Peer to Peer Magazine

Ask The Expert: Success by Association Jim: On both sides of the house, our members are involved increasingly as active educators. So on the law school side, the role of the career counselor now involves teaching of some sort — either putting together a professionalism curriculum or teaching law student professional development skills in for-credit or notfor-credit courses. Similarly, law firms are putting more resources into training and development at every level — not just for new associates, but for mid-level associates, junior partners and even senior partners. In particular, business development and mastery of the underlying client business operations are essential skills, so our members are drafting curricula, taking on teaching roles and defining the particular competencies required at each stage of professional development. For those aspiring to leadership, what professional development will be required to meet the demands of emerging careers? Betsi: Legal organizations do an excellent job educating professionals in our core competencies, but we can do more to develop leadership qualities and attributes. Leadership is bestowed based on who you are and what you do, and it's revealed by what you inspire and what you enable. I believe we can provide more education around these points, so legal professionals are better equipped to lead their firms in the changing times to come. Jim: People require a professional network they can draw on to stay current. It's impossible to work in the silo of one law firm or one law school and hope to maintain a current skill set. Aspiring leaders should be plugged into a professional association, have a ready network of colleagues to call on and pursue continuing education through online learning, reading and attending conferences. And everyone has to understand how law firms operate as businesses in this changing economy to figure how and where they can add value. Oliver: A higher level of both formal and experiential education in areas such as strategic planning and the implementation of strategies will be required. Leaders will also need a much deeper understanding of accounting and financial issues and how those play into pricing. In addition, there's a lot of discussion about the need for project management skills. Many firms are looking at Lean and Six Sigma approaches to identify inefficiencies within the overall processes and structure of the firm, so having people Document Automation in Word 2010 — Could it be that easy? LegalBar simplifies the use and administration of Microsoft Word 2010 providing a legal styles catalogue with clean-up utilities, an "all in one" numbering tool and centralized firm templates. BEC Legal for a demonstration. 800.948.4810Peer www.beclegal.com | to Peer 101

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