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34 Legal Mgmt. 1 (2015)

handle is hein.barjournals/legman0034 and id is 1 raw text is: LEGAL MANAGEMENT TNEV(,?A~i OFF?' SCO O CF (,gL 3Y! NSA R LI Feature LEGAL INDUSTRY/BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Tailored Training Five Professional Development Tips for Each Attorney Stage MARY KATE SHRHIUAN Writer Editor and Attorney To develop good leaders long term, you need to target professional development programming. ALLISON FRIEND Chief Human Resources Officer Blank Rome The term professional development often calls to mind a conference room packed with associates and partners, eating a catered lunch while listening to a generalized Continuing Legal Education (CLE) class. While there is certainly value in these kinds of training programs, modern professional development offers attorneys so much more. With greater emphasis on professional development today than ever before, attorneys benefit from a range of training and innovative methods, including programs tailored specifically to their practice level. To develop good leaders long term, you need to target professional development programming, says Allison Friend, Chief Human Resources Officer at Blank Rome. Offerings customized by professional level provide attorneys with skills that are immediately relevant to their current practice or that help build a foundation for long-term success. Here are five tips for capturing the most critical aspects of professional development for each level of an attorney's career: junior associate, mid-level and senior associates, junior partner and senior partner. JUNIOR 1. Start Business Development and Management Training Early It is never too early to expose junior associates to business development and management skills. A training program that's a comprehensive program will build elements of all of those skills from the very beginning, says Ida Abbott, Founder of Ida Abbott Consulting. If you do it right, by the time somebody becomes a partner, they're already adept at doing those things. They just need to shift their perspective. In fact, at some firms, like Blank Rome, junior associates receive credit for bringing in new business. At Blank Rome, it's ingrained in our culture that business development and client development are critical skills to learn at a junior level, says Friend, who suggests providing juniors with an overview of client service and client-based communication, as well as networking experience. 2. Stress the Need for Internal Networking An introduction to networking within the firm is also useful to a junior associate's developing career. Through internal networking, an associate will get to know senior attorneys and partners, connect with potential mentors and gain exposure within the firm, and develop a better understanding of his or her passion, says Friend. Administrators can assist junior attorneys by training on the importance of meeting others within the firm and working on a variety of matters with different attorneys, as well as providing tips on how to network, says Friend. 3. Offer a Law Firm MBA The practice of law is no longer just about law; business skills have become critical to long-term success. Junior associates need to understand how clients operate in order to fully serve those clients, says Abbott. They must also be able to use basic business tools and

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