My article this week in The Lawyers Weekly has generated some attention and controversy. Nicole Black in her new blog New Lawyers Back on Track has raised some thought-provoking concerns. 

Thanks Nicole for picking up the article. Much appreciated! To clarify on a couple of issues you’ve raised,  please know that I am an executive coach.  As such my clients set their own goals and agendas.  If a woman lawyer has a goal of becoming a partner in a law firm then I would certainly encourage her to consider business development as one of the vehicles to support her advancement.

While it is vital to keep a long term perspective on possibilities for transforming our law firm workplaces, it is equally important to many women that they continue to strengthen their position within the current system. Developing and expanding one’s own loyal client base is vital to achieving power, authority, and financial equality.  As long as one depends on others to provide the work, one is by definition dependant.  This applies to both genders.

Business development means investing in relationships. The purpose of strategy in this context is to ensure that a lawyer’s investments in time are right on target and offer maximum benefit.

In my experience I have seen large numbers of lawyers both young and old turned off by the stereotypical image of the rainmaker.  In fact, there is a different and effective approach which is very much in alignment with these women lawyers own values and integrity.  I want to encourage both women and men who don’t identity with the extroverted model of rainmaker to develop their own equally successful approach based on developing strong legal credentials and developing an ever-expanding base of trusting relationships with clients, referral sources and others.  No grandstanding, polished speeches, or tickets to the NBA (or in the Canadian context NHL) required.

When it comes to innovation and new approaches to rainmaking you truly stand out as the author of not one but three blogs!  That is precisely what I meant when I wrote “assess your strengths and develop your own personal approach grounded in your values, your professional goals” and I would add your interests. 

Thanks Nicole for encouraging the discussion on this very important topic!

Why are business development skills more important then ever for women lawyers?

Because in my opinion as female professionals we have reached an impasse.

In the words of Alice Eagly and Linda Carli in the September 2007 issue of Harvard Buisness Review (HBR) the glass ceiling is a misnomer.   There is not artificial barrier beyond which we cannot ascend but rather a labyrinth of challenges and obstacles that must be overcome throughout our careers.

The statistics tell the story:

“According to the National Association for Law Placement, a trade group that provides career counselling to lawyers and law students, only about 17 percent of the partners at major law firms nationwide [US] were women in 2005, a figure that has risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13 percent of partners were women.”  New York Times, March 19, 2006

“Gender inequality continues to exist in management functions, and the increase in the number of female university graduates will not itself be sufficient to close the gap.”  Women Matter, McKinsey & Company, 2007

“The latest findings from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR), released today to coincide with International Women’s Day, reveal that 38% of businesses do not have any women in senior management roles, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2004.  The survey, which covers  the opinions of 7,200 privately held businesses in 32 countries, represents 81% of global GDP.”   Press Release, Grant Thornton, 2007.

“Consider the most highly paid executives of Fortune 500 companies – those with titles such as chairman, president, president, chief executive officer, and chief operating officer.  Of this group, only 6% are women.  Most notably, only 2% of the CEOs are women, and only 15% of the seats on the boards of directors are held by women.” From HBR Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

The rising number of women graduating from law school and entering the legal profession is not enough to shift the balance.  The same applies to women entering the business world with MBA’s and other professional degrees.  More women entering the labyrinth doesn’t result in a corresponding rise in the number of women making it through. 

Business development in this context becomes a means for advancing.  It’s about taking leadership of one’s practice.  It’s about determining what you want and how to get there. 

Keep in mind that your female clients are experiencing the same challenges.  How can you assist them?  What can you do to help them get ahead?

Now it is up to each and every one of us to take this in our own hands. 

“The lessening of activism on behalf of all women puts the pressure on each woman to find her own way.”  From HBR Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

In January I presented on this topic for the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Vancouver Chapter and then again in February to the TAGLaw legal network.  Watch for my upcoming article in The Lawyers Weekly.

I also recommend reading Larry Bodine’s list of ten recommendations “that law firms should adopt to reduce turnover among women lawyers, geneate more business and thus boost firm revenue”  with one caveat:

Women lawyers are busier than ever.  Business development activities must be implemented as a vital and strategic component of the lawyer’s own career plan.  Not as yet another hoop jumping exercise. 

Welcome to January, the stern sister to December.  While December is about gift giving and celebration, January arrives like the dreaded morning after bearing with it bill payments, back-to-work anxiety and of course the latest batch of New Years resolutions.  “I will lose weight, quit smoking, save money, go to the gym, meet my billable hours target.”  Can there be any grimmer start to the New Year?

I’m a professional business coach, goals and resolutions are the heart of my business, so trust me when I tell you, this year ditch the resolutions and abandon the guilt.  Life’s too short!  Replace all the gloom and puritanical posturing with some first class day dreaming.  You know the kind you did when you were a kid.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  There’s always something new to learn, or see, or do.  What to you want to get out of 2008?  When you are raising your glass to bring in the New Year on December 31, 2008 what do you want to look back on? 

