The unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has wide-reaching effects, including on Elon Law students. A number of them have been advised by employers that summer internships, for which they were previously hired, have been canceled. We anticipate that this trend will continue as we approach the summer months.

If you are able to host one of our bright, hardworking law students as an intern this summer so that they can continue to gain experience in preparation to practice, please contact Jennifer Mencarini at jmencarini2@elon.edu.  Unpaid experiences and remote research opportunities are welcome. To make intern selection as easy as possible for GBA members, we have collected resumes from students by practice area and can quickly send you resumes for review.

We know these are challenging times for lawyers, too – and we are thankful for all of the support the GBA and its members provide to our school and our students.

Although the March 28, 2020 beer and wine tasting event was canceled, during the April 16, 2020 GBA meeting, we
were able to deliver a check for $22,204.81 to Legal Aid of North Carolina.  We would like to thank our sponsors and donors who purchased tickets to the event, each who generously agreed to have their funds donated directly to Legal Aid
of North Carolina:

Sponors

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Platinum Sponsor

Brooks Pierce

 

 

Donors

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Additionally, thank you to everyone who participated in our online raffle.  Each ticket sold was assigned a number and, after a random number generator picked a number to be associated with the prize, the prize was won by the person with that ticket number.  The winners of the electronic raffle are:

Triad Stage tickets: Lisa Arthur

Quaintance-Weaver gift certificate: Leigh Cain

Maxie B’s gift certificate: Barbara Christy

Crafted gift certificate: Rachel Decker

Green Bean gift certificate: Margaret Kantlehner

Gate City Growlers gift certificate: Diane Lowe

Dancing Dogs class pass: Barbara Morgenstern

Carolina Theater tickets: David Puryeaer

Brew Peddlers gift certificate: Kyle Woosley

Fresh Market gift basket: Bill Davis

Every year, the GBA hosts a day at the ballpark at the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ stadium. We look forward to it every year as a chance to catch up with one another and celebrate the conclusion of another successful GBA year. This year, however, things are different and COVID-19 presents new challenges for social gatherings. Not to mention, COVID-19 has changed our community, causing many to be struggling with this new normal. So, rather than reschedule the Grasshopper’s event, the GBA Board voted to reallocate the $3,000 budgeted for this event to the following charitable organizations that need our help right now more than ever:

Backpack Beginnings: an organization that provides backpacks filled with food and other supplies directly to children in need.  The GBA will gift $1,000 to this organization.  To read more about Backpack Beginnings, click here: https://backpackbeginnings.org/about/

Greensboro Urban Ministries (GUM): The GBA regularly serves at GUM providing meals to the homeless in our community.  In lieu of serving at GUM this month, the GBA will gift $1,000 to this organization. To read more about Greensboro Urban Ministries, click here: https://greensborourbanministry.org/

Downtown Greensboro Meals for Frontline Heroes: Downtown Greensboro has created a GoFundMe page to raise money to donate to local restaurants in downtown Greensboro.  The following restaurants are participating: 1618 Downtown, A Sweet Success! Bakery, Baked, Blue Denim, Cheesecakes By Alex, Chez Genese, Cincy’s, Deep Roots, Ghassan’s, Heavenly Buffaloes, Jerusalem Market, Liberty Oak, Machete, Mellow Mushroom, and SMOHK’D.  In return, the restaurants will provide meals to Cone Health healthcare workers on the front lines fighting COVID-19. The GBA will gift $1,000 to this initiative.  To read more about it, click here: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/greensborostrong

While we will miss seeing all of you at the ballpark, the GBA board determined that the money would be better served supporting the community that we love so much during this uncertain time. We hope you all stay safe and well!

Lisa Arthur
President Elect

Stay-at-home orders and self-quarantine are impacting our ability to travel freely, but they don’t mean our networking efforts have to cease. Having a vibrant network is essential to keeping your law practice healthy.

When networking from six feet, it is inevitable that we use technology to build community and deepen relationships.

Service Offerings

Here is an example of what one North Carolina law firm has done.

NC Planning, an estate planning and business law firm located in Cary, sent daily messages to clients and friends of the firm for approximately 10 days running. The emails contained brief information, with an informational video, on one or two topics of interest such as how to be prepared with telemedicine and health care directives. By week 2, they began to offer free 30-minute business owner consultations on topics such as how to apply for the new federal funding programs that were available. At the end of the second week, they announced they were moving from daily emails to weekly emails, but they were still offering free 30-minute business owner consultations and they were updating social media channels daily, including offering videos on Facebook Live.

A business example outside of legal is Constant Contact. I, like many small businesses, use Constant Contact for my email service. On March 31, in response to COVID-19, Constant Contact sent its small business partners a Small Business Support Kit, which included tools to help boost business, share stories of inspiration from other small business owners, reduced pricing on e-commerce management tools, industry-specific Small Business Action Plans, weekly webinars and access to a community online forum. When I clicked on the “consulting and training services action plan,” I found an 11-page plan that offered advice on building your brand online, moving in-person events to online events, working from home, and more.

During this same time frame, other law firms heard messages from their clients that they were overwhelmed with information in the opening days of March and they asked their firms to turn off the messaging. Listening to what your clients need and want is important, so turning off communication for a short period is also a great strategy. Let your clients lead the way in communication preferences.

Serve Others

Start by asking, how can I be of service? You need look no further than your local news feed or emails from community charities and food banks to see we have a tremendous amount of unmeet needs in our local communities. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Retweet the link to a helpful resource
• Share on social media what legal associations or other organizations are doing that provide aid
• Look for pro bono opportunities through bar associations and the NC Pro Bono Resource Center
• Drop food at a local food bank
• Volunteer to assist in feeding kids
• Give blood to the American Red Cross
• Send an online gift card as a thank you
• Watch and see what the needs are of others and if you can fill a gap

Email your contacts with a short note, “I wanted to reach out to see if there is anything I can do for you. You’ve been so generous with your time (or your business, your referrals), I want to return the favor if I can.”

