The people behind the work
Firm Forward is a legal marketing and business development consultancy for B2B law firms. We manage rankings, visibility, and business-development work for firms competing across markets.
Elyssa (Lys) LeFevre Chayo founded the firm in 2014, and she and María Fernanda (Fer) Cornejo are its principals. Every engagement has senior oversight from Lys or Fer. At the outset, we identify who is responsible for strategy, day-to-day delivery, and final review.
Founder and CEO
Elyssa (Lys) LeFevre Chayo
Lys founded Firm Forward in 2014. Before that she was an in-house client managing global RFPs and multimillion-dollar legal spend, and then led international business development at an intellectual property firm in Rio de Janeiro. She now leads Firm Forward's positioning, its move to AI, and its senior advice to law firms.
Why Firm Forward exists
Lys founded Firm Forward after working on both sides of legal services: in-house, where she worked with outside counsel, and inside a law firm, working in business development.
The experience made one gap hard to ignore. Strong legal work is often supported by weak systems for positioning, visibility, and growth.
We opened in 2014 to close that gap, starting with intellectual property firms and the international directories they live in.
Principal
María Fernanda (Fer) Cornejo
Fer leads Firm Forward's rankings and directories work and is the marketing and business development lead for firms without one in-house. She previously ran marketing, including directory submissions, for CorralRosales, a law firm in Quito.
How we work
Every engagement has a written scope that names the deliverables, the material your team supplies, the person who approves each piece, and the dates. Your firm stays responsible for factual accuracy, confidentiality clearance, and legal or professional review, and nothing is published or submitted without your approval.
We work in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with firms in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
Relationships
What each relationship means, and what it does not.
Some programs and working relationships support the tools we use or the questions clients bring us. We publish the nature and limits of each relationship, including referral disclosures where they apply.
See our partnershipsPublic recommendations
Elyssa is an extremely diligent and talented professional. She continuously finds creative solutions to problems and always has a great attitude. I am constantly impressed by the depths of her resources. Elyssa and Firm Forward are excellent choices to help grow a firm.They really know the legal industry and the law firm target audiences better than imaginedFor those reasons, I highly recommend Elyssa for her skills as a business (and people) developer.Know who does what from the start.
You will speak with Lys or Fer on the first call. From there, we will tell you who will lead the work, who will handle day-to-day delivery, and who will review it.
Book an intro call