Minimize staggering costs from losing mid-level law associates by leveraging software designed to complement the legal community.
Increase your income by quickly sending quality legal referrals. We share the three biggest mistakes to avoid. Learn more.
Learn how to accelerate your legal career and streamline your practice by joining Metwork’s legal community.
Guest Blogger Toni Lynn Bisconti shares her experience with poker, personality types, and how they relate to the legal field.
Slowly gaining experience to further your legal career does not have to be the norm. There is a better option–find a good mentor.
Joining Metwork creates limitless opportunities to superpower your legal career, and that begins with growing a trusted legal network. We’ve got you...
Giving and receiving feedback is incredibly enriching and something everyone should engage in. Taking the steps to have a positive feedback...
Sending and receiving referrals is a great way to take your law career to the next level, but finding good lawyers to connect with can be difficult....
Metwork is a first-of-its-kind legal networking platform that every new lawyer should join to jumpstart their career and build connections with other...
Learn about the five main legal personality types and how they integrate with Metwork.
Posts about:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
John F. Kennedy once said, “Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.” While he made this statement during his 1961 address to Canada, this philosophy rings true for the legal field.
We all know you can make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but it takes time and a lot of effort. Enter matches. We no longer have to labor away, hoping to work up enough friction to produce a spark. Fire is now a flick of the wrist away.
When I first started playing poker, some 30ish years ago, I felt like I was part of an old-boys club that had very little use for women, especially those of us who didn’t care how many patriarchal toes we stepped on. I’m not sure it’s changed all that much, but as a 50-year-old woman, I seem to have at least gained some street cred for longevity. I bet if I asked a female attorney, she’d give me the same trajectory of her life between 1993 and today. I’m not going to wax and wane about the state of women in male-dominated worlds, but as a backdrop, I think it’s important.
Learning is a lifelong process, but it shouldn’t take a lifetime to become successful in the legal field. Schools teach the basics and prepare you to pass exams, but many graduates feel lost and unsure of how to navigate the day-to-day reality of being part of the legal community. Joining a firm can provide additional experience, but the work often dictates the direction of your learning–not your interests. Left on your own, trial and error is often the way we learn, and while trying new tactics, picking yourself back up after a failure, and trying a new approach is effective, it can also take time and potentially damage your trajectory.
One of Metwork’s most powerful functions is your ability to curate strong legal networks of trusted lawyers for teams, referral networks, mentorship, and community empowerment. Having your “Metwork” allows you to expand your practice, quickly send referrals, and define your legal journey.
After joining Metwork, your first inclination might be to hop into the Network section and search for new lawyers to bring into your Metwork. That's a great idea, but before you add everyone, we’ve put together three tips for creating a strong, trusted legal network that opens limitless possibilities for you and your legal career.
With a world of lawyers at your fingertips, adding your core group might not be your first thought, but it should be. We encourage every new Metwork user to add the top five colleagues they trust to their network.
If they aren’t part of Metwork yet, you can ask them to join from within the software:
Let’s be honest; giving and receiving feedback is not always a fun experience. Many people are cautious about it–they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings or feel the advice would be unwanted. However, those concerns shouldn’t dissuade you from giving feedback.
A recent report shows that 52% of consumers hired a lawyer through a recommendation, and 21% of those recommendations came from other attorneys1. That breaks down to 1 in 5 people choosing their lawyer based on another lawyer’s guidance.
Congratulations, you’ve passed the bar and are ready to take on the legal world. Maybe you dream of becoming a partner at a major law firm, or you want to open a small practice and fight for the rights of those injured. Whatever you aspire to be, your journey should start with joining Metwork.
Raise your hand if you know your MBTIⓇ type. I’m sure quite a few of you are out there (maybe looking a little odd at your desk… we’re sorry about that; you can put your hand down).
Since roughly the 4th century BCE, humans have been fascinated by studying personalities.1 In the more recent 20th century, we saw this study come into sharper focus with the creation of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter.
These two personality “tests” revolutionized how we think about ourselves, our interactions, and our professional lives, including the legal field. Let’s take a closer look at that history and how Metwork moves beyond those tests for the future.
Don’t worry; we’ll keep the history lesson short.
Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, first published the basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) in 1944 (under the name Briggs Myers Type Indicator Handbook).2 In the last 80 years, it has become part of our culture, both for professionals and individuals wanting to learn a bit more about their personalities and how they interact with coworkers and friends.
After learning about MBTI, psychologist David Keirsey went in a slightly different direction and pulled from the Ancient Greek theory of temperaments to create the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS). Keirsey published his theory and questionnaire first in 1978.3
While both theories share insight into personalities, they differ in a few key ways. MBTI mainly focuses on the internal (thinking and feeling), while KTS focuses on the external (behavior). MBTI has 16 personality types, while KTS has 4 temperaments (though he does break down each temperament into 4 types, bringing it back to 16 different possibilities…so not that different).4
People much more intelligent than me researched where lawyers fall on the MBTI and KTS scales5 and found that unlike most of the population that spans the entire spectrum, attorneys really fit into five main personality types.6
Okay, we won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Let’s break down the 5 different types.
Traits: Ethical, Authentic, Moral, and Passionate
What is winning to Advocates? “Making my client feel safe.”
Advocates passionately fight for causes. They believe in the greater good and will defend it with all their might. Advocates have strong personal values and won’t betray them, meaning they can’t be bought. When not in a courtroom, they are probably volunteering, helping someone cross the street, or attending a demonstration. Unity, ethics, and social justice are an advocate's jam.
Traits: Trustworthy, Organized, Diplomatic, and Excellent Listener
What is winning to Facilitators? “Making the team work together.”
Facilitators thrive in group settings. They are perfect for pulling a dream team together and ensuring no one gets dropped in a trust fall. Facilitators may not be the loudest in the room, but when you’re pulling an all-nighter for a case, they’ll order the pizza, lend a helping hand, and check that everyone is ready for the morning court appearance.
Traits: Dependable, Realistic, Resolute, and Technical
What is winning to Inspectors? “Writing a bulletproof brief.”
Inspectors know how the legal sausage is made. They are hardworking, a team player, and always around to lend a hand. Inspectors come equipped with the technical know-how to keep every firm running at peak performance. And the level of attentiveness Inspectors bring to their briefs makes them an invaluable part of any legal team.
Traits: Observant, Rational, Creative, and Logical
What is winning to Litigators? “Winning the case.”
Litigators are the lawyers best suited for those impossible cases that need a different angle. They live for the win and use their creativity to find the best solution to every challenge. They value rationality and logic over all else (in this way, they are the Spocks of the legal world) and focus on producing results.
Traits: Persuasive, Confident, Outgoing, and Goal-oriented
What is winning to Rainmakers? “Having a jury hang on my every word.”
Rainmakers are natural performers and are extroverts through and through. They live for social interactions and excel in front of a jury. They’d probably be a rock star if they weren't a lawyer. Rainmakers are experts in gaining the trust of their audience and closing a deal.
Much like the MBTI inspired Kiersey, both inspired Metwork to create a unique combination of tests and traits that move beyond previous personality tests and give lawyers a deeper insight into themselves and their legal persona.
These five personality types are one component integrated into Metwork’s smart-match technology (we’ll share more of the components in future articles). We utilize them to create more meaningful connections between lawyers to build stronger dream teams for cases, more referrals, and productive mentorship opportunities.
Want to know your personality type? (Trust us, you may think you know, but you’ll probably be surprised.) Join Metwork today to take our personality test, and once you’ve learned your personality type, you can start collaborating with attorneys that match your personality.
Join Metwork Today and Learn Your Legal Persona.
