Amid everything your firm does on a daily basis, digital marketing may not seem like a top priority, but it can be one of the most important ways to grow your business and find new clients. Join Bo Royal, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pareto Legal, as he shares his insights on how you can use marketing to cut through the online noise and get a large return on your investment.

A robust mentorship program can be an important recruiting and retention tool for your firm, but it also requires commitment from everyone involved. In this episode, Elise Powers, Founder of Eleview Consulting, talks about how to structure a mentorship program and convince partners to dedicate time to supporting the next generation of senior attorneys. She also gives a preview of her presentation at ALA's 2024 Annual Conference titled, "How to Reenergize Your Firm's Mentorship Program."

For more information or to register for Annual Conference, visit alaannualconf.org.

Recognizing the need for succession plans at your firm is a good first step, but what does that plan look like in practice? In this episode, David Wood, a former trial attorney and Principal of David Wood Consulting, talks about the plan he created and used to successfully transition his clients to the next generation of attorneys. He also discusses the role firm administrators play in ensuring a succession plan runs smoothly.

 

Why is change such a tough thing to manage in firms (well, for people in general)? We delve into that question in this episode. Catherine Alman MacDonagh, JD, the Founder of Legal Lean Sigma Institute and a member of ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee, discusses steps for managing change, the importance of creating small change “wins,” how to avoid change burnout and more. Plus, we leave on a positive note about how to feel hopeful about changes. 

 

In Part 2 of our conversation with Kriti Sharma, Chief Product Officer of Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, we talk about the questions you should ask when choosing AI software to use at your firm, what the regulation landscape looks like and how AI will change the future of talent recruitment.

No attorney wants to think about what happens when they stop practicing, but it’s crucial to have those conversations now. Debbie Foster, Partner at Affinity Consulting, joined Legal Management Talk to discuss how to bring up those difficult conversations and why it’s important to not only your firm, but your clients, to have a solid plan in place in case a lawyer retires or has to stop working.

2023 has been an exciting year for LMT, and we wanted to celebrate by compiling some of our favorite moments from the year’s episodes. Check out snippets from our conversations that covered legal ops, mental wellness, AI and much more. If you want to hear more from these episodes and others, be sure to go to alanet.org/podcast, ALA’s Youtube channel, or download episodes wherever you get your podcasts. And please subscribe to our Youtube channel so that you can get notified every time a new episode drops. Thanks for watching and listening! Have a Happy New Year, and stay tuned for all new episodes in 2024!

In this episode, we talk about the parts of leadership that can impact an employee’s connection and experience at your firm. Christine Wilbur, MBA, Associate Executive Director, Orange County Bar Association and a member of PDAC, discusses what prospective or existing employees really need. We cover how to get your staff showing up as their best selves each day so they can feel connected to their work and see how it fits into the firm’s overall purpose.

Are we in a recession? Yes? No? Maybe so? The fact is, the threat of an economic downfall shouldn’t be what spurs you into taking action. We talked with Dan McCormack, CLM, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Dan McCormack & Associates LLC and a member of ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee. He has 18 years of experience in finance, which made him the perfect guest to offer advice on what firms should be doing throughout the year to sew up their financial outlook.

What does it mean to build a meaningful Pride campaign at your firm? We sat down to discuss this topic with Laurence Winters, Chief Community Officer, SurePoint Technologies, and Chair, ALA’s Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility. Through a vulnerable and honest account of his own struggles growing up as a gay man, Winters puts a face to why supporting the LGBTQ+ community in your legal organization is critical all year long. Plus, we chat about the benefits and joy of being able to bring your whole, authentic self to work.

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

• www.alanet.org/legal-management/2023/may/features/how-to-build-a-meaningful-pride-campaign-and-why-its-important
• www.alanet.org/deia 

ChatGPT exploded into the artificial intelligence (AI) scene in November 2022 and quickly became the most downloaded app in history. We sat down with Matthew Sullivan — Chief Operating Officer at Sullivan Law & Associates, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of consulting firm Unravel Legal and a member of ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) — to discuss how this fast-moving AI is impacting legal. We talk about how ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI can improve efficiencies at firms as well as ways legal administrators can use this tech now. Sounds exciting, right? But are there downsides? For that, we pull out our crystal ball to discuss how disruptive it might be for the legal industry and whether this tech puts us in the middle of a robot uprising.

In this episode, we talk with Eric Webber of Caron Treatment Centers about the effects of alcohol and other substances on the legal industry and what administrators and employees can do to limit alcohol dependence at their firms. Don’t miss Webber’s tips for creating an effective strategy to help employees who may be struggling and how to plan events that don’t revolve around alcohol. Spoiler alert: Childhood games such as “Duck Duck Goose” can provide nostalgia and drink-free fun.  

