Meet Eric Dewey
Eric has spent his entire career in professional services marketing and business development. He was the chief marketing officer for several large law firms and a consultant and business development coach to numerous others and hundreds of lawyers. In addition to coaching and training, he is the owner of eLegal Training, an online business and practice development training platform for associate lawyers with more than 200 practice development modules. He is also the author of Power Grids. How Successful Lawyers Build Powerful Networks that Drive Reputations, Relationships, Referrals, and Revenues.
Eric lives in northern California and is active in the area’s vibrant music community, playing drums and producing live music and house concerts. He sits on the board of the Davis Live Music Collective and produces The Davis Music Fest, a three-day festival in downtown Davis, CA. which raises money for music education.
What excites you about working with lawyers and law firms?
Lawyers are very bright. But they also tend to be skeptical. They are trained to find the problems hidden in situations and the potential problems in future developments. To win the trust of a lawyer, you have to know your stuff. You have to provide strategic yet practical advice, advice that feels right to them and that works for their practice area. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of staying a step or two ahead of them, watching them grow, and seeing them successfully use the methods and strategies I teach them to produce results. It’s a wonderful feeling to give people the tools to grow their practice throughout their careers.
Give me an example of someone whose career path you changed.
I was asked to work with a lawyer who was struggling with getting focus in his marketing efforts. His practice was a collection of practices that covered multiple industries. He had very good connections in multiple industries but was not getting the kind of work he wanted to do. He’d used several business development coaches without success.
I did a full analysis of his practice, his billing data, and his contacts. I then researched the industries he worked in to identify the emerging trends and talked him through his goals, challenges and opportunities. We eventually found a niche opportunity that combined several industries, took advantage of an emerging trend, and found a niche for which he was uniquely qualified. He quickly became a ‘go to’ lawyer in the area because his knowledge, experience, and connections made him uniquely valuable to this emerging trend. He credits me with changing the direction of his practice, making him excited about the law again, and giving him a new sense of purpose.
How does your past experience help you in your job?
Having been both a chief marketing officer for several large law firms and a consultant to numerous others, as well as having observed business development in several other industries, I’ve had the opportunity to see what truly works. I’m able to analyze a lawyer’s practice and give him/her practical and effective strategies to land new engagements. After thirty plus years, you learn a thing or two. And I love sharing what I know.
Describe a unique moment in your career.
Early in my career in legal services, I was asked to coordinate the response to a large RFP from a major health care company. The RFP was produced by the procurement department and sent to 350 large law firms. The RFP was confusing and used terms that I knew most lawyers would not know. I called the company and found the RFP’s lead procurement people and ran through the list of issues I found. They decided to re-issue it with the changes I recommended.
Throughout the process I remained in contact giving them feedback and answering questions. We built a very good relationship and were one of the firms chosen for work in three practice areas. At the onboarding meeting, they told the partners from my firm that I was a huge help and part of the reason the firm got the engagement. Even though we were expressly told not to contact the company about the RFP, I knew I could add value and help them out. I did not expect it to influence their decision. It was a powerful lesson in delivering value without the expectation of reward. I use this example with those I coach to demonstrate that an authentic mindset to help others really is a powerful influence.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I’m the creator and co-author with ALM Legal Intelligence of the first study on lateral hiring performance which was published by GDC and ALM in 2015. The report was entitled, Surmounting the Lateral Partner Hiring Challenge. Lesson Learned, Best Practices, and Tools for Success. The challenge of lateral hiring, and specifically client book due diligence, has always interested me.
Education
Ohio University, MBA
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), BA
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