Volvo is, of course, the car to have if you truly care about safety.  But Mercedes means you have style and deserve luxury, and BMW means you’re oh so exacting about the machinery you drive.

Progressive Insurance is the one that provides warm, friendly help (from Flo) while AllState is the reliable authoritative father figure of insurance (Dennis Haysbert) and GEICO is the cute insurance (gecko).

So, what’s your brand as a lawyer?  Why would a consumer choose to engage your services rather that someone else’s?

These are among the questions and issues to be faced by solo and small firm practitioners in the upcoming group “Your Law Firm is Your Business: Managing Your Solo Practice.”  It’s a free 6-session series starting soon – click here for more info!

When Ray Stevens’ so-titled hit was playing in 1968, offering its biting commentary on the plight of the business person, you never thought it applied to you.  Well, to be more accurate, most of you had not yet been born, but I remember it well.  Anyhow, when you were immersed in your law school curriculum, motivated perhaps by a love of the law, or a desire to do good, or to be a professional without having to take organic chemistry, you may never have pictured yourself worrying about budgeting, marketing, branding (unless you planned to represent ranchers), or networking.

But now you find yourself in a solo or small firm practice, and you discover that mere legal excellence, work ethic, and good intentions do not bring in the clients or pay the bills, at least not to the extent you would like.  With or without reluctance, you must face the fact that the lawyer who runs a present-day practice is running a business.  What’s a person to do?

Funny you should ask.  The same LOMAP-LCL partnership that brought the recent “Getting Things Done” group series to interested solo and small firm practitioners is now gearing up to present, Your Law Firm is Your Business:  Managing Your Solo Practice.  Like the previous series, this one will consist of 6 sessions meeting every other Friday at lunch time (12:30 pm to 2:00 pm), starting (beware) on March 15.  For more information, click here.

Jeff Fortgang, PhD

Getting the Job (of Finding a Job) Done (Part 6)

How refreshing it is to hear someone hit a hopeful note, especially at this time of year. At our 6th session of the Managing Your Work Search series, guest speaker Jim Toms, HR Director at Sullivan & Worcester, offered some welcome encouragement in the form of growing legal job opportunities. A survey of the various job posting sites suggested that there were currently 1500 legal job openings in Massachusetts. Although a quick review could not easily assign percentages to full-time vs. part-time, professional vs. paraprofessional, public vs. private, or identify legal specialty, the number was nevertheless heartening. In fielding questions put to him by participants seeking advice in the search and the interview process, Mr. Toms underscored the universal theme of the importance of networking in the job search process. “Simply submitting a resume and cover letter will never get you on the interview list,” said Mr. Toms. He encouraged participants to take advantage of the fact that most people are more than willing to meet you for coffee or lunch for an informational interview, and to follow up with periodic updates to keep yourself fresh in their minds. You just never know where you might find the winning lead, right combination of contacts, or tip of the scales in your favor, but probabilities serve the active networker. Beyond making and maintaining contacts, networking helps jobseekers to clarify their objectives, hone their interview skills, increase their knowledge of the current job market, and in general, become more interesting candidates.
Nancy L Brown, LICSW

Understatement: involuntary unemployment can cast a pall over things. Even if a sense of relief accompanied the loss of a job that had felt like a daily root canal, confronting a dried up revenue stream and a wilted economy is no walk in the park either. The bills find your mailbox, the refrigerator needs reloading, and the hard work of job-hunting is not cost-free. It is a time when one’s sense of control over one’s life takes a major hit; if you don’t at times feel really stressed, check your pulse.
When caught in the throes of high-stress, high-anxiety events such as unemployment, our thoughts can become our enemies; fear, self-doubt, worry, despair, and anger can get the upper hand. Although it’s necessary to embrace the realities of one’s situation, managing one’s thoughts to stay positive and proactive becomes essential. Hence, the relevance of the fourth meeting of the Managing Your Work Search series: Mental Self-management, or how to make that reciprocal relationship between thought and emotional state work for you, and not against you.
As anyone who’s tried to keep their thoughts on a positive track during hard times can tell you, it’s not easy; mental patterns are as resistant to change as any other habit, but staying positive keeps the energy and creative juices flowing. It can and is being done by increasing numbers of people through the practice of mindfulness meditation, one of the most effective ways to take charge of your mind. The field of mindfulness has gained great traction of late, its benefits extensively researched, measured and documented by neuroscientific, medical, and psychiatric researchers, with books abounding on the subject.
Given the many emotional (reduces symptoms of depression, anxiety, enhances well-being and calmness), mental (improves memory, mental clarity, productivity, decision-making, perspective, creativity, intuition, insight), and physical (strengthens the immune system, reduces blood pressure, may help reduce cholesterol) benefits, it is no wonder that the use of mindfulness is promoted in medicine, mental health, the professions (e.g., Google “mindfulness and lawyers”), business, education, the military, and even corrections.
Mindfulness is a very simple (but not easy) practice of intentional mental and physical stillness that will begin to produce these self-reinforcing benefits within the first week of daily practice. And you will likely find that it supports other valuable disciplines of self-care, e.g., good nutrition, adequate exercise, volunteer work, social contacts, and the enjoyment of nature, music or other favorite leisure activities.
It’s hard to argue with any activity that offers so many payoffs, although some take issue with its “religious” origins. Various forms of contemplation and meditation did, in fact, originate in the context of religious practice. While it is not religious, per se, it is spiritual in that it offers personal foundational support (Talbot & Love call it spiritual development) that involves:
(1) an internal process of seeking personal authenticity, genuineness, and wholeness as an aspect of identity development;
(2) the process of continually transcending one’s current locus of centricity;
(3) developing a greater connectedness to self and others through relationships and union with community;
(4) deriving meaning, purpose, and direction in one’s life;
(5) an increasing openness to exploring a relationship with an intangible and pervasive power or essence that exists beyond human knowing. (See Talbot & Love, Defining Spiritual Development, 1999, NASPA Journal, pp. 364-367.)
The use of mindfulness meditation helps you remember that your life doesn’t end when the paychecks stop. It changes. And when you roll with it, staying mentally strong, committed, positive, and determined, you will ultimately create the best possible outcome.
Nancy Brown, LICSW