Check out the Legal Management article, “An Honest Conversation About Alcohol and Legal,” to learn more about how firms are trying to reduce the prevalence of alcohol at their organizations. Click here to listen to the article or download the PDF. 

In this episode, Ben Schmidt of Mattern & Associates talks about the labor challenges the legal industry is facing and how outsourced labor can help address those concerns. Tune in to learn about the innovative ways to make up for staffing shortfalls, such as by moving tasks off-site and hiring employees who can perform multiple roles.  

In this episode, Kevin Gallagher of AbacusNext discusses the newest trends in payment processing and how the legal industry is adapting to those changes. In addition, learn about how to keep client data safe and whether firms are really starting to accept cryptocurrency as payment.

 

This episode features Eric Wangler of BigHand discussing his company's latest report on legal workflow trends for midsize firms. It’s based on data from a survey of hundreds of law firm operations, HR and support professionals in North America.

You can find the report, Legal Workflow Trends for Mid-Size Firms, on BigHand’s website.
 

In this episode, we discuss Phillip Perry's analysis of the trends found in ALA's 2021 Compensation and Benefits Survey and 2021 Large Firm Key Staff Compensation Survey.

 

In this episode, we discuss the effect of the pandemic-era virtual environment on everything from law firm culture and creative downtime to client billing and access to justice. Is the future virtual? Or will in-person activities return with a vengeance? For our guest, Etan Mark, hybrid is the best of both worlds for attorneys, staff and clients.

This episode discusses how legal organizations can create an inclusive workplace for transgender employees and potential recruits. The measures suggested in this episode by Ames Simmons (he/him) of the National Center for Transgender Equity will also foster a welcoming environment for clients and community members. 

The cover story of March's Legal Management is "Making Mental Health Matter," a candid account from Immediate Past President James L. Cornell III's recent struggles with mental well-being. This podcast episode features a source from that article, Bella Sterling, MS, MA. The mental health counselor explains why seeking therapy can be so hard and dispels a number of myths.

 

This episode of Legal Management Talk is brought to you by Jelly Marketing. Monique Mahler polled her fellow ALA members about what their firms are planning in the post-COVID-19 landscape, questioning them about everything from remote work policies to the future of their real estate footprint. Read more in the November/December Legal Management cover story, “Law Firm Life After COVID-19.” 

 

Monica Wofford, CSP, joined the podcast to walk us through the newest Legal Management continuing education course, “Where Are Your Markers?” She argues that re-evaluating how you mark your success can make you a more effective leader.

 

Diversity and inclusion consultant Michelle Silverthorn is a former columnist for ALA's Legal Management magazine and a speaker at past conferences, including the Brezina session at the 2019 Annual Conference & Expo. Now, with her own company and a brand-new book under her belt, she rejoins ALA to discuss the current state of diversity, inclusion and equity and whether a permanent shift is coming to the workplace.

 

In the September cover story of Legal Management, "Working Around Micromanagement," we learned how a tough employee-manager relationship can make work unbearable. Jill Maganza-Ruiz, a senior human resources and talent executive for the largest firm in the United States, joined Legal Management Talk to provide some additional advice for both managers and employees.

Speaker Bio

Jill Maganza-Ruiz is a senior HR/talent executive with more than 20 years' experience in the legal industry. She is currently the HR Director for Dentons US LLP and is based in the firm’s New York office. Jill has been a member of ALA since 2006. 

ALA member Krista Hart discusses how and why she established a wellness program for staff and attorneys at her firm, Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel. She also talks about how the program has had to adapt to the new normal of a remote workforce with many additional COVID-19-inflicted challenges.

Look for Krista's "Tough Topics" column in the September 2020 issue of Legal Management. In the meantime, check out these existing ALA resources:

• Wellness Strategies During the Pandemic with Lance Breger (podcast)

• Wellness resources and  roundtables featuring fellow legal management professionals (COVID-19 resource page)

Speaker Bio

Krista Hart is a Firm Administrator who is dedicated to assisting the Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel attorneys and staff with all their workplace needs. Motivated by the belief that employees are the No. 1 asset of a firm, Hart sees her role as crucial to maintaining Panitch Schwarze’s workplace culture. She currently serves as President-Elect of Association of Legal Administrators’ Philadelphia Chapter.

ALA member John Jakovenko, CLM, SPHR, MBA, chats about the importance of continuing education in the professional development of staff in a law firm or legal department. After all, the lawyers do CLE, don't they?

