TLOMA Today

When we were kids, summers seemed to last forever. With less than 20 days of ‘grown up’ summer remaining (first day of Fall is September 22), it will disappear in a wisp of nostalgia. Hopefully each of you managed to get some time away from the office to enjoy with family and friends.  As I am unwilling to release my grip on summer, I have extended mine a bit. Close your eyes and imagine some distant beach, with a huge umbrella casting shade on a chair beside me. With warm Caribbean breezes blowing through the palm trees, I am chilling in beautiful St. Lucia.  For you folks back at home, the kids are back to school and I’m sure some are saying “back to school is my most favorite time of the year." With some luck, our warm weather will stick around for a while, however, I am prepped with my Birkenstocks to kick around into late fall.  They may not be pretty but with the woolly lining they keep my feet warm!  While I am a bit sad to see the end of summer,  I am looking forward to our Annual TLOMA Conference and Trade Show. It is always so great to get together with our peers, network and attend outstanding educational sessions. It's also a wonderful chance to connect with some of our current and potentially new Business Partners.  As well, there is the downtime in the evenings to relax and have a bit of fun. If you haven’t already signed up, there are still spots available. Register soon though, to ensure you get a hotel room. If you have never attended Conference, I encourage you to come.  You will not be disappointed!

The Nominating Committee has been working hard to put together your 2019 Board of Directors as well as recruit volunteers for the Special Interest Group Leader positions available for 2019. Please remember, we can’t have an Association as outstanding as TLOMA without you, the members, volunteering. Thank you to everyone who put their name forward.  We hope to have the slate of names of the 2019 Board ready to send to the membership by early October. 

Please save the dates for the following upcoming events:

• Sept 11^th - TLOMA' s 2018 Business Services (TBS), Associate Compensation (TAC) and Total Rewards (TTR) Survey Results Presentation Meeting
• Sept 13^th - Top 10 Operational Impacts of the GDPR
• Sept 26^th to Sept 29th - TLOMA 2018 Conference & Trade Show

 
With everything that comes with “back to school” it is really easy to forget about having a work-life balance for yourself and for your employees. Striking a healthy balance between work-life and home-life is incredibly important and something everyone should strive to achieve. However, with busy schedules, it is not uncommon for all of us to find our personal life suffering as we struggle to juggle family, friends and other commitments around the office. As a result of this, more and more of us are looking for greater control over our work patterns in order to have an overall healthier work-life balance. For all of us, a healthier work-life balance provides the opportunity to spend more time with family and friends and to engage in hobbies and activities they enjoy (like Yoga). This boost in employee happiness is directly reflected in the success of the business, with both employees and employers gaining significant benefits. Including:

• Helping to avoid employee burnout and feeling overworked, giving them more energy and focus when they are at work.
• Improving staff retention by ensuring employees are happier in their work environment. This in turn reduces the time spent training new staff, increases the amount of in-house expertise and boosts loyalty.
• Increasing productivity, as productivity is often increased when people enjoy their roles and have less stress in their life.
• Better relationships between employees and management, as employees feel appreciated and believe management are putting the needs of the employees ahead of the needs of the business.
• Firm becomes more attractive to work for as it becomes known as the Firm that cares for its employees, which is particularly useful when recruiting.
  

Many Firms would like to improve the work-life balance of their employees but are not equipped to do so. There may also be some concerns over the potential business impact. There are however plenty of tips to improve work-life balance with little impact to the Firm. Here’s just a few:

• Give employees information about what a healthy work-life balance should look like, the importance of ensuring you have this balance and how to achieve it.
• Make sure that employees all take regular breaks and follow the health and safety guidelines regarding breaks from computers etc. Even a short break will help an employee to feel replenished and more relaxed, while also giving them time to catch up on messages from family and friends.
• Look at the business and make sure that the Firm isn’t putting too much work on the staff, make sure there are enough staff to share the workload and that your Firm has set reasonable expectations. Here it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with some of the processes the staff members must go through. What may appear to be a five-minute job to management may be much lengthier for the person actually completing the tasks/projects.
• Ensure management and supervisors also enjoy a healthy work-life balance, this will show employees that it is acceptable and will not be frowned upon.
• Look at implementing a Wellness Plan or Policy. This will not only provide support for staff when they are unwell, but also encourage a more pro-active approach to things like health check ups, leading to fewer staff absences. Many of us have an EAP in place, perhaps look at the opportunities to bring in speakers or host in-house workshops through your provider. 
• Or, simply ask your employees what benefits they would like to see, ask them how they think you can improve their work-life balance. This is a great idea as employees who are given a voice and have their opinion heard are far happier in their roles and much more productive.
  

