December 2021

Capital Connection is published monthly for members of the Capital Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators to provide information for the education and benefit of legal administrators, law office managers, managing partners of law firms, and other law related associations. Capital Connection is not engaged in rendering legal, financial, or tax counseling or advice through this publication. The contents of all articles, letters, and advertisements published in Capital Connection should not be considered endorsements by the Capital Chapter of ALA nor the opinion expressed therein of any products advertised.  Contributing authors are requested and expected to disclose financial and/or professional interests and affiliations that may influence their writing position. Articles and materials accepted for publication are subject to editing by the editorial team and become property of the Capital Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. Links to Capital Connection may not be shared without permission from the Chapter. 
Editors: Amy Walkowiak; Emmanuel Adedigba
​Contributing Editors: Robert J. Bieber; Tania José; Jaclyn Randolph; Willie Wilson-Herring; Race Sorden
Newsletter Designed By: Jessica Davis


In this issue:

President's Message

Robert J. Bieber

Holiday Giving and Holiday Luncheon Highlights

Tania José
DC Office Administrator & Firm Human Resource Manager, Klein Hornig LLP
Vice President, Community Services

​The ALA Capital Chapter December Holiday Luncheon on Wednesday, December 8th was a nice way for community service representatives, business partners, and chapter members to come together. The luncheon provided a great opportunity for everyone to catch-up in person. Some people had not seen one another since the Fall event at Top Golf. The non-profit organizations who were invited to the holiday luncheon included Safe Shores, The House DC, N Street Village, and Bright Beginnings.

Leading up to this holiday luncheon, the ALA Capital Chapter hosted a Holiday Giving Campaign. The campaign not only supported the aforementioned non-profit organizations, but also the ALA National Foundation and Toni K. Allen Scholarship. Members and business partners were invited to donate directly to the aforementioned non-profit organizations. The non-profit organizations were pleased with the outcome and look forward to partnering again with the ALA in 2022. For the Toni K. Allen Scholarship, the Chapter partnered with Your Charity for an online Silent Auction. Through the generous contributions of our members and business partners, the Chapter raised $527.13 for the scholarship.

The winners of the Silent Auction were: 
  • Julie Tomey
  • Katherine Parrish 
  • Jessica Davis
  • Jonna Hurt
  • Valerie Williamson
  • Helen Woideck
  • JaneAnne Gorman
  • Marie Woods
  • Lori Bernstein 
  • Barbara Kernus 
Congratulations winners! 

We thank everyone for attending the holiday luncheon and for supporting the Toni K. Allen Scholarship! On behalf of the Chapter, we wish everyone a Healthy and Happy Holiday Season and Happy New Year!

How Robots Are Changing Construction – For the Better

Jaclyn Randolph
Contributor, HITT Contracting

It’s no secret that the construction industry is facing a historic workforce shortage. Even if construction firms hired every new architecture, engineering, and construction graduate or trained tradesperson on the market, a backlog of projects would still exist. The industry is currently experiencing a surge in demand for commercial construction including law firm projects and a significant shortage of additional skilled workers. Because of this, a forward-thinking wave of general contractors is working to find unique ways to fill this emerging talent gap and investing heavily in tech practices through innovations in robotics and smart software solutions. General contractors of the 21st century and a new tech-savvy generation of workers will forge the path to success by embracing what’s next.

HITT Contracting, a major commercial construction firm based in the Washington, D.C. area, is one industry innovator elevating the business of building. Recognized by Building Design + Construction as the #2 Top Workplace / Interiors Fit-out Contractors in the United States for 2021, HITT has wide experience with office and law firm construction as well as a variety of other work types such as ground-up builds, data centers, and industrial construction. As a top general contractor, they are not immune to the challenges of today’s market. HITT is actively working to make projects more efficient and safer for construction workers on the job, implementing advanced ways to streamline construction and compelling strategies to revolutionize the industry – including robotics.

“Working on field robotics stems from our leadership’s strategic vision to push the construction industry forward, but also directly from our site operations team’s input,” shared Megan Lantz, Vice President of Research & Development at HITT. “Our operations team shared their needs, and research and development got to work. We are actively innovating around better data collection and creating solutions designed to support our day-to-day operations teams, enhancing their job experience, and protecting our greatest asset – our people.”

Through collaboration with on-site teams, HITT’s R&D team identified gaps and partnered with robotics experts to deliver their own spec-designed tool to improve the worker experience, increase productivity, and improve communication on the jobsite – all within a tech-enabled workflow. The hardware solution is designed to show real-time remote views of jobsites. In early testing of the robot in the field and at Co|Lab, HITT’s designated space for research and development, their R&D team identified a list of improvements and new use cases to integrate to the development path moving forward – iterating through experimentation.

Many ready-to-use field robotics already exist and can be applied on construction projects today. California-based Doxel’s robots use artificial intelligence to autonomously scan project progress daily and generate reports that show discrepancies or problem areas when compared with blueprints. Dusty Robotics has a machine that prints directly onto concrete and automates the chalk line and tape measure process down to just one-sixteenth of an inch. Hilti’s Jaibot is designed to support installation execution by marking and drilling overhead anchor holes. 

In July, HITT collaborated with Hilti to implement the semi-autonomous Jaibot to drill ceiling anchors at the new Washington Area Metro Transit Authority (WMATA) headquarters site in New Carrolton, Md. The approximately 350,000-square-foot, 11-story jobsite is the first large project where the Jaibot has been utilized in the United States. Typically, with a crew of three tradespeople, it would take 10 days to complete this work, using scissor lifts and other safety equipment to make sure that the individuals were able to do the elevated drilling work safely and accurately. With the Jaibot, HITT’s project team and subcontractors were able to complete 262 new anchors in four hours. With this hyper-efficient pace, the 10-day task was completed in just four days, relieving construction workers from the strenuous and potentially dangerous task of locating and drilling holes overhead. Instead, their focus shifted to more valuable tasks such as installing systems and other project milestones.

"Jaibot is a groundbreaking solution and a true partner to the construction worker,” said Aidan Maguire, Business Unit Manager for Measuring at Hilti. “The strenuous, time consuming effort of drilling and marking thousands of anchor holes on a project is now a task a robot can do. What we’ve done is connect the application know-how, relevant technology, and the worker. This is another step into fully realizing the BIM-to-field concept. We’re helping contractors deliver greater output and productivity and at the same time ensuring workers operate in safer environments."

Joe Gonzalez, HITT’s Project Executive on the WMATA site, said, “I was amazed with how intuitive the Jaibot was for our teams to use and how quickly we were able to complete the work after a short training, guidance, and layout confirmation of the space. There’s certainly an advantage to deploying robotics like it on a jobsite, saving our teams from difficult, dangerous, and tiring repetitive tasks and completing them with easy oversight and remarkable precision.”

While the Jaibot makes work more efficient and safer, other robotics can alleviate traditionally physically taxing construction jobs. Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, Spot, can climb stairs, open doors, and navigate planned paths or missions. In 2021, HITT obtained their own Spot robot to use on jobsites. Their team recently utilized Spot and its robotic “arm” on a multi-floor law firm build-out in Washington, D.C. in November. This “arm” enables the robot to be more independent than other devices, allowing it to move through an entire interiors space on its own and opening doors without a team member’s assistance. With this upgrade, the team recently navigated the entire multi-floor interior of the law firm build-out with ease, capturing reality of the current work for the client to see virtually.  

HITT’s diversity of project types require a fleet of hardware solutions, and after experiencing Spot’s capabilities, HITT’s team decided to implement the robot on many more vertically integrated tenant projects to lessen the daily impact on their team members.

Construction is booming right now, and robotic solutions have opened the door for general contractors to stay ahead of the game by protecting their top resource – their people – while helping them be more nimble, efficient, and safe as they deliver record numbers of projects in the coming years.

To learn more about HITT Contracting’s law firm construction capabilities, visit www.hitt.com/lawfirms

​Community Service Spotlight: The House DC

Willie Wilson-Herring
Director of Operations, at The House DC

The House DC, Inc. (“The House”) is a non-profit organization located in the Anacostia community of Southeast Washington, DC, in Ward 8. Ward 8 ranks first among all DC Wards in gun violence, poverty, unemployment, welfare dependency, drug and alcohol abuse, single parent households, underperforming schools, school truancy, and teen pregnancy.  More specifically, we are located on 17th Street – a street formerly known as “Murder Row”. Born out of a passion to provide a safe place for youth to hang out after school, these formerly abandoned buildings that were once used as “crack houses” are now the setting for programs that offer young people opportunities for healthy relationships, life changing experiences, and a change of heart.

Our traditional programming provides a youth center for high-school age youth to come after school. In our 22 years, however, our reach has expanded. The House breaks cycles of poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and unemployment in Anacostia by providing comprehensive services to help at-risk youth and families establish healthy and sustainable futures. Whether that assistance is in the form of a warm meal for our students to cultivate a familial culture after school, mentorship throughout college matriculation, bi-weekly distribution of fresh groceries and other necessities, or funds during times of dire need, The House has become a beacon of hope in one of the most dangerous districts in the city.

Success stories abound for former House DC students: Tijá, who came to The House as a self-proclaimed fighter, utilized our office space to “work from home” for a reputable law firm as she studied for her LSAT. Brian, a licensed masseuse, helped start the Life Skills Program and has since come back to The House DC as a speaker. Andre went through our Life Skills program and, with the help of House staff, got his CDL and has been employed ever since. Antwan, Calvin, and Jacob are all small business owners. AJ, who came to The House as a part of a neighborhood gang, was mentored by House staff, graduated from high school, became gainfully employed, rose to a managerial position, and then became a pathway for Davon, a shooting victim, to get a job from that same company. Britney identified so strongly with our mission that she volunteered with The House after graduation and now serves as our Director of Programs. Countless House Alumni express how, with the help of The House DC, they have become loving parents despite having inactive ones, college graduates despite no familiarity with the process, and productive members of society despite the brutal obstacles they have faced. We could go on for days about all the lives that have been touched by the work of The House DC. For some, these accomplishments are small. But for those with knowledge of the hopelessness that our youth experience because of hunger, physical and emotional abuse, homelessness, threats of violence, economic instability, and the like, we celebrate every blessing. Notably, our hands-on approach to youth and community engagement has been highlighted and/or studied by organizations like the Washington Post, PBS, and Baylor University. 

This work, however, requires significant fundraising and partnership. Each year, The House is privileged to partner with individuals, groups, churches, and businesses who respect the rapport that House staff have developed with the community and endeavor to support it. Churches have renovated our Girl’s Room, organizations have assisted with mailing our publications to our donors, and businesses have faithfully organized fundraisers on behalf of The House. Despite the pandemic, we have celebrated 21 years of our Annual Golf Tournament and three years of our newest fall fundraiser, the Candy Corn 5K. 

Today, as we adjust to the ever-changing needs of a community ravaged by the pandemic, we are incredibly grateful for all who are willing to support our work on the frontlines. The Association of Legal Administrators understands, better than most, the significance of having reliable support to accomplish a mission. Accordingly, in addition to our request for financial contributions, we would be honored to engage volunteers in one of our historical ways, or new ways, like organizing a drive (coats, non-perishables, etc.) for items that we can distribute to the community throughout the year. We thank you in advance for your support and invite each of you to join us as we break cycles and build futures of hope in the Southeast DC community!

4 Simple Ways to Protect Data from an IT Service Desk Expert

Race Sorden
Service Desk Lead, Frontline Managed Services

A company’s IT service desk is the frontline defense against technical issues and cybercrimes. Technology plays a vital role in enabling productivity and improving the bottom line. Unfortunately, technology doesn’t always work exactly as expected, and with technology’s integral role in most daily tasks, a technical issue can quickly become more than minor inconvenience. Tech issues can inhibit teams from doing their jobs effectively, and when issues are left unattended, the risk of a breach increases significantly.

Here are a few simple ways that you can troubleshoot issues, protect your data and leverage service desk professionals.

1. Report
As a service desk lead, I’ve found that getting the best results from an IT service desk involves a team effort between the service desk team and the client.  Quality information is comprehensive. Cover all your bases, be mindful of your variables, and verify your measurements.

When you have questions and you’re on the phone with IT, introduce the issue at hand by recreating it. Every click, whir and stall in the process is important. How many documents are you trying to send to that printer? Did you see a yellow bar in that spreadsheet and click “Enable macros” before you could start working on it? Starting from the top lets your IT expert study the whole process. That way, they can diagnose the issue and walk you through the resolution.  

2. Rest
We’ve all heard it, “have you tried turning it off and back on again?”

Restarts work. They work because when a restart is initiated, the computer’s built-in team of automatic doctors will clear out all the electronic detritus that builds up in a device’s memory. Restarts stop all software and services, clean up the space and ensure everything is up to date.

3. Update
Malicious actors target the weakest links. When a service desk representative discovers and reports exploits, they are usually quick to patch the problem and ensure their clients’ safety. Hackers count on individuals leaving machines on, passing over updates, and saying to themselves, “I’ll get to it later.” Hackers will attempt a handful of attacks on a given machine to expose vulnerabilities and simply move forward with what sticks. The attacker in question will receive a report of infected computers once the deed is done, seizing the power of your machine for their botnet or crypto mining project.

4. Recover
Save early. Save often. Save to the cloud. Ransomware is a big business. If you find yourself in a position where your data has been compromised and your machine overtaken, encrypted, and demanding some ridiculous sum of bitcoin, shut down your device and call the service desk immediately. Your service desk will be able to restore the device and protect data. Consistent backups are one of the best security defenses and will allow you to continue your work without missing a beat.
​
IT may look like techno-wizardry, but it’s really a system of policies, procedures, and models that serves the digital infrastructure of our organizations. Next time you have an issue, use these tips to troubleshoot and engage your IT service desk anytime you need added support. 

