10 Thoughts on modern training for business lawyers
So you can do law. Now what?
Would you recommend a plumber just because the pipes don’t leak?
Getting the legal stuff right is expected. A given.
Difficult, fast moving and sometimes exceptional environments. Savvy clients. Advancing technology. Alternative service providers. Changing business models.
The list of reasons why success in today’s marketplace requires a skill-set far broader than safely handling legal technicalities goes on and is growing quickly.
And law school covers few of them. If any.
Using what works (Part I)
Lawyers interact with each other and other individuals. They sell. They negotiate. They have an organisation (aka law firm) around them. And a culture.
Which means that a lot of the work done in and applied to other disciplines is applicable to the legal landscape.
Performance psychology. Behavioural science. Neuroscience. Marketing. Design. Art. Systems thinking.
As everywhere, things have to be adjusted to precisely fit the realities of our profession. But by and large, they apply. As they should. And we should use them much better than in the past.
Using what works (Part II)
In some areas a lot of work and research has gone into finding out how training and coaching can be geared towards high performance of individuals and organisations.
High-end sports. Business. Military. Medicine.
The underlying frameworks work extremely well in a legal context.
When applied, they lead to a different approach than what we’ve been used to so far. It works really well. It helps our clients and ourselves. Isn’t that, what matters?
People often say, lawyers are bad at numbers. They are wrong.
Sure, teach lawyers business concepts the way you teach MBA students, and they will likely zone out after about 3 minutes. Too little structure. Too much isolated info. Not what they’re used to, good at or enjoy.
Offer the same content in a way that fits the way top lawyers think and approach problems, and you’ll find something seemingly surprising: lawyers are actually quite good at numbers. Or with people. They learn extremely fast. And have no issues handling complexity.
The background is simple: top lawyers have been through a relentless school in structured thinking. Play to that, and you can observe super fast skill acquisition.
Why not use that in training? Or more boldly: Why would we ask lawyers to settle for anything less?
Partners are too busy to act as trainers. And far too expensive.
Traditionally, law firm partners are in charge of training, both of associates and their peers.
Nowadays, partners have more and more things on their plates. And less and less time.
Even if they had time, it would be extremely expensive. Let’s just say it takes two full days to prepare a one-day workshop (it takes longer, if done right). Calculate the hours. Multiply with the average partner rate at your firm.
Less preparation? Directly translates to worse training. That would then be still a considerable expense for a lower-quality output. And that sounds like a really bad deal.
Being a successful partner is one thing. Training lawyers another.
Being an active-practice top practitioner requires a certain assortment of skills and total focus on a certain (already wide) set of parameters.
Being a top trainer/coach requires deep knowledge of what happens on the coal face, augmented by a different set of skills and an equally strong focus on a totally different group of parameters.
Mixing one with the other doesn’t necessarily yield the best results.
Or, to use one of those dreaded sports analogies: its very rare that the coach plays on the team.
Lawyer jokes are actually quite funny.
Because practically each of them has at least a kernel of truth to it. Everybody knows it. Except most of us.
But we can learn to change our perspective, our approach, our skills and behaviour. Doing so, we can join our clients in laughing about lawyer jokes. Because then we know they’re not on us.
That’s a much better place to start a day at work from.
And to build a professional life and a career on.
It should fit you.
Every business lawfirm worth its salt will tell clients that there is no one-size-fits-all.
The same should be true for training.
Culture. Structure. Timing. Logistics. Strategy. Goals.
Things are different at different law firms. Training should reflect that.
We don't talk about that.
Some topics seem to be off-limits.
Money. Careers. Fun. Family. Balance. Gender. Working with partners (for associates). Working with associates (for partners).
There is a lot of tiptoeing around these items. But if a topic is the 800-pound gorilla in the room…why not talk about it openly? People will talk about it anyway. With that in mind, it’s much better to actively shape the conversation and slowly adjust culture.
It works.
Skills that matter.
Addressed in a way that is tailored to the needs, preferences and environment of top business lawyers.
Helping to create a training offering that is even more attractive both for business lawyers and the law firms for which they work.
Not all of my clients are comfortable reading their names online, beyond their full control. So there are none here. If you’re interested and would like to speak to someone, who’s already been there, do let me know.