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I met Jim Durham in the early 1990s when legal marketing was just taking off in law firms.  For decades before, law was thought of more as a profession. And while it is still very much  profession, there has been a dramatic shift in the way law firms think about marketing.  While there a few remaining firms that rely on longstanding institutional relationships to keep associates and partners busy, most firms today are actively looking for ways to promote their reputations. The most successful and most highly compensated lawyers are the ones who have figured out how to create a niche and build strong relationships with potential clients and referral sources. In the late 1980s and early 1990s when law firms began hiring marketing professionals and lawyers began working with outside marketing consultants and coaches, I had the good fortune to meet some of the pioneers in this new field. One who really made an impression on me was my guest , Jim Durham. I recently reconnected with Jim and spoke to him about my work with senior lawyers who are trying to figure out their next stage.  Jim is someone who has reinvented himself numerous times in his career.  As I learned more about his back story, I realized that Jim was a story waiting to be told. Jim has been a partner at a major law firm, a sports agent, a Chief Marketing Officer for several major law firms, an outside marketing consultant and inspirational speaker, and an internal marketing executive for MLB.Com , the online arm of major league baseball. Today, Jim Durham is the Chief Operating Officer at Verrill, a large regional firm that has its roots in Portland, Maine.  But his origins would not suggest that he would be where he is today. Listen to his story and hear his inspiring life lessons and valuable advice for being successful in your legal career, whatever path you choose.

If I had to name one thing I work on with almost every client, it would be FOLLOW UP! Follow up and persistence are critical if you want to build your business relationships, generate referrals, find that great in-house job, or get alignment from the partners you are trying to lead. The explosion of email and the added proliferation of spam filters, has made this all the more challenging. If you add in the fact that many lawyers don't like "sales", follow up is challenging....but critical. If you want to generate work, leverage your network to find your next great career opportunity, or be an effective leader in your law firm or corporate law department, follow up is a core skill to cultivate. But at some point, you actually can overdo it!  Listen in for some practice tips on how to follow up in a professional and effective way.

Bruce La Fetra calls himself The Client Whisperer. He works with the leaders of law, finance and other professional services firms who can't scale or can't exit because they depend on a single rainmaker. His tag line is “Think Like Your Best Clients”. According to Bruce, the ability to consistently attract great clients sets the best lawyers far above their peers.  Your best clients are: 💲 Easier to manage 💲 More profitable 💲 Quicker to buy 💲 Provide more referrals 💲 More fun to work with Sounds simple. But as it turns out, it takes work to figure out who these clients are and what they are really looking for in a lawyer.  And clients may not be completely frank with their attorney.  That's where The Client Whisperer comes in. In this great conversation, Bruce talks about the ways he helps his clients grow and work smarter, rather than harder.  Bruce can be reached at bruce@eastwoodsa.com .

We speak all the time on this podcast about the many ways, lawyers can advance their careers and find more satisfaction in an out of the law. If you at a law firm that emphasizes professional development, chances are, you are learning how to be successful in your practice area. If you are fortunate to have a good mentor, perhaps you are also learning how to succeed at your firm and maybe how to begin to build your own practice.  But if you are like most law firm associates, it is on you to decide what direction you want your career to go.  Career counseling has not traditionally been provided by your employer.  That was for your law school career services office. But if you have been practicing for a few years, maybe you are unsure what comes next. Is partnership in your future?  SHOULD you be building a practice? Is in-house an option and how do you get there?  Is an alternative legal career in your future?  Do you want to leave the practice of law altogether? Most law firms leave those questions for you to figure out on your own (or by seeking out resources outside of your firm). But there are several firms that have now brought that function in-house.  In this episode, I am very pleased to bring in one of the pioneers of the field of law firm career counseling, Kevin Agnew. Kevin Agnew is Director of Attorney Career Services at Latham & Watkins an international law firm with almost 3000 lawyers. He runs the firm's Career Design program and oversees the global alumni program. In a confidential coaching environment, he works with attorneys on the full range of career issues. Kevin also is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he was named Adjunct Professor of the Year in in 2017. Kevin shares valuable career advice for associates and describes how Latham has embraced the notion that there can be different definitions of success (and that each of these paths can be benefit attorneys and their firm). Related Podcasts Episode 30-The Key to Happiness in the Practice of Law Episode 27-Downsizing from Biglaw Episode 25-Thirty Years of Biglaw Wisdom