Jakovenko is the instructor for ALA's HR-themed web-based courses, which delve deep over six weeks into the knowledge needed for success as a legal management professional. You can register now for HR2: Performance Management and Compensation.

Speaker Bio

John Jakovenko, CLM, SPHR, MBA, is the Firm Administrator at Sparks Law, LLC, in Alpharetta, Georgia. His career spans two decades and includes leadership roles in human resource departments in law firms in Los Angeles and Atlanta. He is also an adjunct professor at Kennesaw State University, teaching courses on human resources.

GrowthPlay Consultant Brianna Leung returns to the podcast to discuss her recent Legal Management cover feature about change, which turned out to be a prescient topic as the COVID-19 pandemic alters our professional and personal lives.

Read the article, "Leading Through Change," and take a short exam if you'd like to earn a continuing education credit. You can hear Leung's last appearance on the podcast here.

Speaker Bio

Brianna Leung is a Principal Consultant with GrowthPlay, where she leverages talent analytics to help legal professionals drive innovation and change within their organizations.

Ross Fishman, JD, expands on his recent Legal Management column about avoiding slashing all marketing costs due to the COVID-19-related business downturn ("The Top 5 Budget Items Law Firms Will Try to Slash in Response to COVID-19"). Instead, he advocates for hustling for new business, emphasizing busy practice areas and focusing your spend where it counts in order to stay competitive.

Fishman's newest books can be found on Amazon: The Ultimate Law Firm Associate's Working-From-Home Marketing Checklist and The Ultimate Law Firm Partner’s Working-From-Home Marketing Checklist.

Easter egg: See if you can count how many times the host's dog insists her squeaky toy is more important than this interview. Working from home!

Speaker Bio

Ross Fishman, JD, specializes in branding, websites and marketing training for law firms. A former litigator, marketing director and marketing partner, he has helped hundreds of firms dominate their markets. Fishman was the first inductee into the Legal Marketing Association’s “Hall of Fame.” He’s written seven marketing books, which are available on Amazon.

Lance Breger joins us to talk about how to handle team-building, negative emotions and wellness as we deal with remote work and major stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visit ALA's Coronavirus Response webpage for more resources.

Speaker Bio

Lance Breger is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Infinity Wellness Partners, where he helped create a WorkLIFE Wellness Program and Executive Coaching Program. His company partners with forward-thinking executives, organizations and industries around the world to spread holistic health throughout the corporate landscape to make wellness a priority in the workplace every day.

Rob Mattern discusses information governance, outsourcing and back-office efficiency as they relate to his latest educational offerings for the ALA audience.

Learn more from Rob through an upcoming webinar, The Getting to Zero Strategy, and his column in the March issue of Legal Management, "The Efficiency of the Attorney Experience in Your Firm’s Back Office."

Speaker Bio

Rob Mattern, MBA, is President and Founder of Mattern, LLC. Mattern has been widely published, including recently in the The Wall Street Journal, Law Technology News and Legal Management magazine. He is an editorial board member of Law Journal Newsletters’ Accounting Financial Planning for Law Firms.

Rob Mattern and Nathan Curtis discuss Mattern, LLC's first-of-its-kind survey about law firm cost recovery for e-discovery and litigation support.

Find the survey here. Learn more from Rob through his column in the March issue of Legal Management, "The Efficiency of the Attorney Experience in Your Firm’s Back Office."

Speaker Bios

Rob Mattern, MBA, is President and Founder of Mattern, LLC. Mattern has been widely published, including recently in the The Wall Street Journal, Law Technology News and Legal Management magazine. He is an editorial board member of Law Journal Newsletters’ Accounting Financial Planning for Law Firms.

Nathan Curtis, IGP, is a Consultant at Mattern, LLC, where he is focused on emerging technologies and their application in the legal environment, driving results through Mattern’s customized RFP process, and overseeing service, technology and policy implementations. He is also a Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

Stephanie R. Hanna, Esq., the Founder of professional coaching firm The Other 85, discusses how to retain talented associates, teach them the ways of business and set them on a path toward rainmaker status.

Stephanie is speaking at ALA's 2020 Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her Legal Industry/Business Management education session is titled Building Rainmakers: How to Help Set Up the Next Generation for Success. View the session description here.

Speaker Bio

Stephanie R. Hanna, Esq., is the Founder and Owner of The Other 85. She has been coaching law students and attorneys for the past decade — helping them navigate the profession, build their reputation and develop their careers. Having been a prosecutor, judicial staff attorney, solo practitioner, magistrate and law firm associate, Stephanie understands the dynamics at play in each environment.

