00:06 Will Peterson: Good afternoon, this is Will Peterson. I am the Attorney Experience Manager at ARAG. We are so glad to have you with us today for Setting Yourself up for Success as a Network Attorney, another webinar in our continuing series. So always be looking for that on our marketing page. We'll continue to post webinars. We'll continue to have what we think are great interviews and presentations by people in the legal industry. But also we're gonna to talk to a lot of our network attorneys because we find that to be of great value. And that's who we're gonna be speaking with today, which I'll get to in a moment. A little housekeeping up-front. Again, we're gonna be with the 30 minutes or so today. That will depend on questions because we do wanna open up to questions as we go. So if you look in the window, you'll see that you're able to type in questions. We'll compile those. And then at the end, we'll address those and speak to them for a little bit. So again, I appreciate you being here, and ARAG appreciates your work as a network attorney as much as we do.
01:03 WP: The person who I'm gonna talk to here in a moment, who I'd like to introduce, Jennifer Tombrello, who's a practicing attorney in Hoover, Alabama. And of course one of our network attorneys. Been on the network for five years as well as an outgoing, and we're sad to say that term, Network Attorney Advisory Board member. So Jennifer has been instrumental in a lot of the great ideas that we've been able to implement and her feedback on those and challenging us. Right, Jennifer? Has also been important. That's very important. So Jennifer, thanks for being with us today. We really appreciate it.
01:37 Jennifer Tombrello: Yes. Thanks for having me, Will.
01:39 WP: So I got a few questions before we jump into our portion of the presentation, and we'll let people see the agenda for today as we ask some of these questions. But I wanted to ask you because I've been around when you're doing this. As a proud network attorney, why do you promote ARAG to other attorneys in your area? That's something that some people kinda worry about 'cause they worry about sharing business, but I think you found that it's very helpful.
02:08 JT: Sure. To me it's all about the clients. Our state motto for the Alabama State Bar is actually "Lawyers Rendering Service." And to me, that's what it's all about. That should be our number one goal at all times not, "I wanna make sure I get all the cases and cut the other people out." I actually had a professor in law school, and he used to tell us this story that the most successful attorney's, the one who passed the bar the first time, the one who did well in their own businesses or the ones who in law school would share their notes with other people. They would be helpful. They would try to explain things just so everybody was kind of on the same footing. And to me that kind of transfers over into real life. So I wanna be helpful to anybody who needs any kind of legal assistance, whether they wanna hire me or somebody else who might be better for the job.
03:00 WP: That's great advice. I wanna talk to you little bit about the first year on the network. We're gonna have some attorneys that have been with us for a while. And we'll cater to them today as well, but a lot of attorneys who are just joining the network and learning about legal insurance for the first time. Kinda walk us through what that was like.
03:15 JT: Sure. So my first year on the network was my first year in practice as an attorney. I had my student practice card before I ever was licensed. So I was working with another attorney, kind of learning the ropes. And he was a big ARAG attorney advocate. So he kind of bought me into it and let me know how beneficial it can be, how you can expand your business. Especially me being a solo attorney, I feel like I'm always kind of working to make sure I keep those client numbers up. And with ARAG kind of on my side helping me, sending me clients and allowing me to be seen on their website was very, very helpful in building my practice.
04:02 WP: How has being on the ARAG board impacted your business?
04:07 JT: So the last time I ran an accounting report, I believe I had about one-third of my client base was either ARAG currently or previously ARAG clients or a family member or a friend of an ARAG client. So when you kind of look at the numbers like that, it really showed me how much you do impact the business. And again, it might not just be from that one member, it could be from a referral or several referrals from one member to their friends.
04:42 WP: Alright. Well, thank you for all your insights that you've shared with us to this point. And I'm gonna hand it off to you to talk a little bit more about how you can set yourself up for success as an ARAG network attorney. So I'll hand it over to you, Jennifer.
04:53 JT: Thanks, Will. So being an ARAG network attorney. So you've already joined the network, now what? You're presumably ready to increase your client base and grow your firm as far as numbers goes. So to me, the number one practical tip that you can have is setting up your profile. Let me get the PowerPoint going here. Okay, so your profile is actually your website. It has everything on there. To me, it has everything that my website has. It seems like a very, very simple thing but it's probably the most important because this is what your potential clients and the ARAG members are going to see first. A lot of them, if a legal matter arises, they have no idea where to go, never used an attorney before. So a lot of them will go directly to the app, which is the video that's playing right now is the app profile that the members have access to. So not only does it have your name, your phone number and how long you have been in the ARAG network it then also gives you maps to where your office location is. It has a direct link to your phone number. It does give ratings and reviews. It will show the total and the total amount of ratings. Then it will only give you the last few recent reviews for them to actually, that they can pull up and read.
