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Over the last couple of years, I’ve written a good bit about the importance of lawyers engaging and exploring their creativity. In fact, I’ve gone so far as to say that when we take time away from work to devote to family, hobbies, and exercise, we will be better lawyers. I can’t understate the importance of using all our gifts, rather than suppressing them for the sake of the billable hour. Your creative expression may take the form of cooking, writing, photography, knitting, or singing; whatever it is, do not forsake it.

For a decade, through high school and into my early 20s, I wrote creatively and was an avid photographer. Then for a while the creative writing fell off, and I really focused on my photography. This continued through law school and into my first couple of years of practice. The in 2014, we had our first kiddo and the spare time I had once had evaporated. There was about a two-year void where I didn’t engage in any creative outlets. But in 2016, I really felt an internal push to do something.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know this is what became of that urge. It has since grown and evolved in ways I could not have dreamed of three years ago. I have met people and done things that would not have been available or possible otherwise. As an example, my second book Stop Putting Out Fires is coming out soon. I am actively working on the next two books. And I have a half-dozen other book ideas in various stages of formulation. I have fully adopted a creative life that I make time for in addition to having a busy law practice and raising a young family.

Frank Ramos (managing partner at Clarke Silvergate) recently posted
about not losing your creativity as one of his daily thoughts on LinkedIn:

Somewhere along the way, many of us lost our imaginations. Remember elementary and middle school, where we painted and drew, wrote short stories and poems? Many of us put those days and activities away years ago, and never looked back. Look back. Take a drawing or painting class, take a fiction class or improv class. Stimulating your imagination will help you view you cases in a new light and possibly lead to epiphanies for case themes or theories.

Here are some other lawyers I’ve interviewed who have also intentionally cultivated their creativity and found it rewarding:

• Keith Lee of Associate’s Mind and LawyerSmack
• Curt Runger of Attorney Mentors
• Portia Porter, author of Can You Stiff Your Divorce Lawyer?
• Phillip Lewis, author of The Barrowfields

I want to take this opportunity to encourage you not to neglect your creativity and side hustles and hobbies. Taking the time and opportunity to recharge ourselves is imperative to maintaining mental and emotional health. To do your best work, you must be your best self.

In early November of 2018, I finalized my 2019 goals. I committed them to paper in the moleskin notebook that I’ve carried everywhere since August of 2016. But before we jump into talking about 2019, I want to give you evidence that setting goals matters.

Looking to the past for evidence of success

When I bought my moleskin notebook, two of my earliest entries pertained to goals for my law practice for 2017 and goals for this blog for the last five months of 2016 and for 2017. I had launched the blog in June 2016, and up until August, traffic had been … meager, stilted, inconsistent. Whatever word best communicates that there hadn’t been very much traffic in the first few months of the blog’s existence, that’s what I’m trying to say. So my goals for the remainder of 2016 were humble:

• Have daily traffic
• Have at least one guest writer on the blog
• Publish 6-8 posts per month

So what happened the rest of the year? In November, I had 94 visitors to the blog and published 19 articles. In December, 393 visitors came to the site, and I published 17 articles. I was also listening to podcasts and reading as much as I could about growing the blog and improving my content. But most importantly, I found a community of people who supported my work and were interested in what I was doing.

At the same time that I committed those 2016 goals to paper, I also developed my goals for 2017:

• Average 100 visitors were month
• Publish 2 articles per week
• Publish an my transportation litigation primer ebook

As it turned out, due to a number of factors (including the relationships I had formed), my goals should have been more ambitious. By the end of 2017, blog had more than 2200 visitors per month, and I was able to meet my other goals as well.

You may look at those numbers and think that they’re pretty meager. And I won’t disagree with you. I am not measuring the blog’s success on the numbers alone, but rather what opportunities I have developed as a result of having a platform.

Looking forward for future success

But more importantly at the moment, all I want to illustrate is that the act of having goals and writing them down pushed me toward achieving them. Dr. Gail Matthews of Dominican University in California performed a study on goal-setting that revealed you are 42% more likely to achieve goals for the mere act of having written them down (article).

