August 08 Around the States - New South Wales

 

The last three months has seen ALPMA NSW very busy with committee members involved in the organisation of a number of Twilight events, developing a fantastic educational monthly meeting schedule, assisting the ALPMA ACT group to become operational, continuing work to build a strong relationship with the NSW Women Lawyers Association through their Work2Suit Forum and hosting a number of networking events for members, potential members and sponsors.

 

Monthly meetings have continued to grow in popularity and we are regularly seeing between 45-55 people in attendance each month.

 

The May meeting covered the topic of Coaching vs. Mentoring vs. Supervision – presented by Susan Farrell of Bluebird Coaching. The presentation aimed to examine the differences between the three and to assist managers to know when to engage in which discipline. It was a very informative, interactive session.

 

June’s meeting was presented by Russell Wright, Director of Information Services at Freehills, on the topic What’s new in Legal IT – What a Leading Firm is Doing. The sponsor presentation by Fuji Xerox Document Supplies at this meeting raised much interest with great give-aways.

 

The July meeting was Steven Dahl on The Future of Recruitment & Retention – a really excellent presenter with a lot for people to take away on the trends of using social networks to recruit and the use of employee referral schemes.

This year has seen NSW present a number of Twilight functions. In April, Macquarie Bank kindly hosted 65 attendees at Consolidation, Case Studies & Listings - An Analysis of the Long Term Impact of Incorporation presented by Dr Peter Ellender, CEO Carter Newell and Dr Gillian McAllister and Assoc. Professor John Gray from the University of Western Sydney. We were very grateful for the support of QL who partnered with us in this event. This event was very successfully reproduced with Gillian, John and John Chisholm of John Chisholm Consulting in August at the offices of Coleman & Greig at Parramatta – our first non-CBD based event and well attended by approximately 35 people.

 

In May, we were very excited to welcome Paul O’Byrne, back from the UK who launched the first in our new Twilight series How to Have the Difficult Conversation About … Paul presented on his special topic of Billing and what’s possible beyond the billable hour to a sold out crowd of 65, sponsored by PTB Consulting and Willis Insurance and hosted by Clayton Utz. The event was also co-promoted with APSMA (Asia-Pacific Professional Services Marketing Association).

 

The GM Mafia group was re-launched under the auspices of Warrick McLean, L&D Chair, and with the support of Bronwyn Pott and Swaab Attorneys who kindly hosted a lunch for 12 GMs/CEOs/CFOs of larger firms in the Sydney area. We hope to keep holding these lunches approximately every 3-4 months with the next one tentatively scheduled for September to be held at Sparke Helmore.

 

July saw the President’s Cocktail Party – held at The Verandah Bar on a very cold night. It was a cosy group of 53 people who kept each other entertained and warm. Many thanks to Gail Edmonds for organising a very successful evening.

 

ALPMA NSW has continued to work with the ACT Law Society and members of the Law Office Managers Forum in the ACT to grow the ALPMA ACT presence and membership base. The launch of ALPMA ACT was held at the Law Society on 9 July and was well attended by 26 people. Brent Jackson, researcher at the Australian National University, presented a very well received topic of Generation Y Does Not Exist - the paper and presentation are available on the ALPMA website. We are very grateful for the support of Brent and his mentor, Dr Richard Winter, and for their ongoing interest and input to the Association.

 

ALPMA NSW has continued to work with a sub-committee of the NSW Women Lawyers Association (Work2Suit) to promote flexible working practices within the law. George Anderson of Carroll & O’Dea, ALPMA NSW, has volunteered his time and energy to work with the Work2Suit representative to develop a business case template for flexible working practices. This template is in its final stages of development and should be available by September.

 

A very warm and personal thank you to a number of people who have served on the NSW Committee for many years and who stepped down at the last AGM on 13 August. We were delighted to grant ALPMA NSW Lifetime Membership to each member and look forward to welcoming them at many meetings and functions to come. Those members are:

 

·        Vice President – Gail Edmonds – James Tuite & Associates

·        Treasurer - Margaret Janisweski – Brown Wright Stein

·        Secretary – Monica Hallahan – Cutler Hughes & Harris

And as always a big thank you to Renee Kovalskis, the ALPMA NSW Secretariat, without whom things simply would not happen!

 

As always, none of this would be possible without the great support of our corporate and twilight event sponsors. Our thanks again go to our 2007-08 corporate sponsors - Legalink, Law in Order and Fuji Xerox Document Supplies, and to our twilight sponsors so far this year - Macquarie Bank, PTB Consulting and Willis Insurance. We welcome our 2008-09 sponsors – Law in Order, Fuji Xerox Document Supplies, Stratatel Softlog and Impact Capital.

 

We are looking forward to a very successful and busy year.

 

Cate Shailer
ALPMA NSW President