In the fast-paced, high-pressure world of law, legal associations are vital to supporting collaboration and growth in the legal field. The advocacy, networking, and information you bring to your members help to advance their careers. Growing your association offers more opportunities to shape the practice of law and empower lawyers on their journey.

Are you looking to grow your association and expand its influence but need a hand figuring out where to start? We’ve got you covered. Here are 3 tips to grow a successful legal association and attract, engage, and retain members.

1. Meaningful Content

One of the top ways to attract, engage, and retain members is through providing meaningful content. When creating (or expanding) content, focus on topics related to your association’s mission. As you share more relevant information, the legal community will see you as an authority, bolstering interest in joining.

Legal association content comes in many forms, and we suggest you experiment with the full toolkit (resources permitting). The easiest to implement is written content, including articles and blogs. Look to newsletters, forums, and your website to distribute this content. In addition to written content, webinars, video blogs, and online video meetings are perfect for engaging your audience, especially the more tech-savvy members.

A recent Forbes article stated that attorney attrition rates are at 80% by the fifth year and that law firms put in an estimated $200,000 per mid-level law associate. If your firm hires ten law associates, and only two stay on after five years, 1.6 million dollars of investments just walked out of your door.

Don’t let attorney attrition be “the cost of doing business.” We break down four main reasons why mid-level law associates leave and how leveraging Metwork, a first-of-its-kind legal software, can help reduce your churn for a minuscule amount of money ($800 a year per associate) compared to the cost of losing them. 

Reason #1: No Mentoring

One of the most significant benefits a new lawyer gains from joining a law firm is mentorship. Learning real-world knowledge from seasoned attorneys accelerates an associate’s career. (Read more about how new lawyers benefit from mentorship.)

While new lawyers aim to gain mentorship experience from within the firm, the docket doesn’t always allow the time and resources needed to help them find their footing. That’s where Metwork comes in. Our mentorship module makes it easy to connect your associates with trusted mentors to boost their experience, knowledge, and confidence without bogging down partners or senior attorneys.  

Enhance your in-house mentorship and leverage your senior attorneys’ knowledge without overtaxing their time by bringing your entire firm onto Metwork. The mentorship module facilitates fluid mentorship within your organization. Senior lawyers at your firm can mentor associates “on the go” from within the app. Easily check in with their mentees and stay up-to-date on progress whenever the time permits. Metwork offers a simple, affordable solution to ensure your associates don’t feel their mentorship is neglected.

Reason #2: Feels Alone

Lawyering is lonely. It’s a grueling industry that chews up attorneys and spits them out. A recent study found that over 60% of lawyers felt the legal profession was a detriment to their mental health. New lawyers often look to join firms to have the community and support system that is hard to find as a solo practitioner.

Law firms have many lawyers and paralegals, but that doesn’t always translate to community. With demanding cases, long hours, and siloed duties, associates often find themselves alone with no one to talk to. Lawyers left adrift see stress levels rise, loyalty suffer, and burnout increase.

While law firms cannot always control how their employees interact, offering a solution to foster a sense of community can be the difference between being one of those firms that only retain 20% of their associates and one that is known as the law firm everyone wants to join. Having a motivated and confident staff leads to better results, happier clients, and more business.

Community is vital to Metwork. Fostering a healthy legal community and leveraging the power of positive relationships push the legal field and your firm forward. All Metwork users have access to discover and join legal associations, join non-case teams to work on problems together and partake in our co-mentorship program (which is like having a gym buddy for lawyering). In addition, we’ll soon release a Community Metlist for users to come together and share knowledge, challenges, and successes together, fostering a stronger legal community. 

Reason #3: Culture Stuck in the Past

Evolving a company culture is always a balancing act. You need to grow enough to attract and retain young talent, but you can’t change so much that you alienate your senior lawyers. Thankfully, it’s not a one or the other situation.

Metwork’s co-founder is Tom Metier, a 40-year veteran of the legal community. One goal of our software is to bridge the generation gap and create a stronger legal community. We do this by leveraging feedback from lawyers from all generations. Our design team created an intuitive, sleek platform that speaks to the techie nature of younger generations while offering an easy-to-use interface anyone can quickly pick up. 

Implementing newer technologies that speak to younger generations is a significant step in moving the company culture forward and promoting an inclusive environment. 

Reason #4: Want the Chance to be a Rainmaker

Becoming a rainmaker can take years of gaining experience, networking, a lot of hard work, and sometimes the luck to be in the room. Many mid-level associates never even get the chance to flex their rainmaking muscles, leaving them feeling dissatisfied and ready to find an opportunity with another firm.

Every associate should have the tools and opportunities to become a rainmaker. Their growth is your growth. Metwork gives them the opportunity to have a seat at the rainmaker table from the comfort of their office. Metwork is uniquely suited to enable every lawyer with the means and opportunities to move from entry-level associate to rainmaker without massive overhead to your firm. 

Leverage Metwork to give your associates the means for mentorship, growth, a sense of community, and the ability to make a difference for your firm. Book a demo today to find out how Metwork can help reduce mid-level law associate churn and enable exponential growth for your firm.

One of our largest updates, Harmony, is now live and brings a list of features and functionalities that are designed to make both the user interface as well as the user experience more harmonious and ensure that the branding and quality across the application are consistent.

Metwork rolled out the new version over two updates [1.1.0 on Sept. 11 and 1.2.0 on 9/25] and is the last significant update before the software moves from Beta to Live on October 1st. The features of Harmony have been implemented across the site and are available for Attorneys, Paralegals, and Associations.

Here’s the complete list of features included in this update.

New Features:

• Implemented billing for Metwork. Users who sign up before October 1st will receive all of 2023 for free; those who sign up after will be billed immediately.
  • Users can add multiple payment options, make adjustments to current payment options, and delete options.
  • Invoice section added to billing. Users can get all invoices in one monthly statement.
  • Plan options implemented (monthly and annually).
• Additional email notifications implemented.
• New help center fully integrated into Metwork.
• Users now have the ability to unsubscribe from unwanted communications, such as specific threads on Metlist.
• Gave users the ability to cancel their membership.

Enhancements and Improvements:

• Enhanced link functionality for users.
  • This function is available across modules such as teams, referrals, and associations.
  • Users now have the ability to edit, sort, and pin links they share.
• Association members’ roles are now color-coded.

Bug Fixes:

• Profile preview now displays across the whole application upon clicking a user’s profile picture.
• Metwork connections weren’t showing for some users when on “card view.”
• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Feedback Screen” from appearing after a case was settled.
• Team names are now editable, and the name change appears throughout the software.
• Items are now purchasable through association storefronts.
• “Let’s Reflect” slider allows more finite input.
• Restored missing filters in the Referrals, Team, and Network sections.

Harmony is currently live and available to all users. Join now to discover the power of positive relationships in the legal field.

Metwork’s latest update is live. 

Version 1.0, nicknamed “Cruise Control,” is a series of features designed to give users more control over their experience as it pertains to their privacy and data. This update also gives users control over their preferences within each module alongside notifications they do or don’t receive. These additional controls are put in place in order to enhance the overall user experience.

Here’s the complete list of features included in this update. 

New Features:

• Added the ability to mute messages. This includes individual messages, team chat, and individual Metlist threads.
• Added moderation for association admins in Metlist. This allows for associations to ensure conversations within association chats are following association guidelines. 
• Added comprehensive labels to forms.
• Added option to put an expiration on a referral request to help facilitate your referral workflow.
• Added the ability to turn off notifications you're not interested in.
• Added the ability to set default settings per module.
• Added auto-complete addresses to the software.

Bug Fixes:

• User profile previews now appear if the profile picture is clicked.
• Fixed a bug where uploading a profile picture occasionally deletes the user’s phone number.

Deprecations and Removals:

• Removed compare tabs in the Network module.

Cruise Control is currently live and available to all users. Not using Metwork to enhance your legal practice? Let’s get you on our lawyer-only networking platform and you can experience the power of positive relationships.

The Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys (ATAA) is holding its 2023 Annual Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, September 27-29, 2023, and the Metwork team will be there. The three-day event aims to empower attorneys specializing in litigating truck accidents with the knowledge and tools to advocate and win for their clients.

ATAA sums up the event nicely on their website: “The 2023 Symposium brings together the nuts and bolts of trucking litigation combined with intermediate and advanced topics, presented by premier trial lawyers in this specialized practice area.” The symposium will have two educational tracks that include days packed with speakers, workshops, and networking events. Tracks will be recorded and available for all participants. As an added bonus, lawyers earn CLE for attending the event. 

Amongst those speaking is Metwork’s co-founder, Tom Metier. Fresh off a record-breaking win in a liability case against Toyota, Tom will present a workshop entitled “Closing Argument Jury Charges - The Psychology of Selecting and Explaining.” You should not miss Tom's talk if you want to level up your closing arguments. 

This year’s symposium will mark the second time we have exhibited with ATAA. Metwork CEO and co-founder Jack Metier recently shared the importance of attending the event: “The ATAA Symposium raises the level of practice for the entire community by bringing people together to share their knowledge and experience in trucking law. That’s really inspiring to me because Metwork is built to do that across the entire legal industry.”

Make sure to stop by the exhibitor’s hall between sessions and connect with the Metwork team. We’re looking forward to sharing the newest version of our software and discussing the future of the legal field with you. Let’s get together and raise the bar on legal connections.

Registration for the event is still open. Register here.

There is still time to take advantage of Metwork’s free beta, but time is running out. Sign up now to explore Metwork’s career-changing possibilities.

One of our most popular modules has gotten an update. Nicknamed “Mentorship Match for Success,” our latest release, version [0.9] brings enhanced features to the Mentorship module. The update is aimed at improving user experience, providing clearer user feedback, and facilitating better mentorship relationships with enhanced check-in and goal maintenance.

We are also excited to announce that we’ve expanded our mentorship roles to include co-mentors. This role is perfect for users looking for a “gym buddy.” Co-mentors work together to problem solve, be a sympathetic ear, and push each other to achieve limitless possibilities.

Here’s the complete list of features included in this update. 

Enhancements and Improvements:

• Updated Mentorship module brings you more information, including feedback on productivity, discipline, and quality, goal progress, and mentorship relationships.
• Updated Profiles to include Mentorship section.
• Updated onboarding includes the ability to opt-in to mentorship. Roles include:
  • Mentee - Connect to a legal professional with experience to share.
  • Mentor - Guide, teach, and grow by sharing expertise with others.
  • Co-Mentor - Team up with a colleague to push each other to greatness.
• Added the ability to opt-in to mentorship roles through the mentorship module.
• Added Philosophy section for users to share their mentorship philosophy. This block lets potential matches to get to know your mentorship style better.
• Enhanced the search and invite functions in the Mentorship module.
  • Added the ability to send a personal note to the mentorship invite.
• Added goals and meeting frequency to mentorship block.
  • Users can set daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly meetings with their mentorship partner.
  • Users can set goals for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly meetings.
  • Users can update goals.
    • Mark as complete or incomplete.
    • Change the goal they are working towards accomplishing.
    • Set goals for your co-mentor to ensure you’re both on track.
  • Users can track and review progress on their goals.
  • Users can send advice to their mentorship partner.
• Users can “Check-in” with their mentorship partners directly from the mentorship block.
  • Easily create a direct message without leaving the mentorship module.
• Users can have more than one mentorship relationship.
• Users can end mentorship relationships.
  • Users have the option to add feedback into why they are ending the relationship.
• Added additional mentorship notifications, including in-app and email.

Mentorship Match for Success is currently live on Metwork. If you’re a user, you can start utilizing it now. If you’re not a member, there is no better time than now to experience our first-of-its-kind legal networking software. Users who sign-up before October 1st will get all of 2023 for free. Don’t wait. That date is fast approaching.