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(Sinking -- Continued from page 1)
manager, their respective secretaries, and marketing administrator, whose new job title became client services director.
Ensuring high attendance at the event was a critical factor in the architecture of the firm's marketing strategy: getting out of the gates fast and strong. A record 511 people made up of company presidents, ceo's, and human resources managers and coordinators had signed up to attend the free half day event at the Hilton in downtown Portland. In the end, nearly 400 would actually attend, making it the largest labor and employment seminar ever presented in the state of Oregon.
A local business journal heralded the event's success. "Lawyers' Defections Validated by Successful Seminar," and "Off to a Soaring Start -- start up law firm Barran Liebman attracting attention" read the headlines.
Behind the headlines, the day before the event, when client services director Aaron Douglas was having heart palpatations at the end of a week of 14 hour days setting up everything to be "just right" for the Hilton event, a major winter storm was taking place outside.
Something had happened at the floating home on Sauvie Island. A neighbor called the law firm and reached a paralegal. The paralegal called the Hilton to have Aaron contacted in the Ballroom. It was 7 p.m., warm but very wet and windy outside.
Aaron was on a high-lift machine, hanging a fabric backdrop for the seminar from the rafters.
(See Sinking -- continued on page 4)
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