We spoke with IT consultant Michael Kemps about managing the remote workplace and keeping IT systems afloat as law firms and legal departments revise work-from-home policies in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

He's a featured source in the Legal Management article "Surviving COVID-19: Tips for Managing a Healthy Workforce and Keeping Your Clients Informed." You can find more resources on ALA's Coronavirus Response webpage.

Speaker Bio

Michael Kemps is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Innovative Computing Systems, Inc., where he cultivates relationships with clients and partners and, with his management team, provides leadership, strategic and ethical direction and oversight of company operations.

Cynthia Thomas discusses how to protect your law firm's operations by succession planning not only for attorneys but also for administrators. She is speaking at ALA's 2020 Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her Human Resources Management education session is titled Don’t Let Institutional Knowledge Walk Out the Door: Succession Planning for Administrative Managers.

View the session description here, and make sure you're registered for the May 3–6 event.

Speaker Bio

Cynthia Thomas is the Interim Operations Manager at A to Z Law and Owner of PLMC & Associates, a law firm management consulting company that provides best practices in human resources and staffing. She is the Associate Editor of the editorial board of Law Practice and the Co-Vice Chair of the ABA LP Lawyer Leadership and Management Committee. She often writes articles on and is invited to speak and conduct presentations focusing on law firm staffing of the future and lean staffing.

Brianna Leung of GrowthPlay talks about New Year's resolutions for the busy professional. She wrote “Resolve to Balance the Scales in 2020,” the Business Partner Perspective column for the January issue of Legal Management. That issue will be published January 10.

Speaker Bio

Brianna Leung is a Principal Consultant with GrowthPlay, where she leverages talent analytics to help legal professionals drive innovation and change within their organizations.

Staffing expert and recruiting consultant Jennifer Hill talks about the conclusions she reached and action items she detailed in her white paper for ALA, “The Changing Role of Law Firm Leadership.” You can also read her previous white paper, “The Changing Role of the Legal Secretary.”

Speaker Bio

Jennifer Hill is President of JHill’s Staffing Services, a Division of Marcum Search LLC. She began recruiting in 2003 and has recruited for top-tier law firms and corporations throughout the United States. Hill also hosts a weekly radio show on LA Talk Radio, “Get Yourself the Job,” for more than 30,000 listeners a month; she interviews experts and authors from around the world about landing one's dream job.

ALA member Nadean Stone, CLM, MBA, describes what it’s like to publish her first book, titled No Stone Unturned: A Remarkable Journey to Identity. She talks about translating painful experiences into a memoir and how her professional background and network of legal management professionals inspire her to keep fighting for justice.

Speaker Bio

Nadean Stone, CLM, MBA, is the author of No Stone Unturned: A Remarkable Journey to Identity as well as a legal management consultant. She is a member of the South Florida Chapter of ALA and divides her time between South Florida and Vermont.

ALA members and Administrators Sarah Antonello, Danita Jones and Suzy Klepac have conceived a new way to support early career legal managers: the First Five Community. A part of ALA's Online Community, this members-only forum will provide a space for asking questions, sharing solutions and networking.

As mentioned in the episode, the Legal Management article about the Capital Chapter president can be found here.

Speaker Bios

Sarah Antonello is the Office Administrator of Husch Blackwell LLP in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a member of the Nebraska Chapter.

Danita Jones is the Legal Administrator at Chubbuck Duncan & Robey, PC, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is the Treasurer of the Oklahoma City Chapter.

Suzy Klepac is the Office Administrator at Kirk & Chaney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is the President-Elect of the Oklahoma City Chapter.

Lori Hughes, a panelist for a session at September's Intellectual Property Conference for Legal Management Professionals, talks about how she transitioned her own office to a paperless, cloud-based storage system.

Speaker Bio

Lori Hughes is a member of the ALA Board of Directors as the Region 5 Director and has been an ALA member since 2002. Hughes has been with Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP in Portland, Oregon, for 26 years and is the Lead Operations and Information Security Officer. She managed the firm’s “less-paper” initiative and move to its first electronic records system — updated to a cloud solution for records in the past two years — and continues to manage the Records Department as part of her current responsibilities. 

Tim Corcoran talks with us about why law firms might need to change how they handle partner compensation. You can hear more from him on this topic at the 2018 Advanced Financial Administration workshop and the 2018 Regional Legal Management Conferences in both Chicago and Austin.

Speaker Bio

Kathy Scourby of KNS Consulting joins us to talk disaster preparedness and business continuity plans. She'll be a presenter at ALA's Annual Conference & Expo in May 2018, and you can find her insights in the April 2018 issue of Legal Management.

