Technology — does it help work/life balance or hurt it?

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We all have email and web access these days, and it’s difficult to limp along without it.  My DSL went down for about 6 days recently, and I realized for the first time how dependent I’ve become on Internet access to get information, to touch base with friends and clients, and for recreation.  Amazing.

Many of us now carry BlackBerries or Treos or the like.  If we choose to be — or perhaps if we fail to make an active choice — we’re potentially accessible around the clock.  That brings many advantages, including the ability to get away from the office and still respond immediately to client needs, which in many cases facilitates work/life balance.

But have you ever spent time with someone who interrupts your conversation to reflexively check incoming emails or accept run-of-the-mill phone calls?  It’s infuriating.  Unless there’s a good reason for our family members or social companions to put us on “hold” while they respond to a technological intrusion, it’s just plain rude behavior.  And yet, even as I condemn that, I know I’ve been guilty too.

If we accept calls and emails regardless of what else we may be doing at the time, technology is using us rather than vice versa.  We limit our enjoyment of our downtime by making ourselves too available.

The answer, of course, is to make a conscious decision on when to make ourselves available to clients and colleagues.  Perhaps your rule will be that you must accept work-related interruptions during normal working hours but not in the evenings or on the weekends.  Maybe you’ll screen your calls and emails, only responding to those that truly need an immediate response.  Maybe you will review emails but will not accept phone calls.  Whatever your decision is, communicate it to your colleagues and, where appropriate, your clients so that people know when you’re unavailable.

Tomorrow — it’s always a day away.

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What word holds the most promise for both positive change and hopeless atrophy?  Tomorrow.

Lawyers are, by nature, planners.  We also tend to be pessimistic and, therefore, risk-averse.  Those tendencies conspire to incline us to create great plans for career or business development — and then to let them sit on the shelf, unexecuted.  Whether that’s because we don’t believe the plan will work, because we want to perfect it before putting it into practice, or just because we get busy with other things, the end result is the same: nothing.

Although this is similar to garden-variety procrastination, there’s a difference.  I suppose everyone has procrastinated at one time or another on a work-related task, but generally those tasks either reach a point when they become critical or unnecessary.  Procrastinating on professional development (and here I use that phrase broadly to refer to both career development and client development) rarely becomes critical, and it never becomes unnecessary.  Instead, professional development plans hover in the background, waiting, waiting, waiting….

This phenomenon goes back to Stephen Covey’s quadrant-based time management concept.  I’ve discussed this previously here. Clearly, the professional development tasks under consideration are Quadrant II activities.

A few tips to get your plan into action:

1.  Set a weekly time to review and revise your plan.  Though it’s counter-intuitive in some ways (aren’t we talking about action here, not reviewing and revising?), setting a dedicated time that you’ll spend on your plan sets you up for success.  This is your time to work on your plan and to select the tasks that you want to implement during the week.

2.  Put one professional development task on your “to do” list every day or so.  This doesn’t have to be difficult.  Choose a small task, whether it’s attending a networking event, drafting an outline of an article, or reviewing advance sheets.  Urgent, important tasks may knock these off your list on some days, but if that’s a daily occurrence ask yourself why.  Are you procrastinating, or are you genuinely focused on more pressing matters?  What do you need to do to ensure that you’re moving toward your ultimate professional development goals?

3.  Schedule a quarterly review of your overall goals.  Keep your eye on what you want to accomplish.  A quarterly review will allow you to track your progress and make any needed corrections.

4.  Create accountability.  Whether you ask your spouse to help you stay on track, join a mastermind group, or hire a coach, it’s important that you have a person who will hold you accountable.  The ideal partner will be able to cheer your successes, help you to learn from your failures, and assist you in holding your professional development plan as a dynamic plan that changes as your goals and opportunities change.

