You're reading: Top lawyers offer keys for success in profession

The legal services market has come a long way in the last 20 years. Kyiv Post asks top lawyers for their tips to succeed.

Ukraine’s legal services market has matured over the last 20 years since the nation attained independence and broke from its communist past, starting on its rocky path to an open, capitalist economy.

In this time, the nation’s legal trade has shifted from a closed one, where most lawyers were state employees, to a highly competitive private pool. More Ukrainian lawyers today are not only experts in domestic laws, but have mastered international laws, speak fluent English and work regularly with firms from abroad.

The early arrival of international legal service giants brought valuable experience and set standards. But along the way – which included peaks, drops and growing pains – a growing number of large and competitive domestic law firms have emerged.

The Kyiv Post asked several top firms to share the lessons learned and secrets of their success.

Personalities matter

In a very personal business like legal services, people who work in a firm are the core to success. The name of a lawyer is often more valuable than the name of a firm.

“Clients very often choose to work with certain lawyers but not with the brand of a firm. They say: ‘I want to work with this partner, and if it’s impossible, I’ll take another firm,’” said Nazar Chernyavsky a partner at Sayenko Kharenko, a fast-growing domestic law firm.

“In the management of the legal business everything depends on the ability to persuade, and his reputation and respect from partners. Implementation depends on it,” said Serhiy Chorny, a partner at the Kyiv practice of international legal services giant Baker & McKenzie.

“Once you get such level of trust in your reputation and experience, you don’t want to lose it,” he added.

Best place to work

Successful law firms like to grow their own lawyers, from students to partners, and then keep them in business with various incentives.

“What’s most attractive for a young lawyer is the prospect of sturdy and calculated career growth,” said Andy Hunder, who heads the London office and international business development for Magisters, a Kyiv-based law firm which has expanded into other CIS countries.

This is the main promise of large-scale local and international law firms, while smaller and niche firms offer deeper involvement and autonomy of practice.

A competitive salary is a must to keep professionals in a firm while the added value comes with medical insurance, life insurance, fitness and recreation centers as well as investment in training and education.
There’s one more thing lawyers value highly – praise and recognition.

“Lawyers love recognition, and it is important for a law firm and its management to praise their best workers,” said Chorny from Baker & McKenzie. “They can be praised within the firm or in media, or allowed significant autonomy in leading projects and selecting teams to work with.”

Manage your firm

Almost none of established Ukrainian law firms would risk attracting an independent top manager without the legal background to run it. And rare examples of hiring management experts to do the administrative job and the experience of such law firms prove this rule, market insiders say.

“A law firm’s manager must possess a strong professional and personal reputation among his colleagues to be able to do the management job. The manager should make his own way through the legal career, and should know from his own experience how things work in this business,” said Chorny from Baker & McKenzie.

There are few areas of business a law firm can delegate to professional managers, like billing, accounting, financial planning, marketing, business development, information technology, knowledge management and administration.
But there is no way partners in a law firm can pass the management button to a stranger. That’s why they are constantly facing a challenge to balance their professional practice and administrative obligations.

The success comes to those who either manage to sit on two chairs simultaneously or share responsibilities and decision-making power with one or two partners.

“It is easy to take decisions in double partnership. On the one hand you always have alternative points of view, on the other hand time is not wasted and you can quickly find agreement,” said Serhiy Oberkovych, partner at Gvozdiy & Oberkovych, a leading Ukrainian law firm.

Sometimes other partners are involved in the work as advisory partners and curators of certain administrative areas, but power for final decisions is limited.

“We have a management committee that consists of two partners that finalizes all the decisions made by other partners,” said Armen Khachaturyan, senior partner at Asters.

Win clients’ trust

While high level legal service comes by default in any firm that wants to survive on the market, in order to become successful it has to exceed these basic expectations.

Close personal contact with a client and understanding of his business are keys to success on the legal market. According to market insiders, clients come directly to partners.

After winning the trust from a client, lawyers need to work hard to preserve it, providing close to 24/7 services and showing personal involvement and deep understanding of a project.

“A firm needs not only to fulfill direct tasks and requests from a client but also to learn the business and be able to predict its needs and development trends,” said Oberkovych, from Gvozdiy & Oberkovych.

Develop your niche

While many big law firms call themselves “one-stop shops” for all the legal services out there, insiders say that the correct and timely positioning of a law firm and promotion of its strongest practice are crucial to obtaining a good market share. For small, young or newly established law firms it is a must.

On the one hand, lawyers with clear specialization and visibility in the market are more attractive to clients, says Mansur Pour Rafsendjani, managing partner at German-headquartered international law firm Noerr.

On the other, “a leader can’t be the best in everything,” said Oberkovych from Gvozdiy & Oberkovych.

Many Ukrainian law firms set up their own niches on the market when it was underdeveloped, for instance in the financial sector. The best examples of boutique law firms can be found in tax, intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution and financial legal practices.

“It is very important to position from the beginning and hold the leadership, which needs certain investments,” said Sayenko Kharenko’s Chernyavsky.

 

Don’t get overweight

Ukraine’s legal services business has badly suffered from the economic downturn in the end of 2008-2009 which has become a good lesson for those market players who survived. According to various estimates, demand for legal services has dropped by 40 percent since the crisis started in 2008, forcing many big and international law firms to cut staff.

“At our peak [at the beginning of 2008] we had 95 lawyers, but now we have 52 lawyers because the amount of work from clients decreased significantly,” said Chorny from Baker & McKenzie.

“Only now we feel that the market is improving and we may hire back some people from our team,” he added.

Those firms with small and middle-size staff survived the drop with minor staff losses, in particular the small, specialized companies.

Support your reputation

The current economic environment and growing competition forces law firms to think not only about business-to-business ties but also their broader image. This makes law firms invest more into external communication and improvement of reputation beyond their customers and colleagues.

“We consider its input as approximately 50 percent of the general firm’s success,” said Pour Rafsendjani from Noerr.

Successful and rising Ukrainian law firms have heavily invested in website development as a tool for communicating with their clients. They also produce newsletters, informational materials and brochures to keep clients informed about the most recent legislation developments.

In this way they are “making a firm attractive as an information source in addition to rendering top-notch services,” said Olga Pikulska, a PR manager at Paritet law firm.


Help community

Market leaders also strive to share a piece of their success with those who need support. Some do it quietly, while others find ways to demonstrate their corporate responsibility publicly.

“It is important for lawyers to support other people who are not so fortunate,” said Chernyavsky from Sayenko Kharenko.

But even when contributing back to the community, firms also often seek out a niche that will make their contribution standout.

Some provide pro bono legal services for those who can’t afford them, like private individuals and nongovernmental organizations. Others give financial support to law students, take part in the development of legislation, buy equipment for hospitals in need, or support young artists and musicians.


Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Gnativ can be reached at [email protected]
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