Complete Communicator: Daily habits to deepen your firm’s bench strength

By Jay Sullivan

As lawyers, we’re not in the legal industry; we’re in the relationship business. That applies both internally within our firms or organizations and externally in how we deal with clients, co-counsel, opposing counsel, and various regulatory agencies and government institutions. Therefore, developing talent within your firm includes helping younger attorneys and staff understand the importance of building those relationships in every interaction. Here are some concrete suggestions for how to help your team build their professional connections, and thereby build your firm’s brand.

1. Junior Associates: You and a junior associate are about to get on a call with a client to provide a status update on a case or transaction. You’ve planned what you need to share. Now plan howyou’re going to share it. The junior person, Chris, is smart and has done most of the work, but you’re reticent to have her provide the update to the client. She is only a second-year associate and tends to hesitate when explaining things to you. Nevertheless, it’s time to give Chris a chance to step up.

Spend an extra five minutes before getting on the call to review how she should share the update. Help her practice putting the information in context for the client and having a clear message. You’re not asking her to run the meeting – just to share the update on the part of the project she managed. Express your confidence in her ability to share the information effectively. Those few minutes will both help you solidify your key message and convey to Chris your investment in her growth. Then, spend a few minutes after the call giving her feedback on her performance.

2. Senior Associates: Bill is a sixth-year associate. You’ve reviewed his work for a few years and heard him speak on calls with clients. He has strong technical skills and has built solid relationships with the junior contacts at clients. However, over the years you’ve worked with him, his role has evolved from doing all of the substantive legal work himself to managing paralegals and junior attorneys and interacting more substantively with the firm’s professional services staff. It’s unlikely you have insight into those interactions.

Acknowledge that you know his role has changed. Ask him how he’s doing as a manager. It’s a different skill set and one on which he likely has not received any training. Any guidance you can give him will help him as he grows in that role, and again, expressing your interest in his development helps him feel valued.

3. Professional Services Staff: Many of your non-legal staff have likely been with your organization longer than most of the attorneys. If they are doing their job well, they are managing challenges on a daily basis that you never even hear about. That’s the way it should be. You can’t concentrate on delivering quality legal work if you’re worried about renegotiating the lease on the copiers, making sure the network firewalls are functioning, or securing a location for the firm’s annual retreat.

If you’re on your firm’s executive committee, you may deliver an annual performance review to the top people on the professional services team. But are the rank-and-file professionals hearing the gratitude and feeling appreciated by everyone on the legal side of the house? Creating a culture of gratitude and open expression of thanks is important for keeping the organization a well-oiled machine. It’s not just incumbent on the partners to treat the non-legal staff with the respect they deserve, but it is very much on the partners to set the example.  And it’s not just about saying thank you. On occasion, try asking a more junior person on the administrative team, “How are you doing?” or “How do you feel you are growing?” or “What would be more helpful in the way we work together?” If you can’t hear yourself asking any of these questions, try a simple, “How was your weekend?” Asking simple questions is the best way to show people you care about them.

4. Clients: If you’re in a role where you charge by the hour, the tendency is to err on the side of efficiency when speaking with a client. They know that your time equals their money. Therefore, we tend to be careful to not waste our time on the phone with the client. This could prove to be less efficient and less helpful to building the client relationship and being of added value.

Let’s say you get on a call with Janice, the general counsel at your client, Acme. Janice has a lot going on. As soon as you finish with brief pleasantries, you tend to say, “Well, Janice, thanks for meeting with me to discuss the transaction with Beta.” You then launch into your discussion of Beta – what’s going well and what isn’t. There’s a missed opportunity here.

Launching right into a discussion about Beta presupposes that it’s the only thing on Janice’s mind. Instead of plowing ahead regarding Beta, try the following. “Janice, thanks for meeting with me to discuss Beta. Before we get into that, what else is on your agenda?” If that feels too formal try, “What else would be helpful to discuss today?” or “What else is going on that we should discuss?” If Janice is focused on Beta, she’ll thank you for your offer but want to keep on track. However, you never know what’s actually top-of-mind for Janice and by opening the door to discussing other topics you may uncover other avenues to be helpful to her. You also come across as less transactional and more relational.

5. Third Parties – The Courts, Regulators, Co-Counsel and Opposing Counsel: Again, we’re in the relationship business. What goes around, comes around. For more than two decades I have coached law firm partners on business development issues, often getting them ready for pitch meetings with potential clients. I always ask how the meeting came about. On at least three occasions, the partner has said, “They asked to meet with us. This party was the opposing side in a recent negotiation. After the deal was resolved, they reached out to us saying they liked the way we handled the discussion better than they liked how their own counsel behaved.”

In the current state of mergers in the legal market, the firm across the table from you on today’s negotiation might become the newest addition to your M&A group next week. The regulator you’re appealing to on behalf of one client, may become the GC at another client next year. Building your reputation for treating everyone with respect will always serve you well. It’s also just easier on your mental and physical health than treating every conversation as a battle.

Every interaction builds your firm’s brand, positively or negatively. Your strength as a firm isn’t just in the quality of your legal work. It’s in the quality of your relationships. You’ll be well served to build your bench strength by focusing on those relationships as much as your substantive legal skills.

 

Jay Sullivan is a former practicing attorney and the former managing partner at Exec/Comm, LLC, a communications consulting firm. He is the author of “The New Nimble: Leading in the Age of Change,” “Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work & Beyond,” and “Raising Gentle Men: Lives at the Orphanage Edge.” He can be reached at [email protected].