Heinan Landa is the Founder and CEO of Optimal Networks, Inc., a globally-ranked IT services firm. After earning his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, Heinan went on to receive his MBA from The Wharton School of Business. Featured in Legal Management, Legal Times, Chief Executive, Inc. Magazine, Forbes, CIO, and with regular appearances on WJLA-TV, WTTG-TV, and WUSA9, Heinan is a trusted leader in the legal, technology, and business spaces. Heinan has been providing IT services to law firm for nearly three decades and is the author of “The Modern Law Firm: How to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Technological Change". For more, www.optimalnetworks.com, 240-499-7900, or hlanda@optimalnetworks.com. https://www.modernlawfirmbook.com/ https://www.optimalnetworks.com/workfromhome/

Heidi K. Brown is a graduate of The University of Virginia School of Law, a law professor at Brooklyn Law School, and a former litigator in the construction industry. Having struggled with anxiety and fear as a law student, attorney, and new law professor, she finally untangled her fears, embracing authenticity as a powerful asset in teaching and practicing law. She is the author of Untangling Fear in Lawyering: A Four-Step Journey Toward Powerful Advocacy (ABA 2019), The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy (ABA 2017), and a two-volume legal writing book series entitled The Mindful Legal Writer. Heidi champions the importance of openly discussing anxieties and fears in lawyering, and helping quiet and anxious law students and lawyers become profoundly effective advocates, in their authentic voices. Her website is www.theintrovertedlawyer.com, and she loves to hear from readers on Instagram @introvertedlawyer and Twitter @introvertlawyer. Contact Information: Heidi.Brown@brooklaw.edu or heidi@theintrovertedlawyer.com Here is the link to Heidi's new book: https://www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/358687385/

Leeatt Rothschild has over 15 years of experience at the intersection of business, sustainability, and brand purpose. In 2016 she founded Packed with Purpose, a corporate gifting company that embeds social impact into the everyday act of gift-giving, from empowering underserved women with job skills to supporting sustainability efforts. Packed with Purpose gifts enable companies (from Fortune 500 to nonprofit organizations) to create societal impact while positively influencing their business across employees, clients and other key stakeholders. Prior to founding Packed with Purpose, Leeatt was Vice President of Advisory Services at Mission Measurement. In this role, she advised Fortune 500 Chief Sustainability Officers and executives on maximizing the impact and financial returns of their social responsibility initiatives.  Leeatt earned her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and following graduation served two years in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, creating income-generating opportunities with local farmers. She earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, and a Masters in International Studies from The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.  Leeatt serves as a board member for the Anti-Defamation League, an advisory board member of Bright Endeavors, a mentor for Wesleyan University’s Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Loyola University’s Baumhart Scholars, and is an alumni of the Schusterman Foundation Fellowship.  https://packedwithpurpose.gifts/ 

Stephanie Kusibab is the founder and CEO of Essentiam, a strategy consultancy partnering with for-profit and non-profit organizations to capture market opportunities, instill focus, build leadership capacity and accelerate growth. Stephanie has more than 20 years of experience initiating and implementing strategic account plans, new service and product roadmaps, and firm-wide strategic plans for organizations ranging in size from start-ups to those on Fortune’s Global 500 list. In just the past five years, Stephanie has worked with organizational leaders to develop more than forty strategic plans and delivered training and team-building workshops for several dozen more. Combined with operational expertise gained working inside more than twenty different businesses, Stephanie understands not only how to define, but also how to operationalize strategy to ensure success. Stephanie believes the most powerful ideas come from bringing people together. Through deliberate, structured interactions digitally and in-person, she helps organizations mine diverse perspectives to understand market opportunities, generate new ideas, coalesce around high impact strategies, and build stronger teams for organizational and professional success.  As the Director of Marketing and Advocacy for the Legal Marketing Association, Stephanie partnered with Bloomberg Law to examine the connection between marketing and law firm strategy and understand the role of marketing and business development professionals in this important firm process. She co-authored several research reports and articles related to these findings. You can connect with Stephanie through LinkedIn or via her company website. She welcomes conversations with all those interested in collaborative strategy development. https://www.EssentiamStrategy.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-kusibab/

