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Centerbase, a leading provider of cloud-based legal technology for mid-sized law firms, announced today that Paul Bridgewater has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President. Bridgewater succeeds current CEO and founder, John Forbes who has led Centerbase since its inception in 2015. Forbes will remain an active member on Centerbase’s Board of Directors.
Prior to joining Centerbase, Bridgewater served as CEO of ResMan, a leading property management SaaS platform provider, where he led its growth through a customer-first model and scaled the reach of ResMan’s software to new segments within the property management industry through organic and complementary acquisitions. Before ResMan, Bridgewater served as CEO of Sage Payment Solutions (now Paya), where he grew processing volumes to more than $27 billion prior to a successful divestiture of the business.
“The team at Centerbase has done an incredible job building a robust practice management system tailored for mid-sized law firms,” said Bridgewater. He added, “I believe Centerbase’s commitment to client joy through a combination of a powerful back-end practice management solution and a front-end web marketing and content management system has positioned the company strongly within the legal technology landscape. I’m thrilled about this opportunity and will strive to continue driving value for our clients, team members, and shareholders.”
Under the vision and leadership of John Forbes, Centerbase has expanded its reach across the practice management and legal billing space, specializing in serving mid-sized law firms poised for growth. “I am immensely grateful to the team at Centerbase who have created an extraordinary platform and an incredible culture from which we were able to bring my vision to reality for so many law firms,” said Forbes. “I believe Centerbase’s best days are ahead, and I find that Paul’s character and expertise in the SaaS industry make him ideally suited to serve as the company’s CEO and President for this next stage of growth. I look forward to supporting Centerbase as a board member and cannot wait to watch the next chapter in Centerbase’s story unfold.”
“I am excited to welcome Paul to Centerbase and want to thank John for everything he has done to make it the company that it is today,” said Taylor McKinley, Managing Partner at Mainsail Partners and a Centerbase Board of Directors member. “We know Paul well from working with him at ResMan, where he demonstrated strong leadership skills with a relentless focus on delivering value for their customers. We believe he is the perfect addition to oversee this next phase of growth as Centerbase continues its endeavor of disrupting the legal software market.”
The announcement also follows Centerbase’s recent acquisition of Legalfit, the leading web marketing platform and content management system (CMS) built specifically for law firms. Bridgewater is excited to leverage his prior experience to create a platform that can serve the legal sector throughout the entire client lifecycle encompassing everything from a firm’s website to business management and accounting.
Centerbase, the leading provider of cloud-based legal technology for mid-sized law firms, provides innovative, configurable, and scalable software to power the growth of law firms. Centerbase’s practice management software, web marketing platform, and content management systems liberate legal teams from manual work by taking the guesswork out of marketing decisions, automating routine tasks, and connecting them in a single collaborative workspace. Boasting a comprehensive feature set of billing, accounting, and practice management tools plus the ability to offer full-history data migrations, Centerbase has become the go-to solution for midsize law firms. For more visit centerbase.com.
Mainsail Partners is a growth equity firm with offices in Austin and San Francisco that seeks to invest in rapidly growing, bootstrapped software companies. The firm has raised over $2.2 billion and invested in more than 60 bootstrapped companies since 2003. Mainsail has extensive experience investing in B2B software companies that the firm believes have the potential to be category leaders. Mainsail’s approach to driving value creation is anchored in a dedicated Operations Team that is purpose-built to help founders scale their businesses and accelerate growth. These women and men include former software company operators who leverage real-world experience, well-established best practices, and a true partnership ethos to support management teams. For more information, visit mainsailpartners.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.