Speaker Bio

Kathryn Scourby is the Principal of KNS Consulting, LLC. She works with professional service firms to achieve their goals in the areas of business continuity, disaster preparedness, risk management and compliance. Scourby trains management professionals and all levels of staff at private service firms and facilitates tabletop exercises in these focus areas. Additionally, she served on ALA's Board of Directors (2004–2008), was a trustee for the Foundation of the Association of Legal Administrators (2010–2013), and currently serves on ALA's International Relations Committee.

Information, data and knowledge are important business assets, but most firms aren't managing them in a way that reflects their true value. That's why ALA is conducting a survey in partnership with Experience Matters (James's company) and the University of South Australia: to find industry benchmarks and recommendation for information assets management.

Speaker Bio

James Price is the Managing Director of Experience Matters. He has more than 30 years' experience in the information industry in a career that has included working for a global hardware manufacturer, a software developer and a systems integrator. During his career James realized that, in and of itself, hardware and software adds no value — it’s the information that the infrastructure delivers that’s valuable. So he formed Experience Matters, a firm that advises on how to manage vital data, information and knowledge as a business asset. He formed Experience Matters to address the problem that, while Information Assets are vitally important to organisations, by and large they are very poorly managed, usually with significant commercial implications. James is internationally recognized as an author of peer-reviewed papers and a presenter to business and academic conferences.

Mercer Principal Norma Sharara — who works closely with the ABA Retirement Funds Program, an ALA VIP sponsor — describes the current tax and regulatory picture for retirement plans.

Speaker Bio

Norma Sharara is a Principal in Mercer’s Washington Resource Group, focusing on tax-qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, including ERISA fiduciary rules, state-run retirement initiatives and federal retirement policy. Sharara has more than 25 years of experience with retirement plan issues. Before joining Mercer in 2015, she practiced law in Washington, D.C., and has been a frequent speaker and author on retirement plan topics.

The ABA Retirement Funds Program has been supplying retirement plans exclusively to the legal community for over 50 years. Mercer Trust Company is the ABA Retirement Funds Program’s investment fiduciary, investment manager, and trustee and custodian. Mercer has responsibility for development of the investment policy for the program, subject to acceptance by the ABA Retirement Funds; for implementation of the policy; and for monitoring of the platform of fund investments.

As law firms continue to grow and merge, the question of office space and configuration is critical to legal management professionals tasked with operations. That's why First American Equipment Finance's Karen Leastman and Christina Floyd have joined us to talk about financing office renovations. You can hear them in full at their 2018 Annual Conference & Expo presentation.

Speaker Bios

Christina Floyd is the Vice President of First American Legal Finance and is a Certified Lease and Finance Professional (CLFP). She has almost a decade of equipment leasing knowledge and dedicated experience working with the legal industry. She holds a bachelor's degree in communications and an MBA from St. John Fisher College. Additionally, Floyd successfully completed the Legal Management Finance Specialist Certificate Program through ALA. In her tenure, Floyd has been instrumental in growing First American's legal business to more than 200 firms. 

Karen Leastman is the Vice President of First American Equipment Finance and has more than a decade of equipment-leasing knowledge and dedicated experience working with the law firm industry. Since joining First American in 2003, Leastman has been a key contributor in building First American's law firm division, which now serves more than 200 law firms across the United States, including AmLaw 100 and 200 firms. As a Certified Lease and Finance Professional (CLFP), she's a leader in the equipment leasing industry.

 

Michael Moore, a speaker at ALA's 2018 Annual Conference & Expo, talks with us about law-firm succession planning.

Speaker Bio

Michael Moore, JD, is the Founder of Moore's Law, LLC, and helps both lawyers and law firms create professional success. Moore specializes in individual marketing, client development, and leadership coaching and advises law firms on strategic planning, growth initiatives and resource optimization. A frequent speaker at ALA events across the country, his current topics have included mentoring, leadership, financial management and strategic planning.

Corey Saban, a 2018 Annual Conference speaker, answers some of our questions about the promotional and engagement powers of web video.

Speaker Bio

Corey Saban is a Cofounder and Vice President of TheLaw.TV, a platform that helps lawyers effectively reach prospective clients and communicate their stories through video. He started his media career as a TV journalist, interviewing respectable and recognizable figures and scoring Emmy nominations and AP Awards along the way. An accomplished speaker and 15-year news veteran, Saban is now on the other side of the industry, consulting for law firms on media and content strategies.

Get the answers to your questions about background screening in today's law firm - domestically and internationally.

Kevin P. Prendergast is the President & General Counsel at Research Associates, Inc., a corporate investigative firm serving clients since 1953.  RAI serves the investigative needs for professional service firms and works with law firms throughout the world for pre-employment background investigations, due diligence in transactional work and litigation support investigations.

