North America Regional Newsletter (January 2022)

North America Regional Newsletter (January 2022)

North America Regional Newsletter 2022: A Look Ahead

In this issue...

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Regional Overview

Clients & Growth

Getting to KnowYour New North American Board Chair 4 Getting to Know Eileen Bower 5 Financial Update 6 Introducing US Practice Groups 7

Q&A: AGCS North American Client Relationship

16

Partner Alfred C. Warrington, V Client Development Highlights

17 18

Thought Leadership: Sharing Digital Content

Our People

Noteworthy Updates

Resourcing & Recruitment

9

Brand Refresh

20 21 22

Shared Resources

10

Clyde +

D&I Initiatives

IT Update: What's Coming in 2022

Employee Resource Groups

11 11 12 12 12

Deepening our Relationship with Diversity Lab

North America D&I Steering Group

Diversity Scholarship

Looking Ahead

L&D Initiatives New and Improved My Development Learning Portal 13 Practicing Law Institute Launches in Canada 13 Pilot Programs 14 Mentor Programs 14

Regional Overview

Getting to KnowYour New North American Board Chair In early November, we announced that Partner Eileen King Bower has been appointed as Chair of the North American Board. E ileen is a Chicago-based partner who has represented insurers in complex coverage matters and disputes for her entire career, spanning over 30 years. Consistent with our strategy, Eileen will continue to focus the firm on encouraging and rewarding teamwork, civility, and career development. This vision includes:

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• Continuing inorganic growth by bringing on top talent to complement our current offerings. • Advancing organic growth by strengthening associate recruitment, training and development, and providing our best lawyers with a clear path to advancement and success. • Enhancing integration and business development efforts through the newly established US Practice Groups (see page 7 for more) and our North American Top Client Program.

In January 2017, Eileen and a team of lawyers joined Clyde & Co and opened the Chicago office, where she became office managing partner and a member of the North American Regional Board. During her career at Clyde & Co, Eileen also served on the Partner Selection Committee and Chair of the North American Insurance Strategy Group. "It is an exciting time in our region, and I look forward to working with my colleagues as we successfully emerge from the pandemic," shared Eileen. As the North American Board Chair, Eileen will continue to promote Clyde & Co's greatest asset: our people. "The firm has done an outstanding job recruiting the best and brightest lawyers, staff, and business team in the region," she explained. "We have established offices in key locations throughout the US and Canada, and now have a solid foundation on which to build."

Learn more about North American Board Chair Eileen Bower on the next page.

Getting to Know Eileen King Bower

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Can you share your career journey to this point? With the exception of a very brief stint at the US Department of Energy, I have been representing insurers in complex insurance coverage matters and disputes for my entire career (33 years). I started at a small firm in Chicago and began working on asbestos and environmental coverage litigation. Most of the lawyers in that firm had a defense practice, so I was one of the few in the coverage area, which provided plenty of opportunity to develop my skills and meet clients early in my career. In 2000, my main clients urged me to move to a DC-based firm that was opening a Chicago office. I started working with my mentor and helped build a strong practice and recruit an excellent team of lawyers. I was able to advance to partner and eventually became a member of the management and compensation committees. In 2008, I joined another firm via a merger. After a few years, it became clear to me that the firm was not focused on the insurance practice and it would be difficult for me and more junior attorneys in our practice to grow

our business. In 2017, Clint Cameron, Jamie Sanders and I moved together to start the Chicago Clyde & Co office. The firm's strong insurer client base was attractive to us. When we joined, the vast majority of our work was with one client; today, we have a diverse group of insurer clients and have grown the office to more than 20 attorneys. What does working for Clyde & Co mean to you? It means I am working in an incredibly dynamic global law firm that offers endless possibilities for career and client development, particularly for attorneys in this region who are focused on representing the insurance industry. It also means we are committed to excellence in client service. What are you passionate about outside of your work with Clyde & Co? I am passionate about my family—I have a wonderful husband, three adult children, plus a son-in-law and a new baby granddaughter (more fun than I can even explain). We have

a very large extended family as well, which keeps me going. Although I have chosen to pursue a challenging career, with long hours and lots of stress, I have always followed my instincts and put family first. I had all three of my children early in my career (while I was an associate) and decided to reduce my schedule for a few years. Back then, a reduced schedule was frowned upon and it was made very clear to me that I would kill my chances at advancement at that firm. But I stuck with it, moved to a firm that turned out to be a better fit for me, and eventually advanced to partner. While it took me a little longer to become a partner than some of my law school classmates, the path I took was right for me. I counsel younger lawyers to think about their careers as a long game. Take time to do what you need to do personally, adjust, make changes when necessary, and don't give up when things get hard.

