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Professionalism, Lawyer Life and Culture Committee

The Professionalism, Lawyer Life and Culture Committee seeks to enhance and support the Mecklenburg County legal community, through the active development and promotion of educational programs, resources and mentoring relationships in order to facilitate healthy, collaborative, rewarding and service oriented professional lives and culture among its members.

Membership

Staff Liaison

Maya M. Engle, Assistant Executive Director - mengle@meckbar.org.

Volunteer Need / Commitment

Members of the Professionalism, Lawyer Life and Culture Committee (PLLC) attend bi-monthly committee meetings, develop CLE programs focused on the health and wellbeing of attorneys, discuss relevant topics for Coffee Connections and work to provide useful resources for the legal community that will promote a healthy work /life balance. Opportunities for involvement on one of four subcommittees of PLLC include: Linking Lawyers Mentoring Program, Coffee Connections, Career Transition Series and North Carolina Lawyer Assistance Program.  Interested in joining this committee? Complete the committee interest form.  

Committee Documents/Links

 Linking Lawyers: A Mentoring Initiative

2011-12 Report

The third full fiscal year of the Professionalism, Lawyer Life and Culture Committee (PLLC) brought about some exciting new and expanded programs, especially in response to Bar members' needs in the current economic climate.

The successful Coffee Connections series has moved to quarterly dates; these are informal, free networking events for Bar members.  Each event had a theme and provided information and resources on the theme, e.g., technology and office services.   

The Career Transition Series Subcommittee put on the third of four programs related to the needs of experienced attorneys who are faced with changes in their employment and how they practice law. These programs are free CLEs for MCB members, offered both live and through webcasting. The third program, Your Money: How to Keep More and Spend Less!, focused on financial management of a small firm, planning for retirement, and maintaining your sanity. The fourth and final program of this series will be featured early next fiscal year and will focus on ethical considerations in marketing your firm.

The NC Lawyer Assistance Program (NC LAP) saw the end of an era when former Director, Don Carroll, retired this past year after 17 years of service. A reception was held in December 2011 to say a fond farewell to Mr. Carroll and to welcome in the new Chair, Robynn Moraites. Under Ms. Moraites' direction, the NC LAP will continue to meet quarterly and will continue the practical coordination of efforts to help local lawyers in need of assistance.

Another highly anticipated successful year for the newly revised Linking Lawyers mentoring program, formerly known as Silent Partners, kicked off in August 2011 and currently has more than 60 mentor/mentee pairings. This program strives to provide mentoring in many different practice areas and levels of practice. This second year of the expansion has been incredibly successful under the leadership of Christian P. Cherry and Lina E. James.  

The PLLC will continue to work with other MCB Committees including the Continuing Legal Education and Communications Committees to ensure professionalism topics are fully presented to the Bar.