Uncategorized - International Lawyers Network

How to be a Law Firm in a Modern Society

When speaking with one of my lawyers last week, this was a question that he posed to me – it was not one he had an answer to and he suspects that it may not be possible. At least not in the way that law firms are used to. He said,

It’s not possible anymore, in my opinion, to have those vertical organizations where you have orders coming from the top and where everybody is treated the same way. Because people, if they are in different situations, you cannot treat them the same way if you want to be fair. So you must adapt.

So, how CAN one have a law firm in modern society?

If you’ve been here a while, you know I’ve been talking about the “future” of law firms since 2016 and it somehow feels like so much time and no time has passed. COVID and the war in Ukraine and race reckoning and the loss of Roe in the US and the battles for women’s rights globally and battles for many other human rights as well have all changed not only the landscape of our personal lives but also our professional ones. We have come to realize that we can no longer separate work and life because we are still people at work, and our work impacts our lives.

As usual, what this means for law firms is that some things remain true and some will change. The particulars will, of course, be worked out by the firms themselves, but as for the broad strokes, the modern law firm will need the following:

Collaboration

Yes, we’ve been beating the collaboration drum for years, but I don’t see this changing any time soon. And this isn’t your garden variety, “hey, we have a great team of lawyers!” type of collaboration. I am talking about having a deep understanding of your clients (which, I believe by now is tables stakes and everyone knows that) and being able to bring together a strong, smart group of people to tackle their business issues. That may be lawyers, it may be accountants, it may be other business people – but it’s about knowing the right people who can do the right work that your clients need at the right time to solve their business issues. You, as their lawyer, understand their business so well that you can foresee the legal issues to come, understand their appetite for risk and what their needs are, and can make introductions where needed. As the lawyer I spoke to last week said, “the law comes afterward, later on.”

Technology & Improved Business Processes

I put these two together because I believe they are born from the same strategies. Once again, I will caution against jumping on technology for the sake of technology, though of course, I know who my audience is! I rarely worry that lawyers are jumping on the latest new thing. However, when it comes to running and managing your firms, it’s worth taking a critical look at both your business processes and the potential technologies that you can use to see where there may be efficiencies.

That’s not to say that EVERYTHING is made better by technologies or changing your processes – or that in the interim, things won’t be slowed down before they improve. But this is where the low-hanging fruit often is. Yes, there is a financial investment. Yes, there is a time investment (and for lawyers, this means money). But in the long run, there will be efficiencies that you find here that will improve your ability to practice law and focus on the part of practicing law that you actually LIKE. Consultants can be helpful here to advise you (again, an investment) but there will be a return on this for you and your firm. This is not about the shiny new thing – this is about looking at YOUR firm and YOUR practice to identify what will make the most sense to improve things for YOU. Be cautious of anyone who has an out-of-the-box solution for you immediately – that is not going to be your savior. Just…trust me.

Remote Working

Apologies to the Boomers in my audience, but this is going to happen. I struggle with this one too, even though I’ve worked from home for over 18 years – and it’s not that I personally struggle with it, because I love to work from home. I’m an introvert, so I’ve found ways to connect with people, stay inspired, remain motivated and work incredibly hard (sometimes too hard). My struggle is that I recognize the difficulties with training the next generation in the workforce when they don’t have mentors who are easily accessible to them and training has to be more intentional. I’ve spoken to a lot of lawyers about this, and there is really no clear answer.

But that being said, the upsides for remote working are just too high. During the height of the pandemic, although it was terrible for many reasons, the workforce was incredibly efficient. Law firms had their most successful years on the books. People got time back because they didn’t have to commute. Firms can make the decision to downsize very expensive real estate investments.

There are downsides for people with small homes who don’t have a dedicated workspace, young children who are underfoot (though, when we’re not in a pandemic, those children may be in school or other childcare). But the in-office options are still there for those who WANT to travel in and be present – it is only that forced in-office working should be a thing of the past.

Change is inevitable and with any major change, we have all wondered how we will adapt – before phones, we didn’t believe anyone would ever use a device to speak to each other over long distances. Before email, we didn’t believe anything would replace the telephone (now we barely use the phone, if we can avoid it). I truly believe that offices will be much more optional in the future. The next question will be how we can avoid burnout from working too many hours at home because it’s so accessible..

Integration of Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR has gone from a “nice to have” to a “must” have over the last few years, but even now, it’s less integrated in most firm and company cultures than it should be. We consider diversity and volunteering and community engagement and environmental concerns as more of an “add-on” than as woven through everything that we do as people and employees and organizations.

But I think the various reckonings that we’ve had and the blurring of the lines between our professional and personal lines have made it more natural to incorporate these things into every part of our work. We’re clearly way behind on diversity, but I have hope that we’ll do more to be inclusive and equitable, as well as diverse. To lead the way on sustainability efforts as part of who we are as organizations, rather than just something that we’re forced to do because clients expect it.

Being a modern law firm will not be easy – we can already see many of the challenges today. What are some of the trends that you see firms aligning around for the future?

Law Firm ILN-telligence Podcast | Taras Utiralov, PETERKA & PARTNERS

Taras Utiralov is the Director of the Ukrainian office for PETERKA & PARTNERS, a Central and Eastern European Law Firm and a member of the International Lawyers Network. In this very special episode, Taras and Lindsay discuss what it’s like to work during a war, leading an office that never missed a day of work, the very real “war/life balance” and what the future looks like. Please do not miss this episode!

You can listen to the podcast here, or we’ve provided a transcript of the highlights below.…

Lindsay Griffiths: Hello and welcome to the Law Firm ILN-telligence podcast. I’m your host, Lindsay Griffiths, Executive Director of the International Lawyers Network. Our guest this week is Taras Utiralov from PETERKA & PARTNERS in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Taras, welcome. We’re really glad to have you with us this week. It’s some unique circumstances you’re joining us. I would love for you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself, the firm, your practice, and then we’ll dive into some questions.

Taras Utiralov: Hi, Lindsay. Thank you for the introduction, the warm welcome. Indeed, I am Taras Utiralov, as you said. I’m a partner and director for Ukraine at PETERKA & PARTNERS. I basically run the office and my main duties, I will say, are connected to the management of the office, but when it comes to the legal practice mostly and then they incorporate issues and antitrust in competition. So basically this is it, this is.

Apart from that, we also have other practices. Obviously, in our firm, we are more or less a full-service law firm in Ukraine, except for maybe some criminal law issues. We don’t dig into that. But otherwise when it comes to all kinds of support of the business in various areas, such as corporate labor issues, intellectual property, just general contracts, something like that, and of course when it comes to litigations, arbitrations as well. These are issues that we normally cover.

Lindsay Griffiths: Great, thank you.

I think the number one question that most people have on their minds when it comes to Ukraine is we’re coming up on 10 months of war there. I know that your firm has continued to operate throughout and serve your clients. Can you talk about what that experience has been like for you?