There is a lot of talk in my business networking group ProVisors about building a personal brand. But what is a personal brand?  How can it help you build your law practice?  Why should all lawyers create one? In this episode, I speak with an expert on branding.  Barbara Kaplan is CEO of BSK Strategies, a business development consulting practice helping individual lawyers and law firms build their brands, target and win new and higher-value work, establish thought-leadership, and develop innovative strategies and approaches to distinguish themselves in a competitive marketplace. She brings to her consulting and coaching work over 20 years of experience helping clients define, pursue and win the business they want. She is devoted to helping them make that skill second nature. Join us for a great discussion about how to differentiate yourself in the marketplace by creating a personal brand, taming your inner critic so it doesn't interfere with your efforts to self brand, and a host of related topics.

Lauren Rikleen knew from a very early age that she was destined to become a lawyer.  She was the one in her family who was always questioning. She was the one who was always concerned about injustice. One of her earliest childhood memories was trying to stop bullying on the playground.   Today, Lauren is President of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership.  She is a nationally recognized expert on developing a thriving  diverse and multi-generational workforce. I recently sat down with Lauren to reflect on her career and what she has been doing since she left the practice of law.  Lauren was a guest on one of the first episodes of C2C where she spoke about success strategies for women in the legal profession. I invited her back to update us on her work since then and to talk about what inspired her to do the work she now does. She is an inspiration to me and to many women in the legal profession!

We talk a lot on this podcast about marketing and career management.  While great lawyers have great technical skills, getting the work you want and advancing your career, requires a different set of skills. The same is true for lawyers who move from being an individual contributor to taking on leadership roles in their firm or in their corporate law department. In this episode, I speak with an expert on how to make a successful transition into leadership.  We discuss the things you should be thinking about if you have already made that move.  Whether you are chairing a department for the first time, new to the role of managing partner at your firm, or promoted to general counsel, this is a great conversation for you. My guest, Steve Smith is the President of GrowthSource Coaching, an Orange County CA based business and executive coaching company.  Steve serves business professionals that want to become extraordinary leaders and savvy business owners.  He has coached nearly 600 clients over 14 years and enjoys moments when his clients gain the clarity that lets them know they can achieve what they want.  He has worked with many lawyers, and I am very pleased to say that he is my own coach! 

It has never been easier to create digital content to market your law practice.  But what is the right mix?  How much should you be leveraging LinkedIn and other social media platforms to build your visibility.  Are email newsletters effective? Should you be using SEO to get more visitors to your website? What about podcasting?  What should you being doing yourself and when should you outsource? In this episode, I speak with Marc Apple, a real expert in digital marketing.  Marc is the owner of Forward Push, a marketing agency that creates dynamic websites and manages SEO for companies in a range of industries.  His clients are startups and small-to-medium sized businesses including law firms.  Marc and I discuss how to leverage the full array of marketing options that are readily available and when to turn to an agency for help.

I speak to a lot of lawyers who are interested in moving into in-house roles. While not every in-house lawyer is happy leaving private practice, on the whole, I find that the in-house lawyers I meet have higher levels of career satisfaction.  In-house lawyers generally don’t keep track of their time, at least not in the same way.  And while the hours can still be demanding, lawyers who work in corporate law departments often have more predictability. In-house lawyers also enjoy having an ongoing relationship with a client that they get to know on a deeper level. And for many in-house counsel, being the company lawyer means the opportunity to participate in more business decisions. The path to in-house is clear for corporate lawyers.  Employment attorneys also have a relatively easy time moving in-house. But for litigators, the path is less obvious. In this episode, I speak with Evan Slavitt, a former litigator who has some great advice for litigators looking to go in-house.  I recently reconnected with Evan after many years and after we spoke for a while about his experience as a General Counsel. I quickly realized that I had to have him on the show. EVAN is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for KYOCERA AVX Components Corporation in South Carolina. Before joining AVX, Evan spent many years in private practice where he concentrated on complex commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense.  He also did a stint at the US Attorney’s office in Boston in the 1980’s. I met him during that time when I was a law student working as a clerk in that office.  Evan can be reached at evan.slavitt@kyocera-avx.com,

