For a long time, I have been thinking about bringing more mindfulness into my life. For the past 6 months, I have actually been practicing mediation on a daily basis. The benefits of mediation are well documented (reduced stress, increased focus, better overall health, and even better performance at work).
For attorneys who have stressful jobs (which defines many attorneys), mindfulness can be a particularly useful technique to calm the nerves and do better work for your clients.
After a brief summer hiatus, Counsel to Counsel is back! In my latest episode, I speak with Jon Klavens of Klavens Law Group about how he has built a mission driven law practice. Jon is a fellow alum of Northeastern University School of Law. Like many NUSL students, Jon came to the school with a strong interest in the public interest. After a prestigious clerkship and a long stint at the Boston firm Goodwin Procter, Jon decided he wanted to have more impact on the world. He didn’t want to work for a non-profit so he found a way to serve the public good by representing companies involved in clean energy, clean technology, resource recovery, sustainable agriculture and food ventures, and social enterprise. You can hear the episode wherever you get your podcasts. Stay tuned for many other interesting interviews throughout the Fall.
I joined Provisors less than 2 months ago and I’m already convinced that it will be the best thing I’ve ever done professionally.
Provisors, for the uninitiated, is a business networking group that brings together a broad mix of professional service providers who are looking to share business resources and referrals. The organization is a particularly fertile referral ground for lawyers and accountants.
Is your legal career like a canoe ride across a lake or like a whitewater rafting trip? In my latest podcast, I speak with Jose Sierra a partner at Holland and Knight who has done it all (Clerked in 5th Circuit, served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, served as senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer for two pharmaceutical companies, and worked at small, mid-sized and large law firms).
Read moreIs Your Career Like a Canoe Trip or Whitewater Rafting?
Like most people who share content on LinkedIn, whenever I post something, I start to focus on how many views the post has had. It is a fun way to see if my messaging is having any impact and in a small way, it is a measurement of whether my marketing is working. I do the same when I send out newsletters.
Anyone who posts on Facebook or Instagram knows the feeling. You get a little rush of dopamine when you see the “likes” adding up. But focusing on the quantity of views on LinkedIn may not be a very good measure of how much impact you are having with your target audience.
Read moreWith LinkedIn, Measure Quality of Engagement not Quantity
I joined ProVisors today and I’m really looking forward to getting to know the members of my home group, Cambridge I. ProVisors is a business networking organization that provides a great platform for building your network. There are a lot of lawyers who are members and I can already see how valuable it is going to be.
I recently listened to a great episode of my favorite podcast, Stay Tuned With Preet (see May 16-D.C. Dramas & Advising Obamas). Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge fan of Preet Bharara, a rational voice who provides insightful commentary on the law, politics and the Trump administration.
In this episode, Preet interviews Valerie Jarrett a former senior advisor to President Obama. She has just released a memoir called Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward and she is on the book tour. While she spoke a lot about Chicago politics, Barack Obama’s rise and her own career from biglaw to public service, a lot of what she had to say is relevant to legal marketing. Here are some of my takeaways from the interview:
In my latest podcast, I interview Deb Scaringi about ways to increase your effectiveness at networking functions. Click here to listen or find Counsel to Counsel on your favorite podcast app.
See show notes for lots of business development resources.
Read moreStarting Business Conversations at Networking Functions and Beyond
Thanks to my colleague Amy Levine for her valuable input and wisdom which helped in drafting this post.
It continues to be a strong labor market and the war for legal talent remains fierce in some circles. Good candidates have options and great candidates are not staying on the job market for very long.
For many lawyers, travel is something to do for a business trip or on vacation. But for Robert Finkel, travel was a way for his family to live abroad and experience a new culture. For two years, Bob lived in Israel with his wife and three children while continuing to work for his law firm in Boston. In my latest podcast, Bob tells his story and discusses how he leveraged his expertise in tax to make this adventure become a reality.