Marketing Corner: Know Your Audience

By Kimberly Alford Rice
For new lawyers, getting acclimated to law firm life can be daunting. In addition to just finding the lunchroom in your new firm, there are weighty challenges such as clearly understanding your audience, aka your internal clients (aka the firm partners).

Below are a few ways you can take positive steps to boost your standing early on:

• Know Your Top Clients. In the first years of practice, it is essential to recognize that your clients are the lawyers to whom you directly (and indirectly) report – essentially all firm lawyers. They will watch and evaluate how well you take on and complete assignments. Impress them.

• Develop Positive Habits. Arrive a little early and stay a little late. Demonstrate your commitment and partners will notice. Earn their attention in a positive way by becoming the best lawyer you can be.

• Never Turn Down Work. Not only is delivering a high quality work product required every time, but also the manner in which you handle the project delivery process will be scrutinized. Do you gladly accept projects or complain that you will have to work the weekend? None of this will go unnoticed. Bet on it and respond accordingly.

• Get Involved in the Firm. Volunteer for a committee assignment such as the summer associate or hiring committee. Partners will be impressed with the initiative you take to integrate into the firm.

• Practice the Golden Rule. You can make strong allies for life or derail your career early on by how kind you are to support staff. They know the ropes and can help you in a pinch, or not. Do not overlook how important support staff is to your success.

• Shepherd Marketing Initiatives. Most lawyers struggle with consistency in their marketing initiatives. Find out what your practice group is (or is not) doing and volunteer to shepherd a specific project. Facilitate a new blog or some other direct communication for your group.

• You Receive as Much Feedback as You Seek. As you hone your craft, actively seek feedback from everyone with whom you work. Partners and other supervisors will appreciate your enthusiasm and take note.

• Pay It Forward. As you progress in your career, don’t forget to help newer attorneys as others helped you. While there are so many other steps new lawyers can take to embrace their first years of practice, follow the steps above and you will be recognized as being a cut above.

Kimberly Alford Rice (kimberly@klamarketing.net) is principal of KLA Marketing Associates.

Applicants Sought for FJD Judicial Fellowship Program

Philadelphia judges are seeking to host law school graduates as judicial fellows to provide the graduates with substantive legal experience while benefitting the court system with additional legal talent, as part of the First Judicial District's Judicial Fellowship Program. Now entering its fourth year, the Judicial Fellowship Program was created in 2011 to address the difficult hiring climate for lawyers that many recent law graduates were facing.

The Judicial Fellowship Program aims to provide high-caliber law graduates with substantive experience in the law, and to support the Court in carrying out key functions. Fellows volunteer their time, have the same responsibilities as regular paid judicial law clerks, and gain the benefit of training by judges in the Philadelphia courts. Judicial fellows' service helps our high-volume court system maintain its superior quality of service to the Philadelphia community. Judges help judicial fellows by mentoring and providing legal experience that will enhance their competitiveness for paid employment as new lawyers.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Lisa M. Rau developed the program with help from Professor Chapin Cimino of the Drexel University School of Law as well as faculty and administrators from career services offices at the University of Pennsylvania's Law School and Temple's Beasley School of Law. The Judicial Fellowship Program quickly expanded and now welcomes graduates from law schools from across the country. The Philadelphia Bar Association is a supporter of the Judicial Fellowship Program.

The application process is streamlined and selective. Prospective judicial fellows apply directly via email to judges with whom they are interest in working. Judges select judicial fellows from those applicants who apply to them directly. The list of judges with available positions for judicial fellows is provided on the Judicial Fellowship Program's website. Each judge and fellow team designs a flexible schedule (minimum of 20 hours per week) that ensures reliable service to the judge but permits the fellow to seek a paid position elsewhere. Judicial fellows do not commit to any length of service enabling them to leave the fellowship with two weeks' notice to their judge upon obtaining paid employment.

During the first three years of the program, more than 50 judges volunteered to host judicial fellows and the Court hosted 149 judicial fellows from 30 different law schools. As of February 2014, the vast majority of judicial fellows (approximately 84 percent) who left their fellowship departed for paid jobs using their legal skills.

For additional information and fellowship application forms, please visit www.courts.phila.gov/jfp

Civil Gideon Essay Contest Honors Ken Shear

In honor of the retirement of Kenneth Shear, who served as executive director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for 37 years, the "Kenneth Shear Civil Gideon Legal Justice Essay Competition and Scholarship Fund" has been established by the Association and the Philadelphia Bar Foundation to honor Shear's contributions to the Philadelphia legal community.

