About Us
Mary Carmel Kaczmarek is the founder and president of Skillful Means Marketing, LLC. She is a former practicing attorney with a passion for coaching professional service providers. Since 2003, Skillful Means has worked with hundreds of attorneys and other professional service providers and their organizations across the country and internationally. In 2015, Skillful Means was ranked by both The National Law Journal and Legal Times as the #1 provider of Lawyer/Law Firm Business Development & Coaching Services. Additionally, Lawdragon recognized Mary as one of the 100 leading consultants to the legal profession.
“Skillful Means” is a Buddhist concept, and one that resonates with professional service providers who seek excellence in substantive, practical and interpersonal skills. “Skillful Means” refers to the alignment of intention, experience and action to achieve efficacious results in present circumstances. At Skillful Means our goal is to support our clients’ near-term and continuing success by harnessing our focused approach and deep experience in professional services consulting, coaching and training.
Mary Carmel
Kaczmarek Esq.
As a former practicing attorney—in private practice and as corporate counsel—Mary has a deep understanding of what is required to be a successful professional and she draws on her personal experience when working with clients. She has a passion for coaching professionals to higher levels of career satisfaction and success.
Through Skillful Means—a Charlotte-based consulting firm of which she is the founder and president—Mary offers business and professional development training, strategic organizational development consulting, and individual coaching to professionals seeking to improve their work experience, fine-tune leadership skills, and attract new business. In 2013, Mary published her first book—Take Charge of Your Legal Career: A Practical Business Development Workbook—which has been recommended by NALP, the National Association for Law Placement.
Under Mary’s leadership, Skillful Means Marketing achieved recognition by the readership community of The National Journal in 2015 as the top provider in the nation of business development coaching and training for law firms and lawyers; the readers of Legal Times ranked Skillful Means as the #1 provider in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Mary has been recognized by Lawdragon, a legal media company, as one of the 100 leading consultants to the legal profession. She is certified by the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies as a Master Trainer.
Mary is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law, and received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, NY. She has been a member of the Charlotte Women’s Bar and the Legal Marketing Association. Mary has presented at national conferences including those sponsored by the National Association for Law Placement professionals on topics such as best practices for cultivating rising stars and developing data driven learning initiatives. She has also authored numerous articles on professional and business development topics for national and local business publications.
Amy E. Eades Client Services Manager
Amy has worked separately as a litigation paralegal for a boutique law firm and a project manager at a product development company. This unlikely combination of experience allows her to bring a unique perspective to aid Skillful Means' clients on a daily basis.
As of February, she is the newest addition to the Skillful Mean's team. Amy acts as support for both Mary and Elena; doing research, building presentations and acting as a liaison between consultant and client.
Amy earned her B.A. in English from the University of Kentucky and her paralegal certificate at the University of Cincinnati.
Elena
Paraskevas-Thadini Esq.
As an attorney, Elena focused her practice on labor and employment as a partner in the New York office of the AmLaw 100 firm of Littler Mendelson. She has leveraged her experience, skills and knowledge of the human resource aspect of businesses to form her own consultancy —EPT Legal, LLC—delivering services related to coaching, training, mediation and investigations. As an adjunct consultant with Skillful Means Marketing, Elena provides coaching and training for professionals interested in focusing on developing their skills in leadership, management and client relationships.
With strong ties to her Greek heritage, Elena has served as president of the Hellenic Lawyers Association based in New York City and has led the organization’s efforts to form a national forum.
Elena received her J.D. and B.A. from Fordham University. Prior to joining Littler, she served as a law clerk in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and for the U.S. Court of International Trade.
I
Tea Hoffmann
Esq.
Tea Hoffmann is the Managing Principal of Law Strategy Corp. Her mission is to be the change agent that lawyers need to become more successful long-term. Tea practiced law for over 13 years, serving both in a law firm and as the GC of a publicly traded company. In 2001, she opened her first legal consulting business, Legal Training Group. After five years, she joined one of her clients as their first CBDO. During her tenure, the firm doubled in size. She remained in that position for six years. She was named the Chief Strategy Officer at an AmLaw 200 firm in Charlotte, NC in 2011.
Tea has served on the editorial board of Law Practice magazine, a publication of the American Bar Association for three years and was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Law Practice Management in October 2015.
Law Strategy Corp provides the resources and ongoing support needed to create and implement strategic plans that become a roadmap to success. Based on the premise that strategy can become more than just something that is talked about, but can be something that firms act on, Law Strategy Corp works with firms on an ongoing basis to insure that the plans developed evolve into obtainable benchmarks used to gauge ongoing actions of the firm. Law Strategy Corp works with firms that already have strategic plans but need help with implementation as well as firms who are just starting the strategic planning process.
In addition to strategic planning resources, Law Strategy Corp provide firms with training that encompasses in-person sessions and ongoing coaching in small group settings. By incorporating business development training with core soft skills training, lawyers learn how to organize their days to more strategically to develop business, a process that has proven itself to be very effective.
Law Strategy Corp also provides retreat presentations and training on topics including teamwork, mentoring, time management, business development, and practice group planning/goal setting.
Tea is a Major in the Tennessee Army National Guard, a member of the Legal Marketing Association, National Speakers Association, American Continuing Legal Education Association and the American Bar Association (Law Practice Management Section.)