The path to partnership, which many attorneys aspire to achieve, can be a long and challenging road. In order to get there, an attorney’s ability to generate new business is a critical component. The partnership track can be even more difficult for diverse attorneys, as this group tends to lag behind their counterparts in business development. It begs the question: Why do diverse attorneys face challenges in business development, and how can marketing and business development professionals better support their diverse attorneys?
During the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Southwest Region Conference in September 2019, Tasneem Khokha and Holly Barocio from GrowthPlay, presented on how we can better understand and counsel diverse attorneys, and examined the main challenges these attorneys face in building and sustaining their book of business.
Some of the key challenges Tasneem and Holly discussed, include:
A lack of, or much smaller network of, potential business as compared to their counterparts.
Feelings of being labeled as the token diverse attorney to add to a pitch.
Feeling as though they lack a common ground with decision-makers because of different life experiences.
Feeling pressure to have to work harder in order to “prove” themselves.
Feeling uncomfortable asking for opportunities as compared to their counterparts.
So how can marketing and business development professionals help their attorneys navigate these concerns? It starts with listening and understanding. No one can make the experiences that diverse attorneys face disappear, but marketing professionals can help them turn these challenges into opportunities and set them up to handle future experiences with ease. It’s important to remember the underlying characteristics of great business development, which are:
Being an authentic relationship builder.
Having the ability to provide solutions to problems, even if you aren’t always rewarded for your efforts.
Avoiding pitfalls, such as rushing to sell too soon.
While some diverse attorneys may inherently have a smaller network, if they are armed with the skill set to build authentic relationships and provide solutions to problems, they will be viewed as someone others can trust – a key characteristic of someone who can build a strong book of business. As a marketing and business development professional, being able to authentically counsel diverse attorneys is invaluable. Here are some techniques:
Not having commonalities with decision-makers because of different life experiences is not a make or break situation. You can find commonalities in anything – love for sports? hobbies? pets? You’d be surprised the connections people can make if they listen and pay attention to the person they are talking to.
From a poll of the audience, some diverse attorneys may feel that being the token diverse attorney is a negative and does not allow them to be recognized for their skills and experience. Be candid and acknowledge the elephant in the room, but advise them to take the ball and run with it. Encourage them to open up about whether they like the work or prefer to do something different, but they must seize the opportunity.
Another common concern is that diverse attorneys are less inclined to ask for opportunities. For marketing professionals, be there to help connect the dots and nudge diverse attorneys to openly discuss what excites them and what they want more of. Diverse attorneys may feel siloed, but you can help connect them with others in the firm who can propel them further in their careers.
Marketing professionals and other non-lawyers are all too familiar with the age-old hierarchy that pervades law firms and treats attorneys differently from everyone else. Reminiscent of a caste system, this throwback aspect of law firm culture offers attorneys and staff two separate benefits packages, two separate leave policies, two separate dining rooms.
While this system never could have been called equitable, a few professional generations ago firm leadership could provide an understandable justification for it. Law firm staff worked a predictable nine-to-five schedule, while the lawyers put in hundreds more hours per year, working many “all-nighters.” Lawyers’ jobs were highly specialized, while the firm’s non-lawyers performed administrative tasks that were not central to generating revenue.
What a difference a few decades make. Technology has changed the nature of every role within the firm, allowing lawyers to at least assert some work-life balance by working remotely while non-lawyer staff members likely spend longer hours than ever in the office. In addition, today’s forward-thinking firms have expanded the c-suite to include chief marketing officers, chief information officers and chief financial officers. Increasingly they are also hiring internal operations managers and other pricing experts who can speak the same language as the procurement professionals GCs count on to save their companies money. Each of these members of the team bring highly specialized training and skills to their role — and make a measurable impact on the bottom line. And whether managing partners genuinely value their skills, or are simply responding to client demand for their expertise, the result is the same: these professionals now have a seat at the table with clients.
Given this new reality, it no longer makes sense to cling to a law firm culture that renders non-lawyers second-class citizens. And yet old habits die hard. CMOs may finally be getting (a portion of) the respect they deserve, but what about the members of their teams who execute marketing strategy and play a crucial business development role with existing clients?
To be sure, marketing professionals still face an uphill battle in demonstrating their value to firm leaders. But the upheaval in the old system has created an opportunity for CMOs and marketing directors. With the right strategy and messaging, they can use their newfound platform to advance a discussion about firm policies and shed light on the fundamental work of non-lawyer professionals. Here are three ways to get started:
Rebrand your legal marketers as a business development team. Think carefully about how you talk about what you do when you interface with other stakeholders in the firm. Craft your messaging to emphasize the ways in which marketing directly generates revenue. For many large firms, a significant portion of new business comes from expanding engagements with existing clients, and marketers are on the front lines servicing those client relationships and creating opportunities for attorneys to sell across practices.
And make the case with data. Marketing leaders can use many available tools — from the simple to the sophisticated — to collect and process information about their campaigns and initiatives, and understand what really gets results. Firm leaders respect and respond to hard numbers that help them assess how your department is converting firm resources to new opportunities for business development.
Speak up about policies that don’t pass the smell test. The broader culture is extremely sensitive to matters of diversity and equity, and while law firms may be later arrivals to this conversation, their corporate clients are paying close attention. Is the cost savings of a two-tiered benefits package (assuming there is one) really worth the potentially damaging optics of a negative news story on the firm’s throwback culture? Is your diversity and inclusion initiative really embracing inclusion if only lawyers — and not professional staff members — are invited to participate? Legal marketing leaders can use the credibility they have gained to make the case for reexamining problematic policies and suggesting alternatives.
For most legal industry veterans, it’s impossible to imagine law firms that don’t elevate lawyers high above the rest of the staff. And while we probably won’t be saying goodbye to this outdated aspect of firm culture anytime soon, the demands of the marketplace have introduced some much-needed wiggle room into long calcified roles. Don’t miss this opportunity to help firm leaders appreciate the crucial contributions of legal marketers.
By sheer numbers, millennials make up the largest generational group at midsize and large law firms today. Within the past few years, the oldest members of that generation began reaching partnership, and soon they will take over leadership positions as well. But the transition hasn’t been easy. Law firms know they must adapt in big ways to recruit, motivate and retain these lawyers, while at the same time working to stay relevant to firm clients. After all, the majority of legal services buyers will soon be millennials too.
Firms understand what matters to these younger lawyers; meaningful work, equity and inclusion, and work-life balance are all factors that determine where they choose to build their careers.
Most firms are at least beginning to reimagine some of the ways they do business in order to accommodate the needs of this new generation of lawyers. But not all law leaders grasp the important role communication strategy should play in their efforts to modernize. You might be taking the right steps, but how are you talking about that work with your target audience?
Here are three messages your firm must express:
“We have a plan to make our firm more diverse and inclusive.”
Millennial lawyers know that most firms have been talking about diversity and inclusion for years without making much progress on advancing women, people of color, LGBT lawyers and lawyers with disabilities. They want to work for a firm that goes beyond lip service to articulate a plan of action and ambitious benchmarks that will hold leadership accountable for leaving the country club culture behind. What does that look like?
