Second Place
LMA Metro New York Chapter — A Chapter Takes on the Great Recession and Wins; The Careers-in-Transition (CIT) Program

Facing the fastest and most furious downturn the legal sector had experienced in generations, the Metro New York Chapter of LMA responded quickly with the launch of the Careers-in-Transition (CIT) program to advance a number of strategic objectives: Maintain membership levels by demonstrating and articulating the value of membership, focus the chapter’s resources on helping members who had lost their jobs as firms downsized operations, promote career development for all members, regardless of employment status and extend the CIT program and its benefits to LMA International and other chapters

With the legal sector in free fall, chapter leadership met in October 2008 to discuss a response to the crisis. Three Am Law 100 firms had failed or were about to go under, and media continued to focus on this as the legal sector shed more than 10,000 jobs from November 2007 to September 2008. Projections for 2009 included a rising tide of layoffs and, for most firms, a significant drop in revenue.

The board voted unanimously to approve the creation of a special task force comprised of board members and committee and SIG chairs. The task force distributed a free Web-based and print career resource guide and created a five-part series of free career workshops, Career Development 101. The task force also implemented discounted monthly lunch programming for all members, special programming discounts for members in-transition, posted job listings via the Chapter’s LinkedIn group and shared ongoing communication of benefits to members.

Summary of Outcomes

The Metro New York Chapter membership held steady in face of the downturn and  attendance at programs, which had been projected to decline substantially, dipped only slightly. LMA International created its own CIT program modeled on the chapter’s efforts and held two career-focused Webinars, with the first being free for all members. Three chapter members secured new opportunities as a direct results of CIT’s initiatives, and other members found CIT programming invaluable as they worked through their career transitions. The chapter also gained new audiences through previously untapped promotional channels.