What's Happening at Headquarters April 2021

Meet the Featured Speakers for ALA’s 2021 Annual Conference & Expo

This October in Austin, Texas, ALA’s 2021 Annual Conference & Expo is sure to educate, challenge and inspire with a fresh, energized program. Full agenda details will be shared with soon, but in the meantime, check out two of our featured speakers:

• Keynote Speaker: Sarah Thomas is the NFL’s first full-time female official and one of Sports Illustrated’s 100 Most Influential NFL Figures. She will share essential leadership lessons and takeaways for breaking through in your own career.
  
  
• David W. Brezina Memorial Session Speaker: Rick Rigsby, PhD, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Rick Rigsby Communications. He will challenge you to expand your focus and empower you on a journey to superior leadership performance.

Need help securing approval and funding to attend Annual Conference? Our three-step Justification Toolkit can help you clearly communicate the return on investment to your organization. And make sure your managers know about the worry-free registration policy, which guarantees that your investment won’t be lost should in-person attendance no longer be possible due to the pandemic. 

The Virtual Master Class Is Happening This Month!

Sign up now to attend ALA’s Virtual Master Class: A Framework for DEI&A. Both days of the online event, April 28 and April 29, will feature a morning and afternoon session. The programming is designed to help you develop processes and policies that correspond with your specific goals and desired culture regarding diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEI&A).

Why attend? Not only is championing these ideas in your firm the right thing to do, it's also the prudent thing to do, as high-performing legal organizations have become more and more proactive in their DEI&A efforts. Your competitor may have a plan that attracts the rewarding clients and quality employees you want. There is a strong, proven business case for DEI&A that shows you will have increased productivity, more innovation, higher market share, increased employee satisfaction and longer retention.

Check out the speakers and schedule, featuring sessions like:

• The Intersection of Identity and Racism: Loving US into Our Healing
• The Business Case for Promoting Conscious Inclusion in Law Firms
• Leading While White — Betraying White Supremacy: The Praxis of Anti-Racism Moment to Moment

Another Round of Online HR Education

Want to burnish your administrative bona fides? Interested in earning a Legal Management Specialist Certificate that will boost your résumé? Then you should leave room in your schedule for ALA’s web-based courses, which go deep into law firm human resources or financial management in a classroom-style format — all conveniently online.

The next human resources course, HR 2: Performance Management and Compensation, kicks off May 13 — the registration deadline is May 7. The financial management courses begin later this year, but you can register for them now as a package or individually.

Attend the Virtual Annual Meeting on May 6

ALA’s Annual Meeting will take place virtually on May 6 at noon Central. Registration is required, but this event is open to all ALA members and business partners. A recording of the meeting will be posted on the ALA website for those unable to attend live.

Normally, an Association Luncheon is incorporated into the agenda for each Annual Conference, which serves as the Annual Meeting of the Association as required by the ALA bylaws. The transition in ALA leadership also traditionally occurs at this luncheon. Although we will be gathering again in person at the 2021 Annual Conference & Expo in October, we need to ensure a timely transition of leadership this spring.

During the virtual version, ALA President Debra L. Elsbury, CLM; President-Elect Michael T. Bumgarner, CLM, CPA, CGMA; and Executive Director April L. Campbell, JD, will deliver information regarding the current state of the Association. We will also mark the transition of leadership Association-wide as Debbie recognizes outgoing Directors and officially passes the gavel to Mike.