What the Best Business Books Can Teach Lawyers About Building a Better Practice

By Steve Fretzin and Brian Klein

How lessons from great business books can help lawyers become better listeners, manage their time, delegate effectively, communicate value, improve client service, and build healthier law firms.

I have interviewed hundreds of lawyers, coaches, consultants, and business leaders on BE THAT LAWYER, but this episode took a different direction. Instead of choosing one business development topic and digging into it, Brian Klein and I decided to talk about something that has influenced both of our careers tremendously: books. Not legal books, but the business, productivity, leadership, and personal development books that have changed how we work and think.

Brian is cofounder and managing partner of Weinstein + Klein, a growing New Jersey law firm serving businesses in employment law, commercial litigation, and corporate matters. Over seven years, he and his partners have grown the firm to approximately 15 lawyers, and one thing that stood out during our conversation was Brian’s commitment to being a student of business. Being a great lawyer does not automatically teach you how to lead people, manage your time, build systems, develop business, create a strong culture, or deliver an exceptional client experience. Those are skills we have to learn somewhere.

That is where books have played an important role for both of us. Some of the biggest improvements I have made in my own business came from reading one idea at the right time and actually doing something with it. A book helped me completely reorganize my life. Another changed how I packaged my coaching program. Others have influenced how Brian and I listen, delegate, serve clients, manage stress, and think about value.

You do not need to read every business book on the shelf. You need to find the ideas that solve problems you actually have and then put those ideas to work.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Listening Is a Business Development Skill

We started with Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and one of its best known principles: seek first to understand, then to be understood. That idea could almost serve as the foundation of my Sales-Free Selling methodology because so much of effective business development comes down to questioning, listening, understanding, empathy, and qualification.

Lawyers are trained to have answers. We explain, advise, advocate, and demonstrate expertise, and those skills are obviously essential when practicing law. The problem is that they can work against us when we bring the same approach into networking or a prospective client conversation. Instead of being curious, we start explaining what we do. Instead of asking another question, we begin demonstrating how much we know.

Brian connected Covey’s principle directly to networking. The best networking does not feel like networking because you are not working the room looking for transactions. You are connecting with people, becoming genuinely interested in them, learning about their businesses and lives, and allowing relationships to develop naturally.

He shared another idea that captures this beautifully: when everything else is equal, people like doing business with their friends, so make everything equal and make a lot of friends. That does not mean pretending to be someone’s friend because you want their business. It means becoming a better listener and a more curious, empathetic, authentic person. Those qualities make you better at networking because they make you better at developing genuine relationships.

Getting Things Done: Your Brain Shouldn’t Be Your Filing Cabinet

My first major contribution to our book list was David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which genuinely changed my life.

Go back about 20 years and picture me with stacks of business cards, paper everywhere, sticky notes, hundreds of unanswered emails, and multiple businesses I was trying to manage at the same time. I was keeping too much in my head, my organization was terrible, and I did not have a reliable process for making sure things got handled.

Today, I am essentially paper free, I get to inbox zero, and I have systems for capturing and managing what needs to happen. I believe in Getting Things Done so strongly that it is one of the books I send my coaching clients when they begin working with me. Brian actually read it because I recommended it to him during one of our earlier conversations, which made it particularly fun to discuss together.

What struck me when I first read the book was how many processes we have for relatively insignificant things while having no process at all for our most valuable nonrenewable asset. We follow recipes when we cook, routines when we get ready in the morning, and systems for billing, payroll, document management, and dozens of other business activities. Then we manage our time by winging it.

A reliable system does more than make you organized. It gets commitments out of your head so your brain can focus on thinking, creating, solving problems, developing relationships, and doing excellent legal work. You should not be waking up at two in the morning suddenly remembering a call you forgot to return because your brain is trying to function as your task management system.

Buy Back Your Time: Just Because You Can Do It Doesn’t Mean You Should

Brian’s next major recommendation was Dan Martell’s Buy Back Your Time, which was influential enough to convince him to hire an assistant. One of the central concepts he discussed was the buyback rate, a framework for determining what your time is worth and when it makes economic sense to have someone else perform a task.

