Old People

Old Lady Lawyer: When Network Was Not A Verb

Columnist Jill Switzer wonders: how much networking does it take before you see results?

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Ed. note: It’s not the battle of the sexes, but the battle of the ages, between the graying of the legal profession and those lawyers not yet eligible for Medicare or even an AARP membership. Can they co-exist in the legal world’s new normal? Please welcome our newest columnist, Jill Switzer.

Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, or at least when this old lady lawyer was finishing law school in 1976, a movie called Network debuted on the big screen. It had absolutely nothing to do with what people now know as “networking,” that process — that some people swear by and others detest — of getting out there in efforts to make rain, get business, get noticed, get work, whatever you want to call it.

The movie Network is all about power, how to get it, how to use it, and how it destroyed people in its path. Hmmm… perhaps there are more similarities to today’s networking than I initially realized.

The film starred wonderful actors. You should Google them, IMDB them, Wikipedia them, whatever source you use to find out about them. You need to put the movie to the top of your Netflix queue.

The story was a satire about a fictional television network, back in the days when there were only three networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC). Imagine that: Fox was not yet even a glint in Rupert Murdoch’s eye, cable TV, CNN, ESPN, video on demand, streaming, all were yet to be realized.

The ratings for the network’s star news anchor, Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, who won a posthumous Oscar for his performance, were in the tank; machinations swirled around him as network executives dithered as to how to reverse that decline. (Any parallel to today’s oftentimes frantic search for legal work to keep busy and employed?) Written by Paddy Chayefsky, another name to look up, Howard Beale was appalled at what had happened to television news reporting over the years, from the hard news that dominated the early days of television until the “happy talk” news format in the 1970s.

Beale is told that he is going to be canned because of declining ratings (any connection to lawyers who get whacked for lack of billable hours?) and so he delivers an on-the-air rant that he will commit suicide on the network news show the following week. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more,” that’s from this movie.

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There will be no spoiler alerts here as to what happens in the movie, but it’s a must see. Other stars in the movie included William Holden, now gone, and Ned Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall, still very much alive. Chayefsky’s script was prescient and won him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; watch the movie and see how hilarious but sadly true his screenplay was. Faye Dunaway won for Best Actress and Beatrice Straight, who played Bill Holden’s wife, won for Best Supporting Actress. It was the last time that one movie won three of the four major acting Oscars.

So that was the Network of forty years ago. Today, network is a verb (I’m not discussing here the use of “network” in technology, which is a whole other kettle of fish altogether.) Conjugate network: I network, you network, we network, they network, etc. It’s the same whether singular or plural.

But here’s my question: does networking work? Is there a “there there?” Does networking create relationships that lead to rainmaking that lead to business? How many networking events does it take before an event ripens into billables and, even better, collected fees?

When I was in law school (see dinosaur reference above), marketing was the furthest thing from our minds, which were crammed full of information that we needed for the bar exam and immediately after that, the object of huge data dumps. Has the legal profession (and I still call it such) devolved purely into the search for ratings, e.g. business?

I Googled the term “network,” hey, just because I’m an old lady lawyer doesn’t mean that I’m at all averse to using technology when it helps me get a column written. One definition that Google proffers is to “interact with other people to exchange information and develop contacts, especially to further one’s career.” What’s fascinating is Google’s graph showing the “use over time” of the term “networking.” It’s a flatline, and I mean totally flat, from 1800 (how would people have networked then since there was no Facebook, no LinkedIn, no IM, no texting, etc.?) to 2010 (that’s as recent as the graph shows) where the increase in networking is off the chart.

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There are all kinds of networking groups, from bar associations to alumni groups to professional networking associations. Some networking groups pride themselves on limiting their various subgroups to one of each kind of professional, sort of like a box of assorted chocolates, where you don’t know what you’re getting, but, for what you’re paying, you sure hope that you get candy that you like.

Law school alumni groups are more focused, but undergrad alumni groups can be more diverse. Bar associations tout themselves as excellent places for networking, but are they really? I’m looking at a membership application for a bar association that touts free networking events. However, if everyone else in the room is also a lawyer, where’s the business potential in that? Only if someone would refer to you in an area outside the referring attorney’s comfort level, and how often does that happen in an “eat what you kill” environment?

If the profession is now that Darwinian, then the old theory that there would be plenty of work for all is just wishful thinking; in fact, it’s toast because the truth is there isn’t enough work for every lawyer these days. No surprise there for many lawyers, those who have just passed the bar or are a few years out, and those who may have years in practice but can’t fill up those cursed timesheets with sufficient billable hours.

Does networking make the difference between getting the work or not? Does a coffee/lunch/drink appointment after a networking meeting really affect whether you’ll get the gig or not? How many coffees/lunches/happy hours, etc. does it take to get the work, if ever?

I think it’s a two word answer, and no, they’re not every lawyer’s favorite words, which are “new matter.” The answer to this question is “it depends.” It depends on the connection made, the relationship forged, the fit for the particular matter. At the end of the day, “network” is only a verb; Network the movie may have more parallels for our profession than one might think.

Jill Switzer is closing in on 40 (not a typo) years as a active member of the State Bar of California. Yes, folks, California, that state west of the Sierra Nevada, which everyone likes to diss. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see old lawyers, young lawyers, and those in-between interact — it’s not always pretty. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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