The son of an attorney, Ross Yellin knew from a young age that he wanted to enter the legal profession. What he didn’t expect was that he would be able to marry his passion for and interest in law with a talent for marketing and growing businesses. As the CEO of Practice Alchemy, a firm specializing in law firm marketing that was built by attorneys, for attorneys, Yellin combines his legal background with demand generation expertise to help attorneys grow their practices.
How did he get here?
Starting in high school and throughout his undergraduate and law school studies, Yellin began working for The Boston Red Sox in a customer experience role, a position that would continue for 19 years and transform throughout. In his college years, Yellin climbed the ranks and eventually became the head writer for Fenway Park, impressing the organization with his written and verbal communication skills, as well as his natural, strategic instincts. It was this role that introduced Yellin to the world of marketing at a time when he was still committed to a career as a practicing attorney.
Yellin joined a real estate law firm in Dover, Massachusetts, as a law clerk in 2009. In his four-year tenure, Yellin got the opportunity to explore his legal passions while simultaneously observing the inner workings of a law firm. He realized that many practices were still relying on marketing activities that had been implemented years if not decades ago, and no longer yielded results in current market conditions. Quickly noticing this resistance to change and an over-reliance on relationships was holding law firms back from the growth they desired, he couldn’t help getting involved and launching new campaigns and initiatives that brought in new clients at a record pace.
In 2014, Yellin started his own real estate practice, Yellin Law. For the first time in his professional career, Yellin was able to combine his two passions, law and marketing, under one roof. Yellin designed, deployed, and ran all of the marketing efforts for his firm while practicing law and serving clients. He learned on his own dime what worked, and what didn’t, and developed a deep passion for demand generation. By 2016, he had found his true calling – legal marketing.
Yellin joined Practice Alchemy, a business focused solely on law firm marketing, in 2018 as managing director. By 2021, he had taken over as chief executive officer and grown the business into a flourishing firm that spans both marketing and financial operations such as accounting and bookkeeping, with the objective of enabling law firms to reach their full financial potential.
“The intersection between marketing and bookkeeping is often overlooked,” Yellin says. “It is only by bridging this gap that the marketing team can understand what is actually driving revenue and profit for the firm, and recognize the fruits of their labor.”
As the CEO of Practice Alchemy, Yellin enjoys helping hundreds of law firms across practice areas meet and surpass their goals. He has built a team of experienced, talented marketing professionals that specialize in the legal space in order to build tailored and focused marketing campaigns and strategies. On the financial side of the house, Practice Alchemy employs professionals with a background in law to not only keep clients’ books but provide them with the insights and forecasts they need to plan for growth, and in some cases, stability.
“I’ve learned over the years that the key to success in any industry, but especially law, is maintaining a data-driven, goal-oriented approach,” Ross Yellin said. “All of our strategies are informed by our clients’ end goals and core business challenges, and we are incredibly intentional about our efforts and our budgets. We’ve also flipped the traditional approach to legal marketing on its head. Instead of taking a reactionary approach, Practice Alchemy is on the forefront of innovation, constantly pushing the envelope and introducing our clients to new demand generation pathways in order to drive performance.
“I heard a quote once, ‘don’t stop until you’re proud.’ I don’t know where I heard it, or who said it, but it really stuck with me,” Yellin continued. “To this day, it remains my mantra for business and has proven to be a great guiding principle for Practice Alchemy as a whole.”