To raise an endowment to support the Essay Competition and Scholarship Fund, Immediate-Past Chancellor Kathleen D. Wilkinson and Bar Foundation President Deborah Gross are donating seed money to begin the funding of the Essay Competition and the Scholarship Fund in order to award at least one scholarship in 2014. The announcement of the scholarship was made by Wilkinson and Gross at the December Board of Governors meeting.

The purpose of the Essay Competition is to award a scholarship of $1,500 annually to a second- or third-year law student from the Philadelphia area law schools who writes the best short essay on the subject of Civil Gideon. The student must be willing to serve as an intern for 40 hours, pro bono, to assist the Philadelphia Bar Association and Philadelphia Bar Foundation with its endeavors through the Philadelphia Bar Association Civil Gideon Task Force, the statewide Access to Civil Justice Coalition and/or future statewide Access to Civil Justice Commission and/or will serve on another pro bono project of the Philadelphia Bar Association and Philadelphia Bar Foundation, which project is dedicated toward equal justice for all and fulfills the purposes of advancing civil Gideon, public education in the Philadelphia School District, and/or service to the poor.

The essay must be no longer than 10 pages or 2,500 words, whichever is shorter. The 2,500-word limitation refers to the text of the submission; footnotes may be a maximum of 1,000 words (in addition to the 2,500 word maximum for text). Endnotes are not permitted.

The essay must be in seminar paper or law journal article format only; submissions in the form of a memorandum, brief, judicial opinion or other type of legal document are not acceptable. The essay may not be previously published or currently accepted for publication in any publication other than in connection with this competition. The complete rules are available at philadelphiabar.org.

All contributions to the Fund should be in the name of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation with an indication in the memo field that the donation is for the purposes of the "Kenneth Shear Civil Gideon Legal Justice Essay Competition and Scholarship Fund." Please mail your check to Jessica Hilburn-Holmes, Philadelphia Bar Foundation, 1101 Market St., 11th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Lunch with Bankruptcy Judges May 5

The Bankruptcy Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association, in conjunction with the Young Lawyers Division and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference, invites young bankruptcy practitioners to a unique opportunity to have lunch with the bankruptcy judges of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Monday, May 5.

The brown bag luncheon, which begins at 12 p.m. at the Dilworth Paxson LLP, 1500 Market St., 3500E, will provide an informal environment for attorneys practicing in the Eastern District to converse with the judges and ask questions about best bankruptcy practices as a young practitioner.

Attending attorneys are required to bring their own lunches, as lunch will not be provided at the event. The luncheon is open to bankruptcy attorneys not past their sixth year of practice and is limited to the first twenty people to respond. Interested parties should contact Evan T. Miller at emiller@bayardlaw.com or (302) 429-4227 or Brya Keilson at bkeilson@gsbblaw.com or (302) 416-3355.

YLD Sponsors Essay Contest for High School Juniors, Seniors

Entries are now being accepted for the 2014 Edward F. Chacker Essay Contest. A $1,000 college scholarship will be awarded to a Philadelphia high school junior or senior (public, private, parochial or charter school) who writes the winning essay on the question: Did the Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, accomplish the goal of equal protection under the law for all citizens regarding public education?

Entries must be received by Thursday, April 17 at 12 p.m. Essays will be judged on merit, with adherence to the above theme being a significant criterion for judging. Essays should be at least 1,000 words and typed or printed legibly. Please include your name, address, telephone number and school on a cover sheet accompanying your essay. Essay titles will not count toward the word requirement.

Mail or email essays to: Jeff Lyons, Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St., 10th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107 or chackeressay@philabar.org.

The winner will be invited to read their winning essay at the Naturalization Ceremony at the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia on Thursday, May 1. The Edward F. Chacker Essay Contest is sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.

YLD Law Week Poster Contest Open to 4th, 5th, 6th Graders

Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students from Philadelphia public, private, parochial and charter elementary schools are invited to create a poster depicting the 2014 Law Week poster theme
"What can you do to help make sure there is equal protection under the law of everyone's rights?"

First prize is a $125 gift card; second prize receives a $50 gift card and third prize is a $25 gift card. All entries must be received by Thursday, April 17, 2014 at 12 p.m.

Posters should be produced on standard 22' 'X 28'' poster board. Include your name, address, telephone number and school on the back of the poster. Submit posters during business hours to: Jeff Lyons, Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St., 10th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107

The Law Week Poster Contest is sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. All posters become property of the Philadelphia Bar Association once received.