Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC., Author at Lawyer-Coach

15 08, 2008

Listening to the Voices of Experience

2008-08-15T14:05:41+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Listening to the Voices of Experience

At Lawyer-Coach we get quite a number of calls and emails from attorneys starting a new law practice. Some are fresh out of law school. Some have been with a bigger firm, a corporation or the government. All appreciate the wisdom of lawyers who have been there before. Here’s an opportunity to hear from some small firm lawyers who are willing to share the benefit of their experience.

Getting advice from more experienced lawyers

Angela Nickel, a Seguin attorney who handles real estate and construction matters, including litigation, says. “Don’t be afraid to ask other lawyers for help….I developed relationships with other lawyers in town and simply asked for guidance, forms and the occasional game of devil’s advocate. Not only did I get the support I needed, but I developed some truly wonderful friendships. With 18 years under my belt now, I am eager to return the favor to other young lawyers in my community.”

Martha James, an immigration lawyer in Dallas, agrees, “it is imperative that you keep in touch with other attorneys regularly, either though organizations or one-on-one. Attorneys are a great source of referrals, advice and support.”

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15 07, 2008

To Improve Your Firm, Look in the Mirror

2008-07-15T13:22:11+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on To Improve Your Firm, Look in the Mirror

I attended a managing partner roundtable recently. In the course of the discussion I asked how many had ever used 360 degree feedback in their law firm. A couple of hands went up. One brave soul said, “What is 360 degree feedback?” Several nodded their heads or murmured that they were wondering that, too.

What Is 360 Degree Feedback?

360 degree feedback is a skills development tool which involves surveying the people above, below and around you to get their perceptions about your behavior and the impact of your behavior. The process may also be called multi-rater assessment, multi-source feedback or full circle appraisal.

It usually involves the supervising attorneys, practice group leader, and team or project leader, as well as colleagues, partners or peers within the firm who work with you or otherwise have ample opportunity to observe your behavior and your work product. The associates and staff who report to you or otherwise work with you also rate your behaviors and competencies, and feedback from clients might also be sought. The process usually seeks feedback on a confidential, anonymous basis.

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7 07, 2008

Implementing a 360 Degree Feedback Program

2008-07-07T13:12:30+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|2 Comments

Recently two different clients came to their coaching calls upset. They worked for very different organizations, but both had received the results of feedback surveys without any support or private debriefing session. Both were discouraged. They shared their reports with me and asked for help.

A Client That Saw the Glass Half Empty
One client’s report actually indicated a lot of improvement and some very good results in developing teamwork in his group. However, he focused in on the responses to questions that called for negative information, such as frustrations on the job.

He seemed to disregard the responses to the question “What is working well in your group?” He also failed to notice that when asked the neutral question “Is there anything else you would like to share?” quite a few respondents volunteered comments like “I love my job,” “This is a wonderful place to work,” and “They are doing a great job and it’s appreciated.”

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2 07, 2008

Which Marketing Book Can Help You?

2008-07-02T14:55:57+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Which Marketing Book Can Help You?

Many of my clients ask me to recommend books that can be good tools or reference materials for enhancing their law practice management skills. Today I’m sharing with you my reviews of three popular books that address business development for lawyers.

1. Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know by Mark M. Maraia. Maraia writes in an easy to read style, and gives numerous real life examples of how attorneys have successfully implemented the techniques he recommends. Those anecdotes shift the conceptual into the concrete, a real strength of the book.

Maraia’s book is ideal for attorneys who find marketing daunting, unpleasant or bothersome. He teaches the reader how to make marketing fun, or at least, in his words, “less torture.” He helps lawyers find ways to market their law practice while doing things they already like doing. He teaches them how to become more effective at the marketing techniques they have already attempted, and encourages them to stretch a little into some new activities.

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10 06, 2008

The Trouble with Email

2008-06-10T16:58:41+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on The Trouble with Email

“I send out this simple, straight-forward email, then I get all this negative reaction. I don’t get it.”

Misconstrued Emails

Lawyers and law firm administrators that I coach report this to me a lot. Emails are informal and easy to send quickly, so we often zip them off without rereading them to see how they might sound to the reader. The recipients of the email then supply the tone of voice, cadence and volume to it, which can dramatically affect the tenor of the message.

We send out something like “Don’t forget to sign up by Tuesday!” In our minds we hear the polite, encouraging voice of a flight attendant on the intercom reminding us to keep our seatbelts fastened during the flight. Our reader, however, hears the edgy voice of an eighth grade math teacher admonishing an unruly class. If there is any history of friction or conflict between sender and reader (as frequently happens with opposing counsel, subordinates who have been “counseled” or partners in competition for firm resources), the reader may hear the threatening bark of a drill sergeant.

Why is that? Most of us can’t type as fast as we can speak, so we tend toward brevity and directness in our emails. Brevity in conversation often comes across as curt, disinterested, rude or commanding, unless we soften it with a cheery or concerned tone. In email, the reader inserts the tone themselves, and they often don’t supply the most cordial tone.

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14 05, 2008

Achieving Balance from the Inside Out

2008-05-14T09:45:33+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|1 Comment

Lately I have received a rash of requests for coaching and speaking on the topic of attorney work/life balance. You can find some specific suggestions on that topic in my article titled Work/Life Balance: Are You Tottering on the Brink? first published on December 11, 2006 in The Practice Manager.

Clients as Mirrors
Coaches remark that their clients often bring to them the very challenges that the coaches themselves need to address. What a blessing! It is so much easier to see the options available to someone else. Then we can just listen to the ideas and observations we offer our clients, and apply them to our own lives.