Taras Utiralov: Yeah, indeed. I would like to talk about this experience and to share it with others. I hope that no one ever has, in the future, such experience. But still I think it’s important to know about it and to know what’s going on.

Now we have almost, I would say, 11 months of war because on 24th there will be first anniversary. We hope that it’ll be the last one. But unfortunately it is not for sure the last anniversary as we live through this war. I mean, from the start, we say of the big war because the war itself started back in 2014. Now, I hope that everyone understands that that was the start of the war because it was hidden on the side of Russia, et cetera. But now we understand that that was the real start of the war.

But indeed on 24th February in 2022 started the big war, the full-scale invasion. I’m sure that no one could have imagined the real scale of this invasion, how it would actually take place. Of course, some people predicted that there would be some escalation of the war in 2022, that maybe there would be some bigger land operation in Eastern Ukraine or something like that. But I’m sure that no one could have imagined bombings of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities from the first day of the war. Basically, that’s what happened. This is what we faced when we all woke up in Kyiv or in other cities and through all Ukraine.

Of course, it was shock for all of us. I would say the main feeling of the first days of war was not only quite obvious and normal. I would say fear for physical safety and the fear that you can be physically exterminated, too, within the coming days.

But there were also fear that, which I may say may be even worse than the fear of physical extermination, all the world around you, where you live, your home, your work, your friends, your relatives, everyone, as such, this world will not exist anymore in the coming days. That basically all the life you have been living through will be just erased.

I mean, it can be compared to a situation where you normally move to another country because still you plan, you have friends, who at least mentally you feel that they may help or there is a state which can help. But you just feel that you are not alone. But in the first days of war, there was a feeling that all that, which I mentioned, it would just not exist anymore. I mean, the state, there is no one who could help you because basically they are thinking, first of all, about their own existence. That is quite normal because they cannot help you if they are not sure whether they will live in the coming even hours. You cannot expect that anyone would help you, except for maybe the closest people who you live with. This was, I would say, the main challenge of the first days.

But funny thing is that we didn’t stop working for even a day. That is also true. The first new request, which I got since the start of the invasion, was actually in the evening of that very day. I got a new request, which was related to a foreign client who was staying in Ukraine, how to help him. We had a call the next day. Of course, my first reaction would be to say, that unless you have a fighter aircraft in your hands, that basically you couldn’t help him. But still, we got some legal-related discussion. But indeed that the first days it was not very standard discussions.

I must say that a big support which we got was from our equity partners, from our owners in the Czech Republic. First of all, for the fact that they didn’t panic in the first days. They didn’t just close. Well, not close office, but simply dismissed the people from day one because this is, frankly speaking, what happened to most of Ukrainian offices.

Well, and I cannot say that I can blame them for this because they had a completely different situation. For us, our biggest advantage was, and continues to be, that almost 100% of our clients they are in Ukraine. I mean, they are foreign companies or subsidiaries of international companies, international groups. And thus they were either remotely affected by the war or they had support from their headquarters, from their groups. And thus they could continue operating that way, and thus we could also continue operating.

But when it comes to purely Ukrainian law firms, they usually have the majority of clients, at least by the turnover, who are purely Ukrainian businesses. Of course, those businesses were not sure about their existence as well during the first days. This is what happened. Basically, the people, and in the law firms and well in many other businesses as well, they were left to deal with these problems themselves, frankly speaking.

But again, that wasn’t our situation. And so we basically didn’t fire, didn’t lower salary for anyone. We continued operating like nothing happened from this standpoint.

It was also important for our mental support because, in these circumstances, it is important to stick to at least something that used to be normal for you. And so if you have the same job but you do more or less the same work, that’s something you can stick to and pretend that you try to live a normal life. This was the very first days or weeks of war.

Luckily again, after months, or two months maybe, it became clear that Ukraine at least will continue its existence as a sovereign state, and thus Ukrainian lawyers will still be needed because that wasn’t so much clear in the first days or weeks of the war. We are not engineers. We are not even software engineers. We’re lawyers, so we’re no one, nothing unless we have a country where we are qualified to work. That was quite a personal thing for us, not talking about people, to the whole situation with the war.

But many lawyers whom I know, they immediately started fighting for their country in their armed forces, and they continue doing that. That had also an impact on the industry. Of course, as the work continues, there will be more and more of such people. That’s also something that should be remembered. Of course, this is one of the things which you must know.

Lindsay Griffiths: Of course. I’ve seen there are some lawyers that I follow on LinkedIn from Ukraine who have become part of the armed forces, who had been lawyers before and are now fighting for the country versus those of you who are still doing that in a different way as part of the legal system. I think equally both roles are important.

What would you say is the difference between how things are operating now versus how they were in the beginning of the war? I mean, you talked very succinctly in the beginning. It was a lot of uncertainties. You didn’t know how long this was going to go on, and now you’re saying you see it going on for a little bit longer. I think, obviously, things are very uncertain now because you don’t know really what your day-to-day looks like.

But I’m sure that there’s some more you’ve… I don’t want to say you’ve gotten used to it because that’s a really terrible thing to get used to, but you have some more certainties now than you did at the beginning. Obviously, some people had evacuated in the beginning but have now come back. What does now look like versus in the beginning?

Taras Utiralov: Yeah, strangely, but also I would say luckily, now clients’ requests are not too much different from what we used to have before the big war. Strangely again, but now we do normal legal work mostly. Of course, there is a considerable part of work which is related to mobilization of people and the issues related to who cannot be mobilized. Because there is also situation that of course some businesses and some industries are crucial for the economy, and those people need to stay working and that’s also how it’s all processed, et cetera.

We do have such kind of requests from our clients, but basically all these issues, and about this mobilization and about HR issues as such, they represented the majority of our work in the beginning of the big war, in the first two, three months of the war, almost. Well, again, I cannot say the exact figure, but this was the majority of our work, which was related to all these. Now it’s only a small part of what we do, and otherwise it is normal legal work.

In general, yes, we discovered how adaptive our mind is and how adaptive a human being at all can be, as you said. We really got used to it. It seems that basically you can get used to anything if it’s stable no matter how bad it is. But basically you get used to it. And so yes, but this is the protective mechanism for our mind because if you got to live in a shock for too long, basically you will die.

This is what we discovered that we can get used to it, and the key thing is to try to stick to some normality to the extent possible to how it used to be. You can change it of course, but it should be stable because there is things which you cannot control the world. And so you need to control what you can and stick to it and try to live the normal life, at least to the extent possible.

This is what we are doing as lawyers, as people, as well.

Lindsay Griffiths: I think that’s a very important point.

And so to that point, how do you control, or not really control, more balance, the very real professional needs that you have for the firm versus the very real personal needs that you and your colleagues have going through all of this here?