If you think you don’t need an accountability partner, review these statistics from the American Society for Training and Development, measuring the likelihood that a person will reach a goal at different points of commitment:

Hear an idea: 10%

Consciously decide to adopt an idea: 25%

Decide when to do it: 40%

Plan how to do it: 50%

Commit to someone else that you’ll do it: 65%

Have a specific accountability appointment with the person you committed to: 95%

5.  Be rigorous in your expectations of and commitments to yourself.  Lawyers generally exhibit high levels of self-discipline, though less so when the target of the discipline is self-improvement.  (We’re not alone in that, by the way; I’d suggest that many professionals exhibit the same behavior.)  I’m not suggesting perfectionism; everyone will fail at some point, and there’s often more learning in failure than in success.  This is about being committed to yourself and your career.  Erase the word “try” from your vocabulary: as Yoda said, “Do, or do not.  There is no try.”

Associates’ Pounding Fear: How to Cope

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One of the emotions that marks new associates (and, in some firm cultures, all associates) is fear.  Law demands excellence, and clients — whether internal or external — require perfection.  That isn’t unreasonable.  But those expectations can cause enormous stress, followed quickly by a lawyer’s fear of what details he may have overlooked.

I’ll never forget the time when I was working on a large case with over twenty depositions taking place in one month.  I would wake up at night with the sudden fear that maybe, just maybe, I’d forgotten to send out a transcript for a witness’s review, that perhaps I overlooked a critical error in the witness’s testimony that we’d need to deal with, that I might have neglected to arrange a court reporter for one of the many depositions.  I never made any of those mistakes (and I did have a system to ensure that I didn’t) but the fear was real.

I don’t think it’s possible to avoid these fears completely.  But it is possible to take certain steps to allay them.

First, if it’s detail-oriented fear as I describe above, develop your system to keep track of all the details for which you’re responsible.  That can be anything from a chart for deposition-related tasks (a favorite of mine) to a running “to do” list maintained on your computer that you clear on a daily basis so it’s always current.

If your fear is performance anxiety, take a radical step and ask for feedback.  Most firms have formal feedback programs in which your work is reviewed on an annual basis.  Although the programs are important, they’re not helpful for addressing problems (or feared problems) as they arise — and who wants to wait months to find out whether the fears are real?  Asking for feedback throughout the year will allow you to know where you stand and what corrections you may need to make.  To request feedback, ask a single, focused, open-ended question: “How did I do on the So-and-So brief?”  And then, wait.  It’s easy to rapid-fire questions, but it’s important to allow some time for the lawyer to reflect on the question and form his answer.  Alternatively, if you have several specific questions, you might consider sending an email asking for feedback and outlining your questions.  (Downside to this, though, is that it “formalizes” the request.)  Once you’ve asked and get some response, clarify as needed or ask for advice on how to improve, and then move on.  This typically won’t be a 30-minute process, but instead a 5- or 10-minute conversation that’s neither formal nor structured.

Peer mentors can be invaluable in addressing your fears, because they have the experience to tell you whether someone’s reaction is meaningful or random.  For instance, you’ll work with some partners who blow up at the drop of a hat and others who have a slow fuse.  Of course, the short-tempered partner will get angry more often than her more equanimous colleague, and her reactions will likely carry less import.  That isn’t to say you can ignore them, but finding a peer mentor who can help you recognize when she’s just blowing off steam will save you hours of worry.

Do a reality check.  Although fears may have a basis in reality, they may not.  Know yourself.  Although it’s no guarantee, chances are good that if you tend to be detail-oriented, you’re going to have internalized the systems to make sure you don’t overlook details.  Once you’ve developed systems to manage your work, rely on those systems.

Finally, know when your fear is too much.  Fear can be paralyzing.  Don’t allow yourself to get so caught up in fear that it controls your life.  The steps above will help minimize the cause of your fears and will help you to recognize when you should and shouldn’t worry.  If these steps don’t help, if you’re having persistent stomach aches or waking up bathed in sweat every night with a fear list zipping through your brain, get help.  Your firm may offer resources, or you might consult a coach (to help you strategize work management systems) or a counselor (to help you deal with the roots of your fear).  Fear is a common feature in a legal life, but it doesn’t have to be pervasive.

