MIE 2014 National Conference for Legal Services Administrators

The MIE National Conference for Legal Services Administrators is for you!

√  If you work in a legal assistance program serving low-income clients, and
√  If your duties include some of the broad range of administrative functions: fiscal, grant writing, contract and regulatory compliance, benefits administration, human resources, training, technology and general office management.

This conference includes two days of financial training for Fiscal Staff and Executive Directors and two days of training for Office Management, HR and Technology Staff.

***Attention Fiscal Staff and Executive Directors...this just in!...

Are you planning on attending the workshop: Telling Your Financial Story: Learn to Use Charts and Dashboards to Engage and Teach Board and Management in Understanding Key Financial Metrics by Oxana Cardini, CPA, CFO at Legal Services of Greater Miami? Well Oxana has generously offered to help people build their own dashboard in a new optional special session on Friday, October 3, from 7:30 to 8:30 am.  To participate effectively, bring your monthly financial board package and a laptop!

Opening Plenary by:

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Recipient of MALDEF’s Excellence in Legal Service Award, and UNM Law School Emeritus Professor

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, University of New Mexico School of Law Emeritus Professor, and recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Legal Service Award from MALDEF, the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization, will open the MIE 2014 National Conference for Legal Services Administrators October 2d in Albuquerque.  The MALDEF award recognizes individuals, corporations, and law firms who have been instrumental in advancing justice for Latinos. Sedillo Lopez be presented the award at MALDEF’s San Antonio Awards Gala on Friday, September 19th.

Sedillo Lopez joined the faculty of the UNM School of Law in 1986 and taught a broad range of courses until 2001, when she became director of the law school’s Clinical Program. During her eight years as director, she initiated an Access to Justice Practitioner Network for lawyers, worked to increase the legislative appropriation for the Southwest Indian Law Clinic, was instrumental in the development of the Business and Tax Clinic, and supported the creation of the Medical Legal Alliance. Sedillo Lopez has worked to share the New Mexico clinical model for legal education nationally.

On February 1, 2014, Sedillo Lopez was appointed to Executive Director of Enlace Comunitario, a social justice organization working to eliminate domestic violence in the Latino immigrant community.
UNM Law School Emeritus Professor Gloria Valencia-Weber, now on the Board of Directors for the Legal Services Corporation, says that Sedillo Lopez is a lifetime worker for improving the quality of life of the Latino communities. “In her work as a law professor and as Director of the UNM Clinical Program, Antoinette created and delivered the services that make everyday life possible for Hispanics facing problems in enjoying their rights,” says Valencia-Weber. “In her work now as Executive Director of Enlace Communitario, she continues the excellent work. Antoinette is still a pioneer as she devises ways to assist the Spanish speaking community in these times when many disfavor communities with distinct cultures and language.”

* FINANCIAL TRAINING *

SPECIAL GUEST FINANCIAL TRAINERS

Judy Arrigo is the owner of JAA & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in nonprofit accounting services, including the selection and set up of computerized accounting systems, policy and procedure manual preparation, review and analysis of current practices and improvement in internal controls, accounting procedures, and financial statement preparation. She is a long time trainer on financial management in legal services, and consultant to the State of California to perform financial monitoring of IOLTA programs throughout the State.

Tonetta L. Conner brings more than fifteen years of experience in private and public accounting to the Harrington Group where she is managing partner. She has combined her passion for accounting with the wonderful opportunity to serve nonprofit organizations. She provides accounting, auditing, tax, and management advisory services to a range of nonprofit organizations—from privately funded community organizations, mental health agencies, foster care organizations, private and charter schools, to legal services organizations.

What Do All Those Numbers Mean — What Should I Be Looking At?
What is required in an audited financial statement? How do I read the numbers and how can I tell if our organization is healthy? How can internal statements be helpful in decision making?

Why the “Bean Counters” Are an Important Part of Your Organization
What is the function of a finance department? What should a finance staff look like in a small organization and in a large organization? What kind of qualifications should we look for in a finance staff?

Allocations — The Hardest and Most Meaningful Process
Why do we allocate expenses? What should we base our allocations on — FTE’s, square footage, something else? What do you do if a grant does not cover all indirect expenses? What are OMB and common grant requirements for allocations?

What Your Programs Really Cost…. And How It Impacts Your Financial Future
Learn the importance of understanding whether your activities support or drain the resources of your organization. Determine what is needed to subsidize/leverage your activities and how analyzing this information is critical to your future financial stability.

Accounting and Auditing Update
What is the future direction of the nonprofit regulatory environment? Learn what is on the horizon with regard to compliance supplements, financial statement reporting, and accounting standards. Gain ideas on how to plan internally for the impact of these changes.

Flying with a Navigation Plan: Financial Planning and Budgeting in the Face of Unpredictable Crosswinds
Legal aid presenters will provide examples of budgeting approaches including annual, multi-year and rolling budgets. They will review LSC and general budgeting best practices, and address board, finance committee and management responsibilities in developing budgets. 

Telling Your Financial Story: Learn to Use Charts and Dashboards to Engage and Teach Board and Management in Understanding Key Financial Metrics
Explore how a Dazzling Dashboard can visually display your organization’s critical financial information in a FUN new way! Learn to determine which metrics and graphs to use for different audiences such as board, management, and development staff. Be ready for a “Charts in Excel” refresher! Then, come back for our newly added special session (optinal) in which you build you own dashboard on Friday, October 3, from 7:30 to 8:30 am in Coral II.  To participate effectively, bring your monthly financial board package and a laptop!

* OFFICE MANAGEMENT, HR AND TECHNOLOGY STAFF TRAINING *

The Affordable Care Act- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
This session will discuss the ACA as it applies to employers with 2 to 500 employees, fully insured or partially self-funded, including fees and taxes, employer health reform reporting, new ACA implications for COBRA, Waiting Period Final Regulations, State, Federal and Private Exchanges, other employer obligations and related guidance for 2015 and beyond.

Christopher Reiter has been with HUB International for 23 years and is currently Vice President for Employee Benefits in New Mexico. Chris is certified as a broker in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace and the Exchanges, and consults about the ACA and its implications for employers and employees.

Employment Law and Legal Aid

Especially for programs with multiple offices, union contracts and recent mergers, employment law issues are a challenge. Hiring processes, performance evaluations, disciplinary procedures, accommodation of disabilities, and different generations in the workplace all bring complications. Employment law counsel Samantha Adams of the Albuquerque-based firm Modrall Sperling will highlight issues a legal aid organization is most likely to encounter and offer strategies to protect against liabilities.

Where In the World Are Your Outcomes? An Interactive Look at the Outcomes LSC and Other Funders Need

Outcomes are the hot topic of today because LSC and other funders do or will require programs to report on them. They are also important for internal planning purposes. Discuss what outcome measurements are, why they are helpful, how to build a process for gathering and using them, and how client surveys can be used effectively.

Essential Staff May Soon Retire — What Do We Do to Preserve Their Knowledge?
Is your legal aid organization poised to see retirements of key staff members in finance, resource development, operations and legal advocacy in the not-so-distant future? Learn from legal aid colleagues who have planned and managed transitions and developed staff leadership for the future.

Social Media Uses and Policies
Twitter is trending in the legal services world. Learn how programs are putting social media platforms to inventive uses, and obtain guidance on policies on the use of social media by program and staff, to avoid going viral, at least, in a bad way.

Mobile Devices: The Paradox
Learn about the exciting things programs are doing with mobile devices. Learn the caveats too. What best practices and policies should you have in place when you send devices out into the world or when staff members want to use their own devices for work? Join Glenn Rawdon, LSC Program Counsel for Technology, in this session.

What’s Next in CMS?
Legal aid programs abandon once standard Case Management Systems for the latest greatest new thing. How do we know what’s truly a secure and expandable path to the future? By focusing on key functions, including improved data reporting and integration with timekeeping and accounting, this session will help us navigate the choices and identify what we want the CMS future to look like. Glenn Rawdon, LSC Program Counsel for Technology, and Ed Marks, Executive Director, New Mexico Legal Aid, will lead.

Data Security
Data security is more important than ever with the growing dangers of fraud and privacy violations and with sophisticated hackers at the ready to access personal information. This session will address data security issues common to legal services offices, with an emphasis on compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Affordable Care Act.
 
Intake and Web Based Portals
The vision is for an integrated system of collaborating entities in an access to justice system that will apply branching logic to users’ responses to questions and direct them to the most appropriate, affordable resource to resolve their legal issues. How is this working on the ground?

Leasing v. Purchasing
Legal services is fraught with tough decisions related to maximizing limited resources to pay for necessary physical infrastructure. Often we are faced with decisions to lease or buy, whether it is the mundane copier or a building. Learn how programs have tackled these decisions and extended resources for client centered activities.

The Role of the Supervisor
Are you responsible for supervising and evaluating support staff, administrative staff, financial staff, or even lawyers? Are the expectations for this work clear and well-defined? Join this interactive conversation exploring what you can do as a supervisor to ensure quality services are provided to clients, and how leadership at all levels can improve your organization.

Giving Effective Feedback and Tackling Difficult Conversations
Do you shy away from giving constructive criticism? Or do you confront things aggressively and head on, and how does that work out for you? Learn proven techniques for getting better results from your most difficult conversations and for giving staff the feedback they need and want.

Making the Most of LSC Visits
Robin Murphy, Chief Counsel for Civil Programs, NLADA, will join us for a conversation on LSC visits as an opportunity for feedback and improvement, managing the visits effectively, and knowing what to expect when OPP, OCE or OIG come to town.

Also, join in Fiscal, HR/Office Management and Technology Roundtables for an opportunity to talk with colleagues about your important issues.

Immediately preceding the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta! Check out the Fiesta here: http://balloonfiesta.com/

Conference registration: 

$415 for MIE subscribers; $515 for non-subscribers

Register by September 10, 2014