Plus ca change.

• Author: Corcoran, Timothy B.
• Position: LEADERS

There's an old French saying, "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose," which we know more familiarly as, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." As the year draws to a close, and with it my term as your president, I was thinking about the nature of change in our marketplace, in our profession and in our association. In some ways, we are experiencing unprecedented change, and in other ways, what has always worked to achieve success will always work.

In this time of great change, we have an ever-present need for leaders to step up from within our ranks and help us face the future. In October, your 2015 board, chapter presidents and committee chairs gathered for two days of training and networking. While legal marketing expertise and a passion for giving back are key ingredients for LMA leaders, it's also important to learn how to lead, especially when those you lead are volunteers who have numerous constraints on their time. It's also critical to find allies--people you can call on and rely on to help when challenges arise. The attendees firmly embraced the theme of collaboration, so look for more and stronger ties between the various arms of our organization next year and in the years to follow.

I was pleased to see so many of you, both familiar faces and new friends, at the recent regional conferences I had the good fortune to attend. I couldn't be at all of them, of course, but there were consistent reports of high attendance, robust networking opportunities and high-level content to challenge even the most senior among us. Having visited a couple dozen chapters and city groups in this past...