New associate influx: 10 tips for settling into a firm successfully

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As we enter the second full week of September, it’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of new associates have arrived at their law firms.  Beginning is almost always a wonderful time: expectations are high (as are hopes and fears) and just about everything seems possible.  That phase doesn’t last long when it comes to any kind of employment, unfortunately, but with dedication, it’s possible to move from the honeymoon to a solid day-to-day lifestyle with a minimum of angst.  Although I’m targeting today’s post to brand new lawyers, it’s applicable as well to anyone starting a new position.  With no further ado, here are the top 10 tips to maximize your success as a new associate.

1.  Find a peer mentor, and preferably more than one.  I don’t mean an assigned mentor; I mean someone more senior than you who can teach you the ropes.  For a new associate, you’re looking for someone who’s been there for a couple or three years at a minimum, someone who exudes camaraderie rather than competition.  This is the person who’ll be able to warn you about which partners will load you with nonbillable work, which will give you an incomprehensible assignment that requires tons of interpretation just to identify the question, and which really have an open-door policy.  Your peer mentor is the one to ask all of the critical but embarrassing questions.

2.  Establish a great working relationship with your secretary.  Eight times out of ten, the secretary paired with a new associate knows significantly more about practice than the associate, and she (to stick with the prevalent gender for secretaries) certainly knows the firm much better.  Take your secretary to lunch as soon as possible and get to know her.  Don’t pander or patronize, but if you can get your secretary on your side, your life will be far more pleasant.  When she asks how you’d like things handled, I’d suggest you ask for her recommendation since she likely has more law firm experience than you do.

3.  Accept every invitation you can.  Whether it’s a formal firmwide luncheons or a casual invitation to get a cup of coffee, go. You will be spending most of your time with your colleagues, and your personal satisfaction as well as your career advancement will depend, to some extent, on the relationships you build.

4.  Ask questions, using good judgment.  Unfortunately, in law firm life, there is such a thing as a stupid question.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask it, but it does mean you must consider who’s an appropriate person for various questions.

5.  Spend plenty of time at the office in the first few months, so you get a feel for the rhythm of the office and the people with whom you’re working.  Although you’ll want to adhere to your own rhythm to some extent, if you discover that the senior associate you’re working with prefers to work late and likely will want your help then, life will run much smoother if you’re able to adopt that schedule as your own.  At a minimum, you’ll want to know his preferences so you can let him know, for instance, that you usually leave around 7 PM but will stay later if he needs you to do so.  You will be able to shift into your own schedule in time, but knowing how the office operates will allow you to do so intelligently.

6.  Be sure you maintain a life outside the office.  High achievers frequently take on new challenges with a gusto that leaves little room for anything else.  When you start to think that you have to spend more time at the office just because there’s more work to be done (excluding deadline-based work and assuming you’ve put in enough time to meet or exceed your billables), remember that the office existed before you came on board.  Decide what time is yours — time to exercise, to go out with friends, to relax — and guard it zealously.  You will have to cancel your plans at times because of the press of business, but do what you can to avoid that.

7.  Aim for excellence and don’t allow yourself to be paralyzed by fear.  Legal practice calls for perfection.  Any mistake has the potential to prejudice a client’s interests.  There’s no room for carelessness in practice.  However, no lawyer is perfect and mistakes do happen.  When they do, move through the mistake to the solution as quickly as possible, and make sure to keep the lawyer who’s supervising your work aware of the problem and the solution.  It’s easy to get sucked into a constant state of high adrenaline, checking and rechecking to be sure no mistakes exist, but living that way leads to burnout remarkably fast.