Taras Utiralov: Obviously, you do know the term work-life balance. Now we say it’s war-life balance. Frankly speaking, starting from when Russians ran away from Kyiv region and from the northern Ukraine and we are in the north here in Kyiv, so for several months in Kyiv it was more or less a normal life.

First, we had issues with petrol supplies. Well, until you face it, you just don’t even know how important it is because you got used to a situation that you can come whenever you went to gas station and fill up the tank and go where you were going. It wasn’t the case in May, June, but I was…

It’s one of the feelings I forgot to mention, but maybe it’s one of the most important ones. That’s proud for the country and for the people and for the unity of people because this was really a surprise for me, the pleasant surprise. Not only me, I guess the whole world wasn’t expecting that. Not only the armed forces which are complete heroes, but that goes without saying. But I mean the whole population stayed united, and crucial businesses continue working whatever it takes.

I mean, the petrol stations on the bombing counterattack, they continued working. Within a month, they changed the whole supply system for petrol and diesel in Ukraine. I cannot imagine, frankly speaking, how it was just from the management standpoint, from the commercial standpoint how it was done. But previously, most of our supplies were from Belarus, and obviously we couldn’t continue like that. There were also in Ukraine one or two factories which produced petrol, but they were exterminated quite quickly. And so now almost all the petrol and diesel coming to Ukraine is from the European Union.

Again, this shift was made within a month. Already in the end of June, we didn’t have any issues with petrol, and we don’t have them now. The trucks are going back and forth through to Ukraine and from Ukraine to the European Union and back. This is how it goes now. Again, I cannot imagine how it could have been done, but it was done. I was the witness of it, and all of Ukraine was witness to that.

But again, from the standpoint of physical safety, it was okay. Yes, we got air raid sirens back then as well, but we were not, frankly speaking, taking them too seriously because we knew that in Kyiv it wasn’t something serious after the first months and then several following months were okay.

But the situation changed in October when Russia re-launched this bombing of the critical infrastructure, basically of power stations and all the critical infrastructure which supplies this electricity to power the city, whatever. That changed a lot the way how we live because basically every air raid siren now…

Well, an awful thing is that we still differentiate them because when we get an air raid siren, and of course I encourage all the people to go to shelters, but anyway, it is always up to each person to decide whether he or she wants to go. That’s how it is unfortunately because, well, otherwise we would be all going back and forth to the shelters all the time.

Frankly speaking, yes, we ignore this. Sometimes because we read that it’s not a missile launch and actually a fighter which went to the air in Belarus or elsewhere. Again, it’s not the fact, but usually it’s just a sign that they are preparing for the launch, that it will not be now. Usually when it is launched, unless there are missiles of very high-speed missiles that we differentiate the missiles, some of them we cannot hit.

I mean, unfortunately we cannot hit them. But luckily Russia has too few of them and they use it very occasionally. The majority of missiles which they have our air defense system can hit. They do it in the most of the cases, and you have one hour or so while the missiles are in the air to hide. Again, this is the awful thing to say, but this are just, say, the realities.

We have to work in these circumstances. Again, so all people of course should go to the shelters. If they do, they normally don’t have the ability to work there because it’s in the underground or in such places. But otherwise we continue working normally. We, of course, made the reservation for clients when we provide some deadlines when they provide for deadlines. We say that it may happen that they will be postponed, but otherwise, we are working.

Of course, as the electricity infrastructure was damaged in October and November especially, we started having issues with electricity then. By issues, I mean that for instance in my place where I live, I have three hours when I do have electricity, then four, five, six hours when I don’t have electricity, and then again. Yeah, so wherever possible, we purchased gasoline or diesel power generators, these charging stations, basically big batteries.

And so with all of that, we try to work as usual way as possible. There were also issues due to that. You don’t even think about it, but it appears, which is quite logical when you think of it. But you never think of it in this way, that when the whole cities have electricity blackouts, they are all disconnected from the power grids.

Then mobile network also stops working because all the antennas of mobile providers that also require electricity. Yes, they have. As the time passes, they install more and more generators and other stuff, antennas. But no one could have expected that obviously from the very beginning. That’s why we had issues with internet connection as well, especially October, November, then the situation got better. But still sometimes we do have them still, which is also a challenge.

Frankly speaking, this was one of the fears in the first days of the war that we wouldn’t have any possibilities for communication. But luckily then that wasn’t an issue, a factor. Now, it is sometimes the issue, but basically, because you understand that the system as such works then that is not such a big fear. But it’s just a complexity in the work and in day-to-day life, which over months becomes better.

We hope that as winter ends there will be less power consumption in the countries in general because you don’t need provide for heating, which now takes the majority of the electricity usage. Then it’ll be easier.

Lindsay Griffiths: It’s amazing the things that you don’t even think of happening. I mean, there’s certain things you assume that happen and then all of these other knock-on effects that come on as a result of all of the other things.

You talk about internet connectivity and electricity, and one of the things that I was reading about, and this happened I know as part of COVID and global lockdowns, was an increased risk for cybersecurity. I’m wondering if that’s been something that’s been discussed as part of client concerns and that type of thing as well. Because obviously with a lack of internet and electrical issues, has that been something that has come up for you as well?

Taras Utiralov: Yeah, I would say that, and in general by the way, COVID has done a favor for us that we all, and the whole world, got used to working remotely because otherwise that would be an additional shock for us. But we had an ability to continue working remotely, which is a must for us now because basically it’s not always safe to work in the offices which are allocated in the center of Kyiv. We are decentralized. From wherever and whenever one wants to work from whatever, it’s up to him or her. Even if it’s another country, we’ll still continue working.

You are right, yes, there were concerns about cybersecurity, but frankly it didn’t affect that much our clients or us as a firm. Because again, our clients are all foreign businesses, and they usually got all these matters treated globally. Basically, most of them store their information, the key information, at least abroad.

Same applies to us. We all store the information in the European Union with all due compliance with the GDPR and other stuff. This was our big advantage because we didn’t basically have any important documents stored electronically here. Because there was also an issue that the offices could be destroyed physically, and the information can go to someone who is not supposed to have, frankly speaking.

But again, this wasn’t our case. From this perspective, we were protected. But still, we obviously do have paper documents, both our internal documents and clients’ documents. That was the biggest concern, I would say, for me as the director because obviously they were still in Ukraine as they should be and in the offices. But luckily our offices were not directly affected by the war action.

Now, we and the majority of businesses in Ukraine, may even say that almost all of the businesses, are trying to switch all processes, to switch everything to the electronic format. And so we all switch.

This all started, back then in COVID times, but now it has become even more important because, due to safety reasons as you mentioned, and as I mentioned. Secondly, it is due to the fact that people are located wherever you can imagine. I mean, not only in Ukraine but in other countries as well.

But still we need to exchange documents, and of course it has become more burdensome to exchange those in paper form. More and more businesses switch to electronic document exchange, and this will also help us in a long-term perspective.

