Stepping up to the Plate

My friend Jeff is a partner at a Big Law firm.

Jeff secured a slot for his firm to present on recent developments in one of his practice areas at a bar event – a large seminar. Before the seminar, the firm doing the presentation is encouraged to blog about select topics to the bar membership.

Jeff put out an email (actually it ended up being more than one) looking for volunteers (especially associates) to help with the presentation and blogging.

They would not be anonymous helpers, by the way, rather, they could speak at the seminar and could get their names on the materials.

One associate volunteered.

HP tells how that worked out after the jump.


Jeff didn’t know the associate that well going into this, he had only worked with her a couple times on small matters but he had heard she was good.  All others were silent.  The associate who volunteered, Jeff knew, already had a ton on her plate. In fact, her hours – both billable and non-billable — were higher than all the other people who had not volunteered.  Clearly, others had more time than Jeff and his volunteer.

So, what happened?

Well, Jeff and the associate (we will call her Amy) spent a good chunk of a weekend preparing the materials for the seminar. Leading up to the seminar, they each took turns writing short blogs.  The seminar went off well.

Both Jeff and Amy spoke and had their names and photos featured on materials.  Each of them even received emails from participants later either thanking them or with some follow up questions.  The coordinator of the seminar indicated they were popular speakers and will be invited back.

Gang, you can see where I am going here.

Where were the other lawyers?

Lazy?

Unable to juggle?

Thinking they were too busy?

Thinking this was non-billable crap?

DUMB DUMB DUMB.

Amy played it smart.  Sure, she was inconvenienced, and yes, it was non-billable, BUT this somewhat taxing (though on a limited time basis) adventure earned her many things:

For one, the respect of Jeff, who will say great things about her to his other partners and give her a great evaluation especially regarding business development,  teamwork, and increasing her professional knowledge.  In this short time span, Amy has gained a ton of goodwill. She’s also gotten to know Jeff better, and he would certainly reach out to her in the future with billable work now that he sees how great she is to work with.

Two, knowledge. Amy is building her knowledge in the practice area and developing a particular expertise.

Three, reputation.  While the other associates went about their weekends or chatted in the lunch area together on Friday afternoon, Amy was augmenting her reputation in the bar by getting her name out there and having people hear her speak.

Four, networking. Amy interacted with people at the bar association who will come back to her and she interacted with in-house attorneys, government attorneys, and other law firm attorneys who participated in the event.  And, others will read her blog.

Five, maybe some protection. Jeff would most likely speak up if someone sought to ax Amy. Jeff would explain that she was the only associate who stepped up even when she was occupied on other matters more than anyone else.

Six maybe a pass on some other (more)? unpleasant assignment.  Amy might get a pass on some other non-billable matter because she put her time in here.

As you can see, my point is that especially in this law firm age, where no one has “tenure,” it is important to make yourself valuable in many different ways, to work with different people in the firm, to show you are committed and a team player, and to build your reputation and network.

For all we know, someone attending the seminar might think Amy is such a “catch” as an attorney they could reach out to her with a new, more attractive job offer.

You just never know.

One thing I do know is that saying NO or ignoring requests of these types do NOT advance your career.

You snooze, you lose.

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