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How to Be a Good Litigation Partner

How to Be a Good Litigation Junior is the title of a CLEBC full-day conference every two years.

This year as I prepared for my presentation, I couldn’t help but think about what I might say if I was invited to a similar conference aimed at senior lawyers: “How to be a Good Litigation Partner.”

Many well-meaning, kind and ethical litigation partners have some blind spots when it comes to their leadership.

Leadership is a learned skill that develops with attention and effort. There are so many books and courses on leadership because it isn’t easy. It is all about human skills that are never perfected, only bettered. In addition, you can’t quickly look in the mirror to see what needs to be adjusted. Feedback is helpful for learning how to improve as a leader, and associates are unlikely to provide this.

But associates share these insights with me weekly, and here are four commonly arising scenarios:

  1. You and the juniors you work with are very busy when a new file you can’t resist comes in. It will require working weekends and late nights, but it is a great opportunity. You agree to take it on before discussing this with the juniors who it will impact.
  2. You keep an overflowing schedule and have only short time windows available for meeting with your juniors, so it is always about your availability and never about what they have on the go. “I’m in mediation all day Friday, and on Saturday, I am involved in an event at my son’s school all day, and then I have a dinner that night. Monday, I am booked all day. We can work on it Sunday morning and afternoon.”
  3. You are an early riser who gets epic amounts of work done in the early hours of the morning. By 7:30 am, you have sent out a dozen emails moving files along. (Or you might be a night owl who likes to work from 11 pm to 1 am.) When your junior logs in at 8:00 am, they already feel like they are way behind, and their day has just started.
  4. Organization isn’t one of your strengths, and as a result, you are a last-minute delegator. Your juniors regularly get assigned work on Friday afternoons for Monday morning or in the afternoon for completion the following day.

Here’s how you can better your leadership in the above scenarios:

Overall, treat your juniors with respect as colleagues. Yes, they are there to support your practice and learn, and they will greatly appreciate a more collaborative leadership style.

  1. Before taking on the juicy file that will impact their schedules, talk it over with the juniors to gauge their interest in the file. Work together with them to project manage the impact the file will have on the current commitments.
  2. You likely were at the beck and call of senior lawyers as an associate and had to endure the long hours and accommodating their schedules. Times have changed. Treat your juniors with respect by acknowledging that they, too, have plans and commitments. Ask them when they are available to meet, and work to find a time that will work with both your schedules.
  3. If you are flooding your juniors with emails while they sleep, have a conversation with them about this. Clarify your expectations about their response time. Let them know this is your work style, and the intent is not to create undue stress. Consider timing your messages for delivery during regular working hours. In many professional fields, timing emails is considered a good leadership practice.
  4. If you are a disorganized litigator, give this aspect of your practice some attention. Work with a coach on strategies to better your practice management. Develop procedures for delegating earlier. Don’t make your disorganized approach the cause of emergencies for others.

Bottom line – your approach to leadership is how you act on your values. Here are some questions for reflection:

  • Who is the leader you aim to be?
  • What values do you want to express through your actions as a leader?
  • Where might there be some points of misalignment?
  • What steps do you want to take, or adjustments do you want to make?

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