Now, back to my melting Pina Colada and special spot in the ocean just for me.  See you at Conference.

Ciao for Now,
Michelle

TLOMA would like to Thank the 2018 Conference PARTICIPANTS

Organized by your peers, the TLOMA Annual Conference and Trade Show offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for learning and networking specifically targeted to law firm professionals.  See what this year's Conference has to offer:

• Exciting keynotes!  Check out the sessions planned for Mark of A Leader and Fostering Civility in the Workplace.
• Educational content in all disciplines.  See the complete list of workshops.
• Variety of formats including a case study, a panel and lots of opportunities for discussion.
• Network with your peers and Business Partners.
• Visit our Trade Show with over 50 exhibitors.
• Celebrate the 30^th Anniversary of the TLOMA Conference at our Delegate/Business Partner Networking Event.  Don't forget to wear silver and white.
• Enjoy the special Friday night anniversary dinner at Gretzky’s Winery for delegates and guests.  But register soon – space is limited!
• Great value - your registration fee covers all sessions, meals and networking.

Hello Everyone!

With the change in seasons soon approaching, so will be the time to evaluate and review the compensation data at each of your Firms. In order to help you with this, we are pleased to advise that the results of the TLOMA Compensation Suite of Surveys will be published this fall.

Over the last two years, the TLOMA Compensation Committee has been working diligently with Paystats Inc. to create and deliver TLOMA's annual Suite of Compensation Surveys striving to deliver TLOMA members more value. This year, Paystats has formed a new strategic partnership with Accompass. We are thrilled to learn this, as this means our relationship with Paystats will be complimented by Accompass' deeper and broader knowledge in the benefits and compensation space.

Accompass is a full-service consulting firm focused on delivering benefits & health, investment & retirement, executive and broad-based compensation solutions. The collaboration between Accompass and Paystats will ensure that the TLOMA Suite of Compensation Surveys stays fresh and innovative, reflecting the ever-changing market of compensation and benefits year over year.

We will be hosting a Results Meeting for those of you who participated in and/or purchased one or all of the following 2018 TLOMA Suite of Compensation Surveys:

• TLOMA Business Services (TBS),
• TLOMA Total Rewards (TTR); and
• TLOMA Associate Compensation (TAC) 

This meeting will include insights from experts from Accompass and Paystats focusing on the following:

• How to use and age the data;
• Provide clarity to better understand roll-ups;
• Market observations and emerging practices for compensation and total rewards; and
• What is new and exciting for the 2019 TLOMA Compensation year! 

We are excited to introduce you to Sarah Beech, President and Anne Peiris, VP Compensation from Accompass at the Results Meeting being held at Osler Hoskin and Harcourt on September 11, 2018.  So come out and join us for an engaging conversation about compensation and total rewards!

On behalf of the Compensation Committee, we look forward to seeing you!

Katherine Mather
2018 Compensation Committee Chair

PS…Did you know:

If you want to answer the question, “Where are we now, in terms of pay competitiveness?” you age the data from the surveys (using the effective dates of the data) to the current date and compare the results to your own current salaries.  If, on the other hand, you want to estimate competitive pay levels for next year in order to establish competitive new salary ranges for the coming year, you would age the data to the beginning, middle, or end of the coming year.  Come to the results meeting to learn more about this!

Just how safe is the Cloud?

There is a general misconception among many legal firms that the Cloud is not a secure or viable solution to pursue. However, this mindset is understandable – as a law firm, you have unique, sophisticated, and complex requirements for protecting your data and protecting your overall security posture.

Cloud computing, however, brings some amazing benefits to organizations that utilize it. The Cloud is a cost-effective, reliable, and flexible solution that can give you and your employees the ability to do work at any time, from any device, anywhere. Increased collaboration, a boost in productivity, and a major reduction in your IT costs are just three of the major benefits that you can experience by moving to the Cloud. But just how secure is it for lawyers to use as a viable option?

