by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - June 30, 2010 - GAL RADIO
Law school teaches you to think like
an attorney. They don’t tell you that this is only half of the pie.
Lawyers don’t learn about effective communication skills, business
skills, how to establish rapport with clients and staff, or how to gain
respect and agreement from juries. The attorneys who are successful are
those who either already were blessed with these skills or the ones who
learned them through great time and expense. Attorney and Life Coach
Sonya Gallagher discusses The Success Round Table for Lawyers program
she is offering through her company Time For Life on today’s program.
ANNOUNCER:
Welcome to GAL Radio brought to you by the Greatest
American Lawyer Blog changing the way law is practiced through technology, innovation
and creativity. Turning the business of law on its head and
shaking things up to the betterment of clients, lawyers, law firms,
and society. Now here is your host, Damien Allen.
DAMIEN:
Good afternoon and welcome to GAL Radio. My name is Damien
Allen, and joining me today on the phone is Sonia Gallagher, J.D. She
is a life coach and she is the owner/proprietor of Time For Life LLC, Good afternoon, Sonia and welcome to the program.
SONIA: Hi,
Damien. I’m happy to be here.
DAMIEN: It’s
a pleasure to have you with us today. Today we are discussing
the Success Round Table for Lawyers. Sonia how did you get
started in Time for Life, L.L.C?
SONIA: Well
it’s been quite a ride. I can tell you I practiced law for the
past 6 years, and I actually owned my own law firm for the past two
and during that time I always felt like I was missing something and
that I should be working and helping people in a different
manner. And during that time I was owning my own firm, I
networked about 3 times a week, and it was basically through word of
mouth and specific alliances that I got my clients, and just being
out there and networking with so many attorneys on a constant basis I
noted that there are specific issues we have to deal with on a
regular basis and don’t really have the skills to help us. And
those issues are client’s business development and client
attraction and retention.
I
remember attending a bar function just a couple weeks ago down here
in south Florida where a lawyer I met literally spoke at me for 3
minutes non-stop, Damien, about what type of law he practiced, his
personal life, and why he was so great. When he finished, he
asked me, “Well what do you do? And I was speaking, he
proceeded to look over my head which is pretty easy to do since I’m
only 5’3”, and to get more business cards out of his pocket ready
to just launch them into other lawyers’ hands around us. That’s
just an example of why I’m a coach for lawyers, because I quickly
realized as an attorney myself that we need a lot of help in terms of
business development, communication, client retention, work/life
balance, and just specific things we can do to get more fulfillment
and professional satisfaction out of being a lawyer which will
ultimately help us to become better advocates for our clients and to
make the changes in society that we want to create.
So
that’s how I got here and right now our newest project is the
Success Round Table program for lawyers. It’s a four month
group coaching program which presents to lawyers specific skills that
they need to get more out of their profession. It does it in
bite size chunks and in a way that holds them accountable for
implementation of everything they learn. We meet via web
conference twice a month for $75 minutes for each session, and during
that time we discuss new strategies on different topics and go
through a plan of action for each of those topics. The program
is actually split up into three groups and I did it that way so that
we can help attorneys with whatever issue they are facing in their
professional life right now. So the three groups are basically
“Powerful Communication” “Rainmaking Strategies for introverts
and extroverts” and “Work/Life Balance”. I created those
three groups within the Success Round Table program, because I wanted
to be coaching to all lawyers no matter what their budget size. So
this is in essence group coaching and mentorship with
accountability. I wanted to create a sense of community and
collegiality within the members knowing they share common backgrounds
and issues with the other lawyers.
DAMIEN: This
is a web-based seminar. You’re not making people come down to
Boca Raton for these. This sounds like a huge undertaking. Are
you doing this by yourself? Or are there other lawyers that are
assisting you in this program? Are there other coaches that are
assisting you in this program in delivering these seminars?
SONIA: Well
the great thing about the program is that we cater to members from
all around the United States so I’m in Boca Raton whereas members
can be in Washington state, Washington D.C., California, etc., and we
all meet via web conference. So you literally just need internet
connection, and a telephone and you can follow along with the
presentation online and join and participate via telephone. It’s
a great way to get everybody together and everybody participating at
the same time. It is a big endeavor so I also have the Success
Round Table Circle of Experts as the team that works along side my
coaching by presenting one coaching session a month. So it’s
literally two sessions per month, one led by me and the other is led
by one of the experts. These experts are Harvard graduates, best
selling authors, attorney coaches who are veterans in their realm of
specialties and who thoroughly enjoy the constant evolution of a
lawyer and the help they can provide to the growth of this
profession.
