As featured in Attorney at Work on July 17, 2019

A checklist to use before your search begins. 

Sooner or later, all firms find themselves asking whether they should hire a marketing or business development professional — closely followed by “how” to hire and whom.
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the five factors that signal your firm and partners are ready to hire someone. Typically, it’s the realization that the firm’s growth has stalled and the current working model actually hinders growth.
Now let’s talk about how to find that professional.

How Do You Identify the Right Person? Three Elements.

Experience has taught me that no single criterion will determine the “right” match, but common patterns often emerge. Over time, I’ve developed a framework based on what I know law firms value. Here are three key elements.

1. Organizational Cultural Fit

It’s always essential to test technical expertise. But organizational and cultural fit is more important. At its core, cultural fit is about ensuring all of your professionals share the values your firm and leadership have established. Put simply, it’s “the way things get done around here.” For some firms, that means hiring entrepreneurial professionals in an environment that encourages creativity and risk-taking. For some, it means hiring professionals who thrive on competition in a driven and hierarchical environment. Each firm is different, so each hire will be different.
Cultural fit is hard to incorporate into a formal interview. To properly consider whether the values of the candidate match those of your firm, create situations where the candidate is more relaxed and make sure the person conducting the interview is armed with the right questions.
People choose to stay at firms because of the cultural fit and the right leadership at the top. Technical knowledge is simpler to identify, and gaps are more quickly resolved through training.

2. Seniority

How senior and involved in the business will this professional be? There are four levels for the professional you’ll consider hiring.

1. Junior administrative support employee. This person will provide basic marketing duties and will not contribute to strategy; they do what you tell them. It’s tempting to begin a department here, as it’s an affordable, seemingly risk-free approach. But if you spend all your time directing someone what to do, getting a task done may take up as much of your time as theirs.
2. Mid-level professional. This person takes direction but also executes independently. A good person performing at this level will also contribute to strategy but will need leadership from, typically, a managing partner or marketing partner.
3. More senior visionary. They are proactive and strategy-focused and will set the tone of the marketing or BD function. They will be telling the partnership how the function should evolve at their firm and will be instrumental in crafting this function.
4. Change agent. This is a seasoned professional who will help facilitate an internal shift to elevate or change the marketing or BD function. This is a harder task that often happens when the marketing function may have been established incorrectly and some serious course-correcting and perception-shifting is warranted. This person is very much a peer to the partners and respected for their understanding of firm dynamics and the expertise they bring to the table.

A common mistake is to hope your first hire can somehow miraculously span all four roles. Know what seniority is right for your firm now. This will naturally change over time as the function is more established.

3. Recruiting Strategy

You may not realize it, but your recruiting strategy affects your firm’s reputation and how the industry responds when you’re searching. Think about how long it should take to run a search, who should be involved in the process, and how people will engage with the candidates along the journey.
Marketing and business development professionals do have the reputation of typically changing jobs frequently. Senior marketing and BD folks will seek out roles with more authority, empowerment and strategy. For mid-level professionals, what’s important to them when they move relates more to the culture, firm leadership and a firm’s tendency to promote from within, as well as title advancement. For juniors, it’s typically all about promotion and work-life integration.
Against this backdrop, we’re experiencing extreme competition in the legal profession and a 50-year-low unemployment rate. Handling your first search well and hiring correctly will help you avoid headaches and preserve your reputation as a well-run and progressive firm.
Specialist knowledge, professionalism, transparency, proactiveness, deadline-driven; these things are, in my experience, critical to a successful search. Failed searches have at least one and often most of these elements missing from a sound recruiting strategy.

Hiring Checklist

It is a challenge to make the decision to hire and then find the right marketing or BD professional for your firm. Before you hire, consider this checklist:

• Do you know what you’re looking for in your right candidate?
• Do you have a consensus within your firm?
• What are the geography-specific salary ranges and comparative bonus percentages? (And, are they in line with comparative market intelligence?)
• Are you aware of new laws impacting a hire, such as new laws relating to the salary history discussions?
• Have you defined, and gained agreement on, your recruiting strategy?
• Do you have the knowledge, experience and capacity to execute your recruiting strategy?

If you can answer these questions confidently, you are well positioned for a great search and a successful first hire.
And remember, this is a defining, exciting and precedent-setting time for your firm. Getting it right is far more important than quickly checking it off your list.
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Have you ever written a marketing or business development job description (JD)? If you are a hiring manager for business development and marketing roles, then the answer to this question should indeed be ‘yes’.

