Metwork - On the Go
Dive into Metwork's recent adventures and discover the highlights of our latest events.
April 22, 2024
The Metwork team has been on the move, crossing the country to connect with lawyers, paralegals, and firm administrators. Our recent journey has taken us to three incredible events: the W.E.L.L. Summit, the 2024 LMA Annual Conference, and Mass Torts Made Perfect.
As we look forward to more gatherings on the horizon, a moment of reflection seems appropriate to share important insights and connections from these conferences.
W.E.L.L. Summit
The W.E.L.L. Summit is a groundbreaking collaboration between Central Texas organizations supporting women lawyers. It provided a unique space for these trailblazers to connect and learn from each other. Metwork’s Major Account Manager, Tara Lee, attended the summit, which was hosted by Travis County Women Lawyers' Association, MAMAs Austin, The Sisters in Law, Center for Women in Law, and Cafecitos.
“It was a pleasure to join an amazing group of women lawyers at the W.E.L.L. Summit at the University of Texas School of Law,” Tara said. “Metwork was proud to sponsor this event, which brought together women lawyers from across Austin and Central Texas.”
“As a longtime Austinite with a deep passion for empowering women in law, the W.E.L.L. Summit was a particularly meaningful event for me. I was introduced to this conference by a good friend and the previous president of TCWLA, Caroline Hall. This was the first time Metwork had the opportunity to sponsor a conference that was both local and for women, and it couldn’t have been a better event to kick off our support. It was a powerful reminder of the impact that expanding your network can have on your career, firm, and business.”
“Since the conference, many of the attendees have already joined the Metwork community, and our team at Metwork looks forward to helping them expand their professional networks and create the careers they want.”
Attendees of the W.E.L.L. Summit.
2024 LMA Annual Conference
Presented by the Legal Marketing Association (LMA), the preeminent organization for marketing and Business Development staff for law firms, their annual conference is the largest in-person gathering of marketing and business development professionals across the legal spectrum. Unlike other events we’ve attended, this event had vendors and companies that enabled lawyers to bring in clients and referrals through marketing, as well as technologies that enabled lawyers to market directly to other lawyers. Metwork Major Account Manager Robby Daniels and Product Marketing Manager Will Osolinsky were on hand to connect with attendees.
“An important factor in exhibiting was our aligned interest,” Will said. “Anybody attending LMA is looking to grow their practice and bring in more business. We saw an opportunity to shatter some of these preconceived notions that the best way to bring in new business is to spend a lot on ads through traditional marketing channels. We provide a dynamic solution that can enable that same business growth in a much different way without ad spend necessarily.”
“One of my biggest takeaways from this conference is to be open to networking in all forms,” Robby said. “You never know where a lead or referral or new business or even a new relationship might come from. If you only network with lawyers at conferences or with clients who call your firm, you’re severely limiting yourself. You need to be open to networking anywhere. You don’t know who you’ll connect with. It could certainly be an attorney or someone from their marketing or business development department. That is the ultimate power of relationships as a whole. You never know. As I was at the airport, leaving the conference, I had a great conversation with a woman whose son was an attorney. You just never know.”
“Oftentimes, we will stick to what we know or our current level of comfortability with anything,” Will said. “That can perhaps feel safe in the short term, but it’s a pessimistic outlook that drastically limits your opportunities. If you ever want to get ahead, you have to be willing to stand out. I encourage every lawyer and paralegal, whether it's with Metwork or with other opportunities, to explore the unknown and where great riches can be found.”
Robby with an LMA attendee.
Will with an LMA attendee.
Mass Torts Made Perfect
Held twice a year, the Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) Conference is the place where plaintiff lawyers gather to learn about the latest mass tort cases and network with thousands of attendees. The conference was held in Las Vegas, and Tara Lee attended to network with lawyers and share the vision of Metwork.
“This was the first time that Metwork attended MTMP since we launched in October,” Tara said, “but we knew that there were going to be thousands of lawyers from across the country who are keen to network with other lawyers that might specialize outside of their practice area. Lawyers shouldn’t have to wait for conferences to network. That’s why we attended. Metwork streamlines the networking process and allows attorneys to connect outside of their practice area all the time, not just whenever an event is happening.”
“I kept running into attorneys in the hallways of the convention that I hadn’t seen in a while. We’d get reconnected, and it's been so long since I've caught up with this person, and just seeing their face and reconnecting with them was invigorating. These relationships are crucial and important, but most of the time, we only connect at events. To foster strong connections and to have positive experiences that can aid in our careers, we can’t go a whole year until the next conference just to ‘catch up.’ Metwork makes it so you don’t have to wait. You can continue to foster these relationships year-round.”
“Connecting face to face is important–the pandemic taught us that—but networking in person can be daunting for some people. I ran into a lot of first-time attendees or young lawyers who were attending their first big conference, and it can be really overwhelming. Having a platform like Metwork, which is easy and accessible, can help them feel like they have a place at the table.”
Tara with a MTMP attendee.