Presidents Report

  

Bronwyn Pott ALPMA President CEO, Swaab Attorneys

 

About 3 years ago the National Board made a decision to recognise the contribution made by the ALA in the establishment of the ALPMA by providing a grant to the President's to attend the annual ALA conference. There was a belief that this would assist with the communication between the two organisations, as well as demonstrate our appreciation for the $50,000 provided by the ALA as seed capital for our establishment. Anyone who has ever heard me wax lyrical about the benefits of going to international conferences will know that I normally salary sacrifice the trip to the US each year for this conference, and have been doing so for about 10 years. This year however, the GFC had a rather sobering effect on travel budgets, and I had decided not to go (because it would take some explaining why I was knocking back everyone else's discretionary travel while approving my own, regardless of the salary sacrifice) - sometimes it's just being seen to do the right thing that counts as much as anything else.. but back to my story.

We've been talking at Board level about the need to make the roles on the National Board (and indeed the Presidency itself) inspirational. The contrast between how we appoint our leaders in ALPMA compared to how the ALA celebrates their leadership change is very stark. The firms of the ALA Board members are tremendously proud of the achievements of their managers, and are not shy about letting everyone know how they feel. By contrast, we often see these roles as a burden, and I can recall sitting in many meetings where members were cajoled (or begged) to take on positions. I sincerely hope that will change. Nothing would please me more than to see the State Committees and National Board roles hotly contested, and while that may be a little way off, I think it won't be too long. A side effect of the growing profile of the ALPMA will be by association, an increase in the profile of the members who serve on the committees and the Board. While we may have been hiding our light under a bushel for a while, I think our time in the limelight is fast approaching.

Which leads me back to my story about the ALA conference. I had decided not to go this year (GFC and all that), and the fact that the conference was in New Orleans - which I'm sure many of you will have heard me describe as my least favourite place on the globe. But as the early bird date grew closer, I had a conversation with a Board member, who reminded me that we did indeed want to make the Presidents role inspirational, and this was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of an outstanding offer and by talking about it, promote the benefits of an additional commitment to the Association.

So with a rush of blood to my head, about 5 minutes before the cut-off time for registration, I checked I could get some FF points converted to flights, and submitted my application. And was it worth it? Well I have to say it was. New Orleans is still a hole by my scale of places to visit, and with attendees at around 850 compared to the normal 2000 plus, it was definitely a quieter conference than I have experienced before with the ALA, but strangely enough, it was one of the more engaging conferences I have been to. This year had an added bonus because I managed to win a free attendance to next year’s conference! So I suppose there is something to be said for having fewer delegates - a greater chance to win! For some strange reason, Americans frequently have difficulty with my name - (that's my first name - not my second) - I was standing with a rather large crowd of people for the draw of the card, when the current ALA president said 'oh dear, I have no idea how to pronounce this name', so I thought I might be in with a chance. Sure enough, she stumbled over my name, and I had to crawl (rather inelegantly and very publically) under a cordon to accept her congratulations! So it looks like Boston will be it next year - I will just have to keep exercising my American express card to make sure I have enough FF miles to get there!

But all the background aside for the trip, was it beneficial, I think it was. Many of our firms are facing an uncertain future - we've set budgets we're not sure we can meet, we've set staffing levels based on historical metrics and we are just coming to terms with the fact the world has shifted from a Sellers market to a Buyers market. The opportunity to listen to a number of World Class speakers talk about the challenges in a market that is feeling the effect of the GFC far worse than ours was enlightening. Even if in some instances it just confirmed we were on the right track, there was still an enormous amount of comfort in knowing we were doing everything possible to come out of this downturn in better shape than we went in. That confidence is something that translates well to partners and staff, so that everyone in your firm can focus on delivering the Firm plan, instead of panicking about the future. Being able to say to your firms owners and management team - I've heard what all the experts are saying, and I know what we can do, is extremely powerful, if you ever needed a reason to take the time out of your busy schedule and go to a conference, just picture that scenario. Better still, ask a couple of your firm's owners and leaders to come with you so you can all get a vision of how your future will look.

I won't go into any great detail here about the various sessions I saw, but I will ask Kerrie to post up the speakers schedule from the ALA conference and I'd be very happy to talk to you about what I heard and saw. While the ALA conference in Boston is next May, the annual ALPMA Legal Management Summit is less than 4 weeks away, so if you are at all confused about what your firm should be doing, or you want to get a handle on what others are doing, this would be a worthwhile investment of your time and your resources (not to mention you can escape the cold to the Gold Coast!)
 

 

 

Bronwyn Pott

CEO, Swaab Attorneys

ALPMA President