Now ask yourself: Is your JD an effective marketing tool? One that communicates with impact and is on-brand? If not, it’s a missed opportunity. I outline some do’s and don’ts to help you answer ‘yes’ again.

Don’ts:

• Putting everything into the JD. Seems intuitive, but in fact it sends a message to the reader of the JD that you don’t know or understand what the priorities of the role are. Additionally, it can send the message that the team is not well staffed or structured so everyone in the marketing and BD team does everything.
• Churning out the previous JD. Chances are the role description will be similar to its previous version (assuming it’s not a new role), but it won’t be exactly the same. Responsibilities and team members change constantly. Ensure to revise and update the JD each time you’re recruiting for the role. This refresh will help both you and the candidate you’re trying to attract.
• Being too specific on the qualifications for the role. If you list a certain amount of years or a specific degree that this person has to have, then unless that is set in stone, list these criteria as being flexible. For example, I’ve seen very good and capable candidates be turned off a role because they don’t have the “JD preferred” or they have 9 years’ experience rather than the “must have 10+ years experience”. Many candidates do take these requirements literally.
• Sending an unbranded or word JD. The JD is another marketing opportunity for your role. Take a moment to brand it with your logo, font, colors and style. And always PDF this document. It should only take 15 minutes. And it sharpens the document and elevates it to a new level.

Do’s:

• List the priorities of the role. List the top 3-5 priorities of the role over the first 12 months, and no more. This piece tells the reader you know exactly what the role will be doing. And the candidate’s expectations are managed. If you don’t yet know this information, challenge yourself: are you truly ready to recruit for the role?
• Include information about the greater team. Most organizational charts are confidential documents, and I’m not advocating you reveal them in a publicly available JD. But do provide some context around the role. This can include where it sits in the team, who it reports to, and who it will have reporting into it. Geographical locations of team members are also helpful to people, particularly if you’re recruiting in a satellite office.
• Virtual collaboration and travel. Most marketing and BD teams are geographically dispersed across numerous offices. Include some brief information on how the team collaborates and discusses projects given these geographical challenges. I get asked this question by just about every candidate I work with currently. It is a reality and candidates simply want to know how this works in your team – especially for sole managers in a satellite office. It might be as simple as saying how frequently the team catches up virtually or in person (or both).

Some bold ideas:

• State the salary range. Some will disagree with me on this point. But I’m a firm believer in being transparent on the salary range. You know the range, so state it. In this tight market and with the change in salary history laws continuing to come into play across the US, this piece will affect hiring managers more and more. It saves you a lot of time wasting at the end if everyone is not on the same page. Additionally, it makes you think and ‘rank’ your candidates according to where they fall within that range, which you should be doing as a matter of course in any event.
• Write with personality. Yes, JDs are formal documents. But that doesn’t mean they have to be boring, or ignore your team’s culture. This is a chance to recruit a new colleague, so capture who will enjoy working with your team for the long term, and market it accordingly.

I personally love writing and collaborating with clients on JDs. They are an opportunity to frame and shape a role that will have a lasting impact in your team. They make you think critically about your needs, the team structure, and how best to deploy your team. Take the time to get them right, and they will pay dividends down the road.

Best practice recruiting involves two things: a sound strategy, and good execution of that strategy.

Earlier this year I outlined an approach to ensure best practices are applied when recruiting the interpersonal roles of professional services marketing and BD people. I now share some key factors to help implement that approach.
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Recap on strategy
             
By way of a quick cap, an effective best practice recruiting approach to attract the right marketing and BD professionals includes:  

• Conduct meetings, not interviews
• Plan out the meetings
• Set your candidate’s expectations
• Include the key people from the start
• Have one meeting out of the office
• Ask questions that give you the right information

 
Effective execution

Here are some ways you can ensure effective execution of this approach. Keep in mind that all of these require only minimal planning, and will ensure a seamless, sophisticated and thorough interview meeting process for all involved:

