IndyBar: A Collaborative Column: Has Practicing Law Really Changed?

A. Scott Chinn, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, IndyBar Masters Division Chair; Monica McCoskey, Paganelli Law Group, IndyBar Young Lawyers Division Chair

This is a joint column co-written monthly by the Chairs of the Masters Division and Young Lawyers Division to compare, contrast, and relate practicing law 25+ years ago to practicing law today. Each column will examine a new general subject.

Business Development Success Isn’t Magic

If there were ever a context to apply the adage that “no one size fits all” it is in judging the manner in which lawyers become successful at business development. A common trope is that some people have it, and some people do not. Wrong.

It is probably true that some people are natural business developers. And it is probably true that some people will never experience success at it. But like most things, the most important analysis is for the 80 percent of us in the middle – people who have potential to enjoy success building a law practice but need to work hard and get help to do so.

Amid the factors that make up the hard work are things like setting goals, spending adequate time on planning and execution, being candid about the challenges, and being patient and resilient when successes do not come immediately. And the help component includes, as in other facets of professional development, mentorship and generosity, with an underlying recognition that luck has a role in the play.

But most apt to the theme of this recurring column, how can senior lawyers and junior lawyers collaborate to improve the chances of business development success? Here are seven things to think about.

Seeing it leads to doing it. Senior lawyers should model the behavior that leads to effective client relationships and business development strategies. This should include demonstrating the patience and resilience that is required over the long term.

Allowing client contact. Junior lawyers of course benefit from meaningful client contact – and a progression of responsibility – as soon as reasonably possible. And just as you are better after the tenth motion you argue than your first, more experiences with more clients builds the necessary insights about their diverse interests and approaches.

Including junior lawyer in the business details. It is helpful that junior lawyers learn about the metrics that can or should influence what makes a particular business development approach worthwhile. Within reason, the firm and senior lawyers should be disclosive about profit and loss, how rates are set and realized, and the details of marketing and client-related spending. It should not go unremarked that for most people, focus on these financial issues is like eating vegetables – but, after all, vegetables make your business development plan strong.

Allowing and encouraging time for networking. All discovery response drafting and no people seeing make Jack and Jill associates dull people. It should be acceptable and encouraged for junior lawyers to get out of the office to participate in networking without feeling guilty. Senior lawyers can support differential approaches to outreach and organizational involvement for junior lawyers, including, encouraging junior lawyers to get involved in local bar associations and other professional legal organizations.

Budget for client development. Oh, and when senior lawyers are encouraging junior lawyers’ networking efforts, they might want to slip them a little spending money – so to speak.

Specialization… sort of. To the extent reasonably possible, junior lawyers should be encouraged to focus on clients and areas of law that excite and stimulate them. Sure, there are market, practice type, and positional limitations on this reality. But we are all better at the things we want to do or are excited about, so discussions about how best to be intentional in carving out practice niche can mean a lot.

Practice succession. It does not have to be all built from scratch. Whether and how to include a junior lawyer in plans for taking over all or part of a practice in the long term is something that might be appropriate.•

Scott Chinn is a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP where he represents public and private clients in state, municipal, and public sector legal matters. He provides advisory, transactional, and general counsel representation for public finance, procurement, regulatory, infrastructure, environmental, and economic development matters. Prior to joining the firm, he served as counsel to Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and as Corporation Counsel to the City of Indianapolis. Chinn currently serves as the Chair of the Masters Division, is a member of the IndyBar Board of Directors, and is a past president. Chinn is also a Distinguished and Life Fellow of the IndyBar Foundation. He earned his B.A. from Indiana University and his J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Monica McCoskey is an attorney with Paganelli Law Group where her practice concentrates on business and real estate litigation. Prior to joining Paganelli Law Group, McCoskey was an associate attorney with a law firm in Northern Indiana, where she practiced securities litigation and represented plaintiffs and defendants in various legal matters. She is the Chair of the Young Lawyers Division, a member of the IndyBar Board of Directors, and Co-Chair of the Social Subcommittee for the Litigation Section’s Executive Committee. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.