Mon, 16 Jan 2023 15:30:49 +0000Captivate.fmChris Hargreaves: Lawyer (attorney)https://cdn.captivate.fm/artwork/7bb26cab-6fd2-4069-8f92-a5bf6300c9f0/non-billable.jpgChris Hargreaves: Lawyer (attorney)Chris Hargreaves: Lawyer (attorney)Lawyers can't bill for every activity. Unfortunately with the focus on billable time, young lawyers are missing out on a huge area in legal practice - the non-billable aspect. Non-billable is a quick hit of advice in short segments, delivered frequently, to focus your attention on a specific issue, address a question, or just have a bit of a rant about an issue facing the legal profession. Covering topics ranging from legal marketing, rainmaking, networking, career advice, professional development and legal practice generally - non-billable is foundational for young lawyers who know you can't charge the client for everything. Lawyers and attorneys everywhere will benefit from taking a few minutes out of their day to listen to Non-billable.https://tipsforlawyers.com/noepisodichttps://feeds.captivate.fm/nonbillable/So you Want a Better Pay Rise?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=17255Thu, 23 Jul 2015 21:57:40 +100002:46nofullHave you ever received a pay rise that you weren’t happy with? What did you do about it? Complain? Whine? Drink heavily? Well let’s stop just whining about it, and do something about it! Happy lawyering! Have you ever received a pay rise that you weren’t happy with? What did you do about it? Complain? Whine? Drink heavily? Well let’s stop just whining about it, and do something about it! Happy lawyering!Chris HargreavesUnder Promise – Over Deliverhttps://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=16200Wed, 08 Jul 2015 11:12:12 +100003:12nofullAre you implementing this crucial element of legal practice in your day to day operations? I hope so. Let’s see how it works in practice, with an example of how clients are going to view two different scenarios. Happy lawyering! Are you implementing this crucial element of legal practice in your day to day operations? I hope so. Let’s see how it works in practice, with an example of how clients are going to view two different scenarios. Happy lawyering!Chris HargreavesIs Being an Introvert a Disadvantage in law?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=14469Wed, 10 Jun 2015 12:09:57 +100003:49nofullLots of lawyers are introverted.  We like quiet, solitary tasks where we can focus, analyse and distill answers. And yet, the noise of the community, the pressure of networking, and the need to market our services sometimes tells us that we are at a disadvantage.  Is it true? Lots of lawyers are introverted.  We like quiet, solitary tasks where we can focus, analyse and distill answers. And yet, the noise of the community, the pressure of networking, and the need to market our services sometimes tells us that we are at a disadvantage.  Is it true?Chris HargreavesHow to Get Noticed in a Big Firmhttps://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=13832Wed, 03 Jun 2015 12:03:50 +100003:19nofullI hear a lot of people asking how to get noticed in a big, noisy, and highly competitive firm. And I can’t help but wonder – what are you doing now to get noticed? Are you actually willing to try anything, or are you cowering, terrified of the risks that come with sticking your neck out? Let’s talk – nonbillable. Happy Lawyering! I hear a lot of people asking how to get noticed in a big, noisy, and highly competitive firm. And I can’t help but wonder – what are you doing now to get noticed? Are you actually willing to try anything, or are you cowering, terrified of the risks that come with sticking your neck out? Let’s talk – nonbillable. Happy Lawyering!Chris HargreavesIs it Worth Doing a Masters Degree?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=12867Wed, 27 May 2015 11:34:22 +100003:30nofullI get this question fairly often – should young lawyers (or law students) do a masters degree, and is it worthwhile? Well – as is often the case, the answer is either yes with a but, or no with an unless. Enjoy! I get this question fairly often – should young lawyers (or law students) do a masters degree, and is it worthwhile? Well – as is often the case, the answer is either yes with a but, or no with an unless. Enjoy!Chris HargreavesHow to Get Anything you Want Done, Ever (sort of)https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=11854Wed, 20 May 2015 10:51:23 +100003:08nofullI hear a lot of complaints about lack of time.  Can’t get this done, had to put that to one side. And it could all be true, but the reality is that if you want something enough you can get it done. You just need to shift your priorities. That’s what today’s episode of NonBillable is about. Happy Lawyering! I hear a lot of complaints about lack of time.  Can’t get this done, had to put that to one side. And it could all be true, but the reality is that if you want something enough you can get it done. You just need to shift your priorities. That’s what today’s episode of NonBillable is about. Happy Lawyering!Chris HargreavesFocus on your Strengths, or Work on your Weaknesses?