Meet the Farah Fighters Leading From the Front
Sure, Eddie and Chuck Farah get a lot of press—they built the firm from the ground up, after all. However, it’s how the brothers built the firm that matters. As any of the leaders we’ll highlight below will tell you, they earned every bit of the positions they now hold. At Farah and Farah, everyone gets an equal shot at doing great things, and we have an entire team of leaders invested in making greatness happen. The excitement to do good grows contagiously until our whole organization is doing everything in our power to push that much harder for the client.
Leading the push from the frontlines are the Farah Fighters we’ll highlight during Women’s History Month. These trail-blazing women are worthy of both recognition and a sincere thank you for all they do. These are their stories.
Bambi Dickinson, SHRM-CP, Senior Director of Human Resources
What Is Your Role?
As the Senior Director of Human Resources, “My role is all things people,” Bambi Dickinson explains. Behind a jovial, friendly demeanor, lies a highly efficient, organized, and credentialed professional. Leading the HR team for an organization with more than 400 employees is no easy task. And yet, Bambi leads her team with the grace and poise of someone who absolutely thrives in a fast-paced environment.
From employee relations and compliance to interviewing and onboarding new team members, Bambi’s days are filled wall-to-wall with critical tasks that allow Farah and Farah to operate on the scale it does. “One of my favorite sayings to my team is that we are taking care of our employees, so they can focus on taking care of our clients.”
What’s It Like Working in Such a Large, Yet Family-Owned, Law Firm?
“Something I noticed from day one with the firm is the level of support they have here,” Bambi notes. “It’s high-energy and fast-paced, but there is always support, always someone to lend a helping hand,” she adds. “In fact, everyone has a passion to help.” It can be different in HR because the focus isn’t on Farah and Farah’s clients. Instead, “our employees are our clients,” says Bambi.
Focusing on employees’ well-being is a big part of the HR team and the Farah and Farah philosophy as a whole. From the top down, an open-door policy is encouraged and modeled by Eddie and Chuck. That level of accessibility is empowering and yields better results for clients as the firm is fueled by collaboration over competition.
Still, working in a firm this size is not without its challenges. With offices from Fort Myers to Atlanta, geographic limitations might put a damper on managing the “Farah culture” from afar—but not for Bambi Dickinson. “I can’t be an effective leader if I don’t know the employee population,” says Bambi. “I speak to probably 85-90% of our new hires during onboarding. Whether it’s virtual, in person, or with a phone call, I make a strategic effort to meet with everyone.”
What Does It Mean to Be a Leader?
“Leadership is not a title. Leadership is supporting your team and helping them become leaders.
If you’re working for a title, you’re in it for the wrong reason.”
Does the Fact that You’re a Woman Change Anything?
“Diversity is a proven growth factor across organizations,” Bambi notes. Making the leap from the construction industry to Farah and Farah, “I was recognized for the skills and abilities I bring to the organization. I found alignment with an organization that values the same things I do. I have a job to do and gender doesn’t have anything to do with doing that successfully. Looking throughout the organization, you will see real diversity in action. The number of languages spoken, cultural backgrounds, and employee differences are what makes us stronger.”
Tiffany Newcomb, Esq., Managing Attorney
What Is Your Role?
Tiffany Newcomb is a Managing Attorney at Farah and Farah, where she leads the pre-suit personal injury team and works out of our downtown Jacksonville office. As the firm’s “hub”, the Jacksonville office stays busy and the pre-litigation department that Tiffany oversees is where it all begins. Over her many years with the firm, Tiffany has worked her way up through the ranks to one of the highest positions of leadership in the firm. That experience gives her great insights into what the day-to-day challenges are for her reports. Still, there’s “a new challenge every day but I thoroughly enjoy doing this role,” remarks Tiffany, “because I love working with my people.”
As a managing attorney, Tiffany leads a team of pre-suit managers and personal injury attorneys in one of the busiest departments at Farah and Farah. Even though she’s moved into management, Tiffany is still actively engaged in a number of cases. “I actually see a lot more cases while I’m not working the files because I’m constantly helping inventory needs, roundtabling strategies, and doing everything I can to help maximize the case.”
What Does It Mean to Be a Leader?
“Someone who cares about people,” Tiffany responds. “A leader is someone who has a heart for people.” Tiffany says she can get pretty passionate about making sure the actions she implements with a team are going to be beneficial. “I’ve been a producer, ” she says, “I have a heart for our people working on files and interacting with our client base. A good leader is always thinking of other people.”
Does the Fact that You’re a Woman Change Anything?
“I am proud that I am the first female managing attorney here. And I won’t be the last,” Tiffany conveys. Farah and Farah bucks this trend, but the practice of law has, in years past, been fairly male-driven. Tiffany and the many other women in leadership roles throughout the firm are making sure female voices are heard loud and clear.
When asked what she would tell her 8-year-old self, Tiffany paused briefly, then remarked—“Work hard, stay focused, never give up. Failure doesn’t define you, it just pushes you forward.”
Candace Thagouras, Director of Operations
What Is Your Role?