8.  Take charge of your career from the beginning.  It’s a little counterintuitive when you’re just starting to work for a law firm, but every lawyer has a responsibility to manage her own career.  In the early years of practice, you have the opportunity to become well-versed in your substantive area.  Use the time to read the law broadly.  Spend time making sure you enjoy the area in which you’re working, and give thought to what you need to do to improve your knowledge and skills.  If you’re so inclined, investigate pro bono opportunities.  They may be your best chance to get particular kinds of fast-track experience, most notably courtroom experience.  Your key asset for the rest of your professional career will be the skills, knowledge, and judgment that you develop.  Give attention to maximizing that asset.

9.  Develop good in-office habits.  Pay attention to the habits you develop.  It’s easy to be busy and to allow your desk to pile up with papers, books, yesterday’s coffee, and so on.  Don’t allow it.  Decide whether you’ll clear your desk daily or weekly (any less frequently than weekly and you’ll spend too much time hunting for papers you’ve lost on your desk), and stick to your schedule.  Complete your time sheets as you’re working and don’t leave the office until you have that day’s time sheet ready to submit.  Get in the habit of getting up from your desk and walking every hour or hour and a half.  Be sure you drink plenty of water, not just coffee.  All of these habits, and many others, will pay off throughout your career — and there’s no time to form good habits like the present.

10.  Have fun.  Practice is hard, and law firm life is demanding in many ways.  Connect daily with the intellectual challenges, the moral imperative, or whatever made you decide to become a lawyer.  Practice can be a wonderful career, and it’s important to stay mindful and to be attentive to the path you’re on so you continue to move toward your professional goals.  Exercise your sense of humor.  It’s often in vogue for associates to complain about practice, and unfortunately those complaints are often merited.  Keep your eye on what’s right (while seeking to correct what’s wrong) and stay attuned to your satisfaction with the law, your firm, your caseload, your clients, your specialty, etc.  Enjoy as much as you can.

So, to the new associates: welcome to your career.  It’s going to be a long road, marked with many challenges and victories.  It won’t be perfect, but it may very likely be quite good.  If it isn’t, you will have developed marketable skills to facilitate a transfer to another firm, another practice, or another career.  The power of choice is yours.

How do lawyers learn to become rainmakers?

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So often, people talk about “rainmakers” as if rainmakers are born, not made.  Not true.  I’ve never seen a survey of great rainmakers to see whether they believe they were born to develop business, but every one I’ve asked asked tells me that, although there may be some personality traits that they were able to develop to help them land clients, the skills themselves were learned.

So, how do rainmakers learn their skills?

1.  Mentoring.  If there’s a lawyer you know who excels at client development, talk with her.  Ask what she did to learn how to approach potential clients.  What attributes does she consider important for business development?  Which activities work well, and which don’t?  Most lawyers are willing to share their knowledge and experience, but you have to ask.

2.  Develop your own marketing plan and work it.  What steps can you take to market yourself to your existing clients and to broaden your network/external exposure?  If you need ideas, ask your mentor or check any of the many rainmaking skills books that are on the market.  Think strategically and plan your networking events (formal and informal), writing and speaking opportunities, and whatever else may be a part of your plan.

It isn’t easy to balance work and personal life, and adding in marketing may seem like it’s too much.  But planning your efforts, and considering how you might fold in personal interests with networking opportunities, will help you to find time to hit all of the bases.  Don’t over-extend yourself.  Instead, break down the larger tasks (like writing an article) into pieces that you can accomplish each day.  That will help you maintain forward momentum and it’ll also prevent overwhelm.  Be sure to share your plan with your mentor, a coach, or someone who can help you stay on track.  That action alone will significantly raise the chances that you’ll keep up with your plan and see results.

3.  Tune up your attitude.  Two beliefs about rainmaking present challenges: that it’s somehow rude, and that it’s unnecessary.