Financial update

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The North America region had a solid eight months of the financial year as our WIP add surpassed our prior year totals at the same time last year, although we experienced an unanticipated dip in busyness in December. Coming into 2022, our focus is on maintaining a high level of busyness, winning new instructions and securing improved rate agreements.

Lock up days, which is a measure of our ability to convert billings into cash, decreased to 159 days at the end of December as compared to 165 days at the end of the last fiscal year. This is very good progress and our new target is to achieve 150 lock up days by the end of the fiscal year as we focus on collections of debts aged over six months. Looking ahead, our ability to submit timesheets regularly, issue bills efficiently, follow our client’s e-billing process accurately, and promptly collect payments will be the key to our financial success for the rest of the year.

Thank you for your help mobilizing for our half-year billing push in October. We managed to exceed our billings as compared to last financial year because of your efforts. Please help us maintain the positive momentum by submitting your billings and timesheets in advance of the January deadline to help deliver a strong finish to the third quarter. While our cash collections have been solid through the first half of the year, similar to our busyness, we experienced a dip in December collections compared to our forecast. It is thus important that we stay connected with our clients as we target increased collections for the end of the third quarter, and then again for the end of the financial year in April.

Introducing US Practice Groups

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US Practice Groups are part of our region's local strategic plan.

Aviation, Marine & Energy

Property

O ur firm embarked on a strategic planning exercise in 2020 with each regional board developing a local strategic plan. The North American Board set forth three pillars for our region's strategy: 1. Meaningful growth within our core insurance sector; 2. Diversification of the North American portfolio that enhances, but does not conflict with, our core insurance business; and 3. Greater integration among our practices. We recently launched our Practice Group structure and as North American Practice Group Chair, supported by our Practice Group Leaders, Partner Ralph Guirgis will serve as the Practice Group liaison to the North American Board and ensure that Practice Group initiatives align with our regional and firm strategic direction. Our Practice Group Leaders (pictured right) will support and lead business planning and development efforts, internal utilization, lateral recruiting, professional development, and much more.

Kevin Sutherland Partner, San Francisco

Corey Greenwald Partner, NewYork

Robert Fisher Partner, Atlanta

Amy Samberg Partner, Phoenix

FIDO/Professional Liability Coverage

Specialty

Edward Kirk Partner, NewYork

Joseph Bailey Partner, Washington, DC

James Koelzer Partner, Los Angeles

Vikram Sidhu Partner, NewYork

North American Practice Group Chair

Liability & Excess Coverage

Trial & Defense

Ralph Guirgis Partner, Orange County

Alexander Potente Partner, San Francisco

James Sanders Partner, Chicago

Douglas Horelick Partner, Miami

Alison Beanum Partner, Los Angeles

Our People

Job Catagory Job Category

Job Type Sales

Resourcing & Recruitment During the last eight months, 153 new joiners were hired in the US and Canada.

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Attorney (36%)

Paralegal (10%)

Business Services (46%)

Business Services Casehandlers

Source of Hire Attorney Business Services Paralegal Summer Associate/Articling Student Business Services (46%) Summer Associate Articling Student (8%) S les

Casehandlers (54%)

Gender Distribution of New Hires Sales

Diversity Sales

Yes No

Female (61%) Male

Female

Direct

Direct (59%) Employee Referral

Agency

Yes (33%)

Employee Referral (21%)

Male (39%)

No (67%)

Employee referrals continue to be an important source of new hires in the region and are always encouraged; 32 of the 153 hires were employee referrals.

Agency (20%)

This graph includes demographic >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23

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