When many think of a law firm, they think of one thing fairly prominently—the attorneys. While lawyers are indeed necessary to have a law practice, it is the unsung heroes behind the scenes who make it all possible. Making calm out of chaos is Director of Operations, Candace Thagouras.
“I fix the chaos,” Candace says of her role. As one who helps ensure the firm’s policies, procedures, and vision on the non-legal side are implemented and executed, Candace’s role is admittedly spanning. “I help oversee various departments, including the firm’s robust case management system,” Candace explains.
A big part of Candace’s role is helping the various departments see how they can do processes together more efficiently. In every organization, growth can mean siloization of different departments. Candace has been working to bridge the gap between departments so that each department is talking with one another and collaborating on mutual projects.
She is also in charge of seeing that her departments are growing efficiently. “Every department I touch I help clean up or create a process from scratch,” she says. “If there is not a checklist, I will make one.”
What’s It Like Working in Such a Large, Yet Family-Owned, Law Firm?
Candace describes her time at Farah and Farah as a “whirlwind,” citing that there were only a few dozen employees and 3-4 offices when she started more than a decade ago. Seeing the team go from a “mom-and-pop” company to expanding throughout all of Florida and Georgia is indeed a dramatic shift in one’s career.
Still, Candace explains that there are “always hiccups in expanding,” and it’s the firm’s “ability to keep up with growth,” as the reason why it’s been successful. Being able to pivot when required and rewrite strategy based on what’s happening on the ground seems to be a gift for the Farah brothers who “have taught me everything I know about this business,” adds Candace.
What Does It Mean to Be a Leader?
“A good leader helps those under them realize their potential,” Candace remarks. Encouraging employees to be their best and go where their talents are best utilized is a hidden talent of the firm. When an employee shines in an area and can be promoted, “we recognize that and move them up. At the end of the day, if it benefits the firm, I want to make sure it happens.”
Does the Fact that You’re a Woman Change Anything?
There are no issues with one’s gender at Farah and Farah, Candace is quick to point out. Our leaders are those who have earned it. The personality and potential of a person are more important than their gender, she explains. The lack of selfishness at the management level means celebrating each other’s successes. “As a leader, you have to want to help and you can’t prevent growth. Helping our subordinates grow helps the whole firm as a whole.”
“Eddie and Chuck put women in leadership, not based on gender, but based on those who are trustworthy, values-driven, and will have the firm’s best interest at heart,” she remarks. Regardless of their background, a good leader needs to “be a good person, be good at their job, and represent the firm well.”
Sherrie Catarelli, Director of Marketing
What Is Your Role?
“I tell the attorneys’ stories and bring them to life. In marketing, you want your brand to be top of mind for anyone who might need us,” Sherrie starts. “Humanizing our brand helps show that our attorneys aren’t those inaccessible people in stuffy suits. Marketing helps tell the real story to potential clients so we have the chance to engage them when they need us most.”
With her prior experience, Sherrie Catarelli used to “sell fun” with big-time marketing roles at Seaworld and Feld Entertainment that licenses the Disney and Universal brands. “I like to joke my career has gone from capturing content for marine mammals to Disney princesses, to Eddie and Chuck Farah,” she laughs. A humble and down-to-earth personality is not what one might expect from a leader who’s managing a team of top-tier marketing talent like a boss amidst meteoric growth for the firm.
What’s Your Workplace Superpower?
When there are so many different moving parts to market a firm of Farah and Farah’s size across radio, television, billboards, social, web, and more, a cohesive team is crucial. “My workplace superpower is keeping a team-first focus. If my team is happy and running smoothly, our work product is extraordinary. My job is to make sure there’s balance, good project management, and open communication. With those elements, we can make magic happen.”
What Does It Mean to Be a Leader?
“A good leader is someone you can learn from and someone that can listen,” says Sherrie. She notes having many great female leaders along the way that she’s looked up to. To Sherrie, a leader is someone who leads by example and is accessible enough to listen while helping their team work together through the tough days and complex projects.
Does the Fact that You’re a Woman Change Anything?
What you want to see in any organization is that “it’s the best person for the job no matter what. I never felt discouraged as a woman, rather, I’ve always felt encouraged. It speaks to the organization and the people when you see such a large number of women in leadership,” Sherrie explains.
The fact that “we’re all in it together, with a great group of attorneys and a great group, in general, happens because Eddie and Chuck are so involved and created a workplace that remains the “Farah family”, no matter how big we get.”
Our Firm Was Created to Help You Through This
Farah and Farah attorneys are some of the best and brightest in the practice of law today. Back them up with force multipliers like our tireless case managers, operations group, medical researchers, HR, and more, and you’re left with a professional-caliber law firm that still feels like a mom-and-pop. Having employees that actually want to come to work each day and can’t wait to help their coworkers is incredibly rare in any organization and yet, that’s exactly who we are and how we operate. The difference is tangible. Our clients get the best of our efforts, never feel like a number, and get a real shot at maximum compensation.
If you’re hurt, please reach out to our team if you’re unsure what comes next. You’ll always find a member of our team available to speak with who can outline what options you may have available.
