Milestone: Making the post-settlement process more efficient for trial lawyers and claimants through technology that streamlines distribution and saves law firms time and money

Milestone is a leader in post-settlement solutions, assisting trial lawyers so they can best assist their clients. The company's technological advancements have improved the efficiency and transparency of the payment process for both lawyers and their clients. It provides legal firms with real-time, visually-appealing reporting while alleviating the strain of disbursement organization.

Through its Pathway™ platform, Milestone has made mass tort distribution more efficient for law firms, allowing them to dedicate more resources to serving their clients. There is more to Milestone than just its technology, defined by the rate of growth.

The CEO of Milestone, Amy Fogle, recently spoke with the CIO Bulletin about the company's fast-paced growth, its technological platform, and its future plans. The following are some excerpts from the ensuing talk.

Q. What events led to the founding of Milestone?

Milestone, a high-touch settlement solutions provider, was founded in 2012 by industry veteran John Bair. Milestone serves trial lawyers and plaintiffs in the post-settlement phase of their lawsuit, facilitating efficient settlement disbursement and educating around opportunities to financially maximize funds received.

After working in the settlement industry for many years, John founded Milestone with the intention of creating an innovative, forward-thinking entity that exists for the plaintiff. This guiding principle has carried through to all phases of the company.

Q. How does Milestone innovatively streamline mass tort distribution?

In all that we do, Milestone aims to make the post-settlement process as efficient as possible for law firms and claimants. Our Pathway™ platform is the leading post-settlement solution for the mass tort industry, enabling mass tort firms to pay their claimants digitally through services such as PayPal, Zelle, Direct Deposit, etc. instead of relying on the antiquated, time-consuming paper check process.

Our team's innovation has resulted in a completely digitized post-settlement process, which, combined with our emphasis on education, effectively streamlines what would otherwise be a complex and time-consuming operation.

Q. What factors do you think have led to the tremendous growth of Milestone in such a short span of time?

Pathway is a long-overdue optimization solution within the world of mass torts, and Milestone’s growth over the past few years is a testament to that. Once attorneys see what Pathway has to offer, they can readily recognize the value that Pathway would add to their firms’ operations and to their clients. Our tremendous growth is directly correlated to the tremendous value offered through Pathway.

Q. How does Milestone’s Pathway platform benefit the company’s clients?

Milestone’s Pathway is a first-of-its-kind digital platform designed to dramatically improve a law firm’s efficiency, line of sight, and client care. Pathway streamlines all post-settlement logistics, and Pathway’s real-time attorney portal enables attorneys to track individual claims, flag potential issues, and monitor payouts in real time. Simply put, Pathway expedites claimants' payments while saving law firms time and money.

Q. Do you think the scale at which Milestone has grown will continue to be sustainable?

As counterintuitive as it sounds, growth is not necessarily our direct goal at Milestone, although it is a celebrated outcome, as growth enables us to help more and more people.

Rather than aiming for growth, however, we aim for innovation — for creating solutions and helping those within the legal ecosystem that are not currently best served by the system that’s in place. It is through keeping ourselves focused on these larger impacts that we anticipate our growth continuing at a sustainable, scaled-to-impact rate.

Q. How important has hiring the right personnel been for the rapid growth of the company? What measures does the company take to ensure talent retention?

Hiring the right employees — or, as we call them, Milestonians — is of the utmost importance in the context of Milestone’s growth. It is our people who lead the innovation that directly drives our growth. We bring in the best talent, and we have measures in place to create a sense of belonging and purpose here at Milestone that makes these individuals stay. At Milestone, we actively curate a strong company culture that values all employees, prioritizes professional development across the company, and values work-life balance from the top down.

Q. What are Milestone’s plans for the future?

Milestone intends to continue innovating around post-settlement efficiency for years to come. The plan for this revolves around three key areas: our tech, our partnerships, and our people.

As for our technology, we are the only digital distribution solution in the mass tort post-settlement space, and we don’t take that lightly. We’re continuously exploring emerging technologies and ensuring that our Pathway product is optimized to serve as many law firms and plaintiffs as possible.

With our partnerships, we focus on strategically growing our network to make certain we are offering the highest-quality services to propel our mission forward. And finally, a key to our future growth is in our people — we have built a team of top-tier professionals who are best-of-the-best in their given areas of expertise. They are the minds and the hands who will skillfully lead Milestone forward through our future growth.

Meet the CEO

Amy Fogle is the CEO of Milestone. As CEO, Amy drives Milestone’s strategy while remaining committed to its mission: to make post-settlement more efficient through innovation and forward thinking. She oversees the development and success of Milestone, with a focus on growth.

Amy has revolutionized the Milestone brand and continually challenges her team to think bigger to the benefit of the larger legal industry. Channeling her experience in wealth management, she works to ensure claimants have access to trauma-informed settlement planning experts and tools.

The success of Pathway landed Milestone on the 2023 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America as well as the number one spot on the Business Journals’ list of fastest-growing companies in Buffalo, NY. Amy is also the recipient of the Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) 2023 Legal Services Innovation Award.