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=10652Wed, 06 May 2015 12:15:42 +100002:12nofullIt does come up, and the full podcast on it is here. But still, it’s worth considering how we should approach our daily life.  Should we be capitalising on our strengths, or working to smooth out our weaknesses? That’s what we have today in NonBillable. Transcript – The Strengths and Weaknesses of Lawyers It’s an interesting thing as lawyers, we’re not very well prepared to accept that there might be some things we’re not good at. My name is Chris Hargreaves, this is non billable where I spend three minutes answering some questions, offering some advice, or occasionally having a bit of a rant. In the corner behind me just here, you can see a globe, despite the fact that I’ve got a globe in the background, I am terrible – terrible at geography. I couldn’t tell you where anything was, I barely know where Australia is, and I’m sitting here right now, I cannot tell you the states of America, I can not tell you the countries of an particular continent. I am terrible at geography. The question comes up, should I be learning more about geography? Should I be filling up that weakness or should I be focusing on my strengths and forgetting about the thing I’m rubbish at. Well that all depends, do I need to be good at geography? Not really. Fortunately my wife if very good at geography and she can fill in the blanks when I need it. That becomes the question, if you need to be able to execute on something then, perhaps you need to work on it even if it’s a weakness of yours. I’m not talking about necessarily things that are “Googleable”. Of course if I need to know where a country is, I can use Google. I can look up a map, I can figure out where it is, but I am talking about inherent traits, I’m talking about things that naturally know your talented adverses, things that you’re not necessarily talented at. Maybe you’re good at speaking, maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re a talented communicator, maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re talented writer, maybe you’re not. These things are things that are in one sense inherent, they can be worked on, they can be developed, they can be improved, but you shouldn’t necessarily be focusing too much energy and effort on that unless it is a critical skill for the execution of your job. What’s my view, focus on your strengths, execute there, build a team around you who can fill up your weaknesses, and they can execute in those areas and between you all, you will be a strong compelling dynamic team and you will be able to bring home the bacon as it were. This has been non billable and my name is Chris Hargreaves.  Head over to tipsforlawyers.com for more tips like this. I’ll see you next time. It does come up, and the full podcast on it is here. But still, it’s worth considering how we should approach our daily life.  Should we be capitalising on our strengths, or working to smooth out our weaknesses? That’s what we have today in NonBillable. Transcript – The Strengths and Weaknesses of Lawyers It’s an interesting thing as lawyers, we’re not very well prepared to accept that there might be some things we’re not good at. My name is Chris Hargreaves, this is non billable where I spend three minutes answering some questions, offering some advice, or occasionally having a bit of a rant. In the corner behind me just here, you can see a globe, despite the fact that I’ve got a globe in the background, I am terrible – terrible at geography. I couldn’t tell you where anything was, I barely know where Australia is, and I’m sitting here right now, I cannot tell you the states of America, I can not tell you the countries of an particular continent. I am terrible at geography. The question comes up, should I be learning more about geography? Should I be filling up that weakness or should I be focusing on my...Chris HargreavesWork Hard, or Work Smart?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9706Wed, 29 Apr 2015 20:07:50 +100002:22nofullIt comes up a lot – should you work hard, or smart? I know the easy answer is “work smart” but that’s not what I’ve got for you today. You know what it takes? Find out in today’s episode of nonbillable. Transcript – Should Lawyers Work Hard or Work Smart? Hey there, this is another episode of Non-Billable. My name is Chris Hargreaves from tipsforlawyers.com and Non-Billable is where I give you three or so minutes of some advice, a rant or answering a question. Anything you might want, send me an email or get in touch with me if you need to do that. What are we going to talk about today? Today we’re going to talk about working hard. It’s a bit of an old dog. Working hard versus working smart. Should you be working 12, 16, 18, and 20 hours a day getting four hours sleep, sleeping in the office in your sleeping bag and getting up the next morning having a very, very strong coffee and getting back to it? Or should you be working sort of six to eight hours a day, get plenty of sleep, back at home at 5:00 with some time to spend with your kids and your family? Or is it a bit of both