The Rainmaking Podcast

Every two weeks, the business development tactics top lawyers use are free at therainmakingmagazine.com

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Nine out of ten lawyers score in the bottom half of resilience. That’s not an opinion — it’s 32 years of personality data from over 10,000 lawyers. Dr. Larry Richard is the researcher who found it, and he wrote the book on what to do about it.

Dr. Larry Richard holds a J.D. from Penn Law and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Temple University. He’s spent three decades studying lawyer personality and is the author of the new book Thin-Skinned: Why Lawyers Are So Low in Resilience, and the New Science That Can Help. In this episode, he joins Scott Love to break down the seven atypical personality traits that define lawyers — and the evidence-based framework that can help them manage stress, raise resilience, and thrive in a profession that’s changing at unprecedented speed.

What you’ll learn:

The 7 atypical personality traits that make lawyers exceptional at their work — and vulnerable in their lives

Why 90% of lawyers consistently score in the bottom half of resilience — and why that number hasn’t moved in 32 years

Why empathy in lawyers (and people under 40 generally) is declining — and what it’s connected to

What sociability really means — and why lawyers average at the 12.5th percentile

The catastrophizing spiral: how one associate’s mistake became a tent in a park in her mind — and what that reveals about low resilience

Why personality traits are more genetic than social — and the crucial exception: resilience, skepticism, and empathy can actually be changed

The three-legged stool of the brain: how thoughts, feelings, and actions are chemically linked — and how changing one changes all three

Why positive emotions aren’t soft — they chemically neutralize the damage from the negative hormones lawyers produce all day

50+ evidence-based resilience strategies organized into four practical buckets

3 action steps to start building your resilience practice today

Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/HKir95XRnFk

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If you are a successful law firm partner or law firm founder and want to hear about other options, please book a time on Scott Love's calendar here:

https://attorneysearchgroup.com/schedule

Or email Scott to connect with him at: scott@attorneysearchgroup.com

📅 Monthly webinars for transactional partners: RainmakingSeminars.com
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This podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights (formerly known as Leopard Solutions)–turning legal intelligence into opportunity.

For a free demo, visit this link: https://surepoint.com/legal-insights/
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About Dr. Larry Richard:
Larry Richard, J.D., Ph.D., is widely recognized as the leading expert on the psychology of lawyer behavior and a trusted authority on improving performance in law firms and legal departments through behavioral science. He works with legal organizations to enhance organizational effectiveness, capitalize on strengths, and bring out the best in their people by applying research-based insights into how lawyers think, behave, and respond to change.

Dr. Richard is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D.) and practiced as a litigator before earning his Ph.D. in Psychology from Temple University. Over the course of his career, he has collected and analyzed personality data on thousands of lawyers and has consulted with hundreds of premier law firms and corporate legal departments on complex behavioral challenges, including building psychological resilience; coaching and developing leaders; managing unprecedented change; developing talent strategy; and fostering lawyer well-being.

Link:

LawyerBrain.com
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Every two weeks, the business development tactics top lawyers use are free at therainmakingmagazine.com

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Most strategic alliances look perfect on paper. Six months in, they’re falling apart — and nobody knows why.

Dr. Kyle Harkema is the author of Strategic Clarity: The Practical Method for Transforming Vision into Results and a scholar-practitioner with a doctorate in business administration. In this episode, he joins Scott Love to break down why alliances fail — and the exact behavioral framework leaders need to build partnerships that actually deliver.

What you’ll learn:

Why alliances fail even when the strategic logic is sound — and what’s really going wrong

The one sentence that reveals whether your alliance is ready: “Because we’re working together, our customer can now ___”

The 5 trust-building questions every alliance must answer before work begins

Why lagging KPIs (revenue, EBITDA) are the wrong place to start — and what leading indicators to watch instead

The warning signs that a partnership is breaking down: multiplying meetings, slowing decisions, and information that stops flowing cleanly

When and how to structure revenue share, licensing, or a joint venture spin-off

Why a contract preserves the friendship — and how to structure one that holds up when priorities conflict

How to identify the right alliance partner: complementarity, incentive compatibility, and behavioral alignment

The “set it and forget it” trap — and why every alliance needs a semi-annual check-in at minimum

3 action steps: define your joint value proposition, build a strategic decision framework, and measure the behaviors that create value

Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/_E7xsyl4xa0

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If you are a successful law firm partner or law firm founder and want to hear about other options, please book a time on Scott Love's calendar here:

https://attorneysearchgroup.com/schedule

Or email Scott to connect with him at: scott@attorneysearchgroup.com

📅 Monthly webinars for transactional partners: RainmakingSeminars.com
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This podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights (formerly known as Leopard Solutions)–turning legal intelligence into opportunity.