Some people conceive of client development as the task of getting out, meeting people, and self-promoting.  One image of networking is that of an opportunity to foist a business card on any warm body and a soapbox to tell unsuspecting contacts about how great a lawyer the networking genius is.  ICK!  I don’t know of anyone who would like to interact with someone who behaves that way.  That isn’t what client development is about.  Instead, it’s an opportunity to learn about other people and to develop a relationship.  It’s often repeated that clients hire people, not firms, and it’s human nature to prefer to hire a known entity.  (I take some issue with that, but clients certainly interact with particular lawyers and there’s no question that those interactions can facilitate or retard the decision to retain the firm.)  So, the short-term view is that marketing is a way to become that known entity and to develop relationships; the long-term view is that it’s an opportunity to help potential clients solve legal problems they’re facing.  Focus on that attitude.

Although some lawyers would prefer to focus on doing top-quality and top-volume work, and not on bringing work in the door, that’s probably an unrealistic desire.  As a junior associate, it’s easy to expect to be fed work.  But someone has to bring the work in.  A lawyer’s success requires a stream of incoming work, as does a firm’s success.  Firm “grinders” (who grind out the work but do nothing to bring it in) are in a rather tenuous position because strong legal abilities and good client service are the minimum requirements for practice, and those who have nothing more to offer are weak when times get tight.  This is even more true in today’s highly competitive environment.  As a result, client development skills are critical.

Finally, consider the career satisfaction that will likely result from bringing clients into your practice.  You’re building in the ability to work with clients you enjoy, on the kind of work you prefer, and you’re creating your own success.  That’s hard to beat.

4.  Think creatively.  As noted above, the market is flooded with books that promise great tips on marketing.  Some of those books deliver, some don’t… But you can bet that your competition is reading them as well.  Spend some time thinking about what you can do that’s outside the norm for client development.  Instead of serving as a speaker at a CLE event, can you organize an event?  Can you get involved in a professional association to which your target clients belong?  Can you put together some kind of program that offers tangible benefits to your target audience?  This kind of activity requires planning time and will likely require support from your firm, but if carefully executed, it can pay off.

5.  Never forget your existing clients.  While you’re working on how to bring in new clients, be sure you attend to your current clients.  Always provide excellent service and legal work.  Clients are often willing to sing the praises of good attorneys, and they are always quick to criticize those who fall short.  Whether you serve individuals or large corporations, your clients will talk about your service if a friend or close colleague asks.  Keep in mind what you’d like them to say, and let that guide your practice.

Suicide prevention hotline 1-800-273-8255

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As I’ve mentioned before, one of the tools I access with WordPress allows me to see the searches that lead people to my blog.  I continue to be surprised and concerned by the number of searches on attorneys and depression, and even more so by searches on some derivative of attorneys and suicide.

Lawyers have among the highest rates of depression and suicide of any profession.  I have known one lawyer who killed himself and I’ve known of several more.  And now, suicide is now showing up as a search that leads to my blog almost daily.  I could follow that with a funny, self-deprecating line to lighten the mood, but I’m not going to do it.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, or if you’re concerned that someone in your life is, please seek help.  In the United States, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.  That number will route your call to the closest crisis center.  The call is free and confidential.  For more information, visit the Lifeline website.

Introducing the “magic wand” for communicating: the DISC

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As I wrote on Monday, the DISC assessment helps people to understand their own behavioral and communications styles, to identify the styles of other people, and to learn how to make that knowledge work for them.  Today, let’s look at what each of the dominant styles tells you about how a person is likely to act and how best to communicate with that person.

What creates communication?  Body language (55% of the message), tone of voice (38% of the message), words (only 7% of the message), and the pace or rate of speech.  The DISC takes account of all of these factors and teaches you how to use each for maximum effectiveness.  Drawing on behavioral insights that date back to 400 B.C., the DISC measures observable behavior to categorize how people act.  Each of the DISC styles brings its own strengths and weaknesses, and none is “better” than the others.