Compelling and inspiring goals are the key ingredients of a fulfilling and successful professional life.  They give you a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  They encourage your creativity.  They get you thinking, and planning, and moving forward.  They provide the challenge and the meaning that is so easy to lose when things get busy at work.

For my own guide to goal setting follow this link to the full article posted on the Canadian Legal Research site Slaw.ca.

I have two questions for my readers:  How many training seminars have you attended that were fundamentally a waste of time?  How often have you attended a business development or marketing training session where you actually learned something that you then put into practice?

Learning is achieved most often through our mistakes.  As a young legal marketer working in-house I organized countless lunch and learn seminars for lawyers on topics ranging from networking, to business development, to how to give an effective presentation.  Most often these seminars resulted only in an “in one ear, out the other” experience for the attendees.  I learned.  It takes more than an hour long presentation over lunch to teach new skills and behaviours.

What does it take to get training that works?  Listening, learning, putting learning into action, and feedback.  Training programs require more than just the seminar component.  They require action assignments and the opportunity to debrief with colleagues and a coach or mentor after the event. 

The LMA International recently hosted a Webinar on business development for associates with the US legal marketing group Ingenuity Marketing.  They concluded that training programs should involve small groups of associates who work together for a minimum period of 12 months.  Here’s their recommendation for the best set-up for a training program:

• Monthly meetings for at least 12 months
• Reporting on results each month
• StrengthsFinder Assessments
• Fairly well-organized curriculum but open to
group needs
• Group bonding time
• Track results

I would add that is important to frame the meetings around a monthly seminar/reading component, followed by individual or group assignments and reporting. 

The difficulty is that these kinds of programs take time and effort to set up, but the rewards are substantial:

• A training program with measurable ROI
• Generation of a team of lawyers who all business develop
• Associates appreciate genuine training opportunities

There is in fact some urgency now to getting training right.  In the Hildebrandt report Why Associates Leave one of the number one reasons associates leave law firms is because of the lack of training and mentorship programs:

Too many associates cite the lack of formal and informal training, mentoring, and development programs available within law firms. Over the last 10 years this has been the single most common factor cited by departing associates, yet few law firms respond with meaningful programs. Many increase their budgets for outside CLE or offer additional seminars, but continue to hear ongoing complaints about insufficient training and development. The absence of effective training, mentoring, and development not only limits an associate’s substantive and professional growth, but also inhibits the associate from forming a longer-term relationship with the firm.

This report is a real call to action to law firms to take the time and make the investment in training programs that succeed.  Programs that teach the participants new skills, encourage new behaviours and have measurable goals and results.

This week on Slaw  (a Canadian co-op blog on law, technology and research) I am launching my column - Rise Up!  Rise up! is a column about moving from apathy into action. Strategies and tactics for putting yourself back in the picture and creating a legal practice worth having.  Rise Up! will be appear four times year.  This week my article is about Mastering the Positive No with the help of Conflict Resolution expert Wlliam Ury.  Here’s a snippet:

Time is at a premium. The pressures of the billable hour and the stress of meeting client needs and expectations are reaching an all time high. With all the developments in communication technology the boundaries between our home and work environments have eroded. We can now be reached by cell phone and email anywhere in the world and at anytime. Setting and respecting our boundaries is more difficult then ever. No is today’s biggest challenge.

What you say No to can be one of the most powerful forces for developing your practice. For a step-by-step guide on how to wield your effective No while maintaining positive professional and personal relationships look no further than The Power of a Positive No by William Ury.

To read on just follow this link to the full article.

Building a successful legal practice takes time and effort.  You can make all the right moves, build the right relationships, and develop your expertise and profile but it may take a number of years for the results to appear.  This is a test of your patience and resolve.  Sometimes the best things are worth waiting for. 

I was just speaking to a lawyer friend I worked with a few years back. I asked him the usual “how are you doing?” and he replied with a great “happily ever after” success story.

He works in a particular niche area of litigation and because of the seeds he planted over several years he is now the recognized expert in the niche and getting the biggest and best files. He absolutely loves his legal practice.

Here’s what made it happen: 

We met when he was a senior associate who had just joined the firm as a lateral hire. He had a goal to build up his practice in a particular niche litigation area. He’d been junior counsel on a number of important cases and it was time for him to take the lead.

At that time there were not many files in the area. But the prospects for the future were good. We developed his personal marketing plan. The emphasis of the plan was on building relationships with referral sources and potential clients and raising his profile.

He invested a great deal of time and effort in developing and expanding his network of contacts. He used his lunch hours for meeting people and developing existing relationships. He wrote articles and presented at conferences.  Always with a focus on the niche area of law.

