The Power of Cookies

So today marks 18 years at my current law firm, that seems such a long time...

Although I had been at another firm for the first 5 years of my legal career, the day I started at this firm was the day I really started thinking about client development.  I didn't know much back in those days, but I did know three things:  One, I wanted to do work for charities and their donors.  Two, I wanted to make a living at it.  Three, to do that I was going to need to develop a client base.  Since my new firm didn't have an established practice in the area, I was going to have to figure out how to leverage the existing relationships in that firm and convince the partners that my little practice area would be viable.  In the early days my marketing focus was on public speaking, for local bar associations at first, then for the state bar.  I also was very fortunate to team up with some other professional firms working in the nonprofit sector, and we jointly started offering informal, educational, client-focused "roundtable" seminars for nonprofits.

Coincidentally, today also marked the launch of my 16th year doing those seminars.  I've hosted 4-6 of these seminars each year, generally in the late afternoon on a few Thursdays March through May and September through November.  In the early years it was a lot of work to come up with the speakers, print the invitations, assemble the mailing lists, and copy the written handouts (remember, everything was hardcopy back then).  Today, the operation is pretty seamless, invites go by email, twitter and linked in to a much, much larger distribution instantaneously at no cost.  I've heard many times from my client base that my little corner of the market looks forward to receiving the invitation each spring and fall. My staff has been wonderfully supportive, either because they believed in my mission, or perhaps they were just looking forward to their share of the delicious cookies I always served.

I suppose the current version of a seminar series is the legal blawg, focused on a particular practice area, and were I to be starting a practice today I suppose I might just go the electronic route.  Perhaps that is more effective than an old fashioned meeting with a walking, talking, breathing speaker or two.  But I don't plan to discontinue my roundtables any time soon.  Yes, I am a believer in the new information technologies.  But there is also a place in the client development tool chest for good old fashioned, face-to-face, educational seminars where clients and friends can network and learn something new from eachother.

And share some good cookies.

Modest Resolutions, and (Older) Age

Longtime readers remember my resolutions over the years.  Last year I focused on getting the billable hours on my time sheets.  The year before I promised to focus my marketing efforts.  And in 2008 I had the most ambitious list ever.  This year?  Honestly, I have only one resolution, and so far (10 days in!) I have kept at it.  I am going to take my joint supplements every day.  That's pathetic, I know, but I have this theory that if I can move my joints without pain, I might sleep better.  If I sleep better I should be more pleasant in the morning.  If I am more pleasant in the morning, I can achieve all those lofty resolutions from prior years.  So you see a little chondroitin and glucosamine just might be the trick for getting my practice to the next level.

Well, it's a theory anyway.  I'll let you know how it works out.

More Inspiring Bits from Notable Women

I was out on vacation for much of the second half of 2011 so didn't collect quite as many quotes as usual.  I did find a few useful gems:

"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why we call it 'The Present'."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

"It's always been my feeling that God lends you your children until they're about eighteen years old. If you haven't made your points with them by then, it's too late."  Betty Ford

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  Maya Angelou 

"I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person."  Rita Moreno

"I would just like people to think of me as a judge who did the best she could with whatever limited talent I have to keep our country true to what makes it a great nation."  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"Macho does not prove mucho."  Zsa Zsa Gabor

"It doesn't matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don't do it in the street and frighten the horses."  Mrs. Patrick Campbell

"Impartiality suggests that we shouldn't begin from our own point of view, that we should have principles that apply absolutely to everyone.  But the trouble is that human life is based on the personal point of view."  Martha Nussbaum

Happy Holidays

Faithful readers, I am about to leave for a long vacation, I'll be away from my desk until January 3.  I suspect I'll not be blogging once I disconnect from the legal profession later today.  I plan to spend a good portion of that time at parties and holiday events, which reminded me that December is usually a good time to be comment on the hazards of drinking and lawyering.  A recent post at Above The Law  described an innovative on-line support for lawyers with substance abuse problems, and noted that 

Actually, attorneys overindulge a lot. A Guardian story from Saturday said, “Research suggests 15-24% of lawyers will suffer from alcoholism during their careers.” That’s almost a quarter of the profession, and a lot higher than the general population.

