A Refresher on the Five Tool Attorney

I have written a lot about the five tool attorney, and you have read a lot about it, but to those of you who have not heard the concept before, let me set forth a refresher summary. Professional baseball scouts use a scale when evaluating players. They look at five separate “tools” to evaluate the potential of high school and college players. The five tools are: running speed; arm strength; hitting for average; hitting for power; and fielding. Anyone who possesses these five tools is considered the ultimate “five tool baseball player” and would be of tremendous value to his team.

Similarly, if an attorney possessed, or could develop, the five necessary tools, he or she could add great value to your law firm. The five necessary tools for an attorney are:

1.Provide the highest quality, thorough legal work;

2.Meet production goals;

3.Learn how to market, network and be civic minded;

4.Show leadership, be a leader, and train young attorneys; and

5.Participate in managerial and entrepreneurial thinking.

Realistically, you will never hire a five tool attorney that has manifested all five tools. More likely, you need to find individuals who can develop into a five tool attorney. These tools should be developed in the progressive order listed. It is a progression and recent law school graduates do not possess tools four and five. Therefore, you must do the best you can to interview, predict and hire people who have the ability to grow into the five tool attorney.

Provide the Highest Quality of Thorough Legal Work

Grades in law school and previous work experience provide a slight correlation to the work that an attorney may perform in his or her career. However, they are not always a perfect predictor of development. While we are not all endowed the same intelligent quotient, whatever you lack in IQ, you need to make up for in hard work. Therefore, using the old adage, “Don’t make the same mistake twice,” you need to see the progression of a young attorney to make sure his or her trajectory is upward and such attorney is not making the same mistakes twice. Thorough research, hard work, and good writing skills can usually be ascertained right from law school. However, critical thinking, depth of knowledge and how certain areas of the law actually crossover to different disciplines of the law, all come with years of experience. Alert young associates immediately that B+ work is not sufficient, and only the highest quality of legal work will suffice if you want to grow your law practice.

Meet Production Goals

Having the most brilliant young associate that is a great writer, researcher, and has the ability to present himself or herself in court eloquently with great oral arguments, has no economic value to the firm if he or she gets lost in projects, does not make production goals a priority and simply cannot translate his or her skillset to revenue. If the young associate does not want to bill his or her time, or greatly discounts his or her time while tracking his or her work, the economic value of a brilliant attorney is lost. If there is no economic value for his or her services, there is no value added to the law firm.

Many young attorneys are intimidated by the billing process and do not believe their time has value, nor do they want to disclose that a project that in their mind, should take one hour actually took them four hours. As such, their time is edited by them not by you, and written down before you even have a chance to see the amount of work that went into the project. Encourage the young attorney to “track their time” not bill their time. You will ultimately take a look at the sample bills that come from your billing software and make the final decision on what should be billed. Further, it needs to be made very clear that the most brilliant mind in the practice of law does no good if the individual has not accurately and honestly tracked his or her time and met production goals.

Marketing and Civic Involvement

The third part of the progression as a five tool attorney is marketing and civic involvement. Keep in mind, young attorneys should not focus on this third step until you are performing A+ work and meeting production goals. I usually break down marketing and civic involvement into three categories:

1.Bar association activities;

2.Civic activities such as the chamber of commerce, rotary, the Jaycees and other local civic and not for profit organizations; and

3.Industry groups.

While your purpose needs to be true, taking time to be involved for the betterment of your community and for the betterment of the perception of the practice of law is an honorable goal. This is firm marketing in its purest form – getting the firm and/or attorney’s name out in the community in a positive way. There is no doubt that the externalities of law create time constraints that in many cases are difficult to manage. Nonetheless it is an absolute requirement to be a complete attorney. Moreover, it is through these efforts that you will establish relationships, that will turn into clients and referral sources.

Being a Leader; Training Young Associates

The fourth tool is phasing into a senior associate role which begins at approximately five years out of law school and training young associates. The fourth tool is a mindset that it is not all about you. You work in a team environment and you need to understand that you need to give back to the law office and to your young associates. Remember, do not fall into the trap of “I’ll just do it myself because it takes longer to train someone to do it.” That is short sighted and is not for the betterment of the firm. Training young associates is an investment in the firm. Furthermore, such investment leads to the growth of the firm. Take the time and have other senior associates mentor and develop your young associate base.

Participate in Managerial and Entrepreneurial Thinking

This is not a simple concept but remember this adage “The firm comes first.” Keeping that in mind, if you make all your decisions putting the firm first, you will find that everyone benefits when the firm is thriving. Therefore, imagine having all of your associates grow to the point of making sure decisions are being made for what is best for the firm, and not for any individual or small constituent group connected to the firm, and you will find that everyone is better off for it.

Conclusion

In summary, the growth of an attorney can be monitored using the five tool approach. It is important that taken one by one, no young attorney is overwhelmed by the full task of the five tool goal, but rather grows into the role of the complete attorney on a step-by-step basis. Also, on a cautionary note, skills need to be aggregated. Once an attorney starts marketing and networking (the third tool) he or she cannot relax on tools number one and two; they are still critically important for the success of the firm. Just as teams with five tool players make it to the World Series, law firms with the five tool attorneys will thrive and grow.

For any further discussion on the five tool attorney, please reach out to Kerry Lavelle at klavelle@lavellelaw.com to schedule an appointment.

Kerry Lavelle is the author of “The Business Guide to Law: Creating and Operating a Successful Law Firm” published by the American Bar Association. It can be found on the ABA website at: http://bit.ly/1J1p0Aa . He grew his solo practice to a 28-attorney firm, accumulating numerous awards and commendations along the way for his legal work and community service. He is a frequent speaker at bar association seminars and conferences on law office management, and has served as an adjunct professor for business, economics and law school classes, and has served on boards for the Northwest Suburban, Illinois and American Bar Association.