By promoting business strategy, Andrea Hartley expects the DCBA to branch out
By DONNA BALANCIA, TFLJ Editor
MIAMI — Andrea Hartley is a shareholder at a renowned Florida law firm, but she thinks it’s the soloists and small firms that will drive Dade County Bar Association’s success.
“A great accomplishment of our bar is that, given this economy, most bar associations are losing members, but we’ve increased membership by 10 percent,” said Hartley, president of the Dade County Bar. Small firms are a growing percentage of the legal profession as a whole, that’s where we’ve seen the increase.”
Hartley, a litigator focusing in bankruptcy and creditors rights at Akerman Senterfitt, said the increase in smaller firms is a result of a changing economy and the need for attorneys to be more creative in their approach to the practice of law.
Which is why she wants to enable the Dade County Bar to capitalize on those changes and at the same time help out the smaller firms during her tenure as bar association president. She is the third woman president in the 95-year-history of the Dade County Bar Association. She says there is a need to establish bar association programs related to services for smaller firms and solo firms.
The association’s Lawyer Referral Service is a great example of a service provided by the bar association that helps the smaller firms, Hartley said, and she wants to start more programs that provide information on starting a law firm, business development and marketing management.
But in a fluid economy, all attorneys can benefit from such informative sessions, Hartley said.
“Relationships with clients are changing, particularly when it comes to billing,” Hartley said. “For example, more and more firms are turning to alternative billing. Clients want to see value and law firms are being more creative. Flat fee billing is permeating into other areas of the law. Then there’s value billing. Whatever you propose to the client, it’s sharing the risk, but also sharing the reward.”
National and global competition is a driving factor in the law today, Hartley said, adding that attorneys need to be up on the latest means of communication.
“There are firms as well as clients that are outsourcing, that’s changing the legal profession,” she said. “Technology is changing the profession and it’s not going away. Technology brings attorneys, clients, and courts closer together. With e-filing you can file anywhere, with videoconferencing and Skype you can talk to anyone anywhere in the world at any time. The technology has leveled the playing field.”
The playing field has also been leveled for women, Hartley said. She believes that the sheer numbers of women attorneys coming out of law school today is a fact no one can contest.
“Women have been entering the legal profession in significant numbers,” Hartley said. “I think close to half my law school is women. For every two male college grads there are three female. Every year there are more and more women entering the legal profession. History was made this year with three female supreme court justices. As time progresses and more women continue to enter the workforce.”
But while Hartley may take her new position in stride, as only the third woman selected president of the Dade County Bar in 95 years, she has beaten the odds. Her predecessors are The Hon. Karen Gievers (1993) and Holland and Knight’s Judith Korchin (1988). Tackling the financial arena, she also bucked the odds. Her position as president of the Dade County Bar will enable her to combine two areas she enjoys: Business and Law.
“If I weren’t an attorney, I think it would have been fun to be on the floor of the Stock Exchange,” Hartley said. “I was a finance major and in 1990 bankruptcies were busy. I was asked to work in that area and I stuck with it. What I love is the interaction between business and law.”
Her family has been supportive of Hartley’s law career, which she has spent entirely at Akerman Senterfitt. She has a son who is 11 and a daughter, 7, and she makes the time to attend her childrens’ important events, such as her daughter dance recitals and her son’s ball games.
“My parents’ core values and their approach to life was always very optimistic,” Hartley said. “They told me to always do the right thing and treat people fairly. I tell my kids the same sort of thing. To be nice to everyone. Stand up for what you believe in. If you do good things, good things will happen to you.
“And professionally, I’m happy here,” Hartley said. “I’m allowed to be me. I can be involved in what interests me, I work with great people, I look forward to coming to work every day. My son asks, ‘What do you want me to be, Mom,’ and I say, ‘Be happy.’
“Personally and professionally I’m very satisfied,” Hartley said. “I can’t ask for a better family, they’re my true success.”
About donnabalancia
