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Lawyers frequently ask me how they can change practice areas or broaden their current practice. Changing practice areas is not easy, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for everyone. One approach is for lawyers to focus on learning the business of the industries they seek to represent and, as a result, develop clients in that industry.    

Salene Mazur Kraemer spent most of her early career as a Chapter 11 commercial bankruptcy attorney, representing debtors and creditors in mainly large Chapter 11 reorganizations.  After eight years of practicing in this specialized field and after two years of consulting distressed businesses as a turnaround management consultant, she decided she wanted to broaden her practice to include general business/transactional matters.  Salene's strategy:  launch her own law firm where she would continue to represent some commercial bankruptcy clients but focus on representing entrepreneurs-especially women entrepreneurs in the retail and fashion industries-both startup and growth-stage companies with their legal and business matters. 

To build her target client base, Salene immersed herself in the retail and fashion industries.  In addition to launching a blog, In Plain English, she began reading relevant trade publications and blogs and attending fashion industry events.  Upon the invitation of her clients, she traveled to New York City for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and attended international tradeshows.  In sum, Salene became a student of the fashion and retail industries. 

Salene began to see results from her focused strategy.  Within months of launching her own practice, she was representing many women business owners, including designers, in entity formation, contract negotiation, financing, acquisition, trademark, leasing, corporate governance, etc.  She became known for representing entrepreneurs in startup and growth-stage transactional matters rather than just for representing clients in commercial bankruptcies.  In fact, Salene recently lateraled her business and bankruptcy clients into Burns White, a primarily litigation firm with 95+ attorneys in eight offices.  In her new role, Salene is responsible for growing the firm's business transactions practice in the Pittsburgh/WestVirginia/Ohio region.   

Salene's story illustrates how she developed a client base in her target practice.  Rather than wait for a firm to hand her clients or move her to a different practice area, Salene became a student of the fashion and retail industries and used her industry knowledge and connections to develop her own client base.         

If your firm offers formal training programs on core business skills, take advantage of such offerings.  If your firm does not offer formal business training, consider the following ideas to help you learn about the businesses you represent or seek to represent:    

1. Take a Formal Class. Most universities offer (for a fee) certificate programs on a variety of topics. Such programs are often five days in length rather than an entire semester and, therefore, easier to fit into your schedule. For example, SMU Cox Executive Education recently joined forces with the American Petroleum Institute (API) to provide five-day programs focused on the energy and oil and gas sectors. A recent program focused on financial essentials of the energy sector.        
2. Watch a YouTube Video. For junior associates who are looking for cost-effective ways to develop a transactional practice, you may want to start with understanding the cash flow of a certain industry. Cash flow may sound foreign to you if you don't have a business background.  There are a variety of video clips from business courses at Harvard, MIT, Stanford that you can view (at no charge) on the EDU YouTube Channel.          
3. Follow on Twitter. Another free source of industry insight is Twitter. If you represent retailers, for example, you will learn about the industry by following @StevenPDennis, a former senior executive with Neiman Marcus and Sears who now consults luxury retailers.   For example, from Steven's tweets over the last three days, you'll learn that:
   
   Retailers announced 800 store closings in Q3 2011 (compared to 500 in Q3 2010)
   
   Amazon's profit plunges
   
   Walmart is offering price guarantee on purchases between 11/1/11-12/25/11
   
   Nordstrom is looking to leverage mobile to draw in-store traffic    
4. Publish an Industry Newsletter or Blog. Commit to publishing a newsletter about the industry you represent. Whether it's a monthly or quarterly publication, finding the content to publish will make you stay on top of your game. Plus, you'll be seen as an expert in this industry.    For example, New York lawyer Gary Moriwaki publishes the Art Law Blog to share his knowledge of art litigation and finance.     
5. Attend Industry Events.  Bar association events and CLEs are great venues for meeting other lawyers, but don't ignore industry events where you'll learn about your clients' (or target clients') business.   Industry events can range from large-scale events, such as the Fashion Week Salene attended, or local events in your market, such as monthly speaker events hosted by the Dallas Fort Worth Retail Executives Association.      
6. Find an Industry Mentor.  Many firms assign junior associates a mentor from within the firm.  Consider looking beyond your firm and finding a mentor from the business side--a business leader in an industry you seek to represent and from whom you can learn more about the industry.   

• develop clients in the particular industry and lead to your promotion within your firm;  
• transition to an in-house role within a particular industry; or 
• leave the practice of law for a business role in a particular industry. 

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About Amanda

Amanda Ellis is the Vice President of Search for Special Counsel.  She plans, designs and implements all direct hire training, development, integration and mentoring programs for the company's direct hire recruiters.   Prior to her current role at Special Counsel, Amanda worked as an Attorney Search Director at Special Counsel and her own search firm where she placed direct hire attorneys in law firms and corporate legal departments. 
Amanda is the author of The 6Ps of the BIG 3 for Job-Seeking JDs, the first book to teach lawyers and law students how to get hired using social networking sites.  Amanda is a nationally known speaker and has been retained by law firms as a consultant in litigation and other matters involving social media.  Prior to entering the legal recruiting field, Amanda practiced commercial bankruptcy law in Massachusetts and Texas.  Amanda obtained her J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in May 2001.  She obtained her B.S. in Business, summa cum laude, from Centenary College of Louisiana in May 1998.