This book is being written one chapter at a time and then published to our blog, just as we do for our clients in the Authority Chapter Plan. To read the rest of the Authority Philosophy book, please click here.
The best actors always ask: “what is my character’s motivation?” They know that they cannot accurately portray anything more than mere mimicry without distilling the internal and external motivations that drive the individual.
How sad that most lawyers practice law without fully grasping their own motivations. Not only because it makes selling your legal services easier, but because it makes the practice of law more tolerable. Your Authority Philosophy™ becomes the center of gravity for your firm, and by extension, your professional life. It also provides the necessary compass, a strategic throughway that must run through every aspect of your firm, and how you conduct yourself as a lawyer.
The most important client you will ever have is yourself. Yet, most lawyers spend their careers advocating for others without stopping to take the time and make a case for their own purpose.
In this chapter, I will describe the Authority Philosophy Audit™, a powerful system for discovering, or rediscovering, your professional values. This is not woo-woo psychodrama or “self-improvement” garbage. It’s about actionable steps to creating a practice that is aligned with your goals, principles, and professional desires.
The Authority Philosophy™ Audit v. The AIO Audit
In my book AIO for Attorneys, I describe the AIO Audit. Although both audits are necessary, and must be implemented before advancing with artificial intelligence optimization, or what I call authority intelligence optimization (AIO), they are quite distinct concepts. The AIO Audit is an external, performance-based diagnostic. It tells you how your firm is performing, and is expected to perform in the broader market, and specifically in its potential to obtain referrals from humans and AI alike.
The Authority Philosophy Audit™ answers a more fundamental question: why does your law firm exist in the first place? Why are you a lawyer?
This chapter is not a checklist, but rather a guided Socratic inquiry, without the fear of being called on by a law professor. This is the structured process for excavating the unique, authentic, and powerful philosophy that is already latent within you and your practice.
The Four Inquiries of the Authority Philosophy Audit™
Let’s briefly review the four specific inquiries that make up the Authority Philosophy Audit™.
Inquiry #1: The Narrative Inquiry (Your Expertise & Origin Story): This is about uncovering the story of how you came to be a lawyer. What drew you to the profession in the first place. What keeps you coming back to the office every day. What is unique about you and the reasons you practice law.
Inquiry #2: The Aversion Inquiry (What repels you): This is about uncovering what you detest, especially in other practices. From professional pet peeves to existential loathing, we will cut away everything that is not aligned with you and your practice, and like a sculptor reveal the hidden figure inside.
Inquiry #3: The Avatar Inquiry (Your Audience & Authenticity): This is about defining who you are uniquely positioned to serve. It’s about finding the clients for whom you are the only logical choice.
Inquiry #4: The Method Inquiry (Your Unique Process): This is about codifying your unique way of practicing law. It’s the “how” that makes your expertise different from everyone else’s.
Together, these inquires form the foundation of your Authority Philosophy™. With the inquiries defined, let’s dig deeper into the Authority Philosophy™ behind your practice. And if you don’t have one yet, do not be concerned. Revealing your Authority Philosophy™ is the entire purpose of this chapter.
Inquiry #1: The Narrative Inquiry (Your Expertise & Origin Story)
In the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, the titular character (played by Matt Damon) was a troubled genius whose path to fulfilling his potential was stymied by a traumatic childhood and ongoing scrapes with the law. Despite having the greatest math mind in the building, as the film commences Hunting is a janitor at MIT. Hunting is the ultimate subject matter expert, in almost any category, yet is blocked from true achievement because he has yet determined goals aligned with his talents. In other words, he has not yet envisioned, or created a narrative of success. Throughout the film, a professor, a lover, a court-ordered psychologist, and his best friend will implore Will Hunting to make something more of his ample talents. By the end, you get the sense that Will is finally read to pursue concrete goals.
Good Will Hunting was one of my favorite films growing up, and I connected with the story of a blue-collar underdog. It was also a two-hour narrative inquiry on film.
What do I mean by that? Although ostensibly a “romantic comedy” of sorts, even a “buddy movie,” the core of the film is whether Will Hunting will be able to figure out his path. Not just toward Stanford and his love interest, but in life.
