Your Law Firm as a Soccer Team

You are a lover of the beautiful game and you sometimes fancy yourself as a sort of "player" or at least an armchair coach of sorts. Let's face it, football is clearly the most popular sport in our law firms and declaring your affiliation is one of the most important initial revelations you will make. It will certainly follow you through your stay in the firm and thereafter.

Well, within your firm, you might as well be a player. At least we like to think of it as such. Here's how: Every level in your firm is a different position. Partners are typically the strikers, closing deals and presenting cases before the courts are their "goals" (The Managing Partner is a coach/Captain). Your senior associates who put together the work associates do and bring experience to bear before presenting material to the partners are your midfield players. Like like Ozil and Fabregas they lay it up nicely for the partners to finish off (I often think if Lord Denning was in a law firm he would liken being an SA to being in the Court of Appeal as the MR and would relish it). Associates build up the game from the defense and form the building blocks of the work that seniors do. To do this you need a very good research and hardworking associate base.. Of course different players often interchange roles and play different roles.

Ok, all this is good fun, but who are you within your firm? Messi or Bentner; Mourinho or Moyes... :)