Lawyers, Work on Your Career As Much As in Your Career for Success

You're smart, you work hard, and you put in a lot of overtime. You know your practice area and represent your clients well.

But you don't feel successful. You're not making as much money as you'd like. You're stressed and maybe even a little depressed.

How do you breakthrough and elevate your career to the level you dream of?

Work on Your Career

Follow the example of the most successful lawyers. Whether they are sole practitioners or the top rainmakers in Big Law, successful lawyers have one thing in common. It's a universal trait.

The most successful lawyers work on their careers as hard as they work in their jobs.

One of the saddest things I see are lawyers who are so busy working on client matters they never work on their careers. These lawyers are smart, work hard, and have a high number of billable hours. Unfortunately, because they haven't worked on their career, they can't move up or out.

Many lawyers suffer greatly when they hit the wall. They don't have what it takes to become an equity partner. They cannot move to another platform to continue doing the work they are good at and enjoy doing. They are not prepared to transition their career to work more in line with their preferred lifestyle, passions, and interests.

Many of the most technically proficient lawyers I know will never advance beyond the level of "of counsel" or "special counsel." Some less technically capable lawyers I know become equity partners at Big Law firms, thrive in smaller practices, or leave the legal profession and succeed on other career paths.

Lawyers make successful career transitions because they worked on their careers while they worked in their jobs. They looked at their purpose, passions, and interests. They recognized their strengths and used them. They had a vision of their ideal future career (and life) and moved toward that vision.

Successful lawyers focus on two areas when working on their careers.

Incorporate Passion When Working on Your Career

The first area is to be clear about the things that motivate, drive, and excite you. Successful lawyers realize that their success is much more than the income they make. No amount of income will lead to success if a lawyer does not find personal fulfillment in their work.

Successful lawyers incorporate their goals, passions, and interests into their work. They make conscious decisions about the work they do and the clients they work with every day. It's hard to do.

If you're in a large law firm, you must compete with other lawyers for business and clients. If you're in a smaller firm or a solo attorney, you must eat, and it's hard to turn down any work or clients. But if you're not clear about your purpose, passions, and interests, and you don't work to integrate them into your career, you'll never be satisfied.

Focus on Your Ideal Client When Working on Your Career

The second area successful lawyers focus on when working on their careers is their clients. Who are your ideal clients? What problems need to be solved for these clients? Why are you the best lawyer to serve these clients?

Once successful lawyers have identified their ideal clients, they work to get potential clients to know, like, and trust them. Clients rarely fall from the sky into the chair on the other side of the desk. It takes consistent, deliberate action to attract and keep clients. This is the marketing and sales part of a successful career.

Others must want the services a lawyer provides and be willing to pay for them if a lawyer is to succeed. This is true whether you are in private practice, in-house, or government. While the definition of your ideal client may vary, you will fail if you cannot attract ideal clients who want your services.

When your career involves working fifty or more hours a week on clients, it's hard to find the time and energy to work on your career. To focus on your purpose, passions, and interests. To leverage and enhance your strengths. To stay true to your vision of your ideal career. To ensure your ideal clients know, like, and trust you.

However, if you don't work on your career, no matter how long and hard you work in your career, you will not be successful, prosperous, and fulfilled.

When will you start working on your career?

I am a Keynote Speaker, Author, Business Owner, and Lawyer Career Transition Expert.

I started a career consulting practice serving lawyers and other professionals after a successful career as a practicing attorney.

Before starting my professional career consulting business, I was a:

? Equity partner at two of the largest law firms in the country

? Rainmaker who developed an annual book of business of over $3.5 million

? Winner of the Turnaround Management Association Turnaround of the Year–Large Company 2011

? Lawyer in a small boutique firm

? In-house counsel for a publicly-traded investment firm, and

? Manager at a Fortune 500 company and several small businesses

I now work with lawyers and other professionals to help them find their perfect job and create their ideal career to achieve success, prosperity, and personal fulfillment.