Dominance: If someone is a “high D,” they’ll probably be rather impatient, demanding, competitive, goal-oriented, and quick to anger.  In communicating with a D, you want to focus on the task at hand and present what you need to communicate almost as an executive summary.  If the D needs more, she’ll ask — but don’t hold your breath waiting for that.  And when the D communicates with you, she’ll probably be blunt, forceful, and directive.

Influence:  A “high I” style is a persuasive, enthusiastic, creative person who likes people and is well-liked.  Communicating with an I calls for creativity, flexibility, and energy.  Use lots of examples, analogies, and pictures, and don’t hesitate to let the I know what other people think.  It’s helpful to be informal with an I and to be ready for lots of spontaneity, but be prepared to cope with the I’s dislike of rigid organization.

Steadiness:  The “high S” is loyal, supportive, a team player, someone who doesn’t like confrontation or change.  His pace will be slower and low-key, and communicating with an S requires reflection of that in your own behavior.  The S wants to hear about how a plan of action will create stability and predictability, and he’s unlikely to act without examining all of the options and working to minimize risks.  The S likes personal attention and being part of a team.

Compliance:  Someone with a “high C” style is organized, detail-oriented, and focused on quality.  Communicating with a C calls for lots of data, a thorough presentation, plenty of material that supports what you’re saying, and precision in the communication.  Think of the C as someone who likes graphs, data, and accuracy.  The C will be rather formal, not a “touchy-feely” kind of person, and she won’t be in a hurry to make a decision.

As these brief introductions to the styles indicates, knowing a person’s dominant style of behavior will allow you to tailor your approach to that person and to understand better what’s going on when that person reacts.  For example, the meaning is radically different between a D who’s angry and an S who is; the D will be quick to get angry, whereas anger in an S likely reveals a much deeper issue because the S doesn’t have a short fuse and dislikes confrontation — so you’ll want to take an S’s anger as a much stronger signal than a D’s anger.  Similarly, you can plan an approach based on behavioral style: think brainstorming with an I and PowerPoint with lots of data for a C.

Once you understand your own behavioral style and learn to recognize others, you will have an inside track to clear communication.  Imagine being able to plan your pitch to a potential client already knowing what kind of information will help him decide that you and your firm have the skills and the savvy to provide the services he needs.  Visualize being able to stop acting as a referee between your colleagues or support staff and instead being able to help them understand where the team members are coming from so they can work together more effectively.  Consider how knowing your own style can help you understand how others are likely to see you, what your strengths and weaknesses are likely to be, and how to adapt your own behavior to communicate better with others.  Knowing more about your style could even help you improve your golf game.

This is just a brief introduction to the DISC and to the attributes and communications styles of each DISC-identified behavioral style.  If you’re interested in learning more, please contact me.

Avoid myopic communication

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Attorneys are communicators.  Regardless of our practice area, essentially what we do all day is to communicate, or to prepare to do so.  Whether it’s working directly with a client, attempting to persuade a judge or jury, negotiating a business deal, or coordinating with colleagues or staff, one of the key components of an attorney’s skill set is communication.

Plenty of sources exist to help with the mechanics of communication.  Most large firms have someone either in-house or on retainer who functions as a writing coach, and training programs for oral and written legal communication abound.  But what about the skill of knowing how to approach others to maximize communication?

An example.  Suppose a co-worker knocks on your office door and comes in to talk with you.  Let’s assume for this conversation that you’re both third year associates in the same practice field, so the power dynamic is fairly neutral, and let’s assume that you’re having an ordinary day with no particular pressure.  Consider what your reaction would be if he chats for a few seconds (“How was your weekend?  Did you see the Notre Dame-Tech game Saturday?”) before getting down to the business of his visit.  Would you feel that he was wasting time?  Impatient for him to get to the point?  Or would you consider that normal behavior, a more or less necessary introduction to business conversation?  Would you be turned off if he went immediately to the reason for his visit?  And, turning to the business at hand, would you prefer that he would speak in bullet points or that he’d be more expansive, perhaps with examples?  Would you be irritated that he had come to your office rather than emailing to set a time, or would you welcome the change of pace?  Would you be skeptical about what he was saying, or would you take it at face value?