For a free demo, visit this link: https://surepoint.com/legal-insights/
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About Kyle Harkema:

Kyle Harkema is the author of Strategic Clarity: the practical method for transforming vision into results. This book is a research-backed diagnostic mirror that decodes how your company truly thinks, listens, and acts. Because strategy lives in behavior—not plans.

Dr. Kyle Harkema, DBA, MBA, is a distinguished scholar-practitioner with a wealth of experience at the intersection of academia and industry. With an academic foundation built on rigorous study and research, combined with extensive practical experience in the business world, Dr. Harkema epitomizes the modern scholar-practitioner—a professional who not only understands theoretical frameworks but also knows how
to apply them in real-world contexts.

Links:

https://www.kylejharkema.com/https://www.youtube.com/@KyleJHarkemahttps://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Clarity-Practical-Transforming-Results/dp/B0GSSFW28Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JLLWIRMP1RUR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UR4TNoOVMfqJ_fvS4GMcOBOoA1bE6XarRTdlIr2fLZ4.7bK32nKomY_dIBRWCAAvsOJGqGgJfdVkX6xM0FIBQN4&dib_tag=se&keywords=strategic+clarity+harkema&qid=1791577862&sbm=true&setroute=search&sprefix=strategic+clarit%2Caps%2C148&sr=8-1
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every two weeks, the business development tactics top lawyers use are free at therainmakingmagazine.com

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Corporate, finance, and real estate partners have a business development advantage most of them never fully leverage. Ryan Grelecki is here to change that.

Ryan Grelecki is a global consultant and master GrowBIG® facilitator at Bunnell Idea Group — one of the most respected BD consulting firms in the legal industry. In this episode, he joins Scott Love for a webinar built specifically for transactional lawyers: deal lawyers, corporate partners, finance and real estate attorneys who are ready to turn their built-in advantages into a real business development system.

What you’ll learn:

Why transactional lawyers have 4 structural BD advantages that litigators simply don’t have

The mere exposure effect: why frequency of contact is one of the most powerful forces in relationship-building

Who to target in every deal — not just clients, but strategic partners who become referral engines

The “protomoi” framework: how to identify the 5–10 relationships most critical to your practice growth

Why a face-to-face ask is 34x more effective than email — and how to use that inside every deal

White space analysis: how to mine your existing clients for work you’re not getting yet

What “earned dogmatism” is — and why becoming an expert can actually close you off to growth

The give-to-get investment: how to design a low-risk, high-value experience that earns the right to ask for work

The 4 C’s of conference attendance: Clarity, Connect, Converse, Commit — and why 75% of the work happens before you arrive

How to build BD habits that survive busy seasons — the MIT framework and the no-zero-days system

3 action steps for transactional partners ready to build a real pipeline

Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/MIsxplvDHuU

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If you are a successful law firm partner or law firm founder and want to hear about other options, please book a time on Scott Love's calendar here:

https://attorneysearchgroup.com/schedule

Or email Scott to connect with him at: scott@attorneysearchgroup.com

📅 Monthly webinars for transactional partners: RainmakingSeminars.com
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This podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights (formerly known as Leopard Solutions)–turning legal intelligence into opportunity.

For a free demo, visit this link: https://surepoint.com/legal-insights/
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About Ryan Grelecki:
Ryan C. Grelecki, J.D., is a global consultant and master GrowBIG® facilitator & coach at Bunnell Idea Group, where he helps professionals in the legal, consulting, insurance, and other industries build the skills to grow client relationships and win new business. He specializes in designing relationship-focused, give-first BD curricula and 1:1 executive coaching experiences that turn technical experts into confident rainmakers.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangrelecki/

https://bunnellideagroup.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every two weeks, the business development tactics top lawyers use are free at therainmakingmagazine.com

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Most law firm mergers fail to deliver on their promise. Not because the financials were wrong — but because nobody did the cultural due diligence.

Dr. Heidi Gardner is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School, former Harvard Business School professor, McKinsey consultant, and author of two best-selling books — Smart Collaboration and Smarter Collaboration — both published by Harvard Business Press. She leads Gardner & Co., a research and advisory firm that helps professional services leaders turn collaboration into client growth. In this episode, Dr. Gardner joins Scott Love to break down exactly why post-merger trust and collaboration fail — and what leaders must do differently before, during, and after a combination.

