Law Firm Coach Blog

In today's world with everyone having distress and anxiety, I think nothing shows the practice of law in a more favorable light than what I am seeing law firm owners and their employees doing to help each other as well as those in need outside the firm.

Quietly, without asking for publicity or marketing responses, law firms I know are reaching out to help by making sure that all costs are cut before staff are cut. They are providing support to each other. They are taking on more and more charitable efforts to help others. They are collecting food for the food banks. They are sponsoring solidiers who are in a war zone with monthly boxes. They are helping people without request for compensation when the legal need is dire and there is no hope of recompense from the client.

I have always believed that marketing on a shoe string starts first with a philosophy that you must give back a little of what you take from a community. In other words what goes around comes around.

I am sure there are other professions that are likewise trying to do more for those who have less. What I love about what I am seeing with the law firm owners I talk to is the geninue desire to be of service even if it is not through the delivery of legal services. The basic rule seems to be "How can I help?". Perhaps this is why they went to law school to begin with.

I write for several state paralegal associations under the title "Soaring Eagles". In today's column I got to thinking why, as a non-lawyer, I have had such a passion for the law, that has led me from a file clerk to a general manager to someone who has a devotion to creating great law firms with great employees.

What I discovered was that I have been very fortunate to have worked with the best of the best with lawyers as clients or employers who consistently encouraged me to be more than I ever thought I could be. This verbal affirmation to me made me want to try new things, think outside the box, and take on more and more responsibility as I learned and as I grew.

This lead me to develop a management style of positive affirmation of employees. I became a cheerleader that set high standards but believed in motivation by positive feedback. I saw failure as an opportunity to learn. I believed that any one could achieve anything if someone belived in them. Consequently I think I have had a great history of great employees (Soaring Eagles) who stepped outside whatever preconceived idea of restriction they had and went on to bigger and better things in their lives. In my almost 48 years of being in and around the law, I have only terminated five people; 2 for speaking badly of their employer in public; 1 for being unkind and causing great distress to someone, 1 for telling an untruth, and 1 for being rude and insenstive to a client. Each had violated my personal value code and had known in advance the expectations. I also saw some employees leave the law but only after they recognized they did not want to do the job. And I have seen the others simply be winners.

Lawyers for some reason believe they have a hard time letting people know how much they are appreciated. I have never been the recipient of this. I have been shown a great deal of respect, given great latitude in what I wanted to try, and have had the support of the lawyers I have been involved with. I have always felt on equal footing with the lawyers but never forgot who signed my paycheck. I don't do well with egoic law firms and fortunately I haven't ever had to work within one. And I don't take on clients who have this approach.

Giving staff affirmation through professional courtesy, respect, and public acknowledgment when a job is well done is the first step in affirmation. Believe it or not your employees don't want to be your best friend; they want to be the best they can be. You have the power to allow this to happen when you open cages and allow employees to soar with the eagles.

We constantly preach to the many people we come in contact with that having a dream is just as important as realizing the dream. When you feel out of balance you have forgotton how to dream. Recently we were working with an attorney and we asked this simple question: Are you living the life you were meant to live? want to live? or are you living the life that was chosen for you by circumstances?

Even we forget our own advice and when we feel out of balance we find it is because we forgot that we want the life we dreamed of living! It does not matter if anyone else agrees with us, if it fits into someone else's expectations, or if it makes sense. When you forget this you are out of balance.

And when this happens you absolutely must find your center again. You must attach yourself to your dream and keep focused on the life you want to live. When we work with clients (and this is everyone from law firm owners, paralegals, associates, sole proprietors, and just ordinary every day people) we are always surprised that the clarity of their vision is foggy, their dream can't be defined, and they are always in the imbalance mode. Nothing is more rewarding to see excitement return to a life well deserved.

James Allen puts it best and we would simply ask that you perhaps think of this from time to time: The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream..............Dreams are the seedlings of realities...." We challenge you to redefine your dream and email it to us as a stake in the ground that you will work on it. Write it down and put it in envelope and take it out from time to time. And what are you doing to move in that direction? Create a short baby step plan.

A practical tip: Share your dream. You might be pleasantly surprised what is returned to you by putting forth a dream.

