© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Janet Elliott
AUSTIN (July 19) – Networking. It’s an anxiety-inducing chore that legal conference attendees often associate with rehearsed elevator pitches, awkward small talk and lonely hors d’oeuvres.
At a recent meeting of 15 managing partners in a 21st floor conference room, there was some tentativeness. But there also was a willingness to share frustrations and concerns about the meeting topic – cybersecurity.
The occasion was the third meeting of the Austin Managing Partners Forum, a fledgling effort by aviation lawyer Mike Slack to provide a safe space for managing partners of all-sized firms to talk shop and get to know each other.
This time, Slack was the first to share his head-shaking tale. While he was traveling one day, a firm administrator received an email that appeared to be from Slack. Money was to be immediately transferred to the account of an expert witness. A hacker had cloned Slack’s email.
After the guest speaker talked about current threats and the need for layered security (think of it as a door lock, alarm system and guard dog, she said), several other firm leaders weighed in with questions about cloud storage, two-party encryption and thumb drives.
Cyberspace is the “Wild West,” concluded Joe Basham, managing partner of Allensworth & Porter, an 11-lawyer construction law firm.
Lauren Kalisek was eager for the discussion as she looks forward to assuming leadership of Lloyd Gosselink Rochelle & Townsend in January. The firm represents clients before state regulatory agencies.
“The forum is especially valuable to an incoming managing partner like myself,” she says. “Sharing information and experiences among firms of various sizes and practice areas supports the work of all of our colleagues across all firms. And it reinforces what I appreciate about our local bar – we can have healthy competition while maintaining a sense of collegiality and shared interests.”
Slack Provides Forum Infrastructure
As the Austin legal market morphs and expands, one constant is the need for firm managing partners to meet each other, says Slack.
His idea for the forum grew out of annual breakfasts hosted by the Austin Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators.
“It seems silly that the managing partners all really look forward to seeing each other. They clump up, they talk, and nothing happens for a year,” Slack says.
To get the group moving, Slack dedicated an employee to spend time organizing the meetings and putting together a newsletter. He is hoping to increase participation with a goal of creating a self-sustaining model that could be used to set up similar managing partner forums in other cities.
“There’s a niche for an organization like this to exist, and it would be really great if we’d see it break out in other metropolitan areas,” says Slack.
So far, participants haven’t shown a reluctance to give away their firm’s secret sauce.
“The candor is incredible, the willingness to openly discuss issues,” Slack says. “The appetite for problem-solving far exceeds the proprietary instincts of the law firms present.”
The June 30 meeting was hosted at Winstead’s Austin office. The next meeting will be this fall at the office of McGinniss Lochridge, one of the few old-line Austin firms still in existence.
Slack anticipates no shortage of issues for the forum, although some may be stickier than others.
“At our first meeting we discussed does anyone dare want to talk about millennials,” he says. “We decided why don’t we put it on the back burner because that will consume three meetings and get everybody into a depressed state.”
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