Atticus strives to bring topics and speakers to our Graduate Network Calls that will enhance your practice and your life. Below are some recent speakers to the Atticus Graduate Network.

The Omnia Group led a discussion on Hiring the Right Person. The Omnia Group assists clients in hiring the right person by administering personality-based hiring tools.

Carletta Pennington is a senior consultant with The Omnia Group, an employee selection and management consulting firm. Carletta provides employee hiring and retention guidance to the senior-level decision-makers for hundreds of domestic and international businesses. Her scope encompasses a wide range of industries, with particular emphasis in the fields of insurance, legal, banking, automotive, recreational vehicle, powersports, communications, staffing, health care and printing.

Rob Cannon has been a practicing attorney for almost 25 years starting as a solo practitioner; building a traditional general practice firm of 12 attorneys with 30 employees and three offices; returning to school for his MBA and then applying those lessons to his firm to realize that he had built a job and not a business. On that basis, Rob started a new firm, Equitas LLC, which, incorporating lessons from books like From Good to Great and The World Is Flat, concentrates solely on one practice area - guiding seniors through the process of reverse mortgages - while doing so as a completely virtual firm with no brick and mortar and so little overhead. Equitas now closes reverse mortgages in nine states and is still expanding. In building Equitas, Rob was approached by his title insurance company and asked if he would make available his web-based real estate closing system to other real estate attorneys. Rob agreed and that system, known as EquaDocs, is now available to closing attorneys and title companies. You can try EquaDocs at www.equadocs.com.

K. William Gibson has been a lawyer in Portland, Oregon, since 1980. He was a partner in Gibson & Duffy, a plaintiff's personal injury law firm in Portland, from 1980 until 1988 and has been a solo since then.

He was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 1979 and has handled only personal injury cases since 1985. He also regularly serves as an arbitrator and mediator in personal injury cases and other disputes.

Mr. Gibson is a longtime member of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and served as  Chair in 2001-2002. He has served on several ABA Committees and Commissions and is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Publishing Oversight.

Mr. Gibson is a regular columnist for Law Practice Magazine, published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. He has written numerous articles on law practice management and is a regular speaker at CLE programs. He served as editor of Flying Solo: Survival Guide for the Solo and Small Firm Lawyer, published in 2005 by the ABA Law Practice Management Section.

He is founder of De Novo Systems, Inc., a Vancouver, Washington, software company that publishes De Novo CaseMgr, a case management/practice management software system. 

Lonny Balbi is an attorney who actively practices in Family Law. He is an accredited Family Mediator, Arbitrator and Collaborative Family Lawyer. He is a member of the Canadian Federal Advisory Working Group on Family Law in Ottowa, and one of a group of experts who advised the Federal Department of Justice on the implementation of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines released in January, 2005.

He is a founding member of the Dispute Resolution Officer Project and currently a Dispute Resolution Officer in Calgary, Alberta. He has Chaired the Canadian Bar Association Family Law Section in Alberta. He was also the Canadian Bar Association National Family Law Section Chair. He has presented at many conferences on various Family Law topics throughout the world, including Romania and the U.S. He teaches courses to Canadian Family Law Judges. He also teaches the Parenting After Separation Course, a course which is mandatory for separating parents. He is an instructor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law teaching Advanced Family Law. He has also published numerous articles in Family Law.

Lonny also volunteers for the Mustard Seed serving food on a weekly basis to Calgary's homeless, teaches aerobics and is a fitness enthusiast. He also appears regularly on TV. 

Linda has a Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology, a Masters in Labor and Employment Relations, and a Bachelor’s in Accounting.  She is the author of HRM Ethics and co-author of Bridging the Generations Gap.  Linda is a frequent presenter at national conferences on the topics of conflict resolution, ethics, generational differences, and communication across genders.

Robin is the co-author of Bridging the Generations Gap (January 2007).  She is a frequent speaker for professional associations and conferences on the topics of generational differences, retention, recruitment strategies, and labor trends.  Robin has been an adjunct faculty member of the University of Cincinnati where she taught and spoke for various classes in the Masters program including Strategic Human Resources Management.  In addition, Robin has been an adjunct at Xavier University facilitating classes in the Senior HR Management Certificate Program.  Robin is also Myers Briggs Type Indicator certified and has used the certification to counsel individuals and groups in career management and team building. Robin holds a BS from Purdue University in Management and a Master of Arts in Labor and Employment Relations from the University of Cincinnati.  Robin is also certified as a Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) by the national Human Resources Certification Institute.  She regularly volunteers for advisory and leadership roles to help serve the human resources profession.