On Record PR

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Roberta "Bobbi" Liebenberg, senior partner at Fine, Kapan and Black, to discuss steps law firms can take to achieve better diversity within their organizations.

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Bobbi is a senior partner at Fine, Kapan and Black, a law firm in Philadelphia. She is also a principal in The Red Bee Group, a women-owned consulting group devoted to helping clients attain DE&I objectives.

In her law practice, Bobbi focuses her practice on antitrust, class actions, and complex commercial litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. She has devoted considerable time and effort throughout her career to the advancement of women in the profession. She has researched and co-authored groundbreaking, widely cited empirical studies on the underrepresentation of women litigators as lead counsel, the disproportionately high rate of attrition of senior women lawyers, and the effect of the pandemic on women lawyers.

Bobbi has served as chair of numerous organizations devoted to gender equality in the profession, including the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, the ABA Gender Equity Task Force, the ABA Presidential Initiative on Achieving Long Term Careers for Women in Law, DirectWomen (the only organization devoted to increasing the number of women attorneys on corporate boards), the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations' respective committees on women in the profession, and the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness.

In recognition of her professional accomplishments and contributions to gender equality for women lawyers, Bobbi has received numerous prestigious awards and honors, including the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession; the Sandra Day O'Connor Award and Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association; the Lynette Norton Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association; the Florence K. Murray Award from the National Association of Women Judges; the Hortense Ward Courageous Leader Award from the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law; the Martha Fay Africa Golden Hammer Award from the ABA's Law Practice Division; and Lifetime Achievement Awards from Corporate Counsel and Inside Counsel, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Legal Intelligencer. She was named by Pennsylvania's Governor as a "Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania," and The National Law Journal named her as one of the "50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America" and one of the "Elite Women of the Plaintiffs' Bar."

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record Deborah Willig, the managing partner of Willig, Williams & Davidson, who talks about today's fight for the rights of union workers. Deb shares that unions and workers today are in the fight of their lives, battling to retain jobs, increase wages, protect benefits, and strengthen the right to organize.

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A lifelong champion of workers, Deborah Willig has represented unions for more than four decades. She has negotiated on behalf of museum workers, the National Women's Soccer League Players Association, teachers, firefighters, teamsters, hospitality workers and so many more. Deb has shattered the glass ceiling for women and gay lawyers repeatedly. She was the first woman chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association and has been recognized for her work and advocacy with many lifetime achievement awards.

In this episode of On Record PR, Jennifer Simpson Carr goes on record with Katharine Manning, author, and president of Blackbird DC, to discuss empathy in the workplace and how to support co-workers experiencing trauma.

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Katharine Manning is the President of Blackbird DC, which provides training and consultation on empathy at work. She is the author of The Empathetic Workplace: Five Steps to a Compassionate, Calm, and Confident Response to Trauma on the Job. She has worked on issues of trauma and victimization for more than 25 years.

As a senior attorney advisor with the Executive Office for United States Attorneys for 15 years, Kate guided the Justice Department through its response to victims in cases ranging from terrorism to large-scale financial fraud to child exploitation. Some of the cases she advised on include the Boston Marathon bombing, the Pulse nightclub and South Carolina AME church shootings, the uprising in Charlottesville, the Madoff investment fraud, and the federal case against Larry Nassar, doctor for the U.S. Women's Olympic Gymnastics team.

Kate now uses her expertise to help organizations prepare for and respond to the challenges they face involving employees and clients who may be in trauma. A member of the bar in Washington, D.C. and California, Manning also served as an attorney with the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop in San Francisco, where she represented Fortune 500 companies in class actions, insurance, and media cases.

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Brenda Plowman, chief marketing officer at Fasken and the president of the Legal Marketing Association, to discuss what it means to be a legal marketer and the impact of legal marketing on the business of law.

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In her day job, Brenda is the CMO for Fasken, a Canadian-based international law firm with ten offices. She drives change, ensuring that the purpose for transformation is meaningful to clients, lawyers, and staff alike. She leads a talented group of marketing, business development, digital operations, and communications professionals across the firm. For more than 16 years, she has launched brands and led the development of many programs and initiatives, including Fasken's Client Service Excellence program. Before joining the firm, Brenda attended and taught marketing at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She also founded a successful business consultancy, served as the VP of US sales and marketing for a growing company, and has led many respected organizations. Brenda has a small farm in Canada.

