October 2020

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: Cindy Conover;  Beth Fowler
​Contributing Editors: Jackie Johnson; Rhodes Perry; Courtney Leonard; Sara Harmon; Heinan Landa; Cheryl Flynn; Catalina Mejia; Spencer X Smith
Newsletter Designed By: Jessica Davis


In this issue:

President's Message: A Conversation Over Coffee –  Truth Be Told 

“Well truth be told
The truth is rarely told
Oh am I the only one who says
I'm fine, yeah I'm fine, oh I'm fine, hey I'm fine, but I'm not”
- Matthew West​
I will be honest, my day today started with me finding my go-to list of feeling words so that I could go through and just evaluate where I am.  Yesterday was a hot mess.  I may have mentioned this before, but I did not become a teacher for a reason.  Children are professional button-pushers, at least mine is.  They can drop you to your knees with a quick slash of the tongue, and on top of an already crazy day between work and ALA – I was DONE!  I found myself sitting on the floor (and if I am truly honest, in tears) contemplating how I could have handled a number of situations better.  I felt like I was failing at every facet of my life.  Ever go down that rabbit hole?  Are you there now?  I do not like feeling out of control.  As Administrators, we are the ones who hold down the fort for everyone else.  We are the ones who deal with others’ problems.  But sometimes, behind the façade, there are days we are barely holding on, which I find to be the case more so these days in the “new normal” than previously was the case.  I think we like to have a sense of control that just does not exist right now.  If you find yourself shaking your head in agreement, please know you are not alone.

Way back before COVID happened…
See this picture right here?  This was us in February.  Days later our world was turned upside down.  A friend lost a husband.  Another friend had an incredibly hard road to recovery to climb.  And then COVID hit, which meant we lost the ability to see, support and encourage each other in person.  When we needed each other most, we could not physically lay eyes on each other to see for ourselves whether we were okay or not okay.

We have met and melded at different times over the last 4 years, resulting in these fierce female friendships you see.  We have collectively walked through five job changes, a divorce, a remarriage, loss of a spouse, loss of a sibling, loss of a beloved pet, the introduction of a new family dog, the sale of a home where children were raised, and more recently, COVID and virtual learning (see above on how that is going-- one of us even had to leave in the middle of our coffee to take care of school work).   

Pretty much every President’s message I have written references a support system and choosing people around you who will make you better and not just agree with you.  These ladies are my support system, the ones who keep me sane, firmly planted and humble.  The ones who make me laugh, sometimes so much so I even spit out my coffee.  They are my feeder roots who supply necessary nutrients to keep me alive and growing, but they are also my anchor roots that ground me.  Thank you to Adele (who unfortunately could not join us for coffee), Anjanette, Blythe, Julie, Linda and Shera. 

Truth is - it is not all rainbows and butterflies

If you can relate, know that you are far from alone.  2020 has been less than ideal for most of us.  It is a year many of us could ever have imagined was possible in our wildest nightmares and it clearly seems that we just keep waiting to see what is next!  As one of us said, days are passing and we just aim to find something to be grateful about to feel good for 3 ½ seconds.  Some in our group have not found a silver-lining other than that we are still alive.  Sound familiar?  For me the silver-lining of COVID is the time for my new family to grow, but this does not mean that I am oblivious to the fact that had this been a year earlier, it would have been a whole different ball game - I would have done this alone and I do not think I could have walked it as easily that way.  I acknowledge that there are some of us who are walking it alone, whether by choice or by circumstance.  You can also be surrounded by people and still be alone.  Just because it is a rough time for some of us, it does not take away from the good things experienced by others.  We do not compare who is suffering more.  We rejoice with those who rejoice, and we weep with those who weep.  

Our current and past lives provide good life lessons that are meant to be shared so others can learn from them and so we can grow from them.  It may not all be rainbows and butterflies, which do not start out that way -- they start as rain and caterpillars.  They have to get through the storm and the growth period to become what they were created to be.  

Here are lessons learned at a behind-the-scenes peek at what conversations over coffee look like with my support system (though a much-censored version).  As one of us mentioned, this is so important because it is a raw reveal of what we are feeling.  It is validation that we are not alone, and I hope it is validation that you are not alone as well.  

