October 2015
DFA FORUM
The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance's monthly newsletter on creating inclusive cultures and leveraging diversity and flexibility to retain top talent
Logo
   ABOUT         MEMBERSHIP        PROGRAMS        RESEARCH         SOLUTIONS
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS ISSUE

ACTION STEP: 
The Case for Formalizing Full-Time Flex
To read more on this month's Action Step, click HERE
Spotlight on Flex:
David Soofian
Kaye Scholer LLP
(New York, NY)
With the firm's support, I created the [Parent's Network]affinity group that focuses on family issues without regard to gender... The Parent's Network is not only an opportunity to pay it forward, but it's also a chance to build a community around a shared pursuit. In our meetings, we share how we're all trying to achieve flex success on our own terms.  
  -  David Soofian

Read his Spotlight
Flex Success Leadership Institute: 
Turning High Potential Into High Performance

GOING ON THIS WEEK!
October 28 & 29, 2015
More details HERE
The Alliance's 2016 Annual Conference is Coming!
Save the Date: March 16, 2016
Nomination Period for the 2016 Flex Success Opening Next Week!
Accepting Nominations from  November 2 -December 7, 2015 
Learn more
Where We've Been and Where We're Going  
See our recent speaking events and learn more about where we'll be HERE
Member News - Check Us Out!
ARE YOU TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE OF YOUR MEMBER BENEFITS?

Hello Alliance Community!  

In an effort to fully meet the needs of our Community, we have created  three new membership levels to take effect for the January 2016 membership cycle : Advocate ($5,000); Leader ($7,500); and Champion ($10,000). The Advocate and Champion tiers replace our Supporting and Sustaining levels, respectively. Updated benefits within each tier are detailed in our Summary of Member Benefits

Regardless of your membership level, we want to make sure you are fully utilizing your benefits.  For example, have you scheduled your one-hour Strategic Planning Session yet? These one-hour conference calls are check-in opportunities to discuss and seek guidance from the Alliance team on issues such as:
  • any flex or women's initiative you want to update or implement
  • working through organizational flex goals
  • combating attrition rates for female attorneys and attorneys of color
  • best practices for your organization
  • tracking initiatives and training
These are just a few examples.  You can schedule your Strategic Planning Session by contacting Emma Simpkins, Manager of Operations.  We welcome your comments and suggestions, and please feel free to contact any member of our team.

All the best,
The Alliance Team
October  Action Step: The Case for Formalizing Full-Time Flex
ACTION

FORMALIZING YOUR FULL-TIME FLEX PROGRAM

As supported by findings in the Alliance's 2014 Law Firm Flexibility Benchmarking Survey Report and other industry sources, most major law firms make reduced hours schedules available to their attorneys, and many have a formal written policy reflecting this commitment. While many of these organizations recognize the need to have different types of flexible work options to meet the myriad needs of a diverse workforce, fewer have written policies for telecommuting and other full-time flexibility, such as flexible start/end times and annualized hours. Some do not see a need and others have concerns about policies being too rigid, but the Alliance recommends putting your organization's full-time flexible work options in writing for three key reasons.
 
To read about these three key reasons, access the Member Portal  HERE .
October Spotlight on Flex: David Soofian
SPOTLIGHT ON FLEX  is our monthly column that highlights the story and successes of an attorney from a member organization working a flexible schedule.  If you are an attorney working a flexible schedule and would like to share your store (or know of someone we should highlight), please contact  Eliza Musallam  or  Denise Robinson
.  
SPOTLIGHT
DAVID SOOFIAN
Associate, Kaye Scholer LLP  
(New York, NY)
 

How have you made flexibility a priority and a success with your career?  How have clients contributed to your flex success? 

 
I telecommute one day a week and have a normalized flex schedule.  I have (almost) three year old twins, and they are my priority on every level.  Spending time with them is the best part of my day.  I want to be a present and involved dad, so I take charge of their morning routine - waking them up, getting them ready, and taking them to school every morning - and make sure I'm home at night in time for bath and bed time. 
 
