Early on she became involved with the Manhattan chapter of the National Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and several charitable organizations. Although she firmly believes that volunteering is its own reward and we all have an obligation to do it, she has met people who turned into clients through these charitable activities. For a number of years, she was co-chair of the Paul Robeson scholarship fund dinner at Columbia Law School. One of the people in the audience who heard Durant talk one night contacted her a year later. She was producing a show at American Place Theater and asked Durant to represent her.
Professional organizations are gold mines of connections.
We introduce each other around, she says. You know when you meet someone smart, you stay in touch. When you are on a deal, you connect with your peers, not the senior person. Some day your peer will be the one who calls to give you a piece of business. Write something about some new area of the law or trend that you see emerging, whether it s in the dot-com world or where financial markets are about to collapse, as they did in Asia over the last few years.