Office 365 helps law firms to transform their environment to the Cloud, while also meeting industry security and data security standards. This article discusses the top 3 ways that Office 365 can protect your law firm’s security & email data. 

#1 – Migrate Your Mailboxes AND Archives using Office 365.

Many law firms that are trying to migrate to the Cloud need to deal with the fact that they have an on-premise email server to handle current emails, plus a large archive for old emails that need to be kept from a governance standpoint. This large archive can create complications when trying to migrate it to a new server, or, in this case, to the Cloud.

However, by migrating to a Cloud-based Office 365 environment, it is possible to securely move both your mailboxes AND your archives. And, given that the legal compliance and legal hold license requires Office 365 E3, unlimited storage is included.

#2 - Respecting the “Private” flag within a delegated inbox when using archive.

You’ve migrated your inbox and archives to Office 365, and all your emails are now living within Microsoft’s secure Cloud. However, what happens when you delegate your inbox to your administrative assistant or a clerk, or someone else that works for you?

As a lawyer, you have very sensitive information that shouldn’t be seen by anyone but you and the client who’s sending it, and you should be able to ensure that anything you’ve flagged as “private” will stay private. Office 365 comes with built-in (but usually disabled) sensitivity settings that, once enabled, will allow you to set the sensitivity setting on any email to “private”, ensuring that even those people with access to your Inbox will not be able to see those emails that you don’t want shared. ProServeIT has, in fact, invested significant time to ensure Office 365 for law firms can perform this task.

#3 - Securing the inbox with Office 365’s native security options.

Improving the digital security of your environment is, understandably, top-of-mind for your law firm. So, you’ll be happy to know that Office 365 has many native encryption, end-to-end security, and multi-factor authentication options that will help to ensure that your email and your data is accessible only to you.

Here’s a quick look at some of these features in more detail:

Multi-Factor Authentication

Office 365 uses multi-factor authentication (MFA) to help provide extra security when signing in. When MFA is enabled, you’ll be prompted to authenticate your account using a secondary authentication method, i.e., a code that’s been sent to you via text or automated phone call, or by using biometrics (like a fingerprint).

Advanced Threat Analytics

Office 365’s Advanced Threat Analytics keeps a record of who logged into your account, and where they logged in from. If abnormal behaviour is detected (for instance, if your account is logged into from an unusual IP address, or in a different country than usual), Office 365 will lock access to the account until you verify that it comes from a safe source.

Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection

Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection offers multiple ways to protect your inbox from malicious malware, spam, or phishing attempts, providing you with real-time protection against sophisticated attacks, and helping you to eliminate threats before they’re able to breach your environment. Safe Links, Safe Attachments, quarantine capabilities, anti-phishing detection, and spoof intelligence all work together to ensure your inbox and data is protected, and ensures that your law firm is only known for the great work you do!

Unconscious Bias is the new sexy term in the Diversity and Inclusion space. And while I’m not a fan of trends, it’s “in” for good reason: it’s a crucial part of the conversation.

A commitment to Diversity and Inclusion can easily be undermined without a healthy awareness and appreciation for unconscious bias – what it is, how it works and the impact it has on workplace demographics, leadership demographics and our chances of creating meaningful change.

So here are a few things for you to consider as you move your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives forward at your firm:

1. It’s called unconscious bias for a reason. The messages we soak up are not necessarily ones that we connect with consciously. There is a reason the book Blindspot by Dr. Banaji and Dr. Greenwald is subtitled, “Hidden biases of good people.” The first step in this process is to be open to the possibility that biases live in you that you wouldn’t believe could.

2. Everyone has unconscious bias. It’s not reserved for bad people, for white people, straight people, able bodied people or those of a certain class (etc). We all carry unconscious bias like a script that runs in the background. And that script is consistent; whether it implicates others, or ourselves. This is a helpful starting point for conversations.

3. Conversations are key. Mitigating bias is not something that happens magically at the end of a presentation or workshop. It’s an ongoing commitment to awareness, openness and dialogue. Which of course requires a safe environment for people to share what’s going on for them, and a culture in the firm that supports learning and inquiry.