Here in the real world, we will need to forge our own narrative inquiry. We do not live in pages from a screenplay, and that means we probably do not have a wily professor, an understanding court-ordered psychologist, a muse-like love interest, and a Ben Affleck shaped best friend to spur us on to fulfilling our potential. Though I am sure you have many champions in your life, they will have their own motivations and issues as they pursue their own Authority Philosophy™. That means you mostly must do this work yourself, or with me if you would like to hire me for an Authority Philosophy Session™. And I hope you do, because there are few things more impactful than digging into the core values that will enrich your professional life.
Here are a few core question clusters you should ask for the narrative inquiry, if you are going to self-audit:
(1) What was the moment you first knew you wanted to be a lawyer? What was the initial spark? What type of law did you foresee yourself practicing? How old were you? What did “being a lawyer” mean to you then? What does it mean now? If you could start all over again, would you still go to law school? What, if anything, would you do differently in your career?
(2) What was the single most difficult case of your career, and what did it teach you about yourself? Of what case are you most proud? Most ashamed? What are you most proud of outside the profession? What are you most proud of regarding your credentials?
(3) What is the single biggest injustice in your practice area that you are fighting against? Has it impacted you, or someone you care about personally? Is there a connection between this injustice and what made you decide to become an attorney in the first place?
(4) If you had to explain the “why” of your practice to a non-lawyer in one minute, what would you say? Where are the disconnects between what the public thinks you do in your practice area, and its reality? How has your practice area changed in the last five years? How do you think it will be different in five years’ time? Is it changing for the better or the worse? What can you do to create positive change within your practice area?
As mentioned in earlier chapters of this book, reflect on what you truly enjoyed as a child, before your worldview became infected with OPO (“other people’s opinions.”). For me, my earliest memories were scratching an old typewriter or writing in composition journals. No shocker there, I suppose. I have always wanted to share my thoughts with the world through words. Then, OPO taught me that most lucrative way to do that was by becoming a lawyer. But the truth is, writing legal briefs and motions never fully satisfied that itch. Eventually, I knew I had to pursue a career based in writing and only tangential to the law. Finally, I was on my right path. And it only took 16 years in litigation to figure it out!
If you want to learn more about narrative inquiry, I suggest you read the book Start with Why by Simon Sinek. It’s written for a general audience but does a great job of distilling how leaders and businesses can find their deeper purpose.
Inquiry #2: The Aversion Inquiry (What Repels You)
“Make a list of ten things you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them. When I wrote Fahrenheit 451 I hated book burners and I loved libraries. So there you are.” – Author Ray Bradbury
American fantasist Ray Bradbury is not only one of the greatest speculative fiction writers of all time, he was also a treasure trove of inspiring quotes. One of this best pieces of advice for writers, as you can see above, was to focus not only on what you love, but what you hate. You can see this advice throughout Bradbury’s writing. He hated driving and cars, and his short stories were filled with incidents such as the same crowd of strangers appearing whenever there is a fatal car accident. He loathed how much time people were spending watching television, and came up with The Veldt, a short story about children who fight back against a lack of screen team in a unique and violent manner. He published that short story in 1950, by the way, to show you how far ahead of his time Mr. Bradbury was.
If you’re feeling somewhat blocked in this early portion of your Authority Philosophy, then focus on the things you hate. What disgusts you about the law? What fills you with resent? As Charlie Munger famously said “Invert, always invert.” If your hopes and dreams and goals are not flooding your mind as you work through this chapter, then turn your attention instead to the other end of the ledger. After all, good loathing can be quite fun.
Here are a few core question clusters you should ask for the narrative inquiry, if you are going to self-audit:
(1) What are the qualities of the lawyers you lest respect? Do you, or does your law firm, share any of that DNA? What exactly do you find so distasteful? What is the opposite of these qualities? Do you embody the opposite? Does your firm? How do these types of lawyers impact you, your firm, your clients?
(2) What type of legal marketing do you loathe? What is the opposite of this type of marketing? What vendors or class of vendors are behind the marketing you loathe? Have you ever engaged in this type of marketing? If not, what type of marketing are you currently utilizing? Is it working as you hoped, and is it effective? How does the type of legal marketing you loathe impact on you, your firm, your clients?
(3) What about your specific practice area do you dislike? What is the opposite? Is there anything you can do to reduce or insulate yourself from what you dislike about your practice area? How could you create change? How do the things you dislike negatively impact you, your firm, your clients?