In this episode of On Record PR, Jennifer Simpson Carr goes on record with Katrina Dewey, Founder and CEO of Lawdragon, a legal media company that combines the best in legal news reporting on top lawyers and public interest efforts with one of the world's most admired brands in legal recognition.

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Katrina founded Lawdragon in 2005 to create the best resource in the world for news and information on lawyers. She is incredibly proud of the amazing team at the forefront of a media company that is proudly inclusive and forward-thinking. She has had the pleasure of editing some of the best legal writers in the world throughout her career.

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Amy M. Gardner, a Certified Career and Career Transitions Coach and Team Development and Leadership Consultant with Apochromatik, to discuss building and engaging teams.

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Amy M. Gardner works with law firms and other employers to reengage teams and help them thrive by improving relationships, strengthening emotional intelligence, building leadership skills, developing resilience, having difficult conversations, and more. Amy also works with lawyers one-on-one and in small group Future in Focus Attorney Masterminds to advance in their roles or transition to a new one. She regularly delivers trainings on subjects including time and stress management, managing conflict, building trust, goal achievement, emotional intelligence, and career topics.

Amy is a former Big Law associate, partner at a mid-size Chicago firm, and dean of students at the University of Chicago Law School. She holds a master's degree from Northwestern University, JD from the University of Chicago, and BA from Luther College. She holds certifications in team and leadership coaching, 1:1 coaching, and assessment certifications including the EQi-2.0.

Her career and goal achievement advice has been featured in media including numerous podcasts, ABA publications, Bustle, Corporette, Glassdoor, Health, Law360, Monster, NBC, and Women's Running magazine. Amy's service to the legal profession includes serving on the Illinois Committee on Character and Fitness and the Governance Committee for the Institute for Well-Being in Law.

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Sarah Dadush and Olivia Windham Stewart, leaders of the Business and Human Rights Law Program at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey. They discuss ESG for global businesses and innovative legal mechanisms for improving the social and environmental performance of transnational corporations.

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Sarah Dadush is the founding director of the Law School's Business & Human Rights Law Program. She is also a co-leader of an ABA Business Law Section Working Group that has developed a comprehensive toolkit for upgrading international supply contracts to protect workers' human rights better. Her research and teaching lie at the intersection of business and human rights, and her work explores innovative legal mechanisms for improving the social and environmental performance of transnational corporations.

Olivia Windham Stewart is an independent business and human rights specialist, Senior Fellow, and Deputy Director of the Business and Human Rights Law Program. She works on a range of projects to enhance corporate accountability and supply chain due diligence across sectors. Olivia has worked extensively in production countries worldwide, particularly in South and Southeast Asia.

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Deborah Farone, founder of Farone Advisors, LLC, to discuss best practices for personal business development for lawyers and other professionals.

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Deborah Farone has had the unique opportunity to play a role in developing the best practices in professional services marketing by working with the most respected and most demanding lawyers in the world.

Deborah is the author of the best-selling legal marketing book, "Best Practices: Marketing and Business Development for Law Firms" (PLI 2019), a work based on more than sixty interviews with successful law firm leaders and marketers, general counsel, and innovators in the profession. Heidi K. Gardner, PhD, Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Law School's Center on the Legal Profession, has called Deborah "the leading expert in law firm marketing. Not only has she studied this complex topic from the peak of the legal profession, her research into what works and what doesn't is priceless for anyone interested in growing their business." The book is carried by bookstores of the United States' highest ranked law schools, including Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

Over the past two decades, Deborah has carved out a niche by distinguishing herself as the chief marketing officer of two of the world's most prestigious law firms, Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Prior to diving into the legal marketing profession, she honed her business development and communications skills by working at the global management consulting firm Towers Perrin, now Willis Towers Watson. In her early days, she worked both in the new business department and as an account executive at Ketchum Communications.

Deborah has been involved in the corporate and academic arena. She recently spoke at McKinsey & Company's legal department and, on the academic side, at the University of Pennsylvania's Carey Law School, Cornell Law School and Fordham Law School. She has served as an adjunct Assistant Professor on the faculty of New York University.

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Mo Bunnell, CEO of Bunnell Idea Group, to discuss how professionals can develop their business development skills. Learn how complex skills and learned and earned, why people hate to be sold to, but they love to buy, and how to develop a system to bring in the work you want, deepen the relationships you want the most, and create systems that fit within your demanding schedule.

In this episode of On Record PR, Jennifer Simpson Carr goes on record with David Hubbard, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Verizon, to discuss what it takes to build an inclusive and authentic workplace.