Founder
Edward J. Lake is a founding partner of Gacovino and Lake since 1993 and the founding partner of The Lake Law Firm. Mr. Lake grew up working in the garment center in New York City. While learning the various aspects of running a clothing manufacturer, he gained the experience and skills that would ultimately pave the way for founding and running one of the largest Mass Tort practices in the country.
CEO
Grace Montealegre has over twenty years of experience in operations and marketing on multiple levels. Specializing in operational efficiency and marketing automation and technology, she has worked with different industries and in both B2C and B2B markets. From legal marketing to steel to software and communications, Grace has a breadth of knowledge spanning nearly every industry and demographic. Grace is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the Persist Group of Companies, including Persist Communications and Leaders in Mass Torts. She has spoken at multiple events as a subject matter expert, most recently at the Intrigue Digital Marketing Summit in Miami on May 8th, 2019. Grace also co-hosts a podcast on legal marketing called InCamera podcast, www.incamerapodcast.com.
Client Relations
Michael is in charge of incoming and outgoing correspondence. He is also involved with client relations. In his free time, he likes to watch old movies, listen to music, watch sports and read books.
Director of Digital Marketing
Emily began her career in digital marketing with the startup of her and her husband’s new business in 2015, Step 1 Motorsports. As well as office administration and bookkeeping, she was tasked with all of the marketing for the shop. She fell in love with digital marketing and eventually left their business to pursue her own career in marketing. Throughout the years, she has held many marketing positions in various capacities, and has pursued both the Google Ads and Google Analytics certifications, among other certifications, as well. Continued growth is very important to Emily as she continues learning in the field and stays in-the-know of up and coming best practices.
Emily enjoys music, yoga, going for walks, and spending time with her family and cats.
CRM Engineer
Nathan is a CRM Engineer and consultant. He helps oversee anything technical in regards to our CRM. This includes a large variety of tasks, such as:
Setting up integrations with our partners, cleaning up data, and creating custom workflows, reports, and scripts. He also works on the architecture of how things relate to each other in our CRM system.
In his free time, he enjoys photography, hiking, and playing guitar. He also enjoys playing tabletop games with friends.
Product Manager
Henry works as a Business Advocate and Product Manager for the Persist platform. He has a dog named Bohdi and often enjoys taking him the beach or park. He also likes biking throughout Fort Lauderdale with friends. “We have a great team here at Persist, he says, “and I am proud to be a part of it!”
BPX Software Engineer
Keith was hired as the PBX Software Engineer. He has an extensive background in the VoIP and Telecommunications space. He is currently working together with management to make sure that everyone continues to grow and progress at a steady rate. “We have an amazing group of people I can call co-workers and friends,” he says. “We all have a common goal and that’s to help others and we will all strive to accomplish that, day-in and day-out.”
In his free time, he likes to do a plethora of things – probably too many to name. His hobbies span from reading a great book to sitting and staring at his saltwater fish tank just enjoying the life within.
Executive Assistant
Taylor is the Executive Assistant to Edward Lake. He produces special events, including company outings and retreats. Additionally, he handles day-to-day operations for the Fort Lauderdale office, works in mass tort sales, and serves as a liaison with some firms on special legal projects.
In his spare time he enjoys time with his dog – Chuka, cycling, golf, travel and architecture and design.
Director of Marketing
Lyndsey has lived in South Florida her entire life and has worked in various parts of the business world including banking and sales. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University under the College of Business with a BA in Marketing. She joined our team in March of 2020 as our Social Media and Content Coordinator and has helped us grow our digital image to what it is today. You can catch her at legal conferences when traveling with us at various events. She has since then been promoted to our Director of Marketing where she manages our social media, coordinates our conferences, assists with design, creates content, copyright, merch selection, our podcast, and all other developing projects. When she is not working, she can be found cooking, out on the beach or ocean, and spending time with friends and loved ones.
Lead .net Engineer
Oleg works on the Persist application as a lead .net engineer. He received his computer science degree and worked for over 20 years in software development prior to Persist. Outside of work he spends time with his wife, two sons and enjoys travelling.
Content Coordinator
Business Development
Aaron Jefferson works in Business Development and Campaign Setup for Persist Software. His favorite job, however, is being a father to his two young sons, Jonah and Ezra. He is an avid sports fan and nobody roots harder for the Buffalo Bills! He is looking forward to growing with an excellent company- with even better people.