Best Practices of Personal Marketing for Women Attorneys
Michael Cummings wrote this article on the LawMarketing Portal:
Last week, I saw a headline in the New York Times only 20-23% percent of partners at major law firms nationwide were women – despite that the fact that women account for roughly 50% of practicing attorneys in the US. And this number hasn’t changed significantly for the past couple of decades. I guess that I was a bit surprised by how low this number was.
Lots of firms and practice groups are looking for ways to support the career ambitions of their women attorneys. What are the best ways to help women attorneys? To get guidance, we interviewed the current Chair of The ABA Commission On Women In the Profession: Roberta (Bobbi) D. Liebenberg, Esq. of Fine Kaplan and Black, Philadelphia.
What is the bottom line? Bobbi believes that women attorneys need to embrace and excel at business development – and find ways to help other women attorneys to succeed.
| Attend the live webinar Feb. 26:
Business Development Advice from the new Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession
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Featuring Roberta "Bobbi" Liebenberg , who joins business development experts Michael G. Cummings and Larry Bodine to reveal what really works in business development as well as how women can thrive and advance their legal careers. Bobbi speaks from her own experience. 1992 was the year of the year and I always had an entrepreneurial bent. So, I decided to start my own firm along with 2 other woman attorneys. We decided to target organizations and government agencies who desired to do more business with women owned businesses. We also targeted women owned business and women general counsel
By choosing to become an entrepreneur, Bobbi had to develop business – or fail. My basic motivation to develop business was based on my fear of starving. This caused me to both become very active in terms of business development and build the skills and habits I need to be effective.
Bobbi ultimately joined a boutique litigation firm. However, she still employs the hard-earned lessons she learned as an entrepreneur. And you should do the same
So what lessons did Bobbi learn that she wants to pass along to her women colleagues in the profession? For the rest of the article, visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com
Larry, I read this article with great interest. I am the marketing guru for our firm, and also a woman. It's great to read about entrepreneurship from a woman's perspective.
One of her tips is right on: combining your personal interests with your professional interests. I have tried to do this with volunteering for organizations I am passionate about, making friends, and growing our business that way.
Another thing we should all be aware of is the importance of stepping up to the plate. Without overbooking myself, I try to show honest enthusiasm and pick up the tasks everyone else is complaining about. Particularly since I'm 20 years younger than most of the business people I meet, I can use technology to do these tasks much faster where others are stumped. Example: someone wanted me to make award certificates for a committee. I knew it would take me 10 minutes on the computer, so I said "Sure!"