Associate Advice: Start Early on Client Development, Stay Late at the Office

Associates

Associate Advice: Start Early on Client Development, Stay Late at the Office

Posted Jun 10, 2008, 08:59 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

It’s never too early for new associates to start working on client development, according to an article written by a law firm partner.

Thomas Coyne of Thompson Hine in Cleveland suggests in an article for the National Law Journal that associates join bar associations, publish articles and polish their public speaking skills. These networking activities can help bring in business down the line, he says.

Associates should develop a client focus, he says, by reading professional publications relevant to their clients’ industries and sharing articles with them. Clients don’t want merely yes-or-no answers; instead they want solutions to their problems, he says. Communication is important. “The idea is to impress upon others that one is available 24/7,” he says. “Otherwise, clients and other attorneys will go elsewhere.”

He also says associates should invite a partner to lunch to learn more about law practice. New lawyers need to develop good working relationships with everyone at the firm. “They will want to make a concerted effort to remember names and to call everyone by his or her name, from the janitor to the managing partner,” he says.

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Posted by Bob - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours, 49 minutes ago

Thank you, ABA, for reminding me again why the public sector is so much better than private practice.
Posted by Chris - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes ago

And in-house, corporate counsel, Bob!
Posted by Bob - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes ago

Yes, in-house, corporate counsel are the rich cousins of government attorneys.
Posted by Andy - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes ago

But if you have a spouse and/or children, its OK to forget their names, unless there is a chance they will refer clients to you…
Posted by Scott - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes ago

What a breakthrough revelation. As an aside, it is also advantageous to seek out senior partners and offer to mow their lawn. How about a Fresca, mmmm? Mmmmmm?
Posted by Doug - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes ago

Um, where does the article actually say that you should “stay late at the office?” Being available for communications “24/7” i.e. being available in emergencies is not the same thing as working late every night. I feel like these articles are selected and headlined by someone who is still bitter about his/her big firm experience and needs to justify to him/herself that it was a good idea to quit practicing law and work for a magazine.
Posted by bob condlin - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 39 minutes ago

Doug - If you used “his/her” to avoid sexism you missed the point. The default ordering rule in such a situation would be alphabetical order, but you placed the male pronoun ahead of the female pronoun and out of alphabetical order. Elevating male over female in violation of the prevailing rule is a form of intentional sexism, not just habitual, and a more cumbersome way to make your point to boot. If you’re going to be politically correct, think carefully before you write. Skill is just as important as sentiment.
Posted by Andy - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 32 minutes ago

Wow bob condin, your mastery of the english language is an inspiration to us all and has likely won you a lot of cases in the briefing stage.
Posted by Brian Kaser - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 30 minutes ago

Mr. Coyne’s article was the best advice to new lawyers I have read in my 30 years in practice.

I have worked in large and small firms, and have chosen solo practice for my last few years of professional life. I am sure I missed lots of lessons along the way, but not all of them.

Lawyers compete with those in other firms, but should not forget the intense competition that exists within their own organizations. The solution is not to mow the partner’s lawn, but to do the partner’s work better than any other newbie, and do work to promote the firm and yourself to current and potential clients. Those low-level executives you work with on the partner’s files will be high-level execs one day, and they will remember you.

This is not popular with the 20-somethings: Don’t push the dress code. Whether they cramp your personal style or not, if ties and hosiery (as the case may be) are what the over-40 set in your firm wear, you do it too. Read up on any number of websites about the dangers of “business casual.” Don’t make a senior lawyer close your door and speak to you about your work shirt or muffin top.

Get your own clients. They improve your walkaway point as you consider staying with your firm (and you will do that at least every year, like it or not). If you can take clients with you, the firm will be less willing to have you leave; if you do leave, they will support you. Success is pleasing clients, first, pleasing the executive committee somewhere between seventh and eighth.

Accept the fact that you are hired to augment somebody else’s practice, but expected to build your own. If you want to just work, shift off the partnership track and enjoy your life.

