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Beyond Biglaw: A Gooner's Wisdom

What can lawyers learn from one of the world's most successful football (aka soccer) managers?

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Blank Lawyer Type Sign or Shingle.As readers of this column know, I am a firm believer that listening to successful people in other fields can teach us important lessons on achieving success as a lawyer — particularly when those people are employed in either a service or competitive industry. As a result, I have written in the past on lessons from a celebrity chef, as well as big-time collegiate athletics.

This column is in the same vein. Since I have been doing a lot of traveling, I have found myself with more time to listen to podcasts than usual. Along the way, I heard a podcast recording a conversation between Roger Bennett (@RogBennett) and Arsene Wenger, the longtime manager of Arsenal, one of England’s largest and most successful football clubs (hence the reference to Gooner in the title of this column). The interview, and in particular the part I found most interesting, is available here.

In the video clip, Wenger, who is undoubtedly one of the world’s most successful football managers, and who likely could have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company if he had not chosen the sporting route, makes an observation about a common trait that he says defines successful people. He states that irrespective of one’s chosen field of endeavor, success is often the result of tenacity — which he defines as the ability to maintain focus on one’s goals even in the face of adversity or weakness. While I am sure his opinion is based substantially on his experience coaching and scouting world-class athletes, his words ring true with respect to my experience as a lawyer as well. Perhaps that is because law, like athletics, is populated with an abundance of highly skilled people, where the eventual sorting between the successful and those who are not often comes down to intangible qualities, rather than paper credentials or measurable physical gifts.

We all know that legal practice, particularly at the highest levels, is as brutal a meritocracy and as competitive as any sport. Are there people at the margins who succeed despite not really having the right skills? Sure. But for the vast majority of participants in the game, true success often comes down to exhibiting the mental strength to maintain peak performance, even in the face of steep odds. Think of your typical partnership tournament at a Biglaw firm or high-quality boutique. While everyone starts the race on a more or less equal footing, the herd quickly thins, and gets thinner until only a few are left standing at the end of the process. The mistake that many make is thinking that as long as they are tenacious about being the best associate they can be it is enough. It is not enough, because short-term tenacity in the absence of demonstrating tenacity over time in pursuit of a longer-term goal will never carry the day.

Thinking back on my associate days, it is now clear that those young lawyers who knew what they ultimately wanted — whether it be a partnership offer or an in-house position — and were tenacious about pursuing their goal were the ones most likely to achieve that goal. Put another way, the first people to go at the firm were those who were not tenacious about keeping their jobs. But what separated the remaining crew was whether they had a longer-term goal squarely in mind and the tenacity to do what was necessary to achieve that goal, despite whatever setbacks they encountered.

The need for a lawyer to exhibit tenacity is not limited to their time as an associate. In fact, the value of exhibiting that trait becomes more acute as a lawyer’s career progresses — because as you progress in your career the stakes get incrementally higher, and any setback can cause more damage. The inevitable setbacks must therefore be offset with a more tenacious focus on reaching your next career goal, despite whatever rough period one is navigating. The advantage that a sports manager has is that seasons are neatly organized, and there is never any doubt whether one has won or lost a particular game. In our profession, success is a more amorphous beast, but the requirement to demonstrate tenacity in the face of adversity is no different.

Other than the nuanced and enlightening discussion of the primacy of tenacity, the Wenger discussion also contained another message that resonated and is applicable to lawyers. During the discussion, Wenger mentioned that as a result of his success at Arsenal, he had been courted over the years by other, perhaps even more famous, clubs. At the same time, what personally gave him the most satisfaction was his ability to rebuff those advances, staying loyal to the place that had given him the chance to succeed at the highest level in the first place. In our age of lateral movement, this was a compelling anecdotal case for the rewards (albeit intangible) of demonstrating loyalty to one’s firm — even in the face of greater financial reward elsewhere. What must be in perfect congruence, however, is the alignment between the firm and one’s personal values. Without that element in place, you will likely feel that your loyalty is misplaced, and the argument for jumping ship becomes all the more compelling.

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Ultimately, understanding the demands of success is often the first step towards achieving it. When we have the opportunity to consider hard-earned wisdom from others in a competitive field it behooves us to listen. We not be Gunners, or Gooners, but we can all aspire to the obvious career satisfaction that their coach has earned through his loyalty and tenacity.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.

Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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