Lindsay Griffiths: Yeah, it’s true. I think COVID, and now certainly the war, is forcing everybody to do things in a more electronic format, which is good in some ways, but unfortunate for the reason.

What is something that you want people outside of Ukraine to know, and how can… The number one question I think all of us have, and the question that I get, is what can we be doing to support your firm and, more broadly, the people of Ukraine?

Taras Utiralov: Yep. I must say that basically the first, and maybe the only thing that supported me and I believe that all Ukrainians in the first days, the first months, and still supports Ukraine, is the scale of support which we got from the world. I posted at this basically most of people, most of lawyers did, on LinkedIn message in the first day of war on about this fact, explain what’s happening.

It got some thousands of likes, et cetera, and many messages of support. Not only due to this but in general, I started getting messages from people I haven’t seen decades. My classmates, who have been leaving as I learned from them only then because these were not my closest friends. I finished the school, and that’s the last day when I saw them. They started messaging that, “Look, I live in Europe, in Canada, whatever, for a long time. Whatever you need, call me anytime.”

And so that was indeed the greatest pleasant surprise, really. Everyone gave, had support in practical means. As I mentioned, one of the biggest fears was that no one can help you. Even the words that people demonstrated that they are ready to help you, they are important, so again, luckily we didn’t need that much and in real practical support now as a firm.

Not strangely, but surprisingly, and luckily, I must say that our office remained profitable in 2022. I can even say that we demonstrate the second best result ever, which is a pleasant surprise. It is not a surprise. Again, this is due to the fact that we’re working on that previously and continue to in 2022. But I must say that. So as such, we do not need any practical support. But it is important for us as people to understand that we do have a support from the, as we say, civilized world.

As to the country in general, I must say that the biggest support and what we need is obviously support armed forces and, well, you basically know all this happening. We just need from normal people, not governments, the support of this trend to provide more and more support or armed forces because this is the only tool how to end this.

Not just me, I mean people from abroad ask questions whether it can come to any peace negotiations, et cetera. But frankly speaking, and again a very practical question, whether we can give up Crimea for instance. My only answer to this is unfortunately, or fortunately, whatever, but we don’t have that choice. We as Ukraine, we are not given that choice.

Crimea was occupied and annexed by Russia since 2014, but that didn’t stop them. If Crimea was everything which they needed the 24th of February 2022, that wouldn’t happen. If we give up now Crimea for a sort of peace, we must understand that that wouldn’t be a peace. It would be just a pause for them to regroup and attack again. Because again, this is what they did. We never attacked Crimea since 2014.

Basically, we understand that wasn’t enough. The only thing which Russia needs is the whole Ukraine, and we have no option to give up something for peace, and that’s the only thing which… Indeed, the negotiations may take place, but only at the point when no one can continue them. As soon as Russia can, well, if Russia wanted to stop this, they would stop immediately, then. We’re not attacking Russia. They withdraw from Ukraine, that would stop the war immediate. But that isn’t happening just because they have the resources to continue.

The answer then is that we need to fight back as soon as they leave the whole Ukraine, including Crimea, then something may happen. But then we’ll have another issue that we need to join NATO. Because the fact of presence of nuclear weapons for members of the NATO, that’s the only thing that may stop Russia from further attempts to attack Ukraine, basically. It is how it is.

Lindsay Griffiths: Right, that’s true.

What do you see as the next steps for Ukraine? I think we spoke before we started that you think this will go on for at least another year. And as you said, you don’t believe this is going to come to a negotiation. Do you-

Taras Utiralov: At least until one of the parties cannot continue fighting.

Again, for us, it is not an option simply because we will just stop our existence and if we stop fighting. But Russia, it’s not option because they can continue.

Not only as a firm but as a country in general, we try to live as normal life as possible. For instance, well of course economy of Ukraine is in a terrible situation. But when you think of it, it’s not that terrible as it could have been. I mean, strangely, again surprisingly, the whole system continued working not only the state system, but the businesses in general, too. The bank system hasn’t stopped working for a single day, for a single hour. Bank, cars, everything continued working, whatever happened, I guess we didn’t even have any majority bankruptcy since then. I don’t recall. Yeah, they were not.

Because for instance, as compared to the situation 2014 when the first days of that war, the start of that war, half of the banks of Ukraine went bankrupt. I mean, we used to have more than 100 banks in Ukraine before 2014. Now we have like 50, and so there was nothing like that since February last year.

By the way, IT industry, which is one of two biggest industries, profit generating in Ukraine nowadays. Second is agriculture, but agriculture had its issues with logistics and basically how to export. Because we are an export in terms we don’t need that much grains and whatever in Ukraine, we’re exporting the majority of what we produce to other countries.

But now, as you may know, there is this Turkey-supported initiative when the ships can go from Ukraine abroad to get their grain, et cetera. But due to that, I don’t know the figures, but I’m sure that they were not so brilliant as they might have been because of the war logistic issue.

But IT industry has showed record figures in 2022. Well, the NATO standard is, what, two or 3% of GDP for military expenses? I don’t recall the figure, two or three. Now, our military expenses are 50% of our state budget. Not surprisingly, and we have like 50% of lack of money, the budget. Our budget is only half supported basically by the West, as we say, a civilized world, different countries, European Union. From this standpoint, our economy is very much dependent on the external support.

But at the same time, businesses they try to continue working. They go abroad. Many businesses expanded to Poland, to the Czech Republic and otherwise. Again, we have, here as a firm, a huge advantage as well because we have offices all over these countries.

I didn’t mention that, but during the first months of this big war, ladies from our offices, they relocated temporarily to Prague mostly. In Prague, we had half of the office maybe working for several months there in our offices in Prague. They had huge support, and that was also an important thing. But now almost all of people are back in Ukraine. We are now working from our offices here. And so this is basically how all businesses try to continue working.

Yeah, many of them had considerable part of staff relocated in the beginning, but now many people who come back to Ukraine during winter, there have been issues again with electricity, all that. And so some people came back to Europe. Now they will come back to Ukraine like this.

Again, we try to live and to do business as usual to the extent possible, to continue doing this business, bearing in mind that as a country, we have an economy. We do need support, financial support, from our partners abroad.

Lindsay Griffiths: It’s quite incredible. I think all of us, as you say in the civilized world, are really quite impressed. You certainly have our support, and I have my Ukrainian flag flying outside I can tell you. We certainly do send all of our support and love to all of you. If there’s anything that you do need, please do let us know.

Thank you really for joining us today, and we look forward to sharing your story and to hearing better news much sooner.

But in the meantime, as we said in the beginning, you have not lost a day of business, which is truly a very impressive thing. I cannot even imagine. I think there are firms that have lost business for much less, and so this is really truly an impressive thing.

Taras, really thank you for joining us today, and thank you to everyone else for joining us. We will be back next week with another guest. Thank you again.

Taras Utiralov: Thank you. Good luck.