DAMIEN: Now
besides the 75 minute seminars, what other services are provided to
the clients at these seminars?
SONIA: Aside
from the two coaching sessions, the members of the Success Round
Table program also get one free private coaching session with me and
during that coaching session, we focus on strategic
implementation. They also have access to listen to and download
audio seminars and interviews from inside our audio library which
they have exclusive access to as members. They also receive
customized exercises and business strategy tools during the four
months that we are together, and they get membership to our Success
Round Table forum. The forum is especially good, because this
way they stay connected to the other members, they brainstorm, they
interact, they create strategic alliances, get feedback on their
issues, things like that and get constant support from the other
members, and they also get email support from me.
DAMIEN: Is
this a program that is geared toward specific types of lawyers, or is
this a general lawyer roundtable?
SONIA: The
main issue, or the main, focus behind the program is to help lawyers
learn strategies and implement those strategies to get more clients,
more profit, and more free time. So this is helpful for
attorneys that are on their way to partnership or on their way to
creating or establishing their own law firm.
DAMIEN: So
it’s not any particular niche at all. As this is based on the
web, what types of technologies are helping you put this seminar on
and are these programs or media that anybody has general access
to? Is there anything special they will have to download or
purchase in order to attend these web based seminars?
SONIA: Well
on my end as the administrator, I am using WebEx and GoToMeetings to
get everybody together online, but the members of the group just need
a telephone. You literally need a telephone, you dial in the
phone number that I send you via email; you press the code that I
send you via email…it’s basically a password to get through to
the virtual room, and that’s it. You hear all of us together,
and you are able to participate among the other 10 members. It’s
10 members in total, and you can also see the presentation online. So
if you have online access at the time of the conference or the
coaching session, you can follow along the visuals online, and if you
don’t you still get a copy of everything that you’ve missed or
everything that you’ve attended anyway so you can keep it for
yourself.
DAMIEN: How
long has this program been going on and what is the reception from
attorneys been so far?
SONIA: I’ve
been a coach for a while, but this program is actually launching
now. This program the start date is July 19, 2010. That’s
going to be the first Success Round Table official meeting. We
beta tested it and the reception has been fantastic. I’m very
grateful for the reactions and responses I’ve gotten within the
legal field, and I’m just really excited, because I see the
incredible potential this can bring towards the profession of law in
general. They really liked in specific the fact that there is a
safe and non-judgmental venue where they can talk about issues
and frustrations that only lawyers face, and that really no other
profession faces and a venue where they can learn skills they did not
learn in law school. Skills that will ultimately determine how
quickly they succeed in getting clients and making it to either
partnership level in a large law firm or medium law firm, or to
having a successful law practice of their own. So whatever the
goal is of the attorney, they need those essential skills for getting
more clients, more profits, and more free time. Overcoming
obstacles that we sometimes tend to put in our own way. The
Success Round Table program is really bridging the gap between where
they are now to where they want to be in their professional and their
personal life.
DAMIEN: Based
on the success of the beta testing, and the reception so far, after
the advent and roll out of the Lawyers Round Table for Success, are
there any future plans for expanding this or moving it in other
directions?
SONIA: Yes. I’ve
actually got plans to create a very thorough, but very practical CRE
program from the topics that we address in the Success Round Table
program. In my opinion, there are just not enough CRE’s out
there that focus on tangible and easy to implement skills and
strategies that lawyers can use in terms of business development and
management. So my plan is to create CLEs that include these
strategies and implementation facts and formulas to help the lawyers
to get more clients and more profits and more free time which are
three incredibly important goals and very current goals especially
given the economic environment that we are living in right now.
DAMIEN: Well,
Sonia, if someone is looking for more information, or they would like
to sign up for the Success Round Table for Lawyers, what is the
website and contact information they need?
SONIA: Sure
they can contact me at Sonia@timeforlifenow.com. The website is
www.timeforlifenow.com and our phone number is (954) 603-1242.
DAMIEN:
We’d like to thank you very much for joining us today, and we’d
also like the opportunity to speak to you again after this is rolled
out to see how it’s going.
SONIA: That
would be fantastic. I really look forward to that.
DAMIEN: We’ve
been speaking with Sonia Gallagher of Time for Life, L.L.C. She
is rolling out the Success Round Table for Lawyers very, very
soon. If you’d like more information, please visit her
website. Time for Life, L.L.C. is located in Boca Raton, and you
can attend these seminars via the web. Please check out her
website and all the information. Thank you once again for
joining, Sonia. My name is Damien Allen. You’ve been
listening to GAL Radio. Everybody have a great afternoon.
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As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