  • ”Lie #1 – You're supposed to have it all together.  The truth is…the truth is rarely told.”  “Close your eyes.  Open your heart.  Tell your story.  Look around at who’s still there.  Those are your people”. – Tanya Markul.  Being honest, both with yourself and those around you, is the only way to move forward and to grow.  It leads to trust.  And, if more people were truthful more often and you saw more of their true reality and less of what their “Facebook-reality” looks like, I think we would not hold ourselves to a standard of “having it all together” that NO ONE has actually achieved.  I admitted right there for you, in my opening paragraph, that some days my life is a hot mess and I am struggling.  I needed to say that because someone needed to hear that!  One of us recently sent the group an article on “allostatic load.” Have you heard of it?  If not, look it up.  I imagine you may be able to relate as we did.  The term refers to “the mental and physical effects of constant exposure to stress.”   As the article ticked off symptoms and referenced all of the reasons 2020 has caused our stress-response systems to be on high alert, it clicked.  One of us said it was nice to finally have a term for what we are feeling – fatigued, exhausted and numb.  

    If we can give ourselves grace that the truth is that no one has it together, then we can fully embrace the opportunities to make ourselves better and stop pretending.  As Administrators, we have always been responsible for taking care of people.  We may be going through the same thing as our employees, not feeling like ourselves, but we still have to carry on in that “I am fine” mode.  We do not do as good of a job of taking care of ourselves as we do of taking care of others.  Under the surface we may be crumbling, but we pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and put on our lipstick (or Chapstick) and handle it!  Being confined has brought things to the surface for a lot of people and we may no longer feel like superheroes – but hear me, the cape is still there!  Set smaller, more manageable goals. Be even more mindful about eating, sleeping, and exercising to restore your depleted reserves, and find a support system you can tell the truth to.  

  • “Lie #2 -- Everybody's life is perfect except yours”.  The truth is…life is tough, but so are you.  See above.  Nobody’s life is perfect, even if they are showing you that it is.  We cannot see what is going on behind the scenes, or what filter and angle they used to get that perfect shot.  Know that everyone you meet is facing something different that you might not be able to see.  Butplease, be as gentle and patient with yourself as you would be with them.  Just because our lives are not perfect does not mean we are not killing it!  In fact, someone else may be looking at us and thinking our life is perfect.  It is our responsibility to build relationships where we can let that “perfect” image go.  Trying to hold that façade up by yourself will only compound the stress.  Ask them to grab a corner!  What I have found though, is the more vulnerable I am (see my Diversity & Inclusion Spotlight video from September), the more the doors of communication open.  As a result, people feel more comfortable sharing their stories.  And that is how we do life TOGETHER.

  • “And when it's out of control I say it's under control but it's not.”  The truth is…I could not do my job without ALA.  I have said it a million times – I could not do my job without ALA.  The legal industry is ever changing, and there is always something to learn.  As one of us said, even if we have been in the business for 25 years, we still need input.  We know how to deal with what we are used to, but it is ok to not know everything and to admit that you need someone to bounce something new off of.  One of us received a message they needed to deal with while we were having our coffee chat, and even though we were engaged in talking about what our support system meant, we still spent a substantial amount of time talking shop.  ALA goes beyond just making our jobs easier.  It is not just the immense amount of knowledge we receive, it is the friendships we build.  If not for ALA, we would never have met because we are so different.  We transcend all ages, races, and political parties. Some are Christian, some not, and all of us in different seasons of our careers and our lives; but we get each other.  Only those in our shoes can understand what we balance, and our struggle to keep it all together.  My husband can listen to me and empathize, but he can never fully understand. My support system can feel the struggle to their core, and often times have walked in the same shoes I am currently walking in.  Do not discount ALA as a place to find your people.  They are there.

  • “I don't know why it's so hard to admit it.  When being honest is the only way to fix it”.  The truth is…we weren’t made to do life alone.  Our group started a text string that at least one of us tends to each day since COVID.  Some days it is one message that gets sent, some days I pick up my phone and have missed 99 texts, and fortunately when that happens we have some very good recappers in our group to catch me up.   Sometimes we do not respond because we do not feel we have anything to add, but we allow that space to ebb and flow, without judgment.  Where one fades out, another picks up and carries the ball.  One of us said in her personal situation, without this group it would have been excruciating.  Her family is not here physically, but she has us.  And what is so beneficial for us is that we can go off the grid but know that if needed, any one of us would be there in a minute.  The gratitude we have for each other goes a long way, especially when we may be feeling underappreciated by others around us.  Be intentional and continue to build strong support systems and do not try to do this life alone.  
One of my favorite parts of our support system is that we operate in a judgment-free zone and we love each other as boldly because of our similarities as we do because of our differences.  As one of us said, let that bring you hope that there are more good people and common ground, than not.  As Administrators, we wear so many hats --  at times it is hard to know which one we currently have on. But do not forget that under that suit jacket (or let us be real, currently it is more likely under that sweatshirt), the cape is also there.  Know that we are all still superheroes.  Know our worth is not dependent on the way we feel right now.  This is not a normal time for anyone.  And you are not alone.  