Provide PR support for diverse attorneys to help them build their profiles and develop business. Deploy your communications resources strategically to shine a light on your firm’s future superstars.
Address pay equity and the need for change. Millennials value authenticity, and they interpret silence on issues like this as complicity with unfair practices.
Demystify networking. Business development training and participation in professional associations can help these lawyers build their business in ways that feel natural and effective.
Equalize access and opportunity. How do cases and matters get staffed at your firm? Do you have a method for fairly distributing work and making sure a wide swath of your attorneys get to take a crack at high-profile work?
“We want you to have a life outside work — really.”
Millennials are more skeptical of institutions than past generations, and that means they are pretty good at spotting empty promises. So in order to appeal to these lawyers, your firm will have to get beyond platitudes and commit to specific policies and initiatives that encourage and protect work-life balance. How can you convince them you mean it?
Embrace flexible scheduling. Firms that will not budge on schedules virtually guarantee that parents — and women more often than men — will be forced to make impossible choices between their children and their career.
Destigmatize parental leave. Men and women both risk being viewed as “out of the loop” or not sufficiently committed to the firm if they choose to take time off after their babies are born, and that can have real negative consequences for their careers. Hold up and celebrate cases of men in leadership who take parental leave. Make it the new norm.
Address mental health issues head on. By now we’re all familiar with the alarmingly high incidence of depression, substance abuse and suicide among attorneys. Millennial lawyers want to know firms are not sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to mental health.
“We want you to succeed.”
Enduring and succeeding in the survival-of-the-fittest law firm culture may have been a badge of honor for generations past, but not for millennial lawyers. This cohort values collaboration and fairness more than gaining a competitive edge on their peers, and forward-thinking firms will adopt new policies and practices that assure millennial lawyers the game is not rigged. How can you communicate your support to these associates and younger partners?
Make your billable hour expectations transparent. According to the Young Lawyer Editorial Board of the American Lawyer, associates just want their new firms to be straight with them about how many hours they are expected to bill. And they don’t mean the published hours requirement.
Take mentorship seriously and prepare young lawyers to take advantage of it. Mentorship programs succeed when firms devote time and resources to them, and when they make thoughtful decisions about which partners should participate. (Not everyone is cut out to be a mentor, and that’s okay.)
Consider a sponsorship model. Sponsors move beyond the traditional mentoring engagement to advocate for their protégé. This may mean expanding the perception of the kind of work the lawyer can take on, brokering connections with other partners or with clients, or advocating when it comes time to staff cases. A sponsor uses his or her power and access to ease the younger lawyer’s advancement, particularly if that younger lawyer is a woman or other minority in the firm.
Firms who get their messaging right — and implement policies and processes that back those messages up — will be well-positioned to recruit the best and brightest next-generation lawyers.
In Part I of our series on wellness in the legal industry, Elena Rand, a former litigator and legal executive coach with a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work and current CMO of Wiggin and Dana identified why the legal industry needs to understand chronic stress and how it impacts the body, and how mindfulness, even at a basic level, can help improve both individual attorney’s performance and the often stressful law firm environment.
Today, Ms. Rand goes over the basics of a mindfulness practice, as well as addressing some common barriers to practicing mindfulness and how to overcome these barriers.
What are some simple practices that a novice or even a skeptic might be able to take on to start feeling some small benefit? And along those lines, do you need to devote a lot of time to mindfulness practices to begin to see a difference? What kind of commitment level do you need to show?
There is no right or wrong way to do mindfulness practice. There are no absolute time requirements or limits and there is no Olympic medal for “ great mindfulness”. There’s no level of perfection, there is nothing to “achieve” or “strive for” and that’s a key part of the practice. In fact, if we go back to what mindfulness is, it asks us to be accepting of whatever comes up and sometimes whatever comes up is “I only have five minutes to breathe and guess what? In those five minutes, I’m obsessing about that conversation that just happened down the hall,” but mindfulness is being aware of exactly that, and accepting of that. That is the work. It’s saying, “you know what, I just spent five minutes inhaling and exhaling and trying very hard not to think about that conversation, and all I did was think about that conversation.” If you brought your attention to that in the moment and then proceeded to pay attention to the next moment, and the next moment… well, then that is mindfulness meditating. You were just meditating. I want to debunk the idea that mindfulness is this sort of clear-minded perfection that will alleviate all your worries, obsessions, preoccupations etc.
You can do it for five minutes, you can do it for 10 minutes, you can do it for three minutes, you can do it in any number of ways. But again, it’s intentionally bringing your attention to what’s arising and accepting it.
As to how do you actually do it—well, definitely one way that we’ve all heard of is breathing techniques. And there’s a lot that’s been written about just focusing on your breath.
Inhale, exhale, inhaling and exhaling for any number of minutes is a start. And during that time what will invariably happen is what’s been called monkey mind, which is a flurry of thoughts. Everything from your clients, a brief for the meeting you have a four o’clock as well as an argument you had with your spouse and your conversation with a firm partner. All of that’s going to be going through your mind while you’re just trying to inhale and exhale. And that’s the practice. And the idea is to gently bring your attention back to the singularity of your breath over and over and over and over again. So that’s one modality, but some people I’ve worked with really aren’t into the breathing thing, and they ask for another way.
Another way is intentional activity. Select something that you know you do every day. Eat lunch, go for a walk, drive home and bring your attention to that action. What does it feel like? What does it feel to actually taste my food? What is it? How many times do I chew? What does it feel like to actually swallow that food? Am I hungry still? Am I not? This is a mindfulness practice that focuses on taking an action.
A third of mindfulness practice is what I call sort of a body scan. This is just sitting, not focusing necessarily on your breath, but focusing on your body, which we don’t always do. I mean, some people joke that our bodies are there to help us carry our heads from meeting to meeting. The reality is that many of us are not in touch with our bodies. The body scan is another opportunity to kind of pause, and bring explicit attention to your body. Start with your feet. What do your feet feel like? Are they grounded? Can you feel your feet? Can you feel your ankle? And then sort of work your way through your body and what the sensation is. You’re really looking for that sensory attention. So there are three examples of ways that you can introduce mindfulness in a practical way, you don’t need to go to an Ashram experience.
Let’s talk about identifying barriers. With wellness there’s a lot of mindfulness, there’s a lot of talk about self-compassion, patience, relaxing and will practicing all of this mindfulness take away from your competitive edge? Will mindfulness make it harder to win for my clients and my firm? It’s a tough world and I need to be strong and win. Is mindfulness going to weaken my competitive and adversarial instincts?
For anyone who really believes that genuinely I would recommend they read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. In that book, there’s a lot of wisdom about the power of self-compassion and compassion for your opponent that strengthens your ability to have real strategic clarity about what needs to get done next. So that’s from a philosophical perspective.
From a purely personal perspective, at the end of the day anyone who is going to be fiercely competitive and adversarial also needs clarity and strategy. That takes us back to what the purpose of mindfulness is, to improve your executive functioning by addressing your body and strengthening your ability so that you can endure. I think that that if you put it in that framework, you can actually sell it a little bit more to people who want to be more competitive and more adversarial.
