Leadership can take many forms, and comes with myriad responsibilities. In a traditional sense, leaders in businesses or various institutions are responsible for making effective decisions, setting policies that lead to a productive work environment, and guiding their teams toward success through a mixture of delegation and direct intervention. In a broader sense, modern leaders are examples to follow as much as anything else, individuals that push boundaries and establish themselves as experts in their field worth paying attention to. To succeed in the rapidly evolving, deeply interconnected world of modern business, a leader must embody both sides of the leadership coin.
This is no less true for lawyers and law firms. Attorneys are trusted to guide clients through the convoluted web of legal requirements, regulations, and even litigation; clients need to be able to trust the firm they hire to both understand their needs, and be skilled enough to achieve their goals. As a result, any leading lawyer or attorney needs to be strategic, make effective decisions, develop meaningful relationships, and keep their skills sharp with up-to-date information and cutting edge industry developments.
Chris Jackman, lawyer and attorney in Washington State, embodies the values of modern business and legal leadership. As the owner and managing attorney of the Jackman Law Firm, founded over a decade ago to assist fathers in fraught custody cases and protecting clients’ rights, Jackman is a trusted legal resource and business leader in his field. With twenty litigated trials, over a hundred case arbitrations, and hundreds of legal mediations under his belt, Chris Jackman consistently demonstrates sound leadership principles for both his team and his clients.
Learning From The Best
Chis Jackman was not always the legal expert and business leader he is today, and one of the things that made the biggest difference was his proactive approach to learning from established professionals. These mentorships were what taught Jackman the strategies needed to grow his business and develop his legal career, and by being an open and eager learner he was able to learn from the experiences of those smarter and more experienced than himself, “shortcutting” his way to success. One of the biggest persistent errors in his professional life came from his mistaken belief that his journey was unique or special in some way; rectifying that error opened the door for success.
“One of my favorite sayings is that if you want to make it to the top of the mountain and you’re not sure how to get there, ask those people who are coming back down the path how they got there,” Jackman explains. “In other words, at least in my world, there are no “new problems,” only problems that have been recycled and repackaged in different ways.”
Be it with mentors or other colleagues, these kinds of relationships are the backbone of any serious leader’s success and development. For Chris Jackman, industry events and conferences are valuable opportunities to network in-person and maintain strong relationships with peers that enable knowledge sharing and collaboration. By attending at least two of these events per year—and traveling the country to do so—Jackman is able to keep up to date on various trends and best practices.
“These events are all over the country and range from marketing and management to the substantive areas of law, such as family law and business law, the areas I’m most responsible for,” he says. “More than attending these conferences to learn from the speakers, which is very valuable, I find it also just as valuable to network with other attorneys in my field, who are practicing in different parts of the country, to learn from them, hear what challenges they’re having and what success they’re having, because I have found tremendous growth opportunities from them.”
Delegation and Guidance
Functionally, a good leader is able to both delegate responsibilities to those more capable of fulfilling them, while also being hands-on enough to uplift their team and create a positive working environment. Both functions start with trust and understanding between the leader and their team. Chris Jackman is candid about how much these processes have allowed him to grow his business; by trusting his team to take on certain duties like research and litigation preparation, he’s more free to focus on the duties he cares about most: training and client support.
One of the positive consequences of that trust is that Jackman’s team is motivated about their work and driven to achieve the firm’s ambitious goals. They also know that their leader understands their needs and challenges, which makes them more likely to communicate clearly in times of stress and deliver necessary information. By regularly showing his team that he cares, Jackman is able to encourage them to buy in to big goals and achieve greater results. By extending this same empathy to his clients, Chris Jackman is able to solve clients’ problems quickly and effectively.
“Whenever I see a colleague who is challenged by a particular case,” he explains, “I always try to coach my attorneys and paralegals on putting themselves in the client’s shoes and trying to understand how difficult of a spot they must be in, how hard it is to navigate through a family law or business dispute on their own and to find ways to make the client feel heard.”
Leadership and Making Effective Decisions Quickly
As a legal expert and business leader, Chris Jackman is expected to make effective decisions quickly, something made possible only by a combination of rigorous study and years of experience. Being able to make the right call at the right time, even when under pressure, is a core responsibility of any leader, and that means learning to avoid analysis paralysis. That said, Jackman doesn’t believe in making decisions quickly for its own sake—that would be rash and unwise. There’s a balance to strike.
“I think consulting with others and getting their advice and insight is worthwhile and something that should be done,” explains Jackman. “And while I don’t think you should make a rash decision, I think at some point, after listening to your gut and weighing the advice of others you trust, you have to make a decision and live with the consequences, good or bad.”
This rational approach to leadership extends to Jackman’s overall leadership philosophy, which is governed by one core belief: good leaders lead by example and live with integrity. To Chris Jackman, leaders are those that can inspire others to grow and achieve their goals, and a leader that says one thing but does another cannot do that. In his words, “you have to always have the spirit to live your life in such a way as to inspire others to want to emulate you.” This idea of leadership also comes with a healthy dose of humility—being unable to acknowledge or accept faults and mistakes represents an inability to learn and improve. That humility and openness to growth is crucial.
“Not every decision you make as a leader is the correct one,” he says. “Not every decision you make will be successful. Learning from your failure, improving upon your mistakes, and owning up to them are the reasons that good leaders lead and they lead by example because no one, after all, is perfect and no one has a complete unblemished track record.”