Counsel to Counsel - Career Advice for Lawyers

In this episode, I'm very pleased to welcome back Kevin Agnew.   I spoke with Kevin just about a year ago about his career path.   We talked about the career services program he runs at one of the largest firms in the world, and he shared many pearls of wisdom for lawyers who are navigating their careers in private practice. If you haven't heard it, you may want to go back and listen to Episode 83...

I really enjoy stories about lawyers who have taken their careers on a less traditional path. I especially enjoy speaking with lawyers who have done some very unlawyerly and more entrepreneurial things. At the same time, I'm always looking for guests who can speak to my audience about alternative ways to practice, particularly when it involves better work life balance. My guest in this episode, Er...

In this episode, I speak with Ben Sachs of the Landing Group.    Ben is the author of a terrific new book entitled: All Rise-Practical Tools for Building High-performance Legal Teams . In the conclusion of the book Ben writes:  For many attorneys, the legal work is their comfort zone.  They would rather be consumed by case law, deal papers, policy memos, or other traditional billable tasks then ha...

In this episode, I'm coming off of a string of marketing successes. Therefore, instead of interviewing someone else, I've decided to share my experiences. The Reader's Digest version is that most lawyers who achieve marketing success do so through a variety of channels. The important thing is to choose the channels where you'll find your clients and referral sources. But it is equally important to...

When I work with lawyers who are doing career exploration, I always encourage them to have informational interviews with attorneys who can give them some perspective.  The lawyers who have the best career perspective are attorneys who have varied work experience.  My guest, Linda Ricci, is an attorney who has A LOT of that perspective. Linda Ricci is a partner with the law firm Greenberg Traurig w...

In this episode, Michael Katz , returns to Counsel to Counsel after a 3 year hiatus. In 2019, Michael and I spoke about how to use newsletters as an effective marketing tool. Check out Episode 29 of this podcast. Newsletters have only grown in value, especially during the pandemic when in-person marketing went away. As many of us have resumed in-person activities, however, live relationship buildi...

The pandemic was a mixed bag for me. As some of my listeners know, both of my parents died of COVID in April 2020. While that was very sad, it wasn't tragic. My dad was 95, my mom was 94, neither suffered, and neither knew the other one was gone. At the same time, the lockdown created some great new opportunities to expand my network both here in New England and throughout the country. Zoom existe...

IMHO, the two most important words in the English language are "Thank You". As lawyers, we can be stingy in offering thanks to our colleagues and the people who support our work.  In addition, as we enter the holiday season and are thinking about showing more gratitude, now is a great time to start thinking about the changes we'd like to make in the coming year. In this special addition of Counsel...

The subject of attorney well-being is a topic of conversation at most major law firms today.  Several years ago, the Report of the Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being was issued by the American Bar Association, Conference of Chief Judges, and other legal organizations.  It called well-being an essential element of a lawyer's duty of competence. More recently, Law.com and ALM Intelligence  conducted a...

Is it possible to practice in the public interest at a major law firm?  How can you build a legal career working on complex commercial real estate deals while serving a higher purpose?  David Abromowitz has been doing that for almost 40 years. David Abromowitz is a real estate attorney who is nationally known for his work on complex development and finance deals.  A major focus of his practice has...

In the 25 years that I've been coaching attorneys, one of the common themes I hear is the desire to go in-house. We have spoken a number of times on this podcast about that. Conventional wisdom says that going in-house means becoming more of a generalist and many of the in-house counsel I have interviewed have found that their work broadened a lot once they left private practice. My guest in this...

One of the things I love most about doing this podcast is that I get to meet really interesting people and interview them. My guest in this episode takes the meaning of "interesting" to a whole new level. Susan Ibitz is a face reading profiler who  describes herself as a Human Behavior Hacker .  Through her company, Human Behavior Lab , Susan has trained, consulted, and worked with lawyers, politi...