or is it a bit of everything? Look, the reality is every single one of your peers works hard. Every single lawyer works hard. Some work longer hours, some work more efficiently, some work more productively. The reality is you need to do both. You need to work hard and you need to work smart. That might mean you need to work long hours. That might mean you need to do extracurricular activities. That might mean you need to do some things that are not paid for by your firm, that are not encouraged by your firm. If you think they are in the best interest of your career then perhaps you need to be doing them either way, and that’s where the problem lies. A lot of young lawyers think that their firms should be delivering up to them their career progression, their client development, their business and marketing skills, and all the other sorts of things that you should be focusing on. The reality is this, law firms aren’t doing that. Perhaps they don’t want to, perhaps they can’t do it, perhaps they’re not interested, and perhaps they’re not providing the kinds of opportunities that you need because they can’t afford it. Either way, you need to do both. You need to work hard at your job, you need to provide value to your firm, but you need to be looking at the bigger picture. You need to be executing on the important things not just the urgent things that you have day to day. That might mean you extend your day by half an hour, that might mean you extend your day by two hours, but either way it is work hard and work smart. That’s what you need to if you’re going to distinguish yourself. That’s what you need to do if you’re going to get ahead in a very, very noisy world. You need to do both. This has been Non-Billable. My name is Chris Hargreaves and I’ll see you next time. Happy Lawyering! It comes up a lot – should you work hard, or smart? I know the easy answer is “work smart” but that’s not what I’ve got for you today. You know what it takes? Find out in today’s episode of nonbillable. Transcript – Should Lawyers Work Hard or Work Smart? Hey there, this is another episode of Non-Billable. My name is Chris Hargreaves from tipsforlawyers.com and Non-Billable is where I give you three or so minutes of some advice, a rant or answering a question. Anything you might want, send me an email or get in touch with me if you need to do that. What are we going to talk about today? Today we’re going to talk about working hard. It’s a bit of an old dog. Working hard versus working smart. Should you be working 12, 16, 18, and 20 hours a day getting four hours sleep, sleeping in the office in your sleeping bag and getting up the next morning having a very, very strong coffee and getting back toChris HargreavesYoung Lawyers Need to Train Themselves?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=9219Wed, 22 Apr 2015 20:22:17 +100002:59nofullYou might have heard the long version, but here’s the snapshot – some clever people decided to announce that young lawyers should get their skills (somehow) BEFORE they got a job. Apparently clients don’t want to pay for that. Which is fine. After all – not training young lawyers isn’t at all a short term view of things. Our business will run just fine after we retire if we haven’t invested in our new lawyers – right? Bah! Check out the Full Podcast Here on the same topic. Transcript – Training for Young Lawyers – Who is Responsible? Okay guys this is another episode of Non-Billable. My name is Chris Hargreaves and I’m from tipsforlawyers.com and Non-Billable is where I give you three minutes of either a rant, answer to a question, maybe some advice, a few bits and pieces. Today I wanted to talk about training of young lawyers. Recently an article came to my attention and it kind of annoyed me, to be perfectly honest. I did in fact do a full podcast on it, you can find that at www.tipsforlawyers.com/podcast/28 but here is the Cliff Notes version. Some people, particularly high ranking people in law firms, have decided that it’s not the law firms problem to actually train young lawyers. Which I found a remarkable assertion. So who’s problem is it? They were saying that the lawyers should skill themselves up because clients don’t want to pay for it. I don’t think perhaps the clients don’t want to pay for it as much as the law firms can’t be bothered doing it properly and they want to get back to what they were trained for which is being a lawyer. What is the answer to the conundrum? Who should be responsible for training young lawyers in their professions. If it’s not the law firms, then maybe it’s the universities. The universities don’t want to do it, they just want to educate people about how they should actually go about working in legal practice so far as they think and that involves research, that involves academic papers. Not very helpful. Who is going to skill up the young lawyers? There’s not many people left so according to these individuals it is the young lawyers themselves. That’s right. In order to be employable young lawyers apparently you need to go and you need to skill yourself up. What the skills are, who knows? They weren’t mentioned in the article, I’m not sure what skills they were talking about. I know what I think. I don’t know what they think and that’s part of the problem. No one knows in fact what they’re talking about. What is the answer? The answer is everybody’s wrong. Nobody wants to take responsibility and in reality, everyone should take responsibility. Law students, young lawyers, you are responsible for what you do. You are responsible for what you learn, you are responsible for how far you can get in your careers. Universities are responsible for training young lawyers appropriately so that they are useful, functional contributors, adding value to firms and being useful in the workplace. Law firms? Guess what. You are responsible too. There is at no point in legal practice where you should be able to stop learning where you should not have a mentor available to you in your practice or at least in the broader legal community. So far as everyone saying it shouldn’t be our problem it should be someone else’s problem, it’s everyone’s problem. You all have the problem, you all need to take responsibility. Everyone should be getting involved in this at that is my view on this. Go to tipsforlawyers.com/podcast/28 if you want more information. That is Non-Billable for today, the Cliff Notes version of a much longer rant that I got involved in recently. Thank you, have a good day. Happy Lawyering!   You might have heard the long version, but here’s the snapshot – some clever people decided to...Chris HargreavesLegal Writing is About Being Humanhttps://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=8584Wed, 15 Apr 2015 19:55:19 +100001:24nofullListen folks, if you can’t sound like a human being then you’re in the wrong business. Get rid of redundant words that only lawyers use, start sounding like a person, and be a legal writer that brings humanity into the profession, not one that distances us. Transcript – Legal Writing Tips Hey there, it’s Chris again from tipsforlawyers.com with another episode of Non-Billable, where I give you 3 minutes of questions and answers, rants, or advice to help young lawyers in day-to-day practice. Today a bit of a rant about redundant words. If you are going to write letters, if you are going be a wordsmith, if you are going to be a communicator – and as a lawyer, you should be – then for the love of everything, would you stop using redundant words. Starting every single sentence of a paragraph with “We note that” doesn’t make you clever, it doesn’t make you sound sophisticated; it makes it sounds like you can’t think of a way to actually start the sentence. “We note this,” “We note that,” “We note the other thing.” Guess what? Try harder. You can cross those words out almost every single time without changing the meaning anyway whatsoever. Just get rid of them. More redundant words, “We advise that”. That’s an interesting thing, isn’t it? Try crossing that out. Watch how nothing changes in the sentence. You’re just wasting words, you’re sounding like people think lawyers should sound rather than writing like a human being. Have you ever written an e-mail to your mom saying, “Mom, I note that it was your birthday recently. I would like to advise that I’m going to wish you a happy birthday.” No. You know why? Because you’d sound like a moron. Don’t do it. Sound like a real person, write like a real person, not like you think a lawyer is supposed to sound. End rant. That’s Non-Billable.   Listen folks, if you can’t sound like a human being then you’re in the wrong business. Get rid of redundant words that only lawyers use, start sounding like a person, and be a legal writer that brings humanity into the profession, not one that distances us. Transcript – Legal Writing Tips Hey there, it’s Chris again from tipsforlawyers.com with another episode of Non-Billable, where I give you 3 minutes of questions and answers, rants, or advice to help young lawyers in day-to-day practice. Today a bit of a rant about redundant words. If you are going to write letters, if you are going be a wordsmith, if you are going to be a communicator – and as a lawyer, you should be – then for the love of everything, would you stop using redundant words. Starting every single sentence of a paragraph with “We note that” doesn’t make you clever, it doesn’t make you sound sophisticated; it makes it sounds like you can’t think of a way to actually start the sentence. “We note this,” “We note that,” “We note the other thing.” Guess what? Try harder. You can cross those words out almost every single time without changing the meaning anyway whatsoever. Just get rid of them. More redundant words, “We advise that”. That’s an interesting thing, isn’t it? Try crossing that out. Watch how nothing changes in the sentence. You’re just wasting words, you’re sounding like people think lawyers should sound rather than writing like a human being. Have you ever written an e-mail to your mom saying, “Mom, I note that it was your birthday recently. I would like to advise that I’m going to wish you a happy birthday.” No. You know why? Because you’d sound like a moron. Don’t do it. Sound like a real person, write like a real person, not like you think a lawyer is supposed to sound. End rant. That’s Non-Billable.  