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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The holidays: the perfect time to network

Leading up to the holidays, you’re almost certainly desperately trying to get that all-important deal done and/or simply hoping to clear your desk. But this is one of the best possible times to move away from the comfort zone of focusing on client work to expand and nurture your relationships. As people tend to be more relaxed during this time of the year, and the party season gives you lots of opportunities to “meet and greet”, take advantage of these circumstances and reach out.

With this in mind:

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Make a great impression; remember a name!

In his classic bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie says that their own name is the sweetest sound anyone can ever hear.

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Two (often forgotten) basics of looking for a job

In better markets, many lawyers secured their jobs on the basis of strong academic qualifications rather than, necessarily, their interviewing skills. In the current market, interviewing skills can (in fact, will) make all the difference. Since many talented professionals are now in the market for jobs they would otherwise not have pursued, the competition is still tougher, and you can’t assume that you’ll be chosen on the basis of your credentials or intelligence alone. Instead, you need to show why you are genuinely interested in the position, how your skills and experience would add value to the firm, and what assets you bring above and beyond the competition. In essence, you need to work on your interview skills.

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Star Women

I was having lunch with some of my fellow female lawyers and the issue of women’s versus men’s networks came up (and of course the fact that women will always, to some degree, be excluded from our male colleagues’ bonding sessions, whether sporty or social). This reminded me of a Harvard Business Review article that I’d once read, which I looked up again. (How Star Women Build Portable Skills by Boris Groysberg.) In the article Groysberg makes the argument that star women build better portable business because most women’s networking is done by building on external relationships—with clients and contacts—which brings them portable business.

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