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YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR IDEAS. SO ARE WE
CROWLEYLAWLLC.COM
DECEMBER 2025
908-460-5529
A YEAR OF MILESTONES AND MOMENTUM Ideas, Inspiration and Impact
As I write this cover article, I’m a few short days away from mailing handwritten year-end reflection cards to my dozens of referral sources. Naturally, I’ve been thinking a lot about what 2025 has meant to our firm and what we were fortunate to accomplish professionally.
driven legal spend and matter management software. In May, Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory announced that it had acquired the company for €425 million (approximately $484 million). To say I’m thrilled for these long-running friends and colleagues would be an understatement. My relationship with Brightflag spans a decade and speaks to the goals we work with our clients to achieve. I was initially introduced to the company’s co-founders, Ian Nolan and Alex Kelly, while volunteering as a mentor at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (“ERA”), one of the top tech accelerators in the U.S. The ERA recommended that I speak with them after the Irish Development Board contacted the ERA for assistance in developing and growing Brightflag’s business. Thanks to an Irish Development Board grant, I was hired to advise them on how best to explain their products to investors. I was so impressed with Brightflag’s ingenuity that I accepted Ian and Alex’s offer to join the company’s board of directors three months later. Additionally, I served as the company’s U.S. counsel. I watched with pride as Ian and Alex grew their innovations into a wonderful business with over 100 employees and a commitment to providing tremendous value and benefit to the legal community. I’ve joked with them that it only took them 10 years to become an overnight success! It’s been amazing to watch Ian and Alex work through years of labor, setbacks, re-pivoting and adjusting to commercial demands to position their operation as such a significant force in the marketplace. Thriving as entrepreneurs is often arduous work, but the payoff can be outstanding if you stay the course.
And what a great year it was.
First, I can’t write about highlights of the past 12 months without mentioning the astronomical success enjoyed by one of my longtime clients, Brightflag, a cloud-based provider of artificial intelligence-
“Our achievements this year have set the stage for an even greater 2026.”
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“I’ve always been someone who loves figuring out how to apply technology to solve business problems.” New Jersey-based technology consultant Peter Chmiel has enjoyed a professional career that easily confirms the veracity of his words. At just 22, he launched Cutting Edge Consulting ( CECSolutions.com ), a venture initially focused on building database applications for business clients. Before long, he entered the realm of mobile app creation. “The first mobile app I ever wrote was to propose to my wife,” he Peter Chmiel’s AI Advantage CUTTING-EDGE CONNECTIONS
he partnered with fellow AI consultant Roopak Gupta (Hureka Technologies, Inc./mTap Corporation) for “AI for Main Street,” a new webinar series created to discuss various practical applications for this evolving technology. Additionally, the Innovators Alliance hosts “Wait … You Can Do That With AI?” a weekly, community-powered session encouraging participants to share ways they apply ChatGPT and other AI to their everyday lives. All Innovators Alliance webinars are free to attend.
recalls. “I still consider it the best one I’ve done.” Today, nearly 35 years after founding his firm, he focuses his expertise on helping startups and other businesses incorporate artificial intelligence (“AI”) into their daily operations. “My ultimate goal is to help companies get and maintain a competitive advantage by embedding AI in their company and their culture to increase revenue growth, reduce costs, boost employee productivity and delight customers in new ways that were impossible before.”
Not surprisingly, Chmiel’s commitment to advancing workplace technologies led him to Philip Crowley of Crowley Law LLC, whom he met two years ago at an event hosted by BioNJ ( BioNJ.org ), the premier trade organization for life sciences companies in New Jersey. He is consistently impressed with Crowley’s focus on helping startups through guidance and investments. “I’m happy that Phil is doing the podcast and has written his book.* In many ways, he envisions himself as an incubator and a venture studio. It’s great that he’s always reinventing himself to better help startups.” As for the future, Chmiel and Cutting Edge Consulting are committed to continuing their work in fostering a new age of AI by bridging the gap between people, processes, technology and data … and never forgetting that human beings, not machines, are the true drivers of innovation. As a statement on Cutting Edge Consulting’s website suggests, “AI will not replace us, but people who know how to use it will replace people who don’t.” * See “ AVOID STARTUP FAILURE! Learn the Top Ten Causes of Failure for Technology Startups and How to Turn Them to Your Advantage” on Amazon at bit.ly/4396BxS.