06:36 JT: It also has pricing, which to me is the most important thing to keep updated. If you raise your hourly rate, if you drop your hourly rate on some things, you wanna make sure that that's reflected on the website and in the app. So people know if they either go over their covered hours, they know what your price is gonna be or if it's a reduced fee matter, which is 25% off of your normal hourly rate, you just wanna make sure that all of that is updated and reflected on the app and the website. There's also a section for your legal matters, your areas of law that you practice. I have several areas of law marked. Just starting out I did a little bit of everything until I could kinda get focused in on those things that I really wanted to work.
07:27 JT: The counties served also. Here in Birmingham we are fairly close to several different counties. So I service four or five different counties regularly. So to me that was an important thing also to make sure is updated and correct if you're practicing a lot in one county and you'd be willing to take more cases there. You definitely wanna keep that updated or if you no longer are interested in servicing a county or two, you can take that off of your profile fairly easily just on the website. There's also an about you section on there, which I've found helpful to kinda let people know a little bit more about me, the things that I am into, the things that I help out with in my community. And then also that I was an ARAG attorney board member, which again, very sad as you said Will I'm on my way out now. Just wrapped up year three. It was great. And then the very last thing down here on this video is going to be your education and background. So you can just say where you went to law school. For some people that's a good connect if they like the University of Alabama and see that you went to law school there or undergrad there. That might just be one more thing for them.
08:41 JT: So I encourage everyone to view your profile, make any updates or changes as they happen. So you have the latest version up there. Then we will go to the next slide. A little bit of lag there. So this is about helping members navigate their plan. So at the end of a client's legal matter, I like to review their file to determine if there is any other outstanding matters, anything else that they may need help or representation with. You can do it at the end. If a matter arises in the beginning you obviously wanna kinda jump on that. One good example is I've had several divorces over the years where bankruptcy has come up either as a solution or as a negotiating tool. So if a couple wants to file bankruptcy jointly, obviously that divorce proceeding is going to be stayed until you can file and get that bankruptcy discharged. Or if one spouse agrees to take all the debt and they're willing to file the bankruptcy on all of that debt at the end of the divorce, that's something else that you can help with or that they can use an ARAG network attorney to cover.
10:06 JT: I've also had, of course, being here in New York for several colleges, I've done lots of divorces or other matters for clients and then something will happen and their 18 year old child will get arrested for something small like a public intox or something along those lines. So then at that point they would just pick up the phone, call me, "Hey, do you mind going and being in court with them on this date?" And that you just immediately jump right in. So essentially you're becoming the go to attorney for that client and any legal needs that they may have. Occasionally things have arisen that are not within my practice area or that I just don't feel comfortable taking. And at that point you can just either recommend another ARAG attorney or have them get a case assist confirmation to generate a new list of attorneys who practice in that area.
11:12 JT: So the next section is promoting yourself online. So obviously you want to utilize referrals and reviews in any way that you can. I like to ask for reviews early on in the process, possibly in the middle to where we've had enough interaction and done enough work together so they have a good feel for my style and me as an attorney and I like to get their feedback at that point. You can wait until the end of the legal matter, but things may have been forgotten. Some cases can take a year plus to conclude.
11:47 JT: So you wanna make sure you get all those high points while you're in the middle of it. Also, if you get to the end and get a judgment that is maybe not so favorable to you and your client, that's not gonna be the thing in their forefront of thought of, "Oh well we lost." Or, "We didn't get as much as we had hoped." It's gonna be more focused on their experience, your customer service, your office's customer service and things that you can get that feedback on and either improve on or push in the present. Also you can mention that you accept ARAG legal insurance on your website.
12:26 JT: ARAG has a neat little button that you can download from them, and you can ask Will, he'll send it to you and you can just get that put on your website so people will see the nice little ARAG logo. And then also on your social media platforms, you can list that as well. Of course it's important to keep clients in the know with what's going on in your firm and what you and your people are doing. Community outreach projects, giving back. If you happen to give any speeches at any local conferences like Cleo, which I know just happened a couple of weeks ago, things like that. If you're doing blogs, webinars, you always wanna keep your name out there so that it is on the top of mind for everyone. When something comes up that they need help or a referral with.
