John Buttanshaw’s Post

Enhancing Claims Relationships Through Authentic Connections Yesterday, Dr. Claire C. Muselman led a session on building authentic connections, focusing on soft skills crucial for legal professionals in Orlando, Florida with the fantastic group from Vernis & Bowling! The session covered key aspects such as: 🔹 The impact of executive presence and the energy professionals bring into every room. 🔹 The importance of authenticity in interactions and how it influences perceptions. 🔹 Practical strategies for initiating and maintaining quality interactions. A powerful takeaway was the emphasis on leaving a lasting impression, as highlighted by Patricia Fripp's quote: "It is not people’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they do not have the chance to forget you!" Thank you to all who participated and those who continue supporting the mission of enhancing professional relationships through genuine connections. #ProfessionalGrowth #ClaimsManagement #SoftSkills #LegalProfessionals #Authenticity

New Shook Attorneys: To the new attorneys joining the @Shook Hardy Bacon team, I am looking forward to working with you. If you’ll allow me, I have some advice for how to be successful here: Embrace collaboration: At Shook, our strength lies in our collective wisdom and collaborative spirit. Make it a point to actively seek input from your peers and mentors, and don't hesitate to share your unique perspectives. Foster collegiality: Building strong interpersonal relationships is key to your success here. Engage with your colleagues both inside and outside the workplace. The colleagues you work with today might be lifelong connections, or perhaps future clients and trusted advisors. Prioritize continuous learning: The legal field is evolving rapidly, and our firm is committed to staying at the forefront. Take advantage of our numerous learning resources and professional development programs. Maintain a strong work ethic: Success comes to those who are dedicated and persistent. Show your commitment through your work and strive for excellence in everything you do. Cultivate resilience: There will be challenging days and complex cases, but these are the moments where you'll grow the most. Embrace these opportunities to learn and improve, and always bounce back with renewed vigor. Welcome to the team. You're going to do great. #Litigation #Advice #NewJob

Cultivating relationships throughout my career, whether with fellow leaders, teams, young individuals at the beginning of their career journey, and internal clients progressing through the minefields of litigation has been the pinnacle in moving into this new chapter with Integrity Conflict Solutions. From these people and various circumstances, I have learned resilience, how to inspire, and the importance of trust and confidence to achieve exceptional things for everyone involved. Navigating such relationships has highlighted the true importance of maintaining professionalism, humanity and empathy throughout. We are all human. We are emotional beings. We are also smart enough to use our emotions to fuel our successes. Learning how to transform your emotions to supercharge performance and communication, especially in challenging and confronting situations, can be a superpower. Harnessing these learnings and embedding the very best culture into organisations has been a stand-out moment and has got me to where I am today. I wonder what the future of Integrity will bring…

In this new episode of In-House Legal: Uncovered, Michael Sachs sits down with Paul S. Williams, a seasoned Fortune 500 director and former chief legal officer, to dive into Paul's career journey, his insights on board service, and his unwavering commitment to diversity in the legal profession.   https://bit.ly/3YTcrm3 #mlaglobal #mlapodcast #legalpodast #careerservices #careercoaching

During a firm luncheon this week, accomplished attorneys W. Nevins McCann, George Garcia, Leo Hurley, and Jennifer Carrillo Perez agreed that fostering strong relationships has been critical to their careers. In addition to sharing their unique backgrounds, motivations, and mentors, each presenter identified an aha moment in their business development trajectories, a point in time when everything seemed to click. The presenters also emphasized the importance of mastering legal skills and finding your niche. They said that loving what you do, giving back to others, and being a good person are ultimately the keys to success in most any profession. #LegalInsights #CareerJourney #SuccessKeys

Something I see more often than I'd like is an 8th (ish) year associate who is relying on a partner as their sherpa into partnership, and then the partner leaves. That associate feels like they are well and truly up the creek without a paddle. While there are jobs at that level, there are not usually that many. Some firms see a senior associate leaving as a bad sign - as if the associate was told they were not going to make partner, so they're bailing. Or, if you offer that you're leaving because your sponsoring partner left, they will drill deep into why that person didn't take you too. Here are some reasons partners don't bring their (beloved, respected) associates: - Something in their partnership agreement makes this impossible. - The deal of bringing them over was to replace another partner, and there's a plug and play team at the new firm. - The partner knows that they won't yet have the "juice" to sponsor someone (especially in the case of junior partners) and they assume their team will be best left behind where the team members have track records and political capital. So, if this happens to you - don't lose hope. A good recruiter can get over these objections for you. We're forever running defense!

