Leah Alissa Bayer, AIA, is an architect, business leader, and advocate focused on reshaping how architectural practice works, and who it works for. She is President of Architects FORA, a fully virtual, women-owned practice advancing affordable housing through research-driven design and progressive business practices. Trained to design for health, safety, and welfare, Leah extends those obligations to the people behind the work, pushing the profession to care for its teams as deliberately as it cares for its buildings. A nationally recognized keynote speaker on resilient and future-focused practice models, Leah received the 2023 AIA California Young Architect Award. A Cal Poly San Luis Obispo alumna and volunteer leader for more than a decade, her recent service includes the AIA Governance Task Force, YAF Summit Steering Committee, AIA Strategic Council, AIA California Board, AIA Silicon Valley Past President, and NCARB’s Futures Collaborative.
Courses
The Flexible Firm: Staffing Independent Contractors to Navigate Risk and Workload
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 | 2-3pm ET
Architecture firms often face unpredictable workloads and resulting staffing challenges. New projects come and go , specialized expertise may be needed temporarily, and future staffing demand is uncertain. Used strategically, independent contractors can help firms create a more resilient practice capable of adapting its capacity, skills, and geographic reach without resorting to cycles of frantic hiring, overwork, and layoffs. When independent contractors can achieve the life-balance they are seeking, everybody wins.
Through examples from sole practitioners, a small remote firm, and a large architecture practice, this course examines how firms use independent contractors to expand capacity, access specialized skills, respond to workload surges, and accommodate different ways of working. Panelists will share several approaches, including direct contracting, staffing agencies, project-based collaboration, and contractor-to-employee transitions. Participants will also explore worker-classification requirements, jurisdictional differences, cultural and operational challenges, and lessons learned from models that did, and did not, work as intended. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for determining when independent contractors are an appropriate staffing strategy and how to use them to strengthen practice resilience while reducing business and compliance risks.