Chmiel is achieving this aim by working with various clients to develop AI-driven solutions for everything from front-office sales and marketing to back-office automation for customer service and support. This often means creating AI agents available 24/7 to deliver consistent, personalized client care in ways that mimic human interactions. “These aren’t your grandfather’s chatbots anymore,” he says. “These things have personality and pauses and can really hold human-like conversations.” Additionally, AI-sourced customer service can be considerably more time-efficient than traditional person-to-person exchanges. “Studies have shown that when a person doesn’t receive an immediate response after filling out the ‘Contact Us’ form on a company’s website, they’re likely to look for the next service provider. AI’s lower cost enables businesses to respond 24/7/365 and never miss an opportunity.” With AI gaining traction in business and beyond, Chmiel also serves as a training resource and sounding board. Last year, he launched the Innovators Alliance ( TheInnovatorsAlliance.com ), a “community dedicated to advancing the field of AI through collaboration and education” via webinars, workshops and in-person events. Recently,
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FROM LAB TO PATIENT, GARAGE TO MARKET FinTech Faces the Future
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In addition to celebrating Brightflag’s major marketplace win and other client victories, Crowley Law LLC expanded our industry outreach in 2025 like never before. Last spring, we launched this monthly newsletter to keep our clients and industry peers updated on our activities and spotlight startups and other entities excelling in the life sciences and technology fields. This year saw the publication of my first book, “AVOID STARTUP FAILURE!: Learn the Top Ten Causes of Failure for Technology Startups and How to Turn Them to Your Advantage.” I’m passionate about helping life sciences and other technology entrepreneurs avoid being taken advantage of as they pursue their dreams, so creating a clear, easy-to-follow primer for them was my ultimate goal in writing the book. I’m thrilled to have received such positive feedback from those who have found it valuable and inspiring. Please visit bit.ly/4396BxS to learn more about the book and order a copy! Our achievements this year have set the stage for an even greater 2026. Of course, we will continue to fulfill the underlying why of Crowley Law LLC: to serve the people who take great ideas from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside or from the garage to the marketplace to enrich the lives of thousands or millions of people. We have the great privilege of working with innovators who have the potential to improve our society, and we will never forget that. Our mission will always energize and inspire me, my lawyers and my staff to provide excellent legal service. Scientific and psychological research shows that people who have definite goals and write them down are more consistently successful in reaching those goals than those who don’t have any or don’t bother to document them. That said, I encourage you to think through what you accomplished this year and make and write down clear objectives to achieve in 2026. And if your forthcoming pursuits include advancements in entrepreneurship, we would be honored to help you. THANK YOU to everyone who has called on Crowley Law LLC for support and contributed to our ongoing growth. I wish you the best in the final days of 2025 and further steps on your journey in business and life in the months ahead.
Financial technology (“FinTech”) is evolving rapidly and fascinatingly, but could the rise of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in this space soon spell the end of the human touch?
In Episode 25 of the “From Lab to Patient, Garage to Market” podcast, host Philip Crowley explores this question and much more with FinTech industry experts Dr. George Calhoun, director of the Hanlon Financial Systems Center at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Sean Hanlon, founder and chief investment officer of VestGen Investment Management. Calhoun defines FinTech as “digital finance” and describes it as the application of advanced technologies to insurance, asset management, trading, wealth management and other traditional finance functions. During the discussion, he also identifies two primary tasks for these developing technologies: 1) the automation of trading, payments, insurance underwriting and compliance, and 2) tokenization , the largely blockchain-driven process of creating digital assets or converting traditional assets into digital form. To demonstrate the effectiveness of FinTech in helping his firm better serve investors, Hanlon recalled a time in the early 2000s when he had to use “generic algorithms,” or scenario analysis, to identify optimal portfolio management techniques. “Back then, computers were so slow that we’d launch the generic algorithms, let them run overnight, come back in the morning and see what the results were. Compute power has improved so tremendously for that raw, brute force capability that we rely on computers and software to take care of, using massive amounts of data.” Naturally, the rise of AI has changed the game considerably in its ability to analyze vast amounts of data across individual client holdings and even entire wealth management companies. Although Hanlon acknowledges that several substantial hedge fund companies are investing heavily in AI-driven money/asset management strategies, it’s far too early to accurately determine how far these platforms will progress.
Happy Holidays!
“So far, they’re not demonstrating any particular value beyond the traditional approaches that asset managers have used.”
–Philip Crowley
Hosted by Crowley Law LLC Founder and Managing Partner Philip Crowley, the “From Lab to Patient, Garage to Market” podcast explores the critical issues and concerns impacting the biotech, life sciences and startup markets by offering fresh perspectives from industry leaders and experts. It is available on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the major podcast channels and at CrowleyLawLLC.com .
Note: The foregoing may constitute attorney advertising under applicable bar rules.
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In This Issue
1. 2025 Gains, 2026 Growth
2. Smart Systems, Superior Solutions
3. Podcast Preview
4. The Right Way to Raise Prices
Sticker Shock Survival RAISE PRICES WITHOUT LOSING CUSTOMERS
Over the past few years, we’ve watched prices rise at the grocery store, gas pump, restaurants and everywhere else we spend money. Tariffs have left many business owners feeling like they must raise prices to offset their potential cost, but this can create new concerns, as the increased prices will put some customers off. You can’t realistically eat the cost of tariffs or inflation while expecting to earn the same profit. However, if you raise prices, you risk scaring away customers who can no longer afford or want to spend so much on your products or services. So, what do you do? As you start developing your business plans for 2026, consider including an action plan in case you need to raise prices. If you’re
unsure what you may need to do, don’t worry! We’ve got two solutions that could prove beneficial for your business. BE TRANSPARENT The quickest way to send your customers running for the hills is to raise your prices without notice or explanation. If you charge them more for the products or services they’ve used for years, they deserve to know why. If you don’t explain, your customers will assume you based the decision on greed. Email your customers or post on your social media page whenever you need to announce that you will have to raise the price of your products. Be honest and straightforward. While this keeps your customers in the know, it also has another unintended effect. Those
who love your products or service will rush to purchase before the prices increase. ADAPT YOUR MARKETING Your customers need a reason to buy from your business, especially if they can get similar products or services for a lower price elsewhere. Think about what separates your company before putting on your creative hat and developing a story around your brand. Consider who made your product, what it represents and why it’s worth purchasing for your customers. You need to connect with their emotions if you want them to remain loyal when prices rise.
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