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YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR IDEAS. SO ARE WE
CROWLEYLAWLLC.COM
NOVEMBER 2025
908-460-5529
Purpose and Perseverance
A Father’s Lasting Lesson
We’re nothing without the people who propel us toward finding our purpose. With Thanksgiving approaching, I’ve been reflecting on how grateful I am to have lived such a blessed life. I began my adult life studying at Stevens Institute of Technology before attending Harvard University and
Columbia Law School. From there, I worked with prominent Wall Street law firms and spent several decades at a fantastic health care products company before eventually launching my firm, Crowley LLC. I’ve never taken any step or success along the way for granted … and I’ll never forget the person who set me on my path. Growing up during the Depression, my dad sacrificed his education to work demanding jobs. When he
Have you read a book that has impacted your life? Please let us know, as we’d love to consider it for a spotlight in an upcoming edition of this newsletter.
was 16, he took a position as a laborer in a meatpacking plant in Newark. The going rate for unskilled labor in the 1930s was only 15 cents an hour. Each week, he’d bring home six or seven dollars to his mom, who was a single parent. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to help her. After serving in the military, he found work as a bus driver. His commitment to caring for family continued when he married my mom (a registered nurse) and started one of his own. His hard work allowed my mom, my two sisters, and me to enjoy a middle-class
lifestyle, and he sat behind the wheel of a bus for several more years before he died of a massive heart attack at 49, when I was a senior in high school. At home, my dad was an avid reader who’d rarely be without a paperback book. He always read before bed and had a dictionary on his bedside table to look up words he didn’t know and expand his vocabulary. Despite never finishing high school, he was dedicated to self-education and never stopped looking for new ways to expand his horizons. He encouraged me to read, Continued on Page 3 ...
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John Bardeen’s Transistor Triumph Jersey Genius
From smartphones and laptops to electric guitars and space travel, very few staples of everyday life don’t benefit in some way from the invention of the transistor … and it all started here in New Jersey, thanks in large part to a gentleman named John Bardeen. Born in Wisconsin in 1908, Bardeen enjoyed a life of invention and discovery first fostered by his cultured and scholarly parents. His father, Charles Russell, was the first student to graduate from Johns Hopkins Medical School and founded what later became the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. His mother, Althea, was an interior designer who had studied Oriental art at the Pratt Institute. After earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Bardeen relocated to New Jersey to pursue graduate studies in mathematical physics at Princeton University, earning his Ph.D. in 1936. In 1945, he accepted a position on the solid-state research team at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill. Working alongside team members Walter Brattain, Ph.D., and William Shockley, Ph.D., he helped discover the transistor effect in 1947. As the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame notes,
transistors “detect, specify, rectify and switch electric currents. They are tiny, relatively cheap, highly reliable and use very little power.” Thanks to Bardeen’s co-discovery, items ranging from heartbeat regulators to pocket calculators have been made possible. After leaving AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1951, he taught electrical engineering and physics at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign. While there, he established research programs in electrical engineering and physics to study semiconductors and macroscopic quantum systems. He also found time to serve as a consultant for Haloid, later known as the Xerox Corporation, and the General Electric Corporation. Unsurprisingly, his pioneering work earned him a host of accolades. In 1956, he, Brattain and Shockley were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work in introducing the transistor to the world. In 1972, he became the first person in history to receive a second
Nobel Prize for Physics, this time shared with L.N. Cooper and J.R. Schrieffer, for their work in developing a low-temperature superconductivity theory. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1974. Three years later, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bardeen continued to publish scientific papers until his death in 1991 at the age of 83. Three years later, he was inducted posthumously, alongside Shockley and Brattain, into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame for his work at Bell Laboratories. LIFE later named him among the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Throughout his career, Bardeen was praised for his collaborative nature and willingness to share accolades with his colleagues. He once remarked, “The combined results of several people working together [are] often much more effective than could be that of an individual scientist working alone.” Nearly 35 years after John Bardeen’s passing, his groundbreaking research and scientific advances are in use around the globe. His contributions to the world of technology are among the many world-changing discoveries that prove the spirit of innovation has always been alive and well in the Garden State.
John Harbour (Johnson & Johnson, Merck, GE) Confidence Through Counsel
“I was a patent attorney for many years, and I retired about two years ago from Johnson & Johnson after 30 years. When I started at J&J in the early 1990s, I was drafting patent applications. Phil was a corporate attorney at the time and a great resource for me in learning to draft agreements and all the various sections that needed to go into them. “License agreements in the early ’90s were complicated enough; I knew certain sections needed to go in there. Phil, being a corporate guy, knew many of the other sections that needed to go in. I’ll always be thankful to him for that. “When you went in and discussed something with Phil, you had confidence that you had touched all the bases. Then, with that
information, you had a great deal of confidence that you understood the landscape well enough to properly apply those issues in the situation you were in. “Phil’s very personal in his understanding of your issue; he’s very personal in delivering the advice that needs to be given. He enjoys working with his clients and solving the issues in front of him. Phil enjoys what he’s doing, and that enjoyment leads to solutions to problems that others may not be able to give.” The above quotes are highlights from John Harbour’s full video testimonial, available at CrowleyLawLLC.com/recommendations .
–John Harbour
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No matter your success in business and life, you must never stop learning. This message is at the heart of Episode 24 of Philip Crowley’s “From Lab to Patient, Garage to Market” podcast. In this installment, he welcomes serial entrepreneur, industry mentor and angel investor Mario Casabona. A veteran of the New Jersey avionics and defense technology industries who currently serves as the managing director of Casabona Ventures ( CasabonaVentures.com ), Casabona presents an engaging overview of his long-running career and expertise in helping startups learn how to become financeable. Throughout the episode, Casabona shares several thoughtful insights into the world of angel investing, including how he selects startups to work with based on their knowledge of the marketplace and technology and their ability to embrace guidance. Although he may mentor budding entrepreneurs, he stresses that only the startup itself can determine and ensure its future success. “Whatever you decide, you have to own it,” he says. “It’s very important to me that the entrepreneur is listening and then making their own decision and taking ownership of their action.” Following a brief stint at a biotech company, Casabona enjoyed a design engineering and management career before founding the defense technologies company Electro-Radiation Inc. in 1982. After selling that business to Honeywell Aerospace Group in 2004, he founded Casabona Ventures in 2006 to give back to other entrepreneurs in the tech startup ecosystem. Since then, he has invested in more than 50 companies in robotics, SpaceTech, DefenseTech, DeepTech, MedTech and other fields. Above all, Casabona stresses that a startup’s ultimate success or failure depends on its willingness to learn new things and adapt to the changes and demands of its industry. “You’ll always find hurdles; you’ll always find reasons to stop, give a second thought and maybe not continue. But if you’re committed and persistent, you’ll pivot. If you run into a problem, you’ll pivot, modify and work around it.” Casabona encourages entrepreneurs seeking mentorship to send him a one- to two-page executive summary to Mario@casabonaventures.com . 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 . From Lab to Patient, Garage to Market Mario Casabona’s Mission for the Market-Minded
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leading me to consume several high school-level books while in grammar school. Science and mathematics became the areas that fascinated me most. A year before his death, he said, “Phil, you just know how to do things that I don’t know how to do.” He urged me to strive for excellence in my educational endeavors and was delighted to see me rise to become the best student at my grammar and high schools. Although he was no longer with me when I moved on to college, I was committed to honoring his belief in me. I was the valedictorian of my class at Stevens (which, in many ways, became a second home for me after Dad died) and in the top 15%–20% of the class at Harvard and Columbia Law School. He would have been so proud to see me later practice law at top-tier Wall Street firms. While I’m sad that he didn’t live long enough to see where my ambitions took me after high school, I start every day knowing that none of my success would have been possible without him. In the decades since we lost Dad, his early influence has kept me going. I’ve succeeded in building a life based on family, faith and belief in my country. In his book “Find Your Why,” Simon Sinek shares that having a purpose in life is the underlying cause of happiness. I’m so grateful to have found a purpose and a professional niche that allows me to use my skills in a way that’s fun for me and beneficial to my clients. To everyone who’s ever entrusted Crowley Law LLC to help fulfill their entrepreneurial goals, THANK YOU ! My other purpose is to help others pursue their dreams, like my father encouraged me to pursue mine. This desire was why I was so enthusiastic about the opportunity to help form Hope Through Education ( HopeThroughEducationUSA.org ) in 2018 and why I remain such an avid supporter of the organization today. I will always embrace ways to give back to my community and help younger people kindle their passion for and enjoyment of higher education. Please learn about Hope Through Education and support us on that journey. This Thanksgiving, I invite you to remember those special people who helped you find direction, purpose and fulfillment. I also urge you to do all you can to serve others in the same way. You never know how far a small gesture of support can elevate someone toward greatness. Thanks for that lesson and so many others, Dad.
–Philip Crowley
Note: The foregoing may constitute attorney advertising under applicable bar rules.
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In This Issue
1. The Man Who Propelled My Purpose
2. A Garden State Scientific Breakthrough
Client Testimonial
3. Podcast Preview
4. Turn Negative Reviews Into a Positive Business Strategy
Don’t Let the Haters Tank Your Ratings
Smart Tactics for Managing Bad Reviews
You can’t make everyone happy; it’s a fact of life we must accept to maintain our happiness and sanity, but when people leave bad reviews about your business, don’t just let it go. Think about what you could have done differently, whether something was wrong with your product or customer service, and how to fix it to ensure you don’t lose a customer. If your negative reviews start to outweigh your positive ones, you must take action immediately, or your customer base will diminish. Business owners need to keep in mind that reviews tend to be negative. Most people only leave reviews to share a bad experience, to warn others, or to receive compensation for their problem. But once your reviews are overwhelmingly negative on Google or Yelp, new customers go out of their way to avoid your business. You must counter negative reviews with positive ones, which won’t happen without effort. Ideally, you should capture identifying information about your customers, such as their email address or phone number. This allows you to communicate easily with people who have shopped with you. You don’t want to straight-out ask these individuals for reviews. Instead, give them a reason to act. Send a message to
your customers, offering a free product or service in exchange for a review. Most jump right in and give you a good review, but you need to send a follow-up to be sure you capture everyone. If you want to take it to the next level, embed an image of five stars in the email. Those who click on four or five will go straight to your main review page. Everyone else will be directed to an internal feedback form. This strategy eliminates negative reviews from the pool while learning exactly what turned these people away from your business. It’s the ultimate win-win for any business owner!
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