4. Safety matters. You can’t have dialogue if you don’t feel safe. And safety looks different for different people – so creating safety requires openness and willingness to listen and learn. It’s a cycle. But the benefits are huge.

5. It’s never going to go away. Some people may disagree with me on this one, but I firmly believe that we can’t get rid of bias completely. We can learn to acknowledge it, which gives us the possibility of learning to mitigate it, but we are bombarded with messages 24/7 so the likelihood of eradicating bias from our mind is not realistic (in my opinion).

6. It’s challenging to see things that don’t impact us. The fact is that unconscious bias impacts some people positively and some people negatively. And if you’re feeling good at work, or in an interview, or during a promotion process, or during recruitment it is easy to think that this is what everyone is experiencing.  But it may not be the case.

We see and experience the world through our perspective. We create company cultures and systems with our lens and experiences in mind. When we commit to increasing diversity, we also must commit to equity and inclusion. To that end, we need to cultivate an openness to seeing more, and then moving forward with new information and knowledge in mind (see #3 & #4 above).

Unconscious bias will undermine our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion if we let it, precisely because it’s unconscious and insidious. What we need to do, then, is bring unconscious bias into consciousness and keep it on our radar. This means talking about it, challenging ourselves and each other, and creating systems, policies and practices that build in checks and balances as we move through our work. Without this type of vigilance and commitment, the after-workshop glow will quickly fade, and unconscious bias will continue to run the show, with predictable results in workplace and leadership demographics.

The story of CRM in law firms is an interesting one.  There are many ideas about what makes a successful deployment but, in the end, it comes down to a few very simple golden rules.

Rule 1 – Be really clear what it is you’re trying to achieve.

When CRM first became something that firms were focusing on there were really very few choices available, so firms didn’t really need to think about what they wanted.  They either bought the system the firm next door had, or in order to be different they deliberately didn’t buy the system the firm next door had.  As a result for many firms, their first taste of success was not a good one.

Technology has moved on dramatically and not just in terms of the CRM system itself.  The emergence of technologies that support passive data management, big data and even Artificial Intelligence are revolutionising the way organisations outside legal run their businesses. AI and big data are already reaching law firms when it comes to delivery of legal services and will almost certainly start to extend in to client segmentation and management.

Whilst there are pockets of success in terms of legal CRM, the primary reason for the fact that so few firms have achieved their goals is that firms see CRM as a purely administrative task.  It is the “least important thing that lawyers do” and not the most important thing.  

Rule 2 – Lawyers have to use the system.

Firms have for too long accepted the general view that “lawyers will not use the system” or that successful CRM deployment is based on the least amount of “bother” to fee earners. If firms were to look at the success measures outside of the professional services sector, whilst there is, of course, a need to automate processes and only enter data once, no other industry defines success based on the least possible involvement of those that have the client relationships, and therefore success is not really dependent on the platform that is selected, but on encouraging and, if necessary, mandating behaviours amongst the professionals to participate in the process.

Another major change is that the ratio of assistant to professional has changed and therefore professionals are required to do considerably more themselves. This means a greater reliance on technology. One of the most important benefits that a system can deliver, if used to manage all aspects of the client relationship, is enabling a lawyer to have the relevant information at their fingertips. Systems are increasingly providing rich and intuitive mobile applications that means that this information can be accessed on the go. Cloud technology has meant that global firms with professionals that undertake frequent business trips, can access and enrich this information from anywhere. 

Rule 3 – One size does not fit all.

If you accept that we need to get lawyers to use the system we need to encourage them to do so.  That requires us to tailor training to each lawyer understanding that everyone will want to work in a slightly different way.  System training is very often dry and lacks any context as to why someone is using the system.   It’s important to tell specific stories to illustrate the different ways in which they will use the system and how specifically they will benefit.   Relevant and good quality training data is really important, so it’s worth investing time in building out different scenarios in your training database so that you can illustrate different use cases with data that is relevant.

Addressing the structural challenges that exist within firms is really important.  Different practice areas have very different businesses.  Trusts and Estate, for example could not be more different to a global corporate practice. Effectively firms have multiple businesses operating under one brand. There are significant differences between the way in which one partner works with their assistant and other partners and training and communications have not always been tailored sufficiently to reflect that.

Rule 4 – Marketing led systems often don’t succeed.

Following on from the need to make your training benefit each individual lawyer is the fact that too many systems were too focused on marketing and were not sufficiently compelling to interest busy professionals with increasing pressures on their billable time. Very few professionals care about adding contacts to marketing lists and so don’t invest time in doing so. 

The world of marketing communications is also reaching a paradigm shift in what firms will legally be allowed to do (due to CASL and other global privacy regulations) and what their clients are prepared to accept. Gone are the days of “info-bombing” contacts irrespective of their level of responsiveness or preferences and therefore firms will need to seek alternative methods to “pull” contacts to engage with them rather than “push” content out to them. This means that most firms will see a significant reduction in the number of “prospects” on their CRM systems and will need to adopt a much more focused approach to targeting and data management.

Professionals need so much more out of “CRM.” They need to be able to look up information on experience that the firm has in relation to specific clients, practices or industries and then find people within the firm that have that expertise.  They need then to match this to clients and potential clients and understand within those clients the strength, depth and history of the relationship.  

Rule 5 – Data is cool (no honestly, it is).

For many years, I’ve been the data geek in the corner of the room, but now data is cool.  Firms are recognising that good CRM is really about “joining the dots” between different silos of data. At the end of the day if a lawyer wants to work out who their best clients are and how to grow their practice, they are going to need high quality data to do so.

So in summary…

• Having a very clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve and having leadership support for that is critical.
• Making the right technology is important but data is more important.
• Firms need to adopt firm-wide information strategies.
• Firms have under-invested in “CRM technology” as it has been pitched as a “tool to make marketing’s life easier,” until firms recognise that managing client relationships is the MOST important and not the LEAST important thing that lawyers do, CRM systems will never succeed in law firms.

Leadership – such a short word, if you think about it, to express so many things. The beauty of it, of course, is that it means different things for different people and it’s so complex that we could spend days, if not weeks, talking about it.

I mean honestly, think about the tons of articles, videos, podcasts, books, conferences, workshops you’ve heard of yesterday? This last week? Month? Year?

That’s not going to stop, by the way. One way or another, we’re all becoming leaders, in our own lives and ways. There’s such a need for leadership to stop being a gift that only a chosen few were born with, but for it to become the norm in our own lives.

Leadership is, after all, a skill which we can learn and use more often and benefit from. It is of course a complex skill, which involves several components that could be added by each and everyone of us in different proportions and different combinations.

There are, though, a few traits of leadership that are being repeated, over and over again, by those who lead, by those who are being led, by those who want to become leaders and those who observe them.

This is the reason why this is going to be a series of articles abut leadership, exploring elements that keep showing up when we speak about examples of leadership. This is, if you will, the general recipe to which you can and should definitely add your own ingredients, mixes, spices, in the amounts that work for you.

Ingredient 1 – Vision

Definitions

Sixteen years of working with lawyers taught me, among other things, one great lesson: we need to define things before we start describing them. It can prove to be a very healthy exercise, by the way, that saves a lot of time.

So, in good old lawyerly spirit, let’s look at some leadership definitions (first thought that comes to mind is, ‘"how hard can it be, the word is clearly formed of ‘leader’ and ‘ship’ – pretty clear to me!" But well…)

1. A simple Google-ing exercise reveals these three options:

Going deeper in this exercise, I realized I needed to actually look-up the word ‘leader’ if I wanted a better definition.

2. So here it is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

1. a person who leads, such as:
   1. guide, conductor – ‘The tour leader recommended several restaurants in the area.’
   2.  a person who directs a military force or unit - leaders of the army
   3. a person who has commanding authority or influence - a leader in the reform movement
   4. the principal officer of a political party - a party member chosen to manage party activities in a legislative body
   5. conductor - the orchestra's leader
   6. a first or principal performer of a group - The concertmaster is the leader of the violin section.
   7. a horse placed in advance of the other horses of a team

3. Good old Wikipedia itself is rather good at defining both leadership and leaders:

Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations.

4. Leadership expert Warren Bennis once stated, "leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."

And I think that’s the whole point. There can be no leadership without vision.

It's easy to imagine that when we think about the examples we found in the definitions of a leader, right?

