CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter

By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com  follow me on Twitter @chuckbingaman

#39 July 2009

Leadership Hard times bring mixed reactions, I guess! Some people and organizations pull in their horns. Others put the pedal to the metal! Minnesota CLE and PLI have placed themselves firmly in the latter class. Examples: Minnesota’s brochure for "Strategic Solutions for Solo and Small Firmssm 2009." If there’s a better CLE brochure out there in 2009 for overall persuasiveness, scannability, information, communication quotient—you name it—I’d like to see it. And feature it in a future CLE L&M! To see a .pdf of the brochure, see www.minncle.org/materials/seminars/29610.pdf. But remember you’re not seeing the full size and feeling the actual paper stock! For cutting edge tech leadership, check out www.PLI.edu and its splashy new ads for PLI books on Amazon Kindle! 67 titles are on Kindle now with more to come. Do lawyers want to buy books on Kindle? Who knows! But PLI has seized the initiative and the lead in finding out!

Management ABOTA Foundation Education Director Elaine Flynn reports that her organization is going strong with its classic “Masters in Trial” program AND that it has expanded to additional, similar format programs called Masters in Cross-Examination and Masters in Demonstrative Evidence. ABOTA—the American Board of Trial Advocates—has the mission of preserving and advancing the American jury system. Its 16-25 programs per year, for which Elaine is glad to work with local co-sponsors, feature heavily demonstration-oriented formats using a mix of local trial experts and national stars brought in for variety & spice. See www.abota.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=376. Michigan ICLE Executive Director Lynn Chard, despite operating in the epicenter of the recession, continues to see her organization thrive thanks, she says, to their Partnership program and to the cost savings of online offerings. We know it’s those things and a lot more like a terrific staff, a lot of hard work and a decision to not to complain about the times but rather to get busy and succeed anyway. “CLE,” says Lynn, “needs to help lawyers see the new opportunities in the economic crisis!” If you look up “resiliency” in the CLE dictionary, you’ll find ICLE in the first definition! www.icle.org.

Resources Intrigued—even fascinated—by the Twitter phenomenon? I’ve been doing a LOT of reading and experimenting with it but I’m still not GRIPPED! Time will tell. Maybe it takes a different personality type. Or people with more time on their hands than I have. It also took me quite a while to see the value in email, but now, of course, I find it indispensable. So…if Twitter interests you, but you would like a micromessaging system confined to the group of people you choose—like your employees, family, CLE author or faculty group, try www.Twingr.com. At no cost, you can set up your closed “Twitter” system for rapid communications with security. Should be simple and inexpensive to test. Let me know how it works for you!   Well, Jim Collins has done it again! He’s got a new book out called “How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In”. If you read “Good to Great”, you learned Collins’ research-based ideas for long-term business success and never looked at your CLE organization the same way again! I bet this new Collins product will be equally important!

See you in Salt Lake City next week!

Meeting Your Organizational Needs

Following 20 years as Executive Director of a major American CLE organization, I now consult on CLE strategic planning, marketing, and management challenges with CLE organizations, bar associations, and law firms. I welcome your inquiries on projects designed to enhance your organization’s effectiveness. You can contact me at 603-756-9268, at chuck@chuckbingaman.com, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole, NH, USA 03068. Past issues of this newsletter are archived at www.chuckbingaman.com.