But, let me reframe something for you for a minute.  I recently heard the idea of instead of saying “going back to normal” or the “new normal,” we say go back to “better than normal?”  I challenge you to embrace a better normal.  When you fall off the horse, get back on, do not just stay on the ground.  Know that sometimes it is good to reminisce and look back at the good times when we were in-person, but also know that they will be back again.  And when my support system is able to get together again, as one of us said, I hope our time together is filled with love, laughter, antics, inappropriate comments and rap music.  I hope the same for when we can get back together as a Chapter (minus the inappropriate comments and rap music, of course).  In case you needed to hear it today, the truth is you are awesome, you are not alone, and you are doing better than you think.  

*Lessons learned headings stolen from Matthew West song – “Truth Be Told”.  
Jackie Johnson

New and Returning ALA Capital Chapter Members

Morgan Rohrhofer  
Legal Support Director
Wilkinson Walsh LLP
2001 M St., N.W.
10th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
mrohrhofer@wilkinsonwalsh.com

Marie Cashel
Human Resources Coordinator
Carr Maloney PC
2020 K St., N.W. 
Suite 850
Washington, DC DC 20006
marie.cashel@carrmaloney.com

Christie Fleeman
Benefits Coordinator
Keller and Heckman LLP
1001 G St., N.W.
Suite 500 West
Washington, DC 20001
fleeman@khlaw.com 
Christina Aguino  
Operations Manager
Perkins Coie LLP
700 13th St., N.W.
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
caguino@perkinscoie.com

Khali B Jones
Office Admin Coordinator
Davis Wright Tremaine
​khalijones@dwt.com  

In Memoriam

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Capital Chapter Business Partner, HITT Contracting’s Chairman Emeritus, Russell A. Hitt, who passed away peacefully on September 14th. Our thoughts are with the HITT family and their employees. 

Learn How to Virtually Build Belonging

Rhodes Perry
Founder & CEO, ​Rhodes Perry Consulting, LLC

Originally written on April 9, 2020 shortly after many people in the United States were instructed to stay at home and quarantine to minimize harm caused from COVID-19.

"It is Better to Light a Candle than to Curse the Darkness" - Eleanor Roosevelt

In an effort to support those of us committed to building a sense of safety, trust and belonging at work, my firm is hosting six weeks of community calls designed to build social solidarity while sharing ways we can all lead inclusively during COVID-19.

The Community Calls take place every Monday at 1 PM Pacific/4 PM Eastern Time. On our kick-off call, many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) leaders gathered to connect, share ways they are showing up as inclusive leaders during these challenging times at work, at home, and in their communities.

The group also offered support in the areas where we felt stuck, uncertain and concerned about how we can continue honoring our DEI commitments in this moment. Several key concerns were vocalized on this first call, including:
  • How do we keep our DEI goals on track during COVID-19?
  • How can we lead inclusively, using a DEI lens in response to this global crisis?
  • What role, if any, can employee resource groups (ERGs) play to provide support?

In addition to these three concerns, many wanted to gain strategies on how to build a sense of safety, trust and belonging in virtual meeting spaces like Zoom. As more workplaces move to the virtual conference room, many DEI champions are seeking support on identifying promising practices.

After our first call, we conducted this poll to help us focus on these common concerns. Based on the responses, it was clear that our second community call ought to focus on ways of building belonging in our virtual work.

The following strategies featured below were developed from the collective wisdom of the Belonging at Work (BAW) Community. We strongly encourage you to consider these strategies as you look for ways to build belonging in your virtual work.

