pricing in litigation, and shared- and full-contingency agreements, he said.

“We believe we have been very responsive to client asks on that, but our responses were not always based on the best analytics, “Wingens said.

Palermo added, “Almost every client is asking how much something is going to cost. We're trying to get out in front of that rather than just have our partners quote an estimate.”

Wingens declined to discuss individual compensation levels for the three recent hires, but said “it costs money” to bring in specialists, and so budgeting was required.

“We are investing more in what we call our business services group,” Wingens said. “We do need much more specific skill sets.”

Barkalov, Iredell and Makarovsky gave statements in a release issued by the firm.

Barkalov said clients “want reliable and repeatable processes that assure them that their lawyers are not reinventing the wheel, but they also want those lawyers to continue looking for innovative ways of doing things.”

Iredell said: “In addition to working closely with the lawyers on business development through cross-selling and innovation, I look forward to developing relationships with the firm's clients. It is critical that a CMO listen to the voice of the client in order to accurately assess their needs and how best to serve them.”

Makarovsky said he looks forward to “working with this multidisciplinary team to assess processes, analyze data, and develop fresh approaches that provide even more efficiency and value to clients.”

Tricia Lilley, chief marketing and business development officer at Stroock, said Iredell's move to Lowenstein was “a fantastic opportunity for him.” Iredell joined Lilley at Stroock in July 2018 and prior to that worked with her for a few months at Fox Rothschild. “It was terrific to have him partnered with me” in building the marketing and business department at Stroock, Lilley said of Iredell.

Jackson Lewis and Norton Rose were invited to comment on the departures of Barkalov and Makarovsky, respectively, but didn't immediately respond.