Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1037
www.iltanet.org 74 Peer to Peer mEmBER RESOURCES The Results Are In! We're pleased to announce the results of the biennial election of our board of Directors. the following volunteer leaders will serve a two-year term commencing in august following our annual conference: Eric Anderson Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP Jeff Brandt Crowell & Moring LLP Scott Christensen K&L Gates Michele Gossmeyer Mayer Brown LLP Jim McCue Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A. Cheryl Proctor Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz Steve Skidmore Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP S uccess on the job is dependent on many factors, not the least of which is your knowledge of company/firm "lore" and your ability to respond quickly with substantive answers in your areas of expertise when stopped in the hallway, at the water cooler or in the elevator. Many firms provide a "Law Firm 101" course that covers these basic concepts and more that will be specific to your environment: Who are the members of the management committee? • What is a conflicts check, and why is it important? • What is meant by the term • "cost recovery"? When we talk about litigation versus transactional practice areas, • what does that mean? Where does the firm have offices, and what are the major practices in • those offices? As a manager, you should be able to articulate the status of current projects on any issue that has the eye/ear of senior management. These elevator speeches are one or two sentence sound bites to get you up or down a couple of floors. They are the company line on a variety of technology issues of interest to lawyers and staffs. Here are some examples to inspire your elevator speeches: are we taking any steps to manage our maintenance costs? • Yes. We are looking at all of our maintenance contracts to see if they are required. are we doing anything to boost morale? • We are keeping people busy. We believe keeping people busy and productive is a great way to boost morale. are we rewarding innovative ideas for doing more with less? • We formally track and report on efforts that result in cost savings. Why are we moving to office 2007 when so many of our clients are • on office 2003? Office 2007 is the best place to be for collaborating in a mixed office environment. When are we getting new blackberrys? • Most of our users are on T-Mobile, and T-Mobile is only now introducing "next generation" products. We need to evaluate those before moving forward. Why aren • 't we supporting iPhones/when will we support iPhones? (You fill in the blank!) That's a question for which an elevator speech is almost a necessity. ILTA Going Up?