Launching your own law practice can be both energizing and scary. For lawyers who are accustomed to earning a steady paycheck, hanging a shingle means saying goodbye to security. Leaving a large firm means that there is no one between you and the client. You need to figure out how to advise them without the help of partners who are just down the hall. You also need to develop your own infrastructure. At the same time, starting your own practice means having a lot of flexibility and a chance to really build something of your own. In one of the first episodes of Counsel to Counsel, I interviewed Matt Yospin, an IP lawyer who went solo after several years at an AmLaw 100 firm. Since that time, I have coached a number of lawyers who have started their own practices.  Matt Yospin spoke a lot about how he has leveraged technology to make his IP practice run smoothly with far fewer resources.  In this episode, I speak with Allan MacLean about starting a solo employment law practice, what he wishes he had known when he launched his firm, and how he has shifted the nature of his work after leaving a large national labor and employment law boutique.  Allan described what it was like to start representing employees after focusing on representing only management.  He also talked about how workplace investigations are a nice adjunct to the litigation he is doing. Allan MacLean is the owner of MacLean Employment Law in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he concentrates on employment law and civil litigation. Allan now counsels and represents both individuals and employers regarding the full range of employment matters, including leaves of absence, compensation issues, terminations, and harassment and discrimination claims. He also assists clients with "non-compete" agreements, and a growing part of his practice is workplace investigations.

Early December is a great time to start planning for the New Year. Creating S.M.A.R.T. goals is a great way to make sure that you achieve what you set out to do.  In this special edition of the Counsel to Counsel Podcast, I define S.M.A.R.T. goals and then share with you my own S.M.A.R.T. goals for 2022.

When I speak to lawyers about the changes they would like to make in their careers, there are a number of repeating themes. One theme I often hear from litigators is that they are tired of the conflict and petty discovery disputes. They are frustrated in having to deal with opposing counsel who seem more interested in winning than in justice.  One path for these lawyers is alternative dispute resolution. So where is mediation today and what are the career opportunities for lawyers who want to shift their careers in that direction?  In this episode, Amy Mariani answers that question. Amy Mariani is someone I would trust unequivocally if I were involved in a conflict. She is practical, knows how to take the temperature down in a conflicted situation and is someone who knows how to quickly build trust and rapport. For twenty years, Amy tried cases in the areas of employment, personal injury, and breach of contract.  She began, mediating part time in 2014 and since 2016, she has done it full time.

We have spoken a lot on Counsel to Counsel about the importance of building business relationships. But we have not spent much time discussing how to turn those relationships into actual paying work. In this episode, I am joined by Gary Johnson who understands a lot about selling legal services.  We discuss a series of common hypothetical situations where there may be opportunities to generate business.  Gary walks us through the process for identifying needs and doing so in a way that does not exert pressure on a client, prospective client, or referral source. Gary Johnson is President of J2 Marketing Consultants. He helps attorneys get more profitable clients. Gary’s experience building strategies and applying proven techniques offers an effective way to help attorneys grow their practice by bringing in ideal clients. He provides the tools needed to focus his clients on building value when approaching prospective clients. Gary makes the process easy, and I can vouch for that.  

In thinking about guests to invite to this podcast, I’m always on the lookout for attorneys who have taken alternative career paths. I also try to find both practicing attorneys and former practicing attorneys who have great advice to share with my audience.  Today’s guest is in the latter category. Amy M. Gardner is a certified career and career transitions coach and team development and leadership consultant with Apochromatik. She works with employers to reengage teams and help them thrive. She also works with lawyers one-on-one and in small group masterminds to advance in their roles or transition to a new one. Amy is a former Big Law associate, partner at a mid-size Chicago firm, and dean of students at the University of Chicago Law School. Her career and goal achievement advice has been featured in media including numerous podcasts, ABA publications, Glassdoor, Monster, and NBC to name a few. In this interview, Amy shares some great practical advice for associates who are trying to build their careers in private practice.

