October 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; Bearfoot Ventures; Jackie Johnson; Heinan Landa; Laura Wickliff; Legal Operations Community
Newsletter Designed By: Jessica Davis


In this issue:

President's Message

Robert J. Bieber

​Business Partner Success Stories

Bearfoot Ventures specializes in working with law firms to assist in their re-entry process. We have taken the same technology and disinfection process from the operating room to the legal community to ensure that all firms return to a safe and freshly disinfected office. Law firms have used the benefit of our service to recruit and retain employees in the on - going and ever - changing amenity war taking place inside of firms. 

2021 ALA Annual Conference – Knowledge, Community and Innovation

Jackie Johnson
Office Administrator, Akerman LLP
Immediate Past President

Do not walk into a room any less than your best self – own your entire skillset.  It does not matter your job title – it matters if you walk in and you make an impact.
 
Set goals that scare you.  Make writing your letter of recommendation easy.  Make writing your eulogy impossible.  Model hope.  Hope requires courage.  Hope requires faith.  Be encouraging.  Smile.  Go back to the basics.  Be consistent and consistently authentic.
 
Man it feels like I am writing my President's messages all over again!  But these lessons learned came from Dr. Jennifer Welter (the first female NFL coach) and Dr. Rick Rigsby, the keynote speakers of this year's Conference.  This was the general theme of the conference, the keynote speakers and a handful of the sessions.  Perseverance.  Authenticity.  Kindness to others, but also kindness to self.  Knowledge, Community and Innovation.
 
It was touch and go there for a minute - as is pretty much everything the last 18 months.  Are we going?  Are we not going?  First it was canceling the Utah conference in May 2020, then it was postponing the Chicago conference in April this year, but alas we made it to Austin in October and I for one am happy the Association pivoted and was able to go forward with the Conference.  
 
Roughly 20 members from the Capital Chapter attended this year's conference, as well as several of our amazing Capital Chapter Business Partners we enjoyed seeing around the Expo Hall.  We even had a few Chapter law firms represented as speakers at the Conference, and one of our own Business Partners as well.  
 
We kicked off the Conference with a Capital Chapter get-together at The Cedar Door. It was a great opportunity for us to meet up, share a drink and some good appetizers, and get ready for the Conference.  There were photo booths, spin art, Voodoo Doughnuts, BBQ, of course, and over 70 educational sessions on topics such as new staffing models, mental health, profitability, DEI, and many other topics that allowed members to earn credit for CLM and SHRM in the process.  There were many opportunities to connect with each other and for many, meet for the first time in-person after months of virtual meetings.  The conference concluded with an awards gala in the main ballroom where the Chapter was presented with the 2021 IDEA award recognizing Tiffany Montgomery and Melody Watson’s transformational impact through innovative achievement for their work on last year’s Virtual Year-End Gala.  We then celebrated a successful conference with a high-energy dance party featuring live music from local Austin band - The Grooves.   
 
In addition, ALA will be presenting a Virtual 2021 Conference and Expo.  It will take place November 17-18.  You can register now at https://www.alanet.org/events/2021-events/virtual-annual-conference.  If you attended the Conference in-person, you will have complimentary access.  
 
Next year’s conference will be in Kissimmee, Florida May 15-18.  Hope to see you there!

IT Service Provider Acquisitions: 3 Ways to Set New Partnerships Up for Success

Heinan Landa
President and CEO, Optimal Networks

Few firm administrators I know are pleased to find out that a service provider of theirs has been acquired.

This is especially true in the case of managed IT service providers, who more or less hold your ability to operate in their hands. If this provider has been purchased… what does that mean for your firm? Can you trust this new company? What level of risk are you facing?

With the high level of merger and acquisition activity in the IT industry in particular—which is likely to continue given market growth projections—we’re hearing more and more concerns about these purchases and all the uncertainties and disruption they can stir up.

Over our 30 years in technology outsourcing we’ve made several acquisitions of our own, and have also had some of our key vendors acquired multiple times (some of which were handled quite well, some of which, from our perspective, were not). 

With these experiences in mind, here are three key ways to minimize stress and maximize the likelihood that this new partnership will serve your firm well. 

1 – Prepare yourself for some inevitabilities. 
If you receive word that your service provider has been purchased, expect:
  • To be taken by surprise. Your provider will have their hands tied by legal restrictions when it comes to giving you advance notice of the purchase. In many cases their own employees won’t even know until the deal is signed.
  • Turnover. As the two companies come together, there will be functions that become overstaffed, which will result in some folks being let go – and others seizing the opportunity to switch careers.  This is by design to extract some efficiencies from the new combined entity.
  • Hiccups in service. While the two companies were compatible enough for the acquisition to make sense, they won’t be carbon copies. As hard as they will try to integrate while also keeping their attention on service delivery, every transition will have unanticipated bumps in the road.
  • Your voice to matter. The company that purchased your provider wants to keep your business, and the owner that sold to them is financially incented to make that happen. Don’t suffer in silence; deliver the feedback and give your provider a chance to course-correct. They’ll likely seize it.

