The usually suave, confidant, handsome lawyer cradled his pounding head with shaking hands as he sat nervously, elbows jarring agonisingly into his knees. Rocking gently on the sofa in the spacious corner office he eventually looked up. Fixing his gaze on the heaving buxom breasts of the senior partner he found comfort, solace and courage for a fleeting moment. Gradually he raised his chin and began slowly to lower his hands, stroking his prominent cheek bones and chiselled jaw before soothing his aching legs with feverish palms in a circular deep massage motion.
But then he caught a glimpse of the pulsating vein in her forehead throbbing aggressively. The blood drained from his tanned face turning it ashen as he stared into the senior partner’s cold, steel blue, motionless eyes and with a twisted and pained expression spluttered: ‘I’m 50 shades of ****ed up.’
Not a scene from Madame Bovary, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, or the ubiquitous erotic novel 50 Shades of Grey, which every desperate housewife and her pampered pouting pooch is currently yapping on about. However, this scene could be a scenario played out in the crumbling towers of the next Dewey & LeBoeuf.

Rainmaking and sex

Those having succumbed to dipping a quivering finger into 50 Shades will recall that the story revolves around the sexual life of a naive 20-something virgin. She becomes entwined in an unusual arrangement with an erotically experienced billionaire who has devilishly dominant/submissive tendencies.
I’ve read 50 Shades of Grey. It was utterly dull -- romantically, sexually and erotically. And yet, the author did manage – albeit apparently inadvertently -- to spark the synapses of my professional rainmaker lawyer grey matter. I was stimulated into thinking about the legal profession and began to draw analogies between rainmaking and sex.
Why and how we approach the two activities are pretty much the same. It’s all about confidence, seduction, performance, delivery and follow-on. Whether you’re a poor rainmaker, an extraordinary rainmaker, or any of the 50 shades in between, will depend on your thoughts, feelings and actions.
Poor rainmaking is like unfulfilling sex – at least for one of the parties involved. Don’t really care what the other person thinks or feels; haven’t got a clue what you’re doing; no real effort or interest. The whole experience is over in a jiffy. And it’s all about pure self-interest.
Good rainmaking is pretty much like good sex. It’s not the tools that matter, it’s what you do with them that counts – a bit like identifying a good bottle of champagne not by the size of the bottle, but by the size of the cork. That is: focus, quality and application.

Mind focus

Great rainmaking – like great sex – involves spending lots of time exploring, researching and thinking about what you could do next to delight. Extraordinary rainmaking involves continual mind focus, continual nurturing, continual stimulation, continual discovery, continual delivery, continual follow on, continual improvement, continual innovation, continual research and development. The outcome inevitably is that both parties, client and lawyer, are more than satisfied.  
In the highly competitive, digital, technological, data driven and client-centric global legal world, law firms and others in the sector will wish to capture, harness, restrain, unlock and unleash the talent of 50 shades of rainmaker and implement that lawyer’s sexy business model.
The Dewey saga illustrates that the days when law firms could rely on hiring a select handful of rainmakers, usually at partner and/or senior associate level, are gone. Today, law firms want all their lawyer recruits to be rainmakers.
Sarah Kaye, chief executive of London-based recruitment agency SK Partners, maintains that despite the continuing harsh economic climate, ‘there’s a lot of activity in the market at the moment for lawyers with rainmaking skills. But ensuring the right match of firm to rainmaker-lawyer and vice versa requires careful consideration and due diligence by all those involved’.
She continues: ‘Generally what rainmaker-lawyers will be seeking – and what excites them -- is a real opportunity to work within a well-managed and supportive firm willing to invest in them, where there is an inherent culture of cross selling between the partners, and not just a firm that only wants them for what they can bring to the table in terms of clients and numbers. A genuine rainmaker-lawyer is a very worthwhile investment because these lawyers are well connected, they have excellent people skills, are switched on and know exactly what to do to develop business.’

Survival and growth

What do legal sector businesses need to do to attract the 50 shades of rainmaker lawyer? Ms Kaye comments: ‘It’s not enough to sell the firm and offer the lawyers a remuneration package based on what they can bring and introduce. Law firms need to demonstrate their commitment to the investment by specifically identifying how they will support the lawyer once that person is on board. Then everyone wins.’
Survival and growth in the 21st century for law firms will depend on the right mix, positioning, handling and nurturing of rainmaker-lawyers. Similarly, how rainmaker-lawyers apply their rainmaking escapades will determine their individual, team and firm’s success in growing and potentially raising capital.
In their chosen career paths and professional relationships with colleagues and clients, extraordinary rainmaker-lawyers have a knack for achieving the delicate blended role of leader and follower, master and servant, being disruptive while also sustaining, being both dominant and submissive.
Successful law firms will embrace the 50 shades of rainmaker-lawyer and tomorrow’s lawyer will be at the very least, one shade of rainmaker. It is time to take steps to pre-empt the possibility of the day arriving when you may genuinely gasp ‘I’m 50 shades of ****ed up’; begin by asking yourself: ‘What shade of rainmaker lawyer am I?’

Chrissie Lightfoot is chief executive of UK legal profession consultancy EntrepreneurLawyer and author of the book The Naked Lawyer: RIP to XXX – How to Market, Brand and Sell You!