| Time (Central) | Session |
|---|
| 8:00 a.m. | Coffee & Pastries at DRI Headquarters |
| 8:30 a.m. | Welcome and Introductions Jeremy W. Richter, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP, Birmingham, AL |
| 8:45 a.m. | Managing Your Business - Profitability and the Art of Succession Planning In this interactive and informative panel, we will explore the practical realities of succession planning and its effects on both law firms and their clients. How do you wrangle with the hidden costs of underperforming partners? What processes do you have in place to evaluate whether clients are profitable in a time of thinning margins? Are you prepared to transition clients to new lawyers within the firm when you experience personnel changes? How and when do you start the process of client succession?
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| 9:45 a.m. | Employment Law for Lawyers Employment Law for Lawyers is back by popular demand. Is your firm compliant and what do you do if you find it is not? How do you handle work from home and accommodation issues? This fast-paced informative discussion will help you with the answers and things to bring back to your firms especially if you are a small to medium sized firm with multiple offices or people working from home. |
| 10:45 a.m. | Break |
| 11:00 a.m. | What Keeps You Up at Night? What parts of managing a law practice keep you from getting to sleep at night? Whether your practice is large or small, you will find commonality about your concerns among a roomful of lawyers who are managing people and practices. This roundtable session is designed to help you get a better grasp on how to deal with the same issues so many others are contending with, regardless of if that is billable hours, recruiting lawyers and staff, retaining personnel, or implementing technology and tools. Bring your list of grievances and be ready to air them like its Festivus. |
| 12:00 p.m. | DRI Networking Lunch (On-Site) |
| 12:45 p.m. | Future-Proofing the Defense Firm: Profitability, AI, and the Next Generation of Talent How will AI, evolving client metrics, and talent shifts rewrite defense firm economics? PerformLaw CEO Brian Kennel shares critical data-driven strategies to protect your margins. Discover how to transition from traditional billing to tech-leveraged pricing, align compensation with modern performance indicators, and structure your firm to attract and retain next-generation talent. |
| 1:45 p.m. | Can You Hear Me Now? Bridging the Generational Divide with Communication Methods You’re talking, but is anyone listening? With four generations of lawyers working together in many law firms, not every form of communication will be equally effective. In this panel, we explore what both younger and more experienced lawyers can do to bridge gaps and collaborate to communicate in ways that benefits everyone. We approach this topic from a perspective of formal and informal performance reviews, both on an ongoing and annual bases. |
| 2:45 p.m. | The Leader's Voice: Language, Presence, and the Words That Shape Culture Stanford's James G. March famously argued that leadership is part plumbing, part poetry. Law firms have the plumbing — the systems, structures, and processes that keep organizations running. What's harder to find, and rarely taught, is the poetry: the language, voice, and presence that shape how people feel about their work, their firm, and the leaders in front of them. This interactive session draws on communication science, linguistics, the humanities, and high-stakes legal and executive practice to examine the language choices that define leadership at the firm level — the patterns that build trust, the difference between authority and authoritarianism in professional speech, and how authentic delivery shapes the way language is received. Participants leave with a new appreciation for the persuasive potential of the English language, sharper awareness of their own communication patterns, and a practical framework for the language and delivery choices that build culture and credibility. |
| 3:45 p.m. | Adjourn |
| 3:45 p.m. | Committee Business Meeting
Sponsored by: FBT Gibbons, Sheppard |