2 – Ask questions to establish alignment and minimize surprises.
Next, it’s time for an open conversation with your provider about what the acquisition means for you in both the near and long term. They may initiate this proactively, or you might need to kick-start the process.

In either case, asking these questions should remove a lot of the guesswork from the process and hopefully get you and your provider on the same page going forward:
  • Why would the “new” combined entity still be a great fit to support our firm?
  • How do you plan to come up to speed about our firm and our goals?
  • How do you ensure that your service will continue to meet and support the firm’s needs?
  • Who is now fully responsible for my firm’s satisfaction?
  • If this merger/acquisition goes as you expect, what should be different for us?
  • When should I expect your integration to be complete?
  • What steps are you taking to minimize disruption to my firm in the meantime?
  • If things aren’t going right, how do I best report that to you given that things are in flux?
  • What else do we have to look forward to as the result of this acquisition?

3 – Remove “over-communicating” from your vocabulary.
As with any partnership, communication is key. Your provider is going to be quite busy on the back end as they work through integrating their teams and systems, but this doesn’t mean you should shy away from talking to them and getting your concerns out onto the table as soon as you can.

This goes the other direction, too–if it seems like you’re being pelted with information from your provider, they’re probably trying to allay your fears. This is a good sign that they’ll give thoughtful answers to your questions.

Final thought
While providers will absolutely appreciate your understanding and patience during the transition, they are still ultimately responsible to deliver the services you’ve signed up for, and to be an asset to your firm—not a hindrance.

There will be hiccups along the way. How your new partner responds to those hiccups is the real litmus test.

How Law Firms Can Support Transgender Employees

Laura Wickliff
Director of Human Resources, Arnold & Porter

As law firms start to focus on strategic goals and planning for next year, it provides an opportunity to make sure they look at their plans through a diversity and inclusion lens for transgender employees.  While the suggestions below are not exhaustive, it provides some ideas on areas to review for potential enhancements to current policies, practices and benefits plans to support diversity and inclusivity for the transgender community.  

As a fundamental base, law firms should review their current policies to make sure they are trans-inclusive. They should ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity protections are included in their anti-harassment and nondiscrimination policies.  They should also ensure that their dress code policies are gender-neutral. But it is not enough to simply have a policy. They also need to make sure that transgender-specific issues are included as part of their anti-harassment training and that regular training is provided. 

Another way to support transgender employees is to partner with the Diversity Committee to provide education on transgender-specific topics. There are organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and The Transgender Training Institute that offer courses on topics, such as pronoun usage and gender identity and expression. It is also a good idea to develop gender transition guidelines that establish best practices in transgender inclusion for managers and teams.  Additionally, law firms may want to consider adding an employee resource group or affinity group that provides support and resources to their LBGTQ employees.

Finally, law firms should review their medical plans and consider transgender-specific plan enhancements.  This may include coverage on benefits such as such as gender reassignment surgery, psychotherapy, and cross-sex hormone therapy.  It also provides an opportunity to look at coverage limits for these benefits to ensure they are adequate.
While the types of benefits and amounts of coverage vary, it is clear that the number of companies offering transgender benefits is on the rise.  According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ (IFEBP) 2020 Employee Benefits Survey, transgender-inclusive benefits are offered by an average of 20.9% of companies, whereas only 15% of companies offered them in the 2016 survey.  But the percentage of law firms that currently offer trans-inclusive benefits is much greater. According to the 2020 Mercer Law Firm Survey of Employee Benefits, 82% of respondents offer gender reassignment surgery as one of their covered benefits. 

As the demographics of our workforce continue to evolve, so must our policies, practices, and total rewards. It is incumbent on us as law firm leaders to regularly assess and be responsive to the changing needs of our workforce , such as those of transgender employees.  This will this help us to attract and retain top talent, but most importantly, it is simply the right thing to do.  
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https://www.transgendertraininginstitute.com/
2020 Employee Benefits Survey

Legal Operations Return-to-Office Checklist

Legal Operations Community
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In July, the Legal Operations Community formed a subgroup to draft a Return-to-Office Checklist.  The Checklist we came up with is listed below. As firms return to the workplace in October forward, we thought sharing the checklist would be helpful.  A special thank you to Christina Albert (Van Ness Feldman LLP), Kenia Garner (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP), Virginia Hannums (Spiegel & McDiarmid LLP), Angela Tyson (Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP), Sarahi Estrella (Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP), Carmen Barboza (Crowell & Moring LLP), Linda Padron (Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP), and Stephanie Sears (Thomas Eye Group). 

1. Health
  • What is your policy on vaccinations?
  • Will you collect vaccination cards?
  • What is the mask policy for employees?
  • Will you require employees to social distance when in the office?
  • Will you ask all employees to complete a health attestation form, or only non-vaccinated employees?
  • Will you require non-vaccinated employees to take COVID Test?  What frequency?
  • Will you ask employees to find their own testing vendor or will you hire a COVID testing vendor for the employees to utilize? Who pays for testing?
  • Given the variant, will you require intermittent COVID testing even for vaccinated employees?  If so, how often and who pays?
  • Do employees need daily pre-approval to come into the office?
  • What is your telework policy for employees?
  • Will you allow employees to work alternate schedules?
  • Will you allow employees to use public transportation?
  • Will you provide lunch to employees to keep them from leaving the office after arriving in the office for the day?
  • Will you acknowledge the tough year each employee has endured?
  • Will you/the landlord hire a vendor to perform electrostatic cleaning?
  • What is your policy and procedure for when an employee working in the office exhibits signs or becomes COVID positive?
 2. Visitors/Events
  • What is your mask policy for visitors?
  • Will you ask visitors to complete a health attestation form?
  • Will you limit visitors to visit only certain portions of your office?
  • Will you provide food in meetings with visitors?
  • Will you provide only “take-away” meals at meetings to encourage employees to unmask and eat separately at their desk/other areas?
  • Will you allow in-office events?  Up to how many attendees?
  • Will you provide masks to visitors?
  • Will you have different policies for client visitors vs. vendor visitors?
  • Will you require vendor visitors to be vaccinated and/or masked at all times?
 3. Space/Equipment/IT
  • Will you set up PPE supply areas throughout your offices (wipes, sanitizer, gloves and masks)?
  • Should IT survey each workspace to ensure all equipment is set up and ready for work?
  • Does IT need to be in the office daily during the RTO transition?
  • Should facilities survey each workspace for missing furniture?
  • Should you install Plexiglas at the receptionist desk?
  • Should you install Plexiglas at employee workstations?
  • Should you provide webcams for certain workstations? all workstations?
  • Do you need to test each printer and change the toner?
  • Are your conference rooms ready for Zoom/Teams access?
  • Will you encourage the continuation of hosting meetings using Teams, Zooms, etc. even when returned to the office rather than in-person?
​4. Signage and Other
  • Do you need to put up signage to notify employees/vendors of current COVID-19 policy (masking, etc.)?
  • Do you need to develop an employee communication plan?
  • Do you need to re-do your new hire orientation in person for those employees who started during the pandemic?
 5. First Day
  • Will you send a welcome email to employees upon their return to office?  
    • Include photos of the office in that message?
    • Bring your key fob
    • Bring a mask
  • Send employees a map to find PPP stations set up throughout the office (wipes, hand sanitizer and masks)?
  • Will you provide employees a “welcome back swag bag” on their first day?
  • For any new hires during COVID-19, have you made arrangements to verify in person the required I9 paperwork?
  • Will you provide employees advice regarding parking?
  • Will your building’s parking vendor allow two employees to share the same parking contract?
  • Turn back on/remind employees about your firm’s transit benefits?
  • Do employees need to sign up again for transit benefits?
  • Do employees need to wear a mask in the building’s lobby and only remove the mask once in the firm’s space?
  • If the employee can’t find their key fob, how do they get a new one?
  • Will you have a special summer dress code?
  • Provide employees parking advice?
  • Will you provide/continue to provide a COVID transportation benefit?
 6. Employee Events
  • Will you plan a welcome back event/lunch(s) for employees?
  • Will you encourage practice groups and departments to host events/lunches for employees?

October 2021 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.

October is Global Diversity Awareness Month, a month to celebrate and increase awareness about the diversity of cultures and ethnicities and the positive impact diversity can have on society.
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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.

Contact:  Amy Walkowiak (Chair), [email protected]; Emmanuel Adedigba (Co-Chair), [email protected]
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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: Denise Verdesoto (Chair), [email protected]; Angela Tyson (Co-Chair), [email protected]
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), [email protected]; Valerie Williamson (Co-Chair), [email protected]



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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), [email protected]; Kim Santaiti-Potter (Co-Chair), [email protected]


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), [email protected]; Lodora Barnes (Chair), [email protected]
Listserv: [email protected] and [email protected]
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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), [email protected]
Listserv: [email protected]
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), [email protected];  Julie Hooper (Co-Chair), [email protected]
Listserv: [email protected]

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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: Ana Sobalvarro (Chair), [email protected];  Catalina Mejia (Co-Chair), [email protected]
Listserv: [email protected]