Feeling Included Starts with Technology. To cultivate a sense of safety, trust and belonging in virtual communities, we must first ensure that our team members have access to the technology that makes room for clear communication between all stakeholders. To ensure equitable access to technology, here are a few considerations the BAW Community offered:
  • Create a technology cheat sheet like this one if you use Zoom.
  • Host tech check-ins with your team in advance to troubleshoot participation barriers.
  • Ask your colleagues to inform team leaders of accessibility needs prior to a virtual meeting.
  • Share wireless connection with colleagues by lending loaner tablets to create hotspots.
  • Set-up closed captioning with video conferencing technology such as Zoom Rooms.
  • Check-in on technology needs at the top of the agenda for every meeting.
  • Ask your team for promising practices to continually improve technology experiences,
  • Use breakout rooms for groups larger than 5 people to include more voices & ideas.

Allow Your Team to Succeed with Established Meeting Values. Establishing virtual meeting norms that center diversity, equity and inclusion commitments helps build a sense of safety, trust and belonging. Offering a few of these norms and inviting the group to share their own will help the group feel a greater sense of safety and trust. Below are a few the BAW Community follows:
  • Share your name/pronouns when introducing yourself in group chat or verbally.
  • Assume good will when learning from others with different perspectives and ideas.
  • Use “I” Statements when sharing to avoid generalizing about other people & groups.
  • W.A.I.T, if you are prone to sharing often, ask “why am I talking,” and if you don’t share often ask “why aren’t I talking.”
  • When using video, give people permission to take care of what they need. Some people will need video for connection or to read lips, while others may need a higher level of privacy for a variety of reasons. Here’s what one of our belonging champions shared:
    “I’ve suggested and modeled that it’s ok to NOT activate the camera during videoconferencing. Some leaders may want to see their people, however not everyone has a cute home office with nice decor. Also, honestly, with all the salons and barbershops closed - not everyone is comfortable with having their picture with a disheveled look available for colleagues to see.”
  • Virtual backgrounds may help offset concerns of what your home working space looks like, and they may add some personality and variety to your meetings.

Conduct an Emotion Temperature Check. Remember the reason why we are flocking to virtual meeting spaces – a global pandemic. Naturally, many of our colleagues have either direct or indirect experiences with COVID-19.

Given this reality, doing an emotional temperature check before each meeting offers a pathway to practice flexing your empathy muscles. The suggestions offered below may help navigate how you could facilitate this part of your meeting:
  • Open up each meeting with a message of hope, an inspirational quote, or a story.
  • Ask your colleagues to share how they are feeling in one word or a phrase.
  • Encourage your colleagues that real feelings and emotions are welcome.
  • Give meeting time to process and validate these feelings, which may foster safety and trust.
  • Do a closing emotional temperature check at the end of the call. If colleagues are still unsettled, be sure to personally check-in after the meeting offering support.

Share the Speaking Time with Your Team. To serve as an inclusive leader, one must practice the art of active listening. Leading virtual meetings offers an ideal space to refine this skill.
The BAW Community had many ideas on how to practice this skill by sharing the airtime. These ideas may increase engagement and facilitate greater discussion among all of your colleagues:
  • Increase group engagement by facilitating a round robin after asking a team question. 
  • If you’re concerned about time, ask your colleagues to write their ideas using the chat.
  • Delegate facilitation responsibilities by rotating hosts and build the leadership skills of your colleagues.
  • Mix your agenda up from emotional temperature checks to small group discussions to group discussions to make sure everyone has the opportunity to contribute.

The Role of the Meeting Host. Even when you’re sharing the speaking time with others, you play an important role as a meeting host in virtual workspaces. Much like a music DJ, you have to sense the energy on the call and respond appropriately.
The BAW Community generated the following tips that they want virtual meeting facilitators to be aware of. These tips may help foster a greater sense of safety, trust and belonging:
  • Be online at least 10 or 15 minutes in advance of the meeting to support your colleagues with any tech support.
  • Acknowledge and remind your colleagues that we all learn and communicate in different ways.
  • Encourage your team to use the chat feature if they have noise in the background or feel more comfortable participating by writing out their thoughts.
  • Count to 10 seconds after asking a question as your colleagues will a moment to feel safe, compose their thoughts and respond.
  • Remember that some folks find it hard to participate in larger groups – experiment with different ways to increase meeting engagement.
  • Check-in daily with your team to make sure they have what they need to be successful.