This is the quiet backstage work that competitive attorneys have to be doing on themselves in order to go into battle and be as effective a warrior as they can be. I don’t see it as at odds. I see this as adding to their repertoire of, strategic skill-building so that they can be as effective and as competitive as they want. It’s working on a muscle that has kind of atrophied, which is self-care, and their wellness and strengthening that so that they can choose to do with that whatever they would like.
The law offices like many business environments, seem to be in a constant state of emergency which can make it difficult to be consistent with a mindfulness practice. How do you maintain a mindful practice in a high-pressure environment? Are there any tips, tricks, life hacks, anything like that to make it more likely to be successful?
What I personally do, which is very simple, is I have a separate space, a different chair. It doesn’t look like a meditation chair. I get to sit in that chair and I have a cup of tea, in-between meetings or right before the end of the day. This chair is away from my desk, and I will intentionally make a cup of tea in my office and I sit in that chair and take some time for myself, measuring time with an app on my FitBit. Then, I know that at least I have incorporated some level of breathing or grounding or intentional action into my day, and that’s separate from my other practices. Some firms have taken to having a mindfulness group that meets together monthly.
I think when you introduce it that way to people it becomes achievable, but obstacles still exist. It takes about a month for an action to turn into a habit. One way to reach that point is to enlist a friend, someone who is like-minded and values achieving mindfulness as much as you do to help keep you on track.
I think one of the biggest obstacles is time and perception. The timepiece is personal. At the end of the day, if it’s important to you, you will find the time to take care of you, which goes back to wellness.
Again, I think a lot of people have a perception of, “Oh, that touchy-feely guru wellness stuff that’s all really kind of hip and important now in law firms.” I really worry and want to make sure that the concern for wellness is not a passing fashion. I want sustained change, and I think that even the perception of those types of wellness activities at law firms is changing as we have more and more millennials who are asking for it or expecting it, who are embarking upon it, who are creating, healthy boundaries around their work and their life and their wellness. The barriers of time, and how it is perceived, are changing, but it’s slow.
My big hope right now is that this doesn’t become a flash in the pan kind of interest, but rather a pivotal moment and a paradigm shift, like what happened 10 years ago with the law firm’s focusing on business development and maternity leave where the industry realized the need for change and there was a shift in industry norms.
I am a big proponent of embarking upon wellness as a lifestyle change and not a quick fix. There was no quick fix to changing maternity policies and flex-time at law firms. There was no quick fix to introduce in the ideas of business development and leadership skills, and there’s going to be no quick fix for really shifting the law firm culture into a wellness culture so that attorneys can be doing all the things that are expected of them. We need to embark on the change mindfully and with intention so that we bring about meaningful culture change to the legal community.
Attorney wellness and a focus on all aspects of employee well-being, including mental health, has become an important issue in today’s workplace environment. Law firms, and the legal industry in general, with its competitive reputation, expectation of heavy workloads and high stakes environment is beginning to embrace wellness practices as an anecdote to the chronic stress often faced by attorneys and other individuals who work in law firms.
The problem is so widespread that in 2017, the ABA House of Delegates approved Resolution 106 amended the ABA Model Rule for Minimum Continuing Legal Education (CLE) to include a requirement for lawyers to receive at least one hour of mental health, substance abuse credit every three years. And mental and physical health issues as well as substance abuse CLE courses are mandatory in several states, such as Illinois and Florida or count towards professional responsibility credits in numerous other states.
Elena Rand JD, MSW and Chief Marketing Officer of Wiggin and Dana has been working on this issue for years, putting her experience as a litigator and a legal executive coach along with her Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work to help those in the legal industry understand chronic stress, how it impacts the body, and how mindfulness, even at a basic level, can help improve performance and well-being.
I know you have formal training in Clinical Social Work and have dedicated much of your professional life to workplace health and wellness issues, can you take a minute or two and address your background and why wellness at the workplace, specifically in the legal industry is an issue that you care about?
Attorney wellness and wellness and the legal community in general is something that has been sort of a mission and a passion of mine probably for the last 15, maybe even 20 years. It really came to the forefront of my attention when I was working as a legal executive coach. I was doing coaching for a large law firm, really focused on working with attorneys to improve their leadership and business development and networking skills and taking high-performers to the next level. What I invariably discovered is that there is an underbelly of crisis and struggling for many of these enormously successful, high achieving, high performing go-getting attorneys. I found that attorneys were struggling both in terms of managing their baseline day to day life to extreme mental health issues and addiction. That kind of came to full bloom and grabbed my attention.
As a legal executive coach working with high-performing attorneys, I was sort of a first responder in many ways for a lot of the wellness and mental health crises that were being buried for many, many years. Before we could even get to how to focus on getting you to the partnership level, and how do we focus on doubling your book of business, attorneys were coming to me on their own saying, “I don’t think I can take another moment of this,” or “if I add one more thing to my day, you know, I’m going to, I’m going to really lose it.”
I started to see that this was an issue that kept popping up and presenting itself, so I went back to grad school and earned a master’s in clinical social work. I wanted to have a real behavioral toolbox so that I could understand human behavior, understand the spectrum of wellness and the lack of wellness, and really be able to service the legal community in that way.
Additionally, wellness has been a lifelong personal struggle and mission, in my life. I was one of those crazy, high-performing litigators who hit a wall at 90 miles an hour when I had my first child at the age of 27 and suffered from crippling postpartum depression. Suddenly, after years of just pushing and pushing, I one day woke up to realize that I was now severely impaired. It was very scary and humbling and you know, it became sort of my own passion and mission to really bring a level of attention and awareness to wellness in the legal community.
It’s pretty obvious that the legal industry is very competitive and that it can be full of very high-stress situations. What are some symptoms of constant stress that you might come across in the day to day operations of a typical law firm?
That question’s really important. You know, stress is basically a physiological reaction to a perceived threat to you and to your environment, right? So that’s where you get the whole fight or flight physical response. That’s what stress is. From a biological perspective, what ends up happening is your blood pressure goes up, your veins constrict, and you have basic physiological symptoms kicking you into fight or flight mode. From purely a biological perspective, these automatic stress responses can have serious ramifications that can end up impairing an individual’s daily functioning.
Biology impacts our behavior; so chronic, ongoing stress in the body manifest and present some clearly identifiable behavioral dysfunctions. For starters, chronic stress induces a level of constant baseline agitation. Everything and anything can be irritating to the point of explosion. Everyone is a little bit of a powder keg about to explode. Chronic stress will cause sleep deprivation. It has been linked to eating disorders. It can cause imbalances in your metabolism. It’ll cause imbalances in your serotonin level, and the other thing it does is it causes isolation. You have increased isolation with stress because you’re protecting yourself. You’re not talking to anybody, you’re going through all of these things and everything in your body and mind is telling you to isolate.
