diff --git a/.circleci/cb-publish-step-2-verdaccio.sh b/.circleci/cb-publish-step-2-verdaccio.sh
index c27881e6d6d..44fffb52db7 100755
--- a/.circleci/cb-publish-step-2-verdaccio.sh
+++ b/.circleci/cb-publish-step-2-verdaccio.sh
@@ -8,8 +8,15 @@ function lernaPublishExitOnFailure {
   set -e
   # run lerna publish with the args that were passed to this function
   # duplicate stdout to a temp file
-  # grep the temp file for the lerna err token and return exit 1 if found (-v option inverts grep exit code)
-  npx lerna publish "$@" | tee /tmp/publish-results && grep -qvz "lerna ERR!" < /tmp/publish-results
+  npx lerna publish "$@" | tee /tmp/publish-results
+  # grep the temp file for the lerna err token and return exit 1
+  number_of_lerna_errors=$(grep "lerna ERR" /tmp/publish-results | wc -l)
+  if [[ number_of_lerna_errors -gt 0 ]]; then
+    echo "Fail! Lerna error."
+    exit 1;
+  else
+    echo "Success! Lerna publish succeeded."
+  fi
 }
 
 npmRegistryUrl=$(npm get registry)
diff --git a/.circleci/cb-publish-step-3-npm.sh b/.circleci/cb-publish-step-3-npm.sh
index d8c79723de2..8fb2606a1af 100755
--- a/.circleci/cb-publish-step-3-npm.sh
+++ b/.circleci/cb-publish-step-3-npm.sh
@@ -8,8 +8,15 @@ function lernaPublishExitOnFailure {
   set -e
   # run lerna publish with the args that were passed to this function
   # duplicate stdout to a temp file
-  # grep the temp file for the lerna err token and return exit 1 if found (-v option inverts grep exit code)
-  npx lerna publish "$@" | tee /tmp/publish-results && grep -qvz "lerna ERR!" < /tmp/publish-results
+  npx lerna publish "$@" | tee /tmp/publish-results
+  # grep the temp file for the lerna err token and return exit 1
+  number_of_lerna_errors=$(grep "lerna ERR" /tmp/publish-results | wc -l)
+  if [[ number_of_lerna_errors -gt 0 ]]; then
+    echo "Fail! Lerna error."
+    exit 1;
+  else
+    echo "Success! Lerna publish succeeded."
+  fi
 }
 
 # verifies that binaries are uploaded and available before publishing to NPM