Monday, January 15, 2024, marked the start of Giovanni Ruscitti’s “second act,” as he passed the managing partner baton to the firm’s chief operating partner, Kathleen Alt. Giovanni will maintain his robust legal practice and duties as the firm’s first Chairman and General Counsel. Before we look ahead, let us take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate Giovanni’s tenure as managing partner.
To set it up, we should go back to the early years of Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti, LLP. Giovanni expresses that those years were exciting and inspiring. As one of the firm’s founding partners, Giovanni had a very intimate view of the business, its clients, and their needs. Even through the challenges most new businesses face, Giovanni knew they had created something special. “… [It] was visible in the overwhelming and positive reaction we received in the Boulder business community and with the other lawyers who wanted to join our firm,” says Giovanni. “We went from a five-attorney boutique firm to the largest Boulder-based firm to the largest firm in Boulder almost overnight.”
Founding Partner George Berg served as the firm’s managing partner at its inception and held the position for fifteen years. “He was, and still is, an incredible visionary,” Giovanni says, “and he says a law firm that could break barriers—a firm with exceptionally talented people who could provide ‘big firm’ quality for boutique firm service and cost-effectiveness.” This vision holds over twenty years later—a testament to a strong vision and quality leadership. In the fall of 2016, George stepped down from managing partner, passing the role to Giovanni. “With my MBA background, working with so many C-Suite executives, and advising and serving on numerous corporate boards, I wanted to implement the leadership concepts that I observed in those settings into our law firm,” says Giovanni. In those observations, he realized he would need to adopt alternative and progressive leadership methods, which would break the barriers of what the legal industry had historically practiced.
These types of transitions can be challenging. Giovanni maintains a successful legal career and reputation in the legal community, a family, and life outside the firm. Absorbing these new responsibilities and leading a firm into its next chapter came with strategic navigation. Two words stand out for Giovanni as he did just that—balance and perspective. Reflecting on that transition, Giovanni shares, “I have been blessed with the best possible life partner in my wife, Aggie. She is an incredibly talented and compassionate Integrative Life Coach who taught me about balance. Finding time to focus on what Giovanni calls the “Four Ms” (mindfulness, meditation, movement, and the mind) led to his routine success during the transition and even now. This, coupled with a focus on his family, brought the perspective.
Understanding Giovanni’s vision, motivation, and drive, let’s reflect on his time as a managing partner. In the early years of his tenure, the firm experienced unprecedented growth. Staying true to George’s initial vision, the firm grew as their clients did, and under Giovanni’s leadership, the firm expanded into numerous areas of law and service into the state and nation’s most prominent industries. The firm’s attorney count grew to thirty-five by 2019. As we welcomed the new year, no one could have dared to imagine what the next three years would bring.
2020 sent our nation and our world into a spiral of unprecedented times with global pandemics, fires, political disarray, significant and impactful social movements, and more. Overall, Giovanni’s mission held and the firm continued its upward growth. However, the changes within the firm were an enormous testament to his leadership and teamwork. When asked to reflect on these times, Giovanni shared that the efforts made speak volumes about our people and our leadership team. “The historical events in 2020, 2021, and 2022 change every aspect of running a law firm and how we view and live our everyday lives. You could not successfully run a business if you ignored those impacts. Many thought leaders that I follow say, ‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change,'” Giovanni shares. He remembers first challenging himself and then the firm’s leadership team. His goal was to evaluate everything the firm did so that he and the firm’s management could help the team as individuals first. This would then allow them to better serve their clients—leading by example.
In the beginning, the firm quickly adapted to a flexible work schedule. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. The firm’s leadership emphasized mental health and wellness, created committees to help navigate the firm through responses to the social issues impacting our state and nation, and worked to adapt and adopt new ways to maintain strong mentorship through the physical and digital changes affecting the workplace, and even went as far as offering significantly improved compensation and benefits packages, reduced hours and requirements for associates. The firm also embraced an innovative approach to company culture, including an optional 4-day work week. These efforts garnered results. Before the pandemic, the firm hovered around thirty-five attorneys. Today, the firm has sixty attorneys and is still growing. “All of these efforts meant we were, and are, better situated to provide the best service to our clients,” Giovanni says.
Reflecting on the expected, the unexpected, and the adaptation, Giovanni’s vision carried through. “…[W]e exceeded all of my expectations, and I am very proud of what we accomplished,” Giovanni shares.
As for passing the baton to Kathleen Alt, the new managing partner, Giovanni emphasizes that “[she] is an exceptional human and lawyer, and her leadership skills, while different from mine, are what we need as an organization today.” He looks forward to continuing his work with Kathleen, stating that it will be “natural and seamless,” as they have worked together through other challenges and been on the management committee together for years. “I am excited to continue watching the next generation of leaders emerge and grow.”
Looking ahead, Giovanni is ready to embrace his “second act” as the firm’s new Chairman and General Counsel. “While I will no longer be responsible for day-to-day management, I am very excited to stay in a leadership position and serve as a strategic advisor to our new managing partner and management committee,” says Giovanni. His role as general counsel will allow him to share what he has learned as a managing partner and his experience representing large corporations. “I am not retiring or slowing down in any way. In fact, I love practicing law and serving as an arbitrator and mediator, and I will continue to do so for a long time. But I am embracing the role of being a ‘modern elder,’ a term coined by Chip Conley, which allows me to continue to learn from our younger attorneys while at the same time sharing what I have learned. I also published my first book in 2022, which became an Amazon best seller, and I enjoyed speaking nationally about the book and about legal topics. I see myself writing books and speaking nationally on various topics related to leadership, law, and life.”
As for the firm, Giovanni looks forward to watching the next generation of leaders emerge, grow, and continue BHGR’s legacy.
