Episode Notes

What is an integrator? What does an integrator do? Does your team need one? 

Sara Muender talks with Jasmine Jowers Prout, Operations Director of The Gober Group, about the importance of having an integrator on your team. They discuss why and when to hire an integrator. And detail how an integrator can streamline, improve, and strengthen all areas of your law firm.

Links from the episode:

Field Guide to Buying Products and Services

If today's podcast resonates with you and you haven't read The Small Firm Roadmap Revisited yet, get the first chapter right now for free! Looking for help beyond the book? Check out our coaching community to see if it's right for you.

  • 8:40. Jasmine's background.
  • 18:00. Why you need an integrator.
  • 25:59. Takeaways from LabCon.
  • 30:08. Future of law firms.

Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to The Lawyerist Podcast, a series of discussions with entrepreneurs and innovators about building a successful law practice in today’s challenging and constantly changing legal market. Lawyerist supports attorneys, building client-centered, and future-oriented small law firms through community, content, and coaching both online and through the Lawyerist Lab. And now from the team that brought you The Small Firm Roadmap and your podcast hosts

 

Zack Glaser (00:35):

Hi, I’m Zack Glaser.

 

Ashley Steckler (00:36):

And I’m Ashley Steckler. And this is episode 4 14 of the Lawyerist Podcast, part of the Legal Talk Network. Today, Sara talks with Jasmine Prout about her role as the operations director in her firm.

 

Zack Glaser (00:50):

Today’s podcast is brought to you by Posh Virtual Receptionists, Berkshire Receptionists, and Lawyerist Lab. We wouldn’t be able to do this show without their support, so stay tuned and we’ll tell you more about them later on.

 

Ashley Steckler (01:01):

So Zack, we created something new.

 

Zack Glaser (01:03):

We did, and I’m pretty proud of it and happy to be getting it out there. It’s the Lawyerist Field Guide,

 

Ashley Steckler (01:13):

Field Guide to Buying Products and Services.

 

Zack Glaser (01:17):

Yes, I’ve just been referring to it for the last months as just Field Guide. But yeah, Field Guide to Buying Products and Services, which is intended to be helpful for making decisions related to your legal tech stack for somebody that is really the decision maker or bringing, well, a lot of choices to the person that is making the decisions related to their legal tech.

 

Ashley Steckler (01:42):

So this was kind of a long time coming. You and I were highly involved in it. I’m very excited about it. It feels to me like it comes at a spot in the road that’s maybe been missing in our product reviews and what we offer in terms of guiding people through purchasing the right legal tech. We have the complete Guide to Legal Tech which kind of gives a bigger overview. We have podcast episodes from you talking about implementing your legal tech, which is always great to check out. But we were missing this spot. We often get questions in Lawyerist Lab about where do I start or where, which one do I start with first? And I think this field guide in a Nice, we will guide you through step to step for all of the decisions and also show you what the options are. It’s really gonna help with those questions,

 

Zack Glaser (02:38):

I think. So there’s a lot of where do we start in looking for legal technology? And even when there’s a, Oh, I know kind of what I’m looking for, there’s a lot of FOMO, not realizing how all of these things fit together. Your law practice management system, your CRM, your document, document management, your document automation, all of those things and how they sit next to each other or on top of each other. It’s difficult to see that. And I think that this field guide, Well, I know that this field guide is intended to answer some of those questions and give a little bit more perspective on that.

 

Ashley Steckler (03:15):

So what kinds of things do we cover in the field guide? What kinds of questions do we answer for people?

 

Zack Glaser (03:21):

Oh man, how to get started <laugh>. So a lot of times the question that we get initially is how do you get buy-in? How do you implement the illegal technology or any technology for that matter? And so we go into how to get started. We go into what questions to ask yourself before you even start looking at technology. I mean, there’s an element of working on the car as it’s driving down the road that you have to have when you’re implementing. But really you need to have the design in your head at least before you can do that. So we talk about that. Then we actually get into the specifics of each kind of individual category as we see them. So what you need to think about when looking for a CRM, a client relationship manager, what questions you want to ask yourself specifically when implementing a law practice management system.

