Client events are a great way for students to get involved with the business aspect of the firm and put a face to the person on the flip-side of the email or telephone. Luckily, MB gives its students numerous opportunities to do just that! And January/February seems to be the season for it!
Knowing how to interact and connect with your client can be just as important and is a skill only developed through practice.
|
Last week our office hosted Christmas in January, a cocktail party with a mingling of MB’ers, clients, experts of all sorts, and other industry shakers. Even next year’s articling students were invited to join in! Here I had a chance to meet adjusters and hear about their side of the business, speak with expert engineers and learn how they can help my files, and indulge in a student’s favourite thing – tasty hors d'oeuvres. Not to mention the office’s meeting room looked like we had been whisked off to an elegant winter cocktail lounge in the sky.
This week MB is also hosting a more causal affair – a client bowling night. This event has been of particular interest to me because the partner gave another student and me the chance to help out with organizing. We get are in charge of making the night as fun as possible for the clients with creative contests and charming prizes. This should be a great opportunity for us to spend some focused time with one client in particular and turn our mind to the client-relations side of the business. As students, many of us do not yet have appreciate that the practice of law involves far more than just knowing law. Knowing how to interact and connect with your client can be just as important. This is a skill only developed and mastered with practice.
If you are more of an introvert, or simply love to write, there are also opportunities to impress and network with clients through papers and seminars. MB and its practice groups host frequent seminars where clients are invited to our firm to build their own legal knowledge and understanding of a particular topic. Students are often involved in helping write a paper with a partner, doing research on the area of law, and sometimes even get to present at the seminar. Helping out with one of these is doubly good because you not only earn face time with clients, it is also an excellent occasion to make a splash with the partners!
All in all, there are countless ways for students to interact with clients from fancy cocktail parties, to bowling, to papers and seminars, and many others not mentioned here. And best of all, MB is always there encouraging us to dive right in! I know we are all excited for the next one, my personal favourite, MB Ski Day!
Emily C.
