finance
practice management advice
taking the lead
practice, he or she probably does not have a large infrastructure of
professional development activities upon which to rely.
Under these circumstances, a lawyer has to take greater responsibility for his or her own learning. While this would certainly include
actively seeking mentors, this is probably not enough. A young
lawyer would be wise to ask everyone encountered in the profession two questions. First, what does a young lawyer need to know
to become competent at my particular level? Second, what recommendations do you have about where I would go or whom I should
learn from to best develop those competencies? Be specific. Ask for
valuable courses, books, podcasts, CLE programs and professionals. For example, junior lawyers pursuing litigation would do well
to ask for the names of lawyers they should observe in court. Some
judges are very open to having young attorneys spend time in their
courtrooms, observing the proceedings and talking with the judges
afterward. Experienced lawyers are often willing to allow junior
lawyers to shadow them for a day to learn from their broad experience. So few young lawyers seek out this kind of support that their
senior counterparts are even more likely to embrace their request.
EXPERIENCED LAWYERS ARE NOT IMMUNE
While experienced lawyers may know the content of their specialty,
they can lag behind in adopting new ways of practicing. “We have
always done it that way” is a common refrain in the law, yet a back-ward-facing profession based upon precedent often fails to embrace
new ways of conducting business. To function effectively in an
increasingly competitive profession, lawyers should be strongly
encouraged to foster their own professional development in arenas
currently unfamiliar to them. Leaving town to further develop
your skill sets may make sense. That is, a senior attorney may not
be comfortable being seen at a marketing or technology seminar
that may seem elemental, so it is often easier to be a new learner at
a program where you are unlikely to encounter peers or competitors. And because lawyers spend so much of their professional lives
offering counsel and advice to others, admitting that there is something they don’t know can be difficult. But that’s what professional
development is all about: learning something new from a good
teacher that will positively affect both your personal performance
and that of your firm. It could actually be a lot of fun. LP