What if you’re an associate and you need to talk to a partner for whom you’re doing some work… You’ll be prepared to discuss the situation at hand, along with any background information or legal research that will bear on it.  But how should you approach the partner?  Again, should you ask about her weekend or just charge into the meat of the conversation?  How quickly should you talk, and what tone of voice should you use to best relate to the partner?  If she asks a question and you need to look at your notes for the answer, will your communication be dismissed as disorganized or incomplete?

It’s easy to assume the answers to these questions — in part, because lawyers tend to be so sensitive to time pressures that chit-chat and interruptions are often unwelcome.  However, each of us has a different communication style, and attention to those differences will permit more effective conversation.  We all have a different natural rhythm, a more active or passive approach to things, more or less desire for social interaction, an inclination to making faster or slower decisions, a tendency to listen more than speak or vice versa.  Failure to recognize these differences leads to myopic communication, in which we assume that everyone  to communicate in the same way we do… And that leads to less effective communication.

The easy tactic to avoid the trap of assuming that everyone communicates in the same way is simply to recognize that we aren’t all the same and to take that into account when you’re preparing to communicate.  Pay attention to the reactions you get.  Does she always seem impatient, eager to take charge?  Does he need a lot of information?  Does she do well hopping from topic to topic?  Does he flinch if you touch him?  These hints will help you modify your approach so that your style doesn’t hinder your message.  But trial and error, fortunately, isn’t the only way to accomplish this.

I use the DISC(r) assessment to assist lawyers in identifying their communication styles.  The DISC(r) assessment measures the degree of Dominance (how one responds to challenges), Influence (how one interacts with and attempts to influence people), Steadiness (how one responds to change and the pace of his environment), and Compliance (how one responds to procedures and rules set by others) that a person tends to exhibit.  Learning about the DISC(r) facilitates better communication because it increases understanding of our natural tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses.  In addition, learning some of the basic attributes of each of the DISC(r) styles allows us to make an educated guess about the communication style of colleagues, clients and potential clients, etc., which in turn permits us to make modifications to our own communication style to attain the greatest impact.  This knowledge enhances communication and provides a tool for conflict resolution.

Stay tuned for a brief introduction of each of the primary styles.

Pardon the interruption, but…

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How many emails do you receive each day that begin with, “Pardon the interruption, but…”?  That’s become jargon in many law firms, an apology that means nothing but is the accepted entry point for a firmwide (or office-wide, or practice group-wide) request of some sort.  Everyone will need to send out requests from time to time, but let’s pause today and think about how to make those requests in an effective and unobtrusive way.

First, think before you send the request!  Is the request you’re about to make something that you should know or be able to find out reasonably quickly?  For instance, some poor associate at my former firm achieved instant (and unwelcome) notoriety when he circulated an office-wide email asking whether laches is an affirmative defense.  At least one partner replied (to all, of course) by asking whether the associate was at all familiar with legal research using either Lexis or the office’s well-appointed library on the XXth floor.  Ouch.  None of us knows the answer to every practice question that comes up in a given day, but it’s important to know when to go find the answer versus when to ask.

Next, consider how to phrase your request.  Please, don’t begin your email with “Pardon the interruption.”  Formulaic expressions of contrition are useless.  Just get to your request.  By the same token, don’t begin your question with anything like, “Does anyone know off the top of their head definitively whether….”  It just doesn’t look good.

