Do you delegate well?

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An important skill to learn for practicing law is how to delegate. All lawyers delegate; few lawyers delegate well.

Whether you’re just starting out in practice or whether you’ve been in practice for many years, part of your responsibilities will include delegation. If you’ve ever received an incomprehensible assignment, consider these tips so you don’t perpetuate the cycle.

To delegate well, think in terms of the “5 Ws” that you likely learned years ago: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Of course, in this context, some of the Ws are less important than usual — but they’re a helpful organizing model nonetheless.

Who  First, select the person to whom you’re going to delegate. This is often an easy step, but do consider whether the person you have in mind has the ability to do what you need done. For instance, you might delegate preparaing documents for production to a brand new associate or a 3rd year associate, but if you’re concerned about intricate privilege issues, you’d be wiser to select the more senior associate.  (But you’ll review the “close call” documents either way — right?)

What Define exactly what you want done. Define the project specifically. Until you’re skilled at delegation, you might even consider writing down the request to make sure it’s clear. And then consider what you want to receive. If it’s a research project, do you want the work product in the form of a memo, an outline, or an oral report? Do you want the treatise-length exposition of all of the ins and outs of the issue, or do you want a quick-and-dirty answer? Do you want to see the cases cited? In addition, consider how much background you need to provide in the assignment. If you’re requesting research on a fact-specific issue, you’ll need to provide the relevant facts or a source from which they can be determined.

Doing this when you make the assignment will save you much time in the long run.  There’s little more frustrating than getting the answer to the wrong question.

When Two components here: When should you make the assignment, and when do you need the project you’re delegating to be completed? Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to review the work — in other words, don’t request critical research for a brief to be delivered to you on the morning the brief is due to be filed. Although many lawyers seem to raise procrastination to an art form, your practice and your life will run more smoothly if you arrange a schedule that leaves adequate time in case there’s a misstep.

Where If you’re assigning an off-site project, provide whatever information is necessary. Except in the case of document review, this isn’t usually a factor.

Why It’s tempting to say that the only answer to “why” the delegated project should be done is because you’re the lawyer and you said so. Fight this urge! Consider whether explaining why you need something done will increase the likelihood that you’ll get what you really need. For instance, if you need legal research to prepare you for an argument, the person to whom you delegate the work will be able to keep that in mind as he’s performing the task and will therefore be more likely to note any procedural issues in the cases that might be relevant.

How If you have preferences on how a project should be completed, say so. For instance, if you are requesting your secretary to set up a filing system for you and you have particular preferences about how your files are arranged, communicate that.

It may take a little extra effort, at least initially, to delegate well. The effort is wisely invested, though, because good delegation will increase the chances of getting the project done when you need it and in the way you need it. You’ll also be a better colleague, which always pays dividends.

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.

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.

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.

Internal client development

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Generally speaking, law firms use the phrase “client development” to refer to the process of signing clients that the firm will represent in litigation, transactions, etc.  This blog has previously discussed client development for associates.  But today, I’d like to consider another type of client development associates must consider: internal client development.

As an associate, particularly a junior associate who receives work from more senior lawyers, you must consider two kinds of clients: those who are external, meaning the folks we typically call clients, and those who are internal, meaning those firm attorneys for whom you do work, your supervising attorneys.  The more junior you are, the more important your internal client development skills are and the longer those skills may serve you.  Let’s consider an example.

Two associates, Ellen and Mary, begin with a firm at the same time.  Both are bright and eager to learn.  Ellen is gregarious, always chatting with more senior associates and partners about work, current events, whatever.  She enjoys discussing the cases she and others are working on, and as a result a lot of the firm’s lawyers tend to know what she’s working on and to have some idea of how she approaches her work.  When Ellen hears about someone who’s working on a case that interests her, she finds a time to talk with that attorney and offers to help if there’s anything she can do.  Mary tends to be shy, friendly when someone speaks to her but not someone who will seek out conversation.  She does very good work, and she prefers not “bother” the lawyer who assigns work until she’s finished unless she has a question.  Mary talks often with the other lawyers staffed on her cases, but she doesn’t interact too much with other members of the firm.

When a case comes in that would be equally appropriate for both Ellen and Mary, who do you think is more likely to get assigned to it?  I’d suspect it’ll be Ellen, if all other things are equal, because Ellen has been working on her internal client development.  A partner is more likely to know what Ellen’s workload is, to know how she approaches her work, to know how she gets along with other members of the firm, and to know enough about her to be comfortable working with her.  Although Mary may do equally good work, by failing to put herself in front of the other lawyers in the firm on a regular basis, they are less likely to think of her, and she’s less likely to get the assignments.