13:27 JT: Sorry about the lag, go into the next slide. So setting up your firm to be most effective. So here we have another little video that's playing. So how can your office staff help and be involved and allow you to delegate those tasks that maybe someone else, either you or a secretary or an office manager can handle for you. So ARAG is now rolling out, starting November 14th. They will have it to where you can turn on and off certain notifications settings right there, like service updates and account changes, those types of things to go to your email. And then you can enter another email address, an alternate email and either do the same or different notifications and have those links in to that staff email. So certain things that you want going to your secretary or if you need them to go to your office manager, like ratings or reviews, something along those lines. You can have that setup directly to them while you yourself are still getting the service updates and the account changes.
14:33 JT: You can add emails, you can delete emails and you can change around those notifications. So that's very helpful and you don't want you to a large influx of emails coming to you or one of your staff members when it's something that you would personally would like to see and handle. So you can just change those notification settings right there on your account, email address preference. Another thing is don't forget to bill within the 180 day time limit. Now that's not 180 days from accepting the case or initially confirming that member, that's 180 days from the time that you have concluded your plan member service.
15:15 JT: So of course ARAG from just the paper standpoint of course they need those claims in within a certain amount of time. But then, say if a client had a capped number of hours and you've already used up that, say 20 hours doing a divorce, you don't have to wait until that entire case is concluded to bill ARAG for that first 20 hours. Once you've done the work, I suggest go ahead and bill ARAG for the time that you have maxed out on that plan. They'll go ahead and pay you. I believe it's within seven to 10 days for covered plan members. So go ahead and bill them when you use those hours and then you can at that point start to bill your client their reduced hourly fee from that point forward.
16:08 JT: Although if say you've done a will package and you just cant get the clients back into sign, you're having a hard time linking up with them and getting a good time to get together. If you've already done that will package and you've completed everything that you need to complete for that member other than the actual executing of the documents, then you can go ahead and bill ARAG for the documents that you prepared. Cause that's essentially what they're paying you for is to draw up the documents and get it to the client. So once you've done those things, you're okay to just go ahead and bill out for that. And then, as soon as the plan members are able, I'm sure they will make time and come in and execute those documents for you.
17:03 JT: Another good thing is ask for referrals from any coworkers of your clients. I always say, when you go back to the office, if you hear a coworker who is having a legal issue or a family member or a friend, whether they're covered or not, I always let them know that I take ARAG plan members and then I also take people who are not ARAG plan members so that they know I can cover all parts of that aspect and then just let them know, "Hey, I'm willing to help if you know of anybody who has a similar issue or problem in your office. Feel free to send them to me. I'm covered by ARAG. I'm happy to help them with their legal matter and take it from there." And then, sorry, we have this lag still. Okay, and that wraps up my PowerPoint presentation.
18:09 WP: Yeah. And one thing I was gonna mention to you, Jennifer, I think when I talk I get a little feedback there, so if you may have to turn the speaker down a little bit, just so we don't do that. I have a few clarifiers too on some points you made. Thank you so much for those great tips. I think people hear those coming from me quite a bit and it's much better to hear it coming from one of our network attorneys that does that in the field. You brought up a great point for the wills. That's actually an official procedure now because we saw in that 180 day, so many of our attorneys are diligent and they have a lot of patience too and they give members and their clients sometimes even years to come in and execute or finalize that estate plan.
18:55 WP: Our thought process is you've done all the work and if it's just a matter of you feel it's executable on a signature like she said, we even have that in the fee schedule now. So do know that I completely agree. File the claim at that point. And then there won't be a refiling when the client comes back in, but at least you've now been compensated for your work. We do have a few questions, so if other people have questions, please type those in and we'd love to address them. They can be either for myself, again, this is Will Peterson, I'm the attorney experience manager at ARAG. So I work with our network of 14,000 attorneys trying to make your daily experience better. So I'd love to hear that feedback or any questions so I can guide you through.
19:33 WP: We had a question about how do you ask for reviews. I know you mentioned your review process, Jennifer and it got me thinking about ours. As you mentioned too, you see ratings and reviews on our website and on the mobile app there, do you understand as a network attorney, those ratings and reviews are for only use with the members? So we do not publish those publicly. We hold those in great trust and I'm really proud of what a scientific process our ratings and reviews are. Plan members can't just go out and do a, "I see five stars. I'm gonna click that." We ask questions and we guide them through to understand their relationship and what their rating is.
