In this issue of the WeigandWire...
Scholar Profile:
Laurel Searles - When Kansans can't work, she works even harder
Scholar Profile:
Sam Foreman - Designing his dream firm
Weigand Faces in new Places
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Mark Lippelmann and
Sarah Macke
Note from our Director - Families pull together in tough times
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Laurel and her husband, Clay, with their children Kinsley, Natalie (13), and Colin (7).
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When Kansans Can’t Work, She Works Even Harder:
Laurel Searles, director of unemployment insurance for the State, on managing economic effects of COVID-19 while beginning service on the Kansas Human Rights Commission
By Michael Hayes
Laurel Searles
, Washburn ’08, is busy. As the director of unemployment insurance for the State of Kansas, she is at the forefront of the State’s battle against the coronavirus’s negative economic effects.
“Over the past year,” Laurel explained, “Kansas was at historically low levels of unemployment. We were averaging between 1200 and 1800 unemployment insurance claims per week.” Things looked good for Laurel, and for Kansas in general. “But this March,” she continued, “everything changed.” Laurel explained how, after local, state, and federal authorities called for restrictions on gatherings and movement, the unemployment insurance office was flooded with claims. “Businesses started laying people off, and it was like a tidal wave. We went from some of the best numbers in history to some of the worst overnight. So that’s our present challenge.”
In addition to overseeing the largest division in the Kansas Department of Labor (over 160 employees prior to the COVID-19 crisis), Laurel keep tabs on the ever-changing legal environment. Because federal, state, and local authorities are all working on relief efforts, Laurel must remain informed of all changes taking place. Both Kansas and the federal government have passed measures to help offset economic hardships caused by the virus. “I’m being pulled into committee hearings and working on implementing changes at the state level, but I constantly have to keep an eye on both federal legislation and guidance from the United States Department of Labor.” When Kansans can’t work, it seems, Laurel just works harder.
“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “We need to help people where they are, and in a responsible way. We’re adjusting on the fly.” Moreover, she notes, the unemployment insurance division is working with a light staff. “We were staffed for a healthy economy. And we had a healthy economy. But suddenly we have nearly 24,000 unemployment insurance claims in a week—we were seeing over a 1000% increase in claims!” She explained that at times, she can’t find enough people to field calls from concerned Kansans—“it takes six months to train someone. We don’t have that time.” And on top of all that, Laurel mentioned, “we’re doing our work on IT infrastructure from the 1970s. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Laurel’s balancing extends beyond the Kansas Department of Labor. A mother of three, she and her husband Clay have been adjusting in more ways than one. Her daughter Kinsley, a freshman at Kansas State University, is now back home, and her younger children—Natalie, age 13, and Colin, age 7, are working through their class materials from the house. The college classes Clay teaches has been moved to online-only, though his full-time job still allows him to come into the office. And while Laurel continues to work from outside the house as well, she is faced with the further challenge of keeping her employees safe and healthy in the midst of a public health crisis. (Laurel’s family is healthy, in case anyone is wondering.)
Despite its best efforts, the virus has not slowed Laurel’s career. She was recently appointed by Governor Kelly to serve on the Kansas Human Rights Commission. This position—which Laurel will take on in addition to her duties at the Kansas Department of Labor—will task Laurel with fighting unlawful housing and employment discrimination throughout the State. “I will be reviewing discrimination claims, issuing right-to-sue letters, and providing guidance on how to create a more discrimination-free society,” Laurel explained.
Securing a position on the Human Rights Commission was not easy. Laurel submitted, among other things, a 70-page application. She was subjected to multiple in-depth interviews and extensive background checks. She appeared before the Kansas Senate State and Federal Affairs committee, and then the entire state Senate considered her appointment. The senators asked her questions, and Laurel explained why she would be right for the job. She emphasized her love of Kansas and her dedication to civil service. The senate confirmed her unanimously.
When asked why she volunteered for the Human Rights Commission position—which would put even more work on her plate—Laurel mentions two important factors. “First,” she said, “Secretary Garcia, the Secretary for the Kansas Department of Labor, personally encouraged me to seek an appointment.” According to Laurel, “Secretary Garcia is fantastic – she always pushes her employees to the next level, and is always looking for dedicated civil servants.” At her prompting, Laurel submitted her application.
