“It’s a sorry dog that won’t wag its own tail.” That favorite expression of the late U.S. Attorney General, Judge Griffin Bell, sums up what top legal rainmakers told me recently about marketing and self-promotion—it’s necessary and never stops being important, no matter how successful you become. Regardless of practice specialty, firm or experience, the secrets to success in business development, practicing law and building a lifetime of client good will are all the same.
Do Good Work
It may seem obvious but nevertheless, the first prerequisite for making it rain is doing good work. Emmet Bondurant, Founder and Partner of Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP, credits hard work and performance for the success of his firm: “The way we built our firm was by doing first class legal work. We work hard and do well and other people notice.” He went on to say that the vast majority of his work comes through referrals from other lawyers.
That’s a subject that warms the heart of Richard Sinkfield, Founding Partner of Rogers & Hardin. Mr. Sinkfield, listed for more than ten years in Best Lawyers in America–Business Litigation, expands the concept of client service, believing that in a law firm, “the partner you work for and in many instances, the lawyer on the other side, should also be treated as clients.” Doing good work, in the first instance, means making the partner look good. This positions a young lawyer for more work and ultimately more referrals. In the second instance, doing good work in the eyes of the lawyer on the other side can result in referrals, as your reputation for excellence becomes more widely known.
Build Strong Relationships
The second pre-requisite for rainmaking is building client relationships that will stand through the good and bad times. “You’ve got to be willing to pay the price, no matter what,” says Governor Carl Sanders, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Troutman Sanders. “As long as you provide your clients with the kind of service that they need and demonstrate to them that you’re willing to pay the price no matter what it takes in terms of time and effort, they’ll stay with you. You will get to the point where you will be such an intimate advisor they’re not going to leave you.”
As Clay Long, Founding Partner and former Co-Chairman of McKenna, Long & Aldridge, tells it, “Nobody likes to have a lawyer. So you want them to say, ‘If I have to have a lawyer, this is the one I want because I really like him and I trust him and he’s going to do what he says he going to do.’”
“Their problems are your problems,” explains Miles Alexander, intellectual property lawyer, Partner and Co-Chairman of Kilpatrick Stockton. “If you really bleed with clients and understand what they are going through, they know that sense of caring can’t be faked and it creates a reciprocal loyalty.”
Building strong relationships is important but, “You can never get too big for your britches,” Bobby Lee Cook told me. Mr. Cook, one of the best trial lawyers in the South and widely believed to be the inspiration for the TV character Matlock, believes in being civil and truthful with people, understanding their problems, returning phone calls, maintaining a dedicated work ethic, and sticking to timetables. At 81, he is still returning calls—which he believes is one of the most important things you can do—and cautions that there’s a difference between being self-assured and being confident and arrogant.
Get Out Of The Office And Meet People
Hughes Spalding, founding partner of King & Spalding and a mentor of Judge Bell, believed that you have to get out and meet new people. “If all the lawyers did that, you’d be run over with business, probably more than you want,” he’d often say.
Leave The World A Better Place than You Found It
One way to get out and meet new people is by becoming active in the community. Pursuing interests for the passion they inspire in you, as well as for the business they could bring, is a rewarding and fulfilling strategy, and one that very often puts you in the spotlight for developing new business. That was certainly true for Paul Webb, retired partner of Holland & Knight, a founder and first Vice President of Planned Parenthood of Atlanta, and former director and later president of Atlanta Legal Aid Society. He told me that he did not get involved in service organizations to build his practice, yet the people he met through working with these groups often led to new clients.
Be Flexible In Tough Economic Times
Changes in the economy inevitably will change the demand for legal services. That requires flexibility and a willingness to learn new skills.
“You have to take some cases that you wouldn’t take ordinarily, both from a standpoint of money and skill requirements,” advises Frank Love, Jr., Retired Partner and Former Chair, Litigation Department, Powell Goldstein, now Bryan Cave-Powell Goldstein. “If you’re specializing in an area and the business just dries up, which happens sometimes, you have to learn new skills.”
That advice is especially important now. Staying loyal to your clients during tough economic times is critical, Governor Sanders told me. “You’ve got to understand that clients have their ups and downs. And when they have those problems, if you are the kind of lawyer that you ought to be, you work with them. You pull back on expenses, you pull back on fees. You work with the client as they pull through this economic cycle. And unless you’re able to do that, you’re not going to develop the kind of clients that you like to have.”
Seek Out Mentors
Everyone I spoke to emphasized the importance of mentors. Chilton Varner, Partner with King & Spalding, and generally recognized as one of the top product liability litigators in the world, credits her mentors—especially Judge Bell—for teaching her about the practice of law. She has learned over the years that there are more lawyers in the marketplace than there are good clients to hire them. Continuing to attract business requires that the smart lawyer do something better, different, and more special while becoming more responsive or the business will go to someone else.
To make it rain, you have to commit to doing what needs to be done—every day. Do that and new clients will find you, and your good clients will stick by you.
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