What did you wish you knew about volunteering when you were first joined as a member of ILTA?

I wish I had known to start volunteering early on as an ILTA member. Becoming a regular speaker or writer for ILTA can increase your visibility in your area of expertise as a thought leader which can lead to a promotion or other career opportunities. The earlier you start participating in this way, the earlier you can establish yourself as a respected thought leader in your field. As a member of ILTA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force (“DEITF”), I would encourage everyone including BIPOC and other under-represented groups to volunteer early for these reasons and more described below.

When I was younger, I was under the impression that being an ILTA volunteer took up a huge amount of time. It scared me from wanting to volunteer. I later learned that it depended on the role. Senior roles with increasing levels of responsibility like co-chairing ILTACON require a much larger time commitment than more junior roles like helping to locate a speaker for a webinar of podcast. I didn’t realize there were a broad range of ILTA volunteer roles available with varying time commitments depending on your interest.  I wished I had spoken to ILTA volunteers to find out about their roles to see find an interesting role that I wanted to volunteer.

Lastly, volunteering for ILTA is fun!  You get to meet a lot of great people and build lasting friendships with people you might not otherwise have met by working together over time to accomplish a common goal to provide premier peer content in legal technology to advance legal technology professionals and the industry.

What are some ways people who are new to volunteering can get their feet wet?

ILTA offers so many wonderful volunteer opportunities listed on its website I encourage you to look at all of the opportunities first to see what you are interested in. Make sure to opt in to the volunteer pool so you can get notified about volunteer positions you are interested in!

A fun way to get your feet wet is to participate in an ILTA podcast or webinar.  It helps to speak on a topic you are interested in or passionate about.  In 2019, I participated in the Emerging Roles for Lawyers in Technology webinar.  This required a couple prep sessions where the panelists met to identify the questions to be asked and then we participated in the actual webinar.  I’ve always enjoyed giving career advice to other lawyers interested in a career in legal tech.  It was a natural extension for me to talk to law students.  I highly recommend participating in a podcast or webinar to practice your public speaking skills.  For me, it was much easier to talk in front of my computer webcam than a live audience (remember those?) and reduced my nervousness in speaking in public.

How can volunteering with ILTA help you professionally and grow your career?

Volunteering can help you grow professionally by allowing you to hone skills that you may not have an opportunity to do in your current role at your organization.

Leadership, communication and relationship skills are all critical skills that can lead to promotion or other career opportunities.  Serving on a committee, becoming a committee co-chair, writing an article or speaking at ILTACON, webinars or podcasts can demonstrate to your employer or others that you have these key skills.

As a member of DEITF, I have had the opportunity to develop these skills and more including how to think strategically to advance diversity, equity and inclusion goals within ILTA.

Again, I encourage everyone, BIPOC and members of other under-represented groups to consider volunteering to further your career.  Who knows?  You may be the next ILTA Board Member or ILTACON Co-chair.  Dream big!  You never know what’s possible unless you try!

What was it like writing an article for ILTA’s publications?
Personally, I love writing so one of my early volunteer positions back in 2015 was to write the post “What’s on Your KM Wish List?” for its ILTA Knowledge Management (“KM”) blog, Re-reading it even now, I still think it’s timely. Depending on how fast a writer you are, this is a relatively easy lift with a short time commitment and a great way to get your feet wet. I came up with my own idea, drafted it and Ginevra Saylor, who volunteered managed the KM Blog and is now an ILTA Board Member edited my work. I loved working with Ginevra and getting to know her, and I consider her a dear friend to this day. Sometimes a content coordinator may have a topic in mind for you to write. Writing a blog post give you a little more flexibility than an article because it’s shorter in length, can be more informal in tone and allows you to link to cool sources to make your post more interactive.

Last year, I wrote an article for ILTA’s Peer to Peer publication called “Raising Consciousness: Surfacing Unconscious Biases to grow Diversity & Inclusion.”  I enjoyed collaborating with the three other authors as I had never co-authored an article before.

What tips do you have for others who may be considering authoring a blog post or article for ILTA?

Don’t be afraid! If you are interested in writing there are so many opportunities to participate.

Be creative!  This is an opportunity to look at your industry and make recommendations that could help others in your field.

If you are given a topic, make it your own.  Add your own flair and style.

Try and include practical examples whenever possible.

Look at past articles and blogs as examples that have already been published to give you an idea on style and tone but don’t feel you need to follow them exactly.