Self Awareness is Your Secret Weapon

Self Awareness is Your Secret Weapon

When I was a fifth year associate at a large law firm, a big opportunity fell into my lap. A former colleague at a firm I previously worked at had moved on to an assistant general counsel position at a large Tier 1 auto supplier. He was in charge of the company’s “troubled supplier” issues, and contacted me about the possibility of taking on the work. It was a significant, career-trajectory altering, high six figures in annual billings opportunity.

As I began the process of evaluating the hoops to jump through – conflicts, in particular – to bring in the business, a number of other lawyers at the firm surfaced who claimed pre-existing relationships with individuals in the legal department at the potential client. If the work came in, they argued, they should receive origination credit. I remember clearly the ten-plus lawyer conference call that was scheduled to discuss conflicts and credit. Ostensibly the call was organized to discuss the opportunity that I was presented with, but I barely got a word in.

Eventually, I just gave up. It seemed like there were too many hands in the honey pot. The opportunity went elsewhere.

Lawyers and Law Firms that Refuse to Recognize the Power of Social Media are Falling Behind

Lawyers and Law Firms that Refuse to Recognize the Power of Social Media are Falling Behind

During my 16-plus years as an attorney and legal marketer, one thing has become clear to me: Most law firms like to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to marketing. Few firms like to be first. There’s trepidation about standing out. And so they wait.

The process typically plays out like this:

  • A new platform or marketing methodology develops in the marketplace
  • Tech and other early adapting industries jump on board
  • Law firms – still waiting
  • Platform/methodology gains hold more broadly
  • McKinsey, Accenture or some other consulting firm adopts
  • Law firms start debating whether it’s right for the legal industry

The reason I raise this is because, just this week, a law firm leader asked me whether his firm and its lawyers should “be on” social media. Keep in mind that this firm is no stranger to marketing. It spends real dollars on print ads, airport ads, event sponsorships, website banner ads and, of course, individual lawyer awards (“Super Lawyers” and the like). The tone he struck when asking whether they should “be on” social media suggested to me that he believes there is something distasteful about playing in this space.

How to Capture Ideas and Create Content that Elevates You Above the Noise

How to Capture Ideas and Create Content that Elevates You Above the Noise

One of the most important things a lawyer can do to become a well-branded, well-recognized expert, is to produce high-quality content. In most cases, particularly in the legal industry, the written format is most popular when it comes to producing content. But the format matters far less than the substance. Ideas can be conveyed via podcast, video, live talks – it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the content, itself, is of such high-quality that it raises the profile and reputation of the content producer in the minds of content consumers.

Content is one of the few tools that allows a lawyer to establish relationships built on trust with those who she may never have personally come into contact with. Here’s how it works:

When it comes to addressing their challenges and opportunities, clients want expertise, not generalized knowledge. Unless expertise can be conveyed and validated through referral or reputation, it must be demonstrated through thought leadership expressed in the marketplace of ideas. In this sense, content is what sells a lawyer when she’s not there to sell herself. It gives others a window into the lawyer’s mind, her ideas, and the quality of her insights. Through reading and evaluating her content, potential referral sources and clients have already determined, to at least some extent, that their needs and her expertise align.

Mentorship: It Takes a Network

Mentorship: It Takes a Network

Mentorship is one of the most powerful means of training and developing young associates. But many mentoring programs fail because they’re premised on a misguided notion that what a lawyer needs is a mentor, when what she really needs are mentors.

The mentorship system in many modern law firms looks no different than it did 30 years ago when a junior associate was paired with a senior attorney who (at least this was the idea) takes the young associate under his wing and provides career guidance. In a typical situation, the mentor and mentee meet periodically – for example, every quarter for lunch – to discuss the mentee’s career development.

There are problems with this style of mentorship, particularly if it’s the exclusive mentoring that an associate receives.

When Building a Practice, Start With Demand

When Building a Practice, Start With Demand

Back in July of 2014 (How could it possibly be that long ago?!), I wrote an article for Attorney at Work that focused on the importance of narrowly focused, niche legal practices, and how to go about building one. It was one of the most popular articles I’ve written, and became the catalyst for my book which came out in 2016.

In it, I challenged lawyers to visualize a continuum. On one end is the general practitioner – the “Jack of All Trades” – and on the other is the specialist – the “Master Craftsman.” The Jack of All Trades is busy, bouncing from project to project, learning a little about a lot. Clients think of the Jack of All Trades when price is a primary consideration. The Master Craftsman is also busy, but focused. She knows a lot about a little and is able to charge a price premium.

