Last week at the first edition of the Law Business Chat by Charles Ajiboye, FICMC, words of wisdom filled the air.
For those who missed it, read the chat below: Remember, it’s a chat.
Wetin we gain, if the world calls us De Law and we are broke?
I hope we can grow our minds together here. We must grow skills
The truth is that, the sky is wide enough for us all to fly and succeed
It is myopic to think that co-lawyers are your enemies.
Now to the topic of today…
What is your opinion I shared a bit of mine here
Someone reached out to me and confessed he has been very shy about positioning
Positioning has to do with situating yourself or practice where the people that need to see you can find you.
I hear lawyers forming “introvert’ Hahahahahahha, i laugh. Who says you have to be an Extrovert
‘Bros’ ‘Bae’ who your introvert hepp?
It is a business decision and you better do what you have to do. Go outside of NBA, Join Institutes, Social Clubs, Developmental clubs, Be religious, Go to church, Go to Mosque…mix
It is people that brief people not spirits.
The number and quality of people you know will impact on your briefs. It is important to make an intentional effort to meet people
Just today, I had a private meeting with one of the Founding Partners of a top law firm in Nigeria and he reiterated that he went after whoever he wanted. The worst you can get is a NO.
But how do you even get to know if you are not positioned rightly
Do you know, that just by being active on a group as this you could build network that can help your practice? Ohhhh yeah!
It is a lie that you can’t Rain Make of get briefs from lawyers. I have gotten several
Just last week an Associate of the ICMC called me to join in a Mediation session between Shareholders of a company. He needed my profile to push his fees up. Of course i consented to it.
He got the brief, but our collaboration makes us both happy
I remember a Counsel who got a brief and he could not handle it. He was going to charge 250k for same. We discussed and he yielded the client to me way back then. The same client who was murmuring about paying NGN250k was happy to pay us 1.2m.
For those in Salaried employments, let me let you into a secret. If you want to get the attention and respect of your employer; begin bringing briefs. If there is a structure, I guarantee you speedy partnership. If there is none, I guarantee that you will have your job paying you a lot better for as long as you wish.
If you would recall one of our earliest briefs where the client was negotiating to pay 450k.yiu sent me text message to insist on 750k and I did… Funny enough, the client gave in and paid 750k
Actually, this is the truth. My Oga will always say that when you bring brief, the office will charge well and so will you get a cut therefrom.
I hope you have attractive percentage of profit for the associate
I recall you positioned well for a client that had cash. You only were afraid to ask.
On 1—Life is in stages. I do not expect a new wig to be targeting a Bank MD. Except of course it is only the wig that is new not the head.
Corporate nodies are in sizes. And indeed there is sufficient access to them. If only we focus on the ones we can offer value to at our level
I will close on 2—Sadly this is true. However, the pot that will lick soup will be hot. Success does not come easy. The need for extra miles can’t be over emphasized. What do you do with your night, weekends, public holidays?
I have personally noticed that only poor or Junior lawyers observe all these days like sacrifices. The more successful lawyers are starting meetings when the poorer ones are going to bed or watching soccer or Zee world.
We need to push some more.
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