Then he took the initiative and pitched the idea of a book on the subject to a legal publisher who agreed.  Of course not everyone at the firm supported the project.  Some wondered if the time might be better spent on further relationship building.  It was a gamble. Nonetheless he persisted and the first edition was published, followed by a second edition the following year.

Still the files were not coming in.  Had all that effort been for nothing?

All this marketing and business development and still only a small trickle of files. What was crucial is that he did not give up. Nor did his firm.

He began speaking at the law school. Kept writing. Kept presenting. Kept relationship building. And he stayed the course.

The word spread and finally after four years the files began to flow in. My friend is now the lawyer “who wrote the book” on this area of law. He has a completely full plate of his favorite type of legal work and is having the time of his life.

It’s a real success story.

And the firm?  The firm supported his investments of non-billable time, partners gave him work to keep his plate full and he was made partner even before the tides had turned in his favor.

What did he do right? He knew what he wanted. He completely focused his marketing and business development efforts on the goal. He invested a lot of time and effort. He took the initiative and created opportunities for raising his profile. He was not dissuaded by the naysayers.

And he just didn’t give up.

I was attending a marketing event last week and we all got to talking about the reaction of the old guard to the new generation of lawyers entering law firms today.  One of the attendees Dorothy Sitek shared one take on the generation gap that she in turn picked up from a presentation by business coach Karen Elliot:

These professionals entering the work force today are your children.  You were the ones who raised them.  And how did you raise them?  You raised them to contribute to the conversation at the dinner table.  You raised them to have an opinion, and to know how to express it.  You raised them to be confident and to value themselves.

What are these new associates looking for?  More then anything mentorship, training, and a place where they can contribute and where they feel valued.

Our law firms haven’t traditionally been great at these things.  So as Blane Prescott of Hildebrand writes, if you really want to invest in associate retention at your law firm the first place to invest is in training your partners to be good mentors. And the second is in investing in training programs and coaching for your associates to give them the support that they value.

My view is that money becomes the bottom line for associates only when other needs are not being met.  More than anything these new associates are looking for a place to put down roots and build a practice.  The important question this raises for senior partners out to bring in talented new recruits:  “Does your law firm provide fertile ground for growing a practice? ”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what it takes to make a great presentation.  Over the past month I have been doing almost one presentation a week.  Yesterday, I traveled to Abbotsford, a small community outside of Vancouver, to speak to the local bar association.  On the way there I complied a short list of my favorite presention tips:

1. Check your ego at the door.  The focus for your presentation is your audience and how you can best use your designated time to help.  What have you got to say that will most benefit the attendees? 
2. Get to know your audience before the event.  Find out as much as possible about their needs and concerns and learn what they would like to get out of your presentation.  If you can’t contact some of the audience members beforehand, introduce yourself to people as they arrive and ask them.  Or as a last resort, open your talk with the question - although you will get more information if people can speak to you in private rather than in front of the whole group.
3. Settle on the top 3 points you wish to emphasize in your presentation and build your speech around them.  Which of the three ideas is the central focus?  
4. Embrace imperfection.  Many great speakers touch us because they are so down to earth.  Put your emphasis on being genuine and up front rather than perfect and polished.

Surfing the web this morning I found Garr Reynolds web site.   Reynolds is a former Apple executive who now teaches at a University in Japan.  His site has lots of great presentation tips and his blog post this morning has an illustrative comparison of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs presentation styles.  It’s worth reading if you want to re-think how you handle your PowerPoint slides.

Clients want lawyers with niche expertise. 

At a client panel I took part in last month one of the big themes that emerged was that clients want to hire a lawyer who “gets them” - who has a depth and breadth of knowledge of their industry, their profession, their business, or in essence their issues.

So a great way to build your practice is to focus on developing some niche expertise and getting known for it.  The question for a lot of lawyers is how do I find my niche? 

Kevin O’Keefe of Lexblog has a helpful post on finding your blog niche (which was inspired by a freelance writer’s post on finding your writing niche).  In addition to his handy niche questions I have a few to add of my own:

Think about your background. What jobs did you do before becoming a lawyer? What degrees do you have?  Does your family run a business?  I was working with one client who casually mentioned his parents, his uncles, and his brother were all in the same type of manufacturing business and that he had worked for them before becoming a lawyer - that became his niche. 

Kevin says “find what inspires you.”  I agree.  What is it that fascinates you?  How might you draw the connection with your legal practice? Here in British Columbia one lucky lawyer dominates the ski hill business and another has secured the winery niche.  There must be some nice perks with clients like those.

Another question to consider is what kind of clients do you like working with most?  What do they have in common? 

Ultimately finding your niche is about discovering what you like best about your legal practice and getting more of it.   And for associates it’s an effective strategy for gaining ground rapidly, raising your profile, and securing your own clients.