Teaching young lawyers etiquette, attire, tattoo-hiding

ST. LOUIS - Joan Newman, a former partner at St. Louis law firm Thompson Coburn L.L.P., remembers interviewing job candidates on the campus of a prestigious law school. She was expecting to see the usual flow of dark-suited young men and women, but her jaw dropped when one male candidate showed up in shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops.

While new graduates may be savvy about law, they may not have a clue about how to dress or act in a profession that serves high-powered, conservative clients.

They might be sporting visible tattoos, for example. Some women don't wear hosiery or bras, and some men don't iron their shirts. Many have no idea which is their bread plate or how to make small talk.

"I watched for years as associates came and went, and as bright and competent as they were, they lacked social and strategic skills," Newman said.

She said a lightbulb went off in her head late last year, and she decided to leave her law career to start an "associate training and development" business teaching young lawyers in such varied matters as where their water glass goes and how to work a room and build relationships.

And while some of Newman's friends questioned her sanity for leaving a lucrative career for such an odd and risky business, she is on to something quite big in the legal industry.

"It's part of a growing trend called lawyer professional development," said James Leipold, executive director of the Washington-based National Association for Law Placement. Law firms' interest in teaching associates "soft skills" such as etiquette, proper attire, and how to make casual conversation began about 10 years ago, Leipold said.

But there has been much more emphasis on these skills in the last few years, with law firms across the country hiring management-level people to be directors of in-house lawyer professional development or using consultants.

"Most of these associates are 25 years old and have never worked in a job like this," said Susan Bonnell, director of training and development at Armstrong Teasdale L.L.P., of St. Louis. "Often, you have associates who worked really hard in law school, but they've never worked in the professional world. "It's the soft-skill stuff that really produces our stellar lawyers. They really know how to take care of clients."

So why didn't law firms embrace these programs earlier?

Bradley Winters, a St. Louis partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal L.L.P. and author of The 48 Secret Rules of Lawyering, said that, when he began his legal career in the 1980s, expectations were much different.

"When I started, I had the luck of tagging along," he said. "That was more of an apprenticelike time, and I got to see extraordinary people just as an observer... . I would watch carefully how everyone handled themselves. I had plenty of time to make mistakes."

But as salaries have risen, and competition has grown stiffer, law firms realize they must make lawyers productive much faster.

By Gail Appleson
Philidelphia Inquirer