Article is part of the Leading Inclusively During Uncertain Times Survival Guide.   Learn more about the Belonging Membership Community which is designed for DEI and other inclusive leaders eager to get support on how to keep an organization’s DEI goals on track during these very challenging times. Folks can learn more about the community here: https://www.belongingmembershipcommunity.com/

Office Movers Now Come Equipped With Tracking Technologies

Courtney Leonard
Office Movers Express

Moving is among the most stressful of life events, and that goes double for moving offices. Triple that and you get moving offices during a pandemic. In a survey, more than three-quarters of leaders of small and midsized businesses said they found the idea of moving offices so stressful they have been delaying the process. In fact, 78% of managers said they prefer staying in a cramped space to avoid the hassle. 

Jim Durfee understands many people are concerned the office moving process is invasive, disruptive and time-consuming, but he believes he has a solution, particularly amidst COVID concerns: Technology.  

“One of the greatest fears in life is the fear of the unknown, and that is especially true during moves,” said Durfee, who is vice president and general manager at Office Movers Express, styled as OMX. “Even before the pandemic, we were using newly developed technology to better communicate with clients who were travelling or worked remotely. This helped remove that fear, as they always knew where we were, what we were doing and where their items would be at all times." 

Durfee and his team at OMX have been using technologies like tablet-based software to verify inventory, GPS tracking to improve real time move efficiency and phone-based apps to assure a consistent, transparent information flow. Whether on-site during the move or overseeing the process by way of facetime or virtual meetings, every client can stay involved at the level of their choice. Here’s a little more about how OMX is removing the fear and uncertainty of moving or downsizing during COVID.

How have office moves changed? 
Jim Durfee: Office moves used to be a big deal in terms of volume, furniture and general 'stuff.' To move an office was a huge undertaking requiring vast resources of labor and time. But that world has changed, and the modern office is more functional in its design. The main focus for every office move is technology and keeping it safe and accessible, both the equipment and the information stored within.

How are you using technology to keep your customers and movers safe during the pandemic?  

Durfee: We have been using and refining these technologies since the inception of OMX and they’ve become even more valuable and necessary during COVID. Take the inventory process for example. A mover 10, or even 5 years ago might have simply noted a conference room had “a table and eight chairs” but we have a higher-touch service. On our tablets we quickly and accurately record the number and types of items and take pictures to corroborate the count. The pictures allow a more comprehensive level of detail. We also employ the tablets on the day of the move to verify times of crew arrival/departure, equipment and materials utilized, work performed, additional requests and Project Manager or Customer notes. Everything remains transparent and at the client’s fingertips.  Customers who prefer not to be on-site (or have very limited staff on-site to oversee the move), can monitor and communicate with our project managers in real-time, using Zoom, Facetime or any other technology. 

How do you use technology to keep high value or specialty items safe and protected throughout the move? 
Durfee: The first step is to inspect and verify items of concern. Each item is inventoried and photographed using a portable, handheld device, a process much faster and more accurate than previous methods. We are able to capture images, assess handling procedures and organize the process in a manner that helps develop a sensible and logical move plan. A client could be sitting on the beach viewing the relocation on their cellphone as it exits its current space and arrives in the new office. All of this helps us maintain the chain of custody, tightly control the relocation process and assure a positive experience. 

What are the benefits of working with a mover who only handles commercial moves? 
Durfee: It all comes down to business continuity. Household movers generally require “open” scheduling and request owner flexibility regarding the move date. Office moving professionals on the other hand, understand the need to adhere to a strict plan of action assuring minimal, if any, downtime.  This is especially true with the handling and relocation of sensitive technology. While a household may have a few laptops and a printer, offices have an extensive inventory of specialized equipment requiring a much higher level of care and expertise. Office movers are specifically trained to protect and handle the types of materials utilized in a business environment.

Practicing Sustainability during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sara Harmon 
MOONSHOT Event Production (Formerly Encore Décor)

During a recent educational session regarding the future of live gatherings post COVID-19, an  event organizer voiced her concerns about sustainability practices: “I feel like we are taking  three steps back between the sheer volume of masks, disinfectants, disposable cups, and single use items recommended for risk mitigation.” 

The issue she raised is extremely critical at a time when the health and safety of our communities  is of utmost importance. As the country slowly eases up on capacity restrictions, the CDC urges  that we continue practicing measures to protect ourselves and others. Their list of  recommendations has grown from merely masks and hand sanitizer, which we could rely on  when our contact with one another was limited to brief grocery store encounters, to an extensive  range of physical safeguards. We are in a stage now where we must learn to navigate working  alongside each other, eating together, and sharing spaces to do business with one another again,  safely.  

