Anne Bothwell

President
Bothwell Marketing

As the President of Bothwell Marketing, Anne provides clients with an expansive range of marketing consulting, from the creation of comprehensive business development plans to the execution of strategic marketing initiatives. Anne's more than 20 years of experience in law firm marketing provides professional services clients with a tried and true perspective, ensuring that marketing plans become action plans.

To fulfill the marketing objectives of clients, Anne offers a global approach, providing strategic analysis and sound positioning advice, while at the same time offering ongoing support and guidance to ensure creative programs are effectively implemented. Anne's marketing experience encompasses a large number of industries including law, financial services, information technology, executive recruiting, professional associations and education. Anne has significant experience in the development of print, video and electronic media, and has provided guidance in marketing information management and public relations. She also conducts research projects on client satisfaction, name recognition and reputation, and industry analysis. She has provided marketing skills training to hundreds of lawyers, developed institutional and individual marketing plans, and produced numerous branding and identity programs including award-winning national advertising.

Anne is a frequent speaker and author on business development for law firms, and has been a regular columnist for The Daily Journal.   

Prior to the launching of Bothwell Marketing, Anne served as the Marketing Director for three prominent California law firms: Crosby, Heafey, Roach and May, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, and Rosen, Wachtell & Gilbert.

Silvia Coulter

Vice President Chair, Client Development and Growth Practice
Hildebrandt International

Session – "Client Relationship: Developing and Nurturing Your Best Asset"
Saturday, 10/18/08 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

Ms. Coulter is a Vice President in Hildebrandt's Client Development and Growth Practice.  For more than twenty-five years, law firms have relied on Silvia’s expert advice on business development, strategic account management, and service initiative strategies.  Silvia has substantial experience in collaborating with firms on their key client retention and growth strategies, business development education, coaching and training programs, client service strategies and women lawyers’ initiatives.  Silvia is a Six Sigma Green Belt, and has certifications in facilitation, Myers Briggs and Human Synergistics team and leadership development.

Prior to joining Hildebrandt, Ms. Coulter co-founded CoulterCranston, a consulting firm focused on assisting law firms with all facets of business development.   Prior to co-founding Coulter-Cranston, Silvia was chief marketing and business development officer at two Global 50 law firms from 1998 to 2005, where she built the marketing and sales functions.  Since 1987 she was a principal at an international law firm marketing and business development consulting firm.  Prior to her law firm business development career, Silvia spent 7 years as a key account sales specialist with a Fortune 200 company where she provided law firms with practice management technology tools.  She was recognized for several years as one of the top sales leaders in the company.

Ms. Coulter has authored numerous publications and is a frequent panelist and speaker at bar associations, specialty bars, CLE programs and legal marketing and business development seminars.

Christy T. Crider

Shareholder
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

Session – "Putting Your Plan in Place"
Sunday, 10/19/08 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

Christy Tosh Crider, shareholder in the Nashville office, concentrates her practice in civil litigation. She has extensive experience in long-term care litigation, managing the litigation of numerous long-term care facilities around the country, health care litigation and many areas of tort and commercial litigation. She works with health care companies on quality assurance and litigation avoidance.

Recent Representative Transactions

• Presented oral argument before the Tennessee Supreme Court, on an issue of first impression for health care providers: whether the existence of a Durable Power of Attorney lifts the tolling of the statute of limitations for an incompetent resident.
• Presented oral argument before the Tennessee Court of Appeals and won an issue of first impression for long term care providers: whether the Tennessee Adult Protection Act applies to negligent care lawsuits filed against long term care providers which should fall within the scope of the Medical Malpractice Act.
• Tried to a successful jury verdict the first long term care wrongful death case to go to verdict in more than a decade for one of the largest privately owned nursing home chains in the country.
• Successfully compelled to Arbitration and dismissed from Court several long term care wrongful death cases.
• Won Summary Judgment on an apartment fire case.
• Obtained dismissal of all counts against long term care providers except Medical Malpractice in many wrongful death cases.
• Successfully defended a wrongful death Dram Shop Act Case.
• Drafted Arbitration Agreements for more than a dozen long term care facilities and trained the facilities how to use them.

Kathleen Bender Patton

Director of Professional Development
Brown Rudnick LLP

Session – "Expanding Your Internal/External Networks to Increase Business"
Sunday, 10/19/08 - 9:00am - 10:00am

Kathleen B. Patton is the Director of Professional Development at Brown Rudnick LLP, an international law firm with more than 200 attorneys in six offices.

In her Professional Development role at Brown Rudnick, Kathleen is responsible for the design and implementation of the Firm's training, mentoring and work allocation programs for attorneys and paralegals. Kathleen also develops core competencies for the Firm's billing professionals and evaluates those professionals against those competencies

She enjoys an active role in Brown Rudnick's Women Initiative and Diversity Committee. She is also a member of the Firm's Summer Associate Committee and the Brown Rudnick Associate Integration Committee.

