Building a Team

Video Transcript

A lot of people can build a team to do work, right? You check off a box. Did you do this? Did you do this? Did you do this? But when you are asking people to go to battle for you, and litigation is battle, they need to feel that you are invested in them. You are with these people every single day. We spend more time together than we do with our spouses, our families, our children.

There’s always turnover in law firms, and people say, “Why is there turnover in law firms?” It’s because often people don’t feel connected to the people with whom they’re working. So I think when you’re leading a group of people and you have a relationship with them, you care about them, you know their spouse’s names, you know their children’s names, when you know that they have cats instead of dogs and when their cats are sick. Just being connected to those people allows them to feel that they want to stay with you, they want to work with you, they want to be part of what you’re trying to build because you are relating to them, you’re part of them, you care about them, you’re not looking at them just as a fungible good who bills hours.