Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog

When I headed up marketing at Sidley Austin, it was obvious that some lawyers loved marketing.  But other lawyers were not interested in being rainmakers, had no interest in marketing, nada.  It was always a question -- what about them made them non-marketers?

The answer lies in an article "Herding Cats: The Lawyer Personality Revealed," which can be found on the LawMarketing Portal at http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleID=350.  According to Larry Richard, a former trial lawyer and current behavioral consultant with Altman Weil, Inc., it has to do with five personality traits common to attorneys:

1. High Skepticism: tending to be skeptical, even cynical, judgmental, questioning, argumentative and somewhat self-protective.
2. High Urgency: characterized by impatience and a need to get things done, a sense of immediacy. Urgent people are sometimes brusque, poor listeners, and can be annoying to many people. Urgent lawyers try to be "efficient in relationships" which is fatal to personal marketing.

3. Lack of Socialbility: being less inclined to enjoy interacting with others, preferring to spend more time dealing with information, the intellect or interactions that emphasize the mind rather than the heart.

4. Low Resilience: tending to be defensive, resisting feedback and being hypersensitive to criticism.

5. High Autonomy: resisting being managed, bridgling at being told what to do and to prizings their independence.

So it's true: trying to get a group of lawyers to market their practices is like herding cats.