Send Positive Vibes

Reach out to let someone know you are thinking of them. This is a great time to check on people with an email or call. Send a hand-written note of thanks. When you see someone doing good, offer congratulations or thank them for their service. It is important to be authentic in your networking communications and especially now when nerves are frayed. You don’t want to send messages that look like hidden requests for business or being tone-deaf to the people you are reaching out to. But this adage is true, the more you give, the more you get.

Use Tech to Connect

Use technology such as Zoom or FaceTime to connect. Extroverts are particularly feeling the pain of working from home.  In addition to work meetings, schedule social dates and plan virtual conversations, morning coffee, and stay-in-touch calls.

Now is a good time to strategically take inventory of who you want to be connected to and reach out. Look for online communities such as Facebook Groups or through a platform such as Mighty Networks that match your interests. If you can’t find a group that speaks to you, create your own.

Follow potential clients, colleagues, associations, or referral sources on LinkedIn and other social platforms – connect, follow, comment. Use technology to stay connected and grow your network. This is also a good time to refresh and update your social media profiles.

Use Tech for Wellness

Use this time to start an affirmation, meditation, or another wellness practice through tools such as Headspace, Insight Timer, Breath, Calm. I’m a big fan of Insight Timer which has a huge collection of free meditations and calming music, chants, or sounds of nature that help me with sleep at night or a refreshing break during the day.

Search for lawyers in the wellness space and follow them such as Laura Mahr with Conscious Legal Minds or Colleen Byers with Bell Davis & Pitt. Both Laura and Colleen are gifted in wellness topics and offer CLEs, webinars, and consultations.

Use your Fitbit or other tech tool to remind you to get up and walk around, set walking goals daily, create contests among your friends and family to hit target number of steps. Sitting in my home office with no outside stimulation can be hard, but when my Fitbit alarms at 10 till the hour, I get up, refill my water bottle, and add another couple of hundred steps to my total for the day.

And, finally, reach out to your BarCares or the State Bar LAP program if you need to talk with someone. Or find a friend, a trusted advisor, a spiritual leader or your Employee Assistance Program, to get some help. This might be a great time to see how telemedicine  works for you.

Conclusion

I hope you are safe and healthy during this time. I hope your law firm, organization, business, or association weathers the COVID-19 storm. I look forward to networking from six feet, but even more, I look forward to our next in person gathering.

Camille Stell is the President of Lawyers Mutual Consulting & Services. Continue this conversation by contacting Camille at camille@lawyersmutualconsulting.com or 919.677.8900.

We have adjusted the sails at the Greensboro Bar Association.  The end of any term in a leadership position naturally brings thoughts of reflection.  And this year for me as President of the Greensboro Bar Association is no different.  I am satisfied with our performance over the last year and excited about our future.  I cannot wait to see the great things that Lisa Arthur and her leadership team will bring to the membership.  But what might normally be bittersweet feelings of leaving this position are unfamiliar this year.  It seems like everything was different in May of 2019.  Last May, I attended a reunion in Williamsburg, Virginia with fellow college classmates as we all turned age 50.  We said we would make it an annual event.  We held our second reunion, in 2020, by way of Zoom. Where and how will we meet in May of 2021?

My example represents so many others’ experiences and concerns about the future.  Will we eat in restaurants like we used to, will we watch movies in a movie theater again, will we cheer at sporting events in large stadiums, will we take vacations, will we gather together for meetings, celebrations, dinner parties?  I have no prediction.  For me, the answers to these questions have a lot to do with leadership.  The idea of leadership and how it entered my life this past year forced me to re-evaluate my response to a myriad of situations.  So, in my final message, I want to talk about the importance of leadership.

“The pessimist complains about the wind.  The optimist expects it to change.  The leader adjusts the sails.”

John Maxwell

Last month, I talked about how crisis, with all the negatives that come with it, can bring about beneficial change.  It is no secret that the pandemic we now live with has refocused our attention on our leaders – at all levels of life – for answers to the question of how we move forward.  For lawyers, we have seen exceptional leadership from our Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley who took the extraordinary measure of altering the rules of the court system to decrease personal contact and save lives.  Similarly, our Guilford County Chief Judges – Joe Craig in Superior Court and Teresa Vincent in District Court – have navigated the path of keeping our courthouses open but with the safety of court employees, legal professionals and the public in the forefront of their decision making.  We are fortunate to have strong, compassionate leaders in our legal system.

In trying to understand how different leaders might approach the same situation and take significantly different courses, a recent article argues that one attribute, above all others, determines a leaders’ decision making: mindsets.  Mindsets are leaders’ mental lenses that dictate what information they take in and use to make sense of and navigate the situations they encounter.  This study identified four ‘sets of mindsets’ most prominent in organizations: Growth vs. Fixed, Learning vs. Performance, Deliberative vs. Implemental, and Promotion vs. Prevention. Organizations that promote growth, learning, deliberative and promotion mindsets, they argue, see a better payoff.  Gottfredson & Reina, To Be a Great Leader, You Need the Right Mindset (Harvard Business Review) (January 17, 2020).

I see these attributes as guideposts to evaluate leaders of any kind because they are predictors of how the leader will perform.  Just like past decisions or behaviors provide some evidence of how we might perform in the future.  What kind of leader are you?  And, what kind of leader do you want in your organization?  If these questions matter to you, consider the mindset of the leader.

Good luck to our incoming Board.  I will continue to support you and this organization in any way I can next year.  To our members, have a safe summer and best wishes in the weeks and months ahead.