It really is as simple as that. One simple act increases your odds of success by more than 40%. Even if you’re skeptical about the importance of goal-setting, isn’t it worth doing? If you haven’t set written goals before, in October 2018, I shared some short and simple steps for setting measurable and time-sensitive goals (here).

Since I’m asking how your 2019 goals are progressing, I’ll share with you one of my goals and how it stands. I set five goals for 2019. One of them is so ambitious that I’m not sure whether it achievable. I set out to sell 1000 copies of my books in 2019. That seems like a lot. I honestly don’t know whether I’ll even get close. But I’m doing everything within my control to accomplish it. So where do I stand as the second quarter of 2019 begins?

Since I released the audiobook of Building a Better Law Practice in February (on Amazon/Audible), 25 people have purchased it. My second book, Stop Putting Out Fires, is scheduled for release on May 2 (on Amazon — $9.99 ebook; $11.01 paperback — and everywhere else), and 87 people have pre-ordered copies. There are also likely some sales of print and ebooks of Building a Better Law Practice, but I won’t receive an accounting from the ABA for those until August. So to date, I have sold (at least) 112 copies of my books; I have made 11% progress toward achieving my goal. Want to help me achieve my goal? Buy a copy … or two.

How are your goals coming along? Have you put your list where it’s staring at you every day beckoning you to take affirmative steps that will enable you to achieve those goals? Or has it been a rough start? Persevere. Continue plodding forward. You have three quarters of the year still ahead of you to accomplish what you set out to do with your 2019 goals.

Photo by iluvgadgets.

Much is made of coaching trees that derive from assistant coaches who have worked for prominent head coaches. The success or failure of the coaches that branch out after having worked under a particular head coach can bear significantly on the legacy of the head coach. Consider the former coach of the Green Bay Packers, Mike Holmgren. Two well regarded head coaches were once assistants under Holmgren: Andy Reid and Jon Gruden. Reid’s teams are perennial playoff contenders, and Gruden has won a Super Bowl. Each of those guys also has a coaching tree. John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera, and Doug Pederson worked under Andy Reid, and each has either won a Super Bowl (Harbaugh and Pederson) or led his team to the playoffs (Rivera).

There are other coaches whose trees are less fruitful. Bill Belichick and Nick Saban are extraordinarily successful head coaches who are renowned for turning out assistants who largely do not become successful head coaches. Of course, not every protege will go on to success. There can only be so many teams in the playoffs each year. But this reputation serves as a modest mar to the accomplishments of each coach.

What does your lawyer mentoring tree look like?

I recently scheduled a mediation with a lawyer in Montgomery. I didn’t know him, but he had a reputations as an effective mediator. After putting the mediation on my calendar, I went down the hall to my mentor and asked her about the mediator. I was surprised to learn that the mediator was my great-grand-mentor; he had been her mentor’s mentor. Since my mentor’s mentor is the founding partner of my firm and the person who recruited me, I know him well.

What this knowledge further ingrained in me is that there is a strong legacy of lawyers who precede me. They are all known to be good litigators and better people. They have great relationships with their clients. They get good results, not only in the courtroom but also in getting cases resolved that don’t need to make it to a courtroom. The lawyer mentoring tree on which I am a branch has a reputation for integrity. In the midst of adversity, they are stalwart.

So what does this mean to me? I’d better not screw it up. My reputation is not only mine. It is also the legacy of those who have mentored me, who have poured a part of themselves into me. My own reputation could either be a jewel in their crown or a black mark on their record. I carry that knowledge with me and use it to instruct my decision making.

Don’t be afraid to grow your own branches

Regardless of whether you’ve had good mentors or have had to make your way without any, consider mentoring other lawyers who have less experience than you. When done well, it can be a deeply rewarding experience that affects the lives of both the mentor and the mentee. Those you pour yourself into will become a part of your legacy. Not everyone you mentor into will go to be successful or will themselves have a good reputation. But what they have learned from you should spur them in the right direction.

