Friday, February 12, 2010

To Network Effectively, Move Beyond the Basics Says Molly Peckman

Molly Peckman, director of associate development at Dechert in Philadelphia, and a frequent writer and lecturer on law firm life and professional development, really understands what it takes for lawyers to stand out in a crowd and to be successful. In today's Legal Intelligencer / Pa Law Weekly, she writes, "To Network Effectively, Move Beyond the Basics."

I first met Molly when we served on the Philadelphia Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Executive Committee - back in the early 90s. Okay, yes, I was considered a young lawyer back then. And as "young lawyers" we were very active in bar and civic community activities. We worked a gazillion hours a day, Molly at a big law firm and I as a judicial law clerk handling death penalty PCRA. We didn't have text messaging, we didn't have Facebook, we didn't have LinkedIn, and we didn't have marketing budgets (I don't think law firm CMOs really existed yet). But we knew that in order to be successful, we had to network - so network we did.

I still remember meeting Lisa Scottoline for the first time. She had just hit the New York Times Best Sellers' List and was a Philadelphia lawyer. So the YLD, under Molly's leadership, honored Lisa at our annual luncheon. Our luncheon was a sell out and we still socialize with many of the YLD members that we broke bread with then. In fact, Scott Cooper who was also on the YLD Executive Committee, is now the Chancellor or the Philadelphia Bar Association.

So I was honored to see that Molly quoted me in her article today. It says:

"Local lawyer-turned-public-relations-guru Gina Furia Rubel is a master networker who knows tons about introductions. In addition to running her own PR and marketing company, she presents, blogs, Tweets, sends newsletters, is active in the leadership of several organizations and is about as "linked in" as a person could be in this town.

Rubel, the author of 'Every Day Public Relations for Lawyers,' suggests different introductions for 'different purposes, audiences and venues. Your introduction to prospective referring attorneys is going to be drastically different from your introduction to prospective clients in a particular practice area.' Rubel explains why saying 'I'm a lawyer' as an introduction is not ideal, and instead suggests you treat an introduction as a closing argument. She counsels, 'Don't just wing it. Practice!'"

Thanks, Molly, for the kind words and for quoting my book. It is a pleasure to continue to network effectively together.

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