Write-Brained Notions in a Left-Brained World · are welcome and can be e-mailed to...

August 2011Vol. XXVIII, No. 7

Write-Brained Notions in a Left-Brained World

Please join us for the August 9 general meeting when our featured speaker presents “Write-Brained Notions in a Left-Brained World.”

Passionate about language and writing skills, Randi Mayes will share her ob-servations, her biases, her style preferences and just a few immutable laws of grammar that she’s picked up along the path of many decades of writing and editing. Her love of the written word will be obvious as she moves us through a fast-paced lesson plan, in the interest of honing our writing skills. Writing, like public speaking . . . like any skill for that matter . . . can be an innate talent; but everyone can learn, practice and improve the skill set re-quired to produce good written communication.

The title of the presentation is a bit of word play that arose from Randi’s belief that good writing techniques are suffering a rapid death, largely brought about by the frequency and rapidity with which we’re inundated with words. Email, social media, ubiquitous access to the Internet and cable

television are just a few of the culprits, and our information / misinformation-overloaded brains have caused us all to suffer some form of attention deficit disorder. The sheer weight of words that fall on us has crushed us. The written word has truly become commoditized.

Her mission is to persuade you to become an artist with your written word –– let that right brain con-trol your pen or keyboard and see what happens.

Randi Mayes is the Executive Director of the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) where she is responsible for oversight of all operations and serves as editor-in-chief of the association’s nu-merous publications.

Prior to her employment with ILTA, Randi held technology management positions in law firms in Aus-tin, Texas and served in numerous volunteer leadership roles within ILTA. A member of the American Society of Association Executives and the Texas Society of Association Executives, she has spoken and written on topics related to leadership development and association management. Passionate about writing skills, she loves to share her experience as a writer/editor.

Crowne Plaza Northstar Hotel , 7th Floor, 618 Second Avenue South; Minneapolis

COST: $25 Members; $35 Nonmembers Register at www.ala-mn.org before Friday, Au-gust 5. (Checks payable to ALAMN – pay at reg-istration table or register at www.ala-mn.org and pay by credit card) No shows will be billed.

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INSIDE

Table of Contents

The Verdict Staff

INSIDE

2THE VERDICT - August 2011 -

Editor Sheila Hoff Lind, Jensen, Sullivan & Peterson P.A.612.333.3637 612.333.1030 (Fax) [email protected]

Advertising Cheryl R. ThompsonMoss & [email protected]

COLUMNS 5 A Word from the President of ALAMN6 ABC’s of Administrator Arithmetic

EVENTS12 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition7 ALA Regions 3 & 4 Conference & Expo4 Calendar of Events15 Pack the Backpack School Supply Drive9 Save the Date -- VisionWalk1 Write Brained Notions in a Left-Brained World18 ALA Webinar for August 2011

NEWS25 And the Winner Is…16 Behind the scenes of ALAMN – Dollars and Sense28 First Time ALA Conference Attendee Report19 How Grass Skirts and Hawaiian Shirts Can Make You a Better Leader26 Online CLM Study Group 21 What Do You Like Best About ALAMN?

MEMBERS 3 2011-2012 ALAMN Officers & Directors30 Job Bank29 New Members REPORTS7 Corporate and Government SIG8 Financial Management SIG 8 Human Resources Section9 Large Firm Administrators Group10 Small/Medium Firm Group11 Systems & Technology SIG13 Community Service Committee

MORE INSIDE32 2011 Business Partner Sponsors31 Advertisers in this Issue3 ALA Mission Statement23 ALA Question of the Month22 HCBA Connection2 Letters to the Editor2 Table of Contents

Letters to the EditorLetters to the Editor of The Verdict are welcome and can be e-mailed to [email protected]. In your letter, please include your name, firm name, mailing address, daytime phone number, and e-mail address. Letters that do not contain full contact information cannot be published. Letters typically run 150 words or less and may be edited. Your letter can be on any topic. You will be contacted before your letter is published. Thank you.

INSIDE

2

MEMBERS


2011 - 2012 ALAMN Officers & Directors

President Chong Lee 612.371.5217 Merchant & Gould, P.C. [email protected] Past President Shari Tivy 612.672.3211 Bowman & Brooke LLP [email protected] President - Elect Michele Sauder 612.752.1920 McGrann Shea Carnival Staughn & Lamb, Chartered [email protected]

DIRECTORS Administration Jodi Schmidt 612.632.3321 Gray Plan Mooty Mooty & Bennett, P.A. [email protected]

Communications Doug Sievers 612.333.3637 Lind Jensen Sullivan & Peterson, P.A. [email protected] Finance Tracey Skjeveland 612.371.5211 Merchant & Gould, P.C. [email protected]

Education David Oxley 612.335.1472 Leonard, Street and Deinard, P.A. [email protected]

Membership Deborah Cramer, CLM 952.806.0428 Johnson & Condon, P.A. [email protected]

ALA Mission Statement

To improve the quality of management in legal services organizations; promote and enhance the competence and pro-fessionalism of legal administrators and all members of the management team; and represent professional legal management and managers to the le-gal community and to the community at large.

mailto:[email protected]





EVENTS


Calendar of Events

August

2 Human Resources Section will meet at 11:30 at Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon and Vogt

4 System and Technology SIG will meet at Noon at Faegre & Benson

9 General Meeting, Crown Plaza Northstar Hotel

17 ALA Webinar - “Focus on Profitability: Advanced Budgeting and Ratio Analysis”

17 Financial Management SIG will meet at Noon, location TBD

18 Small/Medium Firm Section will meet at 11:30 a.m. at the Town & Country Club in St. Paul

23 Community Service Event - Simpson Meal 5:00pm-8:30pm

30 Corporate and Government SIG will meet at Noon at the Perkins off I-94 and Riverside Avenue in Minneapolis

Facilties Management Group will not meet in August

Large Firm Administrators will not meet in August

September

15 Large Frim Administrators will meet at Noon at Oppenheimer

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A WORD


From the President of ALAMN

By Chong Lee

Welcome to August! I hope you were able to find relief from or enjoy July’s record heat wave. Oddly enough, I was able to avoid the heat by spending a week in Cali-fornia. Go figure!

July has been a very busy month for ALAMN. At the July 8th Board meeting, your Board of Directors held a drawing for the 2011 Region 3 & 4 Conference in Kansas City and the 2012 An-nual Conference in Honolulu. The winners have been contacted and will be announced shortly after they accept their scholarships. Congratu-lations to these lucky folks and stay tuned to find out who they are.

In mid-July, four of your board members at-tended the annual Chapter Leadership Institute (CLI). CLI is a two day orientation/training ses-sion for chapter officers and leaders focused around chapter management and building con-nections. This annual event is hosted by ALA President Karen Griggs, CLM and the ALA board and staff. The year’s sessions included:

Constructing a Chapter Communication Plan • Building Relationships with Bar Associations • and Other Law Related OrganizationsDeveloping a CLM Study Group• Chapter Legal Issues: What Every Chapter • Needs to KnowManaging Your Chapter’s Treasury• Membership Recruitment, Retention and • Engagement

CLI is always a great event, but this year will be most memorable to me for the following rea-sons:

ALA• MN’s LPACC was highlighted as an ex-ample of relationship building with other professional associations.ALA• MN’s CHAOS was highlighted as a great way for a chapter to manage the daunting task of submissions for Chapter Awards. ALA• MN’s website was highlighted as a web-site with pizzazz.And last but not least, CLI gave me my first • experience in a plane that was grounded for over four hours.

On July 28th, the Business Partner and Confer-ence Committee hosted the ALAMN Summer Social at Sid and Nancy’s Rooftop Lounge and Balcony at the Chambers Hotel. The event was very well attended by members and our busi-ness partners. If you missed this event, you’ll want to be sure to make it to the Fall Social in October.

As we swing into August, September and Octo-ber here’s a sneak peek of upcoming events:

August Simpson House Meal – 8/23• Salary and Benefits Survey distribution and • presentation – 9/13Region 3 & 4 Conference in Kansas City – • 9/15 – 9/172011 Vision Walk – 9/25• The Half Day Seminar featuring Erin Reeves • on diversity – 10/13

NEWS


ABC’s of Administrator Arithmetic

This is the sixth installment of “ABC’s of Administrator Arithmetic” from the Financial Management Special Interest Group.

P: Perpetual Inventory:

PERPETUAL INVENTORY is an inventory accounting system whereby book inventory is kept in continuous agree-ment with stock on hand. A daily re-cord is maintained of the dollar amount and physical quantity. There are periodic phys-ical inventories taken to reconcile at short intervals.

Q: Quick Ratio: QUICK RATIO (or Acid Test Ra-tio) is a more rigorous test than the Current Ratio of short-run solvency, the current ability of a firm to pay its current debts as they come due. This ratio considers only cash, market-able securities (cash equiva-lents) and accounts receivable because they are considered to be the most liquid forms of current assets. A Quick Ratio less than 1.0 implies “depen-dency” on inventory and oth-

er current assets to liquidate short-term debt. Formula: (Cash + Cash Equivalents + Accounts Receivable) / Total Liabilities.

R: Ratio Analysis:

RATIO ANALYSIS involves conver-sion of financial numbers for a

firm into ratios. Ratio analysis allows comparison of one firm to another. Since ratios look at relationships inside the firm, a firm of one size can be directly compared to a second firm (or a collection of firms) which may be larger or smaller

or even in a different business. Financial Ratio Analysis is a meth-

od of comparison not dependent on the size of either firm. Financial Ratios provide a broader basis for comparison than do raw numbers.

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REPORT


Corporate and Government Special Interest Group

By Wendy Bartlett & Sue Johannsen, Co-Chairs

The Corporate & Government Special Interest Group met at noon on June 28, 2011 at the Per-kins in Minneapolis off of Interstate 94 and Riv-erside Avenue. We discussed the significance and implications of the State of Minnesota gov-ernment shutdown and how it has impacted us personally and in our work environments.

The next meeting will take place at Noon on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at the same location.

Meetings are informal, and the topics for discus-sion are chosen by those in attendance. Please feel free to join us at any time. And remember, you need not be a member of ALAMN to at-tend meetings.

The Corporate & Government Special Interest Group is co-chaired by Wendy Bartlett and Sue Johannsen. If you’d like more information and/or want to be included on the email list, please call either Wendy at 612.726.8192 or Sue at 763-494-2150.

Gain the knowledge, resources and networking vital to face any challenge at your law firmor in your legal department at the Regions 3 & 4 Conference & Expo, September 15–17, 2011,at the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza in Kansas City, MO.

Don’t miss this cost-effective, two-day conference close to your home with professional legalindustry speakers and more than 20 educational sessions — it’s the best investment you’llmake this year!

Connect at the Regions 3 & 4 Conference & Expo!

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REPORT


By Abby Hollander and Tracey Grill, Co-Chairs

The Human Resources Section met last on Tues-day, June 7th, at the offices of Faegre and Ben-son LLP. The meeting was hosted by Laurie Lampman. There was no meeting in July.

Our guest was John Guinan, Partner/Owner of LTC Financial Partners. John presented a seminar titled “Long-Term Care and the New CLASS Act”, providing information related to long-term care, the aging population, risk fac-tors, costs, and concerns of employees dealing with aging friends or family members. He also discussed how the increase in stress-related ill-nesses, decreased productivity and absenteeism can impact employers. Our next meeting will be held at 11:30 on Tues-day, August 2nd and will be hosted by Terri Stewart at Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt.

If you would like to be included on the email list please contact Abby Hollander at [email protected] or Tracey Grill at tgrill@

gustafsongluek.com. We’d also love to hear your ideas for future topics/speakers.

Human Resources Section

By David Astramecki & Lynn Mattson, Co-Chairs

The Financial Management Special Interest Group met on Wednesday, July 20th, at the of-fices of Moss & Barnett. Our host for the meet-ing was Philip Rush.

Three representatives, Sara Ausman, Erik An-derson and Joe Downey from M&I Bank pre-sented to the group Treasury Management Trends, “Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going”. We were shown the different options that have been growing more popular and the

security benefits they add. Remote deposits, ACH Credits and Positive Pay are some of the items that were featured. The group discussed which items were being used by members and how they were working for them.

The next meeting will be held August 17, 2011 at a location still to be determined.

If you would like to be included in the mailing list, please contact Lynn Mattson at [email protected].

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REPORT


Large Firm Administrators Group

By Karen Reynolds, Chair

Karen Reynolds of Gray Plant Mooty hosted the July Large Firm meeting. Jill LaMere discussed the Large Firm Retreat, which will be held in Chi-cago in September. Jill is serving on the Education Committee this year, and she urged Executive Di-rectors of large firms to attend. Mary Jo Welter mentioned that her firm engaged Chris DeSantis to speak on generational issues at their retreat, and his talk was very well received. His LinkedIn

profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/cpdesantis. Other topics discussed at the meeting included other diversity training, and various comparative survey tools.

The group does not meet in August. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 15 at Noon, hosted by Barbara Clark of Oppenheim-er.

SAVE THE DATE!

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REPORT


Small/Medium Firm Group

By Patti Ploehn and Linda Deering, Co-Chairs

The Small/Medium Group met on Thursday, June 16, 2011. We had a great interactive discus-sion with Heather Lintner of Denarius Human Resources, Inc. on Engaging Employees During Times of Uncertainty.

We discussed today’s economic conditions and the challenges we face as administrators. We also discussed the latest compensation trends including a total rewards model. We talked about an aging workforce – employees are staying longer because of the economy. We debated ways to balance work and life issues of those employees with and without families. We shared thoughts on flexible work schedules and providing monetary and non-monetary bo-nuses.

We had one of our larger meetings, with 25 peo-ple in attendance. We have a wonderful group and we love to share ideas, problem-solve, and discuss issues unique to firms our size. We en-courage everyone interested to attend.

Our next meeting for the Small/Medium Group will be on Thursday, August 18, 2011. We will hear from Janel Anderson, PhD. Janel coaches managers and ex-ecutives on communication strategies that will achieve business goals and bring about desired behavior in oth-ers. As owner and principal consultant for Create Experience, Janel offers ex-pertise in facilitation, diplomacy, pre-sentation coaching, and communica-tion style. Her methods are backed by the latest research and implemented with a coaching style that gets results. Janel’s past work experience includes

being on the faculty at the University of Minne-sota and she has held management positions in start-up companies and large, global organiza-tions including Thomson Reuters.

Janel’s talk, titled Women, Words and Work, (and this is NOT a for-women-only presenta-tion!) will examine the differences between men and women’s styles of communication in the workplace. Specifically she will examine how both word choice and non-verbal com-munication impact outcomes in communica-tion at work. Janel will conclude with several techniques, tips and best practices for women getting their voices heard and communicating powerfully in the workplace.

The cost to attend the luncheon/meeting is $25 for ALAMN members and $30 for non-mem-bers. The meeting/lunch runs from 11:30 to ap-proximately 1:00 PM. An email reminder is sent to all Small/Medium Group members at the beginning of the month, with meal selections and subject matter. If you are interested in at-tending and not currently on the Small/Medium Group email tree, please contact Linda Deering at [email protected]. Thank you!

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REPORT


Systems & Technology Special Interest Group

By Molly Hoeg and Suzette Allaire, Co-Chairs

Location: Briggs and Morgan

Topics for future meetings:1.

Sharepoint legal (Intranets/Extranets), a. Speaker, Social Media, CRM and Win-dows 7 and office 2010. It was also sug-gested that September’s meeting focus on the highlights from ILTA.

The next discussion focused on the 2. different IT Structures in each firm. Following are the results.

Winthrop: No technology committee, a. the IT directory reports to the Firm’s President. Litigation Support is under IT.

Moss and Barnett: No technology commit-b. tee, the IT director reports to the Firm’s President. Litigation Support is under IT.

Briggs and Morgan: A technology com-c.

mittee exists and the IT director reports to the Firm’s President. Litigation Support reports to the litigation department chair.

Lockridge: IT director reports to d. the managing partner. A small technology committee exists.

Larkin and Hoffman: Formal technol-e. ogy committee exists. IT director re-ports to the Firm’s COO. The IT director is also responsible for word processing.

Zelle Hoffman: Technology commit-f. tee approves strategy and budget. IT director reports to the firm’s COO.

Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben: No technol-g. ogy committee and just one IT person who reports to the Firm’s administrator.

There was some discussion on whether a 3. Technology Committee was useful or not. Answers varied.

Save the Date!

What: ALAMN Fall Social EventWhen: October 6, 2011 2:45 – 4:00 Speed Networking with Business Partner Sponsors 4:00 – 7:00 Socialize with Mem bers and Business Partners Where: Nilan Johnson Lewis 400 One Financial Plaza 120 South 6th Street

Look for your invitation in September.


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REPORT


Community Service Committee Minutes

The Community Service Committee met on June 1, 2011 at Bowman and Brooke (thanks to Tom Millin and Shari Tivy for hosting). Attendees in-cluded Pam Gerads, Cheryl Nelson, Sandy Ricci, Shari Tivy, Tracey Skjeveland, Kathy Hubbard, Deb Cramer, and Pat Stender.

Discussions took place as follows:

▶ Twin Cities VisionWalk - Guests Dave Oxley (ALAMN Education Director) and Mark Valen-ziano (2011 Twin Cities VisionWalk Chairman) addressed the committee about the Foundation Fighting Blindness and its Minnesota Chapter (Northern Lights). Both candidly shared their personal stories (Mark was diagnosed with Star-gardt’s disease 31 years ago, and Dave was diag-nosed with Cone-Rod Dystrophy 12 years ago), and provided the following information:

Retinal diseases affect more than 10 million • Americans.The urgent mission of Foundation Fighting • Blindness is to drive research that will pro-vide preventions, treatments and cures for retinal diseases.There was no research for retinal diseases • 31 years ago. Today, Foundation Fighting Blindness funds 136 grants at 76 institutions around the world (the Foundation is the world’s largest non-governmental source of funding for retinal degenerative disease re-search).The Foundation has 50 volunteer-led groups • in the country who strive to increase public awareness, raise funds and provide commu-nity support.The national signature event is VisionWalk.• The best way ALA• MN can help is to par-ticipate in the 2011 Twin Cities VisionWalk scheduled for September 25. Their goal is to

raise a minimum of $175,000.

▶ ALA Community Challenge Weekend (CCW)- The committee agreed that VisionWalk would be a terrific way for ALAMN members, business partners and families to support the Founda-tion and participate in ALA’s CCW in a big way. A subcommittee will be formed to coordinate this event – go Team ALAMN!

▶ Recap of Simpson shelter dinner and toi-letry collection during ALA Conference - Trac-ey Skjeveland reported that 110+ meals were served on May 17 at Simpson shelter. Volunteer turnout was terrific and included several new business partners and chapter members who want to get more actively involved. Tracey also reported that toiletry collection from the re-cent ALA conference was great and will be split between Simpson Shelter and Lewis House (a shelter for battered women and children).

▶ Simpson Meals - The two remaining meal service dates for 2011 are August 23 and Novem-ber 29.

▶ Feed My Starving Children - Only a few people have registered so far for these events scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, 2011 (Coon Rapids location), and Wednesday, July 27, 2011 (Eagan location). Additional publicity should prompt registration.

▶ Ronald McDonald House - Pat Stender is co-ordinating this event and will publicize it closer to the date.

▶ Wills for Heroes - A member suggested the committee look into sponsoring Wills for He-roes. This program started in South Carolina after 9/11 and is designed to assist emergency

REPORT


Community Service Committee Minutes (cont’d)

personnel in preparing wills to protect them-selves and their families. The Minnesota State Bar Association launched the program in Min-nesota in 2007 and provides first responders and their spouse/domestic partners with a vol-unteer attorney to assist in preparing wills and estate planning at no charge. Eligible respond-ers include police officers, firefighters, EMTs/paramedics, and corrections officers. Further research of this program will be done and revis-ited at a later committee meeting.

▶ Bridging - Kathy Hubbard reported the only available date in 2011 was November 12 at the Roseville location. With numerous events al-ready planned this year, it was decided to sched-ule Bridging for early 2012. Kathy will check on dates and get it scheduled.

▶ Soldier’s Angels - Pat Stender reported that Soldier’s Angels is an operation outreach pro-gram for soldiers and their families. There are numerous ways to support this outreach. Deb Cramer also reported on another program for military families and suggested a combined event for 2012 would be a good idea.

▶ Speaker at ALAMN general meeting - Sandy Ricci announced that there is time for a guest speaker from a charitable organization to speak at the September meeting for about 20 minutes. After hearing Mark Valenziano share his story, the committee would love to have him speak at an earlier meeting to drum up awareness and excitement for the VisionWalk event in Septem-ber. However, those meetings are full, so Sandy will ask him to come to the September meet-ing. That should help spark last-minute interest and gain additional awareness.

▶ New Committee Member - The committee

welcomes Jill Hardie to the team!

▶ Tent Cards - Shari Tivy suggested we provide tent cards of 2011 community service events at tables at chapter meetings, including contact information for donations. Cheryl will try to get something drafted in the near future.

▶ 2011 Events - The group noted that volunteer opportunities/events are pretty much full for the rest of the year. New suggestions will likely be steered towards 2012.

▶ Future Committee Meetings:September 28 (need a host)• November 30 (Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi)•

14 15THE VERDICT - August 2011 -

Help in-need children as they head back to school this 2011/12 school year!

The ALAMN Community Service Committee is holding its 3rd annual school supply drive and invites all members and business partners to participate. Items collected will be donated to 360 Communities and Keystone Commu-nity Service.

Please bring your donations to the general meeting on August 9th or a committee/SIG meeting during the month of August. Donations can

also be sent directly to Laurie Greenberg at Briggs and Morgan. If you would like to make a financial contribution please make checks pay-able to 360 Communities or Keystone Community Service and send to Laurie Greenberg, 2200 IDS Center, 80 South 8th Street, Minne-apolis, MN 55402.

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Wish List

Donations will be collected through August 19th.

“One act of kindness…can offer a child a completely different outcome in life.”

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NEWS


Behind the scenes of ALAMN – Dollars and Sense

By Tracy Skjeveland

Have you ever thought about how much it costs to bring in the great speakers we have at our monthly meetings? How much it costs to host the Minnesota conference? What our monthly meetings and dues would be if we did not have our business partners supporting our organi-zation? Well I can say, I never really thought about any of these things and just took them for granted prior to joining the Business Part-ner and Conference Committee, the Commu-nity Service Committee and most recently the Board of Directors as the Finance Director.

Now that I have a better understanding of the financial position of ALAMN, I thought it would be beneficial to share some of the facts behind the operation of this great organization.

In 2010, ALAMN reported revenues of $237,325. Seventy-three percent of this revenue was gen-erated by our business partner program. Each one of our business partners pays an annual fee for a variety of benefits, such as attending the annual conference, attending social events, advertising in The Verdict, and several other benefits depending on the level of sponsorship. The support of the business partners allowed the organization to provide scholarships for education, subsidize our local conference and our monthly meetings. We were able to send 25 members to annual conference and 23 mem-bers to regional conference in 2010 on full or partial scholarship.

The second largest source of revenue is gen-erated by the salary survey. On an annual ba-sis, the organization generates about $23,000 from the sales of the survey. The cost to con-duct and produce the survey was slightly over $13,000. The next area of income is generated from the monthly meeting fees and the annual conference. The monthly meeting, including the managing partner meeting, brought in al-most $18,000; the cost of these events is closer to $33,000, which includes the food, speaker and room rental. The cost for a member to attend a monthly meeting last year was $25/event. The annual conference is the second largest expenditure on the income statement after scholarships. ALAMN spent over $55,000 on the conference last March, while only gen-erating $15,400 in fees. The conference is a great value, especially taking into account the level of speakers the conference committee has brought in over the last several years.

In addition to the items above, there were sev-eral other expenditures paid by the association in 2010. ALAMN hosted the anniversary party last summer, where the name change and new logo was revealed. There was a fall social and speed networking event at The Grand Hotel in September. ALAMN hosts a website for easy access to our membership listing, upcoming events and meetings, listing of business part-ners and a host of other data.

Since I am an accountant I did a little estimating of what it would cost to participate in ALAMN if we didn’t have the strong support of our busi-

16

NEWS


ness partners. We would have to increase our monthly meeting costs to about $60/event, our annual conference to $275, and our member-ship dues to $340. This would cover the costs of the events and the general administration costs of the organization. Even with the greatly in-creased event fees and dues, we would have to eliminate all scholarships and social events be-cause they would simply be cost prohibitive. When people ask me what ALAMN or ALA is, the first two items that come out of my mouth relate to the great educational opportunities

available and the wonderful network of col-leagues. These opportunities would simply not be available at the cost they are today without the support of our business partners, which I simply did not appreciate to the full extent until now. So next time you are at a monthly meeting, the summer social or annual confer-ence and you are thinking to yourself what a fabulous event it is, remember to say thank you to the folks that make it possible!

Behind the scenes of ALAMN – Dollars and Sense

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ALA Webinar for August 2011

Focus on Profitability: Advanced Budget-ing and Ratio Analysis (FM)

Date: August 17, 2011 Time: 1:00 PM Central

Your firm budget is most effective when it is directly tied to business goals, yet fewer than 41% of the organizations surveyed indicated their budgets were tightly aligned. How can fi-nancial managers avoid this widespread prob-lem and implement better budgeting and ana-lytical processes? In this program, the speaker will cover a range of advanced budgeting tech-niques and analytical tools for the experienced legal administrator. Topics include the budget scope, differential budgeting techniques, fore-casting, and analytical tools.

Learning Objectives:Analyze ways to align budgeting techniques • to organizational goals Apply advanced analytical tools to the bud-• geting processPrepare and evaluate capital and cash flow • budgets

Speaker:Richard J. Nigon, CLM, is the CFO of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. in Minneapolis. He has more than 20 years of law firm finance experience and is a frequent presenter at

ALA conferences and chapter meetings. A for-mer ALA President, Nigon is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious “The Spirit of ALA” award.

CLM Credit:CLM Credit for live program only: 1 hr of credit in the area of Financial Management (FM) for CLM Recertification; 1 hour towards the addi-tional hours of education required of Function-al Specialists seeking to fulfill the CLM applica-tion.

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18

NEWS


ALA Annual Conference in Honolulu

How Grass Skirts and Hawaiian Shirts Can Make You a Better Leader

I know it seems ridiculous to be talking about the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in August of 2011. But if you can save your firm or law de-partment money by starting the vetting process early, aren’t you compelled to read on?

It goes without saying: Hawaii sounds exotic and hosting the 2012 ALA Con-ference there is not with-out challenges because of it. Your partners are going to roll their eyes when you suggest they send you to Honolulu for a conference next April. Imagine where their imaginations will take them! What first comes to YOUR mind when you think of the islands? But I would like to offer some advice on how to make your pitch for attendance at next year’s conference and why to start now on that request.

First let’s take a look at the value the confer-ence offers. Your take aways include:

Over 100 classes to choose from on any vari-• ety of law office/department management issues, leadership training, strategic plan-ning, skill set development and innovative

changes in the way we perform our assign-ments,Opportunity to view over 200 different busi-• ness partner opportunities including pre-viewing products and solidifying relation-ships, andNetworking opportunities ensuring you • have resources available to you across the country, across all management specialties,

firm sizes and locales as well as sound peer advice on emerging issues for our industry and your firm

Now, let’s talk turkey… or spam if you are Hawai-ian…about the expense of those opportunities. If you recap my base cost of air-fare, hotel and conference fee for the 2010 Boston Conference I spent $2322. For the 2011 Orlando Con-ference the cost was $2392. This puts the base cost of recent conferences at just under $2400. What if I told you that you can get to the 2012 Honolulu Conference

for the same amount?

ALA has secured room rates at the Hilton Hawai-ian Village for less than our hotel rates at Bos-ton or Orlando saving you approximately $200 for five nights of the conference. That’s like getting one night free! And now, for a limited time only, until August 31 you can register for the Super Early Bird registration of $595. That

NEWS


ALA Annual Conference in Honolulu (cont’d)

is $200 off the regular early bird rate and $400 off regular registration. Even a one hour webi-nar is usually over $100! Where else would you get three full days of education, business part-ner time, expansive networking opportunities and two meals a day for $595? So now you can save $400 ($200 on hotel and $200 on registra-tion) on the cost of your conference and use that to offset airfare to Honolulu. Es-sentially, you may attend the Hono-lulu conference for the same base fee as conferences in Boston, Orlando or any other continental U.S. location!

If those hard facts don’t convince your partners the conference is worth your time and their money, why not couple it up with some vacation time and do some cost sharing? Plan now to integrate a family vacation with the conference. Use the ALA hotel conference rate to extend your time and maximize the cost of the air-fare by staying longer. Adding days to your trip also gives you flexibility on finding bargain airfares. This is a travel opportunity you cannot afford to pass up! But to realize the most savings you need to act now and register for the conference by August 31. The risk is low; if you need to cancel your reg-istration there is a $250 penalty fee but if your chances are good that you will be attending the conference you should act now. I’m starting to sound like an infomercial!

For more information on the conference com-plete with a ‘Justification Toolkit’ go to this link and learn more: http://alanet.org/conf/2012/de-fault.html

http://alanet.org/conf/2012/default.html

http://alanet.org/conf/2012/default.html

20

NEWS


What Do You Like Best About ALAMN?

Proudly supports ALAMN

For more information Call 952.921.1383

It’s definitely the people. -- Shane Hoffman

I think the best thing about ALA Minnesota is the chance to, is the education ex-

perience and the ability to get involved with the com-mittees and to, what’s the word I’m looking for? To better your career.

-- Sarah Didrikson

My favorite part of ALA Minnesota is the people and the level of ed-

ucation that you get by be-ing a member.

-- Deb Cramer

(What) I like about the ALA Conference is the people that I can learn from.

I like the people!-- Vicky Hawes

My favorite part of being a member of ALAMN is de-veloping the

relationships with the busi-ness partners’ sponsors and realizing that they can be not only a wealth of infor-mation, but provide goods and services to our firms.

-- Michele Sauder

I just think that the ALA Min-nesota Chapter has wonderful

leaders that set a wonder-ful example for all of us.

-- Linda Deering

The thing I get the most out of ALA Minne-sota is the net-working with the people and

knowing that you have someone to call if you’re in a bind, and you know somebody else has already been through it and helps you walk through it.

-- Kim Pepera

Oh, my sal-ary survey! I couldn’t do my job without it. -- Jodi Schmidt

At the annual conference in Orlando, Doug Sievers (ALAMN Communciations Director and Membership Development Committee Member) took some time out to interview members and find out what they liked best about ALAMN. Members were happy to respond! Read below to see what the buzz is all about!


Have Your Firm’s Next Training at the HCBA

HCBAConnection August 2011

Updates for Legal Administrators and Law Office Managers from the Hennepin County Bar Association

Hennepin County Bar Association • Proudly serving legal professionals and the public • www.hcba.org • 612-752-6600

Meeting/Facility Rental is Available The Hennepin County Bar Association’s downtown Minneapolis conference rooms provide the perfect professional setting for your law firm’s next large meeting, lecture, or presentation. The HCBA’s offices can comfortably hold groups as large as 80, and the state-of-the-art presentation technology and other amenities provide exactly what you need for a perfect meeting.

Video recording and webcasting of your presentations are also available. View pricing and additional rental information at: www.hcba.org/Activities/Services/roomrental.aspx

Contact Paula Schulze at 612-752-6613 or [email protected] for more information or to arrange a tour of the bar association office and conference center. Let the HCBA help make your next meeting a success.

Bar Foundation Charity Golf Classic August 8th at the Burl Oaks Golf Club, Minnetrista Proceeds support the Hennepin County Bar Foundation – the charitable arm of the HCBA. Contact Joy Hamilton at 612-752-6614 or [email protected] for sponsorship information or registrations for your attorneys or clients.

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HCBA’s tiered-seating auditorium and flexible room setups can create the perfect setting for your next meeting.


Question: I’d like to update my firm’s In-ternet Usage Policy to include language addressing the use of social media tools in the law firm environment. Do you have any sample policies that are appli-cable to the legal industry, or something that can be tailored to fit a law firm?

Answer: There are many Web-based resourc-es for social media policy language, as well as thorough discussions of the issues involved in regulating social media in a business setting. In-terestingly, while earlier material offered fairly strong suggestions that access to social media be prohibited at work, more recent pieces tend to take the opposite viewpoint – that access be permitted as a way to encourage collaboration. In any event, don’t forget that such access must be governed by the needs of the business.

As mentioned in some of the resources provid-ed here, review the firm’s electronic communi-cations / acceptable use policy, confidentiality policy and any other potentially relevant poli-cies; these may need to be updated to cover social media use, even if you develop a policy specifically to address such networks.

This Social Media Governance page links to doz-ens of corporate policies from both the public and private sector; IBM, Harvard Law School and Yahoo! are among the entities represented here.The Social Media Policies Database from Com-plianceBuilding.com offers links to many policy

examples; there is some overlap with the pre-ceding site.

Here’s a policy on social networking from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Note that it’s primarily for administrative staff and faculty, not students.

The City of Seattle’s Department of Health Ser-vices posted its own policy language here.

An article from HRHero.com, posted by a Cana-dian law firm, discusses social networking sites in the workplace.

This posting on the CyberPatrol blog discusses security issues, and is one of those items rec-ommending that certain social media sites be banned (or at least closely regulated).

Jaffe Associates offers a template for social me-dia policies, with a checklist of factors a firm should take into account when developing its own policy.

The Ohio Employer’s Law Blog has suggestions on what to consider when drafting a social me-dia policy.

LLRX.com, the Law Library Resource Xchange, posted the article “Five Things Lawyers Should Know About Social Media.”

A blog posting from employment law firm Gor-dillo & Gordillo LLC outlines what should go into a social media policy.

ALA Question of the Month

http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

http://www.compliancebuilding.com/about/publications/social-media-policies/

http://www.policy.ucsb.edu/policies/advisory-docs/social-networking-guide.pdf

http://itdirectors.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=16844&locid=139

http://blogs.hrhero.com/northernexposure/2008/11/04/social-networking-web-sites-in-the-workplace/

http://computersafety.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/ban-facebook-and-myspace-from-work/

http://www.jaffepr.com/about-us/industry-insight/white-papers/social-media-policy-procedures-and-social-network-policy-proc

http://www.ohioemployerlawblog.com/2009/06/drafting-social-networking-policy-7.html



http://www.eeoattorney.com/blog/does-your-employee-handbook-have-a-social-media-policy-for-web-20


ALA Question of the Month (continued)

The blog New York Business Law has this en-try on the legal reasons to have a social media policy.

Here’s a social media policy template from the Law Marketing Portal.

Altman Weil recommends establishing policies on social networking for lawyers.

ILTA, the International Legal Technology Asso-ciation, offers an interesting policy statement – it focuses on social media use, but also discusses confidentiality in that context. You might con-sider adapting something here for use in your

own firm.

An article posted on CIO Insight, “Facebook, Twitter, and the Law: What Every CIO Should Know About Social Media,” is a good discussion of some of the legal risks associated with em-ployee use of social media.

The American Bar Association published the book Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Fron-tier. Note that this title is not on developing policies to control appropriate use, but is de-signed as guidance for lawyers wishing to in-corporate social media into their practices.

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http://nylawblog.com/2009/06/legal-reasons-why-your-company-should-have-a-social-networking-policy/

http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleID=1024

http://www.altmanweil.com/dir_docs/resource/b61602c5-a463-4c4c-a259-48e573806138_document.pdf

http://ilta.ebiz.uapps.net/productfiles/productfiles/1879/Sample SM Guidelines - Firm 1.pdf

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/IT-Management/Facebook-Twitter-and-the-Law-What-Every-CIO-Should-Know-About-Social-Media-136035/

http://apps.americanbar.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5110710

24

NEWS


By Abby Hollander

I was lucky enough to win a scholarship to the recent ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Thank you ALAMN! I was excited for the opportunity to meet fellow ALA members, as well as to further solidify existing relation-ships with those I already know from ALAMN. In addition to networking, one of my top ed-ucational goals was to come away with some ideas as to what we can do, as a firm, with re-spect to employee morale as we slowly emerge from the recession. Employees everywhere are tired of hearing about efficiencies and how we need to do more with less. These are the people who helped our firms successfully get through the worst recession since the Great Depression and we need to find the right way to let them know that we recognize their efforts and that we value them. Interestingly enough, I was looking for the magic words that would inspire and rally people. But that is not what people really want.

The first session I attended, on day one of the conference, was led by Shari Harley and entitled: The New Review: Getting the Best from Long-time Employees. This session was very informative and helped me to answer my question about employ-ee engagement. It was something I already knew, but needed to be re-minded of in these last difficult years. Engagement with employees hap-pens one-on-one and requires strong

and trusting relationships built over time. That kind of relationship can’t exist unless you, as a manager, take the time to know your staff as the individuals that they are. Ms. Harley laid out four basic, but key, things managers should make a point of knowing about each individu-al:

(1) what motivates them; (2) their career deal breaker; (3) what they like doing;(4) and what they don’t like doing.

While that may appear to be quite basic and entirely obvious, that is and has always been what engages employees. It goes back to Man-agement 101. We need to recognize people as individuals and make a point of ensuring that we are playing to their strengths and interests.

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Online CLM Study Group

The Cyber Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators is pleased to announce our sec-ond “Online CLM Study Group”. Many ALA members and current CLMs took advantage of our first Online CLM Study Group and found it very helpful as they prepared for the exam. Many participants in the first group credit our Online CLM Study Group with their success. We have been off line for a couple of years now as we reviewed, updated and supplemented our study material. We are very grateful to the Or-egon Chapter for providing us the audio and visual material from their 13-week study course held in early 2010.

We are now up and running with our second “Online Study CLM Group” and need your as-sistance in letting your members know of its availability. The advantages of participation

in Cyber Chapter’s Online CLM Study Group to your members are that the participants can set their own pace, access the materials anywhere they have an internet connection and study at times that are most convenient for them. Ma-terials are available in PDF format. Audio files can be downloaded to computer, transferred to CD, iPod, iPad or other device/media as the student desires.

Of course, the best part of the Cyber Chapter’s Online CLM Study Group is its reasonable cost. If the student is already a member of the Cyber Chapter, then the cost is $100. For non-Cyber Chapter members, the cost is $165. As an added bonus, the student may join the Cyber Chapter and participate in the Chapter’s discussion fo-rum free of charge through December of the current year.


Cyber Chapter Association of Legal Administrators

CLM Study Group Registration 2011

Name:

Position/Title:

Firm Name:

Address:

City, State, Zip:

Phone #:

Direct Dial #:

*Fax #:

*E-mail Address:

I am a member of ALA: ____ Yes My membership number is _______________ ____ No Note: Membership in the Association of Legal Administrators ismandatory

I am a member of Cyber Chapter: ____ Yes _____ Application Attached ____ No Note: Membership in the Cyber Chapter is not mandatory.

Signature RequiredBy participating in the CLM Study Group, I understand I am being granted a non-exclusive license to access copyrighted material in a restricted, password-protected area of the Cyber Chapter website. By my signature hereto, I agree that I will not share my password with others, nor will I share the written or audio materials with others. I agree that any copies I make of the written or audio material are strictly for my own personal use. I understand the registration fee is non-refundable once I have registered on-line and been granted access to the on-line materials.

*By providing my fax and/or e-mail address, I consent to receiving communications from the Cyber Chapter via fax and/or e-mail.

Signature: Date:

Program Cost:

____ $100 Cyber Chapter Members ____ $165 Non-Members (Includes membership to Cyber Chapter through 12/31 with separate application)

Access to the CLM study forum is good for one (1) year from payment. Make check payable to: Cyber Chapter, Association of Legal Administrators, and mail to:

Linda R. Lehmann, Business Manager Landye Bennett Blumstein LLP

Suite 3500 1300 SW Fifth Avenue

Portland OR 97201-5641

NEWS


By Janelle Loven

Foremost, I would like to say thank you to the ALAMN for drawing my name for a first-time at-tendee scholarship and giving me this fabulous opportunity to attend the national ALA confer-ence in Orlando. I’d like to discuss the three things that had the biggest impact on me.

First of all, I was very impressed by the camara-derie of the law firm administrators. This was very evident at the first-time attendee gather-ing on Sunday night of the conference. We were given an ice breaker game, similar to a black out BINGO game, in which I had to iden-tify other ALA members that fit specific crite-ria. For example, I had to find someone that owned an iPhone, was a grandparent, served in the military, or was a CLM, etc. I visited with ALA members from every region of the United States at that meeting and found everyone I en-countered friendly and inviting. I felt extremely comfortable during this meeting which set the stage for the rest of the conference.

Secondly, I found the educational sessions to be enlightening and I was able to bring home some new methods to apply in my job on a daily basis. I enjoyed Dan Heath’s keynote address - “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.” While change is difficult in any or-ganization he was able to help me see change from a different perspective. For example, he discussed focusing on processes that work and why they work, then taking those “workable” processes, cloning them and applying them to processes that don’t work. He mentioned that generally you can apply similar techniques in different situations. It may take time and cre-ativity, but more times than not, you will have

a positive outcome. All too often, we are busy focusing on what doesn’t work and we don’t spend enough time looking at things that do work. It reminded me to take a step back and reevaluate how I approach situations.

Finally, the best part of the conference for me and what had the biggest impact was network-ing with the legal administrators from our Min-nesota Chapter and our local business part-ners. I enjoyed developing new relationships and contacts. I am amazed by the talented and committed professionals we have in our chap-ter and by the energy of the business partners that support us. I am proud to be associated with such an outstanding group of individuals and I look forward to fostering and building these relationships.

First Time ALA Conference Attendee Report

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28

MEMBERS


Welcome Our New Members!

Holly L. BilderbackManager of Operations & Client TechnologyFaegre & Benson, LLP2200 Wells Fargo Center90 S. 7th St.Minneapolis, MN 55402-3901Phone: [email protected]

Linda NygardAccounting DirectorBassford Remele, P.A.33 S. 6th St., Suite 3800Minneapolis, MN 55402Phone: 612-376-1615Fax: [email protected]

Shelbie O’BrienGray Plant Mooty Mooty & Bennett, P.A.Director of Finance80 S. 8th St., 500 IDS CenterMinneapolis, MN 55402-9680Phone: 612-632-3079shelbie.o’[email protected]

Holly Ficek Heacox, Hartman, Koshmrl, Cosgriff & Johnson, P.A.Accounting Assistant408 St. Peter St., Suite 550St. Paul, MN 55102Phone: [email protected]

ALAMN Member Changes?

Reminder: Please for-

ward any firm or individ-

ual contact information

changes to Deborah Cra-

mer, CLM, Membership

Director, at doc@john-

son-condon.com.

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Job Bank

Firm Administrator

Olup & Associates LLC, a premier law firm prac-ticing Family Law, is currently seeking a Firm Administrator to join our office. This position will manage the operations of the law office to function smoothly and economically, and is expected to help creatively define and en-hance the scope of the operation. The Firm Ad-ministrator oversees and directs, all management functions, including human resources management, ad-ministrative policies and procedures, financial management, facilities management, information systems, marketing, records management and research.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

Thorough knowledge of admin-• istration, accounting, operations and personnel management as normally acquired through a Bachelor’s degree in business ad-ministration, finance, human re-sources or closely related field, or the equivalent experience. Excellent supervisory and men-• toring skills. Able to work effec-tively with personnel enforcing firm policies and procedures. Self-starter capable of handling • and prioritizing multiple projects and responsibilities simultane-ously. Managing office functions eco-• nomically and efficiently while maintaining good interpersonal relations and communications with lawyers and personnel.

Experience working in legal office environ-• ment. Current knowledge of Microsoft Office. • Advanced degree and/or professional certi-• fications a plus, including JD, MBA, and Cer-tified Legal Manager (CLM)SM designation.

Interested candidates please email resume, cov-er letter and availability to [email protected].

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SPONSOR


Job Bank Note

ALAMN members interested in new positions are encouraged to regularly review postings on the ALAMN web-site. Jobs are posted on the website as soon as they are received; they are not always published in The Verdict. The Job Bank is only for those man-agement positions that meet ALA and ALAMN membership criteria. To post a job opening with the ALAMN Job Bank or to place your name on the contact list for future openings, please contact Sarah Taylor, Member Placement Ser-vice, at 612.672.8288 or email at [email protected].

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