State of the Legal Industry: No Need to Panic – We’ve Been Here Before

On January 10th, the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law and the Thomson Reuters Institute released their 2023 Report on the State of the Legal Market, which seems more relevant than ever as we go into a year of uncertainty. The report confirms this (and I’ll delve into a few specific points), but overall, I’d like to remind readers that we’ve been here before – contractions in the legal industry are nothing new. The good news is that hopefully, firms have learned the lessons of 2008/2009 and haven’t forgotten them. Will there be some casualties? Yes, but that’s the nature of business. And make no mistake – the law is still a business.

Georgetown addresses some key takeaways from the report in this release. While some of them sound truly dire, not all of them are cause for concern (and indeed, I’ve spoken with many of my lawyers who foresaw this market contraction and aren’t worried). Let’s look at some of them:

Falling Demand, Client Spend Optimism

This sounds worrisome at first, especially when coupled with these statistics:

Law firms saw a substantial slowing in demand for their services throughout 2022. Demand fell by an average of 0.1% in 2022 through the end of November, and will likely finish the year in negative territory, compared with the robust 3.7% rebound in growth for all of 2021.

But in context, we learn that this is attributed “primarily to a sharp contraction in transactional work, such as M&A, brought about by growing economic uncertainty.”

Why is that good? Most firms aren’t one-trick ponies. And while transactional lawyers won’t be happy about this news, their insolvency and restructuring partners will be. There is always work for lawyers. And many of the businesses that were propped up during the pandemic will need to be restructured or made insolvent, which will keep those lawyers busy. As we saw in 2008/2009, some lawyers will be shuffled to other practices, while lawyers in mid-sized firms who already have multi-practice skills will have plenty of work to manage.

Speaking of mid-sized firms…

Market Shifts Towards Midsize

Georgetown noted that:

Midsize firms stood alone among the market segments in seeing demand growth in 2022. The report describes this apparent willingness by clients to move work in search of high-quality but more cost effective counsel as “striking.” While larger firms saw stark deterioration in all practices, midsize firms were increasingly competitive, especially in litigation, labor & employment, and intellectual property.

You know that made this midsize network lady VERY happy – it reinforces what I’ve been hearing and seeing within our own organization. First, trying to get the folks in those practice areas on the phone/email is almost impossible these days because they’re swamped, but two, they really are high-quality and cost-effective.

Record-Low Productivity

These figures ARE concerning and there’s no sugarcoating it:

While average hours worked per lawyer has been steadily declining for more than 20 years, it fell sharply in 2022, reaching the lowest level ever recorded by Thomson Reuters Financial Insights, an average of 119 billable hours per month.
The report calculates this means the average lawyer billed $98,000 less in total fees than a comparable lawyer in 2007, based on average rates for 2022.

So what does that mean? I’m not going to be a Pollyanna here, but I am going to say that it means you, as lawyers, have AMPLE time to up your business development game. This is the time to work on those BD plans, implement the strategies that you’ve been putting off, and get things in the pipeline for the future. When things are quiet, that is when you work on selling.

Surging Expenses

This one is truly interesting to me – the two pieces that make up expenses here are the war for talent, which firms can’t do much about at the moment, and direct and overhead expenses. So says Georgetown:

Both direct and overhead expenses are rising at double-digit rates, the highest since 2009, as a result of factors including higher talent compensation, return-to-office expenses, business development costs, and inflation. The report cautions that “in an environment where revenue generation is slowing, such an expansion in expenses is alarming should it continue.”

Pieces of that are challenging, but “return-to-office expenses” – remind me again why firms are pushing so hard for this? 2020 and 2021 were two of the most successful years for law firms in terms of profitability and efficiency, and yet many firms are *insisting* that their lawyers and other professionals must be in the office to work. Apparently at their own detriment.

Please give some careful thought to whether those return-to-office plans really make sense, both from a fiscal and morale standpoint before you enforce them. I know that there are real concerns about young lawyers – how they are trained and assimilated into the firms – as well as a push from more senior lawyers who simply prefer to work in the office and are lonely without their colleagues. But run the math and make actual business decisions as to what makes the most sense for your firms.

Rates Hindered By Inflation, Falling Realization

We’re all suffering from the effects of inflation – while this report looks at US firms, our foreign neighbors are truly bearing the brunt of some shocking inflation numbers.

Please remember the need to be sensitive when raising your rates and notifying your clients – this shouldn’t be done via a bill.

But the other thing that’s happening for firms is falling realization rates, and this is more controllable.

after rising steadily for the previous two years, collection realization has begun to level out or decline across all segments of the market. The report suggests this could be due to firms losing their focus on billing discipline or clients pushing back on invoices and payment cycles, or both.

These are things to examine at your firm and track, if you aren’t already and identify where improvements can be made. Given that market pressures may impact these rates, you may not see a dramatic increase, but if it is due to billing discipline, this is easily rectified for the firm, as is a reassessment of client management.

Finally, Thomson Reuters suggests the type of due diligence I always like to recommend – look at everything:

“Law firms need to closely examine all aspects of their business – including talent management, practice management, workflows, operations, and finances – and employ the necessary solutions and technology in order to successfully navigate the year ahead.”

Paul Fischer, president, Legal Professionals, Thomson Reuters

When things seem uncertain, we get back to basics – take a deep breath: what do we know, where can we improve efficiencies, how can we best serve our clients and our staff, what worked well the last time, and what didn’t work well and how would we change that? We’ve been here before and we know more now.

Law Firm ILN-telligence Podcast | Vanessa Pantelakis

Vanessa Pantelakis is a partner at WOLPERT RECHTSANWÄLTE PartG mbB a part of the ILN’s German Group. In this episode, Lindsay and Vanessa chat about the mental health crisis that the pandemic has created for women and young girls, and how it has further revealed issues in the legal profession, but how remote working has also helped to create a greater work/life balance in many ways and given lawyers the ability to create better relationships with their clients. Tune in today!

You can listen to the podcast here, or we’ve provided a transcript of the highlights below.

Lindsay: Hello and welcome to the Law Firm Intelligence Podcast. I am your host, Lindsay Griffiths, Executive Director of the International Lawyers Network. And our guest this week is Vanessa Pantelakis from WOLPERT RECHTSANWÄLTE PartG mbB. Vanessa, welcome. We’re so happy to have you here.

Vanessa: Thank you, Lindsay. I’m happy to be here. Thanks a lot for having me.

Lindsay: So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice, and your firm.

Vanessa: For sure. I’m Vanessa Pantelakis. I am a partner at WOLPERT RECHTSANWÄLTE PartG mbB since the beginning of this year. I have joined the firm in 2016. We are a boutique law firm specializing in IP competition, antitrust, and contract law, and we’re situated near Frankfurt. We are, as you probably know, part of the German group, like all German law firms at the ILN, boutique law firms that are specialized in a particular field of law. And we are the one for IP competition law and antitrust and contract law. Yes.

