The Judges

Elizabeth Bergen Zabak is the Chief Marketing Officer for Carlton Fields, P.A., an AmLaw 200 law firm located in Florida and Atlanta. Ms. Zabak is primarily responsible for the management of the law firm’s overall marketing and client development strategies, including key client initiative and client teams; firm brand evolution; advertising; communications and public relations; business development training and the coaching program; lateral shareholder assimilation; and the firm’s alumni program. She has served in this role at Carlton Fields since 2001.

Previously, Ms. Zabak was the firm’s Director of Attorney Recruitment and Training and has been employed by Carlton Fields since 1984. In this position, she was responsible for firm wide attorney recruitment and retention, in-house attorney training and mentoring, associate performance appraisals, the shareholder selection process, and the diversity initiative.

Ms. Zabak has been a member of the Legal Marketing Association and Southeast Legal Marketing Association since 2001. In addition, she was a member of National Association for Law Placement (NALP) beginning in 1984 and served on the 1992-1993 Board of Directors. She chaired the 1994 NALP Annual Education Conference in Orlando, Florida. She served as a member of the Research and Development Board of eAttorney. She currently chairs the Duke University Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee for Hillsborough County. She recently served on the Heart Ball Committee of the American Heart Association, 2007- 2008.

Ms. Zabak authored “Marketing Revisited: Effective Law School Outreach to Employers,” NALP Report to Deans and Hiring Attorneys on Legal Employment, 1995; “Best Practices: Carlton Fields’ Associate Acceleration Program,” NALP Bulletin, September 2002, Vol. 15, No. 9; “Money Isn’t Enough,” Florida Lawyer, October 2000; “Hiring Laterals – What Makes for a Lasting Marriage,” Florida Lawyer, May 2000; and co-authored “Everything but the Handshakes: The Video Interview Experience,” NALP Insights, 1996. She has been a speaker at NALP national and regional conferences.

Ms. Zabak received her B.A. from Duke University and her M.A. from the University of South Florida.

Kim Weaver is the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Miller & Martin PLLC, where she develops and drives implementation of the firm's marketing and client relations programs. Kim has worked in the legal marketing industry since 1999, when she joined Austin start-up eLaw.com during her third year of law school. She also worked with the Atlanta labor and employment boutique of Elarbee Thompson, where she successfully developed, implemented and executed a business development and marketing program from the ground up. Just prior to joining Miller & Martin, Kim was a tax-area business development specialist at Alston & Bird where she ensured that department and practice group initiatives aligned with the firm's overall business development strategy. Kim graduated from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and the University of Texas School of Law.

For the past five years, Mischelle Grant has served as the Director of Advertising for Atlanta’s legal news source, the Daily Report, an ALM publication, based in Atlanta.

She previously worked Northstar Travel Media, publisher of Meetings & Conventions magazine, a business-to-business title for corporate travel and meeting management, as Eastern Regional Sales Director.

Before joining Northstar, Grant was Founder and CEO of Jacksonville Woman magazine, a lifestyle publication in Jacksonville, Fla., from 1995 to 2001.

She began her career in Los Angeles as an Account Executive for Delta Sky, US and Air in-flight magazines. She also was employed by American Cities Business Journals as the Advertising Director for the Los Angeles and Orange County (Calif.) Business Journals.

She held careers at Adams Business Media, former publishers of Corporate Meetings & Incentives, Insurance Conference Planner, Medical Meetings, Association Meetings and Religious Conference Manager magazines as Western Regional Sales Director in Los Angeles.

Grant attended California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and is a native of Jacksonville, Florida.

John Remsen, Jr. is widely recognized as one of the country’s leading authorities on law firm management and marketing. After serving as in-house marketing director at two major law firms, John formed TheRemsenGroup, a consulting firm that works exclusively with law firms to help them develop long-term marketing strategies and implement proven, cost-effective business development programs. Since 1997, he has worked with over 150 law firms and thousands of lawyers. Most of his clients are mid-size commercial law firms, ranging in size from 15 to 200 lawyers.

John has served on the national Board of Directors of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) and was President of its Southeastern chapter for three years. In addition, he was Executive Editor of Strategies, LMA’s monthly newsletter. He served on The Florida Bar’s Standing Committee on Advertising for six years and was the only non-lawyer appointed to serve on its 2004 Advertising Task Force.

John is a frequent speaker and author on law firm marketing topics. He has spoken at national and regional conferences of the Legal Marketing Association, the Association of Legal Administrators, and numerous state and local Bar associations. His articles have appeared in such well-respected publications as ABA Journal, Asian Lawyer, Florida Bar News, For the Defense, Law Practice Management, Law Practice Today, Lawyers Weekly, Legal Management, Marketing for Lawyers, Marketing the Law Firm, Managing Partner, New York Law Journal, Rainmaker’s Review and Wisconsin Lawyer.

In 2007, John was appointed to serve as a core member of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section. In 2008, he was appointed to serve on the ABA’s Education Board. He has contributed many articles to various ABA publications and has been a featured speaker at numerous ABA meetings and conferences.

Since 2001, TheRemsenGroup has presented The Managing Partner Forum, an unsurpassed networking and learning opportunity for law firm managing partners. Over 550 law firm leaders from 425 law firms have participated. Designed exclusively for law firm managing partners to help them more effectively lead their firms in today's increasingly competitive marketplace, the Forum series has expanded from its original geographic base in Florida to encompass programs in such major legal marketplaces as Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and St. Louis. A native of West Palm Beach, Florida, John holds an MBA degree from The University of Virginia (1985) and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida (1980). Prior to attending graduate school, John served as Executive Director of The Florida Council of 100, an organization consisting of Florida’s top CEOs and business leaders.