Vol. 54 No. 8

Trial Magazine

Books

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Lawyers as Managers How to Be a Champion for Your Firm and Employees

Andrew Elowitt, Marcia Watson Wasserman, Roger B Finderson August 2018

Lawyers as Managers: How to Be a Champion for Your Firm and Employees
Andrew Elowitt and Marcia Watson Wasserman
American Bar Association
www.americanbar.org/publications
480 pp., $89.95

Reviewed by Roger B. Finderson

Lawyers as Managers is a must read for anyone grappling with the day-to-day issues of managing a law firm. The book does not cover the nuts and bolts of topics such as employee manuals or the Family and Medical Leave Act. Instead, it provides a road map for managing the most valuable resource a law firm has: its people.

Andrew Elowitt, a lawyer and professional coach, and Marcia Watson Wasserman, a law practice management consultant, stress that to become “champion managers,” law firm leaders need to understand how to modify and use their legal skills. For example, as attorneys, we can be argumentative. This trait, though useful when representing clients, can be counterproductive when managing staff.

The authors emphasize how communication and empathy are important tools to minimize employee friction, lethargy, and turnover—and to maximize employee efficiency and happiness. One strategy they offer is to confirm that you have heard and understand the employee’s statement­ by rephrasing and repeating what was said to you. The book also explores how successful managers back up promises, follow through on ideas, and have transparent and explicit goals.

Readers will find valuable sections to assist the manager in specific and sometimes difficult situations. Take, for example, an employee with a waning work ethic: The book offers tools on how to navigate the meeting you should have with that employee and how to develop and conduct a rehabilitative plan in sections on “Communication Basics,” “Giving and Receiving Feedback,” and “Managing Underperformers.” Reading just those three chapters provides excellent information about how to communicate a problem, listen to the employee, and develop a plan to get the employee back on track.

Another section I found especially useful has resources on managing interpersonal conflicts, which many firms experience. As the authors describe, successfully handling these situations is not just about being a referee but also about determining the triggers for different personality types, knowing how to present issues to those personalities, and understanding how to balance the motivations of different “production types”—such as superstars and underperformers—within the conflict.

Because of how the book is organized, with each chapter addressing a particular problem or type of employee, it can be used as a reference to which you can always return. The information it contains is imperative for attorneys managing firms and people.


Roger B. Finderson is the founder and managing attorney of Finderson Law in Fort Wayne, Ind. He can be reached at roger.finderson@findersonlaw.com.