Lindsay: Great. That’s great. And how about your practice in particular?

Vanessa: So in particular I’m handling trademark matters and competition law and sometimes also some contract law. That’s what I do all day.

Lindsay: All day.

Vanessa: All day. From the morning to the… No, just kidding.

Lindsay: Well, I’m sure you do have some late days some days though.

Vanessa: Yeah, for sure I have. Yes.

Lindsay: So let’s dive into our questions. I mean, I think, we’re getting used to, I would say, pandemic times now. But what would you say you think how the pandemic has disproportionately affected women in the workplace? And I know you’re in a little bit of a unique situation because your workplace is all women.

Vanessa: We are all women, that’s right, and we all do not have children. So diving into this question, I think the problem that the pandemic affected some people more than others is if you’re having children. Because if you do have children, there was a lockdown and you need to stay at home and the kids were there as well. And I think it’s really hard to combine those.

I think it’s also harder for single parents. So if they are alone, even though if it’s the father or the mother, most of the time it’s the mother for sure, but this is, I think, really, really hard. And so those parents had to take care of the children and need to do their job at the same time, and I think this is a double burden. But as you have asked me, and as I already said before, women were more affected because today, or nowadays, it’s still the fact that women are those, or mostly those, that take care of the children, so they were more affected by the pandemic because they need to combine both their job and also the child care, and I think this is a really, really hard time for them.

I read an article that three or four women, or mothers, work at least part-time next to take care of their children. So there were like 75% of women affected by the pandemic, so to say. And maybe as I do not have children, but I have a friend that has a two-year-old daughter, a really lovely girl, and, well, the nursery was closed and she need to take care of her daughter the whole day because her boyfriend needs to be out for work, so he kind of does the work remotely and she was at home with the girl the whole day and then she started… She just take care of her child the whole day, and in the evening started to work, sometimes until midnight. And this for one and a half years. And I think this was really, really, really hard for her and a really hard time.

I think this is why women were more affected by the pandemic. And this is a high risk to get burnout, maybe or other impacts, and I think the whole situation, or the whole impact, we have not seen yet that pandemic will have on all of us.

It’s not also all that, it’s only that the pandemic has effects on women. It also has on girls. I just read an article at the beginning of this week in a German newspaper that young girls, mental health issues increased by about 80% among girls that are aged 11 to 14. 80%. This is really hard. And I think for teenagers it was about 50%. And the article said that this is due to the fact that girls cannot handle or deal with crisis situations as well as boys can, and this is why the mental health issues for the girls were really harder than for the boys at that time, and the girls, even so, felt more lonely in that time because they cannot see their friends, as the boys. I don’t know why this is, but this is what the article said. So I think this will be also a big problem in the future. Yes.

Lindsay: That’s really interesting. I wonder if that’s because women tend to, and I hate to generalize, but I wonder if that’s because women historically have always worked more in communities and the pandemic has forced people to be, as you said, more alone, and so girls having to be at home. And the same thing with women in general, and that’s forced women to have to do things on their own as opposed to being able to rely on their communities.

Vanessa: Yeah, I think so. And I also think women tend to overthink things. So guys are often like, okay, well this is how we do it. And girls are like, okay, this, this, and then I have to do that and talk about that, and I think this is a big problem. And the boys, especially boys, are like, okay, well that’s fine. It’s okay for me, so I just deal with it. And so I think this is a big problem, the overthinking.

Lindsay: Yes. I remember I was a computer science major in college and the things that one of my female counterparts was studying was whether men’s ability to or willingness to just take things apart, whether or not they were able to put them back together later and women like to know whether or not they would be able to put them back together later. Women seem to like to know what the answer is going to be before starting, so we don’t try things as much. And so that was an interesting part of her senior thesis research because there were only four women in the whole department and everybody else was male, so we didn’t see that as much. And that could be why some professions are more male-dominated than female-dominated.

Vanessa: That’s a good point, I think.

Lindsay: Yeah, it’s interesting. Obviously, in your office, you haven’t seen the impacts of the pandemic on leadership and leadership opportunities. As you said, you started as a partner at the beginning of this year. Congratulations.

Vanessa: Thank you. I’m really happy about that.

Lindsay: Yes, and we’re happy for you. But have you seen in Germany that women have been affected by a lack of leadership opportunities? And, I mean, I think the world kind of looked to Angela Merkel as a very strong women leader, it’s certainly not unique that Germany has had some strong women leaders. But have you overall seen that there have been some limits on leadership opportunities for women?

Vanessa: Well, I haven’t seen it directly, but I can imagine why. Because through the pandemic, if you have children, as I already said, you need to do both taking care of the children and working, ] and if you have colleagues that are not that affected, they perform better for sure in their job. And if there is a leadership position that came vacant, they will go for the one that performs better during the last one or two years, and this will be the one that wasn’t that affected by the pandemic and the issues arising from that.

I think this is the same question as before because you were also still affected also with regard to leadership positions. And I think it’s also hard to combine a leadership position while you have a child at home or your children at home. So I think this is a big problem for the women that have children and need to take care of them.

Lindsay: And have you also seen that with people who are caring for elderly relatives as well? I hear we call that sort of the sandwich generation, where you have people who have young children at home but are also caring for elderly relatives.

Vanessa: Well, I have that, and one of my friends took care of her parents because she need to because nobody came to the home anymore. And so she was also affected in the same way, I think. So I think it’s the same problem. If you need to take care of somebody that needs to be taken care of, you’re affected due to the pandemic.

Lindsay: Absolutely. This, I think, is something that you saw in your office, the impacts on young lawyers who are still starting their practices, who aren’t maybe getting the benefit of being in the office as much, who missed out on periods of a couple of months, or a couple of years in some cases, of being in the office and learning from the more senior lawyers.

Vanessa: Yes. As you probably know, we had a young lawyer which started at our law firm at the beginning of COVID, three months before the pandemic happened. And so she was really affected from day one, so to say, because it was her first job. So she came out of university and just started her work at our office. And I think it was really hard for her because she cannot sit next to us and listen to us if we were discussing something with a client on the phone or if we have a meeting with the clients in the office because we started to work remotely at the beginning of the pandemic, and so everybody was at home in their own safe space, so to say. And yeah, I think this was a big thing that she missed.

But on the other side, we tried to just eliminate these issues, because due to the pandemic… Before the pandemic, we always had phone conversations with clients. And at the beginning of the pandemic, we started to have Zoom conversations and we saw each other, and then we also asked our young lawyer to participate so she could also benefit from us talking to the clients and giving them advice. So this is how we tried to overcome the issue.

And also what happened is if we have young lawyers, we sent them to training sessions, and all those trainings were canceled at the beginning as well. But in Germany, they really, really soon started to have online trainings and we put the young lawyer there and sent her to the online training so that she can learn there as well.

