Counsel to Counsel - Career Advice for Lawyers

In this episode, I speak with Lauren Stiller Rikleen. Lauren is a nationally recognized expert on developing a thriving, diverse and multi-generational workforce.

For as long as I’ve been a member of the bar, lawyers have been talking about the role of women in the practice of law. Today, we are hearing a lot of discussion about sexual harassment through the #metoo movement. Prominent men in all walks of professional life, including the law, have been forced out of positions of power.

At the same time, many state legislatures have been adopting pay equity statutes to prevent women from being being subjected to wage discrimination.

But are women advancing into leadership roles in the legal profession? If 50% of law school graduates are women, why aren’t we getting close to seeing 50% women in the partnership ranks of top law firms? What are the barriers to women achieving partnership and if you are a young associate, what can you do to overcome some of those hurdles?

My guest, Lauren Rikleen, has been thinking about these issues for three decades. In this episode, Lauren shares some great advice for women who are looking to advance into leadership ranks in the legal profession. While men can also benefit from her wisdom, today’s conversation is focused on helping women to find ways to move up in private practice as well as in corporate and government legal roles.

As President of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership, Lauren Rikleen speaks at conferences, retreats, and professional events, consults, and provides training programs focusing on: strengthening intergenerational relationships in the workplace; women’s leadership and advancement; and strategies for minimizing the impact of unconscious bias.

She is author of Ladder Down: Success Strategies For Lawyers From Women Who Will Be Hiring, Reviewing, And Promoting You; You Raised Us. Now Work With Us - Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams, and Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law. She has also authored more than 150 articles for publications around the country.

Lauren holds leadership roles in the American Bar Association and served as President of the Boston Bar Association where she established the Task Force on Professional Challenges and Family needs which produced a nationally recognized report on the costs of work-life imbalance in the law.

Lauren spent over 20 years as an environmental lawyer in private practice and when I first met her in the early 1990’s, she was an active speaker at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education where I worked as a program attorney. I also had the privilege of serving with her on the Boston Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Work Life balance more than 15 years ago. She is someone who truly cares about workplace diversity and someone who has spent a tremendous amount of time thinking about ways to change the status quo in the law.

Please visit Lauren's website for more information about how to obtain her books and other publications.

Launching your own law practice can be both exhilarating and terrifying. For lawyers who are accustomed to the structure of a law firm and a steady paycheck, hanging a shingle means saying goodbye to security. Leaving a large firm means that there is no one between you and the client. You need to figure out how to advise your clients without the help of partners who are just down the hall. You also need to develop your own infrastructure.

At the same time, leaving a law firm also means having tremendous flexibility and a chance to really build something of your own. But it is not for everyone.

In this episode, I am joined by Matt Yospin. Matt is an IP attorney who graduated from law school in 2009 at the end of the Great Recession, not a great time to be starting a legal career. But Matt was one of the lucky ones. While the economy was reeling, he was still able to start practice at one of the top law firms in Boston. He stayed with the firm a little over two years. Eventually, there was not enough work to keep him busy and he was laid off. Since that time, Matt has been building a successful law practice of his own.

Matt is a patent and intellectual property attorney who has been in solo practice since 2012. He began his career at the Boston firm Bingham McCutchen (which has since been acquired by Morgan Lewis & Bockius). Prior to law school, he ran his own computer software consulting business.

Matt works with businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, government agencies and inventors on a range of intellectual property and transactional work. He speaks regularly at bar association events and events for other professional groups, publishes a blog on developments in IP, writes on technology and practice management for others’ blogs, and co-hosts a TV show on issues in the news from a legal perspective. He enjoys working with entrepreneurs and creative people, helping them to build or grow a business, to protect their ideas and inventions with IP and business strategies that make sense for them. He also is on the Boards of two local non-profits.

Matt is very effective at marketing and his ability to keep his visibility high in the bar is one of the reasons I invited Matt to be a guest this week. What I mean is that not only does Matt really understand marketing, but his own marketing efforts kept Matt on my radar when I was thinking about a good solo to invite on as a guest.