Kevin oversees the compliance program at RAI and works with clients and their counsel in developing legally compliant background screening programs.  Mr. Prendergast graduated from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law and has been licensed to practice law in Ohio since 1987.  He is a member of the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association and the Society for Human Resource Management. 

Eric Wangler is president of the North American business unit for BigHand. With over 15 years of experience in the legal industry, Eric previously served as vice president of Ricoh’s legal vertical segment. Since joining BigHand, Eric has grown the North American business and the BigHand customer base significantly. In addition, Eric led the acquisition of Esquire Innovations (Now BigHand Office) in Temecula, California, a leading provider of Microsoft Office integrated practice management software, services and applications for the legal market. The acquisition has enabled BigHand to broaden its suite of product offerings and continue its mission of providing innovative workflow efficiency software that streamlines processes and empowers attorneys and law firm support staff to deliver their best work wherever and whenever needed. 

Check out Eric's article in the upcoming April issue of Legal Management magazine, at legalmanagement.org.

Ginger Brennan is here with us today to talk about how to administer your firm’s retirement plan in a changing environment. She will also be a speaker on this topic at ALA's Annual Conference & Expo, April 2-5 in Denver, Colorado.

Speaker Bio

Ginger Brennan, FINRA Series 6, 7, 24, 26, 63, and Certified Employee Benefits Specialist, is the Senior Vice President and National Director of Sales for the ABA Retirement Funds Program. Brennan is responsible for setting and driving the sales strategy for the program and oversees all of the sales efforts and training for the entire program sales team across the United States. A veteran to retirement plan sales, Brennan brings more than 30 years of experience in sales and sales management.

Marc Adler is the Vice President of Sales for PerfectLaw Software, a developer of billing, accounting, financial and case, calendar and document management software for the mid to large size legal industry. He is also a committed member of the ALA Business Partner Relations Committee as well as the LegalTech Advisory board. After a few years of managing implementations for some of the leading law firms in the country, Marc moved into sales at PerfectLaw and has worked the last 20 years bringing the leading All-in-One solution to the legal community at more than 200 ALA events over the years.  

Marc be available to chat in ALA's Exhibit Hall the Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado, coming up April 2-5. Stop by to say hello!

www.alanet.org/conf17 

Today our guest is John Gilbert, senior vice president at nQueue and a recent contributor to ALA’s Legal Management magazine. His feature in the November/December issue was titled “The Paper Pyramid Scheme” and offered some surprising insights into how off-site storage can end up eating a major chunk of a firm’s budget. Learn more from John Gilbert in April at ALA’s Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado. www.alanet.org/conf17 

Speaker Bio

John Gilbert is the Senior Vice President of nQueue and has more than 30 years of experience in selling to and supporting law firms throughout the United States. Gilbert helped pioneer the methodology used to customize Microsoft Word for the legal environment — including the awareness and removal of metadata in documents — and has been published in Law Technology News, Peer to Peer, Legal Management and National Law Journal.

Joining us on our podcast today is Link Christin, an expert on the particular struggles among attorneys regarding substance abuse. Today he’s speaking with us about the ethics and liability concerns surrounding this topic. Hear more from Christin at ALA's Annual Conference & Expo, April 2-5 in Denver, Colorado: alanet.org/conf17 

Speaker Bio

Link Christin is the Executive Director of the Legal Professionals Program at Caron Treatment Centers. He is the former Chief Executive Officer of Heightened Performance LLC, a behavioral health consulting firm. After decades of practice as an attorney followed by a second career of treating impaired attorneys in a residential setting, he founded Heightened Performance in order to bring his experience to the law firm and lawyer, the corporation and the law school. Prior to creating Heightened Performance, he founded and directed the Hazelden Legal Professionals Program, the first track of its kind at a major treatment center.

Today our guest is Al Marcella, here to discuss risk management and cybersecurity in the context of legal management. Al will be in Denver, Colorado, this April to speak at ALA’s Annual Conference & Expo.

Speaker Bio

Al Marcella is an internationally recognized public speaker, researcher, workshop and seminar leader with 36 years of experience in IT audit, security and assessing internal controls. He's authored numerous articles and 28 books on cyber extortion, workplace violence, personal privacy, electronic stored information (ESI), privacy risks in multifunctional devices (MFDs), cyber forensics, disaster and incident management planning, ethics and more.

Joining us today is Kristen Brown, speaker and founder of Happy Hour Effect. Her goal is to motivate audiences to strive for maximum impact in their work and personal lives by uncovering the unique characteristics that make them memorable and magnetic. Hear more from Kristen at ALA's Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado.

Speaker Bio

Kristen Brown is an international keynote speaker and facilitator who motivates audiences to strive for maximum impact in their work and personal lives by uncovering the unique characteristics that make you memorable and magnetic. She spent 15 years in sales and marketing leadership roles before starting her own award-winning company and Happy Hour Effect movement. She has worked with Fortune 500 teams across industries to drive sales and market share including companies like Target, Kraft, Bare Minerals, Cargill, Regis, Walmart, Mayo Health, and more.

Ritu Bhasin explains how a more diverse workplace thrives on authenticity -- embracing differences -- versus minimization -- ignoring and/or stifling them.

Ritu Bhasin, LLB., MBA, is the Founder and Principal of BCI. Recognized globally for her diversity and leadership expertise, she has received a number of awards and distinctions for her work. She has extensive experience in delivering programming, consulting, and coaching across a range of management areas with a focus on leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and the advancement of women. Bhasin works primarily with senior leadership teams, boards of directors, middle management, and emerging leader groups, including women and diverse professionals.

Paula Davis-Laack is a stress and resilience expert who will be speaking at ALA’s upcoming Large Firm Principal Administrators Retreat about “Building Resilient Lawyers and Leaders.” 

Paula Davis-Laack, JD, MAPP, is a former practicing lawyer, an internationally-published writer, speaker, media contributor, and a stress and resilience expert who has taught burnout prevention and resilience workshops for thousands of professionals around the world. Her articles on stress, burnout prevention, resilience, and thriving at work are prominently featured on her blogs in The Huffington Post, Forbes, Fast Company and Psychology Today. She also writes a regular column called "On Balance" for Wisconsin Lawyer magazine. Her latest e-book is titled Addicted to Busy: Your Blueprint for Burnout Prevention, available here. Her expertise has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including the Lawyerist, Law360.com, various ABA webinars, and the Women's Law Journal. She is the Founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute, a training and consulting firm devoted to helping companies and busy professionals build their resilience to stress. She is also a partner in Lawyer Strong, LLC, which provides resilience training to law firms.

Have you ever had a question about diversity and inclusion, but didn’t know who to ask or how? Sarah Babineau, managing partner at Compass Metrics, LLC, offers a slew of practical tips on disability etiquette and inclusion in this episode. 

Like what you hear? Read Babineau's column in the April issue of Legal Management magazine and consider attending her session at ALA's Annual Conference & Expo!

Sarah Babineau, MHR, PHR, SHRM-CP, is the Founder and Managing Partner of Compass Metrics, LLC, a woman-owned, disability-owned business enterprise. The consultancy focuses on law and professional services firm diversity analytics, disability inclusion programs and affirmative action planning. Babineau also provides expert witness testimony in matters related to the employment of people with disabilities. 

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Jobst Elster joins the podcast to talk about his new column in Legal Management magazine, on cloud technology and cyber security. "The cloud is a bit like social media in legal — no matter how hard we try to ignore it and dismiss its viability, it just won’t go away."

Jobst Elster is InsideLegal’s Head of Content and Legal Market Strategy. He has served as a legal market strategist for the last 17 years, advising companies entering the legal market, involved in mergers and acquisitions, and expanding strategic operations overseas. Elster regularly writes and speaks on legal technology, market research and leveraging market data, technology innovations and futures, legal marketing and big data. 

Ari Kaplan joins the podcast to discuss his upcoming Annual Conference & Expo session, "Recovery, Renewal and Reinvention: Navigating the Next Decade."

Ari Kaplan is the author of The Opportunity Maker and Reinventing Professional Services. After nearly nine years practicing with large law firms in New York City, Kaplan – named to the inaugural Fastcase 50 – has become a leading legal industry analyst. In addition to keynoting events in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, he has had the privilege of addressing administrators in 12 ALA chapters and at the Law Firm Financial Management Conference. He is also the founder of Lawcountability®.

Catch Jill and Sally's sesson at ALA's Annual Conference & Expo, titled "Fast Forward: Driving Top-Line Revenue for Your Law Firm." Learn more at www.alanet.org/conf.

Jill Weber is Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer for Stinson Leonard Street, where she created Fast Forward®, a nationally recognized revenue program. Weber appears on the National Law Journal's "50 Business of Law Trailblazers & Pioneers" and was recognized as an "Unsung Legal Hero" by Minnesota Lawyer. She has received 22 local and national Legal Marketing Association (LMA) "Your Honor" awards. She currently serves on the LMA Board of Directors, and attended Harvard Law School's "Leadership in Law Firms" executive education program.

