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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun. Now today, we’re going to take a quick look at the mission statement of your firm, the mission statement of your firm.
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[00:01:14] Scott Benton: Now in theory, all businesses have a mission statement that helps define their business and the work that they do. For instance, the mission statement for the Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform, and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling. That’s quite a mouthful.
[00:01:35] Scott Benton: The mission statement for Tesla, on the other hand, is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. The mission statement for Apple Computer is to bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, and services.
[00:01:52] Scott Benton: So you can see that the mission statements of companies not only help identify them, but they provide a guiding vision for where that company is going, [00:02:00] and the goals that they want to establish or work towards or achieve, and the firm that you work for, or if you’re a student, the firm or firms that you’re going to be working for, they also have a mission statement that you’re most likely going to want to make sure that you’re aligned with.
[00:02:15] Scott Benton: So that means it starts with you. And in a sense, you’re probably going to want to think of yourself the way that these big corporations think of themselves.
[00:02:25] Scott Benton: So what do you stand for? What do you care about? What is your mission and what do you want to accomplish during your working career to improve the world around you, if in fact improving the world around you is what you want to do? Now you may not know right away and it might even take years for you to figure out what it is.
[00:02:43] Scott Benton: What you care about. Sometimes people have personal experiences at a young age that affected them pretty deeply, and it might have been something like financial or legal struggles that they saw their parents or other family members go through, and then when these kids [00:03:00] grow up, they decide to become an attorney and help people in those same circumstances. So sometimes your own mission Statement can have a very personal component or aspect to it that really drives your bigger overall picture of the kind of work you do or that you’re going to want to do.
[00:03:17] Scott Benton: The key is to get to a point where your own mission statement aligns as closely as possible to the mission statement of the company or the firm that you’re working for because you’re probably gonna find yourself in your element You Working with clients to reach their legal goals.
[00:03:32] Scott Benton: The use of the success cycle, which we talk about on this podcast all the time, means that you’re. You’re not going to have any shortage of to do list items. Legal services to perform and of course that means you’re going to be reaching and far exceeding your minimum billable hourly requirement day after day almost effortlessly because you’ll have an inner motivation and a drive guiding your work.
[00:03:55] Scott Benton: And if the mission statement is the same of the firm that you’re working for, if your [00:04:00] personal mission statement’s the same, then you’re most likely going to be professionally successful, you’re probably going to be really happy with your job, and you’re going to be extremely effective in your work.
[00:04:10] Scott Benton: Now, in contrast, you probably also want to make sure your own personal mission statement is not, in opposition to the mission statement of the company or the firm that you’re working for. If you’re working with clients whose legal goals that you personally don’t believe in or you don’t resonate with or you support, then your days are probably going to feel very long and drawn out.
[00:04:33] Scott Benton: And you’re going to feel enervated by the work that you’re doing. That means that you’re going to have no energy for it. And you’re probably going to go home feeling heavy and sluggish And you’re not going to be motivated to come back into the office the next day. So ideally, in your work as an attorney, you want to be clear with yourself on what you care about and what you want to get behind.
[00:04:53] Scott Benton: And maybe what’s even more important is to know what you don’t care about and what you don’t want to [00:05:00] get behind. That’s going to be a very good guide as you apply to attorney positions. Make sure you check out the firm’s website, so you can locate their company mission statement or maybe their company values or both.
[00:05:12] Scott Benton: I can tell you from my own personal experience that I’ve been in jobs over my career where eventually I realized I didn’t believe in the product, which made it difficult to spend 40 or 50 hours each week working on something that I just couldn’t get behind. It’s a very different and positive mindset when you find Something you believe in something you want to work towards building and you feel the work you’re doing is making a positive impact on your clients or to the world at large that is meaningful to you and has purpose.
[00:05:42] Scott Benton: Now one caveat or word of caution I’d like to say is that sometimes the personal mission statement for some attorneys is simply going to be to make as much money as possible, which doesn’t really include anything about what they care about or believe in. And if that’s the case, then [00:06:00] alignment to a company’s mission statement might not matter.
[00:06:03] Scott Benton: And in truth, any business out there, including a law firm generally cares about profit and about making as much money as they can. So in that respect, you will be aligned, but, on the other hand, think about how much better it would be if you and the company or firm that you’re working for do have the same values and objectives. My argument is that if you’re aligned with your company’s mission statement, that ultimately, you’re simply going to go further and go further faster than if you were not both aligned.
[00:06:33] Scott Benton: If your own personal mission statement is to make as much money as possible, then maybe you need to think a little more deeply about what you want to do to make people’s lives or the world a better place and align yourself with those work environments you resonate with because then you’re going to simply reach your own financial goals much more quickly.
[00:06:54] Scott Benton: My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If [00:07:00] this is material that you like and you want to receive an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website, which is classroom2courtroom.
[00:07:07] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two. Courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. You’ll get an alert when we put out a new episode. So how cool is that? Additionally, if you like this material, don’t forget to share and subscribe. And by doing that, it’ll help you stay on top of our newest episodes as well.
[00:07:23] Scott Benton: Cause you’ll get an alert through the podcatcher that you’re on. So until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so
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