• Would you go with a tour leader that has absolutely no idea where he’s taking you?
• Can you imagine a conductor that has no idea what concert the orchestra is supposed to play?
• I particularly liked the horse example because, in fact, how could it lead the others unless he knew where he was going, while they all headed the same direction.

Let’s make Alice a leader

Returning to our initial quote from "Alice in Wonderland," let’s see why vision is such an important element of leadership, and such an important skill for a leader to master.

Vision sets direction (or directions). NOT ways, just directions. And that’s important because it gives everyone, including the leader, a purpose, an image, an idea and inspiration of HOW they will get there.

Again, it doesn’t mean that everyone must follow the same path or else. It doesn’t tell you there’s only one way of getting there.

It’s like planning for your next vacation. You’re with your family and you say, "lets go see the Northern Lights this year, we’ll have a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience." That’s it, that’s the vision. All the rest are paths and ways to fulfill that vision: how you get there, by plane, by car or by boat, will you be camping or not, how many days you get to spend where, who does the research, who buys the tickets, etc.

All vision does, is to allow all the people in that story choose paths, contribute their own talents in walking and maybe even building those paths, discussing where each path intersects the other and agreeing they will all meet at the destination.

Vision allows the people in the story to transform, to become heroes of that story, to create it together.

It takes a leader to have that final meeting point clearly pinned down on the map – it takes a great leader to have anyone in that team pin that point on the map, blindfolded.

Vision is the start of both movement and commitment. It gets ‘all hands on deck’ and eyes forward.

Where vision lacks, everyone either wonders about or walks out. Or they ask the Cheshire cat which way to go.

Now, obviously, simply having the vision is not enough. What matters immediately after is how you communicate that vision. That’s why ‘communication’ is the second episode in this leadership series. Stay tuned.

Resources

Videos
Jack Welsh – Focus on Leadership Vision
Benjamin Zander – The Transformative Power of Classical Music

Quotes
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John Maxwell
“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.” – Seneca
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” – Jonathan Swift
“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.” – Mark Twain

Name of Organization / Company: Ricoh Canada Inc.

Organization / Company Overview: 

Expertise & Growth - Ricoh is a global leader in providing end-to-end business intelligent solutions such as workplace services, managed document services, as well as offering Ricoh’s unique brand of professional information management consulting services. Our fully-integrated product and services portfolio is comprehensive yet focused on helping organizations share and reevaluate critical business information quickly and simply. With scalable solutions and services paired with global technical support capabilities, Ricoh is first class in our ability to help organizations revolutionize how they manage their digital and paper-based information.

Ricoh has over 24.532 Billion CDN$ in annual sales in 2017 and employed a global workforce of over 110,000 people in over 194 countries and regions.

Ricoh continues to grow by developing leading edge solutions and technologies that help increase market share, expand our business information solutions services lines and services, and grow our Managed Document Services business.

We are a leader in providing services coupled with hardware and software solutions that can satisfy our customers’ business needs and pain points. 

RICOH improves workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter.

EMPOWERING is RICOH’s desire to focus on people, respecting their unique personalities and expertise.  We wish to extend the individuality of teams and organizations, bringing vitality to their work. It is our DIGITAL technology, including analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, and virtual reality, that will connect workplaces.  WORKPLACES differ depending on the type of business. IT could be anywhere, such as an office or worksite, spreading across different time zones and environments.  By connect these workplaces, we are changing the way we work

How many years have you been a Business Partner of TLOMA?: 15+ Years

What has been your partnership experience with TLOMA over the years?: Well run organization that is being managed by a passionate team.

Favorite TLOMA memory?: There have been so many over the years!  One that resonates with me is all the fun we had at Blue Mountain one year when a former colleague got on stage and decided to join the band for a couple of songs! 

What is your favorite artist/band you got to see live in concert?: U2 is one of my most favorite bands.  I've seen them perform 8 times in concert over the years.

What are your favorite hobbies?: I play golf with a close group of friends regularly. I finally made a “Hole in One” last year at Remington Parkview Golf & Country Resort. I scored an Albatross on a Par 4, 264 Yards with a driver. 

If you could have a 60-minute conversation with anyone (fictional, famous, not famous, etc.) who would you choose?: I would have to say Albert Einstein, most definitely. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."