Best Practices Of Personal Marketing For Women Attorneys

By Michael Cummings, Managing Director of SAGE PDI, Inc., a firm that trains and coaches attorneys to market, sell, network and manage relationships. He is the co-author of Best Practices in Legal Marketing and Best Practices in Building Your Personal Network - for Attorneys. He can be reached at mcummings@sageprofessional.com or 630-572-4798.

Last week, I saw a headline in the New York Times only 20-23% percent of partners at major law firms nationwide were women – despite that the fact that women account for roughly 50% of practicing attorneys in the US. And this number hasn’t changed significantly for the past couple of decades. I guess that I was a bit surprised by how low this number was.

Lots of firms and practice groups are looking for ways to support the career ambitions of their women attorneys. What are the best ways to help women attorneys?  To get guidance, we interviewed the current Chair Of The ABA Commission On Women In the Profession: Roberta (Bobbi) D. Liebenberg, Esq. of Fine Kaplan and Black, Philadelphia.

What is the bottom line? Bobbi believes that women attorneys need to embrace and excel at business development – and find ways to help other women attorneys to succeed. 
 
Why? Because the future belongs to the attorneys who can market and sell. If you can grow your practice and create economic value for your firm, then you put your success under your own control. This fact is made even more apparent by the current economic pressures that are impacting the legal profession.

Bobbi speaks from her own experience. 1992 was the year of the year and I always had an entrepreneurial bent. So, I decided to start my own firm along with 2 other woman attorneys. We decided to target organizations and government agencies who desired to do more business with women owned businesses. We also targeted women owned business and women general counsel

By choosing to become an entrepreneur, Bobbi had to develop business – or fail. My basic motivation to develop business was based on my fear of starving. This caused me to both become very active in terms of business development and build the skills and habits I need to be effective.

Bobbi ultimately joined a boutique litigation firm. However, she still employs the hard-earned lessons she learned as an entrepreneur. And you should do the same

So what lessons did Bobbi learn that she wants to pass along to her women colleagues in the profession?

• Make business development a top priority: When I started my own firm, I quickly knew that clients and their business pay all the bills. Now that I work for a larger firm, I still know that clients and business are the most important part of my job.
• Combine your personal interests and passions with business development: Don’t do things for business development purposes where you have little or no genuine interest. You can’t fake enthusiasm and you have to invest a lot of time in these activities to make them pay off.  In my case, I was always enthusiastic about bar activities and attorneys were good referrals for my practice. So, this is where I concentrated. So, do what you like to do.
• Be strategic: Be really targeted in your pursuit of business. Identify specific ideal clients and the type of cases that you excel at. Don’t be broad or general – this just results in wasted time.
• Network, network, network: Business development is about relationships, not promotion. I see my association work as a way to meet and build relationships where we can refer business back and forth.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for business help: I believe that many women are reluctant to inject business development into social relationships. I have found ways to be tactfully direct in asking for help. You have to ask for opportunities to serve clients and also ask your clients to introduce you to other potential clients.
• Have realistic expectations: You need to be patient. You may have to cultivate relationships for months and years before they turn into business. Pro bono work may not immediately turn into business. Also,
  don’t be afraid of rejection. I remember that we lost out on a beauty contest to a big firm. So, I called to GC to see how we can do better next time. And, he was complimentary of our proposal and interaction and ultimately hired us for another assignment.
• Help other women to succeed: Madeline Albright once said there is a special place in Hell for women who don’t help other women. So, find women allies within the firm, in the profession and in related professions. Help to place women alumni and other women in inside counsel positions. Join women business associations.
• Act like a business advisor in all selling situations: When I am in a face to face selling situation, I act like a business advisor rather than pitching business. First, I prepare. I want to know their business, current challenges and relationship history. Second, I listen 80-90% of the time and ask business questions. I suggest approaches and legal strategies.
• Find ways to be included in business development programs and client development: You need to be in the game to succeed. So be a leader in your practice group business development program. Ask to be included in client meetings and take charge of follow up. Don’t wait to be asked.
• Treat business development like client work: Being a mother made me very efficient at organizing work and making time. Also, to be a top litigator you have to excel at managing cases and relationships. Business development is just work. You have to plan and execute it on a weekly and daily basis
• Leverage the commission: The ABA Commission On Women In The Profession http://www.abanet.org/women/ is providing several forms of help. First, attend the forums and conferences. Also, be aware of reports such as our recent reports on gender neutral performance criteria.

So what is the bottom line? Bobbi puts it this way: thinking and acting like an entrepreneur is the best lesson that I have learned. It taught me to take initiative and control my success based on effort and results. It helped me to make business development a habit. Entrepreneurs build businesses and that is what women attorneys should aspire to do as well.