When you walk through the front doors of that law firm for the first time, both as a summer associate and then later as a full-time associate, you may wonder in the back of your mind how you will navigate all of the demands on your time, the different priority levels, shifting formatting requirements, personal preferences of different partners, billing pet peeves of different clients, and any of the other unwritten rules of the game. The good news is that right off the bat, you have an ally, your secretary, who wants to work with you to help you succeed. And better yet, this person likely knows many of the answers to your questions already. You just have to know how to ask. Come learn how with Chandler Buehler-Werline, a legal secretary with over 30 years of experience.

In addition, Chandler, as an openly gay secretary who has never hidden that fact from his firms, will offer a personal perspective on the changing views of law firms toward gay employees from the early days of discrimination to today where most firms have diversity committees.

Also, as law students, we sometimes divide law firms into partners and associates, and many of the perspectives that we hear at lunch talks are from one of those groups. Haven’t you wondered what that same world of law firms looks like from a different perspective? From the perspective of someone who has been there longer and seen the work from more angles? Chandler will draw on his years of experience training attorneys and secretaries to lay out a strategy to help you survive and thrive in your law firm.

Michael D. Stern, former partner and current special counsel to whom Chandler provides support, will also be on hand to provide her perspective on the importance of a healthy relationship between secretary and attorney as well as some of the intangibles that secretaries bring to the table.