Chris HargreavesWhat’s the Most Appropriate Way to Decorate your Officehttps://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7765Wed, 08 Apr 2015 19:47:18 +100002:13nofullOK so I had to laugh a little when I got this question, but since it was put to me in all seriousness, I took a punt at answering it. For those who don’t know me, however, I’m not exactly the world’s highest authority on office decoration – so in a sense this one you have to take with a massive, massive grain of salt! OK so I had to laugh a little when I got this question, but since it was put to me in all seriousness, I took a punt at answering it. For those who don’t know me, however, I’m not exactly the world’s highest authority on office decoration – so in a sense this one you have to take with a massive, massive grain of salt!Chris HargreavesWhere will Lawyers be in Tech in 5 Years?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7278Wed, 01 Apr 2015 07:30:13 +100003:00nofullWhere are lawyers going to be in 5 years compared to now in terms of technology? Are we going to embrace technology and creatively find ways to use it, or lag behind? It’s a good question, and one that I address in today’s episode of nonbillable. Transcript – Where will Legal Tech Be in 5 Years Hey there again guys. It’s Chris from TipsForLawyers.com here with another episode of NonBillable. You can find NonBillable at TipsForLawyers.com and navigate your way there. Not too hard. If you’re listening to this on iTunes, can I encourage you to leave an iTunes review? Helps it be a bit more visible and really helps me get some comments and some feedback. If you have a question, pop it in at Tips for Lawyers or email it to me. Go to TipsForLawyers.com/contact. You can ask a question and I can address it on NonBillable. If you don’t know the format, NonBillable is where I spend 3 or so minutes answering a question, having a bit of a rant or giving some advice that might help you out in your day-to-day legal practice. Today, I wanted to have a talk about technology. I was asked a question about where I see lawyers being in 5 or 10 years, or at least into the future, so far as technology is concerned. I’ve got to say I don’t see us being very far at all. The reality is lawyers are only now catching up with technologies they should have caught up with 10 years ago or 5 years ago. You’re seeing law firms that still don’t have mobile responsive websites even though 50% of the people visiting their website are on mobile probably getting frustrated and clicking away. You see law firms who have no earthly idea how to utilize social media. You see people with LinkedIn profiles that make you want to cry. You see people who don’t know how to engage on Facebook. The reality is lawyers are laggards when it comes to technology. Sure there are some outliers. There’s some people out there who are doing fantastic cutting edge stuff in technology circles, but the reality is in 5 years time, I don’t see much changing at all in the legal profession. We are barely keeping up. We’re probably behind the times. If technology gets further advanced, we might eventually catch on, but when we do, we’ll be 10 years behind again. Bit of a harsh message there, but the reality is we’re terrible at it. We’re not early adopters. We don’t like taking risks. We don’t like cutting edge technology because it might not work and, to be fair in a bigger law firm, it’s frankly cost prohibitive. Smaller law firms are going to be more nimble. They might adopt things. They might have more flexibility and less barriers in terms of policies and procedures that need to be in put into place or at least that they think need to be put into place that are going to stop them from being able to utilize new technologies appropriately. Between cost, policies and the general inhibitions of lawyers to take any risk of any kind whatsoever, I’d be amazed if we’re much further advanced in 5 years. We might have a few more tools available to us. There might be a bit more prevalence of dictation, for example, coming into force through people actually using voice recordings rather than through secretarial. That is coming into things now. Of course, it should have been done 5 years ago, but there you are. It’s another example. I’ll be interested to see where we are and if this prediction turns out to be right, you can bet your bottom dollar in a few times, if things are what I just said, then I’ll be sharing this video again. This has been Chris Hargreaves from TipsForLawyers.com with another episode of NonBillable. Where are lawyers going to be in 5 years compared to now in terms of technology? Are we going to embrace technology and creatively find ways to use it, or lag behind? It’s a good question, and one that I address in today’sChris HargreavesShould Law Students be Connecting with Lawyers?https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7168Wed, 25 Mar 2015 07:39:01 +100002:26nofullWhen you go to functions as a law student and meet lawyers, is it appropriate for you to