As a lawyer reaches the senior associate or partner ranks, they suddenly find themselves acting as manager and needing to communicate and think in a broader, more business minded way.  The consensus among firms is that this shift in focus, coupled with the need to act as manager and lawyer at the same time, can pose the greatest obstacle to a lawyer’s success.

The two areas requiring most attention, according to Jonathan Bond, director of HR and learning at Pinsent Masons,  were people management and business development skills. These have to be developed alongside good technical legal skills as people become increasingly senior, he said. Understandably this takes time and effort. This was a theme echoed by other firms interviewed by ALB, with Tony Campbell, Freshfields Asia learning and development manager identifying project management, leadership and team management as the three largest issues lawyers come across during performance reviews.

So how do lawyers cope with this new business person role?

Lisa Theng, partner at Colin Ng & Partners, says lawyers must invest more time in the ‘minding’ aspect of the well known finding, minding and grinding trilogy. The firm's senior HR manager, Mildred Manuel, agrees. "Often there are no problems with the ‘grinding’ or technical aspects of being a lawyer, but experienced lawyers won’t get to where they want to be without the business development, people skills and management skills developed through activities such as mentoring, professional development and contributing to practice updates," she said.

Campbell has been working hard on an in-house training program to ensure that lawyers are getting a good balance of the technical know-how they need with business development coaching and training. The idea is to help the more junior lawyers understand just what is involved in the leadership roles at their firm. Increasing numbers of firms are adopting a mentoring program or re-introducing one as it has been proven to help the more junior lawyers develop the skills they need, Campbell also said.