The Attorney’s Guide to Staying Focused, Ignoring Criticism, and Landing the Right Job

 

Introduction to Career Direction and Happiness

This webinar today, I think it's one of the more important topics and it can, if you understand and absorb everything I'm saying today, it really can change the direction of your life and career. It's about a lot of things that I'm talking about today.

• It's about whether or not you should even continue to practice law.

• How you should practice law.

• What you should do in order to be happy in your career, in your life.

A lot of information that we're going to cover today is stuff that most attorneys, a large proportion of them, never learn. I've worked with partners often, and partners that I work with are often the most guilty of what I'm going to talk about right now, which is trying to please others, allowing other people to dictate what they do and what happens to them instead of relying on what they would like to do themselves.

I'm going to talk about that. Also, a lot of other things that I've noticed that people are really very concerned about, make mistakes about, by listening to what other people are saying, by not listening to what you want to do in your heart, and then living, in many cases, under a form of slavery where you're doing what you think other people expect of you instead of what you want to do for yourself. As I was preparing for this, I thought of so many examples. Just in relationships where I was doing what other people expected in my job, in many cases. Instead of doing things that I wanted to do, that made me happy. That's what I'm going to talk about today. I'm also going to do the presentation, and then after a short amount of time, I'll take a minute or two off, come back and answer questions, whether it's about this or anything related to your career that you would like to ask questions about.

   

Overcoming Negative Judgments and Seeking Success

One thing that I think is interesting, and if you look around your life, there are people that will have negative judgments of you and where you work. You'll often try to avoid that. If you're in a certain type of religion, there's a certain type of behavior that you may be expected to have. If you don't have that behavior, you'll also run into issues. If you do certain things, you're going to be concerned about how your family feels, the people that you're around. There's so many people that will have negative things to say to you and make you feel badly about yourself if you don't do things a certain way.

What's interesting is the most successful people, I was actually having dinner on Sunday with this woman that had dated one of the main founders of Google for a long time. When you look at the most successful people, even before they became successful, it's one thing to say that you can do whatever you want before, but when you're successful. Because that's true too, if you're a multi-billionaire. At the same time, she was mentioning a lot of these people before they even became very successful, didn't really care about others' opinions.

It's interesting because when you evaluate different types of groups, for example, creative groups in Silicon Valley where these products are started, and these new people become very successful doing things. What often happens in those environments is:

• People aren't afraid to try something and fail.

• They talk about what's possible instead of doing things the way everybody else is.

• This literally would apply to New York and Chicago, most other places except for a place like Silicon Valley; that's not to say that there aren't people like that all over, but there are pockets of places where creativity and doing things differently than others is actually quite valued.

It's just an interesting way to look at things when you think about how people are different just in different types of environments and how some people care about what others think and try to do what they want. Also, when you don't try to think so much about what others think and you do things on your own.

One final point that I'll make, and then we'll skip to the presentation, is being an attorney is a very middle class type of profession. That doesn't mean attorneys don't become extremely wealthy and that sort of thing, but for the most part, an attorney is working for someone else. At different levels of the profession, if you want to work for decent sized clients, you're essentially going to be working for companies that have a lot more money than you. You have to act a certain way and behave a certain way for those companies to hire you. People go to law school because they want to get steady jobs to pay money. Whereas people that have great amounts of wealth, probably most of them do not go to law school. People that are poor and don't have good educations obviously do not go to law school either. Being an attorney, people are very concerned about degrees and professions and doing things the way that others want them to. That's the baggage that a lot of people carry into things.
 

Handling Criticism and Public Scrutiny

Every day when I sit down at work, it's actually not every day. I receive emails from different people about things that they may be upset about. Sometimes people may not like some company for whatever reason. Sometimes people will attack me personally, for whatever reason. Other times, people will read something I wrote and be very offended by it. You may be offended by what I'm saying today. When people are offended sometimes, instead of just evaluating what I'm saying, they will say things to me. This is the kind of thing that people encounter that are out there in the world trying to do things. Some people will say very positive things to me, but other people will just say they're upset.

If someone comes to a company like VCG and they don't get a job right away, they may be upset and think that they should, even though they may have been searching for a job for months before we started working with them and haven't gotten them something yet. People get upset, but other people say very nice things and post nice comments. Other people will even go to my Instagram, see my family and say mean things about them, and other people will say that I didn't help them a lot and change the direction of their life. Everybody gets different types of feedback and the more you're out there trying to do things and people are seeing you, the more positive or negative feedback you're going to get.

My daughter, it's very interesting. Over Christmas break, she was playing this video game Roblox with her friends. She's in college, in her first year. She was playing Roblox with her friends on TikTok. Someone came and gave them some money and they were like, why is someone giving us money?. There was someone that was watching them play. I guess when you watch people do things like that on TikTok, people can give you money. I never knew anything about this. To make a long story short, she started getting on there every day and talking about what she had for lunch and all this stuff. To her amazement, people started giving her money and then she would take videos of herself studying. I watched the stuff and I couldn't believe how benign it was. It was just cute, but there's nothing really to it. Pretty soon she had thousands of people following her and showing up to these things. Sometimes she gets on for a couple hours a night, makes a thousand dollars or more. It's absolutely amazing. I can't believe this stuff happens.

She goes to a school where there's a lot of very smart people and what she's doing is completely out of the norm. She gets onto this TikTok stream and she's got thousands of people to tell her she's great. But she goes to school and all of a sudden all these people are jealous and being mean to her and not talking to her because it's not something that they probably could do, but at the same time, they're saying that this is beneath people. They started trying to do rumors that she was on OnlyFans, which is a site where people don't talk about what they had for dinner. They take off their clothes and stuff. She's not. I've watched her on these things and it's just very cute. People get jealous and they try to push down people that are doing things.