So I think we tried our best to give her the same opportunities that she could have if you are in the office, even though it’s for sure not the same. I think sometimes if you have a question and you just go to the next room and ask, “Hey, can you tell me,” or “how do you see this and that,” it’s easier to go just around the corner than to take the phone and call and just interrupt your colleague by saying, “Hey, I have a question.” And so I think this is what was really missed, the conversation between each other.

But also, we have improved because we had a daily Zoom conversation. So every day at 12:00 PM or AM, whatever, at 12:00, we have our Zoom conversation and sometimes we have a lot of things to talk about some cases about some stuff, and sometimes it’s just nice to connect and then say hello and say, “Oh no, I don’t have anything to talk about with you.” And then we just shut the Zoom conference down. But we saw other every day, so I think this was a good idea to have that implemented in our daily practice.

Lindsay: That’s really good. And do you think she’s adjusted? I mean I guess it’s hard to tell because for her she doesn’t know any different because it was her first job. But do you think she’s adjusted well since joining?

Vanessa: For sure. She does great and we are really happy to have her in our team, and I think it was the best way we could give her during the pandemic, and we’re really happy to have her in our team.

Lindsay: That’s great. That’s great. So how do you advocate for yourself during a time of global crisis? I think it’s obviously the first time it’s happened for us during our lifetime, so how do you advocate for yourself, I think, in terms of leadership, but also in terms of making sure that you’re taken care of in all parts of your life? Because at least I know for myself, I’ve worked from home for pretty much my whole career in this role. It’s easy to just get sucked in and work all the time.

Vanessa: Yeah, well, for me I think it was great because I save one hour a day if I don’t travel to the office, so I have more spare time and I can do little things in between. So do the laundry for half an hour while you have a phone conversation or something like that. So I think this is a big improvement for me. I know that not everybody is good at working remotely, but I really love it.

Because up to now there are not that many restrictions left in Germany, we can go to the office every day, but still, we have the hybrid model so that we can work from home or in the office like we like to do, but we have one day in the office where everybody has to be there so that we see each other in person once a week for sure. And yeah, I really liked it. So I cannot say that it affected me in any way because it give me so much more work-life balance, to be honest. So I don’t feel really affected by the pandemic for myself, but I know that many people are and I’m happy that I didn’t, but I’m really sorry for those that have been affected by the pandemic for sure.

Lindsay: But I agree with you because I think for a lot of people it did show a different way of working and it did give people time back and there were definitely silver linings. And I think as you say, you got that time back from commuting, it showed you that you did have the ability to work from home. And I think too, the ability to have Zoom meetings like this where you connected with people a lot more often in a different way, I think that’s been a real benefit too.

Vanessa: Yeah, it is. Especially with the clients, because, as I already told you, we have had phone calls before and our clients are situated everywhere in Germany, and also out of Germany, outside Germany, and I saw them more often. Some people I didn’t know face to face before, and due to the pandemic, you see each other and just had some conversations. I think this was a great benefit in the work together with the clients.

Lindsay: I agree. We had the same experience, I think, with the ILN, you got to know a lot more people and feel connected to them in a way that you weren’t before, which I think was really a nice benefit. So, as you say, the people that were affected, it’s been really terrible, but there were some benefits that came along with it, definitely.

Vanessa: I think so too, for sure.

Lindsay: The legal industry itself has made a lot of changes in recent years and I think we’ve seen it really sort of accelerate over the last two years. But we still do have one of the highest incidences of mental health crises for everybody in the legal industry, not just women, because of the pressure of the legal work that’s done, the way that legal work is defined, and the way success is defined for lawyers. Do you think that we’ll ever change the way that the profession frames personal and professional success to alleviate that? I mean, I know some lawyers really do thrive on that pressure, but do you think that we’ll ever redefine the way that success is defined for lawyers?

Vanessa: Well, I would love to say yes, but I’m not really sure about that. But what I have learned in the last years is that young lawyers are currently very concerned about the work-life balance, and this is a question that is really asked in job interviews. So they ask for a work-life balance, but I’m not sure if this awareness will really bring a change in the future because I think as a lawyer there’s really high pressure all the time, not just in the team and at the workplace, but also from the clients. Because if they want a question to be answered, they always want the question to be answered immediately, and then you have to perform otherwise they maybe go and take a look for another lawyer. So you have to perform all the time. So I think it will maybe change for a little bit, but not that much, unfortunately.

Lindsay: I mean I think, as you say, at the end of the day, it’s always client driven. So whatever happens, I mean, the work-life balance that can be defined by the ability to work from home is great because then you can do your work from anywhere, but it’s always going to be the ability to answer the client’s question and do the client’s work. And until and unless the clients need things differently, the lawyers’ actual work is not going to change.

Vanessa: Yeah, right.

Lindsay: What would you say are your main challenges in today’s marketplace?

Vanessa: Well, I think we already talked about it, because it’s the work-life balance for me as well. I need to try to find the right way for me to combine both because I think it’s really important for your mental health. And, well, working remotely gives me more spare time, and I think this was a great benefit, as I already told you. However, if you work remotely, you also need to be aware of stopping to work, and sometimes you are sitting there and just walking by your office at home and you were like, just let me check for just a short email, or I read this article, and so on. So I usually stop myself if I’m working remotely, and I really stop at some point in the evening. So this is the main challenge for me, to find the right way to do it at home. But overall, as I already said, there were more benefits, so more advantages, for me personally.

Lindsay: That’s great. My email has started getting very bossy and it starts telling me now, are you ready to wrap up? And, do you really want to send that email, because it’s out of office hours now? AI is really something else.

Vanessa: We don’t have that security email thing, so I can send it without asking me, are sure that you want to send the email at that time? Are you really sure? I don’t have that security backup. Maybe I should think about it.

Lindsay: You might need it. It’s very funny. It only started recently. I’m not sure how it came about. But it really was shocking the first time it happened. I was like, okay, maybe I don’t want to send that email.

Vanessa: Really funny. But do you know where it comes from that it gets up? So has somebody changed the, I don’t know, the settings of your emails?

Lindsay: I think it’s Microsoft, because I use Outlook for my email clients, so I think it was Microsoft installed something.

Vanessa: We use Outlook as well. I’m not asked if I want to send out the email that late. Only if I don’t have a subtitle the email is directed to you. So this is the only thing where Outlook has asked me, do you really want to send that email without any topic? And I’m like, yes.

Lindsay: Yes, I get that too. This is the next stage. It’ll be coming. Just wait.

Vanessa: I’ll send you an email out of the time with information as well, I will do so.

Lindsay: One final question. Outside of everything going on at the moment with work, what is one thing that you’re really enjoying?

Vanessa: I really enjoy my spare time. I know it’s always the same, but for me, it’s like I have five hours more the week for my spare time. And what I also include in my routine is to have a walk within the day. So if I’m in the office, I don’t do that, to be honest, but at home, I always try to implement to have a little bit of a routine and just to go out and have a walk and do something for myself, for your mental health, for your body, and this is really great.

