As law firms grapple with talent development and retention, coaching emerges as a powerful tool for professional growth. In a recent Platforum9 session, Patryjusz Zamorski, the European Director of Talent Development from Dentons and Ron Given, former Partner at Mayer Brown & Wolf Theiss, shared contrasting perspectives on how coaching is transforming legal professional development.
Beyond Traditional Mentoring
While mentoring has long been a cornerstone of legal development, coaching represents a fundamentally different approach. “In mentoring, we are usually thinking about a situation where someone who has experience shares it,” Zamorski explains. “Whereas in coaching, we never really tell people how to do it. We just ask good questions and help coachees come to solutions themselves.”
The Path to Coaching
The journey to becoming a coach can take different forms. Given shares his experience: “I did go through a certification program and it did take a year from a school out of London. It is a lot of hard work.” Meanwhile, Zamorski describes Dentons’ approach of developing internal coaching capabilities, training partners to use coaching techniques without necessarily pursuing full certification.
Building Effective Coaching Relationships
Both experts emphasise the importance of chemistry between coach and coachee, though they approach it differently:
Zamorski focuses on institutional frameworks: “We try to identify the real needs… then we try to do the matching, usually presenting a lawyer with two or three options.”
Given takes a more individual approach: “If I’m taking on a client that is not a referral… I will always refer the prospect to at least one other potential coach that I think could help them… I’d rather know about it beforehand if it isn’t going to work based on chemistry.”
Program Structure and Investment
A typical coaching engagement has clear parameters:
- Duration: “Programs run from 2 to 6 months,” Given notes
- Session frequency: “An hour or hour and a half every other week, sometimes monthly”
- Cost: “In Continental Europe, between €150-400 per hour,” Zamorski shares
Breaking Down Barriers
Given addresses the scepticism common among lawyers: “In my experience, I think, most lawyers going into coaching, there’s a degree of scepticism. Some of it is they just don’t know. Some of it is, I think, the professional orientation to being sceptical.”
His client base reflects changing attitudes: “A lot of my clients are women. Younger… different races… In coaching, because I have gone through this year’s program… the empathy part is a critical part of what we’re taught.”
Finding the Right Coach
The experts offer complementary approaches to finding a coach:
Zamorski recommends internal channels: “Talk to your talent, HR colleagues in your firm… these are usually people who know good coaches.”
Given suggests broader outreach: “Much of the work I get comes by referral… I do think LinkedIn is a good place to start. It’s a little overwhelming, but it’s a good place to start.”
The Business Case for Coaching
Both experts see coaching as increasingly crucial for law firms:
“Everybody’s got a coach. All the successful people have a coach,” Given observes about business executives. “For them they use it as the one person that they can deal with that doesn’t have an agenda and is only thinking about them.”
Zamorski adds: “It can take you to the next level in your career… you can actually redesign the way you work. You can be almost like a new person in so many different dimensions.”
Practical Implementation
For firms considering coaching programs, several approaches prove effective:
- Internal Development: As demonstrated by Dentons’ model
- External Partnerships: Working with certified coaches like Given
- Hybrid Models: Combining internal resources with external expertise
Looking Ahead
The future of legal coaching appears bright, with both experts seeing it as increasingly essential. As Given notes about younger lawyers: “The best ones that I’ve seen, particularly the more junior lawyers…insist that I don’t want to do this through my firm. I want to invest in myself.”
For law firms and individual lawyers alike, the question increasingly becomes not whether to embrace coaching, but how to implement it most effectively. As Zamorski concludes, “It’s almost like a tool to unlock your potential… invest, don’t be afraid of it. It’s confidential, it’s very personal, but it can take you to the next level in your career.”
