About Marchstone
Marchstone Advisory was founded to provide experienced legal, compliance, and strategic counsel for organizations navigating complexity, change, and consequential decisions.
Legal questions rarely exist in isolation. They arise within organizations—with histories, relationships, competing priorities, operational realities, and people who ultimately have to make and carry out decisions.
Marchstone brings those dimensions together. The work begins with understanding the legal issue, but also the broader environment around it: what matters, what is changing, where the risks lie, and what will actually work in practice.
Marchstone also helps leaders determine when a matter calls for specialized outside counsel, identify the right expertise, and structure the engagement so that outside advisors are used effectively.
The goal is not simply to identify the legal answer, but to help leaders understand their options, navigate the tradeoffs, and move forward with clarity and confidence.
Lori Driver Russell
FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL
Lori Driver Russell is an attorney and senior executive with experience working at the intersection of law, compliance, business, and organizational leadership.
Before founding Marchstone Advisory, Lori spent 15 years with bioMérieux, a multibillion-dollar global diagnostics company operating in more than 40 countries. She served in senior leadership roles including Chief Compliance Officer, interim General Counsel, and Senior Vice President for Public & Government Affairs. Her work has included global compliance, investigations and litigation, governance, crisis response, organizational change, government affairs, and mergers and acquisitions.
Lori's perspective also reflects a career and life spent working across very different environments. Before law school, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, West Africa, and she later lived and worked in both West Africa and France. Today, alongside her advisory practice, she serves as an elected member of the Orange County Board of Education in North Carolina.
At Marchstone, she works collaboratively with leaders to understand the full context of a problem, clarify their options, and develop approaches that are legally sound and workable in practice.
Lori is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and is admitted to practice law in North Carolina.
My Approach
Practical Counsel
Advice grounded in the realities of how organizations operate—not merely what works on paper.
Collaborative Partnership
Working alongside leaders to understand the full context, clarify options, and navigate tradeoffs.
Clear, Steady Leadership
Experienced support for complex or high-stakes situations where the path forward is not yet clear.