Posted on April 01, 2012 by Cynthia Pladziewicz

8 Things Legal Administrators Can Do to Develop New Attorneys

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Tracy Spore is President of the Dallas Association of Legal Administrators and Office Manager at Bowman & Brooke Dallas. Tracy asked me to advise her professional group on how they can help develop young lawyers. Her request reminded me of how tough it was for me starting out as a new lawyer and how much support I received. I hope the article for DALA, which is exerpted below, will offer some helpful ideas for legal professionals who work with new lawyers:


Attorney Development:  Is There an App for That?

Compared to many other entry-level professionals with whom I've worked, new lawyers are less prepared to practice their craft.  Until our IT departments come out with a smart phone application to bring them along, they will need your guidance just as I did.  Here are a few ideas for how to do just that:

  1. If you have the good fortune to work for a firm with personnel dedicated to lawyer development, look for ways to team with them to grow young lawyers.  As Chief Development Officer with a large law firm, I worked closely with my firm’s administrative leaders to make sure our lawyers got the full benefit of the training and resources available to them.  Our efforts ran in both directions.  I worked hard to make sure new lawyers received the full benefit of our technology and knew how to work better with our staff.  Our IT group, HR and staff leadership worked with me to make sure that I hit the right chords with our new lawyers in preparing them to effectively work with all of our firm’s resources, especially our incredible human resources.
  2. Point new lawyers to the local bar association for great development resources. Local bar associations provide great resources for new lawyers.  For example, the Dallas Bar Association offers a year-long structured transition to law program that pairs an experienced lawyer mentor to each new attorney.  In addition local bars often discount membership fees for new lawyers, making bar membership a bargain.  If your firm does not have a formal training program, this resource will be particularly valuable.
  3. Understand lawyer personalities.  As a group, lawyers are more time urgent, pessimistic, skeptical, sensitive to criticism and independently minded than the typical person.  I recommend taking a look at Dr. Larry Richard’s article Herding Cats: The Lawyer Personality Revealed to learn more. For those of us working with lawyers, tact, responsiveness to time demands, resilience and adaptability go a long way towards forging relationships. 
  4. Be a Mentor.  Firms often understand the need for attorney mentors. I would take it a step further. Newer attorneys need business mentors as well. This person may well be you. 
  5. Use a coach to manage individual and firm developmental challenges. When people and organizations need to change to meet the demands of the marketplace, good coaches can often get them there more quickly and with less effort. In many corporations, coaching is an investment made in top leaders and high potentials to help the organization grow and thrive. You can find more information on lawyer coaching in my American Lawyer Daily article, Do Lawyers Need a Coach?
  6. Ask new lawyers if they want to know more about the business of law.  When a new lawyer comes to you for help in opening a file, running a conflict, understanding billing and collections, dealing with a personnel issue, etc., it’s a great time to ask if they would be interested in knowing more about how this particular aspect of the practice works. 
  7. Client Development is key. The biggest complaint I receive from the young partners I coach is that they are ill prepared to develop clients and yet are expected to do so fairly quickly after entering the partnership. Engaging your marketing personnel, senior lawyers and others in helping young lawyers understand business development early in their careers is critical for their long-term success and for that of your firm. 
  8. Encourage your staff to offer help when they see a better way. In my experience lawyers are not very good at asking for help in understanding what they do not know. Reinforce to young lawyers the wisdom that your staff provides and the firm’s expectation that they will respect and utilize the wise people you have put in place to help them. 

In today’s fast paced and constantly changing law firm environment, young lawyers must hit the ground running and develop quickly. And yes, there is an app for that;  it’s you. 

 

Photograph by Victor1558.

Posted on March 03, 2011 by Cynthia Pladziewicz

Want to develop a great business plan? Play to your strengths

iStock_000012386748XSmall[1].JPGHave you ever tried to accomplish a goal that required you to be someone that you are not?  Lately I've been working with lawyers who participate in my colleague Cordell Parvin's business development coaching groups.  This issue of being authentic keeps coming up.  

I'm just not a sales person type.  I don't like giving speeches.  It feels wrong to ask a friend for business.  Please don't ask me to take people I don't know to lunch.

The Clifton Strengthsfinder is a great tool to help you discover the natural talents you can leverage to develop stronger relationships with clients.  And you don't have to be someone you are not or do things that feel wrong to you in the process.  The truth is that when it comes to business development, one size doesn't fit all.   

As a young lawyer I had 2 role models for client development and they couldn't have been more different. The first, whom I will call Frank, graduated from the local law school, smoked cigars and played golf.  He was brilliant, but you wouldn't know it from casual conversation.  He was a big "teddy bear" who projected a laid back attitude and could ususally be found with his feet propped up on his desk.  He was inattentive to detail and a bit sloppy in his appearance.  He was quick to show irritation but equally quick to forgive. His clients tended to be much like him, local businessmen and women who had succeeded on a big scale, loved golf and were more concerned with getting the deal done than with the details.

George on the other hand dressed meticulously, taught Sunday school, attended a prestigious law school and maintained a very businsess like, almost professorial, demeanor with his clients.  He never lost his cool.  He had a great practice filled with referrals from other attorneys across the country.  They knew him through his writing and speaking or through his law school referral network.  His clients were primarily large banks and insurance companies who valued his care, attention to detail and businesslike demeanor.

What did George and Frank have in common in addition to being excellent lawyers?  Each knew his natural talents and strengths and used those to develop clients in his law practice.  The Strengthsfinder is a great assessment for helping you learn what your talents are.  I've used the Strengthsfinder with hundreds of attorneys.  They like it because it is positive in nature and it focuses on what they can do rather than on weakness and things they cannot do.  

Ready to give it a try?

Here a few tips for using the Strengthsfinder:

  1. You will need a code to take the online Strengthsfinder assessement.  To get the code, buy Strengthsfinder 2.0 at any major bookseller or buy an ebook version if you want to get started right away. You can also get the code in other books published by Gallup such as Strengths Based Leadership.
  2. Block out about 30 minutes to take the assessment.
  3. Answer truthfully.  There are no right or wrong answers.
  4. You'll get a downloadable PDF report that tells you your top five talent themes and ideas for action.  Take time to read it and answer the questions.
  5. If your aim is to use the assessment for business development ideas, look at the ideas for action contained in the PDF report.  Ask how each idea might be applied to building client relationships and business.  Some will fit and others will not.  You only need to find a few to make the effort worthwhile.
  6. Questions?  Drop me an email.  I would love to hear from you.