You At Work

In the years it takes before your lawyering skills develop to where you can produce work product that clients will pay for, you cost your firm a lot more than you generate. That’s expected, but it doesn’t mean that in the interim you can’t ...

In an earlier post, "Money Management Tips for New Associates," we focused on how freshly minted lawyers can start their financial life on the right foot. Now let's fast-forward a few years and consider some guidance for mid-level associates and ...

Ryan Nevin’s article “Ways to Get Clients After Hanging Out Your Shingle” has some great tips. He’s right that you should network with attorneys who don’t do what you do to get referrals. But that’s only part of the answer. You should also make ...

It’s highly unlikely that your law practice is anywhere near as noisy and chaotic as Times Square. Quite the contrary: When you go to meetings, or present to groups of lawyers or potential clients, the space is relatively calm and quiet. Most ...

In previous columns, I have talked about the concept of tribes and building a network to support you when your practice takes off in a major way and you need extra help. But have you thought about ways to broaden the scope of your community to ...

I have a group of mental gremlins that live in my head. Other people I know call their gremlins “the girls” or “the committee.” These are the voices in my head that tell me I suck at everything. Do you have a name for yours? When my gremlins ...

Pandemic or not, our clients don’t stop needing us. As a lawyer and mother, I often say, “I don’t have time to be sick!” As we all know, without your health, nothing else matters: You cannot work, take care of clients, be there for your family, ...

Unfortunately, there is no template or set of instructions that works for every lawyer. I have seen a lot of tactics executed with varying degrees of success. What seems to work best is engaging in an activity that is natural to you. What do I ...

In last month’s post, “Kick Off the New Year with a Practice Renovation,” we discussed starting the year with a renewed ethics drive and addressing common problem areas like advertising, insurance and file closures. Picking up where we left off, ...

You passed the bar and got your first job in a law firm. Congratulations. Now it’s time to start becoming a rainmaker lawyer. “Whoa,” you say. “Slow down. Become a rainmaker lawyer? I still have to become a real lawyer. You know, one whose work ...