Getting the Job (of finding a job) Done (Part 3)

Our most recent speaker, Phil Segaloff, Esq. at the LCL, Inc./MBA “Managing Your Work Search”, session three, held the group in rapt attention as he spoke about how to successfully network during your job search to not only find job opportunities, but also to become more aware of one’s skills and desires, and thus target appropriate employment opportunities.
The most important job hunting activity, by far, is networking – or to spin it more elegantly, “strategic outreach.” This is one of those activities that powerfully evoke the urge to procrastinate. Drawing from his own experience when a lay-off landed him “between jobs” nearly 4 years ago, Phil Segaloff, Esq., now happily employed in-house as an Associate General Counsel, could identify with the struggle to leave a comfy warm house in the depths of winter to meet a total stranger for an “informational interview.” And he could speak to the angst of those initial meetings where he felt anxious, awkward, and inarticulate.
In the course of those countless interviews, however, he became increasingly clear about what he wanted, what he had to offer, and how he would be of value to a prospective employer. He quickly improved his interactive skills to the point that he actually enjoyed those encounters, all the while, acquiring new information, building his professional network, clarifying the area of legal interest he would pursue, and preparing himself to speak knowledgeably, cogently, and confidently at interview time.
Familiar as he was with that understandable fear of “imposing” on a busy lawyer when requesting an interview, he urged group members to recall that most folks are gratified by the opportunity to help another person, enjoy the chance to talk about themselves and their experience, and usually welcome that time-out for a coffee break that you are offering them.
In order to capitalize on the contacts he made, Phil mastered the art and science of recording (on Excel) and tracking everyone he met, noting the date of each contact, company/firm, position, contact information, additional networking contacts offered by that person, and useful personal data. By doing so, he followed up at reasonable intervals, updating that individual on his recent activities, and again expressing his appreciation for their interest.
No, it didn’t happen overnight. It was an on-going one-foot-in-front-of-the-other effort. Not everyone will find, as Phil did, the ultimate payoff of a “perfect fit” job that was conveniently situated at the end of a painless 10-minute commute, but it is certainly reasonable to hope for a position that is a distinct improvement over the status quo.
(If you are interested in participating in the next Managing Your Work Search series, please watch at this site or at www.MassBar.org for start date and registration information.)
Nancy L. Brown, LICSW

How do you increase the chances that the resume you submit will end up in the “interview” pile?  That was the topic of session 2 of the LCL/MBA-sponsored seminar series, Managing Your Work Search.  Mandie LeBeau, Esq., Director of Career Services of New England Law/Boston gave excellent resume and cover letter tips for job seekers.  Bearing in mind that your resume delivers that powerful “first impression” to the prospective employer, among her many suggestions,  beginning with the most basic, but often overlooked at your peril are:  1) Be sure spelling, grammar, syntax, and construction is perfect.  An error says you’re careless and may result in automatic discard.  2) Be totally honest.  Fact-checking is increasingly routine in the screening process.  3) Be concise; your resume will likely get only a 30-45 second glance, so your selling points should be quickly identifiable.  Limit length to 1 page for 5 or fewer years of post-law school experience, and not more than 2 pages for more than 5 years.  4) Be conservative in font (Times New Roman), format (bullets), and paper (plain & ivory).  5) Write a one-page cover letter (in the same font and paper) specific to each job to which you apply, which addresses the employer’s needs, what you can do for them, the relevant skills you possess, and reasons for your interest in being part of their organization.  6)  Create an additional page (consistent paper and font) with a minimum of 3 references (with names, titles, company, and contact info) who have agreed in advance to serve as your reference.

These tips are the bare bones of a much more detailed and to-the-point package of information provided by Ms. LeBeau.

If you are interested in participating in the next Managing Your Work Search series, please watch at this site or the MBA site for start date and registration information.

Is there anyone out there who enjoys looking for a job? Anyone who doesn’t feel a bit alone, or overwhelmed by it? If you answered yes, we know you’re trying to put a brave face on it. But if you’re a lawyer seeking employment, you may be interested in knowing that you don’t have to go it alone. LCL and the MBA have teamed up to offer an instructive and supportive program to help you manage your work search and avoid succumbing to the ego-deflating blows it can sometimes deliver. Tricia Hennessey, JD, of the Hennessey Consulting Group, was guest speaker at the 1st session of this 8-session series begun on September 5th at MBA Headquarters. She got the group off to a good start by posing questions participants need to be able to answer with clarity, for their own sake as well to be comfortably prepared for “the interview.” Questions pertaining to experience, skills, preferences, sources of inspiration – all of which add up to the self-knowledge that provides a good foundation upon which to build (or continue) a career. Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first 4 hours sharpening the ax.” Dwelling on these questions, using tools such as the Myers-Briggs Inventory (you can Google it) helps you sharpen the ax by providing clarity, purpose, direction, and ultimately confidence as you seek your next niche in the market place. More than just information, though, this series requires accountability, so participants commit themselves every week to the accomplishment of achievable goals, for report back at the next session. That incentive, plus the exchange of experience, information, tips, contacts, and resources is synergistic and helps keep the momentum going!

(We regret to say that this series is now closed to new participants, but will be offered again in the spring. For more information, www.lclma.org, or www.MBA.org )