Curious Case of Lawyering…

It‟s a common nature of human which allows them to look for possibilities and opportunities to succeed in life. Every day people come up with new ideas and new approaches to implement in their day-to-day working and aim to accomplish their dreams. Lawyers too are not untouched with this very thought even though they may be doing quite good in their profession. Sitting back and giving a quick thought on what really made them choose the legal profession and how they want or wanted to see themselves after five or ten years, I think is a good way to start. Now a day, the legal industry is coming up with new practice areas and many other managerial levels and consulting opportunities. We can see the cases where solo practitioners are wearing the shoes of entrepreneurs and establishing their own boutique law firms and giving tough times to the established law firms. It is vital for lawyers to know „What‟, „Why‟, „How‟, they want to achieve the best, with all other crucial issues they face in their day-to-day life.

“A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.” – Mario Puzo

Why should they look for options to improve their working style?

What is in store for them if they do?

I am sure most of my lawyer friends who are reading this blog will agree that „WHY‟ indeed needs to be

addressed before any other questions. As lawyers today want to explore about their value added

assets with the skills of good lawyering and have vast knowledge and experience. When every now and

than a new regulation and updated technology is coming into existence. Lawyers too are eager to update

themselves and walk effortlessly with the new age of lawyering. Now, with a new thinking and approach

lawyers are changing their working style accordingly and using the modern age tools to perform their

best. Things have changed from desktop to palmtop, basic phone to smart phones, human efforts to

the use of internet and different software, local media to social media, physical office to virtual

office and many more. But questions which arise here are:

Lawyers are now looking for every possible option and using every bit of information and support to do

best for better “Client Satisfaction” and gain their client‟s trust and maintain a healthy working relation

with them. Every possible change and improvement a lawyer is implementing is towards bringing a

smile to the faces of his/her clients and keeping their trust alive, protect the non guilty, and

uphold the country and state law.

This look good, now the next step „HOW‟. Let me tell you a small incident:

I was astonished to see a group of kids all dressed and equipped in sport gears all set to enter in a

ground and kick the football as hard as they could. I was amazed, not because it was something unusual

but it was rare to see a group of children, (ten to twelve years) cheering and walking on the lane with

enthusiasm. Each one was talking about performing their best and to beat their opponent by large

margins. I could not resist myself and went to give them my best wishes. One of the players excitedly

informed me that they are going to play against junior high school boys and they are confident that they

will win this game. As they have monitored every action of their opponent closely and have done hard

work to plan a right strategy to face any difficult situation. With their optimistic approach, well planned

strategies and key points, I was convinced that they will win the match. I wondered how easy and

important is to learn from our day to day life and how much one can learn from these small kids. My mind

got blocked between two words „organized vs unorganized‟, optimist vs pessimist, „performing vs

result‟, „creeping vs to face‟. In today‟s competitive work culture whenever we think of performance we

always seek to get the best results. But sometimes forget to plan or actually work on the task flow and

end up losing our hope and vision to accomplish an easy looking task. So, to bring out our best, one

should proceed with the right mind set, deep and regular research and planned analytical approach. This

will help to plan „How’ effectively.

Whether a lawyer is representing a case/hearing or providing consultancy and/or doing a marketing

activity to promote his/her practice area or firm, he wants to create opportunities to serve the society and

live a better life. The days are gone when lawyering was only about representing the clients, providing

consultation and winning cases for them and when lawyer were working as per the word of mouth

strategy to reach their prospective clients. Today with the emergence of social media tools: LinkedIn,

Twitter, Face Book, Blogs/Articles, attending Events, Webinars and Seminars as a speaker etc

lawyers are branding themselves and attracting clients through these platform. With the emergence of

professional organisation like ABA, NYSBA, SRA, Law Society, IBA the approach and thinking of legal

fraternity has changed with the continuous practical training and rigorous improvement policies. Now,

everyday lawyers are coming up with a strong and more planned strategies with a clear thought which

helps them to improve their working style and thus upholds betterment of our society and indirectly helps

in keeping the trust of people in the state and country law.

Draft n Craft specializes in outsourcing of legal and paralegal services. We have provided more than a

handful of advanced solutions to various Solo Attorneys, General Counsels, Law Firms (Small to Mid

sized) in the U.K. and the U.S.A.; we take immense pleasure in serving all business needs, from the very

basic legal undertakings to the most complex and farthest orientations. Contact Us