A Combined Sixty-Three YearsInside James Scott Farrin.
Eric answered an ad for a case manager and was hired as office manager — employee number seven, a month after the firm’s first television advertising. He left twenty-three years later as Vice President. In between he replaced the binders of paper with software, built the systems the firm still runs on, and became the named inventor on thirty U.S. patents. He also ran the claims process in the $1.25 billion Black Farmers litigation — 384 meetings in 66 cities across 23 states, and a fee award the court granted in full.
Stacie spent seven years adjusting bodily-injury claims for the carriers before she crossed over, which is how she learned what a case is actually worth rather than what a report says. She built the firm’s investigation team from nothing, ran the negotiation team, and spent seven years developing its intake and case management software. In 2019 she became Vice President of Operations — the first woman to hold a vice presidency in the firm’s history.
Tara was a patent attorney for twelve years before she arrived, which is how a lawyer ends up a named inventor on four of the design patents. She joined as an attorney in 2002, became a shareholder in 2005, and served as Shareholder and Managing Attorney through 2024. She designed and implemented the firm’s settlement administration team — still in place today. And when the firm’s software became a company, she was its CEO.
Maestro didn’t start with a theory. It started here — twenty-three years building one of the Southeast’s largest plaintiffs’ firms from the inside.
The $1.25 Billion Claims Process
The court appointed the firm one of 21 law firms serving as Class Counsel in In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation, the case that recovered $1.25 billion for Black farmers from the U.S. government. Eric served as Class Counsel’s point person on data, technology and the claims process: he converted claimants’ last known addresses into coordinates to site meetings within 75 miles of more than 97% of them, then ran 384 meetings in 66 cities across 23 states and Washington, D.C. Congress funded the settlement through the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, which President Obama signed on December 8, 2010 with Eric in the room. The court’s fee award turned on his declaration describing the work. The full public record is here.
The Law Firm That Built a Software Company
Other firms came to consult because of the systems, then asked to buy the software. That demand became GrowPath, a spin-off that commercialized the case-management platform — in Business North Carolina’s description, a rare thing: a technology company created by a law firm. Eric founded it and served as Chief Product Officer. Tara Williams ran it — Vice President of Customer Success, then Chief Executive Officer from 2019 to 2021. Stacie Monahan spent seven years on the platform’s feature and process development and consulted on its rollout to other firms. The people who built the software are the same three people who ran the firm it was built for. Thirty U.S. patents name him as inventor — the first two assigned to the firm itself, the rest to GrowPath — spanning analytics, cybersecurity, database and search, email routing and interface design. Among them is the buzzword-matching system behind the intake question the firm had to answer at volume: is this a good case, and does a lawyer need to call right now?
Farrin Partners, On the Record.
Eric’s character is beyond question, and his unique background helps him view issues — and people — through multiple lenses to find the best way forward. He is one of the most intelligent and hardest-working individuals I know.
Stacie’s been a game-changer for our organization — bringing a level of professionalism and structure that we desperately needed. Stacie is someone who gets things done and does them with excellence.
Stacie was instrumental in our leadership groups at the firm — she’s gone so far as to provide leadership books directed specifically toward female leaders. She’s a great example of not being afraid to share your point of view, because she has the knowledge and experience to back it up.
Coleman Cowan — attorney, Farrin partner, Duke University Senior Lecturing Fellow, and Emmy, Gracie, Murrow, Peabody and Polk award winner — endorsed Invested Leadership, the book by Eric Sanchez and Stacie Monahan.
The Record.
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