I'm a seventh year Intellectual Property associate, and the nature of my work allows me to manage my own schedule.  The deadlines in Federal District courts and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit are typically known well in advance, which makes it easier to tackle big projects on my own schedule.  So in order to be home in time to bathe and put the kids to bed, I log in extra hours outside of the traditional workday to meet my professional obligations.  This also means if there's going to be a conflict, I'll know about it well in advance.
 
Kids are actually a common ground with my clients.  They understand I'm an involved parent, and I'm a person with professional, personal, and family aspirations just like them.  I also think my clients understand I do my best work when I'm balanced; ignoring one facet of life will often affect another. 
 

How has working flexibly enhanced your business and/or professional development?

 
Family time is a benefit for career development on so many levels.  Potential clients are often at the new parent stage too.  Attending my kids' curricular and extracurricular activities gives me an opportunity to meet other parents from industries I may not normally interact with.  My children bring me out of my shell and force me into different social circles that I may not have been involved with earlier (which is great)!
 
I started our firm's Parent's Network affinity group about a year ago to focus on these specific issues, and business/professional development is actually the topic of our next meeting.  While the firm previously had an affinity group for moms several years ago, I discovered there were a lot of involved dads looking for a sense of community too.  With the firm's support, I created an affinity group that focuses on family issues without regard to gender.  Attorneys and staff from all levels come to our meetings, and we've had great attendance from parents who are partners, counsel, associates, paralegals, and IT support.  Attendees are encouraged to share their unique views on flexibility and their specific circumstances so everyone can learn from each other.  
 
Looking back, would you do anything different, or what would you tell your first year associate self?
 
Flexibility works for me because I have the trust of the partners in my group.  I gained that trust by learning to set realistic expectations and making sure I regularly meet and exceed them. If I were to tell my first-year-self one thing, it would be to work on the balance of setting reasonable expectations and exceeding them first thing!  Many junior associates tend to promise the impossible to impress their more senior attorneys.  But the most important thing is what you deliver.  I would tell all junior associates (myself included!) to really take your time to assess a project when it's assigned, have a realistic grasp on what needs to be done, and realistically determine how long it will take to complete.  When your senior attorneys trust that you can and will deliver on your promises, they'll also trust you're capable of managing your own daily schedule to meet your personal and family responsibilities.
 

How do you recharge your batteries and pay it forward?

 
Re-charging sounds like a great idea that I'll have to look into this year!  But I try to pay it forward by respecting the boundaries between the personal and professional lives of my colleagues and junior associates.  I'm honest and transparent with my junior associates about my expectations and give them my trust to meet those expectations.  I explain what I expect on a project and let them know when something is really due so they aren't needlessly working nights or weekends. If they're on vacation, I respect their time unless it's a true emergency.
 
To me, the Parent's Network is not only an opportunity to pay it forward, but it's also a chance to build a community around a shared pursuit.  In our meetings, we share how we're all trying to achieve flex success on our own terms.  It's great to know you're not the only person looking for work-life control and there are parents in all departments (and of various seniority) trying to achieve the same goal.  I believe this community feeling creates a sense of shared-support in our shared-goal.     
2015 Flex Success Leadership Institute: HAPPENING THIS WEEK!
FSLI

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance's Flex Success Leadership Institute is an intensive leadership academy specifically designed for Senior Associates, Of Counsel, and Junior Partners seeking to move from high potential to high performance.  Our faculty of industry leaders and experts will lead interactive workshops to provide participants with the tools to broaden their personal leadership style, business acumen, and communication proficiency with a particular focus on how flex attorneys can excel in each subject.  Attendees will not only learn how to advance their careers to the next level, they will have the opportunity to connect with other aspiring leaders in the legal profession.

The Institute will start on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 28 and conclude by late afternoon on Thursday, October 29.  All sessions will take place in the Washington, DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (1050 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC).

