TinkerX

Less than a week ago I wrote a post about how simply offering more money to associates really isn’t a smart way to market your firm to them. Three days later, and I still agree with myself. Go figure. But putting your summer associates to work on meaningful projects as soon as possible after they hit the ground is a great way to market to them.

Hunh? What? Money bad? Labor good? C’mon, Andy… Don’t you know what’s wrong with kids today? All they want is the bling-bling! They want to be wined and dined and treated like visiting royalty during the summer.

Wrong. They want a taste of reality, not to be shuffled between fancy events and paper-pushing drudgery. These are smart people who have been working their tails off for the last 12… er… 16? 19! years in order to — finally! — have a chance to do something!

Hallelujah! I’m at a law firm! I can use my intelligence, my moxie, my energy, my personality in the service of… Filing. I speak three languages fluently… Oh. So I can file the French documents, too? Thanks. I also have an MBA… Oh. So I can file for the contract group as well as the litigators. Great.

Now… we all know that summer associates can’t practice law. Yes, I was paying attention during that part of orientation. But, like so many other areas of legal marketing, this requires some "savvy" and some sensitivity. It’s not a binary equation, and that’s what confusing to some firms; i.e., "You’re not a lawyer, so you have to do secretarial work." Well, "There are more marketing activities in heaven and earth, Horatio…"

So. What can you do with a really smart person who you’d like to come work for you in a year or two? How can you use them in ways that not only market the firm to them (making them more likely to accept an offer and be a happy, productive associate), but use them to market your firm? I’ll get you started:

• Place them with your clients. Your clients, I guarantee, understand the idea of mentoring and internships. I don’t mean that they should do legal work for your clients. That would be "bad." I mean that they should do whatever work your clients do. Ask this as a favor. Don’t offer it as a "gimme." Do NOT say, "Hey, Phil? Want some slave labor for the summer?"

  Say, "Phil… we really want this young woman at our firm next fall. She’s a smart, smart player and in a few years we think she’ll be a key member of the team that supports your work. If we can get her thinking about your business now, that’ll be a huge help as she learns the ropes. Can we pair her up with one of your young people for a week or so in a job-shadow way? She’ll help out where and when she can, but mostly it’s just to learn and ask questions. I know it’s a huge favor, but I’ll owe you big time. We really want this person for the firm and seeing that she’ll be working with a client of your stature will, I think, seal the deal for us."

• Place them with your "veterans." Just about every large firm I know has attorneys that are "semi-retired." They are doing work for several clients who know and trust them only. They are passing much of their longitudinal work on to younger attorneys. They are, I’m sad to say, in many cases, not being utilized fully. These are often folks with huge networks of connections. Because of the partnership rules in many firms, at a certain age, attorneys get cut out of firm politics and decision-making. That’s a post for another day, and a huge marketing mistake in and of itself. But as it relates to associates, have the summer folks work with the veterans while they’re closing out matters and passing them along. This makes them aware of the history of the firm and the nature of the "business of the business." It aint’ just about today’s trial. It’s about the grandson of the guy we represented in 1951. Also, the veterans can probably introduce the associates to more people in town than anyone else at the firm. Put these two underutilized groups together and let them leverage their time resources more effectively.
• Pro bono: Doing good looks and feels good. If you’re planning on doing pro bono work, make sure you’re going to do some in the summer. Make sure the attorney in charge takes summer associates into consideration when planning the work. Make sure he/she talks to the organization for which you’re doing the work and says, "Here are the bios of all our summer associates. How can you utilize their skills for X number of hours?" When they help the firm do good works, it will give them a sense of true accomplishment, which will last far beyond a bottle of nice wine.
• Work with your marketing department: I’m pimping for my brothers and sisters here, obviously. But with a huge caveat; do NOT show up at the marketing director’s door on Monday, trailing 17 summer associates, and say, "Here’s you crew for the next 4 days. Go do some marketing with them." It needs to be well planned, well in advance.

  For example, if you have a major publication that you advertise with, have marketing take a bunch of the associates meet with the publisher, reporters or editors. Same holds true for a big vendor, like an off-set printing company; take a tour. When lawyers learn how complex and bizarre some of the processes in the marketing world can be, they sometimes have more respect for them ever after-wards. Truth that, my people. Word.

  Or they can actually do real marketing stuff. You don’t need to have passed the bar to go to trade shows, industry and social events and talk up the firm. They can go speak at the local college chapter of the American Marketing Association about some legal aspects of advertising. They can mentor clients’ high-school age kids who are interested in learning about whatever they studied as undergraduates. You get the picture.

The important thing to remember is that these are all activities that get the summer associates doing stuff that is important to the firm. This requires some trust on your part; trust that they won’t embarrass the firm. A few of them might. That’s a risk you take. But most of them won’t. And, in the aggregate, most of them will do things that will make you proud.

And that’s good marketing. Both for your firm, and for your associates. When they remember what they’ve done with pride, they’ll want to come back for more.