Like the Twilight series and My Story So Far by Wayne Rooney, 21st Century Solicitor: how to make a real impact as a junior commercial lawyer isn't the sort of book one tends to flaunt on public transport.
The author, Steve Weiner, a City lawyer-turned stand up comedian and business coach, is generally good at explaining what it takes to get ahead in law, with helpful advice on dealing with clients ("[they]don't like the law – it stops them from having fun and restricts their ability to conduct their business"), nerves (capable of providing "added gusto and edge" as well as ruining presentations if the speaker is unprepared) and avoiding burn out (not being afraid of the odd failure while developing a "solid and rarely ruffled" style).
Inadvertently, he also provides some interesting observations about big law firms' prejudices during his instructions on etiquette. "Men:" commands Weiner at one point, "keep obvious labels for nightclubs and go easy on hair gel or wax. There is a fine line between young, fashion conscious lawyer on his way to a client meeting, and an irritating estate agent from Essex on his way to 'Innuendo' nightclub in Chigwell after work."
"Women:" Weiner continues, "when putting on make-up, consider whether you want people to notice it. Do you want to be identified by others as 'the Umpa-lumpa sitting in the corner wearing too much slap'". In other words, style yourself as upper middle – rather than lower middle – class in order to fit into City law firm culture.
Where the book disappoints is in its failure to explain what makes a 21st century solicitor so different from a 20th century one, other than via Weiner's hardly original assertion that today's lawyers need to not only be good at law but capable managers and networkers.
There's a good story to be told here, about Thatcher's Britain, the 1986 Big Bang of financial deregulation, and the ensuing blurring of the boundaries between commercial law and business. But Weiner neglects to tell it. Instead, he fills space with some superficially 21st century-themed, and often rather cynical, pieces of advice about playing the office politics game – which aren't always convincing.
Indeed, his suggestions that up-and-coming solicitors deliberately sit with some people they don't know in the firm canteen "once or twice a week", always "carry an important looking document to maintain a facade of urgency" and conspicuously adopt body language that affirms their "high status" seem like a recipe to make people hate them.
With Weiner having apparently run out of things to say about what he collectively terms "personal brand development", the book changes course, meandering into a long section on presentation skills – Weiner's speciality as a part-time comedian. Amid the business jargon, there's some useful advice about structuring a talk and accommodating an audience, but the markedly different tone and subject matter gives the chapter a tacked on feel.
Shortly afterwards, having made time for a quick GCSE textbook-style section on grammar usage (featuring headings including, "Don't be ambushed by the slippery ITS/IT'S twins"), the book draws to a close. By this point, Weiner's pledge way back on page one not to "be like the other books" and "repeat what marketing departments in law firms say" has long since been broken.
Alex Aldridge is the editor of LegalCheek.com