In the past year, I’ve been talking a lot on this show about The Next Stage, my program to help senior lawyers figure out what comes next.  My guests have discussed ways that lawyers can find meaning later in their careers.  One topic that we’ve addressed is succession planning, or ways that lawyers can ensure that what they have built will live on as they scale back or exit the practice of law. In larger firms, succession planning may mean handing the reins of leadership over time to the next generation and starting a process of transitioning the clients.  For smaller firms, there may not be a deep bench ready to take over.  In those instances, lawyers may simply opt to practice until they are no longer able to because of incapacity or death.  Some lawyers will simply close their doors. But some small firms may choose another option, and that is a sale. In this episode, Tom Lenfenstey discusses selling a law practice.  Tom is a lawyer and CPA in North Carolina who runs the Law Practice Exchange where he helps senior lawyers get value from the enterprise that they have spent a lifetime building.  Tom speaks and writes regularly on the subject and is author of Designing a Succession Plan for Your Law Practice. Additional Resources Succession Planning For Your Career: What Comes Next Episode 67-Retirement By Design (for Lawyers)

There are a lot of unhappy lawyers in our profession. But when I started this podcast three years ago, it was my firm belief that there are many happy attorneys as well and we can all learn from them. In this episode, I speak with  Arivee Vargas, an attorney who really works at trying to find more fulfillment in her career. She is also someone who inspires others through her own coaching work. I met Arivee for the first time when I sat in on a career panel that was sponsored by Region I of the Hispanic National Bar Association. Arivee and her fellow panelists were all lawyers who had graduated law school around the time of the 2008 financial crisis and they had some very practical advice for law student looking for work in a pandemic.  I was blown away by her take charge attitude and her ability to demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity. This past Spring she launched The Humble Rising Podcast and I began listening.  Again I was blown away at what a what an inspiration Arivee can be.  Arivee is a first-generation lawyer who has worked in two large law firms, clerked for the First Circuit and US District Court in Massachusetts, works for a major biotech company, and has a side hustle now as a Certified Life and High-Performance Coach to professionals who are first generation and women of color.  She also manages to be mother to three young children. This is her story.

There are many efforts underway around the country to help lawyers address stress in the practice of law. Several years ago, the Report of the Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being was issued by the American Bar Association, Conference of Chief Judges, and other legal organizations.  It called well-being an essential element of a lawyer’s duty of competence. In Massachusetts, there is an organization called Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers which helps attorneys deal with substance abuse and some of the underlying causes of attorney anxiety and depression and there are similar organizations in many states. In January of 2020, The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts created a Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being. The Standing Committee is charged with planning and overseeing efforts to enhance the well-being of lawyers, judges and law students in the Commonwealth and is doing a great job of educating these different constituencies. As summer is coming to a close and the pandemic rages on, I thought this was a good time to revisit the subject of attorney well-being.  And if you happen to be Jewish like me, this is generally a great time for self-reflection and thinking about the changes you want to make in your life.  So with the start of the New Year, Jewish or not, I was pleased to welcome Shailini George, a professor at Suffolk University School of Law. Shailini is someone who has thought a lot about the subject of attorney well-being and just published a book called The Law Student’s Guide to Doing Well and Being Well.  She was also co-author of Mindful Lawyering: The Key to Creative Problem Solving.  Shailini teaches legal writing  at Suffolk and focuses her scholarship on lawyer well-being, mindfulness, and the cognitive science of learning.  In this episode, we talk stress in the practice of law and about what Shailini calls distraction addiction.  She offers strategies for addressing stress and distraction in order to become a more productive, effective and happier lawyer.   Other Resources Episode 33-Mindfulness, Biofeedback, and the Practice of Law Episode 37-Managing Anxiety in a Time of Crisis Ten Percent Happier (Dan Harris, an ABC News personality, brings mindfulness to skeptics with his book, app and podcast; tons of content and a great place to start for a modest annual fee--look for discounts)

