4 Easy Ways to Build a Team-First Culture — and How It Makes Your Business Better

On the finish of the day, a boutique legislation agency is a small enterprise, which implies that along with being an legal professional, a founding companion can also be a small enterprise proprietor who should undertake a collective mindset. Our agency works as a result of we work collectively; in the event you’re trying to stage up your small enterprise, you need to be able to put on a number of hats and depend on full-team collaboration. At Wigdor LLP, we prioritize collaboration each in and out of doors the courtroom. Listed below are 4 sensible methods we foster a team-first tradition — and why doing so is essential for any founder trying to run a legislation agency like a enterprise.

1. Host occasions outdoors the workplace

Breaking away from the workplace typically ends in breakthrough considering. Informal, off-site environments assist our staff loosen up, which yields extra artistic considering. It additionally fosters stronger relationships and seamless collaboration as soon as we’re again at our desks. When folks get to know one another past their roles at work, they’re far simpler collectively in high-stakes moments.

It was over a welcome lunch at a Mykonos-themed restaurant that one in all our senior associates workshopped with the advertising and marketing staff to craft an attention-grabbing quote concerning the implications of a brand new legislation that they have been then capable of pitch to a legislation journal — all springing from a dialogue recapping the newest actuality TV shenanigans. And we at all times combine up the groups at our annual summer season tennis competitors to steadiness ability ranges and have discovered that working collectively on the court docket interprets to extra easy collaboration as soon as we’re again on the workplace.

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2. Make team-building occasions do double responsibility

We’re fast to acknowledge when one thing can serve a number of functions. Persevering with authorized training, also called CLE, is a requirement in our area, however I encourage our attorneys to take these classes in teams — and ensure to host at the least 5 per yr to make group studying accessible. We at all times host the classes over lunch as a result of nobody ever appears to say no to a free sandwich.

We see the significance of maximizing return on effort, so we prefer to take the persevering with training content material that our attorneys work so onerous on and repurpose it. A one-hour-long assembly might begin as a team-building occasion, however it lives on as a number of weblog posts on our personal website as thought management items that we are able to pitch to nationwide enterprise publications and as social media content material, all serving to us develop our agency’s digital footprint and set up our workers as specialists.

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3. Guarantee every case is a staff effort

At Wigdor, every case is assigned to at the least one companion, one affiliate and one paralegal, permitting joint problem-solving and contemporary views. Whereas some attorneys like to keep up full management and resist working along with their staff, our legislation agency is completely different. The extra minds deliberating options, the higher — whether or not it is a legislation agency or a small enterprise.

Paralegals and associates are within the trenches with companions, actively collaborating within the case from starting to finish. We additional promote collaboration by internet hosting month-to-month standing conferences so attorneys have perception into what different groups are engaged on, igniting concepts to profit their very own litigation. We’ve got excessive expectations for everybody on the staff and reward onerous work. We problem youthful authorized minds to take part extra, from oral arguments to authoring authorized information items. We couldn’t do the work we do with out the total staff collaborating.

One among our latest affiliate hires joined Wigdor particularly searching for the alternative expertise of their earlier agency, which was absolutely distant, not collaborative and felt very isolating. The affiliate wished an atmosphere the place they might roll up their sleeves in individual, engaged on massive instances and studying from a extra synergetic staff. Since becoming a member of, they’ve had a full case load and a number of alternatives to hitch precedent-setting issues, which is one thing that will maybe be reserved for companions at different corporations. This mannequin of cross-level collaboration, the place range of thought is valued, is a strong software for any small enterprise chief who desires to develop a assured, engaged staff.

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4. Encourage younger leaders to find their strengths

One among my favourite issues to do is to assist early leaders lean into their distinctive expertise. The secret’s to get them speaking (taking them to a one-on-one lunch normally works) till you uncover their affinities after which nurture these expertise into experience. When a senior affiliate talked about their partiality for deposing witnesses, I acknowledged that their interrogative acumen and evaluative listening expertise would make them the best individual to guide the paralegal interview and hiring course of — and we have constructed our strongest paralegal staff thus far.

In terms of paralegals, we rent them for two-year engagements to make sure they get full publicity to the authorized course of and higher put together them for legislation faculty. As soon as on the agency, they at all times have a seat on the desk, actually. Once we head to court docket for a trial, a seat on the plaintiff’s desk is at all times reserved for the paralegal who has assisted on the case. They typically spend months researching the matter — typically even serving to to draft statements utilized in a briefing — and get to see their work utilized in motion at a listening to. Providing hands-on alternatives to junior members, whether or not it is a paralegal at a legislation agency or a first-time supervisor at a brick-and-mortar retailer, makes them really feel valued and permits them to see how their onerous work contributes to the staff’s success.

It might be my identify on the door, however my agency would by no means prosper if I attempted to do all of it alone. Prioritizing staff constructing is one of the best ways to enhance worker happiness and encourage collaboration, and collaboration is important relating to small companies. Whether or not it is a scavenger hunt in Grand Central Terminal or structuring a cross-functional case staff, growing these eventualities that foster collaboration will set your small enterprise up for progress.