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December 17, 2009
Vickie E. Turner featured in article on Leading Law Firm Rainmakers
Fourteen attorneys—selected for their acumen in developing books of business, as well as their expertise as lawyers—share their experiences and personal pathways to success.
By Patrick Folliard
The idea of the rainmaker as a schmoozing, country–club denizen is increasingly dismissed as a long–gone phenomenon by most working attorneys. Socializing remains an ingredient in building a healthy book of business; nevertheless, today’s minority and rainmakers credit a nose–to–the grindstone work ethic as the key to achieving demonstrated success in business development. They advise investment in relationship-building, client service, and perfecting substantive legal skills as the means to ensuring very good returns.
For Diversity & the Bar’s third rainmaker feature, fourteen attorneys share tips on not only how to bring in new clients, but also how to keep them. Because today’s economic climate presents challenges that most of these leaders have heretofore not encountered, many are learning for the first time to be “more creative about fee proposals.” In order to secure business, rainmakers must deliver on promises to be efficient and cost effective; otherwise, they will surely lose longtime clients to the competition. Those whose practice areas include regulation, restructuring, and/or bankruptcy noted they are busier than ever, citing the current challenges as a boon for their business area.
These rainmakers were selected from a pool of nominees suggested by leading firms from across the country. Each attorney maintains a regular book of business reaching or exceeding $2 million a year. In making its selections, MCCA weighed the attorneys’ geographic locations and practice areas, as well as their gender and ethnicity, in order to present the most diverse and well–rounded group possible.
Like previous years, many of our rainmakers were the first in their families to attend college or graduate school; one interviewee was the first in his family to graduate from high school. And, as in the case of new Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, many of those interviewed were initially drawn to the law by TV’s Perry Mason.It seems that the fictional criminal defense attorney with the stellar record was the inspiration that set many a diverse young rainmaker on his or her ambitious career path.
When Vickie L. Turner advises young attorneys on how to follow in her rainmaker footsteps, she inevitably leads with the exhortation, “Don’t be invisible!” Turner believes that business often has a way of finding a good lawyer, but sometimes that process needs a little help.
“You never know where business is gong to come from,” notes Turner, whose practice focuses on defending litigation against corporations, with emphasis in liability related to products liability and class action.
“I tell young attorneys — women and minorities in particular — to get involved in specialty bars. If there’s something unique about you or a personal passion, get involved. It’s there where you will shine, and others will be attracted to you for development purposes.”
A self–described “Air Force brat,” Turner grew up all over the country. Eventually, her family settled in Las Vegas, where she earned an accounting degree. After a single tax season, however, Turner realized that adding numbers was not for her, so she went on to law school at University of San Diego School of Law. From the start, she recalls, she knew law was something she could do and enjoy.
To be a rainmaker, explains Turner, requires an entrepreneurial spirit; it also helps to be outgoing and to have a sense of salesmanship. For some, it comes naturally, but for others, it must be learned. “I used to be less direct about marketing,” shares Turner, “but I improved by watching those who were already really good — and by doing.”
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