Robert Ambrogi Blog
The cloud law practice management company PracticePanther is announcing today that it has named Soumya Nettimi as its chief executive officer. Cofounder David Bitton, who has been CEO since starting the company in 2012, will remain with the company as chief marketing officer, and cofounder Ori Tamuz will continue as chief technology officer.
This is the second major news development this week involving a practice management company. On Monday. Tabs3 Software announced that it had acquired CosmoLex.
Nettimi began her career as a private equity investor at Blackstone Capital Partners in New York City. Since then, she has worked in a number of management roles, most recently as a senior product leader at Amazon Web Services. She has a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University.
Because of scheduling and travel conflicts, I was unable to speak with either Nettimi or Bitton this week. However, both agreed to answer questions I submitted to them by email. Their answers follow.
Questions for Nettimi
1. What was it about PracticePanther that interested you in becoming its CEO?
I was excited to join PracticePanther for two main reasons — the people and the product.
In just a few years, the team at PracticePanther built the leading solution in legal practice management software. I’m in awe of their passion, hard work, and dedication to our mission of making the lives of lawyers and paralegals easier. The people at this company are our greatest asset, and I’m thrilled to learn from them and lead them into the next chapter of growth.
Whenever I speak to customers, vendors, and other industry professionals, I consistently hear that PracticePanther is the most powerful and easiest to use product in the market. I am excited about the strong foundation the team has built and the opportunity to continue building on it. The potential of this company is limitless, and I believe we are just getting started.
2. What does your experience and knowledge bring to PracticePanther?
I started my career as an investor at Blackstone in New York City, where I worked closely with management teams on key strategic and operational decisions. Since then, I have held management and product leadership roles at Protea Investments, Serena & Lily, and Amazon Web Services, where I have built expertise in setting long-term vision and strategy, understanding and developing products that address critical customer needs, and hiring and motivating diverse teams.
I genuinely believe in “customer obsession,” one of Amazon’s leadership principles. This will be a key tenet of my management style at PracticePanther. I am excited to bring my range of experiences and fresh perspective, the team’s passion and dedication, and ASG’s expertise and community together to fuel this next chapter of PracticePanther’s growth.
3. What are your goals for the company over the next year or two?
The main goal for PracticePanther is to honor our mission of making the lives of lawyers and paralegals easier. In order to do this, we plan to continue to deliver the most robust and easy to use practice management solution coupled with best in class service. In the next few years, we plan to accelerate the growth of our business by investing in our team, releasing new features and updates, and looking for new and innovative ways to delight our customers.
4. Practice management is a competitive field. How do you see PracticePanther as distinct from its competitors?
I believe we are distinct in three main ways. First, we have the most robust, intuitive, and easy-to-use product on the market. Second, we innovate rapidly and release new features faster than any of our competitors. Third, we provide unparalleled levels of dedicated training and support to our customers. We also benefit from the shared knowledge, expertise, and resources of the ASG community. The team at PracticePanther focuses solely and wholeheartedly on our mission of making the lives of lawyers and paralegals easier, and this dedication comes through in the customer experience.
5. It appears you’ve never worked in the legal industry. Do you have any concerns that will hinder your ability to run a legal tech company?
I have a lot of faith in our team at PracticePanther and in our deep collective expertise. Though I haven’t worked directly in the legal technology industry, I have worked extensively with law firms of all sizes in my career to date. I plan to take a thoughtful approach to expanding my knowledge of the industry and understanding our customers’ pain points. Overall, I believe that putting my experience set and differentiated perspective together with the team’s legal expertise will only enhance our ability to serve our customers and the market.
Questions for Bhitton
1. Describe what your role will be now.
Ever since day one, I have always been heavily involved in sales and marketing, as that is my core expertise. I am extremely excited to be taking on the CMO (chief marketing officer) role full time, doing what I’ve always loved, and felt passionate about. My ultimate goal is to increase awareness of PracticePanther worldwide, increase the number of integration partnerships, and continue growing exponentially.
2. What led you to settle on Soumya? What do you believe she will bring to the role?
Soumya is firstly an incredible, humble, honest, kind, and genuine person, that instantly connected with our team and core values. When we first met her earlier this year through ASG, we were immediately impressed by her intuitive grasp of the business, ability to inspire and lead people, and track record of scaling businesses and teams. She shares the same vision and excitement for our business, our team, and our members. Her commitment to preserve and enhance our culture, and continue innovating our software, made her the stand-out candidate we could only dream of. We are confident she will bring her years of experience and obsession with customer and employee satisfaction to PracticePanther, leading to happier members, a more fulfilling workplace, and new exciting features for tens of thousands of lawyers in over 170 countries worldwide. We are so excited to have her leading our team for years to come!