Customer Reviews

The Opportunity Maker, Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development

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Gone are the days when top 25% grades at a tier-one law school, law review, and a prestigious extracurricular leadership position guaranteed you a great summer clerking gig or a desirable first-year associate job offer. These days, looking good on paper is just not enough. The aspiring first-year associate must have an excellent social capital strategy as well. If you don't know what social capital is, stop reading my review after finishing this paragraph. Buy Ari Kaplan's book immediately. Read it as soon as you get it. You are already behind the curve.

If you do know what social capital is, then you know you will probably need more of it to maximize your opportunities during these tough economic times. That doesn't mean, however, that you know how to cultivate more social capital. That's where Ari's book can help you. In 17 concise, readable chapters, Ari's book describes dozens of strategies and tactics that will make you a more effective networker, self-promoter, and job seeker. The book doesn't encourage you to do things that would make you feel uncomfortable. It doesn't recommend that you transform your personality. Instead, it helps you figure out what your strengths and passions are, how to effectively show others what your strengths and passions are, and how to passionately help others using your strengths.

Using most of Ari's techniques, I was able to secure multiple summer associate job offers last winter and multiple first-year associate job offers before the end of August. Ari's book helped me understand and communicate my value proposition. It helped me develop a winning social capital strategy. Some of the law firms I courted didn't buy what I was selling. Some did. Before my 3L fall semester began, I had accepted an amazing job offer from the firm I believe is the best fit for me. Without using the techniques Ari describes, I doubt I would have secured a single job offer. I won't graduate with Order of the Coif honors, and I have never set foot in my law school's law review office.

I wanted to drop you a line and thank you for writing "The Opportunity Maker." I purchased it during my 3L year. It inspired me to create my blog, Associate's Mind.

I was nervous about the whole process, but I pushed forwards with it. It's now one of the 40 most popular legal blogs as tracked by Avvo, and has been linked to by the WSJ, Forbes, The Browser, among others. Plus, I am now a featured contributor at Lexis Nexis' Hub for new attorneys. It was a lot of work, but it's been more than worth it.

While you might not be aware of it, your book was the push that got the ball rolling.I appreciate it very much.

The book offers some real concrete advice in regards to developing contacts and networking. But more importantly for me was that it helped break down some psychological barriers. Often times I think it's often the mental barriers people develop for themselves ("I can't" mindset)prevents people from beginning on new ventures or reaching out to new people. If you're a law student or new lawyer looking for guidance and advice on how to begin reaching out and networking with other people, there's probably no better place to start.

I am not a lawyer but I do work in legal services. After I read this book, I decided to actually TRY some of the things that Ari suggested - and they worked! For example, I reached out to a few folks in a mentoring capacity, I've signed up to host an alumni event in my area, I chaired an industry conference, and I now prepare handwritten thank you notes as a matter of course. Thank you Ari for the great, practical and easy to implement advice, I'm going to purchase a few copies to give as gifts this year!

An outstanding resource for early-career lawyers and law students. Kaplan combines his own insight with invaluable marketing tips from rainmakers across the country, and presents it in an easily-digestible, entertaining fashion. The night after I read this book I found myself up in the middle of the night reevaluating my non-billable activities. I made 3 immediate changes, resulting in new, genuine connections within days. In my opinion, this should be required reading for first-year lawyers, and even first-year law students.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of The Opportunity Maker, which was written by noted networking and business development expert Ari Kaplan. This year I've had the good fortune to get to know Ari personally. So I picked up the book out of curiosity - though I have to admit I'm usually not a fan of "how to" advice when it comes to networking, because often the insights are at a very obvious, high level (think Dr. Phil).

In fact, I'd almost go as far as to say that most of the networking advice out there ranks right up there with most time management advice - easy to say, much harder to do, as if delivered by Captain Obvious himself!

Well the beauty of Ari's book and approach is that it's very practical and down-to-earth. It's full of real-life stories, which makes it a fun, fast-paced read, with success stories that can be easily absorbed. To be honest, I don't know how Ari possibly pulled together all of the people that are quoted and mentioned in the book - over 100 in total!

His main point is that, in law school, you learn about the law, but you don't really learn about the business of law. And more specifically, you don't learn how to build a successful career. This is a task you must take upon yourself - to build your own personal brand, rise above the noise, and take responsibility for advancing your own career.

Make no mistake about it - Ari is a one-man public relations machine. Go ahead and Google his name, and you'll see what I mean. If there's anyone in the legal industry who knows how to build a personal brand, land press coverage, and establish thought leadership, it's Kaplan. And that's the cool thing about spending 210 pages with him - he shares inside tips on such topics as finding a mentor, connecting with people in creative ways, and getting published - amongst others.

This is NOT a book to read once, and put on the shelf. Instead, I'd suggest reading through it a first time - as it's a pretty quick read - and then going back to it and working on implementing the tips that Ari shares, one chapter at a time. It's been shown that the best way to learn a new skill is by doing it, in parallel with reading about it, and that's exactly how I'd recommend you use this resource.

Though I am not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV), I did find this book to be extremely useful. As the leader of a self-funded legal software company, Chrometa, I'm always on the lookout for ways that we can "rise above the noise" as a company. We do not have the extensive sales and marketing resources that the bigger vendors do, so we must be more creative. And there are no shortage of creative promotion tips and ideas in this book.

It's the same for most individuals - since you probably don't have extensive marketing and public relations team tasked with advancing your career, you need to get creative. So I'd highly recommend you consider making an investment in The Opportunity Maker, as I have little doubt it will pay for itself many times over.

After attending Ari's lecture at Appalachian School of Law, I felt inspired to become an opportunity maker, so I purchased his book outlining the secrets of rainmaking. It is an easy read for the busy person. Each chapter is divided into sections that are about a page in length. You can read the book from cover to cover, or you can flip to the principle that jumps out at you. Rather than asking yourself if you have time to read it, ask yourself if you have the time not to.

I read The Opportunity Maker this weekend -- and I loved it. I learned several new tricks of the trade. There's a wait list of associates in our firm, who can't wait to get their hands on your book.

This book is well-written, engaging, and it is truly for everyone. I enjoyed it, and so did my girlfriend, who's not even a lawyer or in law school! It gave her the tips and strategies she can apply to her own industry and career.

This book is a must read for every law student as well as young attorneys looking to make a name for themselves and grow their network. It is also invaluable for veteran attorneys looking to increase their exposure and expertise within a particular niche or simply to increase their rainmaking abilities. Ari's book is filled with step by step processes and systems that will make you stand out from the crowd. Buy it, read it and implement its strategies today before your competition does.
Dave Muti, JD, RMA
Author of Mortgages: What You Need to Know

Ari Kaplan gives you great, down to earth, step-by-step advice for creating a memorable "brand" as a new lawyer. But I wouldn't wait; I'd get a head start and read it in law school. It's information that would benefit every law student.