Why are lawyers so hammered all the time? Our own Elie Mystal has one theory: “If doctors or pilots drink, they kill people. If CEOs or accountants drink, they lose tons of money. If lawyers drink, they… have to proofread their work in the morning? Lawyers drink because they can, if you could drink more, you probably would.” Roger Sterling from Mad Men would most certainly agree.  

I think that's a little flippant.  Addicted lawyers have an awful lot to lose and can hurt a lot of people.  For more thoughts and some resources in the various states, there are some resources here.  

I wish you all a healthy, joyful holiday season.  Enjoy the parties, network your little hearts out, and I'll see you in January.  

Brands, Revisited

My marketing folks are hounding me for an update of my marketing plan, a raft of holiday networking events are around the corner, and all I can think about is vacation.  The last thing I want to ponder at the moment is my personal "brand" as a lawyer.  But that's the lazy side of me.  Holiday cards, client gifts, and social events are ripe opportunities for reinforcing the professional image I want my network to remember.  And that network includes current and prospective clients, as well as current and prospective referral sources (which is, well, everybody).  Some good ideas can be found in What is Your Personal Brand and is it Effective? by Katy Goshtasbi, and at some of my previous posts on branding and networks.  

Hard Work or Luck? or Both?

Last week Jim Collins and Morten Hansen reported on their recent research on luck for the New York Times in What's Luck Got to Do With It?   Their analysis of "return on luck" and what differentiates those who take advantage of luck--good or bad--is worth pondering.  They wrote

"When we examined less successful companies, we saw a generally poor overall return on luck. Some of the comparison cases had extraordinary sequences of good luck yet showed a spectacular ability to fritter that luck away. When the time came to execute on their good fortune, they stumbled. They didn’t fail for lack of good luck. They failed for lack of superb execution."


Can you think of any lawyers who struggle to develop a private practice, despite having a great education, good community or family networks, and the ability to be a good lawyer?  I can think of a few who have a spectacular ability to fritter luck away.  


On the other hand, what about those who face extraordinary bad luck and yet make superbly good lemonade?  


"They use difficulty as a catalyst to deepen purpose, recommit to values, increase discipline, respond with creativity and heighten productive paranoia — translating fear into extensive preparation and calm, clearheaded action. Resilience, not luck, is the signature of greatness."


It still comes down to preparation and action.  More of my thoughts about luck were in an earlier post,  Luck.  At the time I ran a survey in the sidebar to see whether my readers agreed.  Just for fun let's see what kind of responses I get to this one.  

The Witching Hour

I was somewhat taken aback by the headline article in the ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter last Friday:  Not One Legal Secretary Surveyed Preferred Working With Women Lawyers.  At first I thought not to dignify the headline with a response.  I try not to comment on materials or authors when I would be drawing attention to a provocation intended to promote an author or sell papers, rather than to support women lawyers.  So this morning I asked my secretary what she thought of the article.  And then it dawned on me:  The one really good use of the survey by Chicago-Kent law professor Felice Batlan, and the ABA's report, is to stimulate constructive conversations between women lawyers and their secretaries.  There are a lot of reasons why women lawyers and their secretaries may not get along, and I don't know whether the survey results are based on some fundamental flaw in women lawyers, their secretaries, or both.

But I do know that good communication between my secretary and me is the one thing that is most responsible for more than a decade of working together.  So for all of you out there who wonder what to do with the survey results and the chit chat that will inevitably flow around the legal world from it, here's my recommendation.  Send the link on to your secretary and ask her (or him!) what s/he thinks of the article.  And then listen carefully to what you hear.

Happy Halloween!