The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/480238
WWW.ILTANET.ORG 71 About the Author Betsi Roach serves as the Executive Director of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA). In addition to working with the LMA board of directors on long-range strategic planning, Betsi oversees LMA's partnerships, facilitates expansion of the organization and is the primary contact for volunteer leadership. She has spent more than 25 years in the association, legal and financial services industries. Contact Betsi at broach@legalmarketing.org. About the Author Oliver Yandle, JD, CAE is the Executive Director at the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA). Oliver took the helm at ALA in July 2012. He previously served as the executive vice president of the Commercial Law League in Chicago and executive director at the lnternationaI Association of Defense Counsel. Oliver currently holds the Certified Association Executive designation through the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). Contact him at oyandle@alanet.org. LISTEN TO THE RECORDED INTERVIEWS ONLINE: www.iltanet.org/podcasts about the business of law. Find out how to drive value and the bottom line at your law firm. There are volumes, indeed libraries, written on leadership traits. Learn from that collection of information, and find a mentor in someone you admire. Let him or her help you avoid the painful learning curve. How is your association adapting to meet the needs of your members who have new and evolving roles? Oliver: At ALA, we're currently developing new strategic plans and implementing Lean Six Sigma principles and approaches in an effort to become more adept at identifying trends and changes in the business of law. We're also looking at new approaches to our educational programs, expanding our offerings in areas such as strategy, business, finance and legal project management, and enhancing the information we provide through our educational programs and publications. We've established a number of listservs and other communities to help members share ideas on some of these changes, including how to implement new positions and how to identify the right candidates. Randi: With ILTA's core focus on technology, we're always bringing programming online to explore and support the latest "hot topic." But that's the surface for us; we have a real interest in developing the leaders of tomorrow — through our volunteer opportunities, our mentorship of our leaders, and our opportunities to learn more about leadership, we provide opportunities to practice leadership skills for those who have the interest and desire. I'm also very excited about our ongoing collaborative efforts with our sister as-sociations. Collectively, we support everyone inside a law firm; and I appreciate that we're working to-gether to deliver value. We will continue to evolve as our people evolve; and supporting our members' changing professional roles is critical. Jim: NALP is trying to be nimble in these changing times, yet we continue to do the things we've always done for our members by providing research and learning opportunities whenever and however we can. One of the ways we're changing involves delivery. Whereas we used to rely on print publications and a monthly magazine, we now deliver most of our regular publications electronically. Similarly, we continue to support five or six in-person conferences every year because the networking that comes from those events is critical, but we're increasing our menu of online learning opportunities (live webinars and just-in-time archived learning experiences). We continue to provide access to experts with all our educational programing to keep people apprised of the changes in the profession as they're happening. We also go to great lengths to make sure we understand and can anticipate the changes that still lie ahead. Betsi: LMA is a young organization (we are entering our 30th year in 2015), as is the legal marketing and business development profession. As the field and our organization mature, we're able to shape the organization and our services. One of LMA's long-term goals is to do more for our volunteers by taking a lot of the administrative and operational aspects off their plates, allowing volunteers more time for networking and discussing the substantive issues they face. We anticipate this will bring about greater efficiencies and best practices. We're also continuously updating and refining our educational offerings, ensuring we're supporting our members' professional growth as they adapt to changing circumstances. In fact, we recently added a client-value shared interest group to allow for more robust discussions among our members related to law firm pricing, process improvement and project management. And there's certainly more to come!