Sarah serves on the firm’s NextGen committee, which functions as the voice of associates and non-partner attorneys with less than 10 years of experience.
The committee works to create policies and initiatives that positively impact newer attorneys’ careers, encourage their engagement with the firm, and bring their innovations and creativity to senior leadership.
Led by an executive committee, NextGen has four subcommittees which mirror the firm’s C-Suite structure. The leaders of each subcommittee have been paired with their counterpart on the firm’s leadership team. In addition, each office location has one to three designated NextGen representatives, who help keep a pulse on associate issues and plan their own associate social gatherings. NextGen has monthly calls with these representatives to discuss any issues or concerns.
NextGen’s recent successes include a shift in how associate billable equivalent hours are recorded, along with the development of a dashboard that allows associates to easily track these hours by category. The committee also leads the “Next Up” Initiative, which highlights the firm’s next generation of leaders—the ones who are “next up” to lead the firm in the future. The program pairs NextGen committee members with senior leadership mentors at both the executive and individual office level, with meetings held quarterly.
As a dedicated Husch Blackwell attorney who has been at the firm for her entire legal career, associate retention is deeply important to Sarah. The current chair of NextGen’s retention subcommittee, she values serving in a role where she has the opportunity to listen to associate concerns and work with a devoted group of NextGen attorneys to help create policies and ideas that make the firm a place attorneys want to stay.