From an executive functioning point of view, there is so much research to show that people functioning under high levels of stress for a long period of time can demonstrate impaired judgment, impaired ability for conflict resolution, and impaired compassion. These impairments impact interpersonal relationships at work including client relationships. High stress has a whole host of impairments associated with high-level executive functioning that really is being called into play moment to moment. As an attorney, chronic stress can compromise your ability to focus and use good judgment. Your ability to analyze situations correctly and be able to step away and say, “is this a moment for confrontation?” or “is this a moment for cool off?” is now off. Your ability to assess how best to present information appropriately to the client, to the associate, or to the partner is also off. Bottom line is that chronic high stress really impairs many of the operational skills needed to interface and practice effectively as a lawyer. Finally, it also impairs the softer skills that are really needed as you become more of a senior partner and involved in business development.
From a business perspective, both individuals and the institutional law firms are negatively impacted by untreated chronic high stress as an individual’s capacity to handle situations and use good judgment and analysis have basically gone out the window.
How does mindfulness practices help counteract that stress in a typical law office environment?
Basically, mindfulness is bringing your attention to the present moment in an intentional, deliberate and systematic kind of way with an attitude of acceptance of whatever might show up or for whatever you’re experiencing. What mindfulness does, is it forces you to pause, which is, you know, a novel concept for many attorneys. One of the key things that happen when you are in a stress-induced situation is you stop breathing. We hold our breath. When you do that, you essentially jack up all of those sympathetic stress indicators in your body I mentioned before. I really want to make mindfulness super clear and basic, because I want to make mindfulness practice really accessible and strip away any preconceived ideas of what mindfulness is.
So, what is the power of the present moment? If we strip it down, the present moment for any human being at any given moment is made up of a cocktail of their emotions, their sensations, and/or their thoughts. When you’re bringing your attention to that bundle of things that are happening, what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking and what you’re sensing in the world, suddenly you start to breathe and you start to invoke and sort of trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the self-calming, self-soothing embodiment that we all automatically have in our body. What you’re inviting yourself to do is to intentionally focus on the present moment so that you can breathe, so that your body can be able to kick itself into a place of calmness.
We’re not talking about achieving nirvana, you know, we’re talking about creating a tool that is user-friendly so that in the moment you can pause, breathe and be able to ground in the present moment so that your body and your mind can kick into a better and perhaps, more optimal way of functioning.
That’s a simplified way of thinking about it because other levels can be a little off-putting or intimidating. If you read a lot of philosophy on mindfulness and meditation, anyone who claims they’re an “expert” in mindfulness doesn’t get it, in my opinion. We’re all beginners. And the idea that we are all beginning all the time in this process with the “beginner’s mind” is what can make the difference of whether you try mindfulness or not. There is no perfection or achievement award in mindfulness; starting at the beginning and paying attention to the present moment over and over again is the practice.
Many thanks to Ms. Rand for her insights. Monday we will have Part 2, which will address the basics of what mindfulness practice can be, as well as some barriers to practicing mindfulness and how to overcome them.
Lawyers aren’t necessarily thought of as those who practice in a “creative” profession. At least not in the same way that artists, writers, musicians or marketing professionals are deemed “creatives.” However, lawyers and those who support them know that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the practice of law demands creativity in virtually all aspects – creating ingenious defense strategies, crafting brilliant opening statements, structuring unique partnerships or mergers or acquisitions, etc. Law firms also routinely launch creative marketing campaigns or inventive business development strategies. Plenty of law firms even get creative in terms of alternative billing structures. Indeed, the practice of law and the business of running a law firm require virtually nonstop creative thinking and strategy.
However, as most attorneys and firms know, generating creative inspiration can prove challenging. After all, some of the best ideas seem to materialize out of thin air, with an out-of-the-box design for working up a case coming to light during the course of other work. Since trial-winning ideas or successful marketing strategies that generate a particularly impressive ROI often seem to come to life out of the blue, it’s worth asking the question: Is there a way to generate creativity on demand? The short answer is: yes.
Drew McLellan of Agency Management Institute addressed the notion of sparking creativity on demand in a recent article, which we’ve expanded on below, including one of our own strategies. Here are five suggestions for drawing out creative ideas at your law firm when you need them.
Ban the Notion of Bad Ideas & Champion Creative Chaos
Obviously, not every idea is going to prove to be a winning strategy for your firm or your client, but by making it clear that all ideas are worth exploring, you may lay a foundation for creative chaos. Sometimes the worst ideas serve as the catalyst to make your team members think, which then spawns a great idea that otherwise wouldn’t have emerged. Too, if you set a culture where people can’t speak up, or their ideas are snuffed out, you may be silencing that one person who will come up with the dead-on idea for the brainstorming session.
Allot Time for Creative Idea Sharing at Meetings
During regular meetings, be sure to include time for idea sharing before heading back to your respective offices. Often, due to time constraints, meetings are held to strict time limits. Unfortunately, because of the volume of information shared during a meeting, there may not be time for an associate or team member to share an idea they have, which likely took shape during the meeting. By scheduling an extra 15 minutes at the end of regular meetings, you may just generate some of your best ideas yet.
If this isn’t possible, try scheduling an agenda-less meeting once a week, just to pick the brains of your colleagues. Simply open up the meeting by asking something like: “Are there any ideas that you have that would make this firm run smoother or would make this case progress?” Then, open the floor up to input from your attorneys and team.
Champion Your Team’s Growth
Supporting the individual passions of your attorneys and staff is another great way to generate creativity. If you have an attorney who is an avid rock-climber, for example, encourage them to keep it up, and share their experiences about it. Likewise, if you have team members who are curious about pursuing a particular hobby, ask for updates on their progress and learn more about what they find fulfilling about it. The more you get to know your colleagues and who they are outside of the office, the greater the likelihood they may share ideas that come to them during off-hours.
Suggest Both Reasonable and Risky Solutions to Challenges
Creativity often emerges while pursuing solutions. When you’re brainstorming a solution to a problem, try to come up with one solution that is safe and practical, but also one that is risky, or otherwise unusual. By offering these ideas up to your peers, you’re likely to spark creative thinking on their part as well.
Embrace Creative Activity Team Building
Much like supporting the individual growth of attorneys and staff, it’s valuable to invest in team building. Consider a creative endeavor for your next team building exercise, such as a group night out at an art museum. Any activity wherein the focus isn’t just on chatting—such as attending a sports game or a happy hour— may just help to solidify friendships amongst firm members, who are then more open to idea sharing with the group.
Generating on-demand creativity in and of itself requires a bit of creativity. Consider these five suggestions or other ideas that these spark, in order to keep your firm investing in ingenuity.
Every legal recruiter and professional development professional understands the importance of planning for significant initiatives. Operating by the seat of one’s pants simply does not work within this industry. In the days that precede your performance review, consider the following:
Before you think short, think long
By definition, any annual performance evaluation must include a review of your key undertakings during the previous 12 months. That review, however, should only consume a fraction of the time that you spend with your supervisor. As quickly as possible, move your conversation from a focus on wherever you were a year ago to wherever you hope to be at some future stage in your life.