Lindsay: That’s so nice. Yeah, that’s really lovely the things you can do when you’re working from home and get a little fresh air.

Vanessa: I’m a big fan, as you probably heard out of the conversation.

Lindsay: That’s good. And it’s good for your clients too actually, because you get a break from your desk and you can think of new ideas, new ways to approach the matters in front of you.

Vanessa: For sure. For sure. Also, if I’m outside, I just have my phone with me and can also answer it if somebody rings me and wants to ask me a question or wants a problem solved, I can do that, also.

Lindsay: You’re never far away from your phone.

Vanessa: Yes, never far away. We are always there.

Lindsay: That’s right. Always.

Vanessa: Always.

Lindsay: Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much to our listeners. We’ll be back next week with another guest. And when you have a moment, please rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks so much.

BD Lessons from Rescuing a Dog

We’ve now returned from our winter break and I have some news – my family has grown by four paws: the adorable Belgian Malinois mix, Nikko.

Who can resist this face?

Rescuing an older dog with almost no recorded history has its challenges – all I know about Nikko is that his previous owner died tragically and he was found at 52 pounds in a field in Roswell, New Mexico (yes, that Roswell – his paperwork even has a spaceship on it). I’m not a new dog owner – I’ve had dogs growing up, and have been a basset hound owner for 14 years. I definitely don’t recommend getting a Mal if you’re new to dogs, and I’m lucky to have worked with a truly GREAT rescue throughout this entire process.

So what does this handsome rescue dog have to do with business development? Well, a lot really. Real life always has a way of reminding me about my day job. Applicable lessons include:

Patience

This is the number one thing you need as a rescue dog owner (or any dog owner, really). Whether you have a new puppy or an adult dog coming into your home, they are going to test the boundaries of what the rules are in your house, and it’s up to you to let them know what those rules are, without yelling or getting anxious. That latter one is especially hard but particularly important. Sometimes, you have to leave the room or walk away if you’re battling a dog with a strong personality, and boy, do I have dogs with strong, stubborn personalities!

And hey, does that ever translate to business development. Wouldn’t it be delightful if you could try something once and it resulted in a huge piece of business? Sure, that happens sometimes, but that is the unicorn of business development. Most often, you have to keep at it, continue grinding, and remember why you’re doing what you’re doing before you can get the results that you want. Patience isn’t often something we’re born with (some people are), but it’s often something that is developed because we’re been thrown into situations where we have to cultivate it. I know that’s been true for me. So if you feel that you aren’t getting the results that you want for your business development efforts, is it because you’re doing the wrong things, or could it be because you’re just expecting results too quickly?

Lack of Context

This can be a hard one – as I mentioned, the only thing I know about Nikko is that his previous owner died tragically. I can guess some things based on his reactions to things as time goes on. He has some training (sit, he’ll offer me his paw, he gives hugs), but sometimes I’ll go to raise a hand to pet him, and he ducks his head. I’ll pet him unexpectedly from behind while he’s resting and he jumps. If I correct him with a verbal no, his whole face falls. He has massive separation anxiety. I can then only guess at what he’s been through, and then we’re adapting what we do at home as a result – lots of compassion, empathy, and reinforcement that this is his forever home, and he’s safe and loved here.

Often, when you’re connecting with a potential client (and sometimes, even trying to get more work from your existing clients), you have no idea what they’ve been through with other providers unless they tell you or you ask them directly. There may be reactions to what you say and do that seem strange to you – why do you need to handhold over every piece of communication? Why do they need SO much information from you? Why do they want to hear from SO many other references? Things that you may roll your eyes about make a lot of sense if only you had the context. Whereas we’re willing to have the patience (see above) when it comes to a dog we’ve rescued, we may have less patience when it comes to a potential client needing a little more space or grace about that relationship-building phase. But there may be some professional trauma there – not the same as with a rescue dog, of course, but you don’t know what the last provider has done to break their trust that has led them to seek out new counsel. It may not be a big deal, or it may be something more serious and you’re bearing the brunt of that breach.

With dogs, we can’t ask them questions about their history to get that context. But with potential clients, we can. They won’t always give you a full history of what happened, but you can get a sense of what they need and want in their outside counsel relationships, which will enable you to show up in the way that will make them feel comfortable, heard, and properly supported. Every relationship is different and while it’s work to make this happen, it’s also worth it.

Bringing in Experts

Sometimes, you need to bring in the experts. I was able to walk through with the rescue what Nikko would need when it came to introducing him to my dog at home, what the first few weeks would likely look like, and other adaptations to expect. And this process is still ongoing. He’s a special dog with special needs and we’ll most likely be working with a local trainer to help get him fully trained – because Mals need a job and are highly active dogs (unlike basset hounds). So guess who gets to train for my half marathon with me?

This is true for business development too – whether you put together a group of colleagues in the office for accountability or bring in a BD professional or seek out online courses, we’re all lifelong learners who should be confident in identifying the people who know more about this than we do, and working with them to teach us. This is how we grow and learn new things. Perhaps we already know a lot about business development, but spending time with others in the office who are trying different tactics gives us an idea that we’ve never tried before. It doesn’t hurt to branch out. Maybe a firm trainer holds you to a more regular schedule than you usually stick to and you’re more rigorous in your BD efforts. Maybe the online sessions keep you feeling more invigorated than usual. Experts are there for a reason, and even with years of knowledge, we can all use them from time to time.

Time

This may sound the same as patience, but it truly is the passage of time. Nikko has been here for three and a half weeks, and he’s already a different dog from the one that sat in the back of my car for four hours. He still has many moments where he’s convinced that I’m giving him away to someone else, but he’s starting to get more confident that he really lives here and he doesn’t have to be so desperate that I’m going to get rid of him. He is a happy boy most of the time. He’s even starting to sleep deeply sometimes. I’m looking forward to seeing where he is at three months, which is supposed to be the marker for a rescue to feel truly settled.

Business development is similar – sometimes it just takes time. I have worked with some firms who are ready to jump on board with a network within a matter of weeks – they have already done their due diligence and the time is right for their firm, so it’s just a question of making sure the fit is right and doing the diligence on our side. And yet other firms may take years to feel comfortable, for a variety of reasons – they may be busy or have had a previous bad experience, or may have something going on behind the scenes from a governance perspective. We continue to connect and answer questions and move forward incrementally and eventually, the deal is done. As they say, time takes time. So I would add to “time” that the other necessary ingredient is perseverance.

And like a rescue dog, business development is worth it. The only thing that I would suggest that is different is that in the case of rescue dogs (and any dog), often the most difficult dogs are the most rewarding and the best dogs. I don’t think that’s the same for clients! And perhaps, don’t snuggle your clients on the couch at night while watching your favorite British procedural – but, to each their own.

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