OUR #1 OBJECTIVE – HELPING YOU BE SUCCESSFUL
Our overriding objective as the leadership and staff of the NWSBA is to help you be successful! We pledge to do that in 3 ways this year: 1) provide plenty of substantive law meetings and seminars to help you improve your legal knowledge and skills, 2) plan select social events, which provide you with networking opportunities for new contacts, and new business, and 3) help you become more profitable, by the work of our Law Practice Management Committee.
COMMITTEES PROVIDE YOU OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH
Most of our substantive law committees, plus the law practice management committee, have organized regular monthly meetings for your benefit. Watch for the schedule of these meetings to be published in Newsbriefs and posted on our website soon. In the meantime, check the website calendar on the lower right-hand side of the home page. These 1 hour meetings are a great way to meet people, network, learn, and get an hour of FREE CLE. For example, I attended the first meeting of the law practice management committee recently – chairs, Kerry Lavelle and Jon Anderson both know how to build and run a successful law firm, and they are willing to share this knowledge and experience with all of us – so unless you’re in this purely for the love of the game, check out this committee. We all need to continually grow and learn – so take advantage and attend any committee meeting that you think provides a learning opportunity for you.
Another endeavor by the substantive law committees designed to help you be more successful is our Legal Forms Bank Project, being lead by 1st VP Nichole Waltz. We are in the process of assembling a collection of legal forms, which will be available on our website, to members only. We all know that when we need to draft a new legal form/document, the first thing we do is look for a good sample to follow – in house or someone else’s – so with your help, soon you should have access through our website to a valuable collection of quality legal forms. Please pitch in by contributing one of your forms to one of the substantive law committees. Which leads me to another most important point. As my Dad told me many times, Ronnie, you get out of something what you put into it. Find a way that you can make a contribution to your fellow lawyers, and profession by being active in one or more of the NWSBA substantive law committees.
NWSBA FOUNDATION – OFF AND RUNNING
Our new NWSBA Foundation Board got off to a great start by holding its first fundraiser of the year last month – A Day at the Races at Arlington Park. NWSBA Foundation Board members Steve Daday (Foundation President), Lynn Palac, Susan Kim, Charles Adler, and Hon. John Tourtelot (Ret.) hosted this well attended fundraising event. The NWSBA Foundation raises funds for the Timothy C. Evans Scholarships, which are awarded annually at the NWSBA Judges’ night dinner, and for the annual High School Mock Trial Invitational, held each year in February.
WE’RE ALL HERE TO NETWORK – REFER TO YOUR NWSBA FRIENDS
As I have mentioned before, we are all here to network, and I don’t think we should be shy about telling people what type of work we do, and the type of cases we are looking for – and never come to an NWSBA event without plenty of your business cards. One inexpensive and important way to market I think is by building an email list of all of your clients, friends, relatives, and other contacts. Then judiciously, but regularly send informative emails to your ever expanding email contact list. There are many providers of this service – Get Response, iContact, Campaigner, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, and others. Inform your contacts of course of the type of work you do, AND that if you can’t help with the type of legal work they need, you will help them find an excellent lawyer who can – and then of course be sure to refer to an NWSBA friend. Your persistent efforts to build and utilize an email contact list over time are certain to produce new legal work for you, and an opportunity to refer to your colleagues. And, what goes around, comes around, right? On a personal note, my wife Carol, and I had a chance to return to the site of our previous NWSBA travel CLE this month – Austin, Texas! – and visit with our daughter, Lindsey, who lives nearby. We heard some great live music, went to an old fashion country dance hall (the Broken Spoke), ate some good barbeque, and kayaked in downtown Austin. Can’t wait to go back!