The broader conversation as it pertains to live events usually starts with the recommendation to  use disposable food service items and quickly snowballs from there. As ballrooms reopen, there  is much debate in the industry about offering bottled refreshments on dining tables in lieu of  shared water pitchers and replacing buffets with boxed “grab and go” meals or single-use items.  Best practices also include implementing physical guides such as printed signage and directional  tape, and— of course— face masks, tissues, hand-sanitizer and disinfectants. Now that many are  discussing the logistics of returning to the office, this is the type of critical dialogue we will  continue having, on an organizational level, in the coming months.  

As we grapple with the issues of workplace safety, we must also be conscious about how our  actions can impact the environment. Recent events on the west coast have renewed conversation  about the ramifications of climate change, also revealing that we are currently facing a dilemma  where many of our eco-friendly initiatives have been forced to take a back seat to virus  prevention. The larger environmental impact of the pandemic has yet to be fully analyzed (as it is  still ongoing), but there is evidence to indicate that such a global event has generated a  combination of both positive and negative consequences. For example, travel restrictions in the  earlier part of the quarantine led to healthier air quality, while an influx in online shopping has  increased organic and inorganic waste. Water quality is also an issue: it’s not uncommon in 2020  to see yellowing nitrile gloves and crumpled masks littering neighborhood streets, leading  conversationalists to state that there could be “more masks than jellyfish” in our oceans by now.  Scientists are monitoring numerous environmental shifts caused by this disturbance, but there are  practices everyone can implement to balance safety, productivity and sustainability in their  everyday lives. The ways we combat the coronavirus in the present can also help us mitigate  major risks we may face in the future. 

I implore you to think deeply about what steps you can take to promote sustainability within your  firms and in your own life. For some, that may mean continuing to offer remote work, supporting  “green” vendors, encouraging sustainable transportation, buying in bulk, volunteering to  sustainability initiatives or promoting a paperless office. Engage your staff in these conversations to see what solutions you can create together to support both your values and safety measures.  For me, it’s hard to accept compromising our planet’s health, to any degree, for our own. We are  presented with a major opportunity to utilize innovation, creativity and digitalization to solve  some of the biggest challenges our communities face today. 

The Future is Digital: Leveraging Technology to Attract, Delight, and Retain Clients

Heinan Landa
Founder & CEO, Optimal Networks

Even before the pandemic created a physical disconnect between your attorneys and your clients, many firms have allowed a figurative disconnect to grow between what clients want and what the firm delivers. 

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? 
  • ​A prospect sounds interested in doing business, but radio silent when you respond to their online inquiry a few days later. 
  • A client complains about how confusing and disjointed it is to email documents back and forth with you. 
  • A new associate grumbles about how much time they’re wasting fighting with your antiquated filing system.  

These are all symptoms of the same disconnect, which has its roots in technology. 

Over the past few decades, increasingly rapid advancements in technology have reshaped all of our expectations as consumers. We each have nearly perfect information within arm’s reach at all times, and our tolerance for anything other than instant gratification is next to nil.
Most firms have felt this shift in terms of the simmering tensions listed above. But as technology continues to evolve at exponential rate, most firms have stood resolute, sticking to the status quo.  

Now, as we settle into a post-COVID rhythm, our only means of interaction comes in one digital format or another. And if your firm is not able to actively and deliberately leverage technology to meet and exceed expectations, these tensions will soon reach their boiling point.  

Technology’s Starring Role in the Client Experience
While some may pine for the days when referrals and word-of-mouth alone drove firm growth, the reality is that this journey has transitioned to the internet:
  • 67% of the buyer’s journey is carried out digitally
  • 83% of people start their search for an attorney by checking online reviews
  • 70% will go to an inconvenient location for an attorney with better reviews

Then, should that potential buyer become a client, their perception of your firm’s performance will once again depend on your ability to harness technology. To delight your clients, you need to “wow” them on four fronts: responsiveness, expertise, results, and innovation.

Responsiveness
  • What it looks like: When your client has a request, concern, or question, you address it fully, you communicate it in a way that suits your client, and you do this in a reasonable amount of time.
  • How to achieve it: You implement a thoughtful mobile strategy that empowers your attorneys to be productive regardless of location. You also have collaboration packages (e.g. Slack, Teams) that facilitate internal knowledge transfer. 

