You Can't Be Great At Everything

According to columnist Keith Lee, lawyers need to focus on the core strengths and give an "A+" effort in those areas, while acknowledging that it is okay to give less in other areas.

Most lawyers are Type A people. They want to compete, they want to be the best. The competition begins before you even enter law school. Potential law students take courses to improve their LSAT scores. They study prep materials and take practice tests. Then the competition moves to getting into the best possible law school they can. Look no further than the obsessing over the U.S. News law school rankings (or the ones here at ATL).

Then, once in law school, the competition continues. Class rank, law review, trial team, and more. The legal profession attracts people who want to win. People who will strive to be the best at what they do. But once lawyers enter the profession, it soon becomes clear – you can’t be the best at everything.

In small firms and solo practices, lawyers wind up wearing many hats. Sure they are a lawyer, but they are also: office manager, IT support, human resources officer, marketer, and file clerk. You have to take on multiple responsibilities and duties if you want to have a successful practice. You can’t be “too good” for any job. You have to do what needs to be done. But that also means you can’t devote all of your time and energy to each role.

Sometimes You Need To Do “C” Work

A difficult realization for many lawyers going out on their own, people accustomed to trying to be the best at whatever they do, is that sometimes you actually don’t need to give it your all. There will be times when you need to devote only minimal resources and time to certain activities. You don’t need to try and give A+ effort in every single thing you do.

Client work? A+ effort every single time. Fixing the copy machine? It’s okay to only give enough effort to get a “C.”

Beyond that, you can’t simultaneously be the the greatest IP lawyer, estate lawyer, M&A lawyer, etc. As you progress in your career, you will need to narrow your focus and direct your efforts to a particular area. Even within a category such as criminal defense, many lawyers will narrow themselves even further and focus only on DUIs. This doesn’t make them less of a lawyer, it enables them to be great at one particular thing.

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The Power Of No

Harvard Business School recently conducted a course that mixed MBA students and HLS students. In the course, students collaborated to establish what it means to be successful. Co-instructor Frances Frei said:

People compete against each other on every dimension, and work harder and harder and harder. To break out of that you don’t need any more capability, but you do need enormous courage to say, if I am going to be really good at something, I am going to be bad at something else. If I am going to compete on cost and quality, then someone is going to beat me on speed.

This concept, “it’s okay to be bad at something,” can be a tough pill to swallow for people who are accustomed to striving to be the best at every single thing they do. But saying “no,” and rejecting certain areas of practice, or aspects of running a business, is a powerful tool that many lawyers don’t develop. And because of the inability to say “no,” they become swamped and overwhelmed with trying to achieve an “A+” in every single thing they do.

Instead, lawyers need to focus on the core strengths and give an “A+” effort in those areas, while acknowledging that it is okay to give less effort in other areas.

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You need to be the best you can be for your clients, but you don’t have to be the best at decorating your office. Perfect is the enemy of good. Don’t let striving for perfect hold you back from achieving your goals.


Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at keith.lee@hamerlawgroup.com or on Twitter at @associatesmind.