20:10 WP: But the timing was one thing that you mentioned, Jennifer and I thought that was really important. We agree wholeheartedly with what Jennifer said. Our goal is to understand the member clients experience with you, really from more of a customer service perspective. What was locating the attorney like, finding the attorney and what is my experience like early on? We do want to steer away from that outcome based rating and review because we do understand the law is not black and white. And not every outcome is going to be satisfactory, even though you did all the right things, did all the great work as an attorney. So we tried to serve it usually within the first 30 to 60 days with our members and as far as those reviews, those are automatic. So what happens is when a member has a case created and an attorney is working with them, then that is going to go out to the member without you having to initiate that. So I would definitely encourage you to maybe not double up, if you know you can go out there and look at your rating or review with a member for ARAG, sometimes I think that can be a confusing process.
21:25 WP: So okay, a few more questions coming in Jennifer. Our plan members automatically prompted by ARAG to submit an attorney review. Okay, so we kind of answered that. Yeah, it is automatic. Every case, 100% of the cases we create, they do go out and we actually survey them a few times because we really want to get that feedback. Understand nationwide, our attorney rating is nine so you guys are doing an amazing job. And I see over and over again great ratings and reviews. But please always know if you see a rating and a review on your profile that you maybe have an issue with or you knew that there was a different situation, we're the advocates for you as an attorney, so you have the opportunity to appeal as well. Just going through the questions here. So more on ratings and reviews what questions our clients asked during that ratings and review process. Those are very bifurcated ratings and reviews, I should clarify too. We asked about the member experience first meeting, what was it like to talk to our customer care department?
22:28 WP: We make sure to really separate that out. We ask what the ARAG plan was like? 'cause we wanna make sure we separate that out. So we're clearing out the noise. So when they get to the attorney portion, they can focus just on that. So we make sure that we're not biasing them at all, they're gonna talk about it. And really, most of those questions revolve around responsiveness, timeliness of answer, maybe attitude is, I guess, one terminology, willingness to assist. So they really are more around those touch points versus the legal expertise or practice of law when it's getting to that end point because we think those are the really important things to get those ratings and reviews on. Got a question here about how do clients receive attorney recommendations from ARAG? Do they receive more than one name before selecting? That's a great question. I know there is some confusion around how that always happens. So I love when I have the opportunity to clarify that. We, as a company and with our clients do need to offer choice.
23:38 WP: So what we will do though, is try to limit and distribute that choice evenly because we know the important thing is you're with us to get referrals, get qualified referrals, get plan members that can turn into all this great business that Jennifer's talking about, and that Jennifer just gave you the tools to then take and run with and then get a great rating and review. And so how that works is that when a plan member would contact our customer care center for one route, then they will speak to them about their legal matter. They'll be asked a certain amount questions which you do have access to, they're called the knowledge tree questions. And whenever you get a case assist number and you go to our site and you look up that case assist, you can see those knowledge tree questions. That's a really important step for you to take, because you're gonna probably learn more than we would or asked a different question.
24:23 WP: So you can always modify them there as well and our customer care department will help electronically do that with you. But at that point, when we've verified what their coverage is and we've determined it, we've created a case assist, will do a search based primarily on area of law and zip code, and then locate an attorney or group of attorneys within that area. And then we have some internal algorithms that try to distribute those evenly so that if there's multiple searches in a certain area, it will sort them out a bit in different orders. We don't go alphabetically or anything like that. We try to distribute the wealth, if you will. And then that plan member receives a list with six attorneys on it. So they have that choice, but it's a bit more a limited choice.
25:01 WP: Now we'll tell you, when that process occurs, what we're finding more and more, and Jennifer, this goes back to your presentation, is that people are using our search tool, because that's another way that members can find attorneys, they can go to the website, and they can do a search. They're going out to use that tool though not as a search tool to find a list of attorneys, they're using it as a research tool. So when Jennifer's name pops up on a list of those six attorneys, I almost guarantee you and I think, Jennifer, you've heard that right. They say your picture looks great, or they make a comment about maybe on your profile.
25:33 JT: Oh, absolutely. It's been very, very instrumental.