Kathleen practiced law for more than a decade in law firms in New York in the area of mergers and acquisitions, most recently as a corporate partner in a multi-national law firm. She also has experience in-house as Senior Counsel in a regional warehouse-club retailer.

Kathleen is a highly rated speaker. She has presented on topics ranging from associate business development, evaluation processes, mentoring and work allocation for organizations including Legal Marketing Association, the Boston Lawyers Group, and the Lawyers' Collaborative on Diversity.

Eileen Letts

Managing Partner
Green and Letts

Session – "Making Yourself Heard--How to Effectively Reach Your Audience"
Saturday, 10/18/08 - 10:15am - 11:15am

Eileen Letts co-founded Green and Letts in 1990 and serves as a managing partner for the firm.  Her area of practice is tort defense and commerical litigation. Ms. Letts has extensive litigation experience with a primary focus on personal injury cases for corporations and governmental entities including: Shell, Travelers, State Farm, Liberty Mutual and General Casualty Insurance Companies, City of Chicago and Daimler Chrysler Financial. She has tried contract disputes and construction litigation claims. 

Michele Ballard Miller

Managing Shareholder
Miller Law Group

Session – "Putting it all Together - How to Develop a Personal Business Development Plan"
Sunday, 10/19/08 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

With more than 25 years of experience practicing exclusively in the area of labor and employment law, Ms. Miller provides strategic advice to companies on a wide range of employment issues. She also defends companies in litigation involving claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and other employment-related disputes.

Named a "Super Lawyer" by Super Lawyers - Northern California magazine each year since 2004, Ms. Miller is a frequent lecturer on employment issues both for firm clients and outside groups. Her articles on employment issues affecting employers and HR professionals have appeared in numerous publications, on sites and in training materials.

Ms. Miller is on the board of directors of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) and is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel as well as the employment law sections of a variety of bar associations.

Ms. Miller received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, in 1982 and her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1978.

Linda A. Monica

President
Monica & Associates, PC

Session – "So Many Choices, So Little Time: Focusing Your Efforts and Leveraging Your Time"
Saturday, 10/18/08 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

Throughout her thirty year legal career, Linda Monica has gained extensive experience in practice management though chairing Litigation and Technology Departments, serving on Executive and Management Committees, heading up Recruitment, Hiring, and Training Committees, and implementing Business Development strategies for Practice Groups and individuals. She presently works with women lawyers on business development strategies and the implementation of “Women Initiatives.” Linda also collaborates with law firms interested in incorporating effective and often innovative practice management techniques to meet the challenges of a changing market environment and a shifting and less traditional work force.

In 1999, Linda founded "Partners in Professional Development, Inc." and developed and chaired what were among the first national conferences devoted solely to the topic of "Business Development for Women Attorneys."In that venue, she presented her “Niche Marketing” approach which has helped to successfully launch many women attorneys in their business development efforts. Her strategies on focusing, refining, and leveraging time and efforts enable women attorneys to become more strategic and deliberate as they maintain and sustain these efforts.

In her work with law firms, Linda includes career customization as among the new techniques they need to consider to remain competitive. “Career Customization” provides law firms with a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining today’s most talented attorneys by offering an on-going collaboration to design customized career paths. This model facilitates the creation of tailored career paths by exploding the traditional “lock step” career advancement in favor of a new paradigm for the long-term benefit of both firms and individuals. The implementation of customized career paths not only increases profitability and loyalty, but also recognizes the fundamental changes in the key characteristics of today’s work force.

In her legal practice , Linda has focused her practice in the areas of products liability, mass tort litigation, and technology-related matters. She has been involved in products liability cases around the country and has represented several Fortune 500 companies involved in mass tort litigation. She taught “Electronic Commerce & The Law” at the University of Maine School of Law, and served on the State’s Blue Ribbon Commission to Study Maine’s Internet policy. She presently is the principal of Monica & Associates, PC, a law firm she founded in 2004 to serve her niche products liability practice.

She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of New Hampshire and a 1977 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

She is AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Jody Newman

Managing Partner
Dwyer & Collora LLP

Session – "Nurturing Your Client Base While Running a Small Business"
Sunday, 10/19/08 - 9:00am - 10:00am

Jody L. Newman is the managing partner at the litigation firm Dwyer & Collora LLP in Boston. With 24 years of civil litigation experience, Ms. Newman currently runs the employment practice at the firm and focuses her practices on employment disputes, primarily representing plaintiffs. She handles employment-related contract, tort, discrimination and wrongful discharge cases, with a particular specialty in sexual harassment and sex discrimination cases. Ms. Newman has successfully tried many employment cases before state and federal arbitrators and juries. She is also experienced in alternative dispute resolution and is on the forefront of the practice of collaborative law, a client-centered, solution-oriented process for resolving disputes without going to court.

Ms. Newman is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School(J.D., cum laude, 1983) and the University of Delaware (B.A., cum laude, 1980). She began her career at Dwyer & Collora LLP and became a partner in 1993. She serves on the Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the Board of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council and is the 2007-2008 Co-Chair of the steering committee of the Boston Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section. She publishes and lectures frequently on employment law and trial advocacy issues.

