AttorneyMentoring.com Senior Attorneys

Improving Your Chances of Making Partner

Good Advice
The best advice we believe we can give to aspiring Partners is to focus on your practice and find something
that you enjoy doing. Develop that knowledge base and effectively apply your knowledge to the client’s
problems, gaining experience from that process.

Attracting Clients By Distinguishing Yourself
Since there is an abundance of lawyers, what distinguishing factors can you identify about yourself and your
practice to highlight in your marketing presentations? Discern your competitor's competitive advantage and
develop a unique competitive advantage of your own as a marketing tool. Expertise, price, location, service,
and occasionally availability, are all factors in a client’s selection. Offering more than one of these will
increase your chances of attracting a client.

Building a Client Relationship
Solid client relationships are built on trust. The client must be made to feel that they can trust you to handle
their matters efficiently and effectively. Trust, as in any relationship, requires belief and reliance in the other
party’s advice. Clients must feel that they can repeatedly rely on you and on your advice. Be accessible, be
honest and advise them as if you were advising your best friend.

Building a Partner/Senior Counsel Relationship
A partnership is a collaboration among individuals who feel that there is a benefit from the association. A
Partner’s perspective is similar to one of a shareholder and in many cases, Partners are no longer partners
but members of limited liability corporations. Their perspective in deciding to share a piece of the proverbial
pie is based upon whether they believe there is enough to go around and not necessarily on how hard you
work. Are you critical to service their business? Do you bring in your own business and can it support you?
Do they want to be in a business relationship with you, understanding that their assets are on the line? Do
you represent an asset to them or do you represent more overhead? You have to provide reasonable
answers to these questions which are paramount in Partnership analysis.

Staying On Track
One way to stay on track for partnership consideration is to act like an owner. Learn the business side of
lawyering. It involves the same skills as growing any business. First you identify a product or service that
you believe is needed, confirm that need by researching the target customer/client’s usage and practices,
develop that product or service, price it correctly, market it and then service those customers who have
purchased your product or service. And, you continually test and revise that product or service against
market forces. Apply the same principles to your practice.

Check out Build a Practice for more information.