25:36 WP: Yeah. And I've heard that more and more from attorneys, sometimes, almost in a way that they're a bit curious, like, "How does this person know how I look?" but then I tell them, you have the ability to put... You put that profile picture up there, they go out and the more complete profile they see, they both think, I know who this person is. I can make a connection with this person. And I can do it all within my ARAG website without even having to go necessarily to your website that we do link to, each of your personal websites, if you so choose there as well and we encourage that and those are I guess, I would say overwhelmingly the attorneys usually get picked out of those lists. So, that's a long answer to a short question and that's sort of my specialty but hopefully that gave you the the full details on that.
26:26 WP: Just going through the questions here as we go, and some of these questions I'm gonna take away and probably personally follow up with some of the attorneys because they may be specific to things that I don't have access to information on right now, so don't think I'm ducking you if I don't answer one of these questions, 'cause we also wanna be mindful of our time here as we're coming up on it.
26:49 WP: More ratings and reviews questions talking about they have a negative rating but they can't see or view that. I know Jennifer, we had some spirited conversations to the advisory board about this and trying to figure it out. So the way that it works in open honesty is that we do allow our members to... Perhaps not wanna share their review or for confidentiality purposes and we wanna have them feel that. We also have situations where there is a rating without a review, and in those instances obviously, you would not be able to see a review associated to that.
27:27 WP: So there's a multiple collection points and the goal of that is always to get the most sample size, and that does help you as an attorney, but that's why we added recently, well, maybe in about the last six months, when you go to view your ratings and reviews on the network attorney portal, you can see a breakdown, so you may not be able to see all of your reviews or there may not be reviews associated with all the ratings, but you can at least see a breakdown of what those are.
27:52 WP: This is something we're still continuing to discuss, we're still continuing to look into and figure out how we can always make this the most fair and equitable process for our attorneys. So do know that we're continuing to look at that.
28:11 WP: I had a question that was a little more specific to one group, but it's more generally about if they are a member of the legal plan through their employer, how do they know that ARAG is an option for something like estate planning? Great question. ARAG has dedicated itself tremendously to education of employers we have that we're growing and we continue to get new businesses and it's really exciting, and we're gonna share some news about that in the upcoming network news that you can subscribe to. The account notification is on the 14th. Jennifer you're just teeing me up, I love it.
[laughter]
28:47 WP: But we really work very hard now to have a huge presence at benefit fairs. In some instances, we even have a network or a team of people that go out there and help us spread the news and then when those plan members become a member 'cause the enrollment period times are so important, and now a lot of companies have moved so that they're not just in the fall, they've spread them out quite a bit throughout the year, and that's been really beneficial to groups like us which are a little unique. A legal plan is it something you may be think of. So you may get lost in the noise if you're stacked up against medical and dental those things that everybody knows they need every day, they don't know yet that they need legal insurance every day. We're trying to make sure they do.
29:31 WP: So when they sign up, though, then there's constant communication with that member. The member gets their card, they have the member portal which is continuing to be redesigned and really we have made some very cool upgrades to that that are going out to members that I think will cause some great interactivity, and the crown jewel of those updates is the attorney finder because we know that the attorneys are... Are our most important part of a successful plan.
29:57 WP: So, not that totally helps with that, but we don't hide anything when it comes to those coverages. We want people to engage with the plan. We want people to engage with an attorney because we know that that experience is going to enrich their lives, but also it leads to retention. So I don't know if that was the exact answer you were looking for.
30:22 WP: So here's one that says, "I have people contact me and say, they want to hire me but I don't hear them back. Is there something that I need to be doing or we'll get a notification from ARAG?" I don't know if that may be referring to a beta process that we were having in the last about 18 months called ARAG connect. I know Jennifer, you were kinda asking me a question about that, right? And...
30:47 JT: Yes, yes. We had a lot of... A lot of people who felt very strongly either one way or the other for the ARAG connect.
30:56 WP: Yeah, that's a great, great point. And the reason we beta tested it, it only went two days a week, and we did it for about 18 months and we just sent out a recent communication indicating that that will no longer be continuing. So that may be what you're referring to. Bear in mind that was part of the issue, it was very cumbersome and burdensome for our attorneys we found after we did surveying and we watched the numbers, and it wasn't yielding the impact that this person is asking for, right.
31:21 WP: There was an assumption that if I got this email and it said this person wanted assistance that, A, they were ready to go right at that moment and they may have just been window shopping to be honest, or there also may have been a situation where that was the attorney accepting the case and they thought that that was their one interaction, whereas really those lists were still being curated of six attorneys behind the scenes, and that was some of the confusion.
