The Art of the Cold Call

Who knew how often lawyers and support staff would have to make cold calls? No one told me about any of this in law school, but before I was even out I was desperately dialing all sorts of people in the hope that they would feed me information. As a law clerk, I had to ferret out information from government agencies about various sorts of activities. As a first-year associate, I was doing the same. As time went on, I had to persuade complete strangers to speak to me for all sorts of reasons, and often, they were disinclined. I needed them far more than they needed me.  I still found ways to get past call-screening secretaries and straight-to-voicemail buttons.

There's no need to fear the cold call.

Here’s what I’ve learned from logging thousands of hours on telephones over the years:

1. The first call every day is the hardest. I’ve been doing this for years. I still have to talk myself into the first one.
2. Reward yourself. Make 10 calls and then surf the Internet, get a latté, thumb through a catalogue. In a morning full of rejections, someone’s got to reward you. Often, that will be you.
3. Forget Monday mornings unless you deliberately just want to leave messages. Everyone’s too busy on Monday mornings. Call at another time if you actually hope to get ahold of your target.
4. Flattery gets you everywhere. Try to come up with some sort of link to persuade someone to pick up that extension. Mention how impressive someone’s recent presentation was, or how nice a writeup she got in the law journal, or how you appreciate the camaraderie of fellow law school alumni—or college—or high school—or sports club—or whatever.
5. Use your sexy voice. Really, you’d think that we as a society have passed this. We haven’t. Sugar sells. Smiling sells.  If I’m leaving a voicemail message, I’m practically purring. Sure, sometimes I’m not in the mood to sweet-talk a stranger, and I leave messages using my regular voice. Those messages dripping in honey are the ones that seem to be returned the most. Try it. At the very least, you’ll get some greater practice for your personal life.

Cold call with confidence.

Pitching can be painful. Or you can find ways to make it fun. If you’re working in the legal field, you’re going to be cold calling more than you probably thought that you would. Press on.

—Lori Tripoli

Where Will Your Job Be in Five Years? Two? Six Months?

The news that Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is dumping 35 legal secretaries, or “making some adjustments to our existing legal support structure,” is a timely reminder not to get too confident in your own indispensability. Take steps now so that when cuts have to be made, you ‘ll be the cutter, not the cuttee.

Can I blame any firm for cutting back on use of legal secretaries? Not really. Lawyers, even the older ones, are far more fully functional than they once were. If some of them seem incapable of licking an envelope, I’m sure it’s a task they’re capable of learning. If they can’t, well, they can always email.

Yet, still, aim not to be one of those cut in your own office. If I were at Wilson Sonsini in any role, I’d take a look around at who was going and who was staying. What were the differences between the two groups? For whom did they work? How different were their personalities? Their skill sets? Their work habits? Their ages? Their ambition levels? Their kindnesses?

It’s not enough to do your job well. You should probably know (and be doing) portions of others’ jobs, too. Not in my position description doesn’t really cut it in these times of economic strife and, as the good folks at Wilson Sonsini put it, “increased operational efficiencies.” Keep yourself current. Pay attention to firm politics. Try to work with someone whose staff is always on the right side of any cost cutting. Know where else in the legal market you could possibly turn, and develop the skills you’ll need to be competitive there. Find an opportunity in a layoff, even if you are safe in this go-round.

—Lori Tripoli

Secretaries Are from Mars, Partners from Venus

Some of us have long been tired of reports about women dissing other women, but now comes an ABA Journal report that female secretaries are not quite as keen about working for female partners as for male ones: Not One Legal Secretary Surveyed Preferred Working with Women Partners; Prof Offers Reasons Why. 

Men, women, or other lawyers can be challenging personalities to work for all the way around. They are driven, hard-working, intense. They don’t really engage in a lot of hand holding with their staffs. They expect their workers to be as competent and professional and motivated as they are. Instead of complaining about how some partners are more emotional, shrill, or demanding than others, figure out a way to make the workplace exciting and fun for you. Some tips are in my book under Working with Lawyers (Chapter 7).