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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Okay you are coming at the from the wrong place.  What is the 12-14 hours a day of work that you are doing?  You are working on things for the clients of partners right? What you need to do is go and get your own clients.  How do you do that?  Well being Jewish or a WASP isn't necessarily going to help so everyone is to a degree in the same boat.  Are you going to ABA conferences?  Joining committees through local bar chapters?  Giving presentations at conferences?  That is how you drum up business is getting to know other lawyers in your field.  What area of law are you in?  Being a WASP or Jewish kid of a big time defense lawyer isn't really going to help your estate planning practice is it? It is the non-billable hour work that gets you the clients.  How do I know?  I'm the child of a firm's rainmaker.  My mom gets the clients and then passes the work off to the associates.  The associates work so much they never have time to get their own clients.  The people who make partner figure that out and put in the effort.  Clients don't just fall into your lap like drunk guys buying you drinks at bars.[/quote]

+1. Those biglaw partners in the other thread who come home at 6:30 and then edit associates' briefs from the home office are not the rain makers. You get business by what the PP above has noted. You don't get business by going to parties--especially not for the kind of client business that biglaw rewards. You get referrals by being known in the national and international field. Present at conferences, be on a panel for your particular ABA section, publish articles, adjunct at a law school. Even if you make friends at these social events, they aren't going to recommend you to a corporate client unless you do these things. Remember, being a hard working associate is not what makes you partner. What makes you partner is bringing in new books of business. Very different than working your butt off for an existing client. I wish law schools would emphasize that what makes a great associate is very different than what makes an equity partner.[/quote]

I posted in the other thread about my biglaw DH who is home for dinner nightly. He is actually a rainmaker, too, who doesn't go to happy hours or poker nights at all. He doesn't have to do all that much now in terms of business development, but when he was first looking to develop his own book of business, he didn't try to leverage his friendships for business. Instead, he started writing articles for law journals. As those got published, trade associations in areas where he worked began to ask him to speak at their conferences. He really never turned down those opportunities. At first, he picked up small matters for large clients, and as he won those, his business started snowballing.

There is no late night schmoozing that actually shows anyone the quality of your work. It is a myth that it is necessary or even desirable, and you are wasting your time if you think that is how you will become a rainmaker. Believe it or not, clients want to hire good lawyers - not good networkers. [/quote]

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