then follow them up or connect with them? I say yes, but you’ve got to do it right. Transcript – Lawyers on LinkedIn – Connecting with Law Students Hey there guys, it’s Chris Hargreaves from tipsforlawyers.com with another episode of Non-Billable. Where in three minutes or so I have a bit of a rant, I answer a question or I give you some advice that’s going to help you out in your legal career. Today I wanted to answer a question and it was about LinkedIn and in particular about LinkedIn and law students. The question was this, “How do I as a law student go about making connections and developing relationships with lawyers on LinkedIn and is that appropriate?” The answer is a resounding yes. If you haven’t set up your LinkedIn profile then you should go to my video on LinkedIn. It’s also on the Non-Billable series though if you’re watching on YouTube there’ll be a link to it. If you’re not there’ll be a link to it somewhere in the Non-Billable series. However, in terms of getting connected with lawyers it is absolutely appropriate, but the best way to do is no different to how you’re going to connect with anyone else. Don’t just collect a raft of business cards from people you barely know and send them all LinkedIn invites. That’s going to have effects: people aren’t going to know who you are and so they might ignore you, and if that happens enough LinkedIn actually puts you on the banned list. You won’t be able to send out invites for a while. What should you do? You should get connected with them in person if that’s what you’re doing; going to networking events. You should see what groups they’re in. You can see what they post, you can see if they comment on things, and you can engage with them a little. Then once you’ve engaged with them a little, and I’m not saying it has to be a huge amount, but it should be something so that they recognize who you are. Send them a LinkedIn invite. The next step is critical, send a personalized LinkedIn invite. You should be doing that all the time except for people who are a no-brainer. If you’re sending a LinkedIn invite to your mum or your brother then that’s fine. Don’t personalize that if you don’t feel like it. If you’re reaching out to people you don’t know really well, personalize the invite. It’s incredibly easy. You just click the down arrow on LinkedIn and then you can personalize the invite rather than sending that generic invite saying, “I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn.” Much better to personalize it. Remind them how they know you, explain why you want to connect and that’s the way to do it. What do you do with the connections? Well that’s something for another time, but that’s how you connect. It is appropriate. Go for it, connect with me if you want. Head over to LinkedIn, type in the search I’ll come up somewhere there. Chris Hargreaves, lawyer I’m sure I’ll pop up. Send me an invite. Tell me you listened to this and that you’d like to connect. When you go to functions as a law student and meet lawyers, is it appropriate for you to then follow them up or connect with them? I say yes, but you’ve got to do it right. Transcript – Lawyers on LinkedIn – Connecting with Law Students Hey there guys, it’s Chris Hargreaves from tipsforlawyers.com with another episode of Non-Billable. Where in three minutes or so I have a bit of a rant, I answer a question or I give you some advice that’s going to help you out in your legal career. Today I wanted to answer a question and it was about LinkedIn and in particular about LinkedIn and law students. The question was this, “How do I as a law student go about making...Chris HargreavesHelp – I can’t find a mentor!https://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7137Fri, 20 Mar 2015 23:00:52 +100002:18nofullFinding a mentor isn’t always easy. In smaller towns in particular, it can be a real challenge. Here are a few thoughts on how you might be able to hook up with a mentor who can help guide you through your career. Transcript – How Young Lawyers can Find Mentors Hey there guys this is Chris Hargreaves from Tipsforlawyers.com bringing you another episode of non billable where in around three minutes I give you a rant, answer some questions, or perhaps give a bit of advise that might help you out in your legal career. Today I wanted to answer a question and it’s about mentoring. I am a big fan of mentoring. I’m a big fan of people having a mentor that they can confide in, that they can work with and that can offer them some long term strategic advice and a question came in response to one of the articles I’d written about, what if you’re in a small town or an environment where there aren’t a lot of options. Perhaps there’s not as much experience around, perhaps you don’t get a long with the people that are in your particular immediate vicinity, or perhaps frankly the town is just so small there’s just no chance you could have a confidencial conversation with anyone without everyone in the entire town knowing what you’re talking about. This is frankly where the drawers of the internet come into play. You have available to you mentors every where. I know