Military Spouses Make TCDI Better
It’s Military Spouse Appreciation Week – a week which celebrates the sacrifices of US military spouses across our country and stationed around the world. This is an important week for TCDI, as we recognize members of our Military Spouse Managed Review Program which has been going strong for over four years. It is a time for us to honor and thank those who work alongside us, supporting our clients – all the while supporting their families and making sacrifices in service to our nation and national defense. MSMR is our signature program, in which every member of TCDI and client partner takes pride – and one which our founder, Bill Johnson, has stated many times is the single most worthwhile endeavor our company has ever undertaken.
When I joined TCDI two years ago, MSMR was already in full swing with a vast roster of military affiliates who are lawyers or have legal experience. It has been my team’s job and joy to engage new military spouses through great organizations like the Military Spouse JD Network, the US Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring our Heroes Program, and the DOD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership, among others. We have striven to provide the most flexible remote work opportunities possible to our teams, knowing well the challenges of military family life, which include frequent moves, licensing hurdles, single-parenting, and providing care for children and parents while attending to homelife obligations. Our company’s strong security protocols and pre-pandemic practices which enabled work-from-home long before Covid, are tailor-made for military spouse engagement regardless of where in the US they are stationed. Our Project Managers are well-versed in the demands of military life and they work tirelessly to ensure open lines of communication and maximum flexibility when home and military demands require that team members work odd hours – or even take breaks for yet another PCS. It’s not unheard of for our Managers to work with attorneys on bases from New York to Texas to Hawaii – all in the same day and on the same project – and providing top work product when the matter is done.
Routinely, at any given moment, military spouses and affiliates make up at least one-third of our contract work force – most of whom are women – and they are well-represented in virtually every project we undertake. A point of major pride is our track record and ongoing efforts to identify military spouses who wish to transition to full-time employment with us – and bringing them fully into the TCDI family. We are thankful daily for the talent and leadership that those folks provide and the unique perspectives they offer our company. Too, we celebrate with our contract alumni who have gone on to secure government, academic, or other full-time positions. Whether a military spouse is with us for a season or for many years, we are grateful for their efforts — and we support their personal and professional choices.
Not only is supporting our nation’s military spouses – and by extension, their families – an incredibly important corporate endeavor, we too reap untold benefits by elevating and harnessing the skills, smarts, and talents of a frequently underemployed population. We strive to provide rewarding professional opportunities to folks who trained to be lawyers, calling on them (regardless of where in the US they live) to use those talents on behalf of our clients. It is a story of mutual benefit and success. Our team’s leader, Caragh Landry, summed it up best in a post last year entitled “Thank You to Our Military Spouses” which enumerated the many benefits of working with military spouses. From their adaptability, flexibility, autonomy, camaraderie, reliability, intelligence, confidentiality, and humor – military spouses are the real deal and the whole package. Our day-to-day is better because of them – and today especially, we send our gratitude.
