The Lawyer Personality

According to Larry Bodine writing for his "Law Marketing Newsletter," Dr. Larry Richard of Hildebrandt International has come to a few conclusions after using the Caliper Profile to measure 18 different personality traits of lawyers over the last 40 years:

• Skepticism: 90% of lawyers have this trait, compared with only 50% of the general public.
• Autonomy: 89% of lawyers have it, compared with only 50% of the general public.
• Sociability: 7% of lawyers have it compared with 50% of the public. “I think a block of wood has 8% sociability,” Richard joked.
• Abstract Reasoning: 82% of lawyers have this trait compared with 50% of the general public.
• Urgency: 71% of lawyers have this trait, compared with 50% of the general public.
• Resilience: Only 30% of lawyers have this trait compared with 50% of the general public.
• Using the Meyers-Briggs definitions, the main type for lawyers is INTJ, which is five times more common in lawyers than general population.

Although only 20% of lawyers are natural born marketers, 55% of lawyers can learn to be rainmakers. “They will make efforts to do marketing; so your goal should be to reduce their discomforts,” says Richard. "The remaining 25% are hopeless at marketing and should be ignored. The trick is to figure out who they are and not to waste time on them.”

For the latter group, try the Lawyer Coloring Book instead: