IDEA Awards 2018 Entries
As the undisputed leader of the business of law, ALA members and chapters are encouraged to strive for excellence. ALA's IDEA Awards are presented to ALA chapters, committees, regions, individuals, firms, or organizations (including business partners) that create unique and innovative programs, services and events that improve our ALA chapters and/or legal communities. The IDEA Awards recognize new practices that deliver great value and transformational impact through innovative achievement.
Below are summaries of all entrants for the 2018 awards cycle.
Greater Chicago Chapter #GetCLM: We Support Your Success The Greater Chicago Chapter has gradually implemented a more formalized CLM study program. Recently, though, the program kicked into high gear, growing participation beyond the chapter’s members and boosting passage rates. The program — which charges no fee and is funded in the regular budget — lasts 16 weeks. It includes a substantial Google Drive–hosted library of resources, weekly educational sessions (available in person and via webcast), and an extensive review session on |
Boston Chapter ALA: Stronger Together |
Minnesota Chapter ALAMN Challenge Coin ALAMN found that many of its members could not articulate the chapter’s mission. To improve awareness of the mission and boost recognition of those who help fulfill it, the chapter created a simple, meaningful and tangible item: the ALAMN Challenge Coin. Challenge coins are commonly used in military and law-enforcement communities to identify membership and recognize achievements. Once the coins were manufactured, chapter board members were entitled to hand them (and accompanying thank-you notes) out to members and business partners who the board determined have helped improve, promote or represent ALAMN. After 10 months of this initiative, the chapter has found that members are better able to verbalize the mission, that engagement in membership and leadership has improved, and that recipients displaying the coins |
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP Blanketing Those in Need |
Katie Bryant, Alan Wilson and Rich Wilson Business Partner and Member Engagement Dos and Don’ts |
Boston Chapter Chapter Restructuring — A LEGO-Like IDEA |
Northern Virginia Chapter Friday Fast Five |
Calgary Chapter IDEA Awards |
Reed Smith University: School of Professional Support and Staff CareeRS Team Innovation & Engagement Shine with the Staff CareeRS Staff Advisory Board The global law firm Reed Smith LLP has developed a thriving educational arm — the “University” — to support lawyers, clients and staff. Within it is the Staff CareeRS program, a competency-based career development track specifically for staff members. The program is designed to ensure the firm is providing the best legal representation possible while also providing staff with the transparency, development opportunities and feedback they need to achieve their career goals. Until 2014, the professional support education was designed exclusively by HR professionals with feedback from staff members. At that point, however, a group of high-performing staff members was selected to become more directly involved in the programming via the Staff Advisory Board. The board allows staff members from different departments to collaborate on initiatives that help fellow personnel, and to identify promising candidates for board service — itself an important career development tool. Some of the board’s work has included revamping “Know Your Practice” e-learning courses, developing programming to improve proficiency at using the firm’s extranet site for clients, creating an information security blog, and improving outreach to new hires and existing employees. |
Ari Kaplan Lawcountability: ALA Edition In 2016, when ALA leaders expressed an interest in incorporating technology that enhances member experience, Ari Kaplan offered to adapt his business and career development platform, Lawcountability, for ALA members. The overall goal of Lawcountability is to provide a user-friendly way for legal management leaders to build accountability into their professional development and networking with firm management. The ALA program was piloted in 2017 at the Regional Legal Management Conferences. Members who registered Lawcountability accounts received access on a weekly basis to 12 specially created educational videos from the conferences’ most popular speakers. Each week’s program also included three tasks to help the viewer implement the particular techniques presented. Completing tasks would accrue points on the member’s dashboard. Twenty-two members created Lawcountability accounts; more than a third watched a least one video. |
Gateway Chapter Make a Difference Video The Gateway Chapter, always looking for ways to promote the visibility and credibility of ALA to prospective members, decided to go a different direction from easy-to-skip-over newsletters and email blasts. Instead, chapter members teamed up to produce a video that creatively described the benefits of ALA membership. With $2,000 in discretionary funds and volunteer actors, writers and producers, the chapter produced their “Make a Difference” video in time for the annual New Member Welcome Reception. Screening the video in person has reached hundreds of people and caused business partners to express appreciation for the visibility of their sponsorship. Incorporating the video into chapter social media has led to activity spikes. |
Maryland Chapter Marylanders Go Year-Round to Support the Homeless, the Hungry and to Educate The Maryland Chapter made a concerted year-round effort in support of its community service goals: 1) to provide support to ending homelessness, 2) to provide support in ending hunger, and 3) to provide education where needed in the Baltimore area. They began in August at the Maryland Food Bank, sorting and boxing food for the food-insecure individuals and families the organization serves. The chapter also collected backpacks and school supplies for elementary-aged children heading back to school. Chapter members and business partners collaborated in September on a Habitat for Humanity project and raised money through the Annual Business Partner Exhibition to supplement the chapter’s annual holiday giving. Ultimately, they gave $450 — as well as food and winter accessories — to Sarah’s House, a supportive housing program for families experiencing homelessness. The chapter also donated $250 to the Lawyers’ Campaign Against Hunger and $250 to the Citizenship Law Related Education Program (CLREP)’s Law Links internship, which places high schoolers in a paid summer internship at a law-related organization. |
Catherine MacDonagh The Legal WorkOut®: A Collaborative Approach to Process Improvement for Law Firms and Legal Departments While process improvement (PI) initiatives have been adopted in many industries, law firms and legal departments remain skeptical and slow to innovate. The Legal Lean Sigma Institute developed the Legal WorkOut® approach, which combines PI methodologies, to change the way legal professionals, businesspeople and clients collaborate to improve legal services processes in terms of efficiency, value and satisfaction. The plan was implemented at Aon’s Global Law Department and two of its preferred law firms. Despite logistical and motivational challenges, the institute was able to walk diverse project teams through the 30- to 90-day Legal WorkOut program. Aon saw many positive results in terms of streamlining and reducing friction, such as 43 percent fewer rejected invoices, the development of a new subpoena dashboard that decreased the average cycle time by 44 percent, and collaboration across teams that broke out of their silos. |
Wisconsin Chapter WALA East vs. West Big Hearts Campaign The Big Hearts Campaign was born out of a need to make over the Wisconsin Chapter’s annual main event, for which attendance was dwindling. An organizing committee composed of chapter members and business partners conceived the competition, which pitted the East (Milwaukee) against the West (Madison). Each team was headed by a premier-level WALA business partner and raised money for its respective honor-flight charity, which sends veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials. After a kick-off event featuring networking and a business-partner expo, the teams started their fundraising initiatives. The Big Hearts Campaign wrapped up at the November Fall Social, where chapter members and business partners interacted with American Legion members. The campaign had raised $13,314.44 total — enough to sponsor 14 veterans and their helpers — and inspired 42 percent of the WALA’s members to attend the final event. |
Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP YCST Technology Certification Advancement Program (TAC) Leaders at the Delaware law firm Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP recognized the need for advanced technology training for its document-producing staff. The IT and HR teams collaborated with a third-party technology vendor to create the Technology Advancement Certification (TAC) Program, which has improved technology skills throughout the organization and helped the firm adapt to growing technology needs of practicing law in an ever-changing global environment. After incorporating feedback from pilot learners and establishing each staff member’s baseline, the program created customized learning plans that incorporated online videos, classroom instruction, small-group sessions and one-on-one learning with the firm’s technology training specialists. With a successful return on investment — namely, improved scores and reduced help-desk calls — it has become the cornerstone training program and is used to teach new hires the firm’s best practices. |