Action Step – Appreciating Your Flex Program

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility.  Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center.

APPRECIATING YOUR FLEX PROGRAM

Lawyers are taught to apply critical inquiry to solve clients’ problems. While this approach is useful to spot issues, applying a model that allows for analysis of strengths is equally important when working on a change initiative like promoting holistic flexibility in the workplace. The field of organizational development offers such a model in appreciative inquiry…

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Flex Success™ Leadership Institute -Spotlight on Verna Myers

As we prepare for the upcoming Flex Success™ Leadership Institute, we will be featuring the industry experts who will guide participants from high potential to high performance.  

This week, we are pleased to feature Verna Myers, Founder and President of the Verna Myers Company. Verna will guide participants in developing effective tactics that can be used to interrupt bias, with a special emphasis on recognizing and overcoming the stigma attorneys working flexible schedules face. Read more

Upcoming Event -Flex Leader Exchange

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s Flex Leader Exchange (FLEx) is a quarterly, roundtable-style teleconference series for diversity and talent development professionals at Alliance member organizations.

Join us on September 23 for this quarter’s call to discuss celebrating successes to generate support for your organization’s flexibility program. In addition, the Alliance will hold its quarterly Office Hours to discuss questions related to its upcoming Flex Success™ Award nomination and selection process.

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Creating Women’s Initiatives with IMPACT

September 2015

Featuring – Kit Chaskin, Partner and Global Director of the Women’s Initiative Network, Reed Smith and Sally Olson, Chief Diversity Officer, Sidley Austin

Are your women’s initiatives waning?  Are the majority of your regrettable losses female attorneys? Good intentions don’t always equal positive results, but action is needed.  Kit and Sally will discuss their firms’ successes with creating women’s initiatives with IMPACT! Manar Morales of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance will also discuss best practices with leading change through your initiatives. Learn how to overcome the organizational challenges when creating and sustaining a successful women’s initiative and retain your top talent!

Action Step – It Takes A Community: Foundational Considerations For Women’s, Flex, And Other Affinity Groups

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility.  Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center.

IT TAKES A COMMUNITY:
FOUNDATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR WOMEN’S, FLEX, AND OTHER AFFINITY GROUPS

Establishing affinity groups can be an excellent way to build a community and effectively address the social isolation that interrupts the career advancement of lawyers from underrepresented identities including lawyers who work flexibly. Positioning these groups for success requires consideration of a number of different factors and ensuring they serve the following three main purposes…

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Spotlight on Flex – Laura Walther

The Spotlight on Flex showcases professionals from member organizations who exemplify personal and professional success while working a flexible schedule. Their stories illustrate the long-term benefits that flexible schedules offer to both individuals and organizations.

This month, we are pleased to share insights from Laura Walther, Counsel in the Washington, DC office of Crowell & Moring LLP.

Laura WaltherDiversity & Flexibility Alliance: How have you made flexibility a priority and a success with your career? How has flexibility made your career more sustainable?

Laura Walther: I lateraled to the Product Liability & Tort Group at Crowell & Moring in the Spring of 2007 and went on a flex schedule at 80 percent in the Fall/early Winter of 2010 after I came back from maternity leave. I was made Counsel while I was on leave. Currently, I am a Counsel in what is now the Advertising & Product Risk Management Group and continue to work closely with the product liability litigation team members. My flex time is a reduced hours yearly target – I’m in the office almost every day but have no hard start and end time. I’m practical with the realities of child-care; I’m usually in the office early so I can leave early but still maintain as much of the “full time experience” as possible. If I need to make time in my schedule for personal reasons, then I do it. I have the flexibility (and the firm has been fully supportive) to make my own schedule to meet my yearly hours.

When I proposed my schedule to the firm, there were already several other attorneys on a flex schedule. I did my homework and talked with them to see how their schedules were working – what they liked and what they didn’t. Having people that were willing to share their experience and knowing what would work made the decision easy. I also made it a point to have my practice group and partners’ buy-in first before I spoke with human resources. This was extremely helpful to create and approve a schedule that worked.

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Upcoming Event -Signature Seminar Series

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s bi-monthly Signature Seminar Series explores a mix of organizational solutions and individual strategies related to inclusion, retention, and workplace flexibility.

Are your women’s initiatives waning?  Are the majority of your regrettable losses female attorneys? Good intentions don’t always equal positive results, but action is needed.  Join us on September 15 as Kit Chaskin, Partner and Global Director of the Women’s Initiative Network, Reed Smith and Sally Olson, Chief Diversity Officer, Sidley Austin, discuss their firms’ successes with creating women’s initiatives with IMPACT!  Manar Morales of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance will also discuss best practices with leading change through your initiatives. Learn how to overcome the organizational challenges when creating and sustaining a successful women’s initiative and retain your top talent!

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Upcoming Event -Flex Advisor Workshop

Flex Advisor Workshop 2015

REGISTER HERE

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s Flex Advisor Workshop is a two-hour training session (offered both live and remotely) on the fundamentals of successfully managing flexible work programs. The workshop is designed for talent management, human resource professionals, or practicing lawyers who have an administrative role or manage the day-to-day aspects of their organization’s flex program. The workshop will draw on the Alliance’s Flex Success™ Framework, a five-step proprietary process for implementing and evolving effective flexible work programs. Read more

Spotlight on Flex – Charise Naifeh

The Spotlight on Flex showcases professionals from member organizations who exemplify personal and professional success while working a flexible schedule. Their stories illustrate the long-term benefits that flexible schedules offer to both individuals and organizations.

This month, we are pleased to share insights from Charise Naifeh, Associate in the Washington, DC office of White & Case LLP.

Charise NaifehDiversity & Flexibility Alliance: How have you made flexibility a priority and a success with your career? How has flexibility made your career more sustainable?

Charise Naifeh: I’m a seventh year associate in the Competition Group in the DC Office of White & Case, and I started with the firm as summer associate. As an associate, there are three key factors to making my schedule work: flexibility, communication, and a supportive team.

I started on a flex schedule after my maternity leave and on-ramped back. I was at 60 percent, three days a week for the first two months, and then I went to 70 percent, four days a week and telecommuted on Fridays (this my current schedule). The firm gives us wide latitude to draft our own proposals for its review and approval; I proposed this schedule, and it made my return to work less overwhelming and much easier.

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Action Step – Who’s Monitoring Your Flex Program: Key Roles for Effective Flex Program Management

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility. Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center.

WHO’S MONITORING YOUR FLEX PROGRAM:
KEY ROLES FOR EFFECTIVE FLEX PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Your organization has a flexible work policy. Leadership vocally supports it and promotes the business case for flexibility. The desire and need for flexible work is clear, and your lawyers are utilizing the policy. What’s next? How will your organization manage it all? Read more