(4) What about your colleagues do you dislike? What about them do you like? Is there anything you can do to bring out more of the better qualities, if you are a firm owner or in a position of firm leadership? How do these qualities negatively impact you, your firm, your clients?
(5) What about your clients, past or present, do you dislike? More on this below in the Avatar Inquiry.
As you can see, resentments can provide a strong counterpoint and lens with which to view your practice. Or as the great Emperor Palpatine famously said in Return of the Jedi “Yes, use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!” But although it’s fun to sit here with the shadow traits, with our resentments cleared out, we must make more progress to what your firm and professional life should be, instead of just kicking more dirt onto what they should not.
Inquiry #3: The Avatar Inquiry (Your Audience & Authenticity)
The book A Civil Action, follows crusading attorney Jan Schlichtmann in what becomes a monomaniacal quest to bring justice to the families impacted by an environmental tort in Woburn, Massachusetts. By the end of the book, justice does not prevail as the more well-heeled corporations are able to delay, and obfuscate, all while the system seemingly favored Goliath over the David.
But what always stuck out to me when reading that book, or even watching the film based on it, was envy that Mr. Schlichtmann was so aligned with that cause, and those families. I believe there must have been a reward there, even if it was not the financial one deserved, for being alive as an attorney working with singular focus on a huge case of importance for decent people harmed by causes beyond their control.
If you are not aligned with the right practice area, or even with the right clients for you within that practice area, then you are facing a grueling ordeal as a lawyer. The job is already hard enough as it is.
Here are a few core question clusters you should ask for the avatar inquiry, if you are going to self-audit:
(1) Describe the client whose case energized you the most. What were their values? What was their mindset? What did you find so energizing about the case? How can you find other clients and cases in that mold?
(2) Describe the client who drained you the most. What were their values and mindset? What did you find so draining about the case? How can you avoid other clients and cases in that mold?
(3) What is the one piece of “unconventional wisdom” you give to every client? What do clients most respond to in your legal representation? What do you most enjoy about working with your clients? What types of cases are most important to you, and why? What types of cases energize you and which drain you? What types of cases or clients gel with your unique talents, creativity worldview?
(4) What is different about the way you practice from most, or even all other attorneys in your practice area? How can you turn that into a marketing advantage? A legal advantage? How can you express this as a critical point of differentiation for your practice when meeting with prospective clients during the initial consultation?
Authority Philosophy Audit: From Brainstorming and Answers to Cohesive Philosophy
Fill in the blanks on the below sentence for instant clarity about your practice:
“We are the law firm that helps __________(insert ideal client avatar) achieve_______________(insert primary goal for the cases you take on) by using our unique___________________(insert unique method) because we believe ___________________(insert your core purpose/why) and we succeed because we _____________________(insert overarching authority philosophy).
For my family law firm, I would respond:
“We are the law firm that helps small business owners achieve a dignified, financially secure future by using our ‘Dolphin, not Shark’ collaborative framework because we believe divorce should be a strategic restructuring of a family’s assets, not a war, and we succeed because we understand that a divorce is a temporary issue, but the real goal is helping clients find their happily even after so that their lives improve after the divorce is finalized and every year thereafter.”
Authority Philosophy: Build a Cathedral, and Market the Hell Out of It
The answers to the above questions were not just a marketing exercise, they were the foundational footprint for your entire practice. Your core Authority Philosophy should not only inform marketing, but every aspect of your practice, from client outreach to staffing to financial decisions to how you practice.
That said, I am going to suggest here that once you have locked down your Authority Philosophy, that you market the hell out of it. (In sophisticated ways consistent with AIO.) It’s the only way to get your message out there and ensure that you are attracting the right types of clients for your practice and repelling the wrong ones.
The Authority Philosophy thus becomes the strategic filter for every decision you make, so that you not only grow your firm, but grow it right. Think of it like resetting a bone, if it’s not set correctly in the first place, sometime even healing can be a bad thing. By starting now with implementing the proper Authority Philosophy unique to you and your practice, you can ensure a stable foundation for all the growth that is to come.
This audit is a powerful tool for self-discovery. For those who want to accelerate the process and pressure-test their findings with a strategic partner, we offer a dedicated Authority Philosophy Session. It’s the fastest path from introspection to a clear, defensible market position.