Top Five Tips For Having A Fun Legal Career

I’m going to start off with a statement that will shock many attorneys: WORK SHOULD BE FUN. Given the number of lawyers born with Type A personalities, many of us begin our careers believing that the practice of law should be hard, and that the harder it is, the “better” we are doing. While hard work is certainly one of the hallmarks of a successful career, the truth is that when you are in the right job and work environment, work is and should be fun.

Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years about making the practice of law both enjoyable and fulfilling:

• Have a positive attitude. People who rise to the top of an organization almost always have great attitudes (and perhaps equally important, in difficult times, are often the last to go). While this might sound trite, the truth is that people like working with people who have a “can do” attitude, who smile and who generally seem to like what they do. The best way to get experience is to take on a broad range of projects so you can both gain skills and figure out what you like to do and what you are good at (more on that later). The best way to keep getting picked for great teams and projects is to be someone with whom others want to work. That means expressing enthusiasm for what you do, for learning new things and for helping others around you.  

• Be a team player. While this often goes hand in hand with having a positive attitude, being a team player is a really important part of having a successful and enjoyable career. For starters, working on a team is usually more fun. It is also a great way to learn as you have people off of whom to bounce ideas and to observe how they tackle issues. Lastly, the more people know they can count on you, the more you will become a “go to” person, making you more valuable and more likely to receive the kind of assignments you want to have. 

• Work with people you like. If you have the attributes described above, chances are you will have increasing opportunities to work with people you genuinely enjoy. The people with whom you like to work will choose you for their teams, and the clients you most enjoy will ask for you on their projects. While of course it is important to learn to work well with people you might not adore (particularly early in your career), one of the most fun parts of becoming a more senior attorney is being able to select the kinds of colleagues and clients with whom you want to work. One of the real indicators of a truly successful career is: when your phone rings or you receive a message in your inbox, do you look forward to picking it up or opening it? No matter how much money you make, if the answer to this question is not most often a resounding “yes!” you need to make some changes. Having fun engaging colleagues and clients is the ultimate reward for your hard work. 

• Seek out mentors. Mentors come in many shapes and sizes, and most likely there isn’t going to be only one person who can help you grow as a professional. Look for senior attorneys who have specific skills you want to gain, as well as those who are willing to take the time to teach you. Identify people who can help you hone your technical skills, who can teach you how to be a successful rainmaker, and who can help you navigate the internal and external politics of your organization. These skills probably won’t all be found in the same person, so develop strong relationships with several people who can teach you the skills you need to continue to grow as a professional. 

• Figure out what you are naturally good at. If work is consistently hard for you, you are either in the wrong firm, the wrong career, or both. Take a step back and identify the things at which you are naturally good. Are you a great negotiator? Writer? Adviser? Structurer? Project manager? With what kinds of issues or problems do your colleagues repeatedly come to you? How about your friends? By identifying the skills that are not hard work for you, you can start to differentiate yourself, and build a career from the things at which you naturally excel. This will be both a lot more fun and a lot more rewarding than working hard every day.

Beth Anisman is the CEO of B&Co., a NYC based consultancy and an executive advisor to NexFirm.  She can be reached at banisman@bandcollc.com.

Getting the Word Out

Courtesy of Guest Blogger Adele Lemlek

How do you promote yourself? Your firm?  When you are looking for new business and expanding your practice, what do you do? You promote your brand. Individuals have a brand just like corporations. Like a corporate brand it is a promise of deliverability of an experience or service or product. In this case that service or product is you.

How do you know what your brand is? Take an inventory of your skills and accomplishments and past work history. Are you an incredible negotiator? Do you get the deal done? A great mediator? Determine what your reputation is. If you are not sure, ask co-workers or your clients how they perceive you. Are you the go-to person? Are you the hard working creative problem solver? If others perceive you differently from what you want your brand to be, don’t despair. You just need to re-brand yourself as so many companies have had to do.

For many companies and people your brand evolves over time as markets change and people mature. There are many things you can do to reinforce your brand and expand it.

Social Media Sites

Use these strategically and make sure they reflect your brand. Promote yourself accordingly.  You can post material and articles and participate in discussion groups.  Make sure you provide meaningful information. Always express yourself professionally -- don't write anything that you don't want anyone to see or would regret later. Remember, there can be repercussions. If you have a picture of yourself, ask what it says about you.  Does it represent you in a professional manner?