This is a massive issue for lawyers because I regularly see managing partners and highly compensated attorneys answering phones, scheduling meetings, dealing with routine emails, handling administrative tasks, managing social media, and performing work that does not require their expertise. If your time is worth $500, $750, or $1,000 an hour, it makes very little sense to spend large portions of your day performing work that can be handled effectively at a fraction of that cost.

There is also another side to delegation that lawyers frequently overlook. You may be capable of doing the work, but that does not mean you are the best person to do it. A professional assistant may manage your calendar better than you. A trained receptionist may provide a better intake experience than an attorney trying to answer calls between meetings. A marketing professional may be far better at executing your content strategy.

Brian shared another concept from the book that I particularly liked: if someone can perform a task at least 80% as well as you can, seriously consider giving it to them. As he put it, “If you can have someone that can do the job, at least 80% as good as you, you got to give it to them.”

That can be uncomfortable for lawyers because we are trained around precision and quality. If we know we can do something better, our instinct is often to keep doing it ourselves. As a practice grows, however, the question has to change from “Can I do this?” to “Is this the highest and best use of my time?” Those are completely different questions.

$100M Offers: Stop Selling Hours and Start Communicating Value

One of my selections was Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers, and I will admit that I did not expect to love it. I tend to dislike marketing that feels gimmicky or relies on huge promises, but the book helped me think differently about packaging and communicating value.

I applied those lessons directly to my own coaching business. Instead of viewing my primary program as a certain number of coaching hours, I stepped back and looked at everything my clients actually receive. There are classes, individual coaching, access to me between sessions, peer advisory opportunities, books, content, and the BE THAT LAWYER Community, among other resources. Looking at the entire experience helped me restructure the program into a deeper two year engagement with considerably more value than simply selling individual coaching sessions.

Lawyers should think about their services in much the same way. Clients are rarely buying six hours of your time because they desperately want six hours of legal work. They may be buying reduced risk, peace of mind, protection of their business, resolution of a dispute, completion of an important transaction, or a path through an incredibly difficult personal situation.

Brian reinforced this point because he has learned the same lesson in his own practice. When there are countless lawyers a client could choose, you have to understand why someone should select you. That requires listening before pricing because you cannot communicate value until you understand what the client actually values.

This becomes even more important as AI changes the relationship between time and legal work. If technology allows a lawyer to solve something faster, the client may receive more value, not less. Lawyers who continue defining their entire worth by how long something takes may eventually find themselves having increasingly difficult conversations about price.

Unreasonable Hospitality: What Does It Feel Like to Be Your Client?

Brian saved one of his strongest recommendations for Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. In fact, the book is required reading for every new employee at his firm, which tells you how seriously he takes its lessons about culture and client experience.

The book comes from the restaurant and hospitality world, particularly Guidara’s experience with Eleven Madison Park, but the ideas translate beautifully to law firms and other professional service businesses. Lawyers understandably focus heavily on the quality of their legal work, but there is another question that deserves just as much attention: what does it actually feel like to be your client?

Do clients feel heard and understood? Do they know what is happening with their matter? Do you remember important things about their lives and businesses? Are you responsive? Do you occasionally provide help that has nothing to do with generating another legal fee?

During our conversation, I gave the example of a client who has a newborn and happens to be a Green Bay Packers fan. Instead of sending another generic holiday gift that everyone else receives, imagine sending a Packers onesie for the baby. It is not about the money. It is about showing that you were listening and that the relationship matters to you.

Brian then turned that example back on me. During a recent conversation, I remembered details about his daughter, including her age. He correctly guessed that I probably took notes somewhere along the way, but the notes were not really the point. I had to listen when he first told me about her, care enough to capture the information, and review it before we spoke again. Brian told me it made him feel seen and that it communicated that I cared.

That is what exceptional client service often looks like. It does not always require some grand gesture. A handwritten note, remembering someone’s child, making a valuable introduction, helping a client’s family member with a career question, or simply following up when you said you would can have an enormous impact on how people experience the relationship.

Your Current Clients May Be Your Best Business Development Opportunity

The lessons from Unreasonable Hospitality also connect directly to business development because existing clients are often one of the strongest sources of future business. They already know you, have experienced your work, and hopefully trust you, yet many lawyers finish the matter and immediately turn their attention elsewhere.

Client development should not mean constantly looking for another matter to sell. It means continuing to understand the client’s business and life, learning what challenges they are facing, helping them connect with useful people, and finding ways to be valuable even when there is no immediate legal fee attached.

When lawyers do that consistently, additional business often becomes a natural extension of the relationship. The client thinks of you when another issue arises, introduces you to someone who needs help, or brings you into another part of the organization because you have become more than the attorney who handled one isolated matter.

This is another place where lawyers can benefit from thinking like hospitality professionals. Great service creates loyalty, and loyalty creates opportunities that aggressive selling rarely can.

The Mindbody Prescription: You Can’t Separate Performance From Health

My final book took us away from traditional business literature and into health. Years ago, I began experiencing unexplained physical pain. My neck would hurt, then it would improve and my lower back would start bothering me. I went through chiropractors, imaging, and other efforts to understand why I was hurting when there had been no obvious injury.

Eventually, I discovered Dr. John Sarno’s The Mindbody Prescription. The book explores the potential relationship between emotional stress and physical pain. What resonated with me was the broader idea that we cannot neatly separate what is happening emotionally from how we feel physically.

Brian immediately connected with that discussion because he has dealt with celiac disease and has spent time learning about the relationship between the gut and brain. Our experiences were different, but we landed on the same larger point: it is difficult to perform at your best professionally when you feel terrible physically or emotionally.

That does not mean every physical problem is caused by stress, and it certainly does not mean people should ignore appropriate medical care. The business lesson is much simpler. Lawyers and entrepreneurs sometimes treat their bodies as though they are completely separate from their professional performance, when the reality is that poor sleep, chronic stress, lack of exercise, and poor nutrition can make everything else harder.

Brian referenced a wellness discussion that boiled the basics down to three things: are you sleeping enough, exercising reasonably, and eating properly? Before becoming obsessed with supplements, optimization, and the newest wellness strategy, get the fundamentals right. The same thinking applies to business. Before looking for the newest AI hack or marketing trick, make sure you are doing the basic things that consistently produce results.

Brian’s Biggest Mistake: Waiting Too Long to Bet on Himself

Toward the end of every BE THAT LAWYER episode, I like asking guests about their biggest mistake. Brian’s answer was that he wishes he had started his business sooner.

Leaving his previous firm happened under less than ideal circumstances, but building his own firm became one of the most rewarding professional experiences of his career. His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs was not to wait indefinitely for the perfect moment because that moment may never arrive. At some point, you have to be willing to take a calculated risk and move.

I added an important qualifier because entrepreneurship is not for everybody. Building a firm means accepting risk, responsibility, difficult periods, uncertainty, and a willingness to endure some painful stretches to get where you want to go. Some lawyers will thrive in that environment, while others will be much happier building successful careers inside existing organizations.

The important thing is understanding which person you are. If entrepreneurship is something you genuinely want and you have prepared responsibly for it, waiting forever for conditions to become perfect can become its own form of risk.

The Best Book Is the One You Actually Use

Brian and I originally planned to talk about six books, but by the end we had referenced closer to eight or nine. Along with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Getting Things Done, Buy Back Your Time, $100M Offers, Unreasonable Hospitality, and The Mindbody Prescription, we touched on books such as Atomic Habits, Who Not How, and The Power of Moments.

You could read every one of them and change absolutely nothing.

That is why I believe reading has to be connected to implementation. Brian read a book and hired an assistant. I read a book and completely changed the way I manage my time. Another book helped me redesign my coaching offering. Unreasonable Hospitality became required reading inside Brian’s firm because he wants those principles reflected in the culture and client experience.

That is where the value is.

You do not need to become the lawyer who reads 50 business books a year and proudly displays them on the shelf. Find the ideas that solve real problems in your life and practice, test them, implement what works, and keep improving.

If you can look back at yourself and your business a year from now and see meaningful improvement, the reading was worth it.

Key Takeaways

• Better business development begins with listening. Genuine curiosity and empathy can improve networking, client relationships, leadership, and sales conversations.
• Lawyers need systems for managing time rather than relying on memory, email, sticky notes, and willpower.
• Delegation should be based on the value of your time and who is best positioned to perform the work, not simply whether you are capable of doing it yourself.
• If someone can perform a task approximately 80% as well as you, consider whether continuing to own that task is really the best use of your time.
• Lawyers should understand and communicate the value of the outcome they provide rather than immediately reducing their services to hours and rates.
• Client experience matters. Thoughtfulness, listening, personalization, and unexpected acts of service can create loyalty that excellent legal work alone may not.
• Existing clients can be one of the strongest sources of additional business when lawyers intentionally continue investing in those relationships.
• Physical and emotional health affect professional performance, so productivity and business development should not be separated from basic wellness.
• There may never be a perfect time to make a major professional move, but entrepreneurship should be approached with a realistic understanding of the risk and responsibility involved.
• Reading becomes valuable when ideas turn into action. One implemented lesson can be worth more than dozens of books that never change your behavior.

A Quote to Remember

“If you can have someone that can do the job, at least 80% as good as you, you got to give it to them.” — Brian Klein

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Books and Law Firm Growth

What are some of the best business books for lawyers?

The books discussed in this episode include The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Getting Things Done by David Allen, Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara, and The Mindbody Prescription by Dr. John Sarno. Each addresses a different aspect of professional performance, including communication, productivity, delegation, value, client experience, and wellness.

How can lawyers become better listeners?

Lawyers can improve their listening by approaching conversations with the goal of understanding before responding. Asking open ended questions, following up on what the other person says, avoiding unnecessary interruptions, and resisting the urge to immediately demonstrate expertise can strengthen client relationships and business development.

What should lawyers delegate?

Lawyers should evaluate administrative, scheduling, inbox, marketing, intake, and other recurring tasks that do not require their highest level of expertise. The goal is not simply to get rid of work but to ensure that the right work is being performed by the right person while the lawyer protects time for activities that require their experience, judgment, relationships, and expertise.

How can law firms create a better client experience?

A better client experience begins with understanding what clients value beyond the legal work itself. Clear communication, responsiveness, remembering personal details, anticipating needs, making helpful introductions, and occasionally doing something unexpectedly thoughtful can make clients feel genuinely cared for rather than processed.

How can lawyers communicate value instead of competing on price?

Lawyers should understand the client’s desired outcome, risks, concerns, and priorities before discussing fees. Once that context is clear, the attorney can explain how their experience, process, accessibility, expertise, and service help the client achieve the outcome that matters to them.

Why are existing clients important for law firm growth?

Existing clients already know the lawyer and have firsthand experience with the firm’s work. Continuing to develop those relationships can lead to additional matters, referrals, introductions, and opportunities elsewhere in the client’s organization without forcing the lawyer to constantly begin new relationships from scratch.

How can lawyers get more value from business books?

Read with implementation in mind. Identify one or two ideas that address a current problem, determine how they apply to your practice, and turn them into specific behaviors, systems, or decisions. The objective is not to finish more books but to improve how you operate.

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About Brian Klein

Brian Klein is an unconventional labor and employment attorney and cofounder and managing partner of Weinstein + Klein. His firm serves businesses as outside general counsel, with a focus on employment law, commercial litigation, and corporate matters.

Named a New York Super Lawyer from 2022 through 2024 and previously recognized as a Rising Star from 2017 through 2021, Brian built his practice around the belief that legal counsel should be informative, approachable, and engaging. He has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Hofstra Law School, written for publications including Eater and the International Business Times, and serves on the NYC Bar Association’s Committee on Labor and Employment Law.

Connect with Brian Klein

Website: https://www.weinsteinklein.com/teammembers/brian-g-klein/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-klein-552200a/

Email: [email protected]

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Website: https://BETHATLAWYER.com/
Email: [email protected]
Books: https://www.fretzin.com/about/books/
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Call Steve directly: 847-602-6911

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