Alan Nochumson, chair of the YLD, will outline his plans for 2007 at the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at the Doubletree Hotel. Phil Martelli, head men's basketball coach at St. Joseph's University, will be the keynote speaker. Read more...
Oscar-winning actor and social activist Richard Dreyfuss will be the keynote speaker at the Association's Monday, March 26 Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue.
Immediate-Past Chancellor Alan M. Feldman will be honored at the event. Feldman will be presented with a snuff box, an exact replica of the one presented to Andrew Hamilton for his defense of John Peter Zenger in 1735. The box is presented annually to the immediate-past Chancellor and is inscribed with the message, "Acquired not by money, but by character."
Tickets are $50 for Bar Association members and can be purchased online.
The John S. Bradway Philadelphia High School Mock Trial Competition, which is run by Temple University Beasley School of Law and the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association, is seeking volunteers to serve as judges for the second, third and fourth rounds of this year's competition.
There is still time to volunteer for this important event. Go to the Young Lawyers Division page on the Bar Association's Web site to fill out the volunteer form.
If you have any questions, contact Eleanora.Jones@Temple.edu or Roberta.West@Temple.edu or call 215-204-1887.
In this week's column, Lisa Goldstein explains how to update your business development practices to keep up with the changing times. Read more...
U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Rufe will be among the panelists for the Women in the Profession Committee program "Judicial Tips for Effective Advocacy" at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
Click here to RSVP for the program.
Sponsored by Trial Graphix.
No RSVP required.
Alan Nochumson, chair of the Young Lawyers Division, will outline his plans for 2007 at the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at the Doubletree Hotel. Phil Martelli, head men's basketball coach at St. Joseph's University, will be the keynote speaker.
Now in his 11th season as head coach for the Hawks, Martelli won numerous national coach of the year honors in 2004 when his team went 30-2 and reached the NCAA tournament quarterfinals. He spent a decade as an assistant coach with the Hawks before being named head coach.
Martelli is also a leader in the Philadelphia chapter of Coaches Vs. Cancer. He recently received the Citizen of the Year award by the March of Dimes and was honored by the National Adoption Center.
Also at the meeting, the YLD will present the Craig M. Perry Service Award, the YLD Vision Award and the F. Sean Peretta Service Award.
The event begins at 12 p.m. Tickets are $35. Click here to register for this event.
Business has only two basic functions-marketing and innovation. -Peter Drucker
A few years ago, I attended a women lawyers' conference and the topic of rainmaking arose. One of the young women volunteered her rainmaking strategy. She had several friends in the business world. She was going to wait a decade or so until her friends were in a position to hire her. The group thought her plan was promising. After all, isn't that how our senior partners developed business?
Forty years ago, when your senior partners were building their practices, the "Old Boys Club" business development model worked fabulously. There were a little more than 4,000 lawyers in Philadelphia. Lawyers tended to be generalists, working in one location. Forty years ago, if your friend owned a business, the chances are he would be a good client for your firm.
Currently, there are more than 14,000 lawyers in Philadelphia. A multifaceted world has led to complex laws necessitating law practice specialization and multi jurisdictional law firms. The chance that your friends are currently situated in positions where they are the decision makers at the type of client that makes sense for your law firm are slim. Even if you wait ten years for your friends to grow into those positions, the odds are, they still won't be in the right position to hire you.
In order to be a successful rainmaker, instead of looking at where your friends are today, you need to identify where your clients are today. Your business development efforts should be focused on building relationships within their networks.
How on earth are you going to do that? Make a list of your departments' clients. Add to that list all of the clients with whom you would like to work. Find out the trade associations or organizations to which these individuals belong. Next, attend their meetings.
However, you can't just attend a meeting once and expect to develop relationships. You need to join groups with the purpose of taking on an active role within the organization. As you become involved, not only will you develop more relationships, but you will get to know your clients better and understand their business challenges.
One thing does still ring true about the "Old Boys Club" model. The model only worked if once you developed a relationship, you cherished it. The relationships were mutually beneficial. You referred someone business and they would refer you business back. As you start to grow your business, keep those principals in mind. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Do you think gender plays a role in the sales process? Weigh in at surveymonkey.com.
