Coach ‘em up

Listen to this article

Without Vince Lombardi, could the Green Bay Packers have pulled off their astonishing victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the 1967 NFL Championship Game, better known as the “Ice Bowl?”

If your answer is no, then you understand the power of a great coach to motivate players to achieve greatness in their own right. Maybe that player should be you in your legal practice, working with a legal coach.

Hiring a coach is a lot like working with a personal trainer for your career, said Shorewood attorney and coach Michael F. Moore.

While law firms have been hiring consultants for years, legal coaching is a relatively new development in comparison.

Consultants usually offer one-time instruction, or perhaps they’re hired to study a particular issue, and then make recommendations for the firm to implement on its own. In comparison, a coach’s services are ongoing, customized and motivational.

The type of services offered varies by coach. Like Moore, Twin Cities coach Roy S. Ginsburg helps with business and professional development, as well as with practice management, productivity and transitions.

Terrie Wheeler of St. Paul, Minn., however, focuses her coaching exclusively on marketing.

They all bring different credentials and perspectives. Moore is a former in-house practitioner and business executive, and a longtime soccer coach; Ginsburg also is an experienced attorney and still practices employment law, in addition to coaching; and Wheeler led the marketing department at a large Twin Cities firm before starting her own professional services marketing firm many years ago.

Sometimes their clients are in private practice, and other times they are in-house. Sometimes they are hired by individuals, and other times, they are hired by firms to coach several lawyers within the firm to achieve firm-wide goals.

As an example of the latter, Moore said that in recent months, with the turbulent economy, a number of practice areas like commercial real estate and mergers and acquisitions all but disappeared. Meanwhile, the demand for bankruptcy and loan workout lawyers took off. He helped both individuals and firms adapt quickly to those changes in the market.

The duration of a coaching engagement varies by the coach and the goals. Ginsburg said sometimes he works with someone for as little as two months, while he has coached a few others for several years now.

Wheeler typically is hired for a year, while Moore’s engagements usually last six months.

They all use flexible rate structures, depending upon the length of the engagement, the frequency with which they’ll be meeting with someone, the goals sought, etc. Ginsburg and Wheeler bill hourly, while Moore works almost exclusively on fixed fees. A year of intensive coaching by Wheeler costs approximately $12,000-$14,000, she estimated. But for solos or lawyers in small firms who cannot afford that, she offers an online version for considerably less, about $800-$1,200, via Web-based marketing tools she created.

While they are available by phone or e-mail for coaching or following up, they all agree that face-to face coaching is best because it promotes greater accountability.

“What people tell me is, the reason I help them get results is I show up in their offices every month and say, ‘Did you do what we agreed you’d do?’ That motivates people to get it done,” Moore said.

Lauren K. Lofton, an associate at Solheim, Billing & Grimmer in Madison, said the firm hired Moore to coach her and several other lawyers. Each month, Moore provided a session for all on general-interest topics like marketing with social media. He also met with her individually for an hour every month, and followed up with e-mails and calls.

“I was skeptical at the beginning. I was not sure what value it would offer,” said Lofton, who concentrates in real estate and general business law.

“It really helped me figure out how to grow my practice and in which direction I want to move.

“I was surprised and happy with how helpful (the coaching) was.”

How it works

Wheeler said the process begins with an extensive assessment and discussion of where the client wants to go in his or her practice. They set the larger goals, a timeframe for achieving them, and determine how they’ll measure success in a detailed marketing plan. Then she helps with providing motivation to implement that plan.

A crucial element, she said, is to assure the client from day one that their communications are confidential, even if it’s the firm paying her and not the individual lawyer. “If a lawyer tells me, ‘I’m miserable, I’m leaving this firm and taking clients with me,’ I cannot share that with the firm because my loyalty and trust relationship is with the individual I’m coaching,” she said.

“Now, I can say that doesn’t happen very often. But the firm needs to know that I’m not just a conduit to the firm. (Her clients) need to have a high level of trust, or the coaching relationship will never work.”

Ginsburg said that sometimes lawyers accept whichever clients come their way out of economic necessity. He avoids that as a coach, however.

“Just like the lawyer-client relationship, it works best when there’s good comfort and chemistry between the coach and the client. I really genuinely like, and want to help, the people I coach.

For his part, Moore said, “My renewal rate on clients is close to 100 percent. So obviously, they think it works. And I feel good about when I can give someone a solution and a month later they tell me, “Wow, that really worked.”