My thesis, backed by research and the experience of myself and others, is that if a lawyer is looking to build a practice, it’s better to become a Master Craftsman.

Four Productivity Building Blocks of Effective, Efficient and Happy Lawyers

Four Productivity Building Blocks of Effective, Efficient and Happy Lawyers

In a post I wrote for my friends at Attorney at Work back in December dealing with the issue of productivity, I explained that “work is like fitness — it’s best done in short bursts of intensity, followed by periods of rest and recovery. So start the day with a sprint.”

It’s easy to get into the office and start ticking off the easy stuff. It can be satisfying to immediately dig into email and begin volleying correspondence back and forth with clients, colleagues and adversaries. It’s busywork, and busy feels productive.

The problem, of course, is that the moment you get through your inbox, a new batch of messages is waiting for you. Before you know it, 6 p.m. rolls around and the brief, presentation or transaction that you need to get done for the next day hasn’t even been started.

To Build Your Personal Brand, Hunt Antelopes Not Field Mice

To Build Your Personal Brand, Hunt Antelopes Not Field Mice

A lawyer with a powerful personal brand is one who is well-known and well-respected by a distinct audience. She is thought of, and sought out, when a particular type of expertise is required to solve a particular type of problem. In other words, a lawyer with a powerful personal brand is not someone who tries to be all things to all people. She knows a lot about a little, as opposed to the generalist who knows a little about a lot.

She did not attain broad brand awareness by accident. Rather, she became well-known through focused, strategic, long-term effort. She hunts antelopes, not field mice.

Special Dispatch for the Legal Marketing Association: The Importance of Brand Experience

Special Dispatch for the Legal Marketing Association: The Importance of Brand Experience

There are two types of services that lawyers can provide to clients. The first is legal service, which relates to quality of professional skill and work product. Legal service is, obviously, critically important to the success of a client relationship. But let’s face it, most clients cannot distinguish between good and great work product. Moreover, basic competence and technical proficiency are often presumed.

The second type of service lawyers provide is client service, which relates to the quality of brand experience one creates. Half of the brand equation is building a personal brand, which involves telling clients and prospective clients what to think about you. Equal, if not more, attention must be focused on creating an authentic brand experience, where your brand speaks for itself through its interaction with clients.

So what does this mean in the real world? Find out more about building a brand experience for client in a post I wrote for the Legal Marketing Association blog Strategies. Click here to read the article.

Want to learn even more? I go much deeper into the issue of brand experience in my book, One of a Kind: A Proven Path to a Profitable Legal Practice. Click here to check it out!

Break Up the “Conspiracy” By Resolving to Simplify this Year

Break Up the “Conspiracy” By Resolving to Simplify this Year

“All professions are a conspiracy against the laity,” said George Bernard Shaw. In the legal profession, the best evidence of a conspiracy is the often impenetrable density and complexity of the law. It’s almost impossible for laypersons to understand the law and its processes. Lawyers perpetuate the conspiracy through their use of jargon and legalese.

There’s been a great deal of discussion, writing and study related to the costs of using legalese. But it does not seem there’s been much progress in convincing lawyers to communicate in a simpler, more accessible way.

This week, Attorney at Work published my take on why lawyers should – more than ever before – resolve to simplify their written communication style this year.

I’m not advocating we dumb-down the profession. I’m just saying that sometimes, when appropriate, we dial it back a bit. Clients won’t think less of lawyers if they communicate in plain English. Most clients will appreciate it. Judges, too. And it all starts with simplifying the primary means through which lawyers communicate: the written word.

Check out the post on Attorney at Work’s website by clicking here.

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When it Comes to Implementing Your 2017 Marketing Plan, Go Bird by Bird

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When it Comes to Implementing Your 2017 Marketing Plan, Go Bird by Bird

This is the time of year that many lawyers and legal marketers are deep into planning for 2017 business development initiatives. It’s the time of big dreams and grand ambitions. The problem is, while the plan is transformative, it rarely gets implemented. As almost all of us know through painful personal experience, one of the biggest issues with planning is that it can be overwhelming – it’s easy to be ambitious on paper, but in practice that ambition can lead to paralysis.

One of my favorite books is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott. It contains many lessons on creative thinking and ways to approach your work. One of my favorite passages deals with the issue of paralysis – specifically, how to overcome the tendency we all have to get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task or challenge we are facing. Here’s Lamott’s advice, gleaned from a childhood family experience:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”