The second major factor in Laurel’s decision to seek the appointment was simply her long-held desire to serve her fellow Kansans. Her career trajectory—moving from the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, to the Kansas Department of Labor, to the Social Security Administration, and back to the Department of Labor—shows a love of civil service. “The Human Rights Commission appointment allows me to use the knowledge and skills I’ve gained to serve Kansans in a new way,” she explained.
“I’ve always been committed to serving my home state,” Laurel said. “And I know that’s one of the core values that the Weigand Trust has always promoted. The Weigand Scholarship gave me the opportunity to create my own path—I’m not really involved in traditional law practice, but I know that I’m putting my skills and knowledge to good use.” It is reassuring to know that people like Laurel are tirelessly working to help their fellow citizens. And while the demand for public service never goes away, we can still hope that Laurel—and all similarly-situated civil servants—can get some rest in a busy world.
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Secretary for the Kansas Department of Labor Delia Garcia, Labor Market Information Director for the Kansas Department of Labor Angela Berland, Labor and Civil Rights Activist Dolores Huerta, Kansas Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Director Laurel Searles, and Laurel’s Daughter, Kinsley Searles, at Secretary Garcia’s swearing in ceremony on June 5, 2019.
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Sam and his wife, Meg, with their son Jackson (2).
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Designing his Dream Firm:
Sam Foreman
, the first Weigand to start his own law firm, isn’t sticking to traditional firm structure
By Jennifer Salva
As the first Weigand to start his own firm, Sam Foreman, Washburn ’11, wears lot of hats and manages a full schedule. Not surprisingly, then, he had to schedule an interview for this article around a 1 p.m. commitment: laying down his two-year-old son Jackson for naptime.
Creating more family time for himself and other Foreman Law attorneys is one of the biggest reasons Sam started his own practice. “At my previous firm, I was billing around 2,000 hours a year, and doing crazy things like going into the office at four in the morning, coming home, eating dinner, and then going back to work,” Sam said. “Now, I have the ability to build a team where I no longer have to do that.”
Sam still gets up early and works long hours, but he says he can now create his own, disciplined schedule. “My family and quality of life is better,” Sam said. And he notices the other attorneys he’s hired since the firms inception one year ago in June 2019 feel the same way. “One attorney commented about the amount of time he’s gotten to spend with his family and still make competitive money,” Sam said.
While Same gets to spend more time at home, his family gets to spend more time at the office; Sam’s wife, Meg Foreman, is using her background in communications to coordinate marketing and administration for the firm. "The change in our home life has been tremendous,” she said. “Sam is able to be productive at law while being a big part of family life. Our son is used to having Sam make him breakfast every day and I can see what a difference it makes."
Sam set out to achieve his ideal work-life balance for Foreman Law by using a formula-based compensation model as opposed to a model based on subjective criteria such as billable hours. These traditional models can tend to lack transparency and predictability, and as a result can place gross revenues over profitability, Sam said. Simplifying it a little, a formula-based model is similar to a commission-based structure.
Although the formula model isn’t mainstream, Sam said he’s far from the only firm that uses one. But, he’s tailored it specifically to his firm. The formula takes into account which attorney brings in the work, which oversees and manages the project, and which attorney primarily handles the project.
Sam chose this type of structure because he said other methods can compensate attorneys unfairly when only metrics such as billable hours and gross revenues are considered. This can lead to ignoring the value created by younger attorneys who go above and beyond subjective metrics, Sam said.
But Sam’s innovation didn’t stop there; in addition to moving to a non-traditional compensation model, he threw out the traditional law firm hierarchy. That means no partners, no associates. “Everyone is just an attorney here,” Sam said.
This hierarchy-free structure has a side effect that is perhaps rare in many large firms: the ability for new and young attorneys to decline projects. "You cut down on what happens in many traditional firms which is that younger people get a lot of the low-quality work. At traditional firms, you often find partners that will take on whatever work walks through the door, without thinking if it is meaningful or valuable because they know they can require somebody else to take the work,” Sam said. “That also has the side effect of penalizing young attorneys when it comes time for compensation and advancement reviews because their numbers don’t look very good."