it’s going to be a bit different without necessarily having a face to face arrangement, but with skype, with facetime, with video conferencing, if you’ve got enough hustle, you can find yourself a mentor, you’ve just got to reach out. Linkedin is a good place to start. Find the senior people who seem to be there to help Jr. Lawyers and reach out to them, connect with them, comment on some things they say, start to develop that relationship and then in an appropriate time you might reach out and say, “Hey, would you mind formally mentoring me or even just informally.” “Can you be a sounding board for me, can I send some questions to you, can I reach out to you form time to time when I got issues I want to face?” Most people, if you’ve assessed them property beforehand, are actually going to be very willing to do that. It’s an issue that most lawyers don’t volunteer for, but they’re happy to be asked to do. Give it a go, reach out, linkedin, great place to start. Join some group, see what you can find, make some connections, develop some relationships. I know it’s not the same as face to face mentor, but if someone can be a telephone call or an email or a skype chat away, then that’s the next best thing. As my tips on how to find a mentor, if you’re in a smaller town and not so much access and I’ll see you next time. Finding a mentor isn’t always easy. In smaller towns in particular, it can be a real challenge. Here are a few thoughts on how you might be able to hook up with a mentor who can help guide you through your career. Transcript – How Young Lawyers can Find Mentors Hey there guys this is Chris Hargreaves from Tipsforlawyers.com bringing you another episode of non billable where in around three minutes I give you a rant, answer some questions, or perhaps give a bit of advise that might help you out in your legal career. Today I wanted to answer a question and it’s about mentoring. I am a big fan of mentoring. I’m a big fan of people having a mentor that they can confide in, that they can work with and that can offer them some long term strategic advice and a question came in response to one of the articles I’d written about, what if you’re in a small town or an environment where there aren’t a lot of options. Perhaps there’s not as much experience around, perhaps you don’t get a long with the people that are in your particular immediate vicinity, or perhaps frankly...Chris HargreavesGen Y Isn’t Lazyhttps://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=7109Wed, 18 Mar 2015 11:52:43 +100002:26nofullI’m sick and tired of people telling me how lazy, self-entitled and privileged generation Y is. Here are the facts – we work harder, longer and faster than any generation before us. So get off our backs. Transcript – Generation Y Isn’t Lazy Hey there. This is Chris. This is another episode NonBillable, where I in a couple of minutes give you a rant, answer some questions or give a bit of advice for young lawyers. NonBillable is brought to you by TipsForLawyers.com. You can click on the link, wherever that might be appearing. Depends where you’re watching it. You can check out a few more things from there. I wanted to have a bit of a talk about Generation Y. Generation Y cops a bit of flack. I might be part of Generation Y. I’m not totally sure. It depends which website I read as to whether I end up part of Generation Y or not, but we seem to get paid out a little bit. Apparently there’s a million articles about how hard we are to employ, how we have high demands and don’t want to work very hard. Today, I wanted to say – stuff it. Coming from a generation of lawyers a couple of generations ago who came up with the 37 and a half hour work week. Wasn’t too long ago where you could get made a partner 1 or 2 years post admission and what have we got to face today. Generation Y lawyers face the following hurdles: Unprecedented competition. There are more lawyers per capita in most countries that ever before. There is far more competition. There is far more stress. There is far more angst about even getting a job. The cost of education has gone absolutely through the roof. Just deciding to become a lawyer, you end up with $50-100,000 in debt right off the bat as you start in on your menial salary that’s far less than most other professions pay their graduates. The next thing you’ve got to deal with is the fact that you, as opposed to many previous generations, apparently have to be contactable all hours or every day no matter what. We’ve got phones. We’ve got remote access. In fact, most studies show, work harder and longer than any generation before us. The reality is Generation Y flogs their guts out so next time someone tries to pay you out for being young and wanting to have everything and wanting to get paid more for not working very hard, point them towards this video. What generation are you in? Are you a generation who loves to pay out Generation Y or are you going to share this with someone and try and garner a bit of support for Gen-Y and just how damn hard we actually work. That’s my rant for today. This has been NonBillable. I’ll see you next time. I’m sick and