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30 October 2008
Issue: 7343 / Categories: Opinion , Employment
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Arresting development

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Chris Parr details how to win clients and influence people

Law firms seem to assume that all partners are, to some extent or another, “rain makers”. Each partner is required to devote a certain amount of time to winning new business. However, partners are the highest rated fee earners in the firm and so taking them off fee-earning is not wholly sensible.
Skill-set

If the partner is good at marketing and selling (two very different skills) then there are fewer issues. But what of the partner who is a great lawyer, with the rainmaking skills of a box? The firm might relieve those partners of their marketing duty. However, this means that those who do have the right skills must take on more work and more responsibility for the future of the firm.

This approach is storing up a further problem. If a firm relies on a few partners to bring in the bulk of the work, what happens if one or more of them stop working for the firm? There are many reasons why that will happen

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