Additional Resources to Help You Build a Solo Practice

• For practice management and mentoring, find other solos in your area and ask them for help.  Matt Yospin is happy to field your questions.  Find him  at www.yospinlaw.com , 617-340-9295, or email him via his Contact Me form.
• If you are in Massachusetts and looking for some general support around starting a law practice, try the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program  (a free resource). Most states have similar organizations. Check with your state bar association or board of bar overseers.
• In Massachusetts, join the Solo and Small Firm Section of the Boston Bar Association or the Law Practice Management Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Most state bar associations have similar committees where you can meet other solos who are happy to share their experience (and possibly referrals).
• Jared Correia of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting writes and speaks frequently on law practice management and technology. He also does a great podcast called the Legal Toolkit. Jared offers low cost consulting services that are targeted at solo and small firms looking for help with law office technology and general law practice management systems. He is a fountain of knowledge on the full range of issues that you need to consider in going solo.
• Hanging Your Shingle, offered periodically by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, is a great program which you can purchase for replay.  MCLE has also published a book by the same name.  I originally set this program up 20 years ago and happy to see that it is still alive and well.
• Starting Out Solo is an organization to consider (particularly if you are in Massachusetts).
• For Information on Law Office Hardware and Law Office Ergonomics consider Matt Yospin's article in Law Technology Today
• Get a multi-function laser printer, so you can photocopy and scan books. Matt Yospin recommends a dedicated two-sided fast scanner; most attorneys like the Fujitsu ScanSnap line. You can get great scanner software for your phone or tablet, too.  Matt Yospin recommends Readdle’s Scanner Pro.
• Matt suggests you consider practice management software, to tie together your contacts, calendar, tasks, project flow, and notes.  There are many attorney-specific platforms, or you could make your own system work.  Matt likes Daylite but there are also Clio, Rocket Matter, MyCase, Practice Panther, Smokeball, and too many more to name.
• Every attorney (and everyone else) should use a password manager.  Matt likes 1Password.  I use LastPass.
• Matt recommends using some keystroke expansion or macro software (to save a lot of time typing.)  He wrote about this category of software here. Matt uses TextExpander, and there are many others.
• Local and remote backups, with encryption, are a must.  If you hire someone, be sure they are doing this for you.  If you prefer DIY, consider FileVault and Time Machine (on a Mac), and services like Dropbox, Box, and Boxcryptor (and there are many others).

In this episode of Counsel to Counsel, I speak with my colleague Amy Levine about strategies for success in job interviews.

In the 30 years since I graduated from law school, the rules about interviewing have remained largely the same; but with the explosion of social media and the web in general, there are some things that have changed.

One big thing that has changed is that lawyers change jobs a lot more frequently. So keeping your interviewing skills sharp is important.

One of the things that I do as a recruiter is help my candidates prepare for interviews. I also sit in an office where I get to hear my colleagues do the same. And for the last four years, I have been listening to my colleague Amy Levine do a great job of helping her candidates to get ready (for informal interviews, first round interviews and later round interviews.)

Amy is Vice President of Marc Z Legal and she has been working in the legal professional for over fifteen years. She has held roles in marketing and human resources at the Boston firms of Hale and Dorr (which is now Wilmer Hale) and Goulston and Storrs. For the past 10 years she has been recruiting a broad mix of attorney, paralegal and support staff for major law firms and corporations.

In this episode, Amy shares some great interviewing tips that come from many years of speaking with clients and candidates.

Like anything, interviewing is a skill that takes practice. If you have an interview coming up and would like to discuss it with someone, please don't hesitate to reach out to Stephen Seckler at [email protected] or Amy Levine at [email protected].

Additional Interviewing Resources

• Tips For a Successful Interview
• Speak the Truth and Nothing But the Truth During Job Interviews
• Talking Politics and Religion at Your Job Interviews

In this episode of Counsel to Counsel, I am pleased to welcome Carlynn Sweeney, a leading career consultant to the legal profession. Carlynn is Managing Director of Preferred Transition Resources where she and her team provide career management services, executive coaching, diversity & inclusion consulting and management training.  

Carlynn has some great insights about the practice of law and career advancement in and out of a law firm.  She has practiced at 2 major law firms, worked in career services at Fordham Law School and recruited lateral talent for corporate law departments. In this episode, Carlynn discusses why doing excellent work is important at a law firm but not enough (i.e. if you want your legal career to progress, you can't just focus on doing a great job).

At the end of these notes, I have linked to several career resources that may be helpful.