tired of people telling me how lazy, self-entitled and privileged generation Y is. Here are the facts – we work harder, longer and faster than any generation before us. So get off our backs. Transcript – Generation Y Isn’t Lazy Hey there. This is Chris. This is another episode NonBillable, where I in a couple of minutes give you a rant, answer some questions or give a bit of advice for young lawyers. NonBillable is brought to you by TipsForLawyers.com. You can click on the link, wherever that might be appearing. Depends where you’re watching it. You can check out a few more things from there. I wanted to have a bit of a talk about Generation Y. Generation Y cops a bit of flack. I might be part of Generation Y. I’m not totally sure. It depends which website I read as to whether I end up part of Generation Y or not, but we seem to get paid out a little bit. Apparently there’s a million articles about how hard we are to employ, how we have high demands and don’t want to work very hard. Today, I wanted to say – stuff it. Coming from a generation of lawyers a couple of generations ago who came up with the 37 and a half hour work week. Wasn’t too long ago where you could get made a partner 1 or 2 years post...Chris HargreavesStart Connecting on LinkedInhttps://tipsforlawyers.lqf1mwm8-liquidwebsites.com/?post_type=podcast&p=6700Sun, 15 Mar 2015 06:55:13 +100003:59nofullLots of young lawyers have a LinkedIn profile (most, in fact). But do you know what to do with it? LinkedIn is for making connections, but are you only connecting with your own colleagues?  Well don’t just sit idle – in this episode of Non-Billable you will start making connections and expanding your network today. Transcript – How Lawyers can Start Connecting Using LinkedIn What is the best way to make connections and build your profile using LinkedIn? That’s the question I’m going to take a look at today in Non-Billable. Welcome to Non-Billable, my name is Chris Hargreaves, I’m from tipsforlawyers.com. In Non-Billable I take a couple of minutes out of my day to answer some questions, have a bit of a rant or give you some advice that might give you a bit of a quick hit to take you into the day or the next day or the week. LinkedIn, every professional by and large is on LinkedIn by now. Certainly hundreds of millions of people use it, but how are you using it? Do you just have a profile? What should you be doing? Is LinkedIn actually a platform where you can accomplish anything or is it just something where you put up your profile and then not do anything after that? That’s certainly my experience with many of my colleagues. They make their profile, they might put up their professional picture, but they don’t end up actually doing anything with their LinkedIn profile. Really the best way of using LinkedIn isn’t different to using any other social media platform. It’s about engagement, it’s about relationship. If you want to use LinkedIn to actually develop relationship and have some advantages and meet some new people then I’d encourage you to engage. If you enjoy an article, put a comment on the article. If you enjoy a particular group discussion, weigh in, express your opinion. If you’re going to disagree with people do it politely. It’s the same way as if you’re going to a networking function really. You’re just interacting with people you don’t have an excuse to get to know. But that’s okay, they’re on LinkedIn. They’re there because they want to network and they want to connect with people as well. Look, if you’re a newbie to LinkedIn, here’s what I’d do. Get your profile up to scratch so that it’s an accurate representation of you. Secondly, join some groups that are relevant to either your profession, in this case lawyering, or to the industry in which you work. If you’re in building or construction or planning and environment or personal injuries there are going to be specific groups that you might want to join, and that’s a great way to get engagement because groups are where a lot of the discussion happens. You can really get to know people because with groups in LinkedIn you have an excuse to contact people. You can send them a note, hey I enjoyed your article on LinkedIn, hey I enjoyed your other comment on LinkedIn. You can have an in to get in to contact them. Use those opportunities. Use those functions that LinkedIn gives you because it is a platform designed to help you build a relationship, no different to any other social media platform. It just has a unique set of tools. That’s how I’d use LinkedIn. I’d get in a group, I’d start weighing in to some discussions, and then I’d start sending people some invites to connect and then I’d follow up with them and see how they’re going. Send them a personal note from time to time. You don’t have to become a stalker, just become the person that is there, who is participating, who is weighing in. The last thing I’d do, if you’re inclined towards writing and you enjoy writing things, take advantage of the LinkedIn publisher platform. It’s pretty easy to use these days. They are rolling it out so depending on when you’re listening to this you...Chris Hargreaves