 

(04:20):

And then what are the differentiators? I think that’s the big question. A lot of times you can look at technology and see that something is different. You can see that it has certain features and whatnot, but recognizing where it stands in the spectrum of other technology like it is difficult a lot of times. So having those questions of what should we expect from a law practice management system and then what makes them different a lot of times for practice management systems, for phone operations systems all of this. And then we go into some frequently asked questions. As you can imagine, I talk to people all the time about the same, many times about the same questions that they need to be thinking about. And so we’ve just gone ahead and answered a lot of those for you.

 

Ashley Steckler (05:12):

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s easy when you talk about essentials that every provider should have , what sets them apart? What are the unique things I should be looking for? That’s a place where it’s easy to get lost. And even if you’re clicking on different specific pages. nice to be able to have a chart that shows you exactly what the standout features are. And we always talk about, start with your problem first. Is that something that you’re looking for? Is it a new flashy thing? Make sure that you ask those questions as we’ve laid out in the guide, and then look at the chart that we’ve put together of what service or product answers the questions that you’ve come up with already.

 

Zack Glaser (05:58):

I think that’s the thing, is that you’re able to narrow things down with a field guide. That’s what it’s intended to do is get you down to those two or three products that are likely the ones that you’re going to choose. You’re going to choose one of them. The difficulty is when you have eight products sitting there staring you in the face and you go, I don’t know why this one’s better than the other. My neighbor uses this one, so it must be better. That’s not the case. Most of the time your neighbor could be doing something not efficiently or effectively, or they could just be doing a totally separate practice. So we hope that it helps people recognize that instead of starting from, I want to use this technology, how can I use it? We start from what is it that I need in my practice? And this is what Lawyerist is talking about all the time. Start with the end in mind. What do I need in my practice? What are the features that I need and who has them? So I, I’m really happy with this field guide. I think it does all of those things and more. And you can get it in digital form, you can print it out. I would probably keep it in digital form, but that’s just me. If you wanna print it out and mark it up and send it to somebody else fine too.

 

Ashley Steckler (07:13):

And so then when you make those decisions, you can go directly to our product reviews on the website. So Zack, where do we find the field guide?

 

Zack Glaser (07:22):

So you can find the field guide in our resources section of the website or really on any product review page. Down at the bottom there is a link to download the field guide. And if you sign up as a Lawyerist Insider or subscriber, then you’ll be able to get that for

 

Ashley Steckler (07:40):

Free. Yeah. Awesome.

 

Zack Glaser (07:42):

So now here is Sara’s conversation with Jasmine.

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (07:48):

Well, hello. I am Jasmine Jowers Prout. I am a director of operations for a political law firm based here out of Virginia, but also Texas and California and Atlanta. We serve a lot of good conservative groups and it’s exciting. It’s new. It’s completely different for me.

 

Sara Muender (08:13):

Well, welcome to the Lawyers podcast. Jasmine, we’re so happy to have you here. We are big fans of you in the Lawyerist community. I know that you’re recently at LabCon and we’re so happy to have you on the show today. So I wanna talk about your role in the firm that you’re in and what you do and how you solve problems for the firm that you work for. And maybe tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are.

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (08:40):

Sure. Let’s start with how I got there, <laugh>. Cause I guess that’s the best thing. Let’s start with my background. So I graduated from University of Maryland College Park. So I’m an avid TURP fan, although our football team kind of sucks, but that’s okay. While I was there, I was working full time with the Internal Revenue Service and I was in their Pathways to Careers program and I worked for the tax-exempting government entities division. So I got to work with the team who built out the Affordable Care Act tax law and stuff. And it was very exciting, got into law itself and just felt that that was a great place for me. So definitely grew there in an administrative role. And after that I ventured off a little bit, still doing admin, and I served as a church administrator for the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, which is two blocks from the White House, very politically driven and involved, so still had that aspect there, but served as an integrator for them as well.

