LINDA BYSTROWSKI

Attorney Recruiting Manager
Crowell & Moring LLP

How long have you been a member of WALRAA? What has been your favorite experience so far?
I've been a member of WALRAA for an entire decade.  WALRAA has given me the opportunity to keep up with friends and former colleagues as we have changed jobs and progressed in our careers.  WALRAA is a "common ground" organization that keeps us connected. I love coming to a meeting and unexpectedly being able to catch up someone I haven't seen in years!

How did you first learn about and get started in Attorney Recruiting/Career Services?
Like many of us, I fell in to attorney recruiting by chance.  My first job out of college was as a paralegal.  After two years I decided I didn't want to continue in the paralegal field nor go to law school, and I sat down with a member of the HR team to ask about other opportunities.  There just happened to be a recruiting assistant position available at the firm, and I took it, having basically no idea what "attorney recruiting" even meant.  Much to my surprise, it turned out to be a good fit, and I've been in the field ever since.

What is your favorite moment of your career so far?
I love seeing people on my team achieve their goals and get excited about their work.  As a manager it is most rewarding when I can see someone work through a challenge, or have an "ah-ha" moment that gives them confidence and energy.  I am motivated by the success of others around me, and my favorite moments are when everyone on the team is engaged and productive and working towards a common goal.

How do you balance your career and personal life?
I put things like daycare pick up, gym time, and lunch with friends on my Outlook calendar.  This protects the time that I need for myself and for my family, and also reminds me when I'm having a long day and work keeps piling up, that it is important for me to take a break and go for a run or call a friend.  Visualizing those pockets of time by having them pop up on my schedule throughout the week helps me keep balance.

What is the best professional advice you have received?
Read everything.  This advice was given to me when I was an intern at the Department of Commerce and my job was essentially to make copies and hole punch large stacks of paper for hours on end.  My supervisor told me that the way to lend meaning to these tedious tasks was to read everything - it would keep my mind active and I just might learn something. I've found this to be useful in all of my roles: if you're typing resumes in to a database, read them.  If you're filing papers in personnel files, read them.  If your boss asks you to print out reports for a meeting, read them.  You may discover some useful information, and by keeping yourself occupied, you'll become a more integral part of your department or company.

Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know.
I had a college job at the National Archives, and during a building renovation we were moving the Declaration of Independence, and I was able to touch the original document.  Through a plastic sleeve, but still!

Through a reimagining of its legal spend, Avis' legal department has taken law firm convergence to the next level.

Just a few years ago, Avis Budget Group Inc. had hired approximately 700 different law firms to do its legal work around the globe. By 2017, the international vehicle rental company cut that number drastically—down to only seven.

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PwC research, which involved over 40,000 Millennial's representing 18 countries, found that 82% of female millennials identified an employers’ policy on diversity, inclusion and gender equality as an important factor when deciding whether or not to work for an organization. Once hired, how will your organization work to address these daily challenges women face both professionally and personally? Read the above infographic to learn more about these challenges and how Skillsoft's Women in Action program can support the women in your organization. Full Article

The conference will feature informative sessions related to hot topics and best practices of interest to all members. It will also provide a great opportunity to mix and mingle with your recruiting, professional development, and career services colleagues!

REGISTER NOW!

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The Grand Hyatt Washington

OPEN PLENARY
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm

Approach Your Career with Confidence and Authenticity

• Lindsey Cloud Mervis, KNP Communications
  
• Alexa Polmer, KNP Communications

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

1:30 pm - 3:15 pm

Life Happens! The Impact of Personal Changes in your Professional World  

• Emily Busse – Owner, District Legal Staffing
  
• Melissa Grossman – Legal Recruiting Manager, WilmerHale
  
• Traci Mundy Jenkins – Assistant Dean, Office of Career & Professional Development, American University Washington College of Law
  
• Kay Nash – Chief Talent Officer, Wiley Rein LLP
  
• Tacie Williams (Moderator) – Associate Recruitment Manager, Hogan Lovells LLP
  

It’s Good to Be the Client: Maximizing Your Influence Over Search Firms

• Martha Ann Sisson, Esq.,  Garrison & Sisson
  
• Justine Donahue, Esq.,  Garrison & Sisson
  

Can’t Always Get What You Want: Get What You Need (for Your Department or Career)