Take stock of what your lawyer mentoring tree looks like. Look at both the limbs you have branched from and those you have mentored who will be associated with you. Are you building a legacy of lawyers helping other lawyers be better at their craft, better at serving their clients, and better at managing their businesses? If not, now is a good time. There is someone you could serve well by sharing your knowledge and experience.

Five Mile Creek is stalked by a yellow crowned night heron. Every morning she fishes there for crawfish, wading its waters looking for a good spot. One morning, I took my camera so I could watch her more closely. This is what I saw.

The heron perched on a submerged rock and waited, watching. For long minutes, she stood motionless. Water bugs and leaves floated past her. A school of minnows swam by. Still she stood there, statuesque.

Abruptly, she plunged her head through the surface of the creek. Just as quickly she pulled herself upright with a crawfish wriggling in her back. She tilted her head back, and the prey was gone. Then she returned to her stillness.

The heron used her experience to scout a fishing spot where she was most likely to succeed. She found a narrow channel where the water was funneled between two rocks. The current ran a bit stronger there, but her critters beneath the surface had little room to move laterally and avoid capture.

She was patient. She didn’t take the first thing that came along. She didn’t settle for less that she had set out for. She waited. When her target made its appearance, she was poised to strike.

The heron made her own opportunity. She did not sit in her nest and ruminate about how hungry she was. She did not wait for her partner (assuming for the sake of illustration that yellow crowned night herons have partners) to bring back for her the breakfast he had caught. No, she got out there early in the morning and positioned herself so when the crawfish awoke and started their morning, she would already be in place. She wouldn’t disturb or alarm them by getting into position. She made her opportunity and increased her likelihood of success.

Do you have a new practice area you want to expand into? A new client you want to work with? A new business or litigation strategy you want to implement?

Make your own opportunity! No one is more interested or invested in your success than you are. Do your market research. Discern how you might be able to build up trust equity with your potential client and begin to form a collaborative relationship. Do your work and position yourself for success. Do what is necessary to make your own opportunity and then capitalize on it.

I was sitting in my four-year-old’s room finishing up the square knot on his muslin-blanket-turned-superhero-cape. He looked at me with a twinkle and said, “Let’s play the jumping game!”

I put my hands on the ground palms down and assumed the posture of a silverback gorilla. Jack climbed onto my back, perched on my shoulders, and started counting.

“One. Two. Three. GO!!!” He launched himself as far as his little legs will push him and landed with a rolling crash, cape fluttering behind him. As only a small child can after such a collision, Jack popped up. His grin was extraordinary. He ran back to me and said, “I was brave about that. Let’s do it again!”

Whenever Jack does something new, whether it’s something adventuresome or just new and scary, he always comes back to me and says, “I was brave about that.”

What do you need to be brave about?

If there were a sliding scale with risk aversion at one end and risk taking on the other, I wouldn’t be the person hugging the sign that said “Risk Averse,” but I would be standing right beside that person. I have a low risk tolerance, and it has served me well. But I also see that it can sometimes hinder progress and development. So I purposefully push myself toward risks, or I align myself with people who are less inhibited than I am so that I will be pressured into taking risks I would otherwise “nope” out of.

There is great value in taking measured and considered risks. Even when I fail after taking a risk, the fallout isn’t usually as bad as I had anticipated. Scared about reaching out to that potential client? My imagined worst case scenario – they laugh in my face and tell me to get out. The realistic worst case scenario – they ignore my correspondence or tell me, “No, thanks.” And really, that’s not such a bad worst case; you will have lost nothing.

Thinking about doing a Facebook Live event to answer questions within your niche? Your imagined fears – you make a total fool of yourself and don’t know what you’re talking about. Likely worst outcome – only a few people show up, you have some technical difficulties at the beginning, then answer their questions. That’s not so bad; you’ve got some experience under your belt and are better situated for the next go-round.

