Melissa Kano is a partner with KLA – Koury Lopes Advogados, a law firm in Brazil and a member of the International Lawyers Network. In this episode, I talk to Melissa about why collaboration is so essential during a pandemic, how working remotely may last longer than the quarantine, and why it’s essential to
Keep Showing Up
“Keep Showing Up” is a phrase that Des Linden, an American long distance runner, and winner of the Boston Marathon, repeats often. It’s a mantra that I use in my own running, particularly as I come back from injury and need to regularly remind myself that training is about showing up, even when it’s hard, and even when I don’t want to. I recently put it on a letter board in my office to remind myself of its importance in my life.
But its importance in other ways really crystallized for me recently as the Black Lives Matter movement gained global traction and became something that (as it should) matters too to brands, to white people, to all of us.
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Are You Tone Deaf?
We don’t have a rainmaking recommendation from Jaimie Field this week, but we do have what amounts to a guest post. It’s a thought-provoking piece on the state of what’s going on in the US at the moment, and the impact that should be having on your firm’s messaging. But more than that, it’s about the impact that it should be having on your firm’s policies and practices moving forward, if it hasn’t already. Now is not the time for empty platitudes and social posts, but the time for real, sustainable change, backed up by engagement and education. We’re certainly not there yet here at the ILN, but we’re digging in and doing our part.
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I really thought about not posting a Rainmaking Recommendation for this week.
I thought that no matter what I posted, it would be considered to be inappropriate for what is occurring in the United States and in the world. But, after spending the past few days on social media (alternately crying and getting supremely angry), not only because of the actual events that have been happening but also because I am seeing a tremendous number of inappropriate posts that seem to just disregard what is going on, I felt I had to say something.
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Law Firm ILN-telligence Podcast | Episode 4: Pavla Kopeckova Prikrylova | PETERKA & PARTNERS
In our fourth episode of the Law Firm ILN-telligence Podcast, we welcomed Pavla Kopeckova Prikrylova, who is a partner with PETERKA & Partners, a Central and Eastern European Law Firm, as well as the chair of the International Lawyers Network. In this episode, we discussed why it is more essential than ever for
Law Firm ILN-telligence Podcast | Episode 1: Pal Jalsovszky, Jalsovszky Law Firm | Budapest, Hungary
We’re thrilled to announce that a few weeks ago, we debuted our new podcast, Law Firm ILN-telligence, where we bring you real intelligence from real law firms. The first episode, I interviewed Pal Jalsovszky, the managing partner of Jalsovszky Law Firm in Budapest, Hungary and a member firm of the International Lawyers Network. We
It’s Okay to Breakdown
I’ve been ruminating on this post for a few days, as I struggled to decide what to blog about this week. This is a tough and heavy topic, but I finally settled on discussing it because it *is* so important, particularly at this moment in time when so many people are struggling and vulnerable. Why add my voice when so many others have already provided great resources and their own stories? Well, I hope I have something of my own to add, because of my own struggles with depression for the past twenty-plus years and because I think that we can never talk about it enough to break the stigma and ensure that people get the help that they need. (Please note, **trigger warning** for this entire post).
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“I Don’t Want No Hubs” – a.k.a Show me the Value
My title my be tongue-in-cheek, but my message this week is quite serious.
We’ll get to that in a moment. First, I want to consider for a moment what happens in a crisis. We panic a little bit, right? Even if we stay mostly calm, our world gets very small, and we’re often looking only at the three feet around us. It sometimes means that we’re looking only at what our firm, our office, or our team is doing, and not focusing on the larger picture. We’re also trying to do everything extremely quickly and efficiently, because the needs all feel so IMMEDIATE – clients need us RIGHT.NOW. And that’s not imaginary – they do. Orders have come down from state or national governments asking them to shutter their businesses within hours. They’ve had to move employees from in-office to remote immediately, sometimes with no plans in place. You may be assisting them in doing this often while having to make similar decisions for your own firms.
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Client Care in the Time of Coronavirus
We’re at a unique point in our histories right now – everything seems to be in an upheaval, and our nerves are frayed. Many of us are finally getting to a place that feels like a new normal, but there are still some things that are a challenge. One of the things I’ve seen to be true over the past few weeks is that a lot of people seem to be in a mad rush to make things happen. In many cases, that’s necessary – as things close, we have to make quick choices about how to work from home, how to help clients move entire businesses to remote working, how to suddenly adapt to working next to children and spouses and partners, how to identify the tricky legal issues that come with challenging economic times.
Whenever there is a rush like that, the idea of “care” can often become secondary. We get more terse in our replies in an effort to be more efficient and we forget that there are real, scared and anxious people at the other end of the phone or digital line, who are trying to manage as many plates and emotions as we are.
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Business Development in 2020? Let’s Take a Breath.
Our second quarter of the year begins tomorrow, and for many of us, we’re facing a new normal that didn’t seem possible three months ago. One of my lawyers emailed me last night and said “what a year this past week has been.” I don’t think truer words have ever been spoken.
Lawyers are all in different places at the moment – some firms are exceptionally busy, but may have clients who aren’t able to pay them at the moment. Others are making the difficult decision to lay off staff or cut salaries. Some are shuffling resources to accommodate the influx of questions to practice areas like employment and insolvency and bankruptcy. Everyone is unsure what the future brings.
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Leadership in a Time of Crisis: Lessons from Quarantine
I’m a new leader in my organization.
It’s true that I’ve been in a leadership role for a number of years, and held leadership positions in other organizations, but when my dad (our former Executive Director) stepped down in December, all eyes were on me to take the reins and steer the ship (forgive me the mixed metaphor).
And then a pandemic happened.
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