Instead, begin with the question.  “I need information on the admissibility of an interview summary that is arguably subject to attorney-client privilege but was produced to the opposing side in discovery.”  Provide sufficient information to allow someone to answer.  In this example, you’d want to communicate whether the producing party requested return of the document, and if so, when and how.  If it’s an unfamiliar area of the law, you may not be certain of the scope of information you need to provide, but at least make an effort.  And make sure your question is crystal clear, so no one wastes her time answering the question she thought you were asking when in fact you were looking at another issue altogether.

Decide to whom your request should be sent.  If you’re trying to find local counsel in a particular city, that’s probably appropriate for firm-wide (or office-wide) distribution.  If you’re looking for an answer to a substantive question, make sure to limit the request to lawyers who practice in the area of interest.  And consider whether a quick phone call or email to a handful of lawyers might yield better results.  Not everyone reads requests for help.

Finally, respond appropriately to those who offer help.  No one likes it when he works to answer a colleague’s question and the colleague doesn’t take the time to respond to the help extended.  There’s no need for anything extraordinary, but most people appreciate both the thanks and a quick update on how/whether the information offered was useful.

If you follow these steps and exercise good judgment, you can send out email requests without fear of ending up on the wrong end of a pointed response.  It’s often helpful to ask questions of colleagues, so don’t be skittish about it… But do be careful.

Search out your peers.

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Just about every lawyer is aware of the conventional wisdom that it’s important to have a mentor.  Law firms often establishing mentoring programs.

But peer groups are something else.  For instance, every law firm associate knows how critical it is to have a more senior associate willing to answer questions that range from how a particular partner operates to what business development expenses the firm will pay.  It’s also helpful to talk with peers from other firms or other geographic regions about issues that range from how to get into a leadership role in a community-based organization and to use that exposure to your benefit in your law firm, how to present a work-from-home request to the partner you work for, etc.  Especially when the group you connect with is truly your peer group — i.e. female associates working in a large law firm, sole practitioners in practice for 5-10 years, lawyers interested in leaving the law — the input from others can suggest new ideas, provide much-needed support, and allow you to participate fully without feeling exposed to your competitors.

So, how to find such a group?  Several alternatives.

1.  There are a number of online communitiesthat you can find by searching.  I’ev read a few but I haven’t participated in any, so I can’t recommend any in particular.  The benefit to these is clear: you can participate anytime, day or night, and there is little risk of having your identity revealed if you’re careful not to post too many identifying details.  Of course, when you read what others have to say, there’s no way to consider the source of the comment, and that may reduce its value.

2.  Many bar associations have groups that will fulfill this function.  Young lawyers’ sections or law practice management groups are fertile grounds for wide-ranging discussions about how you practice and what you want from your career.  You can also join a substantive section for more input on the mechanics of your practice.

3.  Self-selected groups.  It would be easy to start a group of peers with a monthly discussion topic, planning to meet at lunchtime or after work for an hour or so.  The ideal group size is probably 6-12, with rotating leadership roles, and some mechanism for a group check-in on what topics are important to the members and how well the group is functioning.

4.  Groups run by a coach or recruiter.  The benefit of these groups is that they’re run by the same person or the same group of people, so there’s a continuity in leadership and the leader is trained.  The groups tend to stay very much on track because everyone has a demonstrated commitment to the group and the work.  And there’s an opportunity for great self-revelation without being unduly vulnerable, because the group members typically will not know one another outside the group and may even come from different geographic areas.  The benefit of this group is that you get coaching as well as peer interaction, generally for a monthly fee that’s substantially lower than it would be for individual coaching.

If you’re looking for something — help in deciding how to shape your practice, support in working toward better work/life balance, sharing with non-competitors as you work toward making partner, or whatever else might be of interest to you — search out your peers.  Lawyers often tend to be so independent that we reject help from others, but participation in peer groups can bring all sorts of rewards.

And if you’re interested in a coach-led peer group, watch this space.  Within the next couple of weeks, I will be announcing a pilot peer group that I’ll be leading along with two others with substantial experience in working with lawyers — at reduced fees, since it’s a pilot program.