By: Naudia O’Steen
On Thursday, October 26, the Tennessee Law Review hosted two members of the Knoxville Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, the Barristers, for a discussion on business development as a young associate.
Jimmy Snodgrass, an associate at Kramer Rayson in Knoxville, graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2017. TLR was thrilled to welcome back Jimmy as he served as an editor of law review during his time at UT. Additionally, Jimmy brought a unique perspective to the discussion: although he has been licensed for 6 years, he clerked for the first four years of his practice for various district court judges.
Andrew Hale, also an associate at Kramer Rayson, graduated from UT Law in 2019 and has spent his entire career in private practice. During his time at UT Law, he served as the vice president of the Student Bar Association. His practice focuses primarily on business law in both the litigation and transactional contexts.
The attorneys spoke on the benefit of being involved with a young lawyers group. They discussed the advantage that can be gained early on in an attorney’s practice by making an effort to network with other young lawyers. Building a network allows you to refer conflicted clients out to a trusted attorney and receive referrals from your network as well. Jimmy also spoke about the unique advantages of getting involved in a young lawyers group while in law school, whether over the summer or during the school year, since it is never easier to introduce yourself to a practicing attorney than when you are a law student.
Additionally, young lawyers groups often host continuing legal education (CLE) events, which are particularly geared toward those early on in their practice.
The conversation then moved on to a discussion of how to develop business as a young associate. Andrew stressed that there is no right way to develop business because everyone has their own personality and, therefore, their own business development style. Regardless of your business development style, they encouraged attendees to always be the last lawyer that someone meets before a need arises.
Of course, you can’t always be the last attorney someone spoke to, but you can attempt to brand yourself as a niche attorney. Branding yourself can be done through writing specialized articles for legal magazines or law reviews. It can also happen through luck, as in Andrew’s case. A partner needed help with mechanics liens when Andrew was a young associate, and Andrew chose to read up on that area of law more after the immediate need was addressed. Now, he is the mechanics lien expert at his firm and in the area, thus lending to the natural growth of clients with mechanics lien issues.
Jimmy also spoke about the importance of knowing who your clients are. For example, in a small town like Knoxville, it can be easy to bump into your larger clients while out to dinner on a Friday night. However, if you represent a large corporation in the health sector, you likely wouldn’t run into the corporation’s president on a casual night out. Instead, making calculated and targeted efforts to build those relationships may prove more fruitful ultimately. A targeted approach may involve choosing to attend health conferences and medical providers events to create business connections you normally would not have access to.
The event closed with a discussion of the idea that your supervising partner is your most important client early on in an attorney’s career. Jimmy and Andrew both stressed that proving yourself to a partner as a careful, efficient, and competent attorney can lead to a steady influx of business and allow the partner to hand off smaller business to a young attorney.
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