The Complete Lawyer

Lawyers can easily get so bogged down in day-to-day work that they don’t think about their careers in a broader perspective. Busy, overscheduled, and overworked, they fantasize about the respite a slow period will bring, and promise themselves that they will reflect on the bigger picture “as soon as things calm down.” When the market does slow down, however, lawyers often feel more anxious than relieved. Free time gives them opportunity to worry about decreases in salary and bonuses and even ...

My life irrevocably changed about 30 years ago when, like my delightful and reassuring guest writer, Melissa Pugh, whose story you will read below, I struck out into the world with a backpack, a passport, a couple of bucks and a Youth Hostel card. As my friends were heading off to grad school and their first professional jobs, I took to the byways of the world for my post-graduate studies—just like Melissa. Though the details of her experience differ from ...

Fact #1: We're in an uncertain economy. The legal market is down. Revered law firms are dissolving. Lawyers—good lawyers—are getting fired, and those who remain are often worried they'll be next. Budgets are getting tighter and there's no end in sight. Some experts estimate that the economy won't begin to recover until late 2009. Fact #2: Despite the economic climate, some attorneys are growing their practices by bringing in new business and clients and, in some cases, expanding practice areas. These ...

In all my years of practice, I have never had a client say, “I’d like to buy ten six-minute increments of your time, please” and I have never met an attorney who did. That being said, it is a wonder that since the late 1950’s the legal profession has adopted a billing model that has us selling something that nobody wants to buy: units of time. The sad consequences of operating on the billable hour model are that it pits ...

Mission Statement To deliver group seminars and provide counsel services to college and law students, practicing attorneys and other professionals on career development issues and job search strategies. I provide focus, support and motivation for people as they clarify their goals and develop action plans to achieve their work/life objectives. Services include: * administration of Highlands Abilities Battery and other self-assessment tools * career strategy development/goal setting * resume/cover letter preparation * market analysis and leads generation * development of a ...

If your cover letter succeeds in making you sound special, as we discussed in the last issue, the hiring attorney will turn next to your resume—which needs to be equally successful. How a resume looks is just as important as the information it contains. To be most appealing, leave clean margins at the top, bottom and sides. The white space frames the information as a mat does a picture, and invites readers to spend time reading what you have to say. At ...

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust We usually think of a voyage of discovery in terms of traveling to new places, seeing new landscapes. I certainly do. I’ve spent much of my life visiting new places, discovering what goes on there and who hangs out there. It’s my passion! But Proust suggests that the real voyage of discovery is not accomplished by visiting or revisiting new places. He suggests ...

In today’s changing and challenging legal marketplace, a robust, dynamic and strategic professional development plan is essential to achieving the level of growth and expertise that individual lawyers need to compete and thrive. Though many lawyers view professional development as a way to bridge the gap from law school to practice or as the periodic obligation to fulfill mandatory CLE requirements, it should be viewed as a continuum that encompasses an attorney’s entire career from law school to retirement. You should ...

Most law students and lawyers know quite a bit about finding a job—how to write a compelling cover letter and an attention-grabbing resume, how to navigate tricky interview questions and how to make contacts who can help with the job search. With all the time we expend finding a job, it’s not surprising that we never focus on the flip side: leaving a job. Yet, how you leave your place of employment—whether it’s a firm, government or corporation—can have more ...

TCL:  How do you define success? Your personal definition When we start our careers, we are faced with new, overwhelming questions and we have very little experience or even understanding of the questions we are presented with to provide the best representation to the clients. My definition of success is approaching the point where knowledge and experience allow me to represent the client and add substantial value to the solution of their problems on a daily basis. TCL:  What have been your ...

Most of us experience a steady stream of ideas, concerns and preoccupations—to-do lists, bills and reams of information to digest and act on. As lawyers, we tend to consider the mind a great ally. After all, it churns out all the strategies and arguments that build our businesses and boost our reputations. Unfortunately, productive thoughts usually come bundled with others that make us fearful, anxious and stressed: Can I cover my overhead and mortgage this month? My adversary is such a ...

Messages often get “lost in translation”—literally and figuratively—during cross-cultural communication. When talking or writing to clients, colleagues and competitors from different cultural backgrounds, we often find ourselves in communication snafus. Sometimes the receiver of the message fails to understand the message or, worse, assumes a contrary meaning. In other words, client communication techniques that work in Shanghai don’t necessarily work in Sydney or Salzburg. Communication is key to the success of the attorney-client relationship. How can law firms and individual lawyers ...

TCL: What Is Your Personal Definition Of Success? I’m always reluctant to articulate a definition of success because to say one has achieved success might mean one stops trying to achieve. I would rather success be some marker out there that keeps advancing forward. To be a bit more specific, I think as a lawyer the key is to figure out why you became a lawyer and whether what you are doing is connecting with that aspiration. So many of us started ...

“In the 20 years I have been an attorney, I have never had to market my law firm,” an attorney I’ll call Ralph informed me. “However, about six months ago my biggest client was bought out by a Fortune 500 company and my revenues dropped from $600,000 to $60,000 in 60 days. I'm 55 years old and I feel like I'm starting over. What can I do to quickly find more clients?” Ralph approached me just before I was scheduled to ...

This is the seventh in a series of eight articles exploring The Eight Critical Success Factors[1. McDonald, Bob, Ph.D., and Hutcheson, Don, E., Don’t Waste Your Talent: The 8 Critical Steps to Discovering What You Do Best, The Highlands Company, 2005.] necessary to create a personal vision for your career. If you’re new to the series, you may want to take a look at the previous articles. (See Anne Whitaker’s articles.) Who are you? This isn’t a rhetorical question—I’m really asking ...