Establishing and Maintaining a Wellness Program with Krista Hart

In Part 2 of our conversation with Kriti Sharma, Chief Product Officer of Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, we talk about the questions you should ask when choosing AI software to use at your firm, what the regulation landscape looks like and how AI will change the future of talent recruitment.

Speaker Bio

Kriti Sharma is Chief Product Officer of Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, focusing on leveraging technology to transform professional work. Sharma was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for advancements in technology. She is a Google Grace Hopper Scholar and a winner of the Google Women in Engineering Award. Her TED talk has been viewed more than two million times. In 2017, Sharma founded AI for Good UK, an organization that's using AI and data to help solve some of the toughest global challenges of our time.

In the first of our two-part conversation with Kriti Sharma, Chief Product Officer of Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, we discuss some of the latest ways artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving in the legal space, such as by simplifying research and administrative tasks, as well as how to avoid some of the common AI pitfalls like hallucinations. But don’t worry! The robots aren’t taking over our jobs just yet. After all, they still need us to tell them what to do. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon! 

Speaker Bio 

Kriti Sharma is Chief Product Officer of Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, focusing on leveraging technology to transform professional work. Sharma was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for advancements in technology. She is a Google Grace Hopper Scholar and a winner of the Google Women in Engineering Award. Her TED talk has been viewed more than two million times. In 2017, Sharma founded AI for Good UK, an organization that's using AI and data to help solve some of the toughest global challenges of our time. 

No attorney wants to think about what happens when they stop practicing, but it’s crucial to have those conversations now. Debbie Foster, Partner at Affinity Consulting, joined Legal Management Talk to discuss how to bring up those difficult conversations and why it’s important to not only your firm, but your clients, to have a solid plan in place in case a lawyer retires or has to stop working.

Speaker Bio:

Debbie Foster is a nationally recognized thought leader on management, efficiency and innovation in professional legal organizations. Her 20-plus years of experience — combined with a mix of strategic management and strong leadership skills — has enabled her to work with law firms and legal departments to help them navigate the ever-changing legal services delivery landscape. Foster has been working with law firms and legal departments since 1995, earned her Lean Six Sigma Certification and is relied on by firms all over the country as a management consultant.

2023 has been an exciting year for LMT, and we wanted to celebrate by compiling some of our favorite moments from the year’s episodes. Check out snippets from our conversations that covered legal ops, mental wellness, AI and much more. If you want to hear more from these episodes and others, be sure to go to alanet.org/podcast, ALA’s Youtube channel, or download episodes wherever you get your podcasts. And please subscribe to our Youtube channel so that you can get notified every time a new episode drops. Thanks for watching and listening! Have a Happy New Year, and stay tuned for all new episodes in 2024!

Featuring clips from episodes:

• Understanding Legal Ops with Tom Stephenson
• Can AI Make Your Firm More Efficient? with Hamid Kohan
• A Peek Around the Corner with PDAC: Imposter Syndrome in Legal (and Life)
• Mental Health: Shifting the Conversation from Stigma to Support
• Building an Inclusive Workplace with Terry Isner
• Becoming a Certified Legal Manager with Rita Nielsen, CLM, PHR, SHRM-CP

In this edition of Peek Around the Corner with PDAC (ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee), we talk about the parts of leadership that can impact an employee’s connection and experience at your firm. Christine Wilbur, MBA,Associate Executive Director, Orange County Bar Association and a member of PDAC, discusses what prospective or existing employees really need. From support and resources to intangible parts of good leadership, we cover how to get your staff showing up as their best selves each day so they can feel connected to their work and see how it fits into the firm’s overall purpose. 

Speaker Bio: 

Christine Wilbur, MBA, is the Associate Executive Director of the Orange County Bar Association and a member of ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee.

Neurodiversity — especially ADHD — is quite prevalent in the legal industry, but few know how to address it. Casey Dixon of Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson of Stinson LLP joined Legal Management Talk to discuss Stinson’s new program to promote well-being among attorneys and staff with ADHD, as well as what firms can do to help make life easier for employees with executive function disorders.  

Speaker Bios 

Casey Dixon is a Professional, Board and Senior Certified Life Coach. She is the founder of Dixon Life Coaching. 

Krista Larson is the Director of Well-Being at Stinson LLP. 

So many of us struggle with mental health challenges, and admitting it isn’t cause for shame. The fact is, conversations about mental health need to continue in order to dismantle the stigma attached to it. We do just that in this episode with ALA Past President James Cornell, Director of Office Administration at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. James opens up about his own recent mental health struggles and shares his thoughts on why burnout is so prevalent in the legal industry. Plus, we discuss what you can do if you suspect a colleague is struggling.  

Resources mentioned in the podcast: 

https://www.alanet.org/legal-management/2021/march/features/making-mental-health-matter  

https://www.alanet.org/events/2021-events/mental-health-first-aid-certification-program  

Speaker Bio

James Cornell is the Director of Office Administration for Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP. He served as ALA President from 2019–2020.

If you haven’t yet thought about how to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into your firm’s operations, now’s the time before you get left behind. Hamid Kohan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Legal Soft, joins the show to talk about how AI can make your firm more efficient from the intake process through litigation, as well as the risks that AI still poses. We also discuss virtual support staffing and other ways to take advantage of the technology available today.  

Speaker Bio 

Hamid Kohan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Legal Soft, spearheading the revolution of the legal industry and virtual legal staffing. Kohan is also the Founder of Magic Law Group, a national law firm specializing in personal injury, lemon law, employment law and workers' compensation. Kohan has authored several books, including How to Scale Your Stupid Law Firm, How to Scale Your Stupid AI Law Firm and the upcoming How to Tune-Up Your Practice.

Today, we’re talking about insurance. Wait, don’t click away yet! Cyber insurance is one of the key ways you can protect your firm if and when you’re hit with a cyberattack. Jeremy King, Partner at Olshan Frome Wolosky and Chair of the firm’s Insurance Coverage Law Practice, walks us through what to look for when choosing or changing your cyber insurance coverage and how policies have changed to accommodate cloud servers and remote work. Plus, find out how your or your clients’ cyber reporting requirements may have changed thanks to a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule for public companies. 

Speaker Bio 

Jeremy M. King is a Partner at Olshan Frome Wolosky in New York. As the firm’s Chair of Insurance Coverage Law Practice, King concentrates his legal practice on insurance coverage actions and other civil litigation matters.  

Imposter syndrome — we all experience it in our daily lives. Talking about it is one way to get through it. We did just that with Roberta Bauer, Regional Office Administrator of Ogletree Deakins and 2023-2024 Chair of ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee. Plus, find out the solid advice The Berenstain Bears offer for working through feelings of insecurity.  

Check out the PDAC roundtable on imposter syndrome here. (Note: You must be logged in to view.) 

Speaker Bio 

Roberta Bauer is the Regional Office Manager of Ogletree Deakins and is the current Chair of ALA’s Professional Development Advisory Committee.