Merry Neitlich is the founder and managing partner of EM Consulting, a leader in law firm marketing and business development solutions. With over 25 years of experience, Merry provides clients with tools to grow relationships and successfully identify, court and convert targets into clients. She assists law firms in developing and implementing comprehensive branding programs. Merry has extensive experience coaching attorneys in business development in order to grow their practices. She has interviewed hundreds of in-house counsels across the country for law firm clients in order to enhance relationships and client satisfaction. Merry offers training programs in business development, legal operations, client retention and satisfaction programs. In 2017, Merry was inducted into the LMA Hall of Fame and she has also been inducted into the College of Law Practice Management. http://www.emconsults.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6609961468018458625/ The Ted Talk instructions: http://emconsults.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/TED-Talk-for-Laywers.pdf The link to all of my JD Supra articles as a two year winner of the JD Supra Readers Choice Award: https://www.jdsupra.com/authors/merry-neitlich/ 

A senior marketing executive with broad experience across business-to-business marketing in large, medium and small sized law firms, Jennifer Smut's key strengths lie in strategic and organizational development. She is currently the Chief marketing Officer at Connolly Gallagher LLP. As a founding member and past-President of the Legal Marketing Association -Metro Philadelphia Chapter, Jennifer is actively involved at the regional and national levels of this organization. She also served as co-Executive Editor of Strategies, the Journal of The Legal Marketing Association. Most recently Jennifer joined the 2020 Women on Boards campaign and co-chairs the Wilmington Steering Committee. The overall goal is to educate women about how they can navigate their contacts and career experience to get on corporate boards and be a part of the larger national conversation. https://www.connollygallagher.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennsmuts                 

David Epstein shares a well-defined understanding of the business world today, and possess the capacity to identify and align clients' needs, with the products and services being offered. Coming from a successful and diverse background in Human Capital, David is able to engage decision makers, devise winning strategies and solutions, and provide organizations with a way to fuel employee growth now and into the future. https://intelligentstaffingcompany.com/  

Brian Cuban, the brother of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, is an attorney, author and recovery advocate. His second book, The Addicted Lawyer: Tales of The Bar, Booze, Blow & Redemption is already an Amazon #1 Best Seller in pre-order. His first book, Shattered Image: "My Triumph Over Body Dysmorphic Disorder," chronicles his first-hand experiences living with and recovering from, twenty-seven years of eating disorders and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). He has spoken at conferences, nonprofit events, colleges and universities across the United States and in Canada. Brian has appeared on prestigious talk shows such as the Katie Couric Show as well as numerous media outlets around the country. He also writes extensively on these subjects. His columns have appeared on CNN.com, Foxnews.com, The Huffington Post and in online and print newspapers around the world. http://briancuban.com/        

Pulling from over 20 years in education, counseling and non-profit leadership, Renee Branson's passion and purpose is helping individuals, teams, and organizations cultivate resilience and well-being. After years of working with survivors of trauma and caregivers who help heal them, she became enthralled with what it was that allowed people to not only survive, but thrive through their greatest crisis. The answer always came up the same: resilience. Resilience can be taught, strengthen and cultivated. It is not only trauma survivors and their caregivers who experience the impact of toxic and chronic stress. It can impact anyone in any profession. In recent years, the legal industry has begun to lead efforts to minimize the damage caused to attorneys from toxic stress, burnout, addictions and mental health concerns. Renee works with attorneys and law firms to build programs that increase resilience and well-being in accordance with the ABA Well-Being initiative. Renee earned her B.S. from The Ohio State University and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Colorado. https://reneebranson.blog/          

Mark Beese is President of Leadership for Lawyers, a consultancy focused on helping lawyers and business professionals become better leaders. He provides training, coaching and consulting to lawyers and executives in the areas of leadership, innovation, management and business development. He is a frequent speaker and workshop facilitator in the areas of leadership development, design thinking and innovation for law firms and legal departments. Mark is an adjunct faculty at the University of Denver Sturm School of Law and former adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inductee in the Legal Marketing Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement. http://leadershipforlawyers.com/  

Sarah Tetlow is the founder of Firm Focus which focuses on productivity consulting for attorneys and other legal professionals. She uses her past experiences, organizational and strategic thought process, education, and training to help law firms increase their bottom line and operate more efficiently. More importantly, attorneys see a reduction in stress and anxiety and an increase in focus and new business. Sarah began her career in law in the early 2000's after graduating from UC Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Law & Society. Sarah has experienced first-hand the stresses that attorneys endure in trying to manage multiple projects. They also have the daily necessity to react to more pressing needs in matter of minutes, causing frequent mind-shifting and multi-tasking. Sarah's mission, and the reason for starting Firm Focus, is the desire to see a change in the industry. To help attorneys and other legal professionals experience control over their day and mitigate the poor habits caused by the workload. Sarah is a member of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA), serving on the Local Steering Committee as Secretary (2018-2019) and co-chair of the Programs Committee (2019). Additionally, Sarah is a member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO), and the local chapter of NAPO-SFBA. Sarah has a Workplace Productivity Specialist Certificate from NAPO. https://www.firm-focus.com/ https://www.firm-focus.com/resources  