Sam’s shift away from the emphasis on billable hours is designed to place more control in the hands of each attorney. "What ends up happening is that people's incentives are aligned with what’s good for them, their colleagues, clients and the community, and you create an internal marketplace in which people are truly empowered to make choices that optimize their outcomes.”
Sam wants to give attorneys the flexibility to decide exactly how much time they'd like to work and how much time they'd like to spend with their family. Of course, the less work an attorney chooses to do, the less they will be compensated. But this model allows attorneys to have full autonomy over how to design their schedules and create a work-life balance that works for them.
This flexible lifestyle is in high demand. Foreman Law has acquired two attorneys in its first year, has a third new attorney scheduled to start this fall from Washburn Law, and is in ongoing conversations with several other prospective additions.
Sam realizes this growth is fast, especially for how young the firm is—and young in more ways than one. Everyone at the firm is under the age of 35.
“We don’t want to grow for growth’s sake. I don’t want to build a big law firm, I’m interested in building a better law firm,” Sam said. Foreman Law is solely transactional, but Sam’s expansion plans include adding litigation services before the end of the year, and breaking into other markets such as Kansas City. He even has his sights set on out of state markets such as Omaha and Oklahoma City in the future. Eventually, Sam envisions Foreman Law as a full-service firm.
Yet, in true start-up form, Foreman Law started in an off-beat but uniquely cool space: an office over a sushi restaurant. “It was a great fit because I love sushi,” Sam joked.
To accommodate its growth, the practice is soon moving to a new office space that departs from the traditional mold as well. Sam said he designed the space for flexibility and minimization of attorney overhead. Individual offices are small and optimized for a high-tech, near-paperless environment, he said. As the firm grows, offices will be available on a first-come basis, meaning attorneys won’t have dedicated offices. The new space will also accommodate several meeting and gathering areas where workshops, seminars, and community events will eventually be held.
Although Sam is loving his new law-firm lifestyle that ends up being about 70% law practice and 30% running the back-end of the business, he does miss things about his former firms. “I miss the people. I treasure the relationships I had at my firms a great deal,” he said.
In fact, Sam hasn’t always wanted to start his own firm, but his entrepreneurial spark grew as he continued to practice law. “I love building the thing. I think God wired me to build things and be an entrepreneur,” Sam said. “It lets me live out some of the things that I was made for.”
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Weigand Faces in New Places!
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Washburn '09
Mark recently moved from his position with the US Postal Service in DC to serve as Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom in Scottsdale, AZ.
ADF
is a national non-profit that is focused on religious liberty.
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Notre Dame '09
Sarah has been an Assistant US Attorney in Topeka for the last several years. Keeping her same position, she recently relocated from Topeka back to her hometown of Wichita.
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A Note from our Director:
Can you believe our 17th class of Weigand scholars is about to begin school in the fall? Since our inception, we've weathered through many changes. The law school environment and job market has evolved dramatically. During that time, we've observed record highs in law school attendance and hiring, and we've seen attendance plummets with accompanying job offer deferments or withdrawals.
This summer, recent graduates are facing challenging times as the jobs they'd committed to this fall are uncertain. The good news is they have reason to remain hopeful. Besides their stellar academic performance, these attorneys have the support of the Weigand Scholar family.
My request to our family: Let's ensure the Weigand community works to help each other. If you see or hear of a potential job opportunity, (temporary, permanent, full or part-time), please pass the info to me so I can share. Don't assume that because a job is posted that everyone's seen it. And, please don't hesitate to reach out with a word of encouragement. A little gesture can go a long way.
Thank you in advance for all you do. J.L. would be proud of you!
P.S. A special thank you to Michael Hayes and Jennifer Salva for their work on this edition of the WeigandWire. Awesome job!
Claudette Glenn
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Do you have suggestions for things you'd like to see featured in our newsletter? Would you like to help write a future feature? Contact jenniferhsalva@gmail.com with your ideas!
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