Keep your shoes shined.
Posted by Jeremy - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 24 minutes ago

There was nothing in the article about staying late at the office. Did I miss something?
Posted by Bill - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 13 minutes ago

Why has no one ever thought of this before?????
Posted by Yes, Jeremy, you did - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 54 minutes ago

Being “available 24/7” suggests staying late in the office.
Posted by Beth - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes ago

I will definitely say that the “available 24/7” and the in-the-headline-only-stay-late advice is applicable—but to a point. I worked at a firm for a few years with a colleague from my graduating class. My colleague, Amanda, was in the office at 7 every morning, stayed until 7 or later every night, came in Saturdays and Sundays, and, when at home, was using the VPN or e-mail to do even more work (her husband is a stay-at-home dad). She frequently called the senior partner a few times a night to talk about cases. On the other hand, I worked 8-6, and only worked on Saturdays or in the evenings when the deadlines called for it. I worked hard, but when the economic downturn forced the senior partner to make a decision, it was easy—I was sent out and Amanda stayed. However—about a year or so after I left (to solo practice, with which I am so much happier and am actually billing even more hours than when I was with the firm), the senior partner abruptly changed his tune toward Amanda and began criticizing the late hours and phone calls, and she was let go as well. (She billed over 1980 hours that year). Why? One of the clients began expressly requesting that Amanda handle all of the court appearances, to the exclusion of all 5 of the firm’s partners. (The senior partner stated Amanda was “upstaging” equity partners). So, when the first cut time came, the late hours definitely paid off—but they didn’t compensate for the senior partner’s ego issues. If you’re going to give yourself 24/7 to a firm, make sure it’s one you truly believe in and one that believes in you.
Posted by MJ - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 4 minutes ago

NEVER give yourself 24/7 to a firm. Work hard, do the best work you can, be available when you need to be but keep a big part of yourself for yourself - you’ll need it to stay sane, or find a new line of work, or go to a more humane firm etc. NEVER give yourself up to the machine.
Posted by Athenaesq - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 5 minutes ago

Brian (#9 above) is right on target. I’ve practiced for almost 25 years, as a Biglaw partner, as a general counsel, and now as a Biglaw of counsel. When I started out as a Harvard Law graduate at an eminent Boston firm, the partners firmly rebuffed my efforts to develop my own clients. “The clients will come,” they said, and told me to focus on existing clients of the firm. That firm dissolved a few years ago, in large part due to internal squabbles over which partners were producing and which were not. To associates today I would say: you MUST develop your own clients. Until you do, even if you are a junior partner, you will always be somebody else’s subordinate. You will always be layoff material.
Posted by JB - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 59 minutes ago

If this is new to you, you’re in the wrong line of work. #9 - well said; nice usage of “muffin top.”
Posted by Brian Kaser - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 38 minutes ago

The muffin top thing actually happened in my old firm a few years ago. I was too bashful to address it with the associate, despite my relatively advanced age, so I asked a female partner to do so. The associate was really bright, just had a blind spot for law firm culture. Good outcome, in the end.
Posted by R - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 42 minutes ago

The key word in the article is “IMPRESS.” You don’t actually HAVE to be available 24/7 - just make it look that way. Here are some easy tips:

1. Always leave the lights and computer on when you go home.

2. Leave a jacket on your chair and a full cup of coffee on your desk when you go home. (An extra purse to leave by your chair is also a nice touch, if you’re a female.)

3. Write several emails ahead of time and use Outlook’s “send later” feature so that they get mailed to your partner at various late or early-morning hours.

4. Leave and arrive from work quietly. Try to find a back way to get in and out without any other staff knowing for sure when you’re leaving or arriving.

5. About once a month or two, actually stay late and make a call to someone. You can be surfing the web, or perhaps even going out to dinner, before making that call - that doesn’t matter.

6. Use e-filing to delay-file your pleadings at 9 pm, 10:30 pm, whatever. Occasionally send an electronic copy to your partner so that he or she thinks you stayed at work until then to “git r dun.”

