The people who make the most money in law firms are not necessarily the smartest lawyers, or the most strategic lawyers, or even the highest billing lawyers. It’s the lawyers who bring in clients who rake in the largest slice of the profit pie. We call these people the “client lawyers.”
[Note from Murray: Many of my readers are younger professionals. They may not be crazy about the content of this article. In my defense, I can be a curmudgeon sometimes, but that does not necessarily invalidate my old-fashioned opinions!]
After much thought, I have concluded that young people should be more willing to put up with tyranny. Before the howls to cancel me for this outrageous statement start, let me clarify. I am not talking about physical, sexual, emotional, or even financial abuse. I am talking about that other stuff that we used to call ‘life,’ such as uncomfortable or inconvenient situations.
I think that lawyers should know who they are and what type of clients they want (and the answer is not “any client with a pulse.”)
Here is a great example from Maureen Mckay’s website (www.mckaylegal.com):
McKay Legal® has a select clientele.
You are the right type of client for McKay Legal® if you:
Back in the old days when law school cost very little and you could rent an apartment in Toronto for a reasonable amount, law firms hired newly qualified lawyers at modest salaries and gave them simple assignments. The firms also provided mentoring and training, so that the juniors could learn to do more challenging work. Firms neither made much money on the newbies, nor did they pay the newbies much. The pay-off came after a few years as the lawyers gained experience and could bill enough to earn their keep.
In my heyday of clients and billings, my largest client asked me to handle an outsourcing transaction. I would hazard a guess that had it been completed, it would have made quite a ripple in the business community.
A Bay Street firm was the client’s corporate counsel. The client may have been my biggest client, but we handled only a sliver of their legal work.
Aaron Baer sent me an invitation to speak at the Authentic Legal Professionals Summit. He said, and I quote, “I’m going to gamble and say that you’re able to speak about one of those (autism, ADHD, Tourettes, or other neurodivergences.)”
All of this was a bit of an eye-opener to me, because at 69 ¾ years old, I was unaware that I was neurodivergent, but it seemed to be a pretty safe bet for Aaron.
There is an old story about a young man who, after finally meeting the love of his life following years searching the globe for his one true soulmate, took his girlfriend’s hands in his own one starlit summer evening, stared deeply into her beautiful eyes, and whispered to her in a husky, excited voice: “since I met you, I can’t eat. I can’t drink. I can’t sleep… I’m completely broke.”
There were good things about the old days when law was primarily a profession, and lawyers joined law firms with a view to learning, working hard, and becoming partners. One of them was that law firms cared about their associates progressing, developing clients, and becoming self-sufficient.
There is no shortage of talk about the importance of lawyers delegating legal work to other lawyers and paralegals. Despite that, I have always believed that lawyers should not delegate work that they do not know how to do themselves. I questioned how anyone can check the quality of work done by their law clerks or associates if they do not know what a good job looks like.
Law firm marketing comes in two flavours.