Do you hold your staff accountable for their actions? And if not, why not. High performance employees expect first to know your expectations. This has to be clear and specific. A good working relationship means each knows the others expectations. And yes staff should have the right to let you know their expectations with respect to their working with you.

And once everyone knows the expectations you have an obligation to give them the right tools to meet the expectations. If you have a faster computer but your staff have to get the work out but old equipment, logic simply doesn't follow. Make sure they can succeed at what you ask.

Everyone wants to know how they are doing and if you don't give feedback on what has been done then you are doing a disservice to your people. When we go into firms and talk with staff one of the main complaints (after we don't know what they expect) is 'we don't know if we are doing what they want'. Staff truly want to improve and be the best but until you tell them it is impossible to win the game.

Finally, you will never succeed as a supervisor of staff if you do not hold people accountable for their actions. This means they know the consequences or results of not meeting expectations. This doesn't mean you fire people. What it does mean is that they may have to revert back to training or be mentored more. The goal is to get people at their best. Unfortunately after you make all attempts to help get someone to meet the expectations it may well be you have the wrong person for the job and you must move on. Accountability is a part of working and a part of life. Until you can put this as a part of the equation of management you don't understand leadership.

Our moms always told us to be nice. Sending compliments about other people's children is the same thing as said in our article of March 3rd . You can't be too nice. And saying thank you more often than not wins every time.

Have a note card printed with your law firm name, logo, etc. and blank inside. For every referral a handwritten note gets sent. Believe me if people like you enough to make a referral they deserve a small bit of your time. Don't type a letter. Show them it is personal to you.

And thank you's on your firm thank you card for something personal doesn't hurt. Have someone treat you nice at a store, send a note of thanks. It tells people you are the type of person they just might want to have representing them. Promote your firm through yourself.

As we explain in teaching law firm client relationship marketing, it is all about the personal side of marketing. And nothing is more personal then treating people like you would treat your own.

Recently I spoke on Shared Values at the semi-annual meeting of the North Carolina Paralegal Association in Wilmington, North Carolina. This group of very dedicated men and women put on some excellent meetings that are designed to improve their skills and provide additional information that will help them succeed at what they do best.

They believe that knowledge is not only about technical skills but soft skills as well as evidenced by their willingness to have me speak on a value system for working and in their personal life.

More importantly and what amazed me was the attendence. As far as I know there were 140+ paralegals attending, most of whom paid for their own way! During this time of economic hardship the fact that these paralegals care enough about themselves and their career to attend on their own dime speaks well of this profession.

People ask me why I believe paralegals are Soaring Eagles. You only have to go to one of these meetings and talk to these talented individuals to find out that they soar higher and better than anyone else. How fortunate the profession of law has been to have the paralegal professional in its midst.

This is the simplest marketing trick I know.   Have everyone in the firm bring in their magazines once read.  Use magazines that are no more than one month old and in good shape.   Create labels with the firm name, address and tag line.  Say "Courtesy of".  Place label over the address label on the magazine.

Go to any place that will give you demographics for clients you are trying to reach.  Nursing homes, hospitals, senior citizen centers, shelters for abused children, school teacher lounges, etc. Meet with the person in charge and tell them of your idea to donate magazines for their clientle base.  The list is unlimited.

Drop your magazines off.   Believe me they will be more than welcome.  And if you generate only one client it will be well worth your time and effort.

How to do it?   Put someone in charge and make a big deal out of the fact that this staff person is helping the firm.   And after they do it awhile give them a gift certificate to a nice dinner.

Over the past ten years of speaking at professional associations, I have come to discover that I had never met a lawyer who did not believe his or her firm provided client service. Not only that, but they provided outstanding client service. With this profound statement ringing in my ears, my next question was: "What do you do to provide good client service."

If you believe that you as an individual or your firm as a group provide good client service, then you must let me know what you believe that means. My question simply is: "What are the stakes in the ground and the benchmarks by which you judge your firm's accountability.

The new buzz word in marketing and management is CRM (Client Relationship Marketing). CRM is a very complex area and issues are arising constantly about what this means to tomorrow's law firm.

I challenge you to write down five things your firm does that is considered good client service. I then challenge you to ask your clients if they agree! And finally I challenge you to ask your employees if they agree! You might be surprised.