Melinda Malecki and Aileen Brooks Featured in Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine recently published an article in which Melinda Malecki and Aileen Brooks of Malecki Brooks Law Group were interviewed by Eric Pines. We thought our clients might find it interesting and are sharing portions of the article below. For further information regarding Malecki Brooks Law Group, please contact Melinda Malecki at [email protected] or Aileen Brooks [email protected] at Malecki Brooks Law Group, LLC.
The legal field is known to be extremely competitive. Lawyers are often smart, ambitious, and highly educated. That being said, what does it take to stand out and become a “Top Lawyer” in your specific field of law? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Become A Top Lawyer In Your Specific Field of Law”, we are talking to top lawyers who share what it takes to excel and stand out in your industry.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. What is the “backstory” that brought you to this particular career path in Law? Did you want to be an attorney “when you grew up”?
Malecki: “I worked in the healthcare field, liked it, and wanted very specifically to be a hospital attorney.”
Brooks: “I started my career as a registered nurse. I knew I did not want to practice as a nurse for a long period of time and was always interested in the law. Practicing health law is a great fit for me.”
Can you tell us a bit about the nature of your practice and what you focus on?
Malecki Brooks Law Group, LLC concentrates its practice in Healthcare Law, representing physicians, hospitals, and healthcare providers.
Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? What unique qualities do you have that others may not? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Malecki:
- Persistence — Law firms, especially boutique firms like ours, need to continually market to stay relevant, viable, and profitable.
- Creativity — We need to constantly be mindful of how to keep our clients’ attention. For example, we send out short informational materials to our clients about once per week to keep them informed of recent developments that may affect them.
- Skill — Positive outcomes are most important. Our best advertising is client referrals and clients who come back to us when they have legal needs.
Do you think you have had luck in your success? Can you explain what you mean?
Brooks: Yes, but success, in our view, is not based upon luck. Success in business is based on good, professional relationships with our clients. Over the years, we have been able to establish solid business relationships with not only clients but professionals who work in fields which are adjunct to the legal field and with whom we collaborate. If there is a matter that we cannot handle or a non-legal matter, we try to make sure we have a wide range of other professionals to refer our clients to.
Based on the lessons you have learned from your experience, if you could go back in time and speak to your twenty-year-old self, what would you say? Would you do anything differently?
Malecki would say: “Do what you want to do. Do not let anyone tell you that you can’t or that you do not have the intellectual capacity. Never underestimate your intellectual capacity — regardless of competing priorities in life.”
Brooks would say: “Do not be intimidated by others who you think are smarter than you. What matters is that you work hard, learn, grow and develop professional relationships.”
This is not easy work. What is your primary motivation and drive behind the work that you do?
Malecki: Positive outcomes for the client.
Brooks: Helping clients achieve their goals and easing their minds.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Malecki: I enjoy contract negotiations for physicians. I do a lot of them and like to share my experiences with my clients to help them have positive outcomes. Lucrative yet legally sound employment agreements.
Where do you go from here? Where do you aim to be in the next chapter of your career?
Malecki: I would like to do more education about contract negotiations for physicians.
Brooks: Continuing to help our clients with their legal needs.
Without sharing anything confidential, can you please share your most successful “war story”? Can you share the funniest?
Malecki: None of them are funny in my recollection. But we have had many “war” stories. One case involved a physician who just thought his restrictive covenant should not apply to him. No legal reason. We represented the employer and we won. It was a trial. Should never have gotten that far but the physician had bad legal advice in my view.
Brooks: Not funny but rewarding. Helping clients obtain a successful outcome in a licensing issue. Trying to be delicate when a client realizes that they should have had the unfavorable agreement they entered into years ago reviewed by an attorney before signing it.
How has the legal world changed since COVID? How do you think it might change in the near future? Can you explain what you mean?
Brooks: COVID has a large impact on our business because of physician employment contracts. Employers experienced a drop in patient volume and scrambled around to try to contain costs including decreasing physician salaries. This was a problem. Now, because of COVID, we see an increase in “Force Majeure” clauses in contracts which try to allow employers to be free of their contractual obligations due to a pandemic or epidemic. We, of course, do not want that to happen.
We also saw an increase in the number of providers delivering services via telemedicine. In particular, behavioral health providers who established their own practice and work predominantly via telemedicine.
Based on your experience, how can attorneys effectively leverage social media to build their practice?
Malecki: We engage a social media consultant. It is very important to have a social media presence for marketing. We are present on Facebook and Linked In plus we try to maximize use of the Internet.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Become A Top Lawyer In Your Specific Field of Law?”
Both:
- Intelligence. The law is always changing and you need to stay current.
- Persistence. The ability to stick with it even when it seems hopeless.
- Critical thinking skills. Analyzing key legal issues and various possible scenarios.
- Some medical knowledge. This always helps when working with healthcare providers/institutions.
- Common sense. An absolute must.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Malecki: Carly Simon hands down. I know every one of her songs by heart. I am her biggest fan.
Brooks: The Rolling Stones. They just keep on keeping on. I hope I have as much energy as they do when I have been practicing law as long as they have been performing.
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach.