About us

Who we are?

Barto Consulting, LLP is a boutique firm that specializes in helping Law Firms maximize their financial potential. We collaborate with leaders and managers of small and mid-sized law firms to address their most pressing financial challenges. With a thorough understanding of how Law Firms work and with over 20 years of experience, we help firms define problems, develop solutions, and implement meaningful changes.

Our Value

Savings

We deep dive across all areas of your firm’s expenses (including tax, employee benefits, pension, legal delivery, and operating expenses) to best identify opportunities for savings.

Value

Unlike traditional consultants, we don’t bill by the hour.  We provide the aspects of a CFO or Controller role that are most valuable to you, within a very targeted, objective based cost structure. 

Expertise

A highly skilled & credentialed team of experts with experience working with more than 100 law firms, we can relate to and solve the challenges you face in running your business.

Collaboration

We become an active member of your team and serve your most important interests without exception.

Transformation

Experienced project managers who provide pro-active and timely advice – to implement change and drive measurable results.

Our Team

Derek Barto, CPA

Derek provides valuable guidance to law firms seeking to improve their financial performance and achieve long-term success. His background and expertise in finance and accounting complement his deep understanding of the strategic landscape within the legal industry, in which he has consulted for most of his career. This unique experience makes him an integral addition to the leadership team of any law firm.

As a CPA and the principal consultant of Barto Consulting LLP, Derek uses his expertise to provide advice to his clients in helping to solve some of the more pressing problems they face. He advises law firms on finance and accounting matters such as helping to obtain timely and accurate management information, collaborating with managing partners to oversee the finance and accounting functions, and reducing risk and waste by improving systems and processes that may produce unreliable information or lead to compliance issues such as trust account violations. Additionally, He helps to design, implement, maintain and administer compensation structures for partners of law firms and provides insight in other areas critical to any law firm’s financial strategy.

Prior to founding Barto Consulting LLP, Derek was a partner in Armanino, LLP’s Law Firm Services Group where he developed and led the Law Firm outsourced finance and accounting services department, orchestrating and implementing solutions to help clients improve their finance function. In his capacity at Armanino and predecessor firm RBZ, LLP, he held leadership roles in all aspects of the of the Group’s tax, accounting and consulting functions. As a consultant he provided advice to law firms on critical strategic matters including advising on partner compensation methodologies, mergers and acquisitions, law firm startups, finance and reporting restructuring, accounting department process improvement, profitability improvement, and analysis and benchmarking studies. His clients ranged from startup law firms with less than 10 attorneys to multi-office firms with over 200 attorneys operating in multiple states.

Derek has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accountancy from Wake Forest University and a master’s degree in law firm management from George Washington University.

Dayna Greenspan

Dayna Greenspan directs and coordinates all activities at Barto Consulting LLP using her two decades of project management experience to advance the objectives of both the Firm and its clients. Managing both company operations and strategic objectives of clients, Dayna takes a hands on approach to ensure Barto Consulting delivers quality project results and with clear deliverables and timelines for each key objective.

Dayna is a pro-active and detail-oriented MBA professional with extensive project management experience. She brings to Barto Consulting creative problem solving, organization, self-direction, strong quantitative & communication skills, and the ability to prioritize under pressure.

Dayna spent the last 19 years as a project manager in the commercial real estate industry. As a “tenant representative”, Dayna led her clients through all phases of their construction projects – from lease review, budget and schedule development, design review, cost control, in-field construction management, vendor coordination, and reporting. Dayna has been successful in this role through respect, hard work, and clear communication.

Prior to joining the construction industry, Dayna worked as a management consultant in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

Dayna received an Masters of Business Administration from the Hass School at the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Quantitative Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Andrew Palmer

For the past decade, Andrew Palmer has served a variety of roles within the professional services industry. Andrew has served as CFO, director of finance and director of human resources overseeing every aspect in running professional service firms including project level profitability analysis, employee realization metrics, management reporting, financial statement preparation, employee benefit administration, pension and 401(k) administration, payroll and employee onboarding.   Andrew has a deep understanding of knowing what data is important to the clients he serves and knows how to convey it concisely. 

Prior to his experience in professional service firms, Andrew started his career as an auditor within Reznick Group’s commercial real estate practice where Andrew audited a variety of clients such as commercial office buildings, residential apartment complexes, and retail developers.  Andrew then joined Secured Management Corp, which serves as outsourced controllers and CFOs for private equity real estate funds overseeing approximately $750 million of real estate investments. Recently, Andrew served as CFO of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, the renowned comedy school and theater and facilitated their recent sale to a group affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mosiac Media Group.

Andrew’s experience in both real estate and human resources in addition to his accounting and finance background gives him a deep understanding of every aspect of managing the costs of running a professional services firm. As a principal consultant with Barto Consulting, LLP, Andrew is responsible for analyzing expenses incurred by his clients and providing guidance as how to best manage them.

Andrew has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Accountancy from Wake Forest University.