David Smith, PhD, is the co-author of Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women and Associate Professor of Sociology in the National Security Affairs Department at the United States Naval War College. A former Navy pilot, Dr. Smith led diverse organizations of women and men culminating in command of a squadron in combat and flew more than 3,000 hours over 30 years including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan As a sociologist trained in military sociology and social psychology, he focuses his research in gender, work, and family issues including gender bias in performance evaluations, dual career families, military families, women in the military, and retention of women. Dr. Smith is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters - many on the topic of gender and the workplace. Learn more about David at his website: https://www.davidgsmithphd.com https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1633699455/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1      

Amy Verhulst is a business development and marketing professional with over 19 years of experience in the legal and professional services industries. Amy founded and leads the marketing and business Development department at Coats Rose, P.C., a 75-attorney law firm based in Houston, Texas with six offices in Texas, Louisiana and Ohio. She is responsible for all business development, marketing and communications initiatives for the firm including growth strategies to drive revenue, leadership development, brand awareness, content management and public relations. Amy has a passion for professional, peer-to-peer organizations, and currently serves as President-Elect of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Southwest Region. She has served in several leadership roles within the LMA organization throughout her career, including Chair of the 2019 LMA Southwest Region Conference, Co-Chair of the LMA Membership Engagement Committee, Director-at-Large-Communications for the Southwest Region and former Texas Chapter, and as Local Leader for both the Austin and San Antonio Local Steering Committees. Additionally, Amy has served in leadership roles with Entrepreneurs' Organization (Austin Chapter), the Livestrong Foundation, and Leadership Austin. Amy earned her B.A. in Mass Communications - Advertising from Texas State University. https://www.coatrose.com Email Amy - AVerhulst@coatrose.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypaytonverhulst/              

David Smith, PhD, is the co-author of Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women and Associate Professor of Sociology in the National Security Affairs Department at the United States Naval War College. A former Navy pilot, Dr. Smith led diverse organizations of women and men culminating in command of a squadron in combat and flew more than 3,000 hours over 30 years including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a sociologist trained in military sociology and social psychology, he focuses his research in gender, work, and family issues including gender bias in performance evaluations, dual career families, military families, women in the military, and retention of women. Dr. Smith is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters - many on the topic of gender and the workplace.  Learn more about David at his website: https://www.davidgsmithphd.com https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1633699455/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1  

Silvia is a co-founding Principal of LawVision Group. A sought-after speaker and recognized leader in law firm business strategy, Silvia assists firms with strategic business planning, key client retention and growth strategies, client service strategies, and leadership and organizational culture. She is an Adjunct Faculty member at George Washington University where she teaches in the Masters in Law Firm Management program. Silvia is the co-author of The Woman Lawyer's Rainmaking Game, published by West, and co-author of From Key Clients to Strategic Account Management and Rainmaking Advantage. She is the co-founder and active board member of the Legal Sales and Service Organization. She is a former elected President of the Legal Marketing Association and is an elected Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management. https://lawvision.com  

Mark Beese is President of Leadership for Lawyers, a consultancy focused on helping lawyers and business professionals become better leaders. He provides training, coaching and consulting to lawyers and executives in the areas of leadership, innovation, management and business development. He is a frequent speaker and workshop facilitator in the areas of leadership development, design thinking and innovation for law firms and legal departments. Mark is an adjunct faculty at the University of Denver Sturm School of Law and former adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inductee in the Legal Marketing Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement.  https://leadershipforlawyers.com/ https://designthinkinglegal.com/ https://leadership.lawyer/                