Expertise
  • What it looks like: You’re able to bring your firm’s collective historical expertise to bear as the situation demands. What you don’t know offhand, you can locate easily and without re-inventing the wheel. 
  • How to achieve it: This requires an effective knowledge management strategy—often in the form of a document management system—to help attorneys and staff find relevant work product quickly. 

​Results
  • What it looks like: You track and demonstrate your effectiveness as a firm. Your clients (prospective and existing) know, in quantifiable terms, what value you’re bringing to the table—and that they won’t get better results elsewhere.
  • How to achieve it: This pillar demands a repeatable process to collect and disseminate the results you’ve measured (e.g. win rate, dollars saved, dollars earned). Your tracking mechanism can be as simple as a spreadsheet or a field in your DMS.   

Innovation
  • What it looks like: Innovative firms anticipate and prepare for impending trends—many of them technical, such as Artificial Intelligence—that that could impact your ability to serve your clients, or could have legal ramifications for your clients.
  • How to achieve it: You hold a person or committee accountable to ongoing technology education efforts such as attending webinars, subscribing to technology newsletters, or joining the technology section of local legal associations. 

Does your firm have specific strategies in place to meet expectations in each of these areas? To exceed them?
 
The Pandemic as a Unique Opportunity to Evolve
Historically, law firms tend to resist large-scale change to how they deliver service; according to a recent Altman Weil survey, despite a largely stagnant market, 59% of law firms were “not feeling enough economic pain” to justify an overhaul.

There’s less room to argue now. 

Being able to serve your clients effectively from both your home and your office has become a business imperative. Being able to collaborate with a dispersed team has become a business imperative. Being able to prove your firm’s value to clients impacted by a recession has become a business imperative. 

Now, while you work to fulfill these business imperatives, the key will be to choose solutions that will provide the right functionality from the perspective of your clients. 

Take collaboration, for example. Say you identify a product that will allow your team to talk about and work through a document together in real-time. Great! But when it comes time to get that document over to your client, the process breaks down; there’s no easy or secure way to share it with them besides attaching the current version to an encrypted email. Not so great.     
Rather than focusing exclusively on your internal operations, aim to improve your capabilities externally too. That’s how you’ll delight your clients, and that’s how you’ll outpace your competitors.  
 
Final Thought
As we all work to navigate this pandemic landscape, it can be even more tempting than usual to hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. 

Unfortunately, the storm will only grow stronger; even if we’re able to one day go “back to normal,” the pace of technological change will continue to increase exponentially, as will the troublesome gap between firm operations and client expectations. 

Unless, of course, we seize the opportunity rally firm leadership behind a full-scale paradigm shift when it comes to your technology.  

Why view this tool as a cost center when it could fuel your most powerful competitive advantage instead? 
 
To watch our recent webinar on this topic, click here. 
To schedule a consultation with Heinan on your firm’s technology, click here.

Diversity Spotlight: Cheryl Flynn and Catalina Mejia

The Diversity & Inclusion Committee is excited to bring back the Diversity Spotlight with a new spin! We will be featuring members and business partners in video segments called #thisismystory. We are proud to feature Cheryl Flynn and Catalina Mejia, both at Wiley Rein LLP, who share their unique stories. Please take a moment to view the video; we undoubtedly will benefit from their transparency and leadership.  

We are looking for members and business partners to share their stories in future newsletters. Please contact Denise Verdesoto at deniseverdesoto@eversheds-sutherland.com if you would like to share your story with our members.

How COVID Forced Everyone Into Business Development, and 3 Things You Should Do About It

Spencer X Smith

Before COVID-19, new business development consisted of getting the right handful of people on a plane, sending them to the prospect's location, and allowing them to work their magic in-person. This might consist of a boardroom pitch, nice dinner out, and taking in a ballgame. Those involved in this traveling sales team were chosen for a reason, both in title and in personality. Spending multiple hours in both a work-related and social setting needs the right kind of demeanor.

As business development has moved to a video call-centric focus, we're no longer relegated to bringing a finite amount of people to the sales party. Because everyone is accessible via a click, those who normally uninvolved in the sales process are now expected to be on Zoom client pitches. Often, this will consist of those with more technical expertise and those who are more junior at the company. Why is that? Two reasons:
  1. Given the efficient nature of video calls, clients can consider more options than before. Instead of spending a half a day each with two potential suitors, clients can interview four providers by lunch and spend the afternoon evaluating their offerings. Increasing the quantity of competitors forces those pitching their wares to refine and focus on their distinct value proposition. Adding a technical team member to a meeting though a video call allows clients to ask directed questions to the subject matter expert. During in-person presentations, technical questions might be answered by saying, "We'll have to get back to you on that." Now, because everyone is accessible instantly, those queries need not be deferred.