This means that you must invest time developing your long-term professional goals before your evaluation begins. If you are less than certain as to what your next career move might be, as soon as possible, do the following:
Set some time aside and let your imagination go wild. Create a virtual or actual whiteboard and post every work and career possibility that tickles your fancy. It doesn’t matter how crazy any one option now appears. Post all options somewhere and give yourself permission to seriously consider them. Eventually, narrow your focus to your two or three best choices.
Once you’ve identified your best options, move from thinking to doing. Research your top three options and identify the skills, talents and experiences that you need to develop or acquire for you to make your dream position a reality. Engage in “radical collaboration”—reach out to valued colleagues and peers as well as experts in a particular field. Inquire about the benefits and costs that might be related to any career shift. If it’s possible for you to gain hands-on experience, by all means do.
Reframe problems. Be prepared for naysayers, the people who will suggest a multitude of reasons that should keep you from imagining a future that is different from your status quo. When others point out potential obstacles, welcome their feedback. Then, go off on your own and carefully consider whether a perceived obstacle is a proverbial mountain or a minor molehill.
Realize that we are all on a journey. All of the knowledge and experience that you have acquired thus far in your life has helped you arrive at exactly the position where you are right now. But your journey is not over. There’s nothing wrong with a periodic pause to consider whether you should turn left or right. But just pause; don’t come to a complete stop. Every experience that you have, every piece of knowledge that you acquire today will help you arrive at your next resting point.
To the extent that you invest in this effort before your performance evaluation, you can make the limited time that you have with your supervisor more useful and valuable.
[Two resources that might help you jumpstart your thinking include Start with Why (2009) by Simon Sinek and Designing Your Life, How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life (2016) by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Both books are thought-provoking, and the authors have created workbooks that can help you think through your general purpose in life and where you may wish to venture. Burnett and Evans are responsible for the term “radical collaboration.”]
At your performance evaluation
Be prepared to address your performance during the previous 12 months, including activities in which you know that you exceeded expectations. For activities in which you met or fell below expectations, be prepared to:
Analyze what you did well;
Analyze what did not go as well as you had hoped and why;
Identify what you could do better; and
Suggest what you plan to do next.
Throughout your evaluation, listen deeply to your supervisor’s perspective regarding your performance, which may be completely different from your own. In a world in which we are all moving at the speed of light and distracted by a million-and-one requests, I am increasingly amazed at how frequently two people participate in a singular event and yet experience it very differently. Your performance review should move you and your supervisor toward a shared understanding of the past and give you the opportunity to collaborate on creating your future.
If you’re blindsided
If your supervisor blindsides you—brings up some issue(s) about which you are totally unaware and unprepared to address—do not respond immediately. Instead, give yourself the opportunity to participate in a future thoughtful and responsive conversation by stating the following:
I appreciate your feedback.
Can you give me one or two specific examples when I didn’t hit the mark?
I’d like to take a day or two to process this information.
May we schedule a follow-up meeting?
Be prepared to self-promote
Muhammad Ali once famously said, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” If you’ve retained appreciation emails from firm partners or key firm decisionmakers that recognize your good performance, bundle these and carry them to your performance review. If you’ve had numerical targets that you were challenged to meet during the previous 12 months, gather your quantifiable verifiables and be prepared to share them.
If your next professional move involves your current employer, be prepared to document that you have the natural talents to succeed in this new capacity. The Top 5 CliftonStrengths assessment tool is an easy, affordable instrument that will help you confirm your unique talents. Given your understanding of your employer’s wants and needs, be prepared to show a match … how you and your talents can help your supervisor and your employer accomplish their strategic missions.
Next year millennials will make up one-third of the workforce. A recent study released by ManpowerGroup provides some compelling insight about millennials in the workplace. The study asked 19,000 Millenials and 1,500 managers across 25 countries how they viewed their careers and what were their career priorities, with the goal of offering practical advice for millennials and their employers in the quickly evolving work environment. The results offer some statistics and finding for employers generally, and law firms, specifically, have some lessons to take to heart.
According to the survey, 23% of the millennial respondents said making a lot of money is their main goal, 21% want to make a positive contribution and 20% want to work with great people. But only 22% of the millennials surveyed indicated an interest in growing into leadership roles and only 4% of millennial respondents valued “managing others.”
These factors, when combined with the boomer exodus out of the workforce is pointing to a leadership vacuum across industries, with 84% of organizations anticipating a shortfall of leaders over the next five years. In fact, leadership transitions are becoming more frequent and complex, and developing a leadership pipeline in law firms needs to become a top priority. Law firms, when working with millennial attorneys, would be well-served to find ways to incentivize leadership, increase transparency surrounding firm decisions, especially the partnership process in order to create a leadership pipeline to ensure successful succession planning and relationship management. To examine this issue, we spoke to several law firm consultants on the state of leadership in law firms, how firms can engage and cultivate their millennial talent to take on leadership roles, and how marketing and business development teams fit into this process.
Importance of Developing Millennial Leadership and Talent at the Associate Level
Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, points to conditions in law firms, that may make developing leadership habits in millennial attorneys more challenging. In a traditional law firm structure, leadership at the associate level is not incentivized. Associates are valued for their ability to work hard and long, creating a situation where young lawyers are not encouraged to reach out and develop leadership skills, but rather rewarded for keeping their nose to the grindstone. Kirschner says, “If a newly minted lawyer has to choose between a single billable hour and coaching a colleague or peer, the former is a much more useful currency in today’s traditional firm.” Alycia Sutor of GrowthPlay points out that many of the characteristics that comprise good leaders are important to millennials–just divorced from the authoritarian and hierarchical packaging associated with a traditional law firm. Kirschner says, “firms need to do a much better job defining what leadership is and why it is important. If leadership isn’t treated as a significant factor in promotability, then there is a strong chance it won’t be cultivated.”
The Role of Transparency and Feedback in the Law Firm Leadership Pipeline
Sutor points out that firm looking to secure their leadership pipeline would do well to “exemplify the kind of behaviors that millennials value–being more transparent . . . and being relationship-focused and investing in the success of the people at the firm.” In doing so, firms can cultivate their high-potential talent and help ensure the firm’s leadership for years to come. By providing young lawyers with feedback and offering mentorship and advice, Kirschner says, “associates become more self-aware of their strengths to leverage, develop key leadership skills, and cultivate client management skills, and firms will, in turn, build up bench-strength.” Finding ways to offer feedback and evaluation–in a positive, affirming way can show young attorneys that they are an important part of the firm’s future. John Remsen, Jr of the Remsen Group points out that providing positive feedback in a public setting can be an easy, inexpensive way to cultivate the kind of behavior law firm leadership wants to see, and help younger attorneys feel invested in turn with the firm.
As part of embracing transparency, Kirschner suggests that eliminating some of the mystery around the Partnership approval process can help. Young attorneys are often likely confused and frustrated–they have the ambition and desire to reach that level, but don’t know what else is required beyond hard work. Kirkschner says, “firms with great succession planning practices favor transparency over keeping a black-box around both the process as well as the necessary skills and competencies.” By clarifying advancement criteria law firms can develop a system where important metrics are met, and this can open the door to non-billable activities the firm may want to encourage–such as pro-bono work or legal marketing activities. Remsen agrees, saying, “Everyone will give you what you want, if you indicate that it matters, set the expectations, apply metrics and ultimately reward the desired behaviors.”
