THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM?©

Partners from firms of all sizes all over the country ask us the same question in different guises. How can lawyers improve their overall job satisfaction, hire and retain the legal talent they want, have a life and be happy, long term, practicing law? Is this the impossible dream?

"What can we do?" Joan asked us at dinner last month in Texas. "We're already working all the time. If we want to have a life of any kind ourselves, partners just can't spend more hours that could be billable on hand-holding associates."

"We want to be happier, too," Linda told us when we worked with her 300 lawyer California firm. "Sure, we want to hire and retain good associates, but we partners want to do something about our own job satisfaction as well. Is there something we can do that won't take up all of our time and will actually get results?"

In response to questions from clients, PeopleWealth has developed its acclaimed program Leading Lawyers: Profitability Through Job Satisfaction©. For your convenience, we've enclosed a description of the program with this issue of the newsletter.

In addition, PeopleWealth's expertise born of experience has identified several critical areas in which law firm partners can influence their own lives and allow others to assist the firm in its efforts to improve profitability by engaging all lawyers.

Good lawyers stay with good firms and remain productive throughout their careers for one reason: Because they have become and stayed fully engaged with the practice. Good firms know that engagement is the key to keeping lawyers and make the effort to engage them. Leading Lawyers: Confidential Career Advancement© allows firms to provide an environment that assists the lawyer in fitting his career goals with the firm's goals, especially when they are seeking increased job satisfaction, considering changing practice groups or the firm believes he may be considering a job change.

Begin by hiring the keepers. In all law firms, people equal wealth. Hiring long term and dedicated lawyers is one of three elements of every successful law firm. Leading Lawyers: Hiring the Keepers© provides your recruiting team with the skills to identify the right candidates, be the firm of choice for those candidates and package your message effectively to hire the "A" players.

Once you have hired the keepers, Leading Lawyers: Focus on Leadership© is designed to answer the "What can we do?" question. Each lawyer in your practice must be an effective leader. Because one major reason lawyers stay with your firm is whether and how much trust in leadership exists, the questions are: how effective a leader will each lawyer become? What kind of leaders will they be? How do you keep them as leaders in your firm?

Law firms can be excellent places to work and most have many resources to offer lawyers. Gen Xers are waiting for firm leaders to tell them and show them, on a voluntary and regular basis, what those reasons are. Leading Lawyers: The GenX Challenge© gives partners the tools to deal effectively with GenX issues without overloading the partners. This program stresses methods for encouraging GenXers to take personal responsibility for their own careers and remain at the firm.

Mentoring increases profitability and career satisfaction for both the mentor and the mentee. An effective mentoring relationship can relieve partners of the recurring problems of lack of qualified junior lawyers to work efficiently and cost effectively, relieve partners of the mind-numbing work that is below their level of ability and leave partners free to further develop professionally. Successful lawyers tell us that mentoring is one of the most personally and professionally rewarding activities of being a lawyer. Generation X, women and minority lawyers tell us that effective mentoring is essential to their professional growth. Leading Lawyers: 360 Mentoring© focuses on mentoring techniques to allow all lawyers to benefit from mentoring each other at your firm.

Successful law firms rely on lawyers who have developed strong career building skills. Many junior lawyers have little frame of reference for designing a legal career and experienced partners have little time to teach them. When recruiters call with what sounds like an enticing opportunity, lawyers will change jobs. Leading Lawyers: Career Building & Design© teaches lawyers how to build a satisfying career within your firm.

Living a happy, productive life as a lawyer for decades is not the impossible dream. It is, instead, achievable without a great deal of extra effort on the part of individual partners. Lawyers represent the top 1% of the U.S. population in education, earning potential, leadership ability and almost every other measure of success in American life. A successful law career is within the grasp of every lawyer.

PeopleWealth can assist your Professional Development staff on a regular or consulting basis to communicate effectively with lawyers and to help lawyers design and build successful careers. If you would like further information about PeopleWealth or our services, please contact our office, e-mail us: info@PeopleWealth.com

©PeopleWealth Winter 2001