December 2021 Diversity Observances

Click here to view the full list of December observances

Administrative Committees

Communications and Media Relations
As members of the Newsletter and Media Relations Committee, Chapter members participate in producing the award-winning Capital Connection. Members gather to brainstorm new ideas for editorial themes for upcoming editions. The newsletter reports Chapter business activities such as Community and Committee news and provides information about upcoming educational and other events. It also includes articles of interest to members and other legal management personnel, collected, authored and/or edited by members of the committee. This committee also works with other legal associations and the media to ensure that ALA and the Capital Chapter are represented in the legal industry.

Contact:  Amy Walkowiak (Chair), awalkowiak@perkinscoie.com; Emmanuel Adedigba (Co-Chair), EAdedigba@zuckerman.com
​
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
The mission of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee is to advance the concepts of inclusiveness and acceptance in every organization by providing all Chapter members with information so that they can merge these concepts with their firm's policies, procedures, culture, and relationships to be more equitable and inclusive.  We not only strive to raise awareness, but also to increase our sensitivity in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion and more closely reflect the diversity of our community at large. Having a more inclusive and diverse legal community will improve the quality of our organizations’ workforces and respond to our clients’ requirements for diversity. The DEI Committee meets on the first Wednesday of each month and we welcome all members to join us for discussion on how to further our mission in our firms and in our Chapter.  
 
Contact:  Angela Tyson (Chair), atyson@axinn.com
Salary Survey
The Salary Survey Committee is responsible for maintaining, updating and running the local survey each year. They review the positions listed, the job descriptions, and the benefits questions to ensure that the survey remains relevant to the end users. The members of the committee also promote the survey within the Chapter to stimulate participation. 

Contact: Herb Abercrombie Jr. (Chair), HAbercrombie@jenner.com



​

Member Experience
The Member Experience Committee will establish a welcoming environment for new members to be integrated into the Chapter through a formal Ambassador Program. Ambassadors will provide support and guidance to new members through their first 12 months of membership, ensuring new members realize benefits of membership and become ambassadors of the Chapter. If you would like more information and/or are interested in becoming an Ambassador, please contact the Chair or Co-Chair.

Contact: LaVerne Anenia (Chair), LaVerne.Anenia@dbr.com; Kim Santaiti-Potter (Co-Chair), kim.potter@alston.com


Educational Communities

Small Firm and Branch Office Administrators
The Small Firm and Branch Office Administrators Community focuses on a broad range of topics of interest to local administrators who must coordinate with other offices of their firms, as well as to provide administrators of law firms with 35 or fewer attorneys educational opportunities through vendor presentations, idea sharing and open forums specifically designed for those who work in smaller firms.. The Community's monthly luncheon meetings, held on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 12:30 pm, provide a venue for members to discuss issues of common interest, share ideas, and network. Members are encouraged to raise topics and to recommend speakers. 

Contact: Starr Pratt (Chair), spratt@ftlf.com; Lodora Barnes (Chair), lbarnes@sheppardmullin.com
Listserv: branch@lists.alacapchap.org and smallfirm@lists.alacapchap.org
​
​
Legal Operations
The members of the Legal Operations Community represent a cross section of legal expertise from functional administrators to branch office managers. The Community meets on the second Thursday of each month at noon. We welcome all members to join the section, especially if you are an administrator in a small law office and you have to wear multiple hats. We can provide you with many best practices to run your operation smoothly.

Contact:  Janelle E. Rynes (Chair), janelle.rynes@arentfox.com
Listserv: legalops@lists.alacapchap.org
Human Resources
The Human Resources Community operates as a venue for educational information on global human resources issues.  While the Community is mostly comprised of HR professionals, any member is invited to participate in the meetings which typically take place on the second or third Wednesday of each month.  The meetings feature industry speakers or roundtable discussions on topics such as recruiting, benefits, strategic planning, performance management, career pathing, retention and other matters of interest.

Contact: Brenda Simoes (Chair), bsimoes@reedsmith.com;  Julie Hooper (Co-Chair), jhooper@gibsondunn.com
Listserv: hr@lists.alacapchap.org

​

​
Next Generation Leaders
The mission of the Next Generation Leaders Community is to support our next generation of leaders and close the gap faced by our association and the legal industry as a whole by providing a community for Millennial legal managers and new managers in the legal field with a focus on mentoring, education, and networking. To accomplish this goal, the section hosts monthly meetings, pop-up events, and educational sessions, and provides 2-way mentoring opportunities. 
​

Contact: Ana Sobalvarro (Chair), asobalvarro@bomcip.com
Listserv: nextgen@lists.alacapchap.org