  KEY AREAS OF FOCUS  
  • Shifting from passive to active leadership
  • Short tracking business development by building trust and motivating others
  • Harnessing the power of mindset and grit
  • Becoming sponsor ready
  • Developing effective and persuasive communication and negotiation techniques
  • Debunking flexibility stigma

INSTITUTE FACULTY  

 INSTITUTE CURRICULUM

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm  Registration 
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm  Opening Remarks: Confidence & Community Building
Faculty: Manar Morales
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Interrupting Bias & Stigma
Faculty: Verna Myers
4:30 pm - 4:45 pm  
Break
4:45 pm - 6:00 pm 
Keys to Being a Successful Leader
Faculty: Danielle Frappier, Eve Howard, and Kelly S. Hughes
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm  Networking Reception
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29
8:00 am - 8:45 am  Networking Breakfast
8:45 am - 9:00 am Opening Remarks
9:00 am - 10:30 am  Effective Business Development for Your Career Success
Faculty: Tasneem Goodman
10:30 am - 10:45 am  Break
10:45 am - 11:45 am  Building Win-Win Negotiations to Get Results
Faculty: Colleen Vossler
11:45 am - 12:45 pm Networking Lunch
12:45 pm - 2:00 pm Sponsorship: Investing in Your Success
Faculty: Ritu Bhasin
2:00 pm - 2:15 pm  Break
2:15 pm - 3:15 pm Developing a Leadership Plan
Faculty: Lisa B. Horowitz
3:15 pm - 3:30 pm Closing

For more information, please contact Eliza Musallam,
Director of Member Relations & Outreach
2016 Annual Conference - Save the Date!
Conference
The 2016 Annual Conference is coming!  Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, March, 16, 2016 at the Washington, DC office of Jones Day.  This year's theme is  Diversity + Flexibility = Talent Success .  Registration and more details are coming soon!
2016 Flex Success Award Nominations - Opening Next Week!
FSA
The Alliance's Annual Flex Success Award recognizes partners at member law firms who are successfully working a reduced hours schedule and acknowledges the crucial role clients play in making workplace flexibility a reality. The Award honors attorney/client relationships that best exemplify how, with client support, attorneys can achieve greater work-life control and still have extraordinary careers.
 
THE ATTORNEY NOMINEE SHOULD MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:
  • Is a partner at a member law firm;
  • Has been working for a year or more as a partner on a reduced hours schedule;
  • Can identify a client who knows the attorney is working a reduced hours schedule and is integral to the attorney's success.
If selected, both the attorney and the client must be available to attend the Alliance's Annual Conference on  March 16, 2016 in Washington, DC to receive their awards. Winner profiles will appear on the Alliance's website following the Conference.

Further nomination instructions and details will be coming soon once the nomination period opens.  For question, please contact Denise RobinsonDirector of Research.  
News
 WHERE WE'VE BEEN
  1. True Grit and a Growth Mindset: The Secrets of Success for Women Lawyers, co-presenting with Dr. Milana Hogan and Daryn A. Grossman, New York City Bar, New York, NY (September 29, 2015)
  2. Question & Answer Session on Flexibility, Law Firm in New York, NY (September 29, 2015)
  3. Strengthening Your Community: Building a Successful Flex Affinity Group, Co-Presenter with Brenda Kleidosty (Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher) and Jeanna  Beck (Arnold & Porter), NALP D & I Section Webinar (October 6, 2015)
  4. Growing Your Mindset and Grit: Positive Change for Positive Results, NAWBO Greater DC Workshop and Lunch & Learn, Tysons Corner, VA (October 7, 2015)
  5. Harnessing the Power of Confidence, Mindset & Grit, Law Firm in New York, NY (October 15, 2015)
  6. Diversity in Recruiting, National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC) 2015 Fall Symposium, New York, NY (October 23, 2015)
 WHERE WE'RE GOING
  1. 22nd Annual Leadership Colloquium, speaker, at the University of Mary Washington, Stafford Campus (November 5, 2015) 
  2. Virginia Women's Business Conference , speaker, at the National Conference Center, Leesburg, VA (November 20, 2015) 
  3. Diversity & Flexibility Alliance 2016 Annual Conference,
    Diversity + Flexibility = Talent Success, Washington, DC (March 16, 2016)
  4. Successfully Managing Your Remote Work Teams,  presenter, NALP 2016 Annual Education Conference, Boston, MA (April 13-16, 2016)