Whatever it is you’re facing with some trepidation as we kick off the new year, don’t hold yourself back. Remember the words of my 4-year-old, and be brave about that.

Photo by USFWS Midwest Region.

You have ultimate control over your own success or failure. The locus of control is squarely within your domain. It’s important that you understand that. This isn’t to say everything you attempt will be successful no matter how badly you want it — certainly it will not. But there are things you can control for to determine your ultimate success. Here are three factors that contribute to your success.

1. Talent

You have no control over whether you have talent in a particular area. Or even the amount of talent you do or do not have. Talent is a genetic gift bestowed on each of us in different ways, giving us the capacity to do certain things better than others. But since you can’t control it, forget about it.

Steph Curry wasn’t born as one of the greatest shooters of his or any other generation. He’s undersized and has bad ankles. He didn’t attend one of the basketball blueblood schools. Even in his first couple years in the NBA, Curry was solid but did not evidence an ability to rise to one of the best couple of players in the NBA. He lacked the natural talent that oozes out of guys like Lebron James. But Curry didn’t resolve himself to being a good player. He sought out greatness. He worked tirelessly, daily, year after year. He honed his craft until his greatness was apparent to everyone.

If you want to achieve a skill or master a craft, do it regardless of talent. The guy with more talent than you may start with a leg up, but he doesn’t monopolize whatever space you want to occupy.

I am not the most gifted litigator. Plenty of people are inherently better orators than me. There are any number of better writers than me. But that knowledge does not give me permission to resolve myself to being a second-rate lawyer. It arms me with resolution to work harder and to become better.

If you want to achieve greatness, do it regardless of talent. Make talent inconsequential by being willing to put in the work.

2. Luck

You know what else is beyond your control? Luck. Whether good luck or bad. You can’t count on it, and you shouldn’t despair over it.

Sometimes you are going to have bad luck. You might be like me and buy your first house in 2007 at peak market prices right before the biggest economic decline since the Great Depression. Then you’re stuck with it for years before eventually taking a huge loss on it. That’s just bad luck. And sometimes there’s just not really anything to learn from those situations.

Or you might be like author Elizabeth Gilbert. She’s written seven books. One of them was a worldwide bestseller for more than two years – Eat, Pray, Love. None of her other books have seen the same economic success. Was that one book so much better than her others? Probably not. It was the right book at the right time, and it struck a chord with millions of readers. That is luck.

You can’t count on luck. But you can and must pursue your work so that when luck turns its eye your way, you are in a position to take advantage of it. Coleman Cox is attributed with writing, “I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more it I seem to have.” Discount luck. Just do your work.

3. Work Ethic

You see where this is going. You may not be as gifted as someone else, or be handed the same opportunities. But you can let your drive and ambition guide you to outwork others. I’m not necessarily advocating that you work 60 hours a week, but that might be necessary. I’m certainly not suggesting you sacrifice time with your family or forego your health.

What I’m telling you is you need to work more efficiently and effectively than others in your space. But really, don’t pay them any mind. Put your head down and your blinders on. Do the work you need to do. Have goals so you know where you’re headed. Then do your work. Give no thought to talent or luck or any number of other things that you cannot control. Concern yourself only with what is at your fingertips. Be diligent and tenacious in achieving.

Now close your browser and get to work.

Photo by olivierbxl.

It occurred to me one day in early October, while working on a problem no one in my firm had dealt with before, that I had just entered my seventh year of practice. And that suddenly seemed like a pretty significant amount of time. This started me on a pig trail thinking about how comfortable I am on a daily basis with my knowledge and experience levels. I was also curious about how comfortable others with similar experience levels were with their practices, so I ran a poll on Twitter and LawyerSmack, asking this question, “For those who have been practicing 6-9 years, how do you feel on a daily basis?”

Feeling Comfortable in Your Practice

The result was about what I expected. Most of us feel like by and large, we have a pretty good handle on things but sometimes need help.

