A remarkable woman and example of generosity we should all emulate

On the 12^th of December, my grandmother turned 98 years old.  She had a wonderful birthday surrounded by friends and family—children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren—even one soon-to-be-born great-great-grandchild, who will be her namesake.  The few of us unable to attend in person called to send our love and hear about her day.  I will always remember my grandmother then as being in great spirits, serenely joyful and full of life as we celebrated her and her place in our lives.

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Doing good—even exceptional—work is not enough

Obviously the first prerequisite for building a successful legal practice is to do good work and work hard for your clients.  But, unfortunately, that’s not enough.  And I still come across many young lawyers who just don’t understand this… Only yesterday, during a training course, several lawyers admitted that some of my information seemed a hard pill to swallow. 

But, as with strong medicine, it’s only for your own benefit.  Therefore, as an associate, beyond doing the requisite level of good work, here’s three basic things you must do (as a minimum!):

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The facts of legal career progression laid bare

In today’s “The Careerist” blog post, it’s author Vivia Chen lays bare the facts—as substantiated from a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL).

Facts that we all know are true, but which Big Law firms try to dissimulate.

1. Women only make up 15% of equity partnership.
2. More than 60% of staff attorneys (those with the least care prospects) are women.
3. Part-timers are viewed as “less committed” to their careers.
4. Part time is NOT a route to partnership.

For more details, see the full post.

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Interpersonal skills are more valuable than experience

When Right Management (a part of Manpower, one of the global leaders in recruitment) asked more than 800 senior human resource professionals and other business leaders throughout North America what contributes most to accelerated performance, the results were as follows:

• Organizational culture/motivational fit 31%

• Interpersonal behaviors 26%

• Critical reasoning/judgment 21%

• Technical skills 12%

• Relevant experience 11%

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Holiday reading

I’m on holiday now—six glorious weeks in the Italian lakes. Among the many books I’ve brought with me is Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (which I’m actually re-reading). It has many underlined and highlighted passages, as well as asterisks and scribbled notes throughout. This is because I find the message of the book so inspiring, and so relevant to most lawyers.

The simple, condensed message of the book is this….

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