Pass the Baton LLC - Generational Consulting

MEET SUSAN
Susan Gainen, Principal

You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at...W.H. Auden

Susan Gainen has spent the past 25 years observing market swings, career change, new technologies and new generations bringing their own stamp and styles to work. Pass the Baton's clients will benefit from her unique perspective on how work gets done, which combines her expertise in intergenerational communication and experience in the food business, the car business, and the business of law.

Her experience ranges across businesses, industries and academia, and includes:

17 years as director of career & professional development at the University of Minnesota Law School
7 years as a headhunter for lawyers in Baltimore and Washington DC
1 year of law practice in Baltimore
2 stints as a typesetter separated by a decade, and by 6 generations of typesetter technoloy, from extremely low-tech with paste-up to ultra-high tech hands-off electronic typesetting
10 years in the food business and the car business in administration and in sales
4 years as a watercolorist and as principal of nanoscapes
1 year as enthusiastic proprietor of susan-cooks! -- a blog and cooking school

Among the hundreds of workshops she presented or hosted at the University of Minnesota Law School were programs on Working Across Generations, Professionalism and Professional Development, Alternative and Second Careers, Professional Development and Managing and Working with Technology. She has advised thousands of law students and alumni and assisted hundreds of career development and recruiting professionals.

Through the National Association for Law Placement, she has been a leader in programming and conversations about professionalism and professional development for lawyers and law students, and she was the first chair of NALP's Student Professionalism Section. Introducing students to professional settings in ways that will engage them and prepare them for law or other professional practice requires clear understanding of generations' perspective, learning styles and the cultural norms.

A primary concern during the past decade grew from having observed that nuanced legal analysis is a low-tech activity which is now practiced in a high-tech box. While new legal professionals crossed the technology bridge in junior high, using “Google/wiki, cut & paste, find & replace” as a basis for research and analysis is fraught with peril. Employers across all business categories need to embrace their new employees’ skills, and use those skills to improve productivity.

For the next decade, her concern is transition. Will employers be able to capture and pass on mission-critical information to the talented staff that they hope to recruit and retain for success in the 21st century?

Find Susan at LinkedIn.