Spring 2004

In This Issue

Profile: Judy Sullivan President's Message: We've Come a Long Way Atlanta! The Role of Legal Administrators in Strategic Planning Demanding Excellence From Your Insurance Broker Are You Gambling With Your Law Firm's Translation Needs?  Working With Integrators and Consultants Highlights of the DOL's Revised Overtime Regulations What Your Firm Needs to Know About Sexual Harassment Beyond the Office: Exploring Our Not So Familiar Surroundings May Chapter Meeting: A No-Brainer 11 Nasty Office Pranks for the Disgruntled Administrator News from the "New" Editor: Todd A. Wiggins (and meet Dr. Obs!)

Profile: How Does Your Law Firm Grow? Green Thumb Judy Sullivan Nurtures Hendricks, Phillips
By: June D. Bell

Judy Sullivan is on the move again. It’s not far, only from the 18th floor of Peachtree Center’s 230 building to the 25th floor. But it could be across the country for all the details involved.

Judy’s job as legal administrator for Hendrick, Phillips, Salzman & Flatt includes making sure the boutique construction-litigation firm doesn’t miss a beat despite relocating every brief and bookcase it owns. The move, expected to occur in early July, will give the 24 employees a fresh, newly renovated space while giving its administrator some hope for her ficus tree’s health.

She bought the ficus about a decade ago, when the firm relocated to its current home from the 14th floor. Her corner office didn’t have enough light, though, so it received foster care in coworkers’ offices.

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President's Message: We've Come a Long Way Atlanta!

Looking back at ALA’s 33rd Annual Conference and Exposition, I can’t help but think how far the Atlanta Chapter has evolved over the last seven years. When I first joined the Chapter in 1997, we didn’t have a Web site, our membership numbers were around 150 (currently 225), our vendor luncheon paid all the bills and our newsletter was being published by the Daily Report. Since this time we have elevated ourselves into one of the premier chapters in the country. As I rode back on the plane from Philadelphia, I made the following notes outlining some of our shining moments at this year’s conference.

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The Role of Legal Administrators in Strategic Planning
By: H. Edward Wesemann, Edge International

The process that law firms use to create strategic plans varies tremendously from firm to firm. Accordingly, there is no definitive or commonly accepted role for legal administrators in that process. An administrator's involvement can range from serving as the planning committee's facilitator, to being an active member of the committee, to doing little more than proofreading the final version of the plan.

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Demanding Excellence From Your Insurance Broker
By: Angus McRae, CEBS, Angus McRae Insurance Brokerage Svcs, Inc. 

Just as a real estate agent shows you many houses you may want to buy, an insurance broker shows you different insurance companies. A broker is an insurance agent that represents multiple insurance companies. An agent – principal relationship exists between the broker and his insurance companies. You may also come into contact with “captive agents” - insurance agents who can only represent one insurance company. In Georgia, the requirements to be an insurance agent are relatively low and therefore the quality level of brokers will vary widely.

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Are You Gambling With Your Law Firm's Translation Needs?
By: Nina Ivanichvili, http://www.languagealliance.com/

Is your law firm or legal department speaking the same language as your multilingual clients? Poorly translated documents or sub-par court interpretation can change a case's outcome. Your reputation is literally in your legal translator's hands - and an unqualified translator can bring upon disastrous results. Whether your law firm is working on a patent infringement case, or going through a discovery, it is important to select your translation company based on sound information.

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Working With Integrators and Consultants
By: Chris Maas, President, Potomac Consulting Group

Many legal administrators and their technology staff rely on external resources to provide supplemental services especially for major projects like technology rollouts or other interim needs. Some firms look to a single source for all technical services whether it involves assessing their current technology, implementing a network, or integrating a new customer relationship management system. Other firms adopt a different approach and draw upon multiple resources depending on each resource’s role.

The most common labels affixed to external resources are consultants and integrators and some administrators use these terms interchangeably. However, there is usually a different between the two. This article describes the differences between consultants and integrators, their definition, circumstances when you might consider using them and their selection.

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Highlights of the DOL's Revised Overtime Regulations

On April 22, 2004, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued revised regulations implementing the white collar exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) overtime and minimum wage requirements. The new rule marks the first time the duties tests have been revised since 1949; the salary test has not been revised since the 1970's. The final rule was issued after the DOL published a proposed revised regulation in March 2003. The agency reviewed over 75,000 comments on the proposed revision before issuing the final rule. The revision of the white collar exemptions has been the subject of much political controversy and there is still talk of political efforts to block the final regulation, which becomes effective August 23, 2004.

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What Your Firm Needs to Know About Sexual Harassment
By: Mary Anne Ackourey, Freeman, Mathis & Gary, LLP, Atlanta, Georgia

An increasingly pervasive issue in the workplace, sexual harassment is no joking matter. Regardless of whether an employee's complaint is valid or fabricated, sexual harassment claims can be very expensive and have a negative effect on law firm attitudes, reputation, performance and productivity. As the number of sexual harassment claims continues to grow, law firms need to make it their business to be aware of sexual harassment in their workplace and to develop strategies for preventing sexual harassment.

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Beyond the Office: Exploring Our Not So Familiar Surroundings
By: Reinhard Breckner

Glass is something we generally associate with windows of offices and homes, with storefronts and display cases, with windshields, with eyeglasses and of course with daily bottles, jars and drinking receptacles. If we take an additional cerebral step, you and I would most likely start thinking about all the cheap vases, candy jars and mugs we have either received at any of nine hundred and ninety nine functions, conferences, vendor exhibits or meetings with prospective suppliers, or given away at any of the same interminable number of firm marketing events and meetings with prospective clients. If we ever had small children, we may also be haunted by memories of terrifying walks through expensive stores where perilously stacked glass objects seemed to emit silent screams of terror when rapidly approached by that rambunctious 3 year old recklessly negotiating the aisles of fragility. 

The odds of the majority of us spending a great deal of time contemplating glass beyond the circumstances sampled above are probably rather low. So if you have not done so already, you may want to take the two hours or so necessary to absorb this wondrous exhibit and visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Chihuly in the Garden, running through October 31 of this year.

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May Chapter Meeting: A No-Brainer
By: Todd A. Wiggins

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11 Nasty Office Pranks for the Disgruntled Administrator!
By: Anonymous 

This article outlines a list of office pranks I’m sure we all would like to pull but would never have the courage to actually carry out. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to include them in this issue to add a little levity to our typical stress-filled professional lives.

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News From the "New" Editor (and meet Dr. Obs!)
By: Todd A. Wiggins, Cohen Pollock Merlin Axelrod & Small, P.C 

Read more about Todd's plans for the e-newsletter as he takes over the helm from Debbie Goldman.

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Editor: Todd Wiggins (twiggins@cpmas.com)

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