Martha Fay Africa

Managing Director
Major, Lindsey & Africa

Plenary Session Moderator – "Making Your Case: Winning the Business (Panel) "
Sunday, 10/19/08 - 10:15am - 11:15am

Martha Fay Africa is a Partner with Hodge/Niederer/Cariani. She brings strategic industry and functional expertise across business sectors throughout the United States. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Africa was a founding member of Major, Hagen & Africa (now, Major, Lindsey & Africa) where she placed experienced attorneys worldwide in partner level and in]house positions in law firms, corporations, and universities. Some of Ms. Africa’s clients included: The Nature Conservancy, Texas Pacific Group, Silicon Valley Bank, Stanford Research Institute, The California Independent System Operator (The California ISO), the University of California, Blue Shield of California, Levi Strauss, Southern California Edison and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technology. Ms. Africa is a member of the Blue Ribbon No Glass Ceiling Task Force and the Committee on Employment of Minorities; both groups are affiliated with the Bar Association of San Francisco and address concerns relating to minority and female lawyer advancement. She sits on the editorial board of Law Technology News a publication of The American Lawyer Ms Africa served as liaison to the News, Lawyer. Ms. American Bar Association’s ( ABA) Commission on Women from the Law Practice Management Section and founded Women Rainmakers, an ABA organization devoted to training women lawyers in the art of networking and practice Building.

Ms. Africa is a member of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Council, and serves on a number of non]profit boards. She has authored many articles and is a public speaker on issues of interest to business and legal professionals. She has been the recipient of the Cornerstone Award at Chatham College, the Golden Hammer Award for contributions enabling women and minorities to break the glass ceiling, the Award of Merit from the San Francisco Bar Association, and is a College of Law Practice Management Fellow of the American Bar Association.

Prior to entering the search profession, Ms. Africa’s earlier career was in service to educational institutions including Boalt Hall School of Law, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University Medical Center. Ms. Africa, also known as “Marty,” graduated from the University of California with a B.A. in English/Art History.

Rachelle J. Canter

President
RJC Associates

Luncheon Session Moderator – "Removing Barriers for Women in Law"
Sunday, 10/19/08 - 12:30pm - 2:00pm

Rachelle J. Canter is President of RJC Associates which provides leadership, career, team development, selection, and outplacement services to law firms and corporations. Working from the level of Chairman and CEO to junior associate, Shelley’s clients come from virtually every function and industry and include some of the best known and most respected companies in the world, such as American Express, Apple, BP Amoco, Bank of America, Barnes & Noble, Catholic Healthcare West, Charles Schwab, Deloitte & Touche, Genentech, Latham & Watkins, Morrison & Foerster, PG&E, Pillsbury Winthrop, Planned Parenthood, SAP, Saks, Watson Wyatt, Wells Fargo, Westin, WilmerHale, and University of California.

Shelley was among the first to provide career transition and coaching assistance to lawyers in over 20 firms in the San Francisco Bay Area alone and works with lawyers and executives around the country. She has helped lawyers in corporations, law firms, and other settings make successful career transitions within their organizations as well as into other firms, corporations, government, academia, legal corporations and non-profits, solo practice, and outside the law.

She is adjunct faculty and lead coach for the Women Senior Leaders Program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management’s Center for Executive Women, a program designed to help women executives and attorneys attain top positions in the Fortune 1000. She also serves on the Executive Committee of ABA’s Women Rainmakers and is active in the leadership of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section.

Shelley is a frequent speaker and author on leadership, career, and organizational development issues and has written over 20 articles for legal publications. She was one of three coaches featured in the ABA Journal’s June 2007 cover story. She has also authored a career guide for attorneys, executives, and professionals, Make the Right Career Move, that published by Wiley in 2007.

Shelley earned her Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology with a specialty in achievement and productivity from the University of Colorado, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in Psychology.

Complete information on the firm, its approach and philosophy, services, clients, and publications is available on the RJC website at www.rjcassociates.net. Shelley can be reached at (415) 956-8438 or rjc@rjcassociates.net .

Barrie Drum

Forensic Accounting Consultant

Welcome Address

Ms. Drum is a consultant specializing in forensic accounting and investigations. She has over twenty years of investigative, auditing and banking experience in both the private and public sectors. Ms. Drum has directed and conducted numerous forensic accounting investigations including but not limited to employee dishonesty, financial statement misrepresentation, ethical breaches and violations of standards of integrity, and professional malpractice for “Big Four” accounting firms. In addition, she has conducted and directed litigation support engagements, developed anti-fraud programs, and performed fraud vulnerability and business controls assessments for companies over a wide range of industries.

Ms. Drum served on the Villa Julie College Advisory Committee, Master’s Program for Forensic Accounting. She is a member of the Certified Fraud Examiners Association and the American Bar Association and is an appointed member of the Executive Committee for ABA Women Rainmakers’ special interest group of the Law Practice Management Section.

She received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University in 1983.