These are just a few examples of how attorneys can IMPRESS upon others that they’re supposedly available 24/7. Enjoy!
Posted by R - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 38 minutes ago

Muffin top? I thought that was a reference to a hilarious Seinfeld episode, but then I typed the term into images.google.com and saw…

The horror. The horror.
Posted by Leeroy J. - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 21 hours, 53 minutes ago

R (# 18 above): You’re my hero! I’ve been giving similar advice for some time.

Techology is a wonderful thing and enables us all to be available “24/7” for clients and bosses. But it is easily subject to abuse, such as when one is EXPECTED to always be available “24/7.”

If the expectation is 24/7 availablity due to technology, I say it is perfectly legitimate to use that same techology to keep up the appearance of 24/7 availabiity. The delay-send feature of Outlook is absolutely genius.
Posted by NotBlindedByTheBenjamins - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 15 hours, 20 minutes ago

Seriously, thanks for reminding me.

I’ll be at my firm till my loans are paid off--don’t worry, I’ll live WITHIN my pre-firm means so I can pay them off in 1.5 years--and then it’s off to government for me...where my true passion lies.

Civil law is for people who don’t care about having lives, their families, and are all about money.
Posted by Brian Kaser - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, 59 minutes ago

NotBlinded (#21) is wrong about the satisfaction of practicing civil law. It’s not all dissecting marriages or climbing over fellow creditors’ backs after the proverbial cents on the dollar. Take the sale of a business. The seller, usually retiring, turns her years of hard work and love of the business into a secure retirement, often to a second career. The buyer, young, energetic, full of ideas, maybe with a young family, is looking to the future with a lot of hope and expectation. He or she gets a huge leg up on those dreams by stepping into a going concern and making it over. Everybody is improved. Something is created. Lives are affected.

On the lawyer side, there is a certain danger to years of serving others’ agendas, like the seller and buyer, above...What is the lawyer’s own agenda? It is not just money, if the lawyer is reflective, or even just lucky. It’s helping others to move on down their chosen roads.

Keep your shoes shined.

BAK
Posted by Alvin D. Chirpunkski - 2 months, 3 weeks, 21 hours, 27 minutes ago

I would never hang around the office late; all it can do is get you extra work. Who cares if the partners see you as the go-to guy? All that means is more work; and they’ll forget for sure if you ever stick around long enough to be partner. The only true way to make partner is to cultivate clients that want YOU, not the firm, and if you threaten to leave, then they’ll make you partner. But by then, who cares; you have the client; why share the fees with the now older and lazier bosses you have tried to curry favor from for the last 8 years? I would take the client and run. Yes, its true government lawyers dont have this problem, but they don’t have demanding wives and summer homes to maintain.
Posted by Houston Lawyer - 2 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 3 hours, 11 minutes ago

#18 cracks me up. That’s really what people do, and it really works if all your firm cares about is the appearance.

As in-house counsel for one of the largest corporations in the world, I can tell you that getting notes from associates at law firms about topics of interest to my company is more annoying than anything else. I’m going to hire outside counsel because they actually have experience doing what I need them to do, and they can help me solve my problem. I also need to hire somebody that knows more about the law relating to my problem than I do, which is not going to be some associate at a big firm that has spent their entire 5-7 year career reviewing documents for discovery or working on piddly little matters. Associates are not going to bring in business from my company unless they are some sort of savant that just has tons of experience and knowledge. Law firms should realize that pushing associates to bring in business is stupid. They need to be mentored and brought along by partners, period, or they will never be rainmakers.
Posted by Clarence Darrow II - 2 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 21 hours, 34 minutes ago

If you really want to impress your law firm, go into work at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night and work until 10 or 11 p.m., send some emails, make sure your lights are still on when you leave (because the cleaning crew would have likely turned off the lights), and then when you are done, hit the nightclubs or bars and have a good time....I did that for years when I was at a big law firm and impressed everyone!

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