Ouida Fox, AALA’s Savannah Connection By: June D. Bell

There isn’t a legal administrator in Georgia who goes to the lengths that Ouida Fox does to meet with her colleagues. Each month, the Savannah resident boards a plane for the 40-minute flight into Atlanta for the Association of Legal Administrators’ luncheon and meeting. After the meal, the speaker and some much-anticipated networking, she heads to the airport for her flight back to Savannah.

Ouida says she gladly crosses the state to gather with other legal administrators because their camaraderie, advice and friendships enhance her career and her life. She’s the administrator for Savannah’s Hunter, Maclean, Exley & Dunn, a 57-lawyer firm that is the state’s largest outside of Atlanta.

Nearly all the members of the Atlanta chapter of ALA are employed by firms in the city or its suburbs. Ouida is one of the few who works outside the 404 and 770 area codes, and she’d like some company. She’s active in the chapter’s membership committee, where she’s focusing her energies on increasing the number of non-Atlanta ALA members.

The prime candidates are Georgia administrators who belong to the national chapter of ALA but not the Atlanta chapter. She knows two other Savannah legal administrators who are in that category, and there’s another in Augusta and one in Fort Benning. She’s contacting them to see if they’d be interested in attending quarterly meetings or might find value in the AALA’s specialized sections.

“There are opportunities to expand the membership,” she says, “if the (administrator’s) firm is willing be supportive by paying membership dues and allowing administrators to come to Atlanta once a quarter. Will the firms support it?”

She quickly answers her own question: They will if they find that it’s worthwhile. Firms should quickly see they’re getting a high return on their investment because their administrators can save time and money by tapping the expertise of their Atlanta colleagues.

Ouida’s also considering reaching out to legal administrators in Hilton Head, S.C., and Charleston, S.C.

“They’re not out there alone with all the problems they’re dealing with,” she says of all legal administrators, no matter where they work and how large or small their firm is. “You can make a phone call (to another ALA member) and say, How did you deal with this? You can get an answer. Just to have an ear to listen and someone to empathize with is always nice.”

Ouida’s the perfect spokesperson for ALA membership. She landed her first law firm job in the early 1970s at what was then Atlanta’s Kilpatrick Cody. She was hired as the assistant to firm administrator Martha Henck, one of the original members of Atlanta’s ALA chapter. Ouida credits her boss with being a wonderful mentor. She thrived on the daily challenges of running a law firm, and she quickly knew she’d found her calling.

Ouida and her husband, Bill, moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., when Bill was hired by The St. Petersburg Times. Ouida became the administrator at Harris, Barrett, Mann & Dew, a job she held for 20 years. Founded in 1915, the St. Petersburg firm had 14 attorneys when she was hired and had more than doubled to 35 lawyers in three offices when she left two decades later.

In addition to her work there, Ouida helped organize the Suncoast Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators in 1981. The chapter had just 10 members when she became founding president. Today it has 85, drawing administrators from Tampa as well as St. Pete. “Isn’t that wonderful?” she says, with characteristic enthusiasm.

By 1997, Ouida was ready for something new. “You get to a point where you realize you cannot make people change,” she says. “You feel, I cannot be effective here and I am not challenged here.”

The opening at Hunter Maclean appealed to her because it offered the chance to return to her home state and the opportunity to work in a firm where she felt comfortable and empowered. “To move into a positive environment was very important to me,” Ouida says.

Hunter Maclean has 72 support staff and is housed on historic Reynolds Square, across the street from the famous Olde Pink House restaurant. She oversees human resources, accounting, benefits, technology and strategic planning, her favorite aspect of the job.

“I think the role of an administrator is to see that what needs to be done is done effectively and efficiently regardless of who does it,” she says.

She meets regularly with a three-person management committee: the senior managing partner, an administrative managing partner and a marketing partner.

John M. Tatum, the firm’s managing partner, says Ouida’s experience, confidence and “obvious people skills” made her an ideal hire. During her time at the firm, she’s proved adept at managing human resources, the firm’s technology and its accounting department.

Tatum says he finds himself turning to her to take the firm’s pulse on a variety of issues. “People talk to Ouida,” he says.

Though Ouida takes her job seriously, she also believes that fun is worthwhile and essential. She delights in organizing social events such as Halloween parties. Last year she got rave reviews for substituting a casual clam roast for the more formal traditional holiday party. She recently collaborated with a consulting firm to organize a day-long retreat that featured personality profiling of the partners.

Noting her penchant for bringing people together to socialize and eat, a partner once asked her, “Ouida, do you ever have a conversation where you don’t use the word ‘fun’ somewhere along the way?”

Her positive perspective, which she credits to her father, helped her weather the death of her husband of 10 years in 1989. Ouida raised their two young children by herself after Bill died of cancer. Despite the tragedy in her life, she says she remains an unabashed optimist. “We can all make choices about how we deal with our situations and circumstances,” she says. “I am a firm believer that the glass is half full.”

When Ouida isn’t working, she enjoys skiing, walking, dining out and reading mysteries, novels and the newspaper. Son Stuart, 19, is a sophomore at the University of Georgia, and daughter Ansley is a high school junior and varsity cheerleader. Ouida enthusiastically participates in Ansley’s high school booster club.

Savannah’s frequently flying administrator had so much fun at the ALA annual conference in San Diego that she’s planning to attend the 2005 gathering in San Francisco.

June D. Bell, a San Francisco writer who profiles AALA members, can be reached at junebell@aol.com

Editor: Debra F. Goldman (DGoldman@GMLJ.com) (This publication is the property of the Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators. Reproduction or reprint without prior permission is strictly prohibited. Click here to request reprint permission.)

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