News
Law Practice
Aug. 15, 2002
Calling the Shots
Dicta Column - By The Rodent - Telephones, cell or otherwise, play an important part in the practice of law. They can also be important in the advancement of one's career at The Firm. It's not so much what you say on the phone but how you use the phone that counts. Mastering some of the following telephone techniques can be vital to one's success as a lawyer.
Dicta Column
By The Rodent
Telephones, cell or otherwise, play an important part in the practice of law. They can also be important in the advancement of one's career at The Firm. It's not so much what you say on the phone but how you use the phone that counts. Mastering some of the following telephone techniques can be vital to one's success as a lawyer.
• Placing calls. Once lawyers achieve a certain prominence (either in the legal community or in their own minds), they can use the telephone to emphasize this point. One of the things they do is instruct their secretaries to dial the phone for them and get the other party on the line before they will talk to them.
Having your phone calls placed by your secretary lets you save time by not having to wait for the other party to come on the line. More importantly, it makes the other person on the line wait for you, thus emphasizing your own importance. The only problem with this is when you call another lawyer who has the same policy. This creates a situation of dueling secretaries who have both been instructed not to put their bosses on the phone until the other party is on. If neither secretary blinks, a stalemate results and the phone call will have to be canceled.
• Returning phone calls. Lawyers are often criticized for not returning phone calls in a timely fashion. There is a good reason for this. Successful lawyers have a set schedule for returning phone calls. Who you are in the legal world depends largely on whose phone calls you return and when.
Even if you are a first-year lawyer who gets very few calls, you too should have a plan for returning phone calls. Calls from lawyers senior to you, for instance, should be returned immediately. Phone calls placed to you by junior lawyers and paralegals should be returned only if they are doing work for you and you will benefit from returning the call. If not, ignore their messages. They'll call again.
Clients should be made to wait at least a day or two before their calls are returned. Otherwise, they might start to think you are at their "beck and call." Calls from your spouse can also wait a day or two unless, of course, your spouse happens to outrank you at The Firm.
• Cold calls. Because lawyers are listed in a number of publicly available directories, we get lots of unsolicited phone calls asking us to purchase services. These callers include stockbrokers, sellers of insurance, etc. Individuals selling these services often leave messages that include no reference to their business. The problem this creates is that legal recruiters use the same method. Thus, when you get a phone message from someone whose name you don't recognize, it could be someone with your ticket out of The Firm or someone who wants to sell you insurance. It is therefore probably a good idea to have your secretary return all such phone calls.
Speaking of cold calling, this is a great way to bring new clients to The Firm. Take out a phone book and begin calling officers and directors of major corporations. Tell them that The Firm is offering special rates if they act now and retain The Firm to file a lawsuit.
• Voice mail. Ambitious lawyers are advised to make use of modern technology to score points and advance their careers. For example, voice mail can be programmed to deliver your messages to partners at any time of day. Partners don't know how these things work and are impressed when they receive messages that are marked at 4:00 a.m. The partner you are sending the message to will think you were hard at work in the middle of the night when, in fact, you were sound asleep.
• Home phone. Never, ever, pick up the phone at home on a Saturday or Sunday. Avoid, even, answering calls from your office. They are likely to be from a partner commanding your presence at the office. One of the most memorable examples of this is the story below that is now part of Firm Folklore.
Thomas Dewey, the former governor of New York and presidential candidate, was a founding partner of the law firm Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood. One Saturday, Dewey was in need of a junior lawyer to do some work for him. From his home, he called the office to find an associate who could help.
The phone rang through to the firm's library where a young associate answered. After listening to Dewey explain what he needed done and that it had to be done immediately, the associate responded by saying that he couldn't possibly take on any additional work. He explained to Dewey that, as it was, he would be at the office all weekend working on projects for other lawyers that were due on Monday morning.
Dewey, not believing what he was hearing from the associate, asked, "Do you know who this is?" When the associate replied that he didn't, he was told, "This is Thomas Dewey." After thinking for a moment, the associate asked, "Do you know who this is?" When Thomas Dewey said that he didn't, the associate hung up the phone.