31:46 WP: So in those instances, now we're going back to the process I talked about earlier, where a plan member contacts us, now they may contact you directly by finding you on the attorney finder, that's recently been updated or they may find you on the mobile app, or they may indeed get you on a list of one of those six attorneys. In those instances then if they reach out to you, it's sort of the regular run of business obviously.
32:12 WP: They may have not just decided to pursue it. We really try hard at ARAG to make sure we're the initiators and the finalizers. And what I mean by that is we wanna get that plan member coverage, we wanna get them out in the world, but once they engage with an attorney, we wanna stay out of your business as much as we possibly can. We wanna let you do what you do best, and then at the end, write you a check. That's kind of the goal, that's the relationship we wanna have, and then that member is satisfied and happy.
32:39 JT: Yeah. I know for me, Will, personally it caused me a little bit of stress and anxiety getting that email and knowing that I only had one hour to answer whether I was interested in that client or not. So a lot of times, if you're tied up in court or it may even be after hours when the people are searching for an attorney and that ARAG connect email would go out, it just was a little bit stressful. You wanted to make sure you got there in time and just checking your email on a very regular basis to make sure you didn't miss anything. And again, I understand that from your point of view, you guys wanted to give them a list of attorneys who were interested in the case. And then, obviously, having to when you call and ask for an attorney and having to wait one hour, to the client that can be like a lifetime. So it was a good run. It was again, with the beta test team, but to me, it was just a little bit too stressful, a one-hour window.
33:44 WP: A live reaction from a network attorney. That's... I love it. That's how this is supposed to work. And we appreciate that and appreciate all the feedback we've gotten. Do know we're gonna continue to innovate and bring you new things and not stop trying to make your lives better however we can. Again, I do wanna remind people there's a few very specific questions coming in to me. I'm gonna make sure all of these are saved and we'll respond to them. I'm hoping I can do that. And if not, make sure you have attorneys@araglegal.com, that's attorneys@araglegal.com. Myself or one of our attorney advocates can always be reached there to help you with anything you need. One of the questions we had here is a great one. I guess, two questions. Can you purchase ARAG outside of an employer? Right now, there are some very small kind of testing plans we've had in the individual market, but I will let you know that coming up in the future, we are looking at those.
34:42 WP: But we're always wanting to try to find the right type of product, but that's what's great about the network news. Make sure you're getting that network news, make sure you're signed up for multiple account notifications. Wanna clarify around that to Jennifer. You can actually have up to four additional emails. So if you're maybe a larger firm and you have multiple case managers and you have an office admin, you have somebody that's your accountant that you want to get the claims, payment, emails or whatever it may be, we're gonna have up to four. So you can have yourself and four more. So there's no reason you shouldn't be getting those communications. But in network news, we're really gonna try to enrich that and then also things that they're called service updates which are what you got recently on Connect. And there'll be another update on account notifications coming up, too, because in that network news, we're gonna talk about not only that. But then the other question here was, what about employers in my area do I have a list of those?
35:29 WP: We don't have necessarily a list and again, being totally upfront, some of that is... Some employers may wanna handle that a different route. But what we are gonna do is, we're gonna get much better about communicating to you as the network attorneys on where we're growing, how we're growing, who our new clients are and we are expanding a lot so that you'll see that there are clients who are nationwide and maybe have multiple offices. But we're gonna make sure you understand more about the size, not only the network, but the plan members and what we're doing, and we're gonna work hard in future network newsletters to do that. So please stay tuned and be watching that. Just scrolling through any other questions. Any other things that you were thinking of as I look through questions, Jennifer, that maybe we haven't hit on yet?
36:20 JT: I think these are some really great questions from the network attorneys. And I actually have a little something to add to that. As I stated, I have wrapped up my three-year term as an ARAG attorney board member and I just wanted to let everybody know that applications are gonna be going out for the three new members of the attorney board. So there are six members total and they are on an...
36:48 JT: So three of us have just finished our term and so three more are still on for another year. So it's kind of staggered. However, the applications for becoming a network attorney advisory board member will be going out in the next couple of weeks, I have been informed. So I just wanted to encourage everyone here to apply for that. I have really cherished my time these last three years working so closely with ARAG and trying to help maybe network attorney experience better, trying to... Relaying some of your thoughts and and even frustrations with what's going on to try to make it a better website or app or bringing things to Will and the other's attention. Collaborating with the other network attorneys really all over the country and just understanding those inner workings of how the process is and getting that big picture has been just invaluable for me.
