Zen & the Art of Legal Networking

As a lawyer, in addition to the network of clients and potential clients that you’ve built, you’ve also built a network of referral sources. This may be formal or informal (or more likely, both). One of the most overlooked opportunities for further developing your relationships with these sources of referrals is content – not only does it help you to get to know these sources better, but it also provides you with collateral that you can use with your primary client/potential client networks.

Join us for this week’s rainmaking recommendation from trainer and coach, Jaimie Field.

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Way back in 2013, I wrote a blog entitled: The Mathematics of Time for Rainmaking.  In it, I dispelled the myth that I hear from my clients who are in Mid-market and Big Law firms: “I don’t have the time to do Rainmaking.”

So, I showed you how much time you really did have. Let’s run the math once more. Again, we are starting with the following assumptions:

A conversation I had earlier today got me thinking about what it means to be a leader.

Is it technical skill? Surely, you need to have the skill to perform your duties and an understanding of what your company or organization does to be successful. Is it experience? Yes, often that helps, though I think we all know that there have been cases where someone may have skills from another industry that can be transferred without having what is considered the “right” experience on paper, and still be a wildly successful leader. Is it executive presence? That may be debatable and probably depends on the audience that you’re speaking to as to what their definition of “executive presence” is.

So what are the right ingredients for being a leader?

Join us for this week’s rainmaking recommendation from trainer and coach, Jaimie Field.

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Since the pandemic started, I have been doing a tremendous amount of virtual networking with a plethora of people. I am speaking specifically of group networking, not just virtual one-on-ones. And I have noticed something very interesting:  many have trouble describing what they do for a living in a few short, memorable sentences.   This is why you need to create an Audio Business Card, also known as an Elevator Pitch.  

Join us for this week’s rainmaking recommendation from trainer and coach, Jaimie Field.

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Referrals can be one of the best Rainmaking tactics you can use to grow your book of business.  But, many lawyers aren’t getting the quality or quantity of referrals that they would like.

Here are 10 reasons you’re not getting referrals:

A pandemic is a strange time to be a leader. It’s both terrifying, because you, as much as everyone else, have no idea what’s going to happen, but you have to put on a brave face to instill confidence and it’s, in some ways, exciting, because you get to test your skill set in a way you never have (although, let me be absolutely clear – every leader I know would hand it back over in a heartbeat). I talked to a law firm leader recently who said she regularly presents a calm and collected front to her shareholders and then hangs up the phone to cry. We laughed about it, because that is EXACTLY how it is – like ducks, we are serene above water while paddling like maniacs below.