Deadline Day

There's still a bit of time to send me news, but not much... send ASAP please!

Dianne Kueck wrote for the first time in ages: "I married Kendall Gelner on 11/11/2007 in Boulder, Colorado.  The judge I clerked for, David Ebel of the Tenth Circuit, performed the ceremony.  Kendall and I honeymooned in Ecuador and on a sailboat in the Galapagos Islands, which was a fabulous trip!"

Tom LaWer had a lot to announce: "Last year in June I made a big career move, leaving the practice of law to become a compensation consultant.  Two attorneys I had worked with for many years in the executive compensation group at Wilson Sonsini co-founded a compensation consulting firm called Compensia.  They seemed to be having a lot of fun and business was booming, so I decided to join them.  I had become a victim of my own success at Greenberg Traurig and I was tired of the all-consuming nature of the work.  It’s been quite a change going from a national law firm of over 1,500 attorneys to a 5 year old, 25 person company.  While the transition has had its bumps, so far it has been a great move.  Compensia focuses on executive and equity compensation and advising compensation committees and boards of directors.  The potential of this business looks great, because boards of directors increasingly want an outside adviser to assist them on the process of determining executive compensation.  In addition, many of the incumbent consulting firms have conflicts of interest because they provide other consulting services to management, so they do not appear to be an independent adviser to the board.  In addition, my previous work in executive compensation is complementary to what I am doing now, and I can leave the focus on the minutiae of the law to legal counsel.  Additionally, while the work is challenging, I can better control the volume, so that I am have some free time to spend with my family. Speaking of which, since last I wrote a few years ago, Anne and I now have two children (see attached photo).  Max just turned 4 in December and Katie is 2 ½.  We just got back from a great weekend trip to Yosemite.  The park was spectacular in the snow.  The kids got to sled down a hill right below Half Dome. 

Best of all, the work was manageable over the weekend and I actually got to play with the kids (instead of my old law firm experience of being on the phone and the computer the whole time for the various weekend crisis)."

Susan Epstein writes: "I was elected President of the School Board in December. I have been doing management consulting for nonprofits, and was recently hired as the interim Executive Director of the Nonprofit Support Center (NSC).  NSC provides management training and consulting to 2300 nonprofits in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. My daughter Chloe is now in 3rd grade, reads many books each day and enjoys sports and dancing, and my son Leo is in 1st grade and really enjoys science experiments and building forts. Steve and I got divorced last year in what our friends say was the most amicable divorce they've ever heard of.  Both our kids are enjoying having two homes now.  Our homes are both zoned to the same elementary school, and the kids have lots of friends on both blocks.  Deciding to get divorced was a long process, but once we made the decision, things have gone really well.  I'm very happy with my life."