Most of my work is pretty well contained within a couple of tort-related practice areas. For the last couple of years, the bulk of my practice has been defending personal and commercial auto cases. Within that line of work, I am usually comfortable and have a good grasp of the caselaw, how to evaluate cases, and how to work up and (if the client wants) try a case. But once every month or two, I’ll run across some obscure issue that forces me either to do some legal research or reach out to others in my office to see if they’ve dealt with this same issue before.

I work for other clients who write broader general liability insurance for businesses. When they come calling, I never know whether I’m going to be dealing with allegations of negligent failure to repair a tractor, a slip-and-fall, or a fire loss caused by a faulty heater. When I get one of these calls, the first thing I do is get excited – I love the variety. The next thing is to do a quick assessment of whether this is something I can handle on my own or need to bring on one of my partners with more experience dealing with these particular issues.

That said, the prideful part of me still bucks against asking for help. It tells me I can handle it on my own. But the client-oriented part jumps in and suggests that while I could probably figure things out and even get a fair result, I can’t likely do it as effectively or efficiently managing the case by myself as I could be bringing in a partner. I’ve found that clients are far more receptive to lawyers bringing in help rather than floundering around while they sort through issues and gain a proper footing.

Avoiding the Dunning-Kruger Effect

One of the most important parts of becoming an experienced practitioner is knowing what you don’t know and having the meekness to bring in additional resources. One lawyer responded to my Twitter poll: “I know what I don’t know in my cases and have enough experience to see how it will end badly, and only more work will hedge against terrible outcomes.” If you don’t have the self-awareness to see your own weaknesses, you’re likely suffering from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, wherein underperformers assess themselves at being much better at their work than they actually are. In their paper “Unskilled and Unaware of It,” Professors Dunning and Kruger expressed the following idea: “[T]he knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task—and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at that task.”

There are ways to make sure you are not falling victim to sense of false confidence. Perform objective self-analysis by having something to compare yourself against. Be receptive to feedback and constructive criticism and implement proposed changes to improve your work. Make regular, purposeful efforts to educate yourself on your practice areas and stay abreast of new developments.

You can be assured of one thing though: in the practice of law, when you start to get too confident, some jury or bizarre issue or difficult client will come along to swipe your feet out from under you to bring you back down to earth a bit.

Photo by Peter Grifoni.

“It takes a village to raise a child.” This maxim could easily be applied to lawyers. Sure you can try to go from being a baby lawyer to a adolescent lawyer to a full grown lawyer on your own. You can try doing it without a mentor to help you grow and without a community to support you. But why would you want to?

Traditional Sources of Community for Lawyers

It used to be that you were limited by geography to finding and participating in a community. Local bar associations played a huge role in the lives of many lawyers, acting as sources of referrals and collegiality. Many have continued to serve this important function, but lawyers are not limited to traditional communities like this any more.

More recently, practice-oriented organizations (like DRI and CLM for insurance defense lawyers) have provided additional avenues for growth, development, and community for lawyers. Conferences provide opportunities for lawyers to discuss common problems, learn methods of improving their practice, and meet new people. But aside from exchanges messages on a listserv or attending meetings a couple times a year, these interactions are often fairly limited. Most of us need something more consistent and readily available.

Maybe you have that among a group of friends who you can bounce ideas off of. But from what I’ve seen, most lawyers don’t. They’re daily or weekly interactions are constrained to the folks within their own firm. Or if they’re lucky, perhaps they have a mentor available to them.

Find Your Community of Lawyers

But technology has created new opportunities for networking and developing communities. Two years ago, I found a community in LawyerSmack that has been both helpful and a source of great entertainment. We have a group of people who are rooting for each other to succeed, are willing to share practice ideas, empathize with each other through family problems, and refer business to each other. It is a place where colleagues can become friends despite being separated by hundreds of miles. Here is an example of where the community helped out of the members who had career advice questions:

Matt: Hey guys – interview etiquette question and I’m curious what the LawyerSmack thoughts are. I’m interviewing for a public interest place that seems like it lines up perfectly with my interests and experience. The salary range they posted is below what I’m making now and well below what I want to make. I applied anyway and had a great phone interview and they want me to come in to meet with the director. I know I can’t accept the job at the range they listed. Originally I figured I’d go and if they really wanted me we can negotiate but my girlfriend thinks that it may come across really bad that I wasted their time with the entire process if I could never accept anything within the range they posted. Thoughts? Should I just cancel the interview?

