Peer to Peer Magazine

P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 27 Reputation is everything Building your reputation can't be done overnight – it's a marathon, not a sprint. It goes beyond being "smart." Your reputation speaks to your level of accountability, dependability, and consistency. It goes beyond your skills. Gaining trust and respect from your peers and colleagues can ultimately help you on day to day activities. With every win, you become more of a trusted individual, and your reputation will become more well-known. In the legal field, we all know attorneys talk and they will know if they can come to you with problems or not. When your stakeholder knows that you won't give up on a task and you fearlessly look out for their best interest, it will build and bolster your reputation. The proof is in the pudding How you handle a situation feeds directly into your reputation. The sad truth is that negative experiences carry more weight because they tend to be more memorable than positive ones. They are quicker to form and more challenging to remove. You may have had a handful of major wins, but a bad experience can greatly impact not only your reputation but that of your teams. If you keep calm during a high-stakes situation, it demonstrates that you are capable of patience, resilience, and can think through a situation without making a hasty decision. Don't be a wallflower Be proactive in how you handle situations. This will speak tremendously to your reputation. The tech community is always thinking about, "how can we do this better?" Taking initiative on projects and thinking beyond the immediate to- do list, will not only will help you grow, but sets a standard for your team and your organization. Add value to all conversations. Speak up if you have the answer. Don't be afraid to flaunt your knowledge. If you have an idea or a solution, don't be afraid to bring it up. Remember, you must be your biggest supporter and advocate. To be heard, speak up. Don't wait to be called on – be powerful. Stop apologizing. Be proactive to ensure your voice is heard – flaunt your knowledge and be confident with it. ILTA Although you may have bad news to deliver, it is possible to provide a less-than-favorable update without being pegged as the "bad guy." In all cases of delivering unfortunate news, it is best to effectively communicate the issue at hand. Be specific. Be transparent – and do it quickly before the situation escalates. Waiting until the "right time" often causes more issues than not. Start the conversation with your point of contact, even if you don't have all the answers. Your point of contact needs to know that you are actively thinking through the situation, not just bringing them an issue without a solution. Craft a timetable for your deliverables. Also, consider solutions for the long-term to ensure the issue doesn't arise in the future. Share a translation of the tech that your stakeholder can understand in layman's terms. The jargon you rattle off won't have nearly the same impact as a clear, simple explanation that breaks down the tech. Take an approach that makes the information more digestible, like the building blocks approach. As you and your team work through a solution, provide transparency. Keep your legal team updated as you go along; so they know your team is working vigorously behind the scenes to accomplish the goal. Stop apologizing! Women have the tendency to want to please others, which often results in a series of apologies, or even whitewashing the facts of a situation. It may even seem like the easy way out of an ugly confrontation. However, apologizing can ultimatley hurt you and your reputation more than the fallout of a fully disclosed mistake or setback. Yes, you should always own up to your mistakes and the mistakes of your team. Keep in mind, though, that so much of what happens in legal tech is out of our control. Profusely apologizing for a situation that you had little control over (whether your legal team knows this or not) sends the wrong message and eventually will grow exhausting. Even apologizing too soon can have negative implications. It shows that you may not have thought through all of the implications and actions that brought you here in the first place. Skip the apolo. Instead, offer a solution. This shows your confidence and proves you are also invested and actively collaborating towards a solution. Miriam Parrish As Thompson Coburn's manager of litigation support for discovery, Miriam applies her 15 years of litigation support experience to provide robust and efficient e-discovery solutions for complex matters across a wide variety practice areas. Miriam's extensive experience using the latest collection and review tools, including technology-assisted review, allows her to tailor ESI plans to suit the legal team's case-specific needs. Miriam uses skills she honed during her previous acting career to facilitate effective communication between in-house and third-party discovery service providers and her legal teams and clients. Dawn Sheridan Dawn Sheridan has been with Thompson Coburn for over 20 years and has held two positions, Training Specialist and Business Analyst. Dawn's background as a trainer helped her develop a solid understanding of the Firm and the software used while building relationships with legal teams. Dawn was the first Analyst to be added to the Enterprise Consulting team and has worked with many teams to create custom solutions, utilize current applications to create efficiencies, and provide training to better understand Thompson Coburn's technology. She also provides project management services, including working with vendors, documenting processes, and rolling out new products to teams.

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