Retirement today is very different than it was 50 years ago. People are living longer, and lawyers, like many other knowledge workers, have the ability to work well into their 60s, 70s and beyond. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was productive well into her late 80s. But for many lawyers, continuing to work is a default option rather than something that has been carefully planned out. Pa...

The pandemic put a damper on international travel.  It also reduced the opportunities for American lawyers to practice law overseas.  But as travel has returned, the demand for legal talent trained in the United States has never been stronger in the Far East. One country where the need is particularly strong is Japan. So what does it mean to practice in Japan? How do you find opportunities? What a...

Over the last 25 years, I've spoken to many lawyers who have expressed interest in going in-house.  When I graduated from law school in the late 1980s, opportunities to work in a corporate environment were more limited.  Today, there are many more lawyers working in-house. So what has changed?  And more importantly, what does it mean to leave behind a law firm job.  Since most in-house jobs are no...

In the legal profession, AmLaw100 law firms get most of the attention.  With eye popping salaries now being given to first year associates, it is easy to conclude that getting one of these jobs means you are at the pinnacle of the legal profession. While starting your career at a major firm has a lot advantages salary, and otherwise, the open secret is that many lawyers who work at these firms wil...

In law school, we learn how to think like a lawyer.  We develop the analytical skills we need to analyze a case, draft documents, research legal issues and provide sound legal advice to our clients.  But like many  professionals,  we don't spend a lot of time studying the human  component of the practice of law. While some of us come to the practice with strong interpersonal skills,  many of us  h...

If you listen to this podcast or spend any time around me, you know that I am an enthusiastic member of ProVisors, a nationwide business networking group that is home to some great lawyers, accountants, financial planners, bankers, and many other trusted advisors. The thing I love most about the group is that I get to meet great professionals from all over the country.  One of those individuals wh...

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a big consumer of podcasts.  For me, podcasts are a significant part of my own ongoing professional development.  As someone who is not a big reader, I have also found podcasting an entertaining way to keep up on law, politics, marketing, and a host of other subjects that interest me including behavioral economics, psychology, mindfulness, true crime, health, and...

I met Jim Durham in the early 1990s when legal marketing was just taking off in law firms.  For decades before, law was thought of more as a profession. And while it is still very much  profession, there has been a dramatic shift in the way law firms think about marketing.  While there a few remaining firms that rely on longstanding institutional relationships to keep associates and partners busy,...

If I had to name one thing I work on with almost every client, it would be FOLLOW UP! Follow up and persistence are critical if you want to build your business relationships, generate referrals, find that great in-house job, or get alignment from the partners you are trying to lead. The explosion of email and the added proliferation of spam filters, has made this all the more challenging. If you a...

Bruce La Fetra calls himself The Client Whisperer . He works with the leaders of law, finance and other professional services firms who can't scale or can't exit because they depend on a single rainmaker. His tag line is "Think Like Your Best Clients". According to Bruce, the ability to consistently attract great clients sets the best lawyers far above their peers.  Your best clients are: 💲 Easie...

We speak all the time on this podcast about the many ways, lawyers can advance their careers and find more satisfaction in an out of the law. If you at a law firm that emphasizes professional development, chances are, you are learning how to be successful in your practice area. If you are fortunate to have a good mentor, perhaps you are also learning how to succeed at your firm and maybe how to be...

There is a lot of talk in my business networking group ProVisors about building a personal brand. But what is a personal brand?  How can it help you build your law practice?  Why should all lawyers create one? In this episode, I speak with an expert on branding.  Barbara Kaplan is CEO of BSK Strategies , a business development consulting practice helping individual lawyers and law firms build thei...

Lauren Rikleen knew from a very early age that she was destined to become a lawyer.  She was the one in her family who was always questioning. She was the one who was always concerned about injustice. One of her earliest childhood memories was trying to stop bullying on the playground.   Today, Lauren is President of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership .  She is a nationally recognized...