Creating a Law Firm Culture to Develop Leadership Talent
According to Remsen: “There are things law firms can do beyond dollars to build a culture where young lawyers want to go and thrive.” Law firms find extreme value in taking steps to craft a leadership pipeline, such as shifting the hierarchical structure to create a space for younger attorneys to flex their leadership abilities and shape the firm into a place where they want to be.
There are plenty of ways to do that, and Sutor says, “firm leaders can give millennials opportunities to practice leading on a small scale.” Remsen agrees, suggesting law firms create “deputy” positions with the firm to encourage younger attorney engagement. By getting more creative about leadership development, firms can reconfigure talent pipelines to create new leadership levels, Kirschner says, “this can increase career optionality and make mobility less of a zero-sum experience.”
Firms should also consider asking younger attorneys for input on firm culture issues–especially in relation to changes to make the firm more attractive to attract and retain talent. Sutor suggests: “create opportunities for millennials to reverse mentor or teach others . . . charge them with connecting to others across the firm for the purpose of feedback and perspective on an issue up for discussion.” Keep in mind this may open the door to some dramatically different suggestions about how the firm does things–especially surrounding work-life balance issues. However, the changing dynamics of the job market coupled with millennials’ willingness to change jobs or even careers, large changes in workplace culture at law firms may well be worth considering.
Pro bono projects are excellent opportunities for young attorneys to take a leadership role, manage a matter, and contribute to their own development in a way that can make a difference both to the pro bono client and within the firm. This can be a win-win for the firm and the attorney involved, as he or she can use their legal education to make a positive contribution (something a fifth of millennials surveyed want to do) while elevating the firm’s reputation in the community.
The Role of Business Development in Law Firm Leadership Development
Client relationship management is very important for a firm’s bottom line, and the voice of the client–a voice that is increasingly demanding diversity from outside counsel can be instrumental in advocating for the kind of change many firms need to enact. Sutor says, “Marketing and Business Development folks can champion millennial participation by encouraging senior partners and law firm leaders to consider who may not be represented at the table in key activities like client pitches or network building activities.” Sutor explains that the demand for diversity coming from clients also includes a generational perspective. Including associate attorneys in business development activities with clients–including networking or other events, not just at pitch meetings, the relationship between firm and client can be strengthened across generational lines. Increasingly millennials are also making key decisions in retaining law firms. By using the voice of the client, marketing and business development teams can make a compelling argument for law firm leadership to examine the gaps in their age, gender and cultural representation and encourage the participation and development of younger attorneys.
Law firms that are able to find ways to engage and develop their millennial attorneys through firm initiatives are building a competitive advantage in the increasingly competitive legal marketplace. By harnessing the voice of the client, crafting pathways and pipelines for young attorneys to contribute meaningfully to the culture of the firm as well as providing newer attorneys with feedback and training opportunities to develop their own skills and abilities, law firms can smooth out some of the succession bumps and ensure the next generation of leaders will be ready to take the reins. Kirschner says, “The best way law firms can gain leadership capacity is by growing it organically.”
City University of New York Scholar and Sociologist Tsedale M. Melaku studies diversity in the legal field, and in a recent Harvard Business Review article she wrote specifically about the social and professional challenges nonwhite lawyers face when they work for traditional law firms. While most white law leaders now appreciate the importance of fostering diversity, their own life experiences may blind them to the specific ways in which conventional law firm culture complicates the path for the lawyers they sincerely want to recruit, retain and support.
Fortunately, Melaku’s interviews with these lawyers illuminate the very concrete problems — and hint at solutions, many of which can be driven, or at least implemented, by marketing and business development teams. Here’s a handful of the challenges these lawyers face:
PR and marketing support automatically follows the rainmakers.
When an attorney lands a game-changing client or nabs a record settlement, the firm promotes the win with a press release, mention in the legal press and maybe even an opportunity for that lawyer to write a column on his practice area. Those are all smart PR moves. But if your marketing and PR “carrots” are distributed just to your firm’s big winners, you may find that every time a picture of one of your lawyers runs in the legal press, it is one of the same handful of white men.
Instead, firms need to imagine a broader purpose for PR: spotlighting attorneys for what makes them unique can be a catalyst for growth and advancement, rather than just a reward that comes after an important deal. Do you have attorneys taking a novel approach to some niche within their practice area? Or who came to their work in the law by an unusual route? What about interesting pro bono work? An active blog, a podcast or other creative use of technology to reach clients? All of these traits represent potential avenues for feature stories, bylined thought leadership articles, conversations with reporters or ideas for conference panels that will give new attorneys a chance to build their individual profiles and the overall brand of the firm.
Serving as the “face” of the firm’s diversity initiatives is (uncompensated) work.
Sadly, diversity is so rare in the leadership class that when firms do manage to advance a lawyer of color, that person is often tasked with representing the firm on panels and at events in addition to serving their clients. While some lawyers may welcome these opportunities, others might prefer to focus on the practice of law. So, even as firms provide additional PR and marketing support for diverse attorneys, firm leaders must recognize that contributing to outreach and diversity initiatives is work — and should be treated as such. Some firms allow attorneys to bill for this time just as they would for client work. Others consider it on performance evaluations when it comes time for raises or bonuses. Find a way to compensate these attorneys for this extra work.
Traditional networking depends on access.
Snagging clients on the golf course, in the country club, or during an ivy league alumni weekend are great business development strategies — for some people. But not all lawyers grew up playing golf, and many elite clubs in this country still have a checkered relationship with diversity, making membership far from routine or even comfortable for lawyers of color. Does your firm celebrate these “chance” encounters with clients at the expense of more formal and inclusive forms of networking?
Support your hires from nontraditional backgrounds by helping them build professional networks that feel authentic to their own experience. This might include support from communications professionals to pitch them for conference panels, nominate them for awards and help them get involved in professional organizations. There is more than one way to network, and lawyers need to know their firm supports their pursuit of new business in ways that honor who they are.
Mentors tend to choose mentees who look like them.
Mentoring has been held up as a key tool for improving retention and advancement. But when senior attorneys think about grooming the lawyers who will someday lead the firm — and inherit their clients — they tend to choose the lawyers who remind them of themselves. Firms are fond of saying that mentoring relationships should come together “naturally,” but for young lawyers who don’t see people like them in leadership positions, this often leads to no mentoring at all.
Firms can take action on this without getting paralyzed by the chicken-and-egg problem (the only way to advance young minority lawyers is to put minority mentors in place, but those lawyers need mentors to get there). Proactive planning to make mentoring part of the work process, and careful matchmaking to connect your firm’s best teachers with the lawyers who can benefit from their experience are good first steps. Not everyone is cut out to be a mentor, and that’s fine. The firm should take responsibility for facilitating these relationships and for evaluating the effectiveness of mentors. Are their mentees advancing in demonstrable ways? Mentorship should involve more than just offering advice; mentors should also be actively sponsoring and promoting their protégés for stretch assignments and leadership opportunities.
