legal sanity

In this post, Larry Bodine offers a “scientific” answer to a key question: Should law firms spend time and money trying to teach business development skills to lawyers who “don’t do any business development”? The proffered answer, by way of organizational psychologist Neil T. Witmer, is “No.” According to Witmer, some lawyers simply “lack the essential personality elements [read – drive and confidence] to develop new business.” Absent their innate draw to rainmaking, it’s better to leave these practitioners "in the library or their offices, where they belong. No amount of coaching, training or individual business planning will ever work for them.” If your mouth is agape with a big “wow,” here’s a fine rebuttal from Gerry Riskin of Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Challenging Witmer’s understanding “of lawyers, law firms or the legal profession,” Riskin opines that encouragement and training can work wonders for many reluctant rainmakers. To this end, he states: “Almost all lawyers [ ] can be trained to dramatically improve their client-relations skills from Meeting Prospective Clients, Managing Client Expectations to Dealing with Complaints and Getting more Referrals (and much more).” The commentary rounds out with a Bodine/Witmer reply to Riskin and this thoughtful input from The Greatest American Lawyer blog. I’ve always looked at business development skills as synonymous with relationship-building skills. Networking is, in essence, about genuinely connecting with other people to foster valuable personal and professional relationships. It can be done anytime and anywhere we encounter other human beings. I think this message, and the skill set needed to apply it in the world, is something that all lawyers would benefit from learning on the firm's dime. Even if the firm's investment does not translate into new business via every lawyer taught, there’s still a significant ROI in terms of a decided boost in the lawyer's ability to relate to others in the firm and beyond.