Schedule

Networking is often misunderstood as a transactional exercise, but the most durable professional relationships develop naturally over time through shared work, genuine curiosity, and consistent presence. This session reframes networking as a career-long practice and offers practical, authentic strategies for building a professional community — both within AHLA and across the broader health law field.

Session goals:

• Frame networking as a long-term practice rather than a transactional skill — examining how durable professional relationships develop organically through shared work, genuine curiosity, and consistent presence.
• Identify practical strategies for building and sustaining a professional community — exploring how to invest in relationships intentionally without sacrificing the authenticity that makes those relationships meaningful.
• Examine the distinct value of association and community engagement as networking contexts — exploring how active participation creates relationship-building opportunities that transactional networking cannot replicate.
• Develop a personal approach to networking that reflects individual style and career stage — recognizing that effective relationship-building looks different for everyone and evolves as roles, goals, and professional communities change.

Mentorship can be addressed in many ways in today's health law environment, but sponsorship, active championing and coaching of emerging professionals remain underutilized levers for building a stronger pipeline. This session shifts the lens from advice to action, examining how experienced leaders can use their influence and institutional access to create real opportunities for those earlier in their careers — and why doing so strengthens the entire community.

This hands-on workshop gives health law professionals the practical tools to craft winning proposals, build decks that work, and own any room they walk into.

Session goals:

• Learn how to craft a conference proposal that stands out: from topic selection and title writing to building a panel with real chemistry.
• Walk away with a practical framework for structuring presentations that work for you, not against you, including how to design slides that support your talk without replacing it.
• Develop your speaking skills with concrete techniques for owning the room: eye contact, pacing, authenticity, and turning audience engagement into a conversation instead of a lecture.
• Leave with ready-to-use tools and strategies you can apply to your next proposal, presentation, or panel, whether you’re a first-time speaker or a seasoned presenter looking to sharpen your craft.

Effective leadership looks different across contexts — and the most successful leaders are those who understand their own style while remaining adaptable to the needs of their teams and organizations. This panel session draws on the experiences of practitioners who are established leaders in their communities and respective organizations, to examine the habits, mindsets, and approaches that distinguish strong leaders in the health law community.

Session goals/takeaways:

• Identify leadership qualities that endure across contexts — examining how successful leaders sustain credibility, influence, and resilience, while adapting their style across different organizational settings and career stages.
• Examine leadership friction honestly — exploring how strong leaders navigate colleagues, superiors, and environments that are counterproductive.
• Explore the relationship between community engagement, board service, and professional leadership — examining how external roles shape, sharpen, and sometimes complicate the leadership identity participants bring to their primary roles.
• Examine inflection points that define long careers — helping attendees to develop a personal framework for recognizing when growth requires change, whether that means evolving within a role, reshaping an organization, or moving on.

Leading volunteers requires a fundamentally different skill set than managing staff — success depends on influence, motivation, and shared purpose rather than formal authority. This session is designed for emerging professionals who are stepping into volunteer leadership roles and want to understand how to engage, energize, and sustain a volunteer community within AHLA and beyond.

This panel discussion (fireside chat format) based on real life scenarios and faculty experiences. Take-aways will include additional resources and references.

Presenters will discuss:

• Expectations of Board Members — before, during, and after meetings
• How Boards reach decisions
• Addressing and resolving competing priorities and conflicts
• Evaluating Board and Director performance

Whether serving on a committee, a practice group leadership team, or an organizational board, understanding how governance works is foundational to effective leadership. This practical session demystifies the structures, responsibilities, and decision-making processes that define organizational governance — giving emerging professionals the context they need to participate meaningfully and lead with confidence.

Strategic plans only deliver value when they translate into real decisions — about priorities, resources, partnerships, and tradeoffs. This session takes leaders behind the curtain of organizational strategy, exploring how plans are built, how they evolve in response to changing conditions, and how individual leaders can connect their day-to-day work to the broader mission and direction of the organizations they serve.