Sally Schmidt is President of Schmidt Marketing, Inc. in Edina, MN, which offers marketing services to law firms. She was a founder and the first President of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA). In 1994, she was inducted as a Fellow into the inaugural class of the College of Law Practice Management. Schmidt was also inducted into the LMA first Hall of Fame in 2007 and is the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Steven Levy joins the podcast to discuss best practices in project management, particularly in law firms. His answer? Simplify. Register for ALA's Annual Conference & Expo to hear Steven speak live.

Steven B. Levy is the author of Legal Project Management and other books. A former senior leader in Microsoft's law department, he now heads Lexician, where he teaches project management, leadership and time management to law firms and departments around the world. His unique and practical approach to project management – based on 35 years managing projects and leading businesses on three continents – has helped numerous law practices become both more effective and more efficient.

Dr. Jeffrey Magee, PDM, CSP, CMC, has been called one of today's leading leadership and marketing strategists. He is the author of more than 20 books, two college textbooks and four bestsellers. He is also the publisher of PERFORMANCE/P360 Magazine, former co-host of the national business entrepreneur program on Catalyst Business Radio, and human capital developer for more than 20 years. Magee has been invited to keynote at many major associations and speak at West Point Military Academy.

Register for ALA's Annual Conference & Expo to attend Magee's session, "Trajectory Code."

Jennifer Hill began recruiting in 2003 and has recruited for top-tier law firms and corporations throughout California. Since 2008, she has been interviewed on both American radio stations and the BBC, as well as appearing on FOX, NBC, ABC and various other television shows as an expert in the field of recruiting and job hunting. Additionally, she has been a featured speaker for groups such as the Los Angeles Paralegal Association, Legal Secretaries Incorporated and the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of ALA and has been invited to speak at law firms such as Sidley Austin, Katten Muchin and Paul Hastings.

Register for ALA's Human Resources Conference for Legal Professionals at www.alanet.org/hr. 

Kristine Sexter, President of WorkWise Productions and FindTrainKeep Great Employees, is an industrial and organizational consultant who has devoted more than 22 years to studying success and professional commitment. She has an extensive background in recruiting, developing and retaining top talent, and has been called "THE" authority in teaching executives and leadership teams how to find, train and keep great employees. She is a professional speaker, consultant and columnist and is the author of six books, including Rolling Out the Recognition: Employee Retention Strategies for Manufacturers.

Sexter will be presenting two sessions at ALA’s upcoming Human Resources Conference for Legal Professionals, February 18-20 in Orlando, Florida, and she’s here today to give us a little preview “Where to Put Your Recruiting Dollars: The Top Five Undisputed Sources for Finding Right-Fit Employees.”

Michael Moore, JD, joins the podcast to discuss some of the factors that are affecting law firms’ ability – or inability – to keep their best employees.

Michael Moore, JD, is the founder of Moore's Law, LLC, and helps both lawyers and law firms create professional success. Moore specializes in individual marketing, client development and leadership coaching. He also advises law firms on strategic planning, growth initiatives and resource optimization. A frequent speaker at ALA events across the country, his current topics have included mentoring, leadership, financial management and strategic planning. Moore is also the author of The Lawyers' Toolkit for Creating Both Personal and Professional Success, an essential resource for every lawyer's library. The short, "how-to" chapters highlight all of the non-legal skills necessary for today's professional lawyer and include illustrative, real-life examples.

Catch his session and many more at ALA’s Human Resources Conference for Legal Professionals. Visit alanet.org/hr for more details. 

Dustin Cole has worked with law firms to help them move successfully through changes, challenges and opportunities, and with attorneys to help them build more successful and satisfying practices. He brings more than 35 years of experience in every phase of business management, business development and team development to his work with the legal profession. He has worked with more than 200 individual attorneys, and provided management and marketing consulting services for more than 3000 firms ranging from solo firms to firms of more than 2000 attorneys.

Catch his session, "Seven Ways Law Firms Lose Money," and many more at ALA’s Human Resources Conference for Legal Professionals. Visit alanet.org/hr for more details.

Leigh Isaacs, IGP, CIP, ERMP, is the Director of Records & Information Governance for White & Case LLP. She has more than 30 years of combined legal and information governance experience. Her expertise includes strategic design and deployment of enterprise programs, development of information management programs, on and off-site storage considerations including outsourcing, process improvements, evaluation and implementation of technology solutions, and the disposition of information for dissolved entities.

Catch Leigh's session, "Outsourcing Records: Risks and Rewards," and many more at ALA’s Human Resources Conference for Legal Professionals. Visit alanet.org/hr for more details.