Tracy Friedenberg
Executive Director, Bacon Wilson, P.C.
She’s Made a Career of Giving Others the Tools to Succeed
Tracy Friedenberg recalls working for a tech consulting company in Holyoke (the ill-fated Data Profit) not long after graduating from UMass Amherst in the mid-’90s, and quickly discovering what she wasn’t doing — and ultimately needed to do — for a living.
She started as a receptionist and very quickly moved to office manager and then executive assistant, and over the course of that rapid advancement, she made a critical discovery.
“I realized in those moments that I really loved business,” said Friedenberg, who had designs (pun intended) on the fashion industry and being a buyer for a major retailer while in college. “But what I loved more was being on the operations side and making sure that, behind the scenes, everything ran smoothly.
“I knew very early on that sales wasn’t necessarily my thing — I wasn’t that person who was going to go out and get the clients,” she went on. “But I wanted to make sure that the organization and the people in the organization had what they needed to be successful, so the people who were practicing whatever they were practicing could do what they needed to do. And that has carried with me through my entire career.”
Indeed, it has, through a series of jobs at MassMutual, a lengthy stint at the Hartford-based law firm Day Pitney, and, since 2023, for the Springfield-based law firm Bacon Wilson.
There, she serves as executive director, a title that comes with a broad range of responsibilities — everything from day-to-day HR duties to working with other firm leaders on long-term matters, from the impact of AI on the legal profession to where the new courthouse in Springfield might go, and what they will mean operationally — and we’ll get into some of that later.
“I knew very early on that sales wasn’t necessarily my thing — I wasn’t that person who was going to go out and get the clients. But I wanted to make sure that the organization and the people in the organization had what they needed to be successful, so the people who were practicing whatever they were practicing could do what they needed to do. And that has carried with me through my entire career.”
But at Bacon Wilson, and her many other career stops, it’s not the lines on her job description that have made her a Woman of Impact, but how she has carried them out, often going what most would consider above and beyond, while also getting involved in the community at the same time.
Tracy Friedenberg has been described as a selfless, compassionate leader, one who drives organizational success but also champions the growth and well-being of those around her.
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging
“Tracy is the kind of leader who not only drives an organization forward, but also ensures that every individual within it feels seen, valued, and cared for,” said Alayna Anderson, marketing coordinator for Bacon Wilson, who nominated her for this award. “She exemplifies compassion, strength, and service in everything she does. Her heart is always in the right place — committed to making a difference for the people and community she serves.”
Reflecting on what drives her, what she’s been able to accomplish, how she’s been influenced by mentors, and how she now mentors others, Friedenberg credits her parents, Bruce, who passed away last year, and Cecilia, as well as the Springfield school system, for giving her what she’s needed to be successful.
The schools instilled in her a thirst for learning and spawned a passion for everything from business to the Spanish language, with which she can still hold her own, she explained, while her parents, both hard workers, gave her inspiration, a solid foundation, and critical lessons, especially about the need to be accountable for everything one does with and during her life.
“My parents were and are a big part of whom I am,” she told BusinessWest. “They were hard workers. They weren’t necessary knocking it out of the park from a corporate standpoint, but I always learned the value of hard work from them, doing it for yourself, and treating people the way you want to be treated.
“I learned so much from them, and especially my mom,” she went on, echoing what has become a common theme among this year’s honorees. “She made a career out of customer service — she worked for 35 years at Springfield College in the food service department. Watching my mom work and watching her get joy out of serving people and helping them … really resonated with me. She took so much pride in everything she did. It didn’t matter if she was making a coffee or cleaning a counter or counting a cash drawer; having that pride in what she did and doing it well always resonated with me.”
Learning Experiences
Turning back the clock 30 years to her time at Data Profit, one of many tech companies that rose and fell in the ’90s or early 2000s, Friedenberg said it was a learning experience on many levels.
“I was the executive assistant to the number two and number three individuals in charge, and I was privy to a lot of information,” she recalled. “They had filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and then it ended up being Chapter 7, and there were a lot of things going on. I would be in these difficult meetings with the leadership team; they were sitting there, and they literally had names on whiteboards, and they had to figure out who was going to be let go.
“It was at this age of 24 and 25 that I started to recognize some of the things that I knew I didn’t want to do or some of the ways I didn’t want to lead or manage,” she explained, adding that she has been shaped by every career stop and, long before that, her time in the Springfield schools and then UMass Amherst.
Tracing her career steps, Friedenberg said she moved from Data Profit to MassMutual, where she worked for nearly seven years, assuming titles ranging from College Relations manager to director of Corporate Human Resources.
“People are people, and, yes, we have work to do, and people have to be responsible and accountable for that, but we all are human, too. You can’t have people working for you and forget that they’re human beings.”