Another great in-person meeting of the ProVisors Boston Lawyers Affinity Group! While Christopher Murphy does a great job when we have these meetings on Zoom, there is something intangible that comes from shaking hands, walking around the room, and seeing how tall or short everyone is! Today's meeting featured breakout groups on the subject of finding ancillary services to provide to our clients. Chris talked about re-framing our thinking (i.e. we are not slimy salespeople when we do this; rather we are finding additional ways to be helpful to our clients!) In one breakout group I was in, Jonathan Contrada shared how their firm has a practice of asking clients about other specific legal needs that clients may have. They go through a checklist (Do you have a will?, etc.) and they wait until the client matter has reached a happy conclusion before asking. (Jonathan and Chris' firm don't do T&E work but they ask to make sure that clients are getting legal protection in other areas of their lives.) Tony Laurentano offered that his firm does TM monitoring in order to help clients be aware when other companies or individuals may be infringing on their URL or other marks. They charge for that service but it adds great value to the client. Other ProVisors luminaries in attendance included Vincent Bonazzoli, AEP® Denise Chicoine Nick Lipresti Dominic Grew Sarah Reiff-Hekking Daniel Batterman Shep Becker Vincent Lau Richard Mandel Amy Cashore Mariani Nora Yousif, CFP®, CDFA®, MBA Jonathan White Glenn Wegrzyn Michael Walsh Tanusha Thuraisingam and I'll have to stop there (but many others as well!) Best of all, David McLaren, CPA, CGMA, CRFAC, ABGOV, RFI, CRFAU gave me a Darth Vader bow tie to thank me for mentioning him in an article about being memorable. David, who usually wears bow ties himself, was in a regular tie today because of some neck issues. *************** I'm Stephen E. Seckler, Esq. - Counsel to Counsel 🦉. I help you stop thinking like a lawyer so that you can navigate challenging career transitions, grow your practice, and become a better leader. #legalmarketing #networking #lawyers #businessdevelopment

🌟 Milestone Moment 🌟 Yesterday marked 6 months since opening Featherstone & Associates, and what an incredible journey it has been so far! I did not expect it to take off as quickly as things did, but I have loved every minute of navigating the ride. A big thanks to those who inspired me to pursue a career in litigation 😘 — from navigating complex litigation cases to supporting clients through challenging disputes, it's been a truly rewarding experience 🙏 The biggest wins so far have been the volume of commercial disputes, acting for clients requiring nuanced legal advice with respect to scientific formulas and importation, and athlete onboarding. I never expected to be dealing with the types of disputes we have this early on (some situations remind me of scenes from The People v Larry Flint) but I’m grateful for the trust our clients have placed in us (no longer just the "Royal Us" 😂) and can genuinely say I love what I'm doing. My advice to others thinking of doing the same but are stuck is - Do it. Back yourself. Dive head-first into the chaos that is running a legal practice with no one reviewing your work before it goes out😅 it's a fast way to learn and challenge yourself - you'll see what you're really made of and each hurdle you overcome is extremely rewarding. Here’s to many more milestones ahead! #litigation #milestone #gratitude #legalservices

Senior Lawyers... Ever wonder if you'll ever get to Partnership with your current firm? 🙄 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙀𝙭𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙡, 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙧 (𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙧) 𝙎𝘼 𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙚, 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧, 𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙡𝙤𝙩?  When you are being told that you are on partner track, you are not alone. Are the partners being genuine or are they keeping you in line as one of the most effective profit centres at the firm? It's hard to tell right, especially when they can't give you a firm timeline for partnership, or give you specific KPIs to get there. We are seeing more people at this level jumping ship having lost faith in the partnership doing the right thing by them. At some point you have to give up on the current dream and take charge of your own destiny. I think the starting point is to really push for some clear answers from your current firm. From your sponsoring partner(s) who you know is on side, through to team leaders, group and office management. You might get the answers you are looking for, but if a time frame for partnership is still too opaque, or your "gut feel" from what is or is not being said leaves you with too much uncertainty, then it's probably time to explore what the market has to offer. It's uncomfortable to push management on these issues but it's sometimes necessary. If you would like any guidance at this point in your career, contact me: [email protected] or 0466 166 563