I have been struggling to keep my own workload in balance. In my practice I see attorneys reluctant to ask for help. I see them postpone the investment in hiring the additional quality assistance they need. I see lawyers hold themselves to an impossible standard. I see lawyers say “yes” to too many commitments. I see them promise a document delivery at the earliest date possible, without finding out when the client really needs it, or without assessing how much time they need to meet their existing commitments. I see attorneys spend time on low priority squeaky wheels and distractions, instead of protecting their time for more important projects. I warn them to “put your own oxygen mask on first” as I watch them put the needs of family and clients ahead of their own, once again. At one time or another I do all the same things.

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21 04, 2008

Clues You Can Use to Soothe Clashes

2008-04-21T15:47:31+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Clues You Can Use to Soothe Clashes

We all have someone we have to deal with who is somehow blocking us from getting what we want. It may be opposing counsel, but it may just as likely be our own partner or a staff member who isn’t performing to our expectations. In those situations our frustration levels mount, and some of us sneer or explode. We go from dealing with a difficult person to being a difficult person.

Many such problems can be solved or prevented if we can improve our communication skills. Here are some “clues you can use” to improve your communication and reduce the conflict in your office.

1. Deal with annoyances while they are small.

This concept particularly applies to people we interact with frequently. Sometimes someone does something that annoys us, inconveniences us or hurts us, but because it is a small matter, we think it would be too petty to bring up. By the time it (or something like it) happens the tenth time, we have a big stack of grievances to address, and our emotions run high. We appear to react out of proportion to the incident, but actually we are reacting to ten incidents. Ambrose Bierce, an American author and newspaper columnist, said, “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.” If we simply address the issue the first or second time it occurs, we usually can discuss it calmly, casually and without a lot of emotional investment.

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10 04, 2008

Does Lawyer-Speak Create Workplace Dysfunction?

2008-04-10T16:15:22+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Does Lawyer-Speak Create Workplace Dysfunction?

Dan told the group what he thought was the appropriate course of action to take. No one voiced any opposition, so he took steps to set the plan into motion. Later he was surprised to get feedback that Karen thought he was controlling and railroaded the group into doing things his way. Dan felt dumbfounded and frustrated. If Karen had another idea, why didn’t she speak up in the first place?

Have you ever been in Dan’s shoes? Or do you identify with Karen’s perspective, acquiescing to someone else’s way of doing things when you don’t really want to? The problem may be as much a matter of conversational styles as substantive disagreement, according to Deborah Tannen, Ph.D., bestselling author and linguistics professor at Georgetown University.

In her book Talking from 9 to 5: How Women’s and Men’s Conversational Styles Affect Who Gets Heard, Who Gets Credit, and What Gets Done at Work, Tannen points out that many people expect ideas to be explored through verbal opposition. “When presenting their own ideas, they state them in the most certain and absolute form they can and wait to see if they are challenged,” says Tannen. “Their thinking is that if there are weaknesses, someone will point them out, and by trying to argue against those objections they will find out how their ideas hold up.”

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14 03, 2008

Learning from Our Mistakes

2008-03-14T11:16:53+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Learning from Our Mistakes

A wise person said, “A mistake is not a mistake unless you fail to learn from it.” I made my share of mistakes in my legal career, and here are a few I learned from. I thought I would offer you the chance to learn from some of mine, instead of making them all yourself.

1. Viewing speaking and writing as non-billable time. It is true that we usually can’t bill anyone for those activities or the preparation time required. When I looked at it that way, however, I tended to de-value the activity, and put it behind everything else. Of course, that means I didn’t get around to developing talks or writing articles that would showcase my expertise and expose me to new contacts. The wiser course would have been to view those efforts as important business development activities, so that I would give them the appropriate emphasis.

2. Focusing on prospective clients and not on prospective referral sources. As a corollary to the first law practice management mistake described above, I didn’t take advantage of opportunities to speak to audiences full of referral sources. At a time when I represented small businesses, the managing partner of the regional office of a large national insurance company asked me to give a talk to their sales stars about shareholder agreements in closely held organizations. I never got around to it. I saw it as a favor to them and I didn’t recognize that they would be highly motivated to act like my free sales force convincing business owners that they needed shareholder agreements backed by key-leader life insurance. I didn’t recognize the opportunity, even though I had seen how an initial small project could develop into a significant long-term client. When those life insurance clients didn’t like their existing counsel, or needed a referral for other reasons, I would have […]

10 03, 2008

Speech Recognition Software May Be Worth the Price Now

2019-02-10T23:15:55+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Speech Recognition Software May Be Worth the Price Now

Speech recognition software seemed like a pipe dream for many veteran lawyers who never really learned to type. Many tried it a few years ago and found it a disappointing experience. Today, however, the technology has improved enough that even today’s law students (who probably learned to use a keyboard before they learned to ride a tricycle) are finding it valuable to use. To see how it works in a legal application, check out Robin Hood’s video on YouTube. Robin is a law student who created a video demo of using Dragon’s Naturally Speaking voice recognition software.

Before you race off to buy the software, however, you should make sure your computer has adequate processing speed and RAM. Check out the Amazon.com reviews of the software to see what real users say you need. As you know, the minimums stated on the software box rarely suffice for getting the results you are looking for. If you are interested in the software because you are such a Luddite that you need help with mere typing, you might want to get some help with the initial installation of the software and with training it to recognize your accent.

I haven’t personally tried the more current version of this software, so I can’t give you my opinion. I thought some small firm lawyers might be interested in watching the above video to see how the progam works for someone other than a salesperson. You can watch the sales video, too, which demonstrates how the software can type as fast as you speak. If you don’t want to invest in the expense of additional administrative personnel, or can’t find quality help in a small town, this software might be a bandaid for you. With a price tag of under $100, it is probably worth the price to save a little […]

About Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.

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Setting goals for
your life and career?

About Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.

Make an Appointment

Setting goals for your life and career?

Setting goals for
your life and career?