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NAME: Judith Fryer
FIRM: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
PRACTICE AREA: Corporate and Securities
Most successful/Favorite rainmaking tip:
Marketing is not a dirty word. If you believe you have
something valuable to offer the client, you feel like
you are doing them a favor offering the services –
not vice-versa.
Biggest influence on career/Best career advice:
Be hungry. Take risks. Learn to function with less sleep.
Never forget that being a person comes before being
a lawyer.
Percentage of time devoted to marketing:
Up to one third of my time, in some years. Be prepared
to devote a minimum of 500 hours a year if you really
want to build a practice.
Proudest accomplishment:
Being married for 32 years (to the same man) and having
two teenagers who still talk to me.
Knowing what you know now, if you were starting
out as a lawyer today, what would you do differently?
I would start marketing on day one (instead of taking
years to realize that in order to gain independence
in this profession and take control of your career,
you must learn to market.
Tell me about one rainmaking strategy or tactic
that you initially thought would work, but it failed.
Why did it fail?
Lecturing to random audiences and writing for any publication.
You need to figure out your target audience for your
services and then focus on marketing to that audience
– not to the world in general.
Tell me about one rainmaking strategy or tactic
that you initially thought would fail, but it was a
great success. Why was it successful?
I knocked on the door of one client for five years because
they were good people whose business matched my skills
but they had an existing well-recognized law firm for
over 25 years and they didn’t need a lawyer. It
succeeded because I was persistent and I was the right
lawyer for them (and their old law firm got smug and
stopped being responsive).
What has been your greatest frustration about
trying to get new business or new clients?
Losing business because the client doesn’t think
the firm is high powered or well enough known (when
the firm is the 12th largest in the U.S.)!
If you were mentoring a young woman lawyer,
what advice would you give her regarding rainmaking?
It is essential. Start early. Make tine for it. Learn
to have fun doing it.
Would you say you ever had a mentor that made
a genuine difference in how your career turned out?
If yes, please describe.
Unfortunately not, but I learned skills (such as how
to market) by observing other people.
Think about when you started out as a lawyer.
Now think about the new female lawyers just starting
out. What is different now compared to when you started?
There are far fewer issues regarding not being taken
seriously by male clients or being discriminated against.
List words that best describe you:
Intent on succeeding, caring, capable of seeing the
humor in almost any situation.
Top
Interviewed by: Joan Wagner Zinober
ABA Women Rainmakers is a national forum enabling women
to network and develop business opportunities. By understanding
how to develop business, women can exert greater control
over their careers and integrate their personal lives
successfully with the practice of law. For more information
on LPM Women Rainmakers, visit www.womenrainmakers.org.
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