What you'll learn:

Why mergers fail more often than not — and what "working" actually means from a client's perspective

The cultural due diligence most firms skip entirely — and the data you should be asking to see before signing

The two flavors of trust that are both essential for collaboration: competence trust and character trust

Why homophily — the instinct to affiliate with your own tribe — is the silent killer of post-merger integration

How to use data to identify collaboration leaders vs. islands — before and after a merger

Why "not every dollar is a good dollar" — and what a sticky, strategic dollar actually looks like

The difference between leading and lagging indicators of merger success — and which ones to track quarterly

Why hero-worship success stories backfire — and the less sexy story that's actually more valuable to tell

What the Smarter Collaboration Profile psychometric reveals about partnership blind spots and bifurcated cultures

Why law firms absolutely do not invest enough in leadership development — and what that costs them

3 action steps: visit SmartCollaboration.com, get curious about your clients, and examine your collaboration network

Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/td3QJm__7Ig

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If you are a successful law firm partner or law firm founder and want to hear about other options, please book a time on Scott Love's calendar here:

https://attorneysearchgroup.com/schedule

Or email Scott to connect with him at: scott@attorneysearchgroup.com
----------------------------------------

This podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights (formerly known as Leopard Solutions)–turning legal intelligence into opportunity.

For a free demo, visit this link: https://surepoint.com/legal-insights/
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About Dr. Heidi Gardner:
Dr. Heidi Gardner authored two best-selling books Smart Collaboration and Smarter Collaboration, published by Harvard Business Press. A Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School, she was previously a professor at Harvard Business School, a consultant at McKinsey & Co., and manager at P&G. She presently leads the research and advisory firm Gardner & Co., and has lived and worked on four continents. She helps professional service firm leaders turn collaboration into client growth and sustained performance.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-k-gardner-ab5b825/

smartercollaboration.com

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=smarter+collaboration&crid=3AHLKBDCRF21B&sprefix=smarter+collaboration+%2Caps%2C122&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every two weeks, the business development tactics top lawyers use are free at therainmakingmagazine.com

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Every year, around bonus and distribution season, law firm partners ask themselves the same question: is it time to make a move?

In this solo cast, Scott Love — legal recruiter with 30+ years in the industry and specialist in corporate and finance partner placements — walks through the 10-category career assessment framework he uses with partners every day. If you've ever wondered whether your current firm is still the right fit, this episode gives you a structured, honest way to think it through.

What you'll learn:

The 10 categories that determine whether a partner should consider a move — from leadership confidence to long-term personal fulfillment

Why most partners leave for one of two reasons — and how to identify which one applies to you

The 1–10 satisfaction scale: what a six or below actually means for your next step

Why "I'm not asking you to leave — I'm asking you to have a 30-minute conversation" is the right frame

The "rule it out, then rule it in" approach to evaluating another firm without overcommitting

How to use a personal journal to track your diligence at each round without losing perspective

Why the most important question isn't which firm pays more — it's which firm is best for your clients

What the LPQ process actually looks like — and how Scott's team helps partners navigate it

The free resource at partnersonthemove.com: flowcharts, quizzes, ethics guidance, compensation info, and more — no registration required

When to reach out to Scott directly — even if you're not sure you're looking

Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/erxMA31lttg

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If you are a successful law firm partner or law firm founder and want to hear about other options, please book a time on Scott Love's calendar here:

https://attorneysearchgroup.com/schedule

Or email Scott to connect with him at: scott@attorneysearchgroup.com
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This podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights (formerly known as Leopard Solutions)–turning legal intelligence into opportunity.

For a free demo, visit this link: https://surepoint.com/legal-insights/
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About Scott Love:

Scott Love is a legal recruiter solely focused on recruiting corporate and finance partners for global law firms in major markets. He is the host of The Rainmaking Podcast, co-author of Rainmaker Confidential, and speaks professionally at conferences on sales, client development, and recruiting.

📘 Book: Rainmaker Confidential — RainmakerConfidential.com
📖 Rainmaking Magazine: free complimentary subscription at TheRainmakingMagazine.com
🎓 Free Webinars: RainmakingSeminars.com

🌐 Free resource for partners: partnersonthemove.com — no registration required
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