Dress codes privilege European standards.
Lawyers of color face both explicit and implicit expectations about how members of the firm should dress and wear their hair. While written dress codes that prohibit, for example, garments worn for religious reasons are obvious violations of equal employment opportunity laws, rules that bar styles worn for cultural or personal reasons may be legal but no less burdensome. In some firms, the written dress code is quite vague, requiring “professional dress,” but the implicit expectations that come along with it are specific and exacting.
The truth is, the notion that conservative business suits for men and women set the standard for professionalism is a white, Western idea. So are norms around hairstyles, facial hair, makeup, jewelry, fingernails, heel height and other aspects of personal expression. Body sizes vary, and not everyone can easily (or affordably) adhere to traditional requirements. Or they may not want to. Dressing authentically is, for many people, an expression of pride in their identities and an opportunity to increase visibility and inclusion, sending a message to younger attorneys on the way up that they, too, belong. If your firm insists on conformity, even when it doesn’t impact job performance, whom might that exclude? And what does your firm miss out on when your lawyers aren’t comfortable bringing their whole selves to work?
Firms that are truly serious about moving the needle on diversity and inclusion understand that the secret is not rearranging the seats at the table, but making that table bigger. In every aspect of work life at the firm — office culture, client engagement, mentoring, promotion and, of course, the practice of law itself — you must establish policies that encourage your attorneys to bring their unique perspectives and insights with them each day. It’s how you will retain and advance the diverse leadership class your clients demand. And it’s the only way you will realize the true benefits that come from different kinds of people solving problems in different ways.
With fall officially upon us, the legal industry continues to whirl with change, innovation and movement. Read on to learn about some of the developments from the past two weeks, covering law school changes, law firm updates and legal technology developments.
Law Firm Moves: Mergers, Practice Group Additions and New Hires
Boston law firm Anderson & Kreiger LLP recently announced Lon F. Povich has joined the firm as Counsel. Povich is former Chief Legal Counsel to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.
Mr. Povich says: “As I return to the private practice of law, I wanted to join a firm that offered challenging work in both the public and private sectors as well as an inclusive and supportive culture that prioritizes practicing law with the highest professional standards.”
As Chief Legal Counsel, Povich oversaw the confirmation process for 130 judges across the commonwealth, including 4 on the Supreme Judicial Court. Additionally, he counseled on the regulation of new industries, such as gig economy staples like Uber, short term rentals like Airbnb and the legal marijuana industry. Povich also contributed to the 2018 criminal justice reform bill and the 2015 reforms for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA). David Mackey, Managing Partner at Anderson & Kreiger says, “Lon will bring to the firm experience with the wide variety of issues he dealt with in the Baker administration as well as a diverse set of experiences in the private sector and as a federal prosecutor. We know that he will be an excellent colleague and he will further strengthen our ability to serve our clients.”
James V. Drew has joined Katten in the firm’s New York office as a partner in its Insolvency and Restructuring practice. Drew has fifteen years of experience advising clients across a variety of industries on insolvency matters. He has particular experience in “conflicts counsel” or as an independent director role on investigations or litigations of claims and causes of actions on behalf of debtors, secured and unsecured creditors and indenture trustees. Additionally, he has experience handling matters as lead counsel for debtors, lenders and other creditors, equity holders, liquidators and defendants in avoidance actions or bankruptcy litigation.
Steven Reisman
Steven J. Reisman, the head Katten’s New York Insolvency and Restructuring practice, says, “Jim is a highly skilled attorney who is respected by his clients for his practical advice and business-minded approach to addressing their most pressing insolvency and restructuring issues.”
DLA Piper attorneys Claire Hall (Los Angeles), Richard Hans (New York), Marc Horwitz (Chicago) and Isabelle Ord (Los Angeles) are leading the firm’s new LIBOR Transition practice, assisting companies with impact assessment and advising on benchmark reform implementation across multiple jurisdictions and products. This transition from interbank offered rates to alternative reference rates poses challenges to companies that are operational, legal, related to taxes, accounting and compliance. DLA will assist companies with these challenges by monitoring developments across industry working groups and addressing benchmark transition across jurisdictions like ISDA, SFIG/SFA, LSTA, SIFMA and the ARRC.
Hans points out that DLA Piper, with its track record of advising some of the largest financial services companies and institutions on operations and strategic planning, is well suited to assist with the LIBOR transition. He says, “Our LIBOR transition team will be able to assist clients in creating and implementing strategic and customized action plans that lay out the steps needed to implement benchmark transition.”
Karen Mangasarian
Karen Mangasarian has joined Haley Guiliano, a boutique IP law firm as a Partner. She will join the firm in their New York office, but she was attracted to the firm’s presence in not only New York, but also Silicon Valley and London. She says: “I was attracted by Haley Guiliano’s entrepreneurial spirits and business value-based approach to intellectual property, as well as its commitment to diversity and the mentoring of junior lawyers and technical advisors.”
Mangasarian has over twenty years of experience in life sciences practice, including patent filing and prosecution, freedom to operate and landscape analyses, and contested proceedings in the USPTO and other patent offices. Mangasarian earned her JD from New York Law School while working as a post-doctoral fellow in microbiology at the New York University Medical Center. She has also studied pharmacology, earning a Ph.D., and a BS Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin.
Jim Haley, head of the Life Sciences practice at Haley Guiliano, says “Karen is a marvelous addition to our firm and to our Life Sciences practice.”
Full-service business law firm based in Portland, Oregon, Ater Wynne will merge practice into Buchalter, bolstering the latter’s presence in the Pacific Northwest. Ater Wynne’s 22 attorneys will join Buchalter on in October, bringing Buchalter to roughly 300 attorneys in nine locations across the country, and adding Buchalter’s second office in the Pacific Northwest in under three years.
Todd A. Mitchell, Ater Wynne’s Managing Partner will become Managing Shareholder of the Portland office and a member of Buchalter’s Board of Directors. Mitchell calls the move “an opportunity to provide stronger counsel to our clients in Portland and the surrounding region,” and he says the two groups have a strong cultural fit.
Adam J. Bass, President and CEO of Buchalter, has overseen more than 130 attorneys added to the firm and has opened offices in California and in Washington State. He calls the move a chance to “stay ahead of the curve. This move is about looking to the future and the right cultural and business fit.”
Law Firm Awards, Recognitions and Achievements
Zuckerman Law principal Eric Bachman was named to the prestigious “Top Lawyers in America” list for 2020 by Best Lawyers in the field of Labor and Employment. Lawyers are nominated for this achievement, and then evaluated by their peers based on professional expertise. Bachman was included in the 2020 Edition of Washington D.C.’s Best Lawyers.
Bachman is the Chair of the discrimination and retaliation practices at Zuckerman Law, and prior to his work with Zuckerman he served in senior roles at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and in the U.S. Office of Special Counsel where he worked on class actions and whistleblower protection act settlements.