  2. More people on video = more reputability. Pretend you're doing an in-person presentation, and you and your other two team members are sitting in the waiting room. Out of the conference room comes your competition, seven people strong, after their presentation. How does that make you feel? Inadequate, and wishing you brought more people to the meeting. There are many implications to the quantity of individuals involved in a pitch meeting, and all of them affect the confidence of those in sales. What better way to inject the element of "Here's the large team that will support you," than to add more people to the call? Even if the more junior people don't say a word, they're still there.

Because sales training is expensive, those in technical fields and those who are more inexperienced at a company oftentimes haven't been taught what the business development process looks like. Here are three simple tips you can share with those who are newly involved in sales:
  1. Objections during a meeting are a really good thing. If the client didn't care about what you were presenting, or had no interest, they wouldn't prompt your team with questions. Objections are an opportunity to both answer the specific query, but also to expand to the subtext of the question. This is an important point upon which to focus, particularly with technical people. A technical person can simply answer the question presented, but it's critical for the more experienced team member to follow-up with another question, that of which gets to the core of what the prospect is asking. For example, if a prospect says, "Why don't you integrate with ABC software?" a technician will answer with the specific reason. Another team member can then ask (on the prospect's behalf), "Why have we built our existing integrations to work the way they have, and why could that make sense given their situation?" During the pre-meeting meeting, teach the technical people on your team why objections are a prospect showing his or her desire for knowledge, and not him or her saying, "No."

  2. Simple is best. "A confused mind will say no." Technical people pride themselves on their prowess in their field, and rightfully so. Your prospects, however, only need the details they're ready to understand. Encourage your technical people to practice succinctly explaining difficult concepts, and the best way to practice this is through a pre-pitch trial video call. Your now-expanded pitch team can easily do this together the day before the big meeting to rehearse.

  3. Everyone on the team is important. Just because the junior people might not be expected to say anything, this doesn't mean that will happen. A savvy prospect might "call on" one of the people from your group who hasn't said anything with something as broad as, "What do you think?" Preparing your more inexperienced people with elevator pitch-worthy responses will pay off when queries like this come their way.

Your pitch team, previously limited, has now grown to encompass many more individuals in your organization. Have you taken to time to show them what business development feels like?

October 2020 Diversity Observances

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. This observance was launched in 1945 when Congress declared the first week in October as “National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week.” In 1998, the week was extended to a month and renamed. The annual event draws attention to employment barriers that still need to be addressed.

October is LGBT History Month, a U.S. observance started in 1994 to recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history and the history of the gay-rights movement.
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Click here to view the full list of October 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. The Newsletter Committee welcomes new members.
Contact: Cindy Conover (Chair), Cindy.Conover@Shearman.com; Beth Fowler (Co-Chair), bfowler@robbinsrussell.com
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Diversity & Inclusion
The mission of the Diversity & 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 D&I 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: Beth Fowler (Chair), bfowler@robbinsrussell.com; Denise Verdesoto (Co-Chair), deniseverdesoto@eversheds-sutherland.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: Valerie Williamson (Chair), valerie.williamson@bassberry.com; Herb Abercrombie Jr. (Co-Chair), HAbercrombie@jenner.com



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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: Joanna Hurt (Chair), jhurt@mccarter.com; Tabatha Harris (Chair), tsh@dwgp.com
Listserv: branch@lists.alacapchap.org and smallfirm@lists.alacapchap.org
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Office Operations Management and IT
The members of the Office Operations Management and IT 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: Giovanni DiLuca (Chair), gdiluca@zuckerman.com; Janelle E. Rynes (Co-Chair), janelle.rynes@arentfox.com
Listserv: ooms@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: Cindy Schuler (Co-Chair), cindy.schuler@hugheshubbard.com; Monique Terrell (Co-Chair), mterrell@foxrothschild.com

Listserv: hr@lists.alacapchap.org

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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. 
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Contact: Amy Walkowiak (Chair), awalkowiak@dcwhitecollar.com; Ana Sobalvarro (Co-Chair), asobalvarro@bomcip.com 
Listserv: nextgen@lists.alacapchap.org