For many associates, getting a job at a top law firm was the culmination of years of hard work. If you have a job at a major firm, you achieved academic success in college, did well on your LSATs and got into a top law school.  In law school, you worked hard and maybe landed a seat on a law review.  You were hired as a summer associate for a respected firm and eventually, you got an offer of permanent employment.  After graduation, you sat for the bar and started your life in a well-regarded firm. 

Three years have now passed and while you have learned a lot, you are not sure where your career is heading.  Is partnership in your future?  Do you want to continue practicing law?  Are you at the right firm or do you even want to be in a law firm? How do you know if partnership is going to be an option where you are?

Carlynn Sweeney shares with you her thoughts about how to evaluate your experience as a law firm associate and how to get yourself to the next step in your career (whether it is partnership where you are, a lateral move to another firm, an in-house move or a move out of the law altogether).

Additional Resources

• A Career Audit For Law Firm Associates
• Should I Stay or Should I Go
• Career Happiness Comes through Trial and Error

In this episode of Counsel to Counsel, Peter Resnick, Vice President of Charles River Associates, talks about ways that you can build your business network.  He discusses using affinity to deepen your relationships with clients, referral sources and other professionals. 

At the end of these notes, I have linked to several additional resources that may be helpful to you (if you want to learn more about building your network.)

Being a good lawyer and working hard are key ingredients to having a successful legal career.  I’ve spoken to many lawyers who take pride in having built a great reputation in their practice area.  

But I’ve also observed that overall, lawyers in private practice who have their own clients are the happiest.  They generally earn more (at least relative to the other lawyers in their firm). More importantly, they have more control over their own destiny.

Building a good reputation in your practice area is certainly an effective way to begin to build a practice.  As law firm associates get more senior, it is important for them to write, speak and generally demonstrate to the world that they are experts in their subject matter.  Marketing in this way provides a good foundation for building a practice.  But marketing and building a good reputation is not enough.

Clients hire lawyers who they know, like and trust and if you want to be known, liked and trusted, you must build relationships with prospective clients and referral sources.  Even if you don’t see yourself in private practice down the road, business relationships can be instrumental in helping you find good in-house opportunities.

My guest, Peter Resnick, is someone I’ve known for 20 years. Peter is a master at building business relationships and in this episode, he talks about ways that you can be more successful in building your own network.  Peter is Vice President at Charles River Associates where he leads high profile engagements in the areas of fraud investigation, business damages, and valuation. Peter heads CRA's national Forensic Accounting Solution and has extensive experience in corporate investigations, government-initiated investigations, forensic analysis, regulated matters, accounting, valuation, and fraud investigations.

He has more than 20 years of experience working with highly regarded law firms throughout the country, large global companies as well as middle-market public and privately held entities.  While Peter is an accountant and not a lawyer, he is well known to the legal community.  He has built a great network of lawyers who are his clients and his referral sources.  And he has built a multi-million dollar practice.  

Most importantly, Peter understands how to really connect with other people.  He is a strong role model for any professional service provider.  He has an ability to make everyone feel welcome which is worth emulating.

Additional Resources

The following are articles and blog posts which are related to this podcast:

• To Build Your Legal Career, Marketing is Necessary; But Insufficient
• Connecting With Your Tribe-this blog post inspired this podcast episode
• Overcoming Fear of Networking
• 47 Inexpensive Ways to Build Business Relationships and Generate Legal Work
• Talking Politics and Religion at Your Job Interviews

Many lawyers in private practice think about the day when they will leave the billable hour behind and take a position in the law department of a corporation. Corporate law jobs offer attorneys the opportunity to get more deeply involved in a client's business.

But what is it really like to go in-house?  How does your role as a lawyer change when you have one client? And are the hours really better?

Stephen Seckler speaks almost daily to associates who dream about leaving private practice.  He surveyed over 100 in-house lawyers about what they have learned going in-house and published an article What I've Learned as In-house Counsel.  One of the participants in the survey, Walt Pollard, had some particularly insightful comments about what is means to be an in-house lawyer and how to position yourself for one of these jobs.  In this episode of CounseltoCounsel, Walt offers his tips for how to make a successful transition.

Stephen Seckler has been planning the launch of CounseltoCounsel for months.  In this inaugural edition, he talks about the possibility of finding career satisfaction at any stage in your career.  He previews some of the upcoming episodes.