 

(09:43):

So definitely built up my skills. Serving them was quite difficult. If you can imagine. Not only were they a church of a considerably large size, they also operated as a business. So we had tenants, whether it be short term, long term there every day. I was interacting with over 300 people every day. And then had the congregants who of course wanted everything they wanted when they wanted it during that time, but just building up my skills to be able to manage and operate exactly how I am and being supportive of where I was going to land. So from there, I actually ventured back into the law field and I joined an estate planning law firm. And I must say it was an incredible experience. I worked with all black women attorneys learned so much with serving and under served and marginalized groups. So of course we serve the African American community and other people of color and wanted to spread knowledge about the generational wealth gap, how to generate growth and increase wealth in a black community, et cetera, which is usually missed.

 

(10:56):

There’s usually a lot of confusion when everything goes down, but it served a bigger purpose for me to actually be able to help families in that way. So growing from there, I knew that I had reached a point where I was ready to move on and tried something new. And so that is how I found my current firm, which is the Gober Group. And I just dipp my toes out in the market a little bit and came across their recruiter. She met me and after reading my resume, it was like, Oh my gosh, we kind of really want you as long as you can give us what we need. I took a culture index survey and landed in the sweet spot. I was exactly what they were looking for. So after meeting with the director of operations and with Chris Gober, our CEO, it was like almost a match made in heaven, <laugh>, and it was the perfect lineup. And although I might not have the exact same views of the firm, that doesn’t matter to me. Serving the work, serving the purpose, serving the group, and just actively doing my role is what matters to me. And making sure that operations is good, administration is good, and we are running as efficiently as possible. That’s what matters. And so I joined the group in May, 2022, so quite recent, but definitely have gotten my hands dirty so far,

 

Sara Muender (12:20):

<laugh>. Wow. Yeah, you’ve had quite the career and I’d love to know more about your role now. Tell us a little bit about what you do on a day to day.

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (12:32):

Absolutely. So as a director of operations for the Gober Group, I am responsible for everything operations in administration. As soon as I joined the team, two weeks later, my predecessor decided that she was gonna leave and take on a new venture. And so of course that was a big shocker, but of course I was all pretty ready for this. I had years of experience. So stepping into the role right away, there were some things that I had to identify. And probably from day one I was like, Oh my gosh, we work with too many systems. There’s a lot of redundancy here. We are paying too many platforms when we can actually consolidate, figure it out, just what we actually need. We don’t need one service or one platform for just one thing. This is why multiple things were placed into one platform to try to alleviate problems.

 

(13:24):

So that was what I wanted to do. I quickly started identifying all the things that I thought were causing cracks and a bunch of redundancy and loss of funds for whatever reason, and just decided to figure out how to address it, outlined everything we needed to do that was necessary to address that and take care of it, whether we let it go, build it out or find a replacement. So from that, I also started looking into how we take care of our client relations is very important to me and making sure that everyone’s happy, we respond to them timely, that’s very central to keeping them happy and bringing in further business. Because in our world we get a lot of our clients through referrals, and that is our biggest seller. So knowing that the onboarding process was actually being delayed and was just lagging, it was really up to me to try to get it up to speed.

 

(14:22):

And so I turned it around, made sure everybody was getting responses within 24 hours, getting people the documents they needed, the agreement signed, and just figuring out exactly what it is and how we can best serve them and get in the ball. Rolling was important. Also to mention our CEO owns several other companies, and so I also serve as a director of operations for them. So our services do actually overlap a little bit, but very similar in relationship so that it evenly works out. We do have clients that overlap and therefore processes needed to overlap and everything needed to work together and be streamlined. So with our newest company, I think they were kind of left in the dirt <laugh>. They were just in the desert. I’m not sure if they knew exactly what they were doing. They tried to give them the tools they needed, but the foundation just wasn’t there.

 

(15:16):

So that was important for me to help build them out make sure they were heard, established weekly meetings with them to make sure they were taken care of, make sure that the billing was looking good, making sure the client processes were understood and that everything they needed to move forward was being taken care of. With the second, and I’ll say probably by profitable business of his, I made sure that everything was aligned there as well, but quickly realized that everything wasn’t aligned and there were missing pieces. Everybody wasn’t supported in the same way. So for example, one group had stable benefits that was assigned to them. Another group had not so great benefits, and then another group didn’t have any dedicated plan for them and they were being run through the main law firms group. So that became one of the projects that I found to be my essential purpose as soon as I law onboarded.

 

(16:10):

So after several conversations with the CEO, we realized that of course we need to streamline payroll. Didn’t make sense to be in several different places, having the benefits look good for all of the employees, making sure they got everything they wanted taken care of. We needed to move into a PEO option. And so that’s what I’ve been working on for the last three months, just interviewing, evaluating, and we are in a process of going through all of these proposals now and trying to figure out who we want to move forward with next. So that’s a little bit about what I’ve been doing what I’ve been up to the next three months. But definitely just getting into the role, just looking into everything, making sure that everything looks good, making sure that it makes sense, everything is in place the way it should be. Standard operating procedures are up to par and actually makes sense for what the workforce looks like and how we are using our systems and just making everything great.

 

Sara Muender (17:12):

You certainly do a lot. It’s like you came in and did a clean swoop of all of the processes and systems and it’s hard to imagine that all law firms don’t have someone like you on their team running the show and looking at all these things. And it’s hard to imagine that it all often falls on one person. Would you have any thoughts or advice for solo small firm owners as they grow who are considering hiring a integrator position like yours for their firm? Is there anything that they might be thinking of before they start hiring? And then also, if they do hire someone in that role, how can they set that person up for success?

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (18:00):

It’s very important to have an integrator. I’ll say this. Whether you’re a law firm or any organization at all, you actually need an integrator. It’s important because we are technical operators. We enjoy getting into the mix. We enjoy getting our hands dirty, being in everything, understanding the processes, understanding the people. So it’s very essential to actually start thinking about it. If you don’t have one, just consider how many things or how many tasks you waste time on that somebody else can take lead in charge of. Think of all the administrative work. You can literally put that on someone else. You don’t have to do the client follow ups, you don’t have to worry about billing, you don’t have to worry about systems. Just alleviate that stress and give it to someone who enjoys doing that. Establishing great foundations and systems and making sure these processes are handled.

 

(18:54):

That’s what integrators do. And we are special people that can actually take care of that. I know it can be a headache for most. I do know that most visionaries that have come into contact with always frustrate, always frustrated about administrative work and how they wanna get rid of it. But do consider you don’t have to micromanage every little detail of your business. Just let it go. And that’s one thing that’s been tough for the past law firm that I worked for. Just letting things go. Being able to trust the employees that you to do exactly what you need them to do. But as a first step, I would say just write a list. Come up with everything that you know are tasks that you don’t have to actually do yourself. Things that you know can be managed by an integrator. Anything operational, anything, administrative systems, clientele, onboarding, off boarding, getting in, new employees, recruitments, different things like that.

 

(19:55):

All of that should be on your list. And when you’re going to look for that talent, you wanna look for someone who has the grounded experience in doing just that. Finding people who are confident in talking through and being in the weeds and have patience. Patience is key in this role because so many things can hit us from so many different directions. And I can tell you the stress can build up, but I am very used to dealing with those who are growing and small and want to scale up. It’s not impossible, you just have to find the right teammate to do it. And finding an experience integrator is wonderful even if they aren’t as experienced with so many years, but they have the training, they have the will and they have the right characteristics that you’re looking for, go with it, try it out. If it doesn’t work, you could try someone else. Of course, some things don’t mix well, <laugh>, some personalities don’t mix well, but you will definitely find the right person to help build you out and help you visualize and actualize all your visions.

 

Sara Muender (21:01):

That is such good advice. We’re gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and then we’ll be back

 

Zack Glaser:

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Zack Glaser: 

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Sara Muender (23:10):

I’m back with Jasmine and we’re talking about her role as an integrator at her firm and all the benefits of it. So how would a firm owner or a visionary go about understanding, first of all, when is the right time to hire an integrator? And two, how do you find such a person?

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (23:31):

The right time to hire is the moment that you realize you cannot keep up and do everything on your own. When you find yourself panicking, when you feel like you don’t have enough hours in a day to get to the real work that needs to be done, it is time and it’s been past time. So please don’t get to that point at all. Just go ahead and reach out to your nearest recruiter if you have someone that you can trust to recruit for you. There are actual firms that are established to do just that and find it. Look for a head hunter if you want to, or just test the waters. I’ve come across my last few jobs on Craigslist of all places. So literally do not count out anything. A lot of people, of course, professional on LinkedIn, just try it, post it. They recognize what you’re looking for, make sure you put down the most essential details and they will tailor those who are flown into your path and all of the matches that they have come up for your listing, they are usually weeded out through key terms. So make sure you have exactly what you’re looking for listed and just go from there. I would say don’t feel intimidated, don’t feel scared. It’s a huge role and you have to find somebody who’s strong enough to be in it, but just trust your gut and just don’t shy away from it at all.

 

Sara Muender (24:55):

That’s the process and you make a good point, you know can certainly put it out there to start looking for an integrator before you even are really ready to pull the trigger. I mean, especially in this hiring market, one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard recently in one of our Lab group coaching calls was just put the posting up and you don’t have to hire the person or the people that come your way, but if you know all the stars align and you know do meet a good person, it might be time, especially like you said, if you’ve just realized that you can’t do it all, which pretty much everyone I talk to who comes in the Lab is there <laugh>. So that is really good advice. So you’ve been in our Lab program for a little while and you are at our annual two and a half day in-person conference Lab. What have been some of your big takeaways from being in Lab or being at LabCon and how have you used that to improve things at your friend?

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (25:59):

I will say that LabCon was such an amazing experience. I really had no idea <laugh>, what to expect when I got there, but it was so amazing being invited into an UN-conference. I am the type of person that avoided conferences like the Plague because I don’t wanna just sit there and listen to some drone presentations and just get lost and then try to come back and as soon as you lose the conversation, that’s it. And you’re busy looking for snacks or finding something else to busy yourself with <laugh>. But while I was there, it was such an intimate group and just knowing that it was like-minded individuals, hearing their story, where they were, how they wanted to grow, what they were seeking, what they were looking for, and realizing that I actually had something to offer. LabCon is advertised for those who actually run the law firms.

 

(26:52):

And just being an integrator in that space and having the experience that I do, I was able to provide some of my own personal experiences to help people just think about things they never even thought of. I remember talking to one of the attendees who was in a very remote location in Atlanta and he was the only attorney in his district I believe that actually served in the subject matters that he focuses on. And he wanted to reach out to more clients, didn’t know where to go and he was ready to expand. And I was like, have you thought about expanding virtually? Have you thought about bringing on remote employees? Although they aren’t with you 24/7 in person, that doesn’t mean that it would be a horrible relationship. What I’ve witnessed through Covid as that work relationships are completely different now and just the understanding that everybody has to be in a brick and mortar has been completely shattered.

 

(27:49):

So don’t be afraid of that. Even growing with, without being in your district or in your area or in your state, you can still have transplants, you can have them wave into your state and get that bar as well. It just takes time. But in that time you can actually teach them your ways, get them on par and how you want to service your clients and just be ready for that. I definitely shared some of my experience with different platforms and just thinking about other things operationally and for standard operating procedures and that was pretty amazing. I know when I was going down there, my intent was to figure out what are new ways to bring clients in. We needed to create client funnels and that was something else that I learned down there. Of course everybody has a website, but what does that mean?

 

(28:41):

How do people land where they’re supposed to land? Because we are a law firm that has sister relationships for other companies. We wanna make sure that we are getting everybody where they need to be and we can service them the best. And so having those small group breakout sessions led to amazing big ideas that I took home with me and I’ve actually got the ball rolling on implementing them. So if anything, wonderful conversations that birth, huge ideas that you can take home and implement and getting that feedback from people who may have already implemented something similar or interested in the same thing. You can have that relationship that’s like mentorship or even just growing together so you have that connection to see what works, what doesn’t work. So it was phenomenal.

 

Sara Muender (29:28):

Yeah, that’s incredibly invaluable. Thank you for sharing all that and thanks for being a part of LaboCn and bringing so much of your knowledge and experience too. So talk to me about the future of firms. Where do you see it going in terms of this integrator role, especially from a client perspective? How does considering having an integrator like you benefit the firm holistically in every aspect, which clearly it has in your firm, but from a client’s perspective, what is sort of the future of law firms and where everything’s headed?

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (30:08):

There is so much space for law firms to grow. The one thing you don’t wanna do is get stuck in tradition. You have to grow with your clients, you have to grow with society, you have to grow with the demands. And knowing, just because we are kind of exiting the covid space and how everyone had to transition, I mean maybe you are taking most of your clients through virtual meetings, maybe there isn’t any in-person unless you have to have in-person signatures cuz of course this the stay planning world requires that. But just knowing that you had to literally shift everything you had to do and how you operated, how you communicated with everyone on your team client-wise because of Covid, you have to continuously grow that way. And having an integrator is essential to help you build that out, help you create the change that you need to.

 

(31:04):

You don’t have the time to spend to sit up here and draw it out. What does it look like? Map out every little detail, figure out platforms, what’s gonna help you actualize your vision. That’s what your integrator is for. You absolutely need one, whether it’s one, whether you have a team of integrators, consider that you can have a team that actually support your integrator depending on how big you are. And of course this is catering to a small group. But know that all of you will be scalable and the purpose is for you to grow. And that’s what I see. I really enjoy and encourage for the firms that I’ve worked with to grow. But you have to grow responsibly. And I will say from personal experience, all growth isn’t good growth. So just because you had that one dream that night that’s like, Oh yeah, I’m ready to take off. Send that rocket right up to space, we are going to be amazing. That is a phenomenal experience to have. However, you have to make sure your foundation is strong, you have to make sure you have the capacity to do that. You’ve gotta make sure you have the financial backing to do that. Figure out what your growth points are and what that looks like. Cuz the last thing you wanna do is grow way too fast and then have to scale back. And that’s even more difficult in the long run.

 

Sara Muender (32:24):

You make a compelling argument my friend. And you provide a lot of word for wisdom to do it right. So what’s next for you? What are you excited about? What are you working on the path to growth in your role?

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (32:36):

I am super excited about what is about to happen. Like I mentioned previously, we are going into the field of the PEO and of course that might be a little daunting for small firms, but after looking and evaluating several options, I think we have a few that makes sense for us and how that works. And so of course talking with Chris, he has grand ideas and we are looking forward to serving our clients in more ways that are more impactful for what they do. Like we are a political firm, of course with that, we are serving candidates, we are serving packs, we are serving foundations, different things like that. People of high net worth. So just understanding more how we can help them and build out ways to make things for them even less stressful and taking that on is gonna help us scale up and what that makes sense for us.

 

(33:33):

So I do look forward to building out our operations team and finding more support. I’m also talking with the CEO and partners about creating an internship program for baby attorneys. I know a lot of people like to shy away from baby attorneys, but lean into them not only just for intern type work, the nitty gritty type stuff, but if you know have purpose and what you’re doing is good working well and you feel like it will help others and lead them in a path in which they are seeking, share that knowledge, help them grow. Just help them into the space that you’re in, whether they’re with you for two years or more, whether they’re a lifers just seeking and don’t know where they wanna go, it’s great to embrace them, raise them up, teach them their ways. And so that’s what I wanna help do here. Create a functional mentorship program for baby attorneys and just go from there.

 

Sara Muender (34:35):

That’s super exciting. Wow, you certainly have a lot going on. All right, so key takeaways is you need an integrator. The best time to get an integrator is when you are at a point where you are just totally overwhelmed. You can’t do it all, but you have the ability to grow responsibly and add to your team, lean into people, let go of control, trust the good people that you hire. Work with a recruiter maybe to find a good person. And one last piece of advice you’d love to share.

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (35:12):

Last piece of advice is to always value yourself. Value your gifts, value everything that you can give to others. Never dim your light when you know that you have something useful, just step fully into that. Support yourself through that. Find a way to make it happen. Always continue to grow. And don’t be afraid to step out on faith. So if faith is telling you to step forward and find you an integrator, do that.

 

Sara Muender (35:41):

<laugh>. I love it. That’s great. Well, I’ll leave you with one last question that I ask all of our lobsters who I coach and that’s what are you feeling proud of, Jasmine?

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (35:52):

I think I’m most proud of actually reaching where I am. My background, I wouldn’t say is that unique from others, but just coming from a place, not a two-parent household, being raised by my mom and putting my best foot forward educationally and just taking the bumps and bruises as they go, it’s very important for me to sit back and think about the impact that I’ve had on my community. I am a community service girl at heart, and so serving and giving back is the most important thing for me. And I think my time at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, I was there during the point in which we were discussing creating a day center for the homeless because DC does not have a place for the homeless to go to get services get food, have an opportunity to take care of hygiene, different things like that, have support socially, et cetera.

 

(36:53):

And just being able to be themselves instead of being look down upon ignored, et cetera. So being able to be a part of that team, building out the construction, just creating the actual program itself and actualizing the downtown DC Center for the homeless was incredible for me in partnership with the mayor and the downtown DC services. It was pretty amazing. And just interacting with those who were experiencing homelessness that interacted with the program, they were able to just do simple things, let it be getting an ID, getting some paperwork that they can’t usually get to because they don’t have access to it, they don’t have a way to get to it. That has been huge for me.

 

Sara Muender (37:44):

And it just goes to show that in a role like yours, it’s very much actualizing a purpose or a mission. Absolutely. And you bring all the pieces together. Well, thank you for all you do in this world, and thank you for coming on the podcast today and being of service to our community.

 

Jasmine Jowers Prout (38:04):

Thank you. Thank you. It was a pleasure.

 

Announcer:

The Lawyerist Podcast is edited by Britany Felix. Are you ready to implement the ideas we discuss here into your practice? Wondering what to do next? Here are your first two steps. First. If you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, grab the first chapter for free at Lawyerist.com/book. Looking for help beyond the book? Let’s chat about whether our coaching communities, are right for you. Head to Lawyerist.com/community/lab to schedule a 10-minute call with our team to learn more. The views expressed by the participants are their own and are not endorsed by Legal Talk Network. Nothing said in this podcast is legal advice for you.

Your Hosts

Sara Muender

As a Lab Coach, Sara works with lawyers to build healthier law firms through workshops and 1:1 coaching. She makes sure lawyers have the guidance and tools to implement their ideas and grow their businesses.

Featured Guests

Jasmine Jowers Prout Headshot

Jasmine Jowers Prout

Jasmine Jowers Prout, The Gober Group’s Director of Operations, is a well-versed business operations administrator with experience in local and federal government, religious organizations, and legal services.

She has spearheaded organizational shifts that would ensure the empowerment and accountability of team members at all levels, consolidating and upgrading systems and technology, and revamping client and guest experiences; therefore, increasing productivity and effectiveness. Jasmine is committed to high quality, principles, and performance.

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Last updated October 26th, 2022