Online Presence

Write thoughtful blogs or participate in forums where you can demonstrate your knowledge or "out of the box" thinking. Write an article and publish it on your blog.

At Work, At Social Functions

How you behave and carry yourself at work will impact your brand just as how you behave socially will.  Attend conferences and workshops. If there is a social component to these, attend them as well. It is a great place to make connections. Don't forget that how you behave at social business functions is also important. People do take notice and remember.

Volunteer and/or Professional Associations

We are all pressed for time but charities and professional associations are great places to reinforce or extend your brand. By volunteering for a charity or joining a professional association and getting involved you can participate in appropriate activities to get exposure and promote your brand. Take on new challenges to expand your brand. At many professional organizations, they host seminars and events. Program an event and find speaking engagements. Speaking at CLE events is a great way to position yourself as an expert in a particular area and network with other practitioners. Many Bar Associations put on their own CLE courses and look to their members to speak.

Want to change or extend your brand?

Want to expand your practice into a different area?  Taking on a leadership role in a professional association may be the way to position yourself as a leader in the eyes of current or potential clients. Blogging about the industry or commenting on other blogs is a way of showing your expertise -- the possibilities are endless. All it takes is some hard work and creativity.

Adele Lemlek is the principal of Alto Consulting, specializing in marketing and business development.  She is the former Director of Marketing for the New York City Bar Association where she stewarded the New York City Bar’s 2005 re-branding. She frequently speaks at programs and workshops on creating a personal brand.

Securing Your WiFi

With security breaches in the news almost once a week, business owners are beginning to realize that data security isn’t a tangential issue to business operations.  It’s a key concern, for you and your clients.  This is especially so for attorneys.

As WiFi technology becomes cheaper, more convenient, and easier to use, it becomes more and more ubiquitous, especially in high-density cities.  Just by sitting in a coffee shop in Midtown, you usually have access to more than a handful of networks.

One of the reasons why WiFi equipment is so widely used is that it’s easy for people to install. Out of the box it's typically set for being completely open and being willing to "talk" to just about every device that presents itself.

While that's good for ensuring that these devices work quickly, they are completely devoid of any security to protect you and your data.

Having an open WiFi network means that anyone who happens to be in the neighborhood can see and access not only your Internet connection, but also the other devices on your network, such as computers, printers, shared disks, etc.

The good news is that all equipment that provides WiFi service has built-in security capabilities that can help protect you.

The two primary ways to secure your WiFi connection are:

·         Password protect or hide your hotspot (figuratively speaking)

·         Encrypt your data

Every WiFi hotspot has a name, called an SSID (service set ID). A WiFi hotspot can choose to broadcast its SSID or not.  If the SSID is broadcast, everyone within range can detect that a WiFi hotspot by that name is available.  If the SSID is not broadcast, people who know it's there and know its name can still access it by telling their device to connect to a hotspot with that name.

Once a WiFi hotspot has a name, the administrator (usually you) can determine whether or not there's a password that's required access.  If not, the hotspot is considered "open."

But password protection doesn't guarantee security.  Without encryption, all of the data that's transmitted between the hotspot and the computer device is visible to people who know how to monitor this information.  These items can be emails, transactions, word processing documents, etc.

There are two major types of encryption that consumers use:  WPA (or WPA2) and the older WEP.  If available, use WPA2.  This requires the sharing of a "pass phrase" that people use when they connect to the hotspot.  It allows the hotspot and the device to encrypt the data so that only people who need to access the data can.

Another feature of some of the higher-end WiFi hotspots is a "guest" network that lets visitors have access to the Internet, but not your local network.  This way, you can give people Internet access while keeping them away from your network.  The Apple AirPort Extreme is one such example.

The bottom line is:  be sure to secure your WiFi hotspots.  Most manufacturers make it very easy to do, including Linksys (part of Cisco) that offers installation software for their products that configure everything for you so you don't have to be a tech to do it.

Keeping your network and Internet access secure is a smart and easy way to protect you and your data.

Mark Mathias is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of NexFirm.  He has more than 30 years of experience with large and small company technology matters.