Becoming a Lawyer: Discovering and Defining Your Professional Person

by Toni Jaeger-Fine, West Academic Publishing 2018, 330 pages, Price: $35.00.

In the book, Becoming A Lawyer, Toni Jaeger-Fine presents a detailed, well-organized handbook on how to practice law. Presently an assistant dean at Fordham Law School, Jaeger-Fine has broad experience practicing law; previously, she worked in private practice in a large D.C. law firm.

I expected this book would be a handbook for young lawyers entering a profession they learned little about during law school. Instead, I found an in-depth guide, useful to lawyers at every level — a book beneficial to anyone with a license to practice. The book examines every aspect of practicing law, with some sections geared towards younger lawyers, including tools for new associates in supervisory relationships and finding your voice when first practicing. The book also looks at these topics through the glass of the experienced attorney as well, which is why this handbook applies to any attorney practicing law.

The author is in a unique position to offer us this roadmap to our profession and it should be used as a reference guide and kept nearby when the law practice becomes challenging, which is just about every day. The book covers topics such as the business of law, your professional mindset, time management, mental wellbeing, relationships, talent management, effective communication and the public persona.

Within these topics, she delves deeper into ways to improve to become successful, not only as an attorney but as a person. Professional success is intertwined with personal success, and is outlined in an organized and cohesive fashion that opens the eyes of new and experienced lawyers.

The book begins with an exploration of how the business of providing legal services has evolved and how lawyers need to adapt to the changing needs of the clients, including how private interests are handling more legal issues in-house instead of outsourcing to law firms. There is an increase in boutique specialty firms and that correlates with companies handling more work in-house.

This leads to the question of how we develop our own professional persona in order to meet the demands of the clients. You can feel the passion of the author, how she describes the reasons why we can throw IQ out the window when evaluating how successful a lawyer is and will be. The author spends a great deal of time explaining the psychology behind the practice of law and how EQ is more critical than IQ.

“If you are smart enough to get through law school, you are smart enough to be an outstanding attorney.” This point is really a building block for the entire book, in that the intelligent lawyer is not the one with the highest IQ! Emotional intelligence factors into every relationship we have, whether communicating with a judge, a jury, an employee, an adversary, a client or anyone else.

We must possess the emotional intelligence to effectively communicate as a lawyer. The book covers an analysis of social intelligence as well, which is crucial in the ability to develop business and the ability to pay close attention to the needs of others as opposed to the self-absorbed lawyers.  My interpretation is that Jaeger-Fine is implying that social intelligence separates the rainmakers from those lawyers that do not bring in business.

I enjoyed the section of the book on leadership and felt the author's analysis impacted the way I defined leadership. The book emphasizes that as lawyers, it is our obligation to be leaders professionally, as well as leaders in our personal lives. Leadership is a piece of that law degree that we have and those lawyers who choose to be followers will not live up to their full potential.

Leadership takes on many forms, and many times, being a leader is specific to a particular set of circumstances.  As lawyers and as leaders, we are change agents and visionaries. The good news is leaders are made and not born. Each of us has the capacity to become a leader in each circumstance of our own lives, whether personal or professional. It is the work that we put in towards becoming a leader and using all the other skills that the book points out in terms of communication and self-introspection that can help all of us become the leaders we can be. This directly correlates with our success as attorneys.

At first, I felt the title, Becoming A Lawyer was too limited, but as I reflected on this beautifully written and organized piece of work, it is clear we are all on a constant journey of becoming a lawyer. We didn't really become lawyers when we took the oath in the Appellate Division; it is a constant path of becoming a lawyer — a life of professional experiences and personal growth. We should never let our practice become stale or boring and we should pivot constantly in order to achieve personal and professional achievement.

The path is not always smooth, often filled with obstructions, but this book gives the tools and the roadmap to overcome the challenges we face. We are all on this journey together and we all have the ability to be outstanding lawyers. The book is extremely uplifting and positive.  It inspires the reader to believe that with hard work and development of your persona, communications skills, leadership, organizational skills, mental wellbeing and so many other skills, you can and will reach for the stars to achieve the personal and professional success. I have a special place for this book on my bookshelf and will continue to use it as a reference guide as I continue on my journey in the profession that I love!

David M. Schwartz is a partner at Gertsman Schwartz. He advocates for businesses, trade associations and not-for-profits.