It’s September and that means it’s back to school time again. I have two nieces who are teachers, and I have enjoyed following their Facebook feeds as they prepare for the new school year — setting up their classrooms, creating lesson plans and finding new ways to engage young minds. It’s hard work with low pay, but the impact they make on their students is priceless.
Successful teachers are ones who can connect with their students, foster collaboration among students and fellow teachers, create an environment to make learning fun, and change lives by inspiring students to reach higher.
Connect. Collaborate. Create. Change — four Cs that can lead to breakthrough results. They are the four words that are the foundation of ALA’s new fall event, C4 The Legal IndustryTM Conference, taking place September 18-20 in Boston.
The C4 Conference is a one-of-a-kind experience that uses design thinking to create solutions for legal industry challenges. It brings together legal management professionals of all stripes — law firm and legal department chief executive officers and chief operating officers, HR professionals, financial executives, technology experts, marketing and business development leaders, business partners and others — to collaborate on issues facing the legal ecosystem.
The conference will explore four key questions:
Pricing and Profitability: How might we identify the necessary data and insights, as well as develop and evangelize best practices, to improve pricing and profitability in any law firm?
Employee Life Cycle: How might we emphasize the many benefits of diverse perspectives and inclusive culture throughout the employee life cycle to the maximum benefit of the employee and the firm? (The life cycle ranges from recruiting and onboarding to advancement and offboarding.)
How might we emphasize the many benefits of diverse perspectives and inclusive culture throughout the employee life cycle to the maximum benefit of the employee and the firm?
Client Experience: How might we better understand the client and create more collaborative partnerships between the firm and the clients that lead to improved client service and business success?
Nontraditional Law Firm: How might we reshape the narrative about the definition of lawyering and the provision of legal services to benefit legal professionals?
And we will use the four Cs to solve these challenges:
Connect: The event begins with a “Regi-Ception.” It’s a combination registration/reception event, where you’ll pick up your badge, grab a beverage and a bite, network with peers and make new connections.
Collaborate: Once we’ve shared the basics of design thinking and how it’s being applied in the legal context, you’ll break into groups to explore one of the four questions indepth and collaborate with others in your group to find answers.
Create: Each group will develop prototype solutions to the challenges presented.
Change: We will share the prototypes developed by each group and develop tools and resources to support their implementation by the legal industry.
It’s an exciting new approach to learning skills, networking with colleagues and being a catalyst for change and growth. We hope you will join us in Boston for this immersive learning experience!