6 Lawyer Leader Paradoxes That I Painfully Learned
Jeff Sterling Hughes
Straight Talk on Growing Family Law Firm from 0 to 25 Attorneys & $15M | CEO of Sterling Lawyers
Welcome to J Sterling Hughes Insider. Today, we're exploring:
6 Lawyer Leader Paradoxes That I Painfully Learned
Keith Potter beat the crap out of me in eighth grade. The rest of junior high is a blur for me.?
However, I do vividly remember getting my face pounded and a black eye for the next week.
Embarrassing.
We always remember the painful experiences, and these counter-intuitive lessons derived from some of my pain.
I hope they help you build the practice of your dreams.
1. Unless the decision can kill you, make it fast.
One of our firm’s central strategies is Decision Velocity. This means we make decisions as fast as we can under the circumstances.
The reality is that most decisions we make won't kill us. The worst that could happen is usually far greater in our minds than in actuality.
At Sterling Lawyers, making quick decisions has enabled us to fail fast, learn faster, and succeed sooner.?
Yes, you'll make more mistakes with this approach. But you'll make them quickly, recover quickly, and move forward faster.
The most expensive decisions involve people. Go slow on hiring but move fast on termination when someone isn't a ‘fit’ or holds the team back.?
When I delay non-critical decisions, I develop decision fatigue, and my choices degrade.?
Moving fast and failing fast prevents decision fatigue and keeps us moving forward.
2. Vulnerability in leadership is a show of strength.
Being open about your real flaws builds a connection with your team.?
This demands authenticity.?
It’s so easy and common to be fake with this. Most people only show their surface “weaknesses.” They conceal their real, hard-to-own flaws.?
When I struggle with vulnerability, it’s for one of two reasons.?
First is insecurity. I'm afraid to let people see certain things about me, even though they probably already recognize them.?
A leader once told me, "Never let them see you sweat. Never admit mistakes." I lost all respect for that leader instantly.?
Second, lack of self-awareness. I am not aware of weaknesses enough to talk openly about them.
When I have been in this rut, it’s because I am not listening enough to my teammates and not asking for feedback.??
Blind spots can destroy leadership influence.?
Real vulnerability isn't about making jokes about your strengths. That's just insecurity masked as fake vulnerability. Everyone sees through it.?
My team feels relieved when I'm honest about my weaknesses. It’s not because they don’t already know my weaknesses. They do.??
They feel relieved because they know that I know.
3. You are the CFO — Chief Focus Officer.
The job of a law firm leader is to keep the team narrowly focused. Say “no” to a thousand things and “yes” to a few.
In our first 18 months, we grew from zero to eight lawyers. My ego swelled as we did almost everything — family law, criminal law, personal injury, business, estate planning, etc.?
We got plenty of clients but did a lousy job serving them.?
It was embarrassing. I didn't want to spend my career chasing mediocrity. So, I set out to make a big change.?
That’s when we determined to dramatically narrow our firm focus to family law.?
We wanted to be truly great at one thing.
Today, we say “NO”? 40+ times a day when we refer to cases that are not family law.??
This focus has enabled us to grow into a great firm.
4. If you are not repelling most candidates, then you are not attracting the right ones.
The vast majority of people who want to join our firm won't be a good fit. We are looking for those few magical teammates who are perfect fits for us.
We recently had ~150 applicants for one position. We sent them a list of requirements as a filter. That brought it down to six candidates.?
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All healthy family law firms have a high standard for hiring.??
This lesson really hit us hard with some of our past attorney hires.?
We thought “name brand” attorneys would be our ideal lawyer candidates.
That was dead wrong.
Our most successful lawyers have most often come from little to no familiy law experience.?
As a result of learning this, we work hard at repelling the wrong kind of attorneys and attracting the right ones for our culture.?
5. You are the Chief Monotony Officer.
You must repeat your firm’s message to your team until it becomes nauseatingly boring to you.??
And then keep doing it over and over.
Studies show people need to hear something 7-13 times before it registers.?
Right now, we're focused on elevating our client experience. It’s the main message to our team–that we are focused as a firm on a great client experience.
So for the past year, I have repeated that message at every opportunity.
Candidly, I am tired of talking about client experience.??
But, the simplicity and repetition of the message are working as we are setting new records in client satisfaction scores every month.
6. Self-awareness is your superpower.
Know yourself first — your strengths, weaknesses, and how you come across to others.?
This takes years of listening and introspection.?
Why? Because everyone is watching you, the leader.?
You can't be late. You don’t have the luxury of showing up unprepared to meetings.??
You can’t gossip about teammates. You can't share private information to gain support.??
You must follow firm processes, even when you know shortcuts.
Modeling counts 10x more than words.
Teammates will duplicate your good behavior. And, they will multiply your bad behavior.
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Summary: NYU professor Sateesh Nori makes the case that AI has the potential to revolutionize legal services by making them more accessible and efficient, particularly for underserved communities.
Jeff’s Take: AI has a real chance to close the access to justice gap in family law.
This article sets out the case. Interesting read.
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Summary: The article explores how AI is transforming legal research, contract drafting, client engagement, and predictive analytics, streamlining workflows and improving efficiency. It shares stats on the rapid adoption of AI by lawyers.
Jeff’s Take: Proud of my lawyer colleagues!!!
Daily AI use among legal professionals is now at 79%
AI usage has increased by 315% from 2023 to 2024.
Almost all the family lawyers I talk to are using AI regularly at work.
Let's lead the way!!