• Assign different questions and discussion points. There will likely be marketing and BD team leaders, HR professionals, and partners all involved in these meetings. Whoever is coordinating the touchpoints with a candidate should assign different questions and discussion points between these people. This ensures candidates aren’t being asked the same question multiple times throughout. And importantly, you can learn more about your candidate as each question will have a different focus, allowing you to gain a complete picture of the candidate.
• Consider the logistics. Consider any interruptions to the meeting process. For example, who is going on vacation and can’t participate, who is traveling to other offices and will be hard to reach and follow up with, and who is simply too busy. Plan this going in, and then talk to your candidate about the logistics and timing.
• Who is assigned with the follow up. Someone needs to take the lead on communicating with the candidate. Particularly when there’s marketing, BD, HR and partners all involved, often everyone assumes someone else has the lead. The candidate deserves to have a central point of contact and also to understand where they are at in the process. I see too frequently candidates getting disengaged from the process as the firm forgets to do these simple updates. And that’s when candidates will look to other firms who do have these best practices in place.
• Interview training. Most people don’t conduct interviews as a part of their daily lives. Particularly partners in law and accounting firms. When people are not used to conducting interview meetings, they can be unnatural or overly formal. Others mask their own unfamiliarity with either aggressive tactics or by talking too much. The role of the firm here is to prepare people who will be speaking with the candidate on how to conduct an interview meeting. It should involve these things: information gathering, information sharing, testing on technical abilities, and cultural alignment discussion points. Attempting to ‘catch the candidate out’, or proving you know more than them aren’t conducive to an effective interview meeting.
• Formal v informal. Hopefully time permits for you to have one interview meeting out of the office. Mirror the circumstances of these meetings with your style. For example, an in-office formal interview meeting will naturally be more structured. An out of the office coffee meeting should be deliberately more casual, trying to build rapport and get a sense of who the candidate is as a person. Find out what they do outside of work, what community efforts they’re involved in, what sports they like to play. All of this tells you more about the candidate and who they will be each day in the office.
• Share as much as you ask. Candidates often have just as many questions as you do. They have thought at length about the potential of the opportunity (and how it fits with their personal career goals), your team structure, the firm leadership, and the future goals and trajectory of the firm. Don’t make the mistake of thinking these meetings are just for you to gather information. Purposefully make a point of allowing a good amount of time to ask them what you can share with them.

 
Summing up     
 
Interview meetings, and the whole process of conducting these meetings, is not easily done. There’s planning, logistics and effective execution to all happen at the right time. But importantly, you, at your firms, have to judge a candidate and make a call about whether they are right for you while they are doing the same in return. If you follow this approach and execute effectively, this hard decision does become a little easier. Make it as easy as you can: arm yourself with the right information and plan accordingly, involve the right people, and ask the right questions. You will then feel fully informed to make the right decision. 

Resumes are highly individualized documents that share the highlights of your professional career to date. They should be brief and concise, be a chronological account of your different roles, and be written in your voice.
 
I see a lot of resumes given what I do. And I love reading each and every one, as every person is different and tells their story in their own way. Sometimes, sadly, they say “I’m not a good candidate”.
 
They are not necessarily easy documents to write. But, there are some common mistakes I see all the time which I feel can be easily rectified with minimal effort.
 
What should your resume actually say?
 
Your resume should say only the following:

• Your name and personal information you feel comfortable sharing (email and phone number are standard).
• A brief summary of who you are as a professional and what you’re looking for. Very good resumes have 2-3 sentences that tells the reader who you are, what your experience is, and what you’re looking for. Don’t underestimate its impact, so take the time to get this important introductory piece just right.
• Your education and relevant qualifications.
• A brief chronological account of your roles, including duration (years and months), and what your general remit was in each role.
• Any internships or prior work experience.
• Any personal or professional associations, volunteer work, or hobbies you wish to share.

 
Triple-check. You might be surprised to hear that most resumes I read contain some sort of error. Many people have looked at it 20 times and are unable to see the mistakes. When I can point these out prior to representing you to a firm, it is fine, as you get a chance to fix them. But when you’re submitting your resume directly to a firm, they notice this and will likely not move forward because of a perceived lack of attention to detail. My advice: read your resume out loud, or, read it while pretending that you’re reading someone else’s document with the intention of looking for errors.
 
Style versus substance. If you’re going to seek feedback on your resume, ask only for their substantive comments. Its really important your style and voice stays in the document. And many people make the mistake of correcting on style only (because substance involves a higher knowledge base).
 
Brevity. Be brief and concise. A resume is not a place to list everything and hope something resonates. It is a summarized version of your professional self that is tailored exactly to the role you are applying for. (The interview is the place to elaborate and hand pick great stories to show your experience.)
 
FAQ’s:
 

• Should I use a resume writing professional? If your writing ability is not crucial to your role, and its impacting your applications, then consider it. But, generally speaking, as a marketer or business developer, you are likely already a natural communicator. And my view is that using a resume writer can dilute your voice. It is important to have your authenticity and style in your resume. After all, that’s how you will naturally write in your new role, and employers like to see this.
• I’ve heard a resume shouldn’t be longer than one page. There are no hard and fast rules about length. But, remember whoever is reading your resume for the first time is likely skimming it, and one page is easier than three pages. (And this is where the executive summary comes into great use for the busy resume readers.)
• I’ve asked 5 different people for feedback on my resume, and I’ve got 5 different answers… Resumes are highly personalized, subjective documents and everyone will have a different opinion as a result. Simply ask 1-2 people that you know and trust their judgment. And, make sure at least one of them is someone who challenges you, not just someone who will agree with what you’ve written.
• Do I put hobbies or personals interests in my resume? Not mandatory, but recommended. You are a unique person with hobbies or interests that may provide an interesting talking point during an interview. At work, people see your professional and personal self, so begin early by showing both of these sides. And sometimes there are hobbies which show particular determination or an initiative that can impresses the reader more than you might think.
• I’ve used different colors, fonts and images to stand out. What do you think? I think professional services firms – particularly law and accounting – like a very conservative resume. They don’t like a lot of different things going on in the document. Even if you’re a creative type, if you’re applying for a role in a law or accounting firm, keep it simple, plain and factual.
• I got laid off and don’t know how to deal with this gap in my resume. Many people have at least one gap in their working life. Acknowledge it and move on. If you don’t acknowledge it, it creates a negative perception as to why you didn’t. And don’t fudge the dates to try to cover this up; honestly is always the best policy.
• I worked in a different sector and have left that off this version of my resume because it just doesn’t relate to the role I’m now applying for. In most situations, my advice here is to keep all of your professional experience in your resume. Sub-headings are really useful when differentiating different careers or sectors. Acknowledge your prior work and highlight transferable skills. I can always tell when someone has had a ‘life before their current role’. And often there’s something they have learned that is relevant to their new career. It all adds up, and it all makes you into the professional you are today.

​Best practice recruiting involves two things: a sound strategy and good execution of that strategy.
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Applying recruiting best practices to the interpersonal roles of marketing and BD has never been more important. Rarely are personal attributes - from one’s style, approach and energy - as on display as they are in these roles. Marketing and BD roles are influential and highly visible, as they deal with many people each and every day. Getting someone who can have a positive interaction with each person at every turn is essential.

Many firms struggle to find the right people. A best practice helps to professionally and purposefully recruit the right marketing and BD people for your team and your firm.

This blog focuses on the first part of that best practice, namely, the strategy or plan. In a follow up blog, I will discuss how to effectively execute on that plan.
 
Part 1: An effective strategy                 

• Conduct meetings, not interviews. Calling it an interview makes people nervous. When people are nervous their most natural self is not on display. This means technical abilities become masked by unnecessary nervousness, and softer skills get misinterpreted. For those who argue that it’s good to see how candidates act under pressure, I would say “yes, and…” there are very few situations in a firm which are the same as an interview. And I argue there are better ways to test their abilities under pressure (and I’ll elaborate on this further below).
• Plan out the meetings. This is so simple to do, but many miss the mark. Take a few minutes to map out what the meeting process will look like. This includes how long it will take (how many phases of meetings will you conduct?), who is involved at each phase (do you need some or all of your peers, partners, and HR involved?), and when will you be able to get feedback from others involved at each phase to move forward (who’s out on vacation or who’s simply too busy to contribute meaningfully and quickly?).
• Set your candidate’s expectations. Take a few minutes at each meeting with your candidates to communicate timing, actions and next steps. This shows that you are recruiting for the role in a meaningful and professional way and that you have a clear path forward. Ending a meeting with “thanks we’ll be in touch” is vague and indecisive and risks miscommunicating your intentions about their candidacy and your next steps. Candidates understand they’re usually not the only person being considered for the role, they just want transparency about the process and timing.
• Key people from the start. An effective process needs the key people from the start so the right people are talking and no time is wasted. This means the person who will manage this candidate should be the first person who meets with them. These days, we – as recruiters – have done all the qualifying for you so you can fast-track any introductory or process driven meetings and get straight to the higher value conversations and what you’re trying to achieve.
• Have one meeting out of the office. Outside interactions show you how your candidate interacts with and treats others and how they hold themselves outside of the firm. How often have you observed someone reacting or being abrupt to someone, only to then quickly revert back to their ‘other self’ with the people they are with. True characters are revealed in situations of uncertainty, stress or uneasiness. Take your candidate out for a coffee or lunch and watch and observe. An added bonus to this phase is you get to build a deeper rapport than normal; which is essential if you end up working together.
• Ask questions that give you the right information. This is a topic in and of itself. But, at a high level, rather than fall into the script of asking them to count the number of times they’ve done a certain project or task, change the emphasis to elicit a response that tells you how they react in certain situations. This goes to their past behavior (the best indicator of future behavior) and shows you how they deal with people and circumstances. This includes how they learn or adapt, how they delegate, and how they manage their boss, peers and juniors. The answers you receive will give you a read on their technical abilities, their all-important softer skills, their people management abilities, and their cultural fit; all equally important. All of this information also gives you insights into their ability to problem solve under pressure.

 
Moving forward                        
 
Use the above six-point strategy when you next need to hire. And then compare it with your old method to see where you noticed the value. Adding the right people to your team and to the future of your firm is the most important thing you can do. Commit to the strategy and have confidence that it yields the best results.

(For updates on which States and cities are impacted as at the time of reading this article, please visit this blog for the most up-to-date information: Salary history bans in 2021.)
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Unequal pay between men and women exists: it’s been widely reported that women earn around 80% of what men earn.

One issue contributing to this is a lagging effect. Offers that are based on what salaries are currently being paid, which for women can be around 20% less than men, perpetuates the status quo. Numerous states, cities and counties in the US are trying to address this issue by enacting new laws and regulations to address what questions employers can ask around salary and salary history. By doing this, the hope is that people are offered salaries that accurately reflect their experience and skill set in their market.

This affects professional services firms because as laws have changed, and are still scheduled to change, this will affect the hiring practices within firms, written or otherwise. These new laws prohibit hiring practices which ask a potential candidate about their salary or salary history.
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Firms would be prudent to take a stand on this issue early. First, to get ahead of compliance, and secondly, to impress potential candidates through their proactivity to be on the right side of these discussions.

We are having many conversations with firms on this topic to help ensure both compliance and best practice going forward.
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Current status on law’s affecting the question of ‘how much did you make last year’

Some states, cities and counties have specifically banned questions on ‘how much did you make last year’. Here is a list in order of the date the bans or prohibitions were enacted:

​2017:

• Oregon - October 6, 2017
• New York City - October 31, 2017
• Delaware - December 14, 2017
• Albany County (NY) - December 17, 2017

2018:

• California - January 1, 2018
• Massachusetts - July 1, 2018
• Vermont - July 1, 2018
• Westchester County (NY) - July 9, 2018

2019:

• Connecticut - January 1, 2019
• Hawaii - January 1, 2019
• Suffolk County (NY) - June 30, 2019
• Washington – July 28, 2019
• Alabama – September 1, 2019
• Maine – September 17, 2019
• Chicago – September 29, 2019
• Kansas City – October 31, 2019

2020

• New Jersey – January 1, 2020
• New York – January 6, 2020
• Cincinnati – estimated to be March 10, 2020
• Toledo – June 25, 2020

2021

• Colorado – January 1, 2021

Bans or prohibitions not affecting the private sector

Other states and cities have some form of salary history ban, but as of yet they do not affect employees in the private sector:

2017:

• City of New Orleans LA - January 25, 2017
• City of Pittsburgh PA - January 30, 2017

2018:

• City of Salt Lake City UT – March 1, 2018
• City of Louisville KY - May 17, 2018
• State of Pennsylvania - September 4, 2018

2019:

• ​City of Atlanta GA – February 18, 2019
• State of North Carolina – April 2, 2019
• State of South Carolina – May 23, 2019
• City of Jackson MS – June 13, 2019
• Montgomery County (Maryland) – August 14, 2019

As an employer located in a banned state or city, what is prohibited
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• Internal policies or practices need to be updated to dispense with questions relating to salary. HR professionals, internal recruiters, and internal hiring managers need to look at what policies or practices (written or otherwise) currently exist which ask candidates about their salary and salary history. Those practices must be dispensed with as these questions during the interview process are now prohibited from being asked.
• Screening relating to salary is prohibited. Any screening which sorts potential candidates based on their salary information is also prohibited. Programs or databases which purport to do this must be overhauled or updated to comply with these new laws.
• Other benefits are also included in this ban. These prohibitions extend to the benefits that may have been included in a candidate’s whole compensation package.
• These prohibitions extend to agents of employers. Recruiting or search professionals are not exempt from these new laws. These prohibitions apply to the asking of the questions, and exceptions are not made based on whom is asking those questions.
• Employers can still stipulate salary ranges. Employers can still set salary ranges for their roles, and they will likely use market data and their recruiting knowledge to form these ranges.
• Voluntary disclosure by a candidate does impact these new laws. Employers can take into account information which is voluntarily disclosed to them by a candidate about their salary history during the interview process when setting the salary they will offer. How this sits with the intent of the new prohibitions is intriguing, and employers might be prudent to avoid this altogether.
• Some states can still use salary information to verify a salary post-offer. These exceptions will get complicated if firms are trying to be too literal with this. And, there are still prohibitions on using that information to get around what the bans intend. Again, employers might want to avoid getting into the territory of having to defend their position in relation to these particular provisions.
• While it may be law, some employees can’t activate their rights for some time. Oregon’s provisions stipulate a time delay between a person being able to act on these new laws and receiving any awarded compensation. 

Debate highlights

Some employers have argued that a candidate’s current salary is an indicator of their market worth. Other employers feel ill-informed without a current salary read because they use that salary as an indicator when offering a new salary for the role they’re recruiting for. But these new laws prohibit that exact practice, as it perpetuates the gender pay gap (and other discriminatory practices). Experienced HR professionals and search professionals will already know good salary ranges for the role they are recruiting for. If employers don’t know this, that’s an area where search professionals can show their value. 

A salary is rarely an indicator of worth. Salaries are more often than not a reflection of the prior employer’s pay policies and attitudes relating to their employees. And employers can have outdated or behind-market salary ranges that they try to retroactively apply, particularly if they haven’t gone to market for some time.  And, as we’re seeing, one effect of this is that it can disadvantage some women and other groups in the workforce. 

On the candidate side, they are often reluctant to reveal their salaries. It is highly sensitive and personal information that – if they don’t have a rapport with the firm or recruiter they’re working with – they don’t yet know or trust what is to happen with that information. Whilst recruiters and HR professionals might be used to dealing with salary information on a daily basis, it shouldn’t be lost on them as to how candidates can feel about talking about salary generally. 

Going forward 

Going forward, firms need to develop better and different strategies for finding the right candidates for the right roles, and in turn paying them the right package. 

Firms can use interviewing techniques or specific-issue reference checking to test a candidate’s experience, skill set, knowledge and individual value. These methods don’t rely on salary and therefore don’t go up against these now prohibited questions on salary. High value search and recruiting partners differentiate themselves by using these techniques, and don’t rely on prior salary as a short-cut.

Firms should ask questions around salary expectation. Firms should know, either through their experienced HR professionals or their search and recruiting partners, whether those expectations are realistic. (If they’re not, that is a different conversation.) If a candidate’s salary expectation does not align with a salary range for a role at a firm, then that role the candidate and firm are discussing together is not going to be the right fit for both at that time. And that discussion is fine to have. But a firm can’t use salary history or data to formulate an offer.

A national firm would be wise to have only one policy across their firm which deals with their hiring policies to comply with the salary ban laws, as these new laws are simply the first of many. Savvy firms should draft a policy based on the strictest interpretation, and apply that across all offices to avoid a complicated state-by-state approach down the road. Taking a fair and modern approach will become a selling point for your firm. Your clients, your employees and your potential employees should know about this.

Where does your firm stand on this greater issue
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These new laws go to the heart of a very important discussion in our society. This affects both women and men. 
Your firm leadership should establish where they stand on this issue on principle, and beyond that which is currently required by law. Your clients, your employees, and potential employees, will all appreciate you being prudent and aligning yourself on the right side of the discussion. 
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Enjoy the discussions. We are in exciting times.

(NOTE: This article is not to be taken as legal advice. The author is not a practicing attorney, nor does the author purport to be. For any legal question or issue related to these topics in your state or city, you should seek advice from a practicing attorney.)