• Vivian Wexler, Vantage Partners
  

Reinventing Your Career

• Janie Piemonte – Recruiting and Program Manager, GMU Antonin Scalia Law School
  
• Timm Whitney – Chief Legal Personnel Officer, Covington & Burling
  

Bringing Out Your Inner Entrepreneur

• Jason Levin, Ready, Set, Launch
  
• Lori Mihalich-Levin, Esq., Mindful Return and Dentons 
  

Book Club: Transform Your Professional Development

• Jolie Blanchard – Firm Director of Lawyer Recruiting, Jones Day

CLOSING PLENARY

3:30 pm - 4:15 pm

HOT TOPIC: Addressing the Elephant: How to Bring the Conversation about Gender, Harassment, and Work to your Attorneys

• Rachael Bosch, Fringe PD
• Sarah Stein – Professional Development Manager, Crowell & Moring LLP

VENDOR FAIR & HAPPY HOUR

4:15 pm - 6:00 pm 

By Staci Zaretsky, Above The Law

Should law students start freaking out about their future employment prospects?

Biglaw recruitment at law schools for entry-level positions remained steady last year, but summer associate class sizes shrunk and fewer offers were handed out, indicating that law firm growth efforts may have finally petered out in the wake of the recession’s toll on attorney headcount at firms across the country.

Full Article

By Lizzie Widdicombe, The New Yorker

With its emphasis on transparency, the jobs site Glassdoor aims to upend corporate power dynamics.

One day in 2007, in Seattle, Rich Barton, the C.E.O. of the real-estate Web site Zillow, was getting ready for the company’s annual reviews. The process—talking to each employee about his or her performance and whether he or she would be getting a raise—called for discretion and tact. On his computer, he pulled up a spreadsheet containing the salary and stock options for every employee, and pressed Print. However, instead of sending the document to his personal printer, he sent it to one in the middle of the open-plan office. When Barton’s assistant realized the mistake, she rushed across the room to retrieve the document before anyone could read it. She succeeded, but the moment stayed with Barton. As he likes to tell people, it led him to wonder: why, exactly, was this information secret, aside from the fact that making it public could be extremely awkward?

Full Article

2018 Membership Drive

WALRAA's 2018 Membership Drive is now open! To renew or update your membership, login to your profile https://www.walraa.org/Sys/Profile.

WALRAA memberships are valid from January 1 through December 31 of the membership year.

During this year's membership drive, we are able to process online payments (click on the link for more details) via credit card or PayPal.

While our preferred payment method is by credit card or PayPal, you are still able to pay via check. Please make checks payable to WALRAA and indicate whose membership dues the check covers. Mail your checks to:

Caroline Waters, WALRAA Secretary
Cooley LLP
1299 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20004

Payment must be received by February 2, 2018 or your membership will be suspended.

Thank you!

By Tracy Jan, The Washington Post

Minority lawyers now make up 16 percent of law firms -- a record high -- but remain scarce at the top, where only 9 percent of law partners are people of color, according to new data collected by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

Put another way, nearly half of their white counterparts make partner, while the vast majority of minorities remain associates.

The disparity is also reflected in the corporate world, where only 11 percent of general counsels at Fortune 500 companies are black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American even though minorities make up a third of the legal profession as a whole.

Full Article

It's GivingTuesday and we are almost at our $1,000 goal. To date, we have raised $715, and we look to you today to help us reach our final amount!

DONATE NOW!

By: Daniella Isaacson, Esq., Senior Analyst, ALM Intelligence 

Succession planning, the final and arguably most important piece in the employee lifecycle, is integral to the long-term success of any enterprise. Businesses are not immortal; their continued existence, once created, is far from guaranteed. In the current age of innovation and disruption, planning for the future in the present is more critical than ever.

This holds true particularly for the legal sector, an industry where individuals, in the form of equity partners, have outsized impacts on the fortunes of their firms. To ensure their organizations’ future, firm leaders must face of a governance structure that traditionally incentivizes short-term profit maximization for individuals at the expense of long-term strategic planning and stability for the firm. Consequently, failure to plan the stewardship of the business and its passing to the next generation puts the future of the firm at great risk.

Full Article