ASSIGNMENT – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

ASSIGNMENT – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Draft a professional and business development action plan for yourself. Your PDP should cover the

time period between the end of this semester and 3-5 years in theFUTURE.

There is no “one size fits all.” Your plan will vary depending on the form of law practice (solo, government, in house, firm, etc.) and the substantive area of law practice in which you want to practice 3-5 years from now, and the many other factors discussed in class. If you have not yet decided what type of practice you want to have 3-5 years from now, your plan may be one that sets out a plan for your career as you gather the information to make that decision.

Required elements

Your PDP must include the following six elements:

1. a professional (not personal) mission Statement

Questions to Consider When Creating a mission Statement

A-Who is your ideal client?

B-What are your financial goals for your practice?

C-What will you or your firm be known for?

D-What services will you provide your clients?

E-What will your role be in the practice?

F-Where do you practice?

G-When will you need more space, different systems, more staff, more attorneys?

H-Why are you practicing law?

J-Why will your clients hire you rather than your competition?

L-What will the culture of your practice be?

M-What are your beliefs and values and how will they affect your practice?

mission statement; It illustrates how the firm intends to achieve its vision and how it goes about the practice of law every day. It answers the question why clients will hire you to represent them.Purpose

The three keys to a mission statement are purpose, business and values.

Purpose

What is the firm’s core purpose? Your response to this question should be a concrete one, and it is truly the foundation of your whole practice, and especially your management and marketing plans. Spend some time thinking about why your firm was created, what need it seeks to fill. Why are you practicing law? What do you hope to accomplish? What are you committed to providing to your clients?

The purpose section of the mission statement should also provide some information about the firm’s basic management philosophy and ‘in-house’ style – does the firm want to be a small, boutique law firm, a large business, a family atmosphere, corporate atmosphere, etc.

Business

Your mission statement should also address the business of the firm – the firm’s clients, practice areas and services provided. Keep in mind that if your firm has multiple practice areas, it might make sense to keep your overall firm mission statement more general and craft separate mission statements for the different practice areas.

Do you have or do you want to develop a niche practice? Who are the beneficiaries of your work? Who is your ideal client? What are their demographics? What are their problems or needs? What services do you provide to address those needs?

Values

The values expressed in your mission statement emphasize what you are aiming for, what the firm’s core priorities are - does the firm emphasize responsiveness over completeness? Do you emphasize alternative dispute resolution over litigation? Do you emphasize compassion versus aggression? What is most important to the firm, and how do you want to be known?

2. a description of your practice (think of these first two as your home web page); give information for your client about my firm and myself to let them know me.

3. your plans for substantive knowledge development: -           

A-Knowledge:  Think about the primary substantive area(s) of your intended practice (ex., family law or corporate law).  How will you learn the substantive law to excel in this area?  How will you stay current going forward?

B-Knowledge:  Given your intended practice area, are there any other rules, for example procedural rules or agency rules that you will need to learn and if so, how will you learn those rules and stay current?

C-Knowledge:  Sometimes, lawyers need substantive knowledge in areas outside the law.  For example, if you intend to work with a particular industry, you may need to gain knowledge about that industry and the key players.  Will this apply to your practice and if so, how will you gain the knowledge you need?

4. your plans for skills development:-  

A-Practice specific skills:  Given the type of practice (litigation, transactional, regulatory), what skills do you need to develop and how will you seek opportunities to do  so.  How will you track your progress?

B-Professional skills:  There are many other professional skills needed for effective lawyering. Which skills do you need to work on and how will you do so both during and after law school? 

5. a client development plan; and Clients can be demanding and will sometimes have expectations that will be unreasonable. Unmet expectations, even if they are totally unreasonable, are a recipe for unhappy clients. Setting and

controlling client expectations is one of the best things you can do to ensure that you have a happy and

satisfied client at each stage and the conclusion of a matter. Follow these resolutions to better set and

control your clients’ expectations:

A-I will carefully explain how the matter will proceed:While you may have handled a particular type of matter hundreds

of times before, remember that your client is going through it for the first time. Make sure the client understands the

process and steps that will occur as the matter proceeds.

B-I will avoid legal jargon when explaining things to my clients: Don’t use legal jargon when explaining things to clients as it may confuse them.

C-I will give the client a realistic indication of how long the matter will take: Clients will want their matter resolved as

quickly as possible. Give them a true indication of how long the matter will take, and highlight any issues that might

arise and delay a resolution of the matter.

D-I will provide the client with a full picture of all costs and disbursements: Clients don’t want to spend money on legal

fees and they will want to keep fees as low as possible. If you quote a range of fees they will remember the lower

number. Give your clients a clear explanation of all fees and disbursements that they will or might incur. Be honest

here – don’t quote a lower cost to please them. In the litigation context you should include a warning that they could

be responsible for paying the fees of the opposing party.

G-I will clearly explain to the client all possible outcomes or results: Clients always want a positive outcome to their

matter. Unfortunately, not every client will get what they want. Make sure your clients have a clear appreciation of all

possible outcomes, including negative or unpleasant ones.

E-I will answer all my clients’ questions to their satisfaction: Carefully listen to and address any questions your clients

ask. Do the questions indicate that they don’t understand something or that there could be another relevant issue you

need to give advice on? Confirm the above information and advice in writing: In a personal meeting or phone call,

unsophisticated and stressed clients who have worries and financial concerns may struggle to listen and understand

what you are telling them. To avoid any possible confusion, confirm important discussions and advice in writing.

F-I will immediately highlight for clients any unexpected changes that arise: Unexpected things can happen through

the course of handling any matter. If something happens that will change the process, timing, costs or outcome of a

matter, make sure the client is immediately made aware of the change and why it happened. Confirm this advice in

writing.

