Our upcoming book to be published by the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section is tentatively titled "Lawyer Retention: Improving Job Satisfaction for Lawyers." Research for the book has included interviews of lawyers with varying expertise, as well as lawyers who no longer practice or who work in non-legal jobs.

We have interviewed judges, government lawyers, law firm partners, house counsel, associates, lawyers working with the "Big 5" accounting firms, consultants and lawyers who have left the profession to work in other areas.

Speaking regularly with lawyers involved in all aspects of the practice has given us a great deal of insight on a variety of issues related to job satisfaction. We have become convinced that the most satisfied lawyers are the "A" Players, the lawyers that are "High value added/ hard to replace" or Best Lawyers. Of course, any law practice is a voluntary association of lawyers. All law practices should aim to include only the Best Lawyers and should provide their lawyers the means to get there.

Most lawyers devote little time to building their careers and less time to career design. Most law firms, departments and agencies do not devote the resources to assisting lawyers in career building and design. For lack of tending and development, many potential Best Lawyers are lost.

Best Lawyers practice in a variety of environments and in many different practice areas. Best Lawyers have the luxury of designing their own careers to suit their personal tastes. They have control over their time and compensation. Best Lawyers are successful on their own terms. They are in demand by employers, clients, referral sources and colleagues. Like the rest of us, Best Lawyers may not know where the next piece of business is coming from. Yet, they are more secure in the knowledge that the business will be there than other lawyers are.

Best Lawyers achieved this enviable level of success by traveling a variety of paths so that it is not possible for the aspiring Best Lawyer to adopt a cookie cutter "modeling" approach to career design. After unsuccessfully attempting to model Best Lawyer behavior, aspiring Best Lawyers often conclude that the Best Lawyer was just, well, lucky.

And Best Lawyers are lucky, if that means they made their own luck by taking control over their professional development, designing their own careers and being prepared to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them.

Building a legal career by moving in whatever direction the wind blows is sometimes successful and sometimes not. Lawyers tell us that they specialized in, say, environmental law because in their first law job they were handed a case that led to a case that led to–well, you get the idea. Eventually, those lawyers find some level of success and may even achieve Best Lawyer status. Or maybe they just reach the point where their work is plentiful but unsatisfactory.

We do believe that careers are given opportunities to develop that are not necessarily in a lineal path along one’s plan. Evaluating those opportunities and taking advantage of them is one mark of the "lucky" Best Lawyer. Many a lawyer has been devastated at the loss of certain big clients or business areas and found a much more successful practice. Indeed, many unexpected bends in the road are not the end of the road, but the opportunity for bigger and better things.

PeopleWealth’s career building coaching was developed after many lawyers told us of their struggle to find satisfaction in the practice. This struggle often lasts for years and results in resignation–to the futility of the struggle or from the profession all together.

PeopleWealth’s Career Design process is designed to assist lawyers in developing a career plan that will meet their individual needs and make them successful in their existing environment. We believe all lawyers are high achievers and one need they have in common is to excel at what they do. Lawyers want to attract more business than they need in their area of interest. To serve that business, they join together in firms, departments and agencies. Group practice provides benefits most Best Lawyers fully appreciate.

Becoming the most skilled and therefore the most desired lawyer in a particular specialty that you like is one method we recommend. Other methods we use involve effective marketing techniques (making it to the short list every time) and time management skills (Quality of Life and a busy law practice).

To make an effective Career Design, selecting appropriate goals is essential. Excelling is easier when skills are well matched to interests. The challenge is to assist lawyers in defining their own optimum career path and devising simple to implement methods to get there. Anything that’s hard to do, for a sustained period of time, will eventually lead to stress, frustration and abandonment of the goal or the work.

Our work in career building has taught us that "Happy Lawyer" is not an oxymoron. A well defined process coupled with gifted insight helps us help lawyers to become "A" Players, High Value Added, Hard to Replace, Best Lawyers.

©PeopleWealth April 1999