Naked Lawyering: Giving clients the candor, humility, transparency they want

Is the indirect, authoritative, and often condescending style of many lawyers productive?  Maybe it was at one time.  That was before clients became assertive, the glut happened, and with the complexity of business legal problems couldn't or shouldn't have been dealt with in isolation.  Now, it seems to be proving a liability in everything from developing new business and retaining clients to obtaining a comparable law job after a layoff. 

The solution might be Naked Lawyering.  That is the analogue to what Pat Lencioni describes as Naked Consulting in his article on organizational life in BUSINESS WEEK.  He explains how the prevailing persona in management consulting was one of "confidence, authority, and perfection."  That used to impress and intimidate clients.  Now it's not what they need or want  and they are walking with their accounts.

Be it naked consulting or naked lawyering, the service provider gets down into the problem with prospect, even before the close.  There will be risk-taking in recommending a range of solutions.  That risk is that the sale might not be closed and the prospect will recognize the unavailability of one right answer.

This is on my radar screen.  Yesterday, out of the blue, I received one of those unnaked calls from a lawyer who wanted to mentioned on this blog. It was that old-line cold curt intimidation.  Yet, I was in the position of power.  Leveraging those traditional power tricks when they shouldn't be used shows how out of touch some lawyers are in the new marketplace.

Comments

[Jane Genova]

Where have you been? Blogs have had power for more than five years. The medium is the message and blogging is a powerful media. You might want to go to the bookstore and bone up on power theory and practice.

In fact, since you're so out of touch I have a hunch you're undemployed or underemployed.

[Crap Blogger Has Power?]

"a lawyer who wanted to mentioned on this blog."

Yeah, I'm sure he or she was just dying to get a shout-out from the likes of the author of the above work.