Billing client Methods:

Look for it at the internet.

5 Things  avoid billing to client:

A-       Food because it’s apart of travel expenses.

B-       Air condition

C-       The invoice less expert,  avoid annoying client.

D-      Charges for calculation charges.

E-       The transient associate and case clerk.

6. a financial plan.The financial plan should tell you the estimated cost and income opportunities if you decide to embark in that direction

A- CASH FLOW.

B- Budgeting: The budget should include the projected revenues and expenses.

c-ways to get money from client:-

1-Billing quickly.

2- create timeline.

3-meet face to face.

Your PDP must be actionable. Attached to or embedded within the plan should be a timetable

with at least two planned actions you intend to do (realistically) within 30 days, 60 days, 90 days,

180 days, and 1 year after taking license of lawyer. In other words, you should list two actions to

complete within 30 days of taking the license, two actions to complete within 60 days of

taking the licensee, etc.

Format and Length

• Your PDP must be typed. The plan must be 12-15 pages, double spaced, 12 point font, 1.25

inch margins (or the default Microsoft Word margins).

• The cover page and table of contents, which we encourage you to include, does NOT count

as part of the 12-15 pages.

• You may include graphics, figures or tables in your PDP. However, they should make a

substantial, substantive contribution to the content if you intend them to count as part of the

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12-15 pages. Stock images, cartoons, and tables with much “white space” will not count as

part of the 12-15 page requirement. << very important content and first page does not include.

• Appendices are permissible but will not count as part of the 12-15 pages.

• You may format your PDP however you wish, subject to the requirements above. We do not

care about reasonable deviations from the formatting requirements (e.g., headings with a font

that is larger than 12 point). Use your judgment in determining whether your plan meets the

length requirement of 12-15 pages.

• Please carefully proofread your PDP before submitting it. A PDP with significant

typographical errors, grammatical errors, or poor formatting will automatically be marked

down by at least 20% of the points available. We expect you to complete your PDP

sufficiently early that you have time to proofread it and correct formatting, typographical,

grammatical, and other problems that can give the reader a negative impression of you.

Additional Guidance Regarding the Content of Your PDP

The following are some thoughts and examples that you may want to consider as you draft your

PDP.

Your Goal

Your PDP must either (1) set forth an overarching goal you intend to achieve 3-5 years from

when you take the bar exam or (2) set forth how you will decide on an overarching goal for the

3-5 year time frame. Your goal can be virtually anything related to the career you would like to

have as a lawyer. Examples of overarching goals include, but are not limited to:

• “My goal is to have a solo practice in the area of X by June of 2020.”

• “My goal is to land a job in a large law firm in location Y, working in Z area of the law

within 5 years of taking the bar exam.”

• “My goal is to be an in-house attorney at Company A within five years of taking the bar

exam.”

• “My goal is to try a case no later than four years after taking the bar exam.”

These are simply examples of the types of goals you might choose. The universe of goals is

limited only by your imaginations.

For those students who have not yet narrowed their choice to one specific type of practice or

substantive area of law, your plan may have a more general statement of your career goal(s).

However, your plan must still identify the goal(s) you are considering as well as how and when

you will reach a decision to focus on one goal.

You should choose a goal that is meaningful to you and that you sincerely want to achieve,

because your plan will need to set forth exactly how you plan to achieve that goal.

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Your Actions to Achieve Your Goal

Your PDP must set forth specific actions and steps you intend to take as you work to achieve

your stated goal. These should be specific and concrete actions and steps that will help you

reach your goal.

Your PDP must tell us what you plan to do as you strive toward your goal and how you plan to

do it. A poor PDP will simply say, “From 2016-2017, I will improve my advocacy skills”

without setting forth exactly how the person plans to improve his/her advocacy skills. A good

PDP will say, “From 2016-2017, I will work to improve my advocacy skills by taking the

following actions: (1) I will do A in time period X; (2) I will do B in time period Y,” etc. A

good PDP will also explain why the selected actions will help you achieve your goal.

Your PDP must give you a way to determine during your selected time frame (i.e., the time

period you have selected within the 3-5 years after the semester’s end) whether you are

executing your plan. Therefore, your actions and steps must be concrete, and the results must be measurable. For example, a PDP that simply says, “From 2016-2017, I will improve my advocacy skills” does not include any way to measure, at the end of 2017, whether the person’s advocacy skills have in fact improved. On the other hand, a PDP that says, “I will work to improve my advocacy skills as follows: During each quarter of Year Y, I will do X,” or “No later than Time T, I will have done Z.” Then when you look back on Year Y, you will know whether you accomplished X during each quarter, or at Time T you will be able to tell whether you have done Z.

Professional Development Plan

Your Name

Law Practice Management, Spring 2017

Table of Contents

I.          Goal………………………………………………….................................................................................2

II.        Professional Mission Statement............................................................................... 2

III.       Description of Practice............................................................................................ 1

IV.       Substantive Knowledge Development Plan............................................................ 1

V.        Skills Development Plan:(will need as a lawyer)..................................................... 1

VI.       Client Development Plan......................................................................................... 1

VII.     Financial Plan.......................................................................................................... 1

VIII.    Timetables of Actions.............................................................................................. 2

A.        Actions to Complete Within 30 Days of Taking the Bar Exam/Completing the LLM Degree     2

B.        Actions to Complete Within 60 Days of Taking the Bar Exam/Completing the LLM Degree     2

C.        Actions to Complete Within 90 Days of Taking the Bar Exam/Completing the LLM Degree     1

D.        Actions to Complete Within 180 Days of Taking the Bar Exam/Completing the LLM Degree   1

E.         Actions to Complete Within 1 Year of Taking the Bar Exam/Completing the  LLM Degree       1