NCBA Next Level Leadership Conference Agenda
NCBA is pleased to present a conference for legal professionals with an established leadership track record. The carefully crafted sessions for this full-day conference are designed to test your thinking, inspire new ideas, and make them actionable. Join your peers as you network and learn from thought leaders who understand your leadership challenges.
Who Can Attend? Attendance at the Next Level Leadership Conference is limited to attorneys in their 21st year of practice or more. This conference is complimentary for NCBA Members.
During the registration process, you will be asked to confirm your eligibility to attend. The conference has a limited capacity of 60 attendees, so sign up early to reserve your spot! Registration is first-come, first-served. No CLE credit will be available for this Leadership Conference.
Conference Agenda | March 13, 2026
Schedule and panelists subject to change.
Location: Kenan Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Check-in and Continental Breakfast
10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Welcome Remarks
10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Organizational Innovation and Change
Randy Chittum, Ph.D., Principal, Still Leading
Innovation is different from creativity in that it is useful to the organization in some meaningful way. Innovation is both an “inner game” and a “public act”. The inner game can inhibit innovation if our beliefs, values, inner narrative, and stories about risk keep us from seeing possibility. In this session we will explore our inner game to identify those aspects of “who we are” that keep us playing small. We will also provide some tools and techniques for how to innovate as leaders. Change is that which happens “to” us or around us (a new client, team, practice area, line of business, etc.), while transition is the inner, psychological shift that each individual goes through to adapt to that change. Unsurprisingly, change tends to follow from innovation. In this session we will explore the human dynamic of change.
About the Presenter
Dr. Randy Chittum has more than thirty-five years’ experience in leadership and organizational development. While most of that experience has come as an external coach and consultant, he also has worked internally as an executive, most recently in a publicly traded two-billion-dollar organization that was acquired while he was there. His coaching interests revolve around how leaders navigate an increasingly complex world. This world calls on leadership capacities such as mindfulness, emergence, and emotional intelligence that are rarely taught in business schools. He served on the faculty of the Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership where he taught leadership coaching, organizational development, and transformational leadership. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and rescue dog Daisy.
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Networking Luncheon at the Kenan Center
You’ll have the opportunity to dine with fellow attorneys and NCBA members at the Kenan Center, part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School.
1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
The Culture You’re Already Creating (Whether You Mean to or Not)
Sarah Nielsen, Ph.D., Founder and Leadership Performance Coach, Emotive Coaching LLC
Culture in professional practice isn’t created by mission statements. Instead, it’s shaped by everyday leadership habits. In this interactive session, participants will explore how personality patterns and leadership behaviors influence trust, accountability, engagement, and performance within their teams. Participants will gain greater self-awareness and insight into how their style is experienced by others, examine the culture they are currently reinforcing within their practice, and identify practical shifts they can make to intentionally nurture, strengthen, or evolve that culture. This session blends reflection, facilitated discussion, and practical application tailored specifically for senior legal professionals.
Personality Profile Report: Requiring Brief Pre-Work
Enhancing this session, each participant can receive a personalized Facet5 Spotlight report outlining their personality-related strengths, risks, frustrations, and challenges. Please complete the confidential and brief (15–20 minute) Facet5 Spotlight questionnaire prior to the conference. During the session, you will use your personalized report to gain insight into how your leadership habits shape culture.
For the best experience, complete the questionnaire before the conference, so you have time to review your results and bring a printed or digital copy with you. The link to the questionnaire is on the conference registration page.
About the Presenter
Dr. Sarah Nielsen is a Leadership & Performance Coach and facilitator with over 20 years of experience as a psychologist, professor, and consultant. As a tenured professor, Sarah educated students in leadership development, group dynamics, and interpersonal communication, with a research focus on supportive work relationships and team effectiveness. Her coaching specialty is helping leaders, executives, and aspiring professionals achieve their goals through self-awareness and evidence-based solutions. Sarah delivers impactful workshops on leadership, team dynamics, communication, and emotional intelligence, leveraging her background as a behavioral scientist to improve workplace dynamics and performance. Having experienced profound personal transformation as a cancer survivor and HPV cancer awareness advocate, Sarah is passionate about living a good life and helping others achieve the same. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, and enjoys exploring the mountains and beaches with her family.
2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Refreshment Break
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Seven Ways to Sustain Your Competitive Advantage
Tea Hoffmann, Managing Principal, Law Strategy Corp
In today’s competitive environment, effective leadership requires more than expertise, it requires clarity, strategy, and action. This engaging and interactive session explores seven strategies that help leaders strengthen relationships, expand their influence, and generate sustainable growth. It will address common barriers such as time constraints, lack of delegation, uncertainty about return on investment, and the constant pursuit of the “next new thing” instead of building on what already works. Participants will be guided through a practical framework that begins with self-awareness, understanding what has historically driven success and identifying their ideal clients or stakeholders. Using provided templates, attendees will begin drafting a realistic, executable plan with concrete action steps they can implement immediately. The session will also explore how to consistently deliver more value than expected, strategically leverage social media to build credibility, cultivate and retain strong referral networks, and use content to establish lasting thought leadership. Featuring real-world examples successfully applying these strategies, this session is designed to be practical and reflective. Attendees will leave with greater clarity, renewed confidence, and tangible tools to lead with intention and impact.
About the Presenter
Tea Hoffmann practiced law for over 13 years, serving in a law firm and as the GC of a publicly traded company. Over the next fifteen years, she served as a legal consultant, keynote speaker, Chief Business Development Officer for an AmLaw 100 firm, and Chief Strategy Officer for an AmLaw 200 firm. In 2014, she founded Law Strategy Corp. Since then, she has coached over 420 partners in law firms across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Italy. In addition, she has facilitated over 200 high-energy retreats and developed a first-of-its-kind soft skills online training program. Tea is a certified Life, Wellness, and Executive Coach and Franklin CoveyTM Facilitator. She is a Fellow in the College of Law Practice Management, has served on the editorial board of the Law Practice magazine for the American Bar Association, and has been published in multiple journals and legal publications. She also serves on the Forbes Small Business Council. Tea retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard in 2018 after twenty-four years. She was placed on active duty in 2015 to serve as sexual assault victims’ Counsel. During that time, she represented over one hundred sexual assault and rape victims. Tea lives in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Registration Information
North Carolina Bar Association Members: Complimentary
Non-Members: $475
To become a North Carolina Bar Association member, visit ncbar.org/join.
Please sign in or create an account to register. Questions about registration? Please contact [email protected].
Attendance Confirmation
Because the leadership conference is offered complimentary to members and to ensure the greatest opportunity for members to attend, attendance confirmation will be required. Approximately one week before the conference, registrants will be contacted by email and asked to confirm their anticipated attendance. Registrants must confirm their intention to attend within 48 hours of delivery of the email to avoid having their registration canceled and their spot offered to another member on the waitlist.