37:49 WP: Well, again, we appreciate your help and all of your work and you do get a all-expenses paid trip to beautiful Des Moines Iowa, which I say that in not a joking way. I think you've all found it to be a place that you're gonna come back to again. I wanna make one clarifier on that though, Jennifer, is we work really hard to make sure that we have as much diversity on the board as we can from a national perspective and from an area of law perspective. So we try to have no more than one attorney per state. So this year, we still have our three board members that have one more year term and that will be in California, Nashville and Arizona. So if you are an attorney in one of those states, unfortunately, you won't be receiving an application at this time. But next year, we'll have those spots open again and we'll be looking at attorneys in those states.
38:42 WP: But we really feel passionately about it that it helps in particular, too, because Jennifer, I think you found this. When you have attorneys from across state lines, you're also not... Attorneys wanna be friends, they wanna work together as you mentioned right off the top, but at the same time, you're all working for the same business, right? So it makes it so that when you have these attorneys from different states and different points of view, that allows for everybody to get covered, we hope, from a regional perspective, but also for you to be able a little more open if you can.
39:10 JT: Yes, you guys do a really good job of getting a good cross-section of the country. There was a couple of us who were solo practitioners in small firms, and then a couple like, Paul, who owned four law firms. So you got a little bit of everything. And it's good to kind of bounce ideas off of each other and I learned a lot just from my other board members.
39:31 WP: We've got five minutes left Jennifer, and I've just had a few more questions jump in, so I'm gonna try to answer those. Somebody asked about the view that you had of the mobile app. And right now, we only have a mobile app for members, and that's really something that we've only had and we continue to grow over the last couple of years. We do not have a mobile app for attorneys. The attorney portal is mobile enabled, so we continue to focus on that, and as we start to do slow rollouts and updates, things like account notifications, we really have a big focus on mobile. So that's not an app, and it's not as convenient as it, but you should be able to work from any of your phones or pads or anything like that. Question about fees always comes up. How often does ARAG update the fees? I don't know if the question I can answer is how often do we update the fees.
40:20 WP: It has been something on almost a yearly basis, over the last five to six years, but we do have a very extensive fee schedule committee that reviews trends and changes. And I was also looking at new coverages and new things that we're updating as well. So the fee schedule is always updated and is focused on. Usually those changes will occur at the first of the year, if there are any. I don't have any news to report at this point, but know whenever we do have fee schedule updates and changes that we're ready to implement, it's generally a first of the year situation for many reasons, and we will definitely send out a separate communication about that. I feel like I'm really selling those account notifications hard, but it's... We wanna make sure that we can talk to you. I promise we won't inundate you.
41:05 WP: And then I have one last question for... We get this too, for login. So we have one log-in for an attorney on the attorney portal. Is there any thought or prospect of having a master login, having multiple log-ins? We are looking at that. There's obviously security concerns. We have very sensitive plan member information, so we've got to take that into account, but on what we call our roadmap down the road, we're definitely going to look into that as we update the website. So that maybe a firm that has multiple attorneys could have shared logins, that you have an admin that could log in, because we know we don't want these different usernames and passwords just being passed around either, so there could be a security benefit to that. So, that's about the best answer I have on that one. Sorry. Well, with that, I am going to call it end of the day. Thank you for all your amazing questions. This is really helpful for me and I love to be able to talk to you and update some of these things.
42:10 WP: This is what we try to do as we're going into communities and meeting with attorneys and we'll be looking at that more and more in the coming years. So I appreciate that and do look for future webinars. We've got a few already for you in December and January, and February, that I know are gonna be fantastic. And I will be looking to do this at almost a monthly basis. You'll get some follow-up communication. And we do have a... Amazing coming up on the 14th, new marketing page that will have past webinars and future webinars that you can review. Some that you may have missed. Jennifer, as always, it is a pleasure talking to you. I appreciate your time so much, and all the work you do for our members. And I'm gonna thank you on behalf of the network for sharing some of your tips and tricks with us today.
42:56 JT: Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Will.
42:58 WP: You bet. Jennifer Tombrello, network attorney from Hoover, Alabama. Again, this is Will Petersen, the attorney Experience Manager at ARAG. Again, if you ever need anything, the best way is to reach us at attorneys@araglegal.com. We thank you so much for joining us today. Have a great one.