There are many paths to success in a law firm.  I’ve emphasized on this podcast that growing your practice is a good place to start.  Having your own clients gives you a sense of ownership that is hard to achieve when you are just servicing firm clients.  If you have your own book of business, there is more opportunity to focus on the work you enjoy and the clients you like.   For some, getting involved in the management of a firm is another way to find more fulfillment.  But it is not for everyone. I once heard someone say that managing a law firm is like being the only fire hydrant in a town filled with dogs. David Maister and Patrick McKenna put it another way in their book First Among Equals.  When you are running a professional services firm, you must lead through influence rather than authority. In this episode, I have a great conversation with David Rosenblatt who has been one of the longest serving Managing Partners in the Boston legal market.  He has served as Managing Partner at Burns & Levinson since 1998. During that time, David has seen a lot of changes in the practice of law and a lot of changes at his own firm. A few months ago, the firm announced that David would be stepping down from the role in 2023 and I thought it would be a great opportunity to speak to David and get him to reflect on his experience. In this episode, we talk about David’s career, the changes he has seen, what has been most fulfilling for him, what advice he has for lawyers thinking about law firm management, and a host of other topics.

There are many ways to build a law practice.  Legal marketing is not a one size fits all. Lawyers have different personalities and interests.  Different practice areas lend themselves to different marketing techniques. Beyond this, there can be some gender differences in the way men and women approach marketing. In this episode, I speak with Lana Manganiello who has put a lot of thought into this subject.  Lana is a business development coach with Equinox Strategy Partners.  We met through our business networking group ProVisors and I’ve been learning a lot from her. Lana works with attorneys and firms to create bespoke and measurable business development strategies and actionable plans.  She truly believes business development is the key to career fulfillment in the legal profession. Recently, Lana and I were on a call with several other ProVisors members who coach attorneys. As the only woman on the call, she brought a perspective that I thought would be great to bring to Counsel to Counsel.  Lana and I talk about how she helps attorneys achieve success with her three-part plan. We then dive into the question of legal marketing and gender. Additional Resources Check out other episodes of the C2C podcast and read articles and blog posts. Visit the Resources section on my website

Aging baby boomers now fill the senior ranks of many law firms across the United States. Because of this, hundreds of partnerships will be facing succession planning issues in the next decade. How can firms make successful transitions and ensure the long-term viability of their practices? How will senior partners transition their clients to younger partners, so the clients are well served in the future? How will the next generation assume responsibility for managing the firm of tomorrow? Underpinning all this is a reality: Lawyers are living longer, lawyers have very strong professional identities, and many senior lawyers are not doing a good job of planning their own transitions. A lot of lawyers have worked hard for so long that it is difficult to imagine what might fill the void if they were to leave or cut back. What will these attorneys do when they are no longer chairing a department or actively serving clients they have worked with for decades? What are some of the creative strategies that lawyers have used to figure out what comes next? My guest Ida Abbott has thought a lot about the subject and has put together a great resource for helping senior lawyers to address these challenging existential issues. On today’s show, we will be talk about her book Retirement by Design and we discuss some of the practical considerations for lawyers who are further along in their careers. Ida is a leader in the field of talent management and an internationally recognized expert in the areas of mentoring, sponsorship and the advancement of women into leadership. As a lawyer and consultant to the legal profession, she has focused on the power of mentoring relationships to guide, support and transform professional careers from the beginning of practice through retirement. Other Resources Succession Planning for Your Career: What Comes Next? Episode 62- Financial & Career Planning for Senior Attorneys Episode 61-Succession Planning With Senior Attorney Match Episode 58-Managing Your Exit (Career Succession Planning-- with Bill Lahey, Esq.) Episode 40-Succession Planning for Law Firms Meets Chapter 3 for Lawyers