For clarification, the range they posted was very small (5k difference between high and low) and I’m being paid about 10k more than the top of their range right now.

Nick: Unless there are some major long-term bridges being burned, you owe them no duty to cancel meeting. It’s their responsibility prior to bring you in to determine if you’re willing to work for that salary you’re not wasting their time they’re wasting their own time.

Walter: As someone who ran a non-profit for a bit (and have interviewed for a number of non-legal and legal positions) – a lot of times more $$ can be found if they really want you. That being said, I would expect that you are going to make a bit less than you are now. I don’t think you need to cancel the interview – if nothing else you can always say “The fit isn’t right given the salary” or something similar.

Matt: Got it. Yeah all of that makes sense. Thanks, guys. I wasn’t planning to cancel but wanted to check just in case if I was out of line.

Erica: Yeah I’d ask for more but be prepared for, “No.”

Keith: Yeah, no reason not to go. But you’ve also got to look out for yourself and your family. The work might be more satisfying, but if you can’t support yourself, that’s a no go.

Dan: It might be reasonable to think about telling them you can’t accept the job for less than $X – do they still want you to interview?

Matt: I was thinking about that. But I think it might come across as a little pretentious?

Jeremy: I agree with what had been posted. Go to the interview and give them the opportunity to tell you no.

Dan: The real question is why you applied to a job with a posted salary range well below what you would expect.

Kristen: Yeah. I think you go, and if you get an offer, take a day or two to think, call back and say – this is a perfect fit for me, I’d love to do it, I don’t think I can justify the financial cut, blah blah blah.

He just said why. He wants the job and hopes there’s wiggle room.

Dan: Eh, I expect the place will offer him a job, he’ll tell them their salary demands, and they’ll go, well, why’d you bother? We told you what we were paying,

Kristen: Maybe.

Jeremy: A posted salary range is always negotiable if they want you. I would not not respond to a posting because of salary

Walter: Agreed, @jeremy

Kristen: But maybe they call him back in 9 mos after it doesn’t work out with a new guy, too.

Matt: Yeah, I applied because it matched up perfectly with my experience, and I figured they’d be willing to negotiate a bit above what they posted for a perfect match. I’m not asking for double the salary or anything.

Kristen: I don’t think you need to justify that. It makes sense.

Craig: Oh, come on, @Dan, you know it’s more flexible than that.

Matt: It’s about teaching kids law and running mock trial programs and stuff, and I’ve been coaching mock trial and moot court since college, and I’m involved in multiple programs today as a volunteer. So I can’t imagine another candidate with that kind of experience also applying. I figure they might be willing to be flexible.

Dan: My suggestion was to simply inform them ahead of time of your salary expectations. Because they’ll offer you the job and then get whiplash

Kristen: I’ve been on interviews before with a posted range and then they’ve been like, “So what are your salary expectations?” [shrugs shoulders]

Anyway. Go and kill it. And if it doesn’t work out, no big deal.

Matt: Thanks everyone! This has been really helpful.

What a Community Can Do for You

The point here isn’t how great LawyerSmack is … although it is. But rather, you need a group of people around you who can help you when you have questions. Who can disagree with you and question your ideas. Who can support you. Who you can talk about whether hotdogs are sandwiches with.

We all need support, encouragement, and entertainment. Find a community of lawyers that can help you grow. Whether it’s lawyers in your practice area who are spread across the country or a diverse group of lawyers you eat lunch with weekly. And if you can’t find a group that meets your particular needs, form one.

Photo by Newfrontiers.