ALA Celebrates 50 Years with Ops in a Box, Legal Edition!
In 2021 the Association of Legal Administrators' celebrates its 50th anniversary. I am thrilled that Ops in a Box, Legal Edition has been named product-of-the-month in its online store in this special year. Shop the ALA Legal Management Bookstore here. In celebration, for every 2021 purchase you make using code ALA50, we will support the ALA Foundation with a donation of $19.71 and share the love with a 5% discount for you!
In 1971 Bradford Hildebrandt with co-founders Mary Ann Altman and Robert Weil established the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA). Altman and Weil had founded their consulting firm the year before. At the time Hildebrandt was the office administrator at Reavis & McGrath in New York City (He founded his eponymous consulting firm at the close of his term in 1975).
ALA National grew out of the New Jersey Association of Legal Administrators (NJALA) founded by a small group of law firm administrators in 1967 to share information about management of law firms. Understanding the potential of the nascent shift to in-house counsel, the founders of the national organization adopted an expanded mission “to provide support to professionals involved in the management of law firms, corporate legal departments and government legal agencies.”
ALA was the first to define competencies for the role in a Certified Legal Manager (CLM) program. In many respects the reaccreditation requirements follow the CLE standard for attorneys. Knowledge set focus areas are finance, human resources, business and the legal industry and operations. Not coincidentally this overlaps considerably with Ops in a Box, Legal Edition topics: Strategic Planning, Financial Management, Human Resources, Vendor Management, Technology, Project and Change Management with a little magic sprinkled in.
Reflecting back on the study aids the ALA NYC Chapter provided in preparation for the CLM exam inspired this magical kit.
For more on ALA's CLM designation, see prior blog posts ALA's CLM Designation and ALA's CLM Designation, Part 2.
#Cheers50Years #ALAis50