The Rodent is a syndicated columnist and author of "Explaining the Inexplicable: The Rodent's Guide to Lawyers." He can be reached by e-mail at THERODENT@aol.com.
By The Rodent
Telephones, cell or otherwise, play an important part in the practice of law. They can also be important in the advancement of one's career at The Firm. It's not so much what you say on the phone but how you use the phone that counts. Mastering some of the following telephone techniques can be vital to one's success as a lawyer.
• Placing calls. Once lawyers achieve a certain prominence (either in the legal community or in their own minds), they can use the telephone to emphasize this point. One of the things they do is instruct their secretaries to dial the phone for them and get the other party on the line before they will talk to them.
Having your phone calls placed by your secretary lets you save time by not having to wait for the other party to come on the line. More importantly, it makes the other person on the line wait for you, thus emphasizing your own importance. The only problem with this is when you call another lawyer who has the same policy. This creates a situation of dueling secretaries who have both been instructed not to put their bosses on the phone until the other party is on. If neither secretary blinks, a stalemate results and the phone call will have to be canceled.
• Returning phone calls. Lawyers are often criticized for not returning phone calls in a timely fashion. There is a good reason for this. Successful lawyers have a set schedule for returning phone calls. Who you are in the legal world depends largely on whose phone calls you return and when.
Even if you are a first-year lawyer who gets very few calls, you too should have a plan for returning phone calls. Calls from lawyers senior to you, for instance, should be returned immediately. Phone calls placed to you by junior lawyers and paralegals should be returned only if they are doing work for you and you will benefit from returning the call. If not, ignore their messages. They'll call again.
Clients should be made to wait at least a day or two before their calls are returned. Otherwise, they might start to think you are at their "beck and call." Calls from your spouse can also wait a day or two unless, of course, your spouse happens to outrank you at The Firm.
• Cold calls. Because lawyers are listed in a number of publicly available directories, we get lots of unsolicited phone calls asking us to purchase services. These callers include stockbrokers, sellers of insurance, etc. Individuals selling these services often leave messages that include no reference to their business. The problem this creates is that legal recruiters use the same method. Thus, when you get a phone message from someone whose name you don't recognize, it could be someone with your ticket out of The Firm or someone who wants to sell you insurance. It is therefore probably a good idea to have your secretary return all such phone calls.
Speaking of cold calling, this is a great way to bring new clients to The Firm. Take out a phone book and begin calling officers and directors of major corporations. Tell them that The Firm is offering special rates if they act now and retain The Firm to file a lawsuit.
• Voice mail. Ambitious lawyers are advised to make use of modern technology to score points and advance their careers. For example, voice mail can be programmed to deliver your messages to partners at any time of day. Partners don't know how these things work and are impressed when they receive messages that are marked at 4:00 a.m. The partner you are sending the message to will think you were hard at work in the middle of the night when, in fact, you were sound asleep.
• Home phone. Never, ever, pick up the phone at home on a Saturday or Sunday. Avoid, even, answering calls from your office. They are likely to be from a partner commanding your presence at the office. One of the most memorable examples of this is the story below that is now part of Firm Folklore.
Thomas Dewey, the former governor of New York and presidential candidate, was a founding partner of the law firm Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood. One Saturday, Dewey was in need of a junior lawyer to do some work for him. From his home, he called the office to find an associate who could help.
The phone rang through to the firm's library where a young associate answered. After listening to Dewey explain what he needed done and that it had to be done immediately, the associate responded by saying that he couldn't possibly take on any additional work. He explained to Dewey that, as it was, he would be at the office all weekend working on projects for other lawyers that were due on Monday morning.
Dewey, not believing what he was hearing from the associate, asked, "Do you know who this is?" When the associate replied that he didn't, he was told, "This is Thomas Dewey." After thinking for a moment, the associate asked, "Do you know who this is?" When Thomas Dewey said that he didn't, the associate hung up the phone.
The Rodent is a syndicated columnist and author of "Explaining the Inexplicable: The Rodent's Guide to Lawyers." He can be reached by e-mail at THERODENT@aol.com.
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