New England Biz Law Update
Where can you enjoy an exciting monthly seminar and collegial luncheon with fellow in-house attorneys? Where can you have an instant network of colleagues to share advice and experience with the everyday – and not so everyday – questions that arise in the professional life of in-house counsel? Where can you escape the feelings of isolation that sometimes befall in-house counsel? Where can you deal with career frustrations and uncertainties?
The New England Corporate Counsel Association, Inc. (NECCA) was founded more than 25 years ago by a small group of Route 128-area attorneys in Massachusetts who wished to provide an opportunity for in-house counsel representing a variety of companies to get to know one another.
Since then, NECCA has expanded to 150 members in eastern Massachusetts and nearby New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Members gather to:
• hear leading practitioners in the field present the latest trends in areas as diverse as employment law, intellectual property, and corporate governance;
• create a network of other in-house counsel that members can call upon; and
• exchange ideas in the Career Development Roundtable.
As one NECCA member states:
“As the only in-house counsel for my company, I find the NECCA seminars incredibly valuable as regular updates on new developments in a variety of legal fields that I need to cover at work. I have also taken advantage of my contacts at NECCA to point me in the right direction when unusual legal matters come up. I may still contact outside counsel, but I have a more informed, productive conversation when I do.”
NECCA meets the first Wednesday of each month, September through June at the centrally located TLC Best Western Hotel just off Route 128 in Waltham, Mass. (with, yes, lots of free parking). The seminar and lunch portion of the program run from 10 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m., and are followed by the Career Development Roundtable.
Seminar Programs
For many NECCA members, the core benefit of membership is the seminar programs, which draw on the expertise of practitioners, including those from large, mid-size, and “boutique” law firms plus corporations and other organizations, to present timely continuing education in a wide variety of areas of interest to the membership.
The 2005-2006 schedule is:
Sept.7: Employment Law Update
Oct. 5: Compensation Issues for In-House Counsel
Nov. 2: Corporate Governance and Ethics
Dec. 7: The New Bankruptcy Act of 2005
Jan. 4, 2006: Search Warrants and Grand Jury Subpoenas
Feb. 2, 2006: Collaborative Law in Business and Employment Dispute Resolution
March 1, 2006: Key Concepts in Open Source Licensing and Software Compliance Management
April 5, 2006: Doing Business with the Government
May 3, 2006: Arbitration
June 7, 2006: Patent Law Update
Professional Networking
Attorneys serving as one of only a few in-house lawyers for a company – perhaps the only one – can sometimes feel that they don’t know where to turn when confronting a knotty problem.
For many reasons, there is often a reluctance to call outside counsel unless absolutely necessary, plus outside counsel sometimes lack the hands-on experience to deal with a particular problem when it happens in real life.
Often, other in-house counsel have been through the same issue before and are a source of valuable informal advice.
Crises need not be looming for members to enjoy the benefits of networking. For many members, friendship and camaraderie are just as important.
A long-time NECCA member says: “The contacts that I have made over the years as a NECCA member have been invaluable on both a professional as well as a personal level. I met through NECCA several of my personal best friends as well as several attorneys from whom I obtain my best informal legal advice from time to time.”
After the monthly seminar and before lunch, time is specifically given over for networking and establishing contacts.
Career Development Roundtable
The Roundtable provides a lively and confidential forum to network and discuss career strategies, growth and success, work/life balance, and job transition. The group meets monthly after the regular luncheons, and opens this forum to non-members who are or would like to be in-house.
The group has its own listserv and has occasional dinner meetings. Most lunchtime meetings are facilitated by Stewart Hirsch, NECCA member and business development coach and trainer for lawyers.
He notes: “Our Roundtable is a NECCA service that has and continues to provide support and advice relating to careers. In addition to helping lawyers with their job search skills, the group is a tremendous resource, for in-house lawyers to help each others’ career success, and for firm lawyers to learn about in-house life from the source.”
NECCA’s Governance
NECCA, a Massachusetts not-for-profit corporation, is governed by its officers and a 15-person Board of Directors drawn from the membership and generally serving as in-house counsel to a wide range of businesses.
The officers are: President – Mark S. Thurber, Cool Dog, Inc.; Treasurer – Peter E. Markman, Progress Software Corporation; Clerk – Nancy M. Hanley, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc.
The directors are the above officers, plus: Emmanuel E. Crespo, SonaMed Corporation; Andrew D’Amico; Stephen H. Gans, New England Mobile Book Fair, Inc.; Gerald Haines, Enterasys Network, Inc.; Emily A. Maitin, The Nelson Companies, Ltd.; Karen Mathiasen, Law Offices of Karen Mathiasen; Ann McCauley, The TJX Companies, Inc.; Michael Podol, Ardence, Inc.; Patricia Randall, Matritech, Inc. Kenneth P. Reisman, Law Offices of Kenneth P. Reisman; Susan K. Scott, Premier Insurance Company of Massachusetts; and Eric Solowey, Lycos, Inc.
Joining NECCA
NECCA membership is open to those who are currently employed by a corporation or similar entity as in-house counsel or who provide legal services to a company or companies and are not associated with a law firm.
Dues for 2005-06, which includes the 10 monthly seminars and luncheons and the monthly Career Development Roundtables, are only $195. For more information about NECCA, please call (617) 965-0003 or visit www.necca.com. For those who are eligible for membership and would like to attend a meeting before committing to the annual membership, please call the NECCA office or e-mail the office at [email protected] to make arrangements.