So, what do you do if you recognize that you’re like Mary?  First, go back to the business truism that, all other things being equal, people prefer to work with those they know, like, and trust.  (In a law firm, performing excellent work is the baseline, so be sure you meet that standard.  Otherwise, no amount of being known and liked will be sufficient to override the lack of trust that poor work product will bring.) 

Set out on a campaign to become known, liked, and trusted – but start by getting to know, like, and trust other members of your firm.  Go to the cocktail parties.  Eat lunch in the firm cafeteria if you have one, and make it a habit to invite another lawyer out to lunch at least once a week.  Be genuinely interested in the other attorneys in your firm, both professionally and personally.  It makes no difference that the partner has a son who plays Little League, but it does make a difference if you remember to ask how the game was when you know the partner left early to attend it.  Discuss your cases, chew over a thorny legal issue with a colleague, and ask what cases others have going.  With a strong effort and some luck, this approach will put you on good terms with others in your office and you too will be at the top of assigning attorneys’ minds when a new case comes in the door.

And for those who feel that this is a mercenary approach, there’s one other key benefit: your work life will almost certainly improve.  True, you won’t be best friends with everyone (or perhaps anyone) in the office, but spending long days at work is more enjoyable when there’s a sense of camaraderie.  Camaraderie comes from – you guessed it – knowing and liking those with whom you work and fostering a sense of being on the same team.

This internal networking is, of course, only one side of internal client development.  Other aspects of internal client development include building a strong reputation, becoming an expert in a niche area, developing skills faster than your classmates, and last (but certainly not least), asking for the work. 

Be aware of your opportunities for internal client development: as a junior associate, you can position yourself as the go-to person in your associate class and you can get superior experience in a relatively short time.  If you’re one of the rare associates who stays at a single firm for the bulk of your career, internal client development will propel toward partnership much faster and with a much higher chance of success.  If you move to another firm, internal client development can pay off in helping you find a new position and in positioning you for referrals from your old firm in case of conflicts.  It’s a win/win proposition. 

Good use of time or double billing?

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It’s probably no secret to those of you who read my blog on even a semi-regular basis that I enjoy the WSJ.com Law blog.  Interesting info, with generally good comments.  And that’s where I found the grist for today’s post.

Yesterday, the Law Blog posed the following hypothetical (subscription required):

You are taking a three-hour plane trip from Miami to New York to conduct a deposition in a matter involving client A. While on the plane, you spend the whole trip reviewing materials for a brief you will be filing for client B the following week. You normally bill clients for your time spent traveling on their behalf.

Can you bill each client for three hours?

Sixty-five comments later (which ranged from “Nope” to “We miss the days of the Concorde when you really could have a shot a billing more than 24 hours in a day”), the Law blog posted the answer, drawing on Formal Opinion 93-379 drafted by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility:

The answer: No, say rulings from national and local bar committees. Formal Opinion 93-379 from the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility addresses the hypothetical:

. . . it is helpful to consider these questions, not from the perspective of what a client could be forced to pay, but rather from the perspective of what the lawyer actually earned. . . . A lawyer who flies for six hours for one client, while working for five hours on behalf of another, has not earned eleven billable hours. . . . Rather than looking to profit from . . . the desire to get work done rather than watch a movie . . . the lawyer who has agreed to bill solely on the basis of time spent is obliged to pass the benefits of these economies on to the client. The practice of billing several clients for the same time or work product, since it results in the earning of an unreasonable fee, therefore is contrary to the mandate of the Model Rules.

State bar ethics committees have also issued similar rules. For instance, the Alaska Bar Association issued the following:

For example, a lawyer spends 3 hours traveling to attend a deposition in Seattle. If the lawyer decides to spend the time on the airplane drafting a motion for a different client, he or she may not charge both clients, each of whom agreed to hourly billing, for the time during which he was traveling on behalf of one client, but drafting a document on behalf of another. The lawyer has not earned 6 billable hours. . . . In summary, where the client has agreed to pay the lawyer on an hourly basis, the economies associated with a lawyer’s efficient use of time must benefit the client rather than giving the lawyer an opportunity to charge a client for phantom hours.