Anytime you do something out of the ordinary, people will often come after you and it won't be pleasant. People do not like that. Sometimes people will post positive comments and go on forums and say positive things. There's positive and negative reactions to everything you're going to do. Anytime you're doing something well, people will come and they will criticize you for various things that you're doing. People take criticism very seriously. The more you do in society, the more you try to do something for yourself or something that you believe in, you will often be exposed to a lot of criticism and a lot of people not saying nice things to you and you just can't control it. It's continually going to happen.
 

The Courage to Proceed Despite Negativity

If you want to do the absolute best that you can in your life and in your career, you're going to have to stop worrying about getting approval from others. You're going to have to start trying to avoid that.

• If you try to be productive, you're going to be criticized.

• If you try to be successful, you're going to be criticized.

• Criticism is just an unavoidable thing that happens when you do something very well.

What I've noticed in my life and in watching people succeed is the biggest achievers are people that aren't afraid to do something and they continue to go forward despite what others are saying. Who would've thought you can make someone that's 18 or 19 years old make a hundred thousand dollars a year talking about what they did for their day?. It's absolutely nuts. That's what the world is if you do things that are different, but at the same time, you get negative criticism. If you are able to move forward, this is the sort of stuff that separates people that are able to win from those that are going to lose.

In my daughter's case, I know that all that criticism she was receiving, most people in the face of that would've stopped. I probably would've if I was in college. Most people, when they see a lot of criticism, they stop doing things. People will withdraw affection. They'll do all sorts of things to stop you when you're stepping outside of what they want for you or what they think you should be doing if you're threatening them. People that have courage are able to continue anyway.

What does avoiding criticism look like?.

• If you're unhappy in your job and you want to move jobs, you could move.

• If you don't want to be a lawyer anymore, you can really think about that and not worry about what other people will say.

I was working with a woman years ago, and she was at a major law firm in New York and had been there two or three years, a top Am Law 100 law firm, one of the most prestigious firms in the country. Her husband moved to upstate New York, Buffalo or Rochester. She came to me to help her find a job, and I was able to find her a position in a good regional size firm, but certainly didn't have the brand. It wasn't an Am Law 100 law firm. She got that job and a couple other jobs. She was in the car with her husband moving to this new city. I called her and I said, what are you going to do?. She said, I just can't have people thinking that I took this step down. So I would rather stop working in a law firm than have people know I went to a firm like this. She was so concerned with what other people would think by her going to a smaller firm because she had to move with her husband that she stopped practicing law. I was astonished. A few years later I looked at LinkedIn and she hadn't been working. Literally fear of criticism, going to a less prestigious firm and then stopping practicing law because of it. It's amazing, but this is the sort of thing that people do when they're concerned about that.
 

Finding Your Purpose and Enjoying Your Work

You need to do the things that are right for you, for your family, and for your creative energy. You should be in a position where getting up every day is exciting for you, where you like what you're doing, where you feel like you're making a contribution, where you're happy. This is a mistake that tons and tons of people make. They go into positions and situations where they're not happy and they remain there because they're worried about disappointing people. Their family, what other people will think of them, what their law school classmates will think of them. Because of that, they're never happy and they're never fulfilled.

I'll be completely frank with you because I think it's important. Anybody that's good at something, they do it and they actually enjoy it, it's fun for them.

• If you're practicing law, you should get up every day and you should be excited to go to work or sit down at your computer and start working.

• You should feel like work is play and not something that's stressful.

• You should feel that you're improving, looking forward to improving, and looking for more responsibility.

• You should also feel an obligation to do a good job for your clients. You like working for clients and representing them. It makes you feel good having people's back and trying to get the best in a transaction or win something in litigation.

If you don't feel that and you're doing it for other reasons, then that's not good because everyone has something that they're good at. I've concluded after 30 years in the legal profession that everyone has something that they're good at. It could be athletics, practicing law, or interpersonal skills. That's where you should be putting your effort. You shouldn't be putting your effort into something that you don't like or that doesn't fulfill you because that's not going to lead anywhere positive for you. Very few people ever succeed when they're doing something they don't enjoy. When people start criticizing you, if you're doing the things you want that are making you happy, that's good. The price of not being noticed and of anonymity is often a lot greater. The cost of that is greater than the price of criticism because people that are criticized get better and it makes them stronger.

There's an interesting documentary about Taylor Swift. She took a year off because everyone was criticizing her and it was just too much for her. She came back as this incredibly strong person. Think about different politicians and the mass amount of criticism they receive and how they are able to overcome that. Business people, Elon Musk, how much people hate him. Yet he's the richest man in the world. Donald Trump, anybody you can think of has been the target of massive criticism. The more they put themselves out there, typically the more they're criticized. Anybody that's elected to some sort of office is always going to be criticized. Half the people will like you, the other half won't. Critics will write articles attacking the politician every single day.

When Donald Trump was elected president the first time, I couldn't pick up a paper where there wasn't article after article about what an awful man he was. If I turned on the radio, it was a live broadcast about how awful he was and how everyone hated him. But then he became elected again. I remember when George Bush was president. I worked in an office tower in Los Angeles and I opened the window and looked out to a massive protest. Persian Square was just filled with people shouting through loudspeakers. They were calling him a business failure, racist, alcoholic, all these different things. I've actually met him. He comes across as a very nice and mellow person, not someone that would merit those kind of statements. Imagine if you heard thousands of people shouting things like that about you. It wouldn't make you happy. Every time you picked up the paper, there was a harsh article about you. