Lisa Sotir
GENERAL COUNSEL, CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER, INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER & CORPORATE SECRETARY
NEA MEMBER BENEFITS
GAITHERSBURG, MD
MEMBER SINCE 2002.
The 2015 Engage Your Network Campaign is an opportunity for you to deepen your connections with in-house friends and coworkers by inviting them to become ACC members. When your in-house peers join ACC, you grow opportunities to engage with colleagues, expand your professional network, and share ideas and expertise. You also provide them with all of ACC’s value: access to the association’s wide array of in-house resources, discounts for world-class educational programing and a network of nearly 40,000 in-house professionals from around the world.
In this series, we introduce you to ACC members who have become active in ACC and encouraged their friends and coworkers to join. They will explain, in their own words, why they encouraged others to become ACC members, offer tips for what you can do to recruit peers and explain the benefits they have enjoyed.
We will celebrate the success of our 2015 Engage Your Network campaign by recognizing our Top Recruiters in the ACC Docket and at the 2015 ACC Annual Meeting.
In this issue we introduce you to ACC Member Lisa Sotir. Lisa is general counsel for NEA Member Benefits, the for-profit subsidiary of the National Education Association, a US-based trade association with over three million members. In this role, she manages the organization’s legal operations, including contracts, data usage and privacy, compliance, risk management, product analysis and quality assurance. Sotir is active in the ACC Small Law Department Committee and ACC National Capital Region.
(ACC) What value does ACC provide to you?
(LS) I joined ACC in 2002 at the encouragement of a former boss. He was a member and understood the tremendous benefit of the organization for someone who was new to in-house. I’m so very glad he did, and recently I passed along the same advice to a new in-house attorney at our organization.
At my former company, my work focused on intellectual property and international law. Now, a primary area of responsibility is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Throughout my in-house career, ACC has been there to help me every step of the way, helping me transition into new roles by providing the information, resources and connections I need to get my job done. ACC is a tremendous resource for anyone who is new to in-house or who has taken on a new role where they are generalists.
(ACC) What value does ACC provide to your company?
(LS) Working in a small legal department, I find the ability to learn from my peers very helpful. We know we don’t have all of the answers and it can be very expensive to always use outside counsel. Other ACC members understand the challenges I face and can help me find practical solutions. When I do need outside counsel, I can rely on other ACC members to offer reliable referrals.
At NEA Member Services, we use a number of ACC services, including the Annual Meeting and other educational programming. The value of ACC education is amazing. I get all of my CLE in one place at one time. I also appreciate knowing that the educational material is current and focused on in-house lawyers rather than a general legal audience. I also use the small law department committee and e-group to post questions, research solutions, and benchmark our activity against other, similar organizations.
(ACC) What advice do you have for members who want to engage their network?
(LS) If you know people who are new to in-house or have new roles in their companies and are not ACC members, do them a favor and encourage them to join ACC. You’ll be giving them a resource and network that will benefit them for the rest of their careers. If they work in your department, I urge you to help pay for their membership. You’ll recover your investment in no time: they will get up to speed more quickly, be more efficient and have the resources they need to meet all of the day-to-day challenges we, as in-house counsel, face.
