Legal Management Talk

This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Innovative Computing Systems' Chief Operating Officer Eric Hoffmaster joins the program to discuss how creating layers to your organization's cybersecurity is one of the most effective ways to prevent an attack. Plus, he explains which layers may be necessary to qualify for cyber insurance and how bad actors are using AI to make their attacks even more complex.

Amid the current political and social climate, several organizations have begun to roll back their diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) programs. But is this just a passing trend or a more permanent reassessment of the role DEIA plays in the workplace? Ann Thomas, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Stinson LLP, joins the program to discuss the state of DEIA today, how firms of different sizes should approach their DEIA initiatives, and how clients are still looking for their firms to show progress on diversity and inclusion.

When the Middle Tennessee Chapter lost one of their own to suicide, chapter members worked through their grief by taking action and forming a Mental Health Task Force. In this episode, task force members Teresa J. Walker, CLM, Tennessee Private Trust Services Director at Holland & Knight LLP, and Dana L. Holsomback, CLM, Office Administrator at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC, share what they’ve learned, issue a call to action for other ALA chapters and remember their friend Jennie and their #LovedJennie movement.

Customer service may seem like a lost art nowadays, but for your legal organization, that means it's more important than ever to get it right. In this episode, Richard Culberson, Chief Executive Officer of Moneypenny and Voice Nation, North America, discusses how to ensure your intake process makes a great first impression on potential clients and how to adapt it to the market you're in.

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, track analytics and get a large return on your investment. ALA's Marketing Administrator (and resident Swiftie) Meghann Krone also joins the show to explain how capitalizing on trends is a great way to gain exposure.

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. 

What can penguins teach us about instituting change at your firm? Shaun Jardine, lawyer and author of Ditch the Billable Hour, and his sidekick Declan the Penguin answer that question through the lens of shifting your billing method to value-based pricing (VBP). VBP can be a good way to consolidate the many different billable hour policies attorneys have while offering clients the quantity and quality of service they desire. We also talk about managing mindset changes and how billing policies can affect other key areas of legal administration, such as succession planning and recruiting young talent. 

Speaker Bio: 

As a lawyer and former Chief Executive Officer of a Top 250 UK law firm, Shaun Jardine has insight into what makes firms and their staff tick. He is the author of Ditch The Billable Hour! Implementing Value-Based Pricing in a Law Firm, which was published in January 2024. Jardine founded Big Yellow Penguin in 2021 with the aim of encouraging and helping lawyers and law firms to adopt practices, including value-based pricing, that will make their futures more secure — both financially and operationally — and enjoy practicing their craft again.

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.

Speaker Bio

Kriti Sharma is Chief Product Officer of Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, focusing on leveraging technology to transform professional work. Sharma was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for advancements in technology. She is a Google Grace Hopper Scholar and a winner of the Google Women in Engineering Award. Her TED talk has been viewed more than two million times. In 2017, Sharma founded AI for Good UK, an organization that's using AI and data to help solve some of the toughest global challenges of our time.