Trust Matters for Lawyers

Charles H. Green is hosting Blawg Review #275 on Trust Matters. Charlie is not a lawyer but he did go to Harvard Business School, and he's the co-author of one of the most important books any lawyer will ever read: The Trusted Advisor.

A few years ago, I wrote a recommendation of this book for the Reading Minds column in Law Practice Magazine, which can be found online at ABA Net in the wayback machine. If you Google hard enough for that book review, here's what you'll find:

The theme of The Trusted Advisor (Free Press, 2000) is that the key to professional success is not just technical mastery of one’s discipline, but also the ability to work with clients in a way that earns their trust and gains their confidence. This book is a seminal treatise on the subject of trust.

Most, if not all, young lawyers starting out as new associates in established firms want to get ahead as fast as they can. Freshly minted from a competitive law school environment, they typically think being the best lawyer is all about mastering the law. Authors David Maister, Charles H. Green and Robert M. Galford write this:

“Then comes that crucial career transition, from technician to full professional, from content expert to advisor. As technicians, our task is to provide information, analyses, research, content and even recommendations. All of these are basically tasks performed out of the client’s presence. In contrast, our task as advisors is an ‘in-person,’ ‘in-contact’ challenge to help the client see things anew or to make a decision. This requires a complete change of skills and mind-sets.”

Lawyers who make this career transition, achieving the status of trusted advisor, know the meaning of true professionalism and, unlike so many of their colleagues, really enjoy the practice of law. For young lawyers starting out, there’s no book I’d recommend more highly than this one.

Ed Post, is the pseudonym of the Editor of Blawg Review, a weekly carnival of the best law blogs presented on a different host’s blog every Monday. Ed was a young lawyer himself, almost over 30 years ago.

The Trusted Advisor is a great book for lawyers, but don't just take the word of an anonymous blogger. Read the book and decide for yourself.

While you're waiting for Amazon to deliver The Trusted Advisor, you might want to pick Charlie's brain on his blog, Trust Matters, where he's hosting Blawg Review #275.