While at MassMutual, she was influenced by several managers and mentors, including one she served as an executive assistant who surprised her with a question she wasn’t really expecting.
“I had been there a few weeks … he came in one day and said, ‘where are you going to go in the company — what area do we need to move you to?’” she recalled. “I was a taken aback by that at first and said, ‘did I do something wrong?’ He said, ‘no, you have the ability to do more than this role requires, and I hired you for the company, not just this role.’
“Throughout your life, you have things that people say to you that stick with you,” she went on. “And that was one of them; that has resonated with me throughout my career. When I’ve been in a position to hire, I take a look at individuals not just for the role I’m trying to fill, which is important, but for their potential in general.”
In 2007, she began a 14-year stint with Day Pitney, a large firm with 13 offices and more than 600 employees. There, she held a variety of titles and had myriad responsibilities while gaining experience in some new realms, including work helping to manage some acquisitions and facility moves, and managing the IT Department.
Overall, she sharpened her skills when it became to being the person behind the scenes giving those around her the tools they needed to succeed.
After 15 years with the firm, she started to get “a little bored,” she said, and took on a new challenge, becoming chief of staff for Odin, a remote role that she wasn’t in long before she realized it wasn’t the right space for her.
Tracy Friedenberg says she’s long been inspired by the strong work ethic demonstrated by her parents.
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging
Ultimately, her position was eliminated, and this led to what she called the “summer of Tracy,” what she described as a period of reflection, taking her time deciding what she wanted to do next, and getting even more engaged in the community — with her daughter’s school as president of its PTO and as president of the Dress for Success Western Massachusetts board.
“I knew I wanted to be in this community again,” she explained. “I was born and raised in Springfield — I’ve lived here my whole life, and I still live here — and working in Hartford all those years, I realized how disconnected I felt from my community.”
Work in Progress
And it was in her role as president of Dress for Success, and specifically while leading efforts to secure a new home for the nonprofit after it was evicted from the closing Eastfield Mall, that Friedenberg ultimately started down the path to her latest career stop.
As she tells the story, she needed an attorney to review the lease for the new space on Lyman Street, couldn’t touch base with the attorney the agency had been working with, and wound up calling former Central High School classmate Dan McKellick, a shareholder with Bacon Wilson, to see if he could help. He did, and while doing so, he mentioned that the firm was looking for a new executive director.
“In her nearly two years at Bacon Wilson, Tracy has transformed our organization into the best version of itself.”
She applied, after realizing how much she missed the law firm environment, was hired, and is now, in essence, focusing on the present and future of this firm while applying lessons learned at the various stops in her career.
Perhaps the biggest of these lessons involve communication, managing change — because it is seemingly constant — and always remembering the human element of the workplace.
“People are people, and, yes, we have work to do, and people have to be responsible and accountable for that, but we all are human, too,” she told BusinessWest. “You can’t have people working for you and forget that they’re human beings.”
A story shared by Anderson in her nomination brings home this sentiment.
“I experienced the sudden and tragic loss of my partner — a loss that shook me and my community,” she wrote. “Tracy stepped beyond the role of executive director and became a source of unconditional support. She cooked meals, helped care for my home and my dog, covered my work responsibilities, managed our marketing and communications, and, most importantly, gave me the space and time to grieve.
“In her nearly two years at Bacon Wilson, Tracy has transformed our organization into the best version of itself,” Anderson went on. “She has fostered a culture of inclusivity, diversity, and warmth, reshaping the way our firm is perceived both internally and within the community. Her leadership has not only elevated our operations, but has changed the narrative of what it means to belong at Bacon Wilson.”
Jeff Fialky, the firm’s managing partner, echoed those thoughts.
“Tracy has been instrumental in continuing to shape our firm’s culture and success,” he said. “She leads with empathy, strength, and brilliance, ensuring that every challenge becomes an opportunity for those around her to grow and flourish. Her influence extends well beyond our walls — she uplifts those around her.”
When asked about her work and how it might generate such comments, Friedenberg said it comes down to keeping one eye on today, the other on tomorrow, and, most importantly, being a good listener as she manages a firm, but also a workforce that spans several generations.
“One thing that I feel so grateful for is that lots of people come and talk with me throughout the day,” she said. “They’ll come to me to talk about a concern they might have — maybe it’s with a client, or maybe it’s just something with their own personal situation in their employment or something in their personal life. Or they’ll bounce an idea off me or bring ideas to me. I feel so honored that they let me into their circle of trust.”
Not everyone gets into that circle of trust. It’s reserved for those who not only listen, but respond proactively and compassionately to what they hear.
It’s reserved, in this case, for a Woman of Impact.