While the hypothetical is interesting (and a good example of the ethical issues that will confront lawyers almost as soon as they enter practice), what I find fascinating is the debate that the question raised.  Some of the comments are clearly tongue-in-cheek… And I’ll resist the strong temptation to remark on the wisdom of posting an intricate and, as far as I’m aware, utterly unfounded (though breathtaking) comment with one’s name, school, and class year attached.

Most firms do strive to acquaint both clients and lawyers with their policies about billing for travel.  That’s one of the fee provisions that clients frequently challenge, and this hypothethical illustrates the reason.  Clients would be horrified to learn that they paid for a lawyer’s time when the lawyer actually used that time to further another client’s business, just as I suspect most client would be horrified to pay in the hundreds of dollars an hour for a lawyer to sleep, watch a movie, or get drunk, even if those activities occur while the lawyer is on the way to the location for business on behalf of the client.  I suppose it’s possible to come up with a range of justifications for the hypothetical double billing — some of the comments attempted to do so — but looking from the perspective of the client, justification is not possible.  And I would be curious to see how a lawyer would explain to his or her two clients that the block of time billed to Client A was also billed to Client B.

When people ask what I do, I tell them that part of what I do is to coach law firm associates on building profitable practices based on client service and integrity.  Using client service and integrity as the measuring stick, isn’t the answer to this hypothetical clear?

Can associates engage in client development?

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One of the most challenging parts of practice is figuring out the business end of being a lawyer.  In a midsized or larger firm, that usually boils down primarily to client development.  And associates frequently view client development as an activity for partners and senior associates.  It’s pretty common to hear more junior lawyers saying earnestly that they’re just there to do the work and that it’s up to the firm to land the clients.  It’s an understandable mistake… But it is a mistake.

From the firm’s perspective, worker bees are rather fungible.  Sure, it’s easier for firms to hang onto the associates who know the clients, know how the partners operate, have already hit the crest of the learning curve.  But for every worker associate in a firm, many others are available on the market.  Legal proficiency, reliability, client service skills, integrity, and a sufficiently pleasant personality are basic requirements for most firms (though perhaps we can argue about acceptance of personality quriks)… But what makes an associate truly valuable is the ability to contribute something above and beyond ordinary work.  An associate who adds substantially to client satisfaction by becoming the client’s go-to person is useful.  An associate who brings in new clients is worth her weight in gold.

This month’s ABA Journal features an article that’s subtitled, “Associates Can Contribute More to Client Development Than They May Think.”  (Regrettably, this article isn’t available online… So trot out and get yourself a copy of the July 2006 ABA Journal.  You’ll find the article on page 26.)

The article quotes Hughes & Luce chief marketing officer Rick Davis describing associates as the firm’s “secret weapon,” able to harness their flexible, energetic attitude and their contacts with lower-level corporate employees to get the inside track for presenting a business proposal. The traditional client pitch is made by partners who focus on themselves, their past successes, other lawyers in the firm, and their familiarity with the area of law at issue.  Using knowledge about the prospective client mined by associates prepared to make the most of their contact with the client’s employees allows the firm to target the pitch to the prospective client and to make the client’s needs the center of the pitch.  To prospective clients, legal proficiency, reliability, client service skills, and integrity are basic requirements (this should sound familiar….) and lawyers/firms who actually care enough to understand the client’s needs, who communicate effectively with the client, and who offer value are worth their weight in gold.  Nearly 70% of clients are dissatisfied with their lawyers.  That’s a tremendous opportunity.

So, what’s an associate to do?  Network.  When you meet someone who’s an employee of a potential client, develop that contact into a relationship.  (Be aware of what kind of companies are potential clients by knowing both the scope of your firm’s practice and who engages in various areas of practice.)  Business rarely, if ever, results from a single, shallow contact, so it’s important to follow up.  Send articles that would interest your contact, invite him to lunch or a ball game, look for ways to be helpful.  And be sure to put the focus on the potential client so you can learn important information such as how the company operates, what it needs, and the identity of key decision-makers.

Although an associate generally lacks the track record necessary to present the traditional lawyer/firm-focused client pitch, sheer likeability and common sense can carry the conversation a long way.  Do find lawyers who can mentor you in client development — at least one of whom should work at your firm so she can guide you on the firm’s policies for client development and so you’ll have someone to ask about ethical boundaries in business development.  And strategize how you’re going to identify and approach the potential clients you encounter.  As the saying goes, chance favors the prepared mind — but don’t leave your contacts to chance.