After 20 years of successfully litigating and developing and coaching talent in corporate America and law firms, Sheila Murphy is pursuing her passion for helping others reach their full potential. Leading with passion and purpose, Sheila is CEO and President of Focus Forward LLC and Chief Learning & Talent Officer of WOMN LLC, which are focused on having individuals and businesses achieve their career and business goals. Sheila also continues to support the financial industry in her role as an expert and consultant at Bates Group.  In 2018, Sheila retired as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at MetLife where she provided litigation, regulatory and risk mitigation advice. As a well-respected thought leader, Sheila served as an executive sponsor to MetLife’s U.S. Women’s Business Network, co-chaired the Legal Affair’s Academy providing developmental opportunities to legal and compliance professionals worldwide and served as a member of its U.S. Task Force on diversity.  Prior to joining MetLife, Sheila was at the law firm of Thacher Proffitt & Wood.  Sheila is a member of the Boards of Directors of National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) and PowerPlay, NYC, an organization that engages and educates underserved girls with a focus on sports. Sheila serves on the advisory board of Transforming Women's Leadership in Law and co-chairs the CARE’s Women’s Network of New York, which works on eradicating poverty through empowering women and girls. Previously, she was a member of the Board for Read Alliance. Corporate Counsel and Inside Counsel recognized Sheila for her commitment to advancing the empowerment of women in law with their Women, Influence, Power in Law Life Time Achievement Award for Inhouse Counsel. Women’s Venture Fund awarded her the highest Leaf Award in recognition of her commitment to helping others advance in their careers. Sheila was named a Most Influential Irish Woman by the Irish Voice, a Leading Women Lawyer in NYC by Crain's New York, and a Business 100 honoree by Irish America. She also has received the Benchmark Litigation In-house Award at the Americas Women in Business Awards, the Virginia S. Mueller Outstanding Member Award from NAWL and a First Chair award for hard work, innovation and significant contributions to the legal community.  Sheila is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she served on the Comparative Labor Law Journal and the School of Management at the State University of New York at Binghamton where she graduated magna cum laude. Sheila is a frequent speaker on litigation and regulatory issues, talent, and business development, leadership and diversity.  https://focus-forward-consulting.com/  

Deborah McMurray is founder, CEO and Strategy Architect of Content Pilot LLC, a strategy, design, content and technology company. A former law firm CMO, Deborah and her team represent the largest global law firms, regional powerhouses and high performing local boutiques in the design and launch of websites and proposal centers, experience databases and other marketing technology tools. Content Pilot is also hired to overhaul content strategies and work with firms and practice/industry teams on strategic positioning/branding initiatives. In 2008, she was inducted into the Legal Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame, and in 2007, was elected as a Fellow in the College of Law Practice Management. In 2013, she was on the inaugural list of National Law Journal’s “2013 Top 50 Legal Business Trailblazers & Pioneers.” Deborah is the co-author of four ABA books, with her latest released in 2017: “The Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing on the Internet, 4th edition.” Read her Law Firm 4.0 Blog and follow her on Twitter at @ContentPilot. https://www.contentpilot.com/ https://www.contentpilot.com/subscribe/ https://lawfirm4-0.typepad.com/law_firm_40_blog/

Sarah Tetlow is the founder of Firm Focus which focuses on productivity consulting for attorneys and other legal professionals. She uses her past experiences, organizational and strategic thought process, education, and training to help law firms reduce their bottom line and operate more efficiently. More importantly, attorneys see a reduction in stress and anxiety and an increase in focus and new business. Sarah began her career in law in the early 2000’s after graduating from UC Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Law & Society.  Sarah has experienced first-hand the stresses that attorneys endure in trying to manage multiple projects. They also have the daily necessity to react to more pressing needs in a matter of minutes, causing frequent mind-shifting and multi-tasking. Sarah’s mission, and the reason for starting Firm Focus, is the desire to see a change in the industry. To help attorneys and other legal professionals experience control over their day and mitigate the poor habits caused by the workload. Sarah is a member of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA), serving on the Local Steering Committee as Secretary (2018 – 2019) and co-chair of the Programs Committee (2019). Additionally, Sarah is a member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO), and the local chapter of NAPO-SFBA. Sarah has a Workplace Productivity Specialist Certificate from NAPO. https://www.firm-focus.com/ https://www.firm-focus.com/resources  

Marla Sofer is the VP of Strategic Partnerships at Jemstep, a B2B2C digital advice platform focused on helping Americans invest to achieve their financial goals. Before diving into Fintech in 2015, Marla led institutional partnerships at BlackRock and J.P. Morgan quantified in billions of dollars. She has been a champion of gender diversity, founded two employee women’s networks, and served as a non-profit leader dedicated to social justice. https://www.jemstep.com/en https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlasofer/