In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams discuss:
- Teaching and mentoring in professional growth
- Developing people skills in law
- Leadership and management training for legal professionals
- Addressing underperformance in legal settings
Key Takeaways:
- Teaching involves not only imparting knowledge but also inspiring professionals, particularly in law, to develop essential life skills beyond technical expertise.
- Lawyers often struggle with business development due to a lack of training in people skills, which are vital for client relationships and practice growth.
- Effective supervision and leadership in law firms require more than delegation; they need clear communication, constructive feedback, and support to help junior staff succeed.
- Addressing the root causes of underperformance in associates or partners can lead to major improvements in productivity and professional growth.
“Success isn’t always about money. It can be just about being happy every day.” — Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams
Read more from Steve at Above the Law: AboveTheLaw.com/tag/Steve-Fretzin/
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Episode References:
The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Challenge-Extraordinary-Things-Organizations/dp/1119278961
About Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams: Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams is an international legal talent development expert with 30 years of experience helping lawyers and law firms improve productivity and profitability. She has authored three books for the American Bar Association and written over 150 articles on professional and business development. Dr. Abrahams has conducted over 300 seminars at prestigious institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Duke Law Schools and has taught at Florida International University and Nova Southeastern University.
Connect with Dr. Sharon Meit Abrahams:
Website: https://www.legaltalentadvisors.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsharonmeitabrahams/
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: [email protected]
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody, before we get to the show, I just want to share that I’m now writing for Above the Law. If you enjoy this podcast, you might also enjoy my monthly columns. You can go to Above the Law and type my name into the magnifying glass in the top right corner to read my latest articles. Thanks and enjoy the show.
[00:00:21] Narrator: You’re listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, we’ll take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.
[00:00:43] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the, be that lawyer with Fretzin podcast. We are rocking and rolling again, every single week, twice a week, Probably hear me say that a lot of listening to the show. I got to mix things up a bit. Don’t you think Sharon’s like, if you say the same opening over, I don’t know, there’s, there’s something to be said about the consistency of starting the same way, but also it’s kind of fun to change things up.
[00:01:02] Steve Fretzin: Yes. No, I agree. Change it up. All right. I’m changing it up. Everybody. I do not want to welcome you to the show. You probably shouldn’t be here. If you are, you’re a moron problem. No, maybe. Oh, wait.
[00:01:15] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Okay. Maybe I should keep it up for the better. Oh, okay.
[00:01:18] Steve Fretzin: Okay. Boy, you got to get confused very easily. Well we are, no, we’re excited to be here and share a wisdom and ideas with you as the, be that lawyer listener.
[00:01:27] Steve Fretzin: Want to make sure you’re living that best lawyer’s life. We’re going to start off with Sharon’s quote of the show. Now this is an, this is an oldie, but goodie. Give a man a fish, eats for a day, teach a man a fish, eats for a lifetime. Lao Tzu? Did I just say that right too?
[00:01:41] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Oh, I have no idea. Okay.
[00:01:43] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: All right. We’re calling it Lao Tzu. Okay.
[00:01:45] Steve Fretzin: No one really knows the pronunciation of his name but that’s, I mean, we’ve all heard that our whole lives. What’s your, first of all, welcome to the show and second of all, kind of give us your spin on why that quote is sort of your favorite quote.
[00:01:57] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Because I’m a teacher at heart.
[00:01:59] Steve Fretzin: Okay.
[00:01:59] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: That’s why because my mother told me when I was four years old, I used to play school with my dolls. And today, even though I work with lawyers, I’m still a teacher at heart.
[00:02:10] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Yeah. Teaching’s fun. My wife’s a teacher. She’s retiring in like three years, four years. She’s super excited about the retirement.
[00:02:16] Steve Fretzin: Not because she doesn’t love teaching because she likes the. The idea of having that, you know, that new, that second chapter, if you will. But I love teaching. I, I, I find that coaching is fun. I love coaching, but there’s something about teaching that is even more interesting and fun to me than coaching.
[00:02:31] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Absolutely. Because coaching, you’re trying to tap a person to tap their own potential, but as a teacher, you’re trying to inspire your student, whether it’s a child or whether it’s an adult, and I, by the way, have only ever taught adults. I’ve never taught children, but adults come to. Learning very, very differently than children too.
[00:02:49] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: And so that’s what I love.
[00:02:51] Steve Fretzin: You know, I came up with something a while back that I thought was kind of interesting because there’s a saying, since we’re talking about sayings, that is, if you do what you love, you know, you’ll, you know, do what you love. That’s, I think that’s the saying. And what I, what I came up with was do what you love to do for others.
[00:03:07] Steve Fretzin: So like, I love sales and, and, and, you know, being, you know, being, you know, someone that produces clients and has that, you know, that part of my business. I don’t want to stop doing that. But I love teaching people what I’m doing. I love teaching people methodologies and ways of doing things even more than what, than doing it myself.
[00:03:27] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Absolutely. Sometimes there’s a saying that says Like if you can’t do it, teach it, right? Like the day I can’t teach it to Jim.
[00:03:35] Steve Fretzin: No, that’s awful. Come on now.
[00:03:39] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: No, I think, I think a true teacher is someone who loves whatever it is that they teach with such a passion, but they feel the need to share it.
[00:03:47] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: I can’t tell you how many attorneys that I actually know when they retire or even with law to become full time teachers, because either they love history or they love law so much, or they love legal writing so much and they enjoy. Teaching it. So they up the lucrative job of being a lawyer to go with their passion.
[00:04:07] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: But when you go with passion, it does pay off in the end because success isn’t always about money. It can be just about being happy every day.
[00:04:17] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Hey, you guys, you’re listening to Dr. Sharon Meade Abrahams. She is the President of Legal Talent Advisors and Executive Director of YPA Young Partners Accelerator.
[00:04:27] Steve Fretzin: We have a big event that we’re doing together. I’m just participating. You’re running it coming up and we’ll get to that later, but just welcome to the show and give us a little bit of background too, because not everybody starts off working with lawyers day one. So we got to hear how you came to be.
[00:04:42] Steve Fretzin: Right.
[00:04:42] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: I didn’t start working with lawyers day one. I literally fell into it. But my background, as I said before, is always teaching adults. So I’ve always taught in the corporate world and I was teaching at a university and somebody who worked in a law firm was in one of my classes at the university and I got tapped.
[00:05:00] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: 30 years ago by a law firm to come and talk to them. And it opened a whole new world for me. And I, I literally fell into law doing professional development, which is teaching lawyers. And it doesn’t mean I’m teaching them the legal substance and skills. I’m teaching them all the other life skills they need to be successful as lawyers.
[00:05:20] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So for instance, Steve, I’m not teaching them business development skills. I’d hire you to come into my law firm, to teach them the business development skills, but it’s. Understanding the whole complex and comprehensive areas that they need to learn to be successful. And that’s why I started LTA, Legal Talent Advisors, because it was in house for many, many, many multiple decades.
[00:05:43] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: And I thought, you know what? Large law firms can afford a staff of professional development people, but small and midsize firms don’t. And that’s who my audience is. I get fabulous calls from law firms, help us share and create a mentoring program, create, you know, a new evaluation system. It’s all about people with me.
[00:06:02] Steve Fretzin: Yeah.
[00:06:02] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Help
[00:06:03] Steve Fretzin: people reach potential. And I, and I love collaborating with, I love collaborating with people who do exactly what I do in business development, but I, I even love more. Dealing with people that are executive coaches, HR operations, marketing in, in just, you know, how do we, how do we make this industry better than we found it?
[00:06:24] Steve Fretzin: Right? And that’s really what I, what I, what I’m enjoying doing is, is whether it’s creating content or interviews or, or coaching and training, teaching is my leaving people in this industry better than, than I found it. You know, basically, I found it like in the dirt. So yeah, we can only sorry to say that in the sense of like, you know, lawyers don’t learn business development in law school.
[00:06:44] Steve Fretzin: I don’t learn it at the law firm level in most instances. And so, like, you know, there’s a there’s an opportunity here, right for everybody to win.
[00:06:51] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Yeah, but they don’t learn a lot. They don’t learn how to manage other people. They don’t know how to work on a team. You know, if you go to get an MBA, you do a lot of team projects, but in law school, it’s, you know, every man and woman and they, for themselves.
[00:07:05] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So it’s very different. Now you’re in a law firm and yeah, you’re part of the team. So it’s lots of skills that they need beyond, you know, how to make money. It’s, you know, how to work with other people, how to work with your clients. On the business development, on the marketing, but also on the client relationship.
[00:07:22] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So I love the coaching aspect also along with the teaching. Cause that coaching is like teaching one person at a time, you know, helping open their mind a little bit.
[00:07:32] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. I mean, what I, what I, what I think a lot of, and I’m not trying to tell coaches to do this, but that what I find that. When I was just doing coaching, someone would hire me just, Hey, can you coach me for X number of hours per month?
[00:07:44] Steve Fretzin: And they, we’d spend almost our entire session with them asking, so how do I network more effectively? How do I, what do I say? What do I do? How do I, and I’m like, wait a second, that’s not hired me for coaching, but you really want training. And I said, why, so why did we miss the, you know, you really, and so I found that the combination of the two is sort of a secret sauce.
[00:08:07] Steve Fretzin: And I’m not saying again, for everyone to do that, you have to have a good methodology and you have to have systems and ways of doing it. But it, but I found that to be sort of the best secret sauce and one, two punch, whatever we want to call it. But, but this is a good segue into the importance of business development and the importance of.
[00:08:26] Steve Fretzin: Associates starting early and starting young to start understanding that the other sides of the law with not just the law, right?
[00:08:37] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Absolutely. We don’t start them early enough. They don’t learn these skills. In fact, nobody in law school says, Oh, by the way, you really need to learn sales. Lawyers are like, Oh, my God, I didn’t go to school, you know, to be a business person.
[00:08:49] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: I went to school to practice law. But it’s people skills. It is literally just people skills. And that’s my passion, helping people work better with other people. And if the outcome is business development and I closed the deal and I get a new piece of work, it’s still business. Oh, excuse me. It’s still people relationships and that’s.
[00:09:09] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: That’s my passion is people working better with people and whether whatever aspect that might be.
[00:09:15] Steve Fretzin: Well, here’s a dirty secret. You know, business development doesn’t happen without people skills. You can’t be bad with people and then go out and develop business because everyone is not going to like you.
[00:09:24] Steve Fretzin: So what are, so what are some of the things that associates need to work on to get really stable with. How they’re going to develop their career to make partner and to elevate. What are some of the people skills or things that you would be teaching them and working with them on?
[00:09:40] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So, you know, and I don’t, I don’t want to talk specifically about business development because no, no, it
[00:09:46] Steve Fretzin: doesn’t have to be.
[00:09:47] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. So to me, it’s. It’s supervisory management leadership, whatever you want to title it. Now in law, they use the word leadership because it sounds better than management or supervision, but it really is all, it’s not leadership at all. It’s management and supervision. It’s how you work with other people.
[00:10:05] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: It’s how you delegate, how you give feedback, how you say, you know, you’re a third year associate and you delegated work to a first year or a summer, a summer clerk. And then how do you give them that feedback in an effective manner that they actually hear it, retain it, and then fix whatever it is that you’re giving them feedback on.
[00:10:25] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: There’s skills to all of that. It’s like, oh, this, you know, this document is redlined. It’s got a thousand, you know comments on it. Here, go fix it. I don’t know how to fix it. I’m a second year associate. How do you talk to that person? So these are the types of skills that I love to teach. And it’s like in the business development world, you need to listen to what the clients are saying so that you can actually help them find the solutions to their problems.
[00:10:49] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Well, if an associate is giving in poor work or a senior partner, I love doing what I call my partner whisperer work. Which is where I work with underperforming partners and people who the firm is not happy with, you know, there’s something going on. I love finding out what the real issue is. Once we figure out what the issue is, we can offer solutions and come up with a problem solving things.
[00:11:12] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: And then we turn those attorneys around and they become amazing producers. Just like if you solve a client’s problem, they’re going to give you more work, right? So that’s, that’s business development is solving your client’s problem.
[00:11:25] Steve Fretzin: Well, but let’s go back for a second because I want you tapped into something interesting.
[00:11:28] Steve Fretzin: There are our senior partners and partner level folks who are wondering what those issues are. What are you hearing on a day to day basis of why associates are underperforming? What’s going on in their heads? What’s going on in their lives where they’re not doing their jobs at the level they should or could.
[00:11:46] Steve Fretzin: Right. And it’s not just associates underperforming, it’s other partners underperforming as well. Of course. But I mean, I’m, I’m just trying to figure out like what’s going on in their heads.
[00:11:54] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Yeah. So a couple of things. One, if an associate is underperforming, it means they’re lacking a set of, there’s a set of skills, which is probably legal knowledge.
[00:12:04] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: They don’t know how to actually physically do the work because law school doesn’t create a lawyer. It creates somebody who can think maybe they can write a little bit, but it doesn’t actually teach the law. It’s not until you go and begin to practice that you learn the laws related to whatever niche you have, you know, fallen into.
[00:12:22] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So that is. Number the number 1 things, but others are lack of other types of skills. For instance, I have 4 ADHD coaching clients right now. For those of you, you know, attention deficit, they’re brilliant people, but they’re not functioning with skills. They don’t have structure around what they’re doing.
[00:12:41] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So I work with them. To come up with structures that help them do their work most efficiently because they can’t go bing bing bing bing bing bing, you know, from emails to phone calls. They can’t do that.
[00:12:51] Narrator: Right? So
[00:12:52] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: what are the parameters they have to create for their for their practice world? And how do they communicate that to the people who work around them?
[00:12:58] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: When you move into, you know, like the partner level, if a partner suddenly isn’t producing, something very specific is going on. I had a fabulous partner. Love this guy. He was in his 60s and he just was always fabulous. And all of a sudden he’s going through assistance, you know, yelling and screaming. You know what the problem was?
[00:13:17] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: You ready for this? Yeah. The firm changed their, their document management system and their timekeeping system, like within months of each other. What did I tell you? This guy was 60. He was having like overload input, overload, too much technology. And it was causing him to go off the rails. Well, once we figured that out by asking good questions and learning what the issue was and help them come up with a solution, we fixed them.
[00:13:45] Steve Fretzin: Yeah.
[00:13:46] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: That’s
[00:13:46] Steve Fretzin: what I love. I mean, the last episode we did was Bill Gafka, who was talking about five generations working together and right. And how difficult it is for everybody, you know, the younger people bring the technology and the savvy there and the older. So it’s like, how do they all work together in harmony?
[00:14:03] Steve Fretzin: But the younger generation is getting a bad rap. Because I think they figured out something that the older generation, mine and boomers haven’t, which is, you know, the importance of balance and enjoying your life. And it’s not that we don’t or didn’t, we obviously put work first in many cases.
[00:14:18] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Correct.
[00:14:18] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Correct. I wrote, I wrote an article right after COVID came out called what we learned from COVID that we should have learned from our millennials. And it was an article about. Technology all the firms that didn’t have, you know, in the cloud processing were screwed, right? Yeah, coming to work. All the millennials were asking, can I work from home?
[00:14:38] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Can I have a laptop? And firms like, no, you have to come to the office every day. Like, we, there were so many things that millennials were like. Showing us the future and law firms are so set in the precedent in the past that it took literally a global pandemic for law firms to move themselves into the 20th century, not even the 21st century.
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[00:16:55] Steve Fretzin: Learn [email protected] slash be that lawyer. So, I mean, one thing I wanted to pull out of this, out of this conversation was really about there’s a lot of associates that may not see the. Forward to partner. I don’t know if, if equity partner is the dream anymore. That kind of used to be the end result was I need to be equity at this, at this firm.
[00:17:17] Steve Fretzin: And there’s, you know, benefits, pros and cons of everything, but, but associates that want to make partner and want to elevate their game. What are some of the things that they need to be thinking about to make that transition?
[00:17:27] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: All right, that’s a great question. Because you’re first of all, your comment is correct.
[00:17:31] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Not everybody wants to be an equity partner because they see these partners working way harder than they actually want to work when they’re that old. You know but there are still people who are very motivated to get that partnership title. So again, people skills critically important partnership, and whether it’s a non equity or income partner or an equity partner partnership is critical.
[00:17:54] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: A partnership. I want to work with you if you’re a cool dude, you know, and if you’re not, I don’t want to work with you. So the people skills getting along with, with others playing nice in the sandbox is one of the most critical things. Yes, you have to be a good lawyer. Let’s just start with that as a basis.
[00:18:11] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: The assumption is, is you’re a good lawyer. Nobody wants your partner if you’re going to be a malpractice issue, but it’s then do I want to be your partner? Do I want to stay up till 3 in the morning with you closing a deal? Are we going to go out and, you know, have a great happy hour together with or without drinks?
[00:18:26] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: You can use mocktails, by the way. You know, are you somebody I feel has my back? These are people skills, and again, it’s what we talked about. Can I lead others? Can I motivate them? Can I get them excited? Do I teach? You and I love to teach. Am I teaching junior people? And I say that because by the time I’m a senior associate, I better be teaching junior people so that when I’m elevated to partner, I already have a team.
[00:18:53] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: I have a team of loyal people. And so the things that the senior associates need to be getting to develop are the skills, the people skills. And the people skills, then let’s flip to you. Right. And what you do it, then it’s the people skills with the clients. It’s not just I’m servicing them because I’m brilliant and I’m a great attorney, but am I listening to my clients?
[00:19:13] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Am I hearing, am I hearing what they’re saying behind, you know, they’re saying, oh, you know, I need to save money. And you immediately think, Oh, I would just need to cut my legal fees or do they need to save money because their, their company isn’t doing well. And so it’s a cry for help. Like, are you listening between the lines of what your client being to you?
[00:19:34] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So these are, again, it’s all people skills and this, this is what I’m passionate about. And this is why young partner accelerator was created because what happens is, is an attorney wakes up one day yesterday, I was an associate and say, I’m a partner. Well, what’s changed your title expectations that’s changed and a lot of law firms don’t communicate expectations and that’s another issue that associates need to start asking lots of questions.
[00:20:06] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: You know, what is expected of me? What, what are the requirements? What do I need to be doing? What does it look like to be successful at this firm? They gotta ask questions
[00:20:16] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, and also what what’s the transparency? Of the firm, I mean if they’re not going to share that information and they’re just going to make it a big guessing game I’m, not saying that’s the writing on the wall, but that should be a concern.
[00:20:28] Steve Fretzin: I think transparency in the last 10 years Has been critical for people to see the roadmap in front of them, not just on comp, but also promotion progression. Do I need a million dollar book? Do I need a half a million dollar book? Do I need to build so many hours? Do I have my own clients? Like what’s the, what’s the path?
[00:20:47] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Right, and younger attorneys, and I think older attorneys maybe had it a little bit, but way more now, they want a road map with the actual stops along the way. They want the mile markers, right? I think the, the traditionalists, the older generation, the baby boomers were like, we’re all in, we’re going to work our butts off and we’re just going to get to partner.
[00:21:08] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: And we just knew it would be handed to us if we just achieved achieved cheap. Now the younger people are like, nope, tell me exactly what I need to do. Here’s the problem with that. If you tell me ABCD and I do ABCD and the law firm says, you know what? We don’t think you’re going to make a good partner because they don’t like you.
[00:21:25] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: You don’t play nice in the sandbox. We’ve created now an unwritten contract that if I do ABC and D. You’re going to make me a partner. Do you see? So law firms like to keep it a little bit in the gray so that it’s not a guarantee. And this is, we’re dealing with law. So this is such a subtle thing. So that’s why a lot of law firms dance around it and say, do you need a million?
[00:21:50] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Do you need a half a million? Do I just need to see progress in your trajectory?
[00:21:58] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, and I think that, you know, culture and communication and expectations and, and and in production, I mean, they all weave. Together to decide that someone’s going to be elevated and by the way, a word that we haven’t talked about, we kind of mentioned people. Liked. I think you need and want to be liked and likable because if you’re not, that’s not going to help your cause in how you progress in your career.
[00:22:23] Steve Fretzin: But I, so I think part of people building is not just being right and not just being, you know you know, arguing your case, right? It’s really also about getting along and being likable.
[00:22:34] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So let me throw in one of my areas of great passion is emotional intelligence. So, so do I need to be likable or do I need to have a high enough EQ so that I understand other people and can read a situation and understand how to help that person either, you know, manage themselves or me manage myself better.
[00:22:56] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: So, you know, not everybody’s liked, But as long as you’re respected, because you treat others with a level of respect as well, you could be a very good leader. You know, Steve Jobs wasn’t liked by a lot of people, but he was a friggin amazing leader. And he took his corporation, you know, into the sky and beyond.
[00:23:15] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Right. Yeah. You don’t like ability. See, I use the word playing nice in the sandbox again, not always have to be likable, but somebody I can respect somebody, you know, maybe I wouldn’t do it that way. The way you’ve done it, but I respect that you got the job done, stuff like that. That’s a fair point.
[00:23:34] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: That’s a fair point. It’s important. It’s important. I’m Steve. I like to be liked. I mean, yeah, I, yeah, sorry. I mean, look, not everybody does.
[00:23:43] Steve Fretzin: I think if you’re, if you’re going to, you know, rule the world in, in, in Steve Jobs fashion and you’re going to lead at the highest level, I mean. You know, that emotional intelligence and playing that out might be, you know, not being liked by everybody.
[00:23:56] Steve Fretzin: That’s sort of the, you have to have that, you know, that be okay with that. But I think as you’re, as you’re building your career within a firm, and you’re looking to elevate within the firm, it’s certainly going to be an advantage if everybody’s talking about you as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
[00:24:10] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Yes, yes, yes. So can I, can I throw a monkey wrench into all of this? You can, and
[00:24:15] Steve Fretzin: then we got to, then we got to wrap up because we’ve got a, we’ve got a program to promote to the the accelerator program to promote to
[00:24:21] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: just, I want to put in the word diversity. I know there’s a lot of stuff going out there in the world right now, whether you can do it or don’t do it or think about it or don’t think about it or talk about it.
[00:24:29] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Don’t talk about it. We do have people, and this is a great segue to young partner accelerator. We do have people that fall into categories that don’t get. The work opportunity, they don’t get in front of the right people, they are held back, not necessarily because they’re holding themselves back, but there’s.
[00:24:49] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Systems around them that hold them back, and that’s why Young Partner Accelerator was created.
[00:24:53] Steve Fretzin: Okay, well, that’s a great segue. So let’s talk about the Young Accelerator talk about what it is, when it’s happening, like, let’s, you know, let’s get that, let’s get that on the, on the, on the, on the record.
[00:25:03] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Okay, so this was my passion project. When I was in house at law firms, I ran new partner orientations, you know, with classes of 10 to 20 to 50 new partners. Again, large law firms, small firms make one new partner, maybe once a year, once every two years, there’s no onboarding, there’s no orientation, there’s no, here’s the secret sauce, none of that is given to them.
[00:25:25] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: That is what Young Partner Accelerator is. It’s a two day program focused on a soon to be partner, maybe they’re going to be promoted in the next few months, or somebody who was recently promoted maybe earlier this year, even at the end of last year, To give them that secret sauce, to talk to them about what are the skills that they need, how to be liked, how to play nice in the sandbox.
[00:25:47] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: But also for you coming and joining us, teaching them the business development skills that they need to really be seen as successful in their law firms. So it’s in September, September 27th, 28th. It’s in Chicago. We’re doing it this year at Leola Law School, which is the water tower campus, which is right in the heart of Chicago.
[00:26:06] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: We’re going to have a ball. We got a lot of fun stuff schedule. We’re going to have some parties, everything. It’s going to be, it’s going to be a great two days. People from all over. But literally the world, well, North America came last year from Mexico to Canada, California to New York. We had people from everywhere.
[00:26:24] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: It was fabulous.
[00:26:25] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. So if people want to sign up for that, where, where do they go and, and is there a discount code that they can give from the show for me or, or that you’re offering?
[00:26:34] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Yes, there is a discount code that has your name in it. You’re going to ask me that. I think it’s your name and just 2024, 2024.
[00:26:44] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: We’ll, we’ll put that in the show notes. Right. To come with that number. Yes. You, you, you, you, Steve are offering a discount to all of your loyal listeners. So we would love for them to sign up and use your code so that we can thank you. For encouraging them to come. It’s going to be great. We’re going to have a really good time.
[00:27:04] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. No, I’m excited about that. And let’s wrap up with our game changing book. The leadership challenge, which you mentioned is kind of an older book and oldie but goodie, if you will.
[00:27:12] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Right? So the leadership talent challenge by Poohs and Cosner was I met it. It was a textbook. It’s not a textbook.
[00:27:22] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: It’s a regular business book, but it was a textbook and a class that I took so many years ago that there’s like four inches of dust on my bookshelf here. But it’s a classic book that talks about how to become a good leader. And it talks about EQ, but it doesn’t call it EQ. It talks about management by walking around, but it doesn’t call it that.
[00:27:41] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: It’s just to be a good leader of other people, whether it’s a small little legal team or a whole friggin law firm. It’s just a great book for everybody to read.
[00:27:52] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Well, check that out, everybody. And also check out our amazing sponsors. Of course, law Maddox gets staffed up and Pymcon also coming up in September for the personal injury attorneys that want to go first class.
[00:28:03] Steve Fretzin: And there is a discount code. I think if you go to Pymcon and check that out, it’s a, be that lawyer is the discount code. So so Sharon, I, if people want to get in touch with you more directly for, you know, your services or to learn more about you, is there a website you want to share or email?
[00:28:18] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Sure.
[00:28:18] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Sure. My website is legal talent advisors. Advisors with an S at the end. And all my information is there. How to contact me is there. There’s a link to YPA, Young Partner Accelerator on my website as well. I’m thrilled to be with you, Steve, and to have you come and talk. I’ve been following you.
[00:28:37] Steve Fretzin: Okay.
[00:28:38] Steve Fretzin: A little stalkerish, but okay.
[00:28:40] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: I’ve been stalking you, yes. And now I get to work with you, which is a lot of fun. And because we’re, we really have the same goal, right? Help lawyers be more successful.
[00:28:49] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, that is the goal. And again, the young, young lawyer young partner accelerator, you know, a couple days of just focused time working on your business with me and a lot of top professionals that, that I know you’re going to enjoy and all the fun and camaraderie that goes with it.
[00:29:03] Steve Fretzin: So Sharon, thank you so much for being on the show, sharing your wisdom and, and, and having this great conversation with me. I know we’re going to, we’re just going to have a blast together in September. I’m looking forward to that. So thank you.
[00:29:13] Dr. Sharon Abrahams: Thank you, Steve.
[00:29:14] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. And thank you everybody for spending some time with us on the Be That Lawyer with Fretzinon podcast.
[00:29:19] Steve Fretzin: Take care, everybody. Be safe. Be well. We will talk again very soon.
[00:29:26] Narrator: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website, Fretzin. com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show.