Preeminent workplace law firm Jackson Lewis once again was listed on the BTI Litigation Outlook 2020 report, earning “Powerhouse” rankings in Complex Employment Litigation and the Employment Litigation categories. These rankings are based on in-depth interviews with legal decision-makers, involving data from more than 9,000 corporate counsel client interviews.
Jackson Lewis is on track to have a record number of trial victories in 2019, and this is in part due to the firm’s forward-thinking approach through innovative programs like its Advanced Trial Techniques Academy, which enhances the already strong litigation strength of the firm’s attorneys.
Firm Co-Chairs Kevin G. Lauri and William J. Anthony: “Jackson Lewis remains committed to staying abreast of national litigation trends faced by employers and delivering the best possible results, by both providing exceptional client service and retaining a deep bench of top-notch litigators.”
BTI reaches out to legal decision-makers at large organizations, with more than $1 billion in revenue, targeting decision-makers in the industries that have the largest legal spend, consulting Chief Legal Officers, Chief Legal Operating Officers and other executives with a say in the selection of outside counsel. BTI’s 2019 report indicates an expectation of growth in litigation for the third year in a row. More information about the BTI Litigation Outlook 2020 report can be found here.
The law firm of Sills Cummis & Gross received top ranking as one of the “highly recommended” New Jersey litigation firms in the 2020 edition of Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys. This is the third year in a row Sills Cummis & Gross received this honor. Focusing solely on litigation in the United States, this guide is published by Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. Firms recognized are chosen based on interviews with the country’s leading private practice lawyers and in-house counsel. Thirteen members of Sills Cummins & Gross were also included.
MoginRubin LLP is representing a class of non-bank ATM operators across the United States arguing that Visa, Mastercard and its affiliated banks conspired to fix ATM fees, requiring anticompetitive overcharges for network processing fees, resulting in higher ATM surcharges and foreign transaction fees when customers use ATM’s not associated with their bank.
The proposed class represents 60% of the U.S. ATM market and includes the following: ATMs of the South, Inc., Business Resource Group, Inc., Just ATMs USA, Inc., Wash Water Solutions, Inc., ATM Bankcard Services, Inc., Selman Telecommunications Investment Group, LLC, Scot Gardner d/b/a SJI, Turnkey ATM Solutions, LLC, Trinity Holdings Ltd, Inc., and T&T Communications, Inc. and Randal N. Bro d/b/a T&B Investments. Roughly five years ago Visa and Mastercard attempted to have the case dismissed, even taking the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, however, the Supreme Court found that the companies had changed their argument after the court granted certiorari and dismissed the writ as “improvidently granted.”
Jonathan Rubin of MoginRubin LLP calls the rules governing the fees “absurd” designed to punish consumers who choose less expensive networks or the defendant’s competitor’s networks. He says, “The independent ATM operators and regional networks are providing a necessary service that banks are unwilling to provide or to invest in, but Visa and Mastercard are using their market power to impose anti-competitive fees and bleed the operators and consumers for their own profit,” he added. “Mastercard and Visa have no business telling independent ATM operators what to charge.”
Legal Industry News, Law School Updates
Leading legal publisher Fastcase announced today the acquisition of NextChapter, the cloud-based bankruptcy software for attorneys and paralegals.
Bankruptcy Paralegal Janine Sickmeyer used her expertise in preparing bankruptcy cases to create NextChapter, teaching herself to code and building the application from the ground up, launching in 2016. The service became known as “the turbo tax for bankruptcy filings” and its success was built on the efficiency created by understanding the best workflows and practices into an easy to use, full-circle solution used by several thousand law firms across every district in the U.S. Upon Fastcase’s acquisition of NextChapter, Sickmeyer will become Managing Director and Founder of NextChapter and Director of Practice Workflow at Fastcase. She calls the acquisition “a dream come true” and she voices her admiration for Fastcase leadership. She says, “it’s invigorating to collaborate and continue to build NextChapter’s company and products alongside them. Fastcase and NextChapter share the same core beliefs on customer-focused products. I know this opportunity will allow us to continue serving our mission.”
The UCI Law Graduate Tax Program and Alteryx Inc. Announce Tax and Data Analytics Partnership, designed to train future tax attorneys on ways big data analytics can work in tax law.
Students in the UCI Law Graduate Tax Program will learn on the program already used by in-house tax departments–Alteryx Designer, and will learn how to use the data analytics platform to generate data-based legal tax advice, earning a certification for successful completion. This practicum is the first time Alteryx will work with a law school, and the group will provide software licenses to students who participate in the program. Omni Marian, Professor of Law and the Academic Director of the UCI Graduate Tax Program, says the program is a way to prepare students for the way practicing tax law will be in the future. He says, “Alteryx for Good’s generosity allows us to help our students to become future leaders of the legal tax profession.”
Bachelor’s Degree Center which provides a free guide to bachelor degree programs across all disciplines, recently released four guides to the best Paralegal bachelor degree programs in the United States, including the 25 Best for 2020, the 15 Best Online Paralegal Programs, the 10 Fastest Online Paralegal Programs, and the 10 Most Affordable Paralegal Bachelor’s Programs.
The top 3 Best Paralegal Bachelor’s Programs for 2020 are:
Auburn University
Quinnipiac University
Montclair State University
The Top 3 Online Paralegal Bachelor’s Programs for 2020 are:
Tulane University
University of Central Florida
University of Massachusetts Lowell
The Top 3 Most Affordable Paralegal Bachelor’s Programs for 2020 are:
Bellevue University
Charter Oak State College
Peirce College
The guide points out that while law schools have been graduating new attorneys facing an uphill battle in the legal marketplace, paralegals are still very much in demand. A standard entry into the profession is a two-year associate degree, however, many paralegals combine work with further study, and a bachelor’s degree in legal studies can be the key to moving ahead in the profession. Whether an online program or a traditional program, this guide provides important information so students—non-traditional or otherwise, can make the best choice for their situation.
That’s it for now. We’ll be back in a few weeks with more updates on the legal industry.
Bachman is the Chair of the discrimination and retaliation practices at Zuckerman Law, and prior to his work with Zuckerman he served in senior roles at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and in the U.S. Office of Special Counsel where he worked on class actions and whistleblower protection act settlements.
Bankruptcy Paralegal Janine Sickmeyer used her expertise in preparing bankruptcy cases to create NextChapter, teaching herself to code and building the application from the ground up, launching in 2016. The service became known as “the turbo tax for bankruptcy filings” and its success was built on the efficiency created by understanding the best workflows and practices into an easy to use, full-circle solution used by several thousand law firms across every district in the U.S. Upon Fastcase’s acquisition of NextChapter, Sickmeyer will become Managing Director and Founder of NextChapter and Director of Practice Workflow at Fastcase. She calls the acquisition “a dream come true” and she voices her admiration for Fastcase leadership. She says, “it’s invigorating to collaborate and continue to build NextChapter’s company and products alongside them. Fastcase and NextChapter share the same core beliefs on customer-focused products. I know this opportunity will allow us to continue serving our mission.”