President's Page Archive

I have to admit that taking over the position of President for our Chapter after the devastating loss of my husband has given me more than a couple of sleepless nights; however, the insecurity of wondering whether I have the strength and energy to live up to the high standards established by those who have served before me has been greatly diminished by the overwhelming encouragement I have received from the members of our Chapter.

Regardless of who holds the title of President, without the commitment of all those behind the scenes we would not be able to accomplish all the things we do. So I’d like to thank all of the volunteers and board members—past, present and future—who are dedicated to making our Chapter successful. I am so proud to be a part of it!

With that said, I look forward to the upcoming year. I look forward to getting stronger, healing and growing … both personally and professionally. I look forward to getting to know the members of our Chapter personally, cultivating new friendships and reinforcing the friendships I have already established. I’d love to say that I had some wonderful new goals as your incoming President, but actually my goals are the same as every President before me—to offer my service to our Chapter and its members and to work with the Board as we continue to focus on meeting the needs of our members by providing quality educational programs that enhance their knowledge and professional development while assisting them in running their law firms, increasing member participation in Chapter activities, increasing membership of our Chapter, and increasing awareness and recognition for our Chapter accomplishments.

While membership in ALA offers many benefits, I personally feel that the members themselves are its most valuable asset. So much can be learned and accomplished by working with a team of your peers. The depth and value of the friendships developed as a result of working as a team and attending meetings, socials, and conferences is fulfilling and life changing. I encourage you to make the most of your membership by participating in the Chapter and by cultivating relationships with your peers … you won’t be disappointed!

I want each of you to know, that your suggestions, questions, comments or criticisms are important to me and the Chapter board members. We encourage your feedback about how the Chapter is serving you as your participation and guidance is what strengthens our Chapter.

Thank you for pledging your support and putting your trust in me to lead our Chapter through the coming year.

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Wow…My two-year tenure as the Richmond Chapter President comes to a close on March 31^st, and I have to say that it really did come and go rather quickly. It seems like just yesterday that I was telling the nominating committee that I was more of a “behind the scenes” person, and not really presidential material. They assured me that I could do the job, and made sure that I was surrounded with a group of people that would help me succeed—and that they did.

I want to thank those members who have served on the board with me including Sherri Sledd, Mary Ellen Cleveland, Ann Caudle, Jennifer Doyle, Judy Tiller, Kaffa Brasfield and Troy Springer, because I couldn’t have done the job without them. I also want to thank those members who stepped up and volunteered to help out on the many projects that we took on during my tenure as president. Those folks are Maryann Hartzell, Bob Newcomb, Kim Croasdale, Lois Broadwater, Jill Shugart, and the entire 2009 CCW Hospitality House team!

Last year was a banner year for the Richmond Chapter of ALA. We started the year with a phenomenal National Speaker, Marshall Fletcher, and his presentation on going green and kept the momentum going with a spring visit from our Region 2 Director Sabine Curto and a very successful membership drive. We began summer with a packed Sponsor Appreciation Luncheon and ended the summer with the launch of our newly designed website. And we didn’t slow down in the fall—we had the largest Community Challenge Weekend event in Chapter history and sent five members to the Regional Conference in Savannah. All of these activities helped us achieve the Gold Level in the ALA Presidential Award of Excellence for 2009!

Sherri Sledd and the new board plan to keep this momentum going in 2010. We just held the first joint retreat in years with the Hampton Roads Chapter of ALA at the Tides Inn which was a huge success, and they are already working on several other educational, charitable and social events.

This is an exciting time to be part of the Richmond ALA, so get the most out of your membership and volunteer to help the board with one of their 2010 events. Even those “behind the scenes people” like me can make a difference!

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Meet the Member - Archive

Amy Smith has been in legal marketing for the past 12 years. She has worked at four law firms in Virginia and Washington, D.C.—Woods Rogers, Groom Law Group, Durrette Bradshaw, and Thompson McMullan. In addition she is the CMO for the XDL Group, a member group of six law firms located throughout the U.S. specializing in IP trial litigation work. She has served in leadership positions on both the local chapter and international committee level of the Legal Marketing Association.

Prior to going into the legal field, Amy worked for the Franklin County School System as a master teacher in a pilot program for eighth graders. She built a $70,000 studio that students spent eight weeks in before rotating to another “real-life” module. The concept was to allow the students to try different fields of work so they could map out what to take in high school. Before teaching there, Amy spent a year teaching newspaper journalism and ninth grade English in Bedford, Virginia where she previously worked as the PR and Marketing Director for the school system.

After graduating college, Amy spent 15 years in the television news industry working at several stations in Virginia, one in North Carolina, one in South Carolina, and one in New Orleans. She also freelanced in DC. She has interviewed three presidents (Ford, Carter, and Reagan), Elizabeth Taylor and Willie Nelson to name a few. She was asked by the Special Olympics to cover their first ever Team USA when the games were held in Austria.

In her spare time, Amy loves taking pictures, working on craft projects, and volunteering at the Palliative Care unit at McGuire Veteran’s Hospital or with the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Richmond.

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Pam Frazier has been the Office Administrator for McSweeney, Crump, Childress & Temple, P.C. for a combined sixteen years. Pam started with McSweeney, Burtch & Crump in 1990, but eight years later moved to Atlanta when her husband, Alan, was transferred by his employer. In 2002, Pam and her husband decided to move home to Richmond, and Pam was offered her old position back with McSweeney & Crump, P.C.

In 2006, Pam coordinated the details of a merger between McSweeney & Crump, P.C. and Childress, Gould & Russell, P.C., creating the current firm McSweeney, Crump, Childress & Temple, P.C.

Pam has had a wide range of experiences in a number of fields outside of the legal industry including bookkeeping for a concrete manufacturing company, managing a travel agency, administering benefits for employees at Lake Lanier Island Resort in Atlanta, and working at the World of Coca-Cola Headquarters in mid-town Atlanta.

In her spare time, Pam enjoys spending time with her family and friends, scrap booking, reading, and traveling with her husband of 34 years. Pam and Alan have only one child—a 4 year-old miniature schnauzer named Joey. Pam just joined the Chapter in 2009 and hopes to get more involved in 2010!

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Jennifer Doyle currently serves as Secretary on our Chapter's Board and has been the Human Resources Manager for McCandlish Holton, P.C. for the past three years. Jenn is an HR department of one for 26 attorneys and 37 staff. She handles everything from payroll to benefits and all of the personnel issues in between.

Jennifer has been in the human resources field for over 11 years, because she enjoys the many different challenges that come with the profession. Prior to coming to McCandlsih Holton, she was the HR Manager at Lucy Corr Village, a nursing and assisted living community in Chesterfield County.

After growing up and attending college in Maine, Jennifer moved to Virginia with her husband of 9 years, Larry. Jennifer and Larry have two sons—Jacob (7) and Logan (3). In between leading her son's Cub Scout meetings, traveling to and from soccer games and practices, and taking Tae Kwon Do lessons, Jennifer is studying to obtain her MBA.

According to Jennifer, being a member of the Richmond ALA has provided her with a network of knowledgeable professionals who have helped her become acclimated to the legal environment. From our members, Jennifer has been given advice and many great tips on how to deal with issues that she never encountered while working in the non-profit, healthcare environment.

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Evan Smith has been the executive director at Parker, Pollard & Brown, P.C. since October 2008. Evan originally moved to Richmond to accept a position with a small company that provided accounting and compliance services to the mutual fund industry. Unfortunately, the economy being what it was, Evan began looking for a position last year, just about the time Parker Pollard had an opening.

Prior to coming to Richmond, Evan was the administrator for 10 years at McQuaide Blasko in State College, PA—Evan’s home town. McQuaide Blasko is the largest law firm in central Pennsylvania with 30+ attorneys, in three locations with a total of 85 employees. Among their largest clients, the firm was general counsel to The Pennsylvania State University and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Prior to that, Evan was the administrator of Centre County government, working for the elected Board of Commissioners.

As with his last law firm, Evan likes to say he is, “in charge of all things that aren’t legal” and has spent the last year at Parker Pollard figuring out ways to streamline or improve processes and systems. With 10 attorneys and 14 staff, Evan spends his days handling everything from “soup to nuts.”

Evan has been married to his wife, Debbie for 27 years. They have two children. Their son, Adam, works for a beer distributor in Brooklyn, NY and their daughter, Kathleen, is a history major at Penn State University. Evan holds a commercial pilot’s license, and piloting the boss to East Coast locations was a part of his prior job. Evan and his wife spend their time settling in to their “new to them” home and taking local excursions to historical sites. Evan says that being a member of the Richmond Chapter has helped the couple meet new people, and he looks forward to future chapter functions.

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Ann Roberts Caudle worked for McGuire Woods for 24 years and held a variety of positions there from Librarian to Director of Marketing and Information to Director of Client Relations. A native to Richmond, she has also launched two consulting agencies in her career.

In 2006, Ann joined a small firm as their office administrator, but in July 2008, she left and joined Spotts Fain as the Director of Client Relations. In this position, Ann is responsible for the firm's marketing, business development, library and information services. She also updates the firm's website and has started an internal newsletter, "SpottsLight".

Ann decided that working for attorneys wasn't enough, so this year on Valentine's Day, Ann married one—local attorney, Bobby Caudle. During the fall and winter, Ann, Bobby, and Sarah, Ann's daughter—a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee—are wrapped up in their fantasy football league and cheering on the University of Tennessee Volunteers.

During the spring and summer, Ann and Bobby spend as much time as possible at their beach house. Ann joined ALA in January 2007, and when asked what she loves most about this group, she replied, "What's not to love?"

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Kim Croasdale has been a legal administrator for the law department of Dominion Resources Service, Inc., for the last nine years. When Dominion's General Counsel approached our own Chapter Vice President Ann Caudle for advice on filling his newly created position, Ann immediately thought of Kim.

Kim and Ann had worked together at McGuire Woods for almost 20 years where Kim spent the last 10 focusing on the firm's billing systems and other A/R responsibilities. Kim was instrumental in the implementation of a new financial management system for the firm, which came in handy years later when Dominion had a need to take on a similar project. In spite of all of the positive experiences at McGuire Woods, Kim was thrilled to be offered an opportunity to make a change.

Kim's typical work day includes supporting the 50 in-house attorneys and staff members in their efforts to track and manage outside counsel expenses, and she enjoys being the liaison between her company and the 200-plus law firms engaged by Dominion. Having worked with lawyers for more than 30 years, she jokingly said it only took her six or seven years to get used to the idea that she is now the client and not the service provider.

Kim has been married to Tom Croasdale for 23 years and they have a 20-year-old son, Sam, who attends the University of Virginia. She says she's not sure how she feels about that empty-nest syndrome, indicating that while she and Tom enjoy their quiet evenings and weekends together, she needed a new hobby or project; so when she was asked to chair this year's Community Challenge Weekend Project she knew it was meant to be. She points out, though, that had she not been "asked" she knows she never would have volunteered. Having said that, Kim stated, "I'm so glad I was approached, because it has allowed me a wonderful opportunity to get to know and enjoy the membership, as well as those outstanding luncheons!"

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Meet the Member . . .

Cassandra Griffin has been in the legal field for over 25 years. Cassandra is originally from New York City and moved to Atlanta where she lived for three years before coming to Richmond in 2009. Her experience includes being a legal secretary for a large firm, department support staff manager for a private law firm and a department manager/legal specialist in a corporate law department.

Cassandra loves the legal profession because she enjoys the fast pace, challenging work and the great network of colleagues.

She holds a Master of Science degree in leadership and strategic management, and has written a few articles on the importance of work/life balance for a small management company in New York.

In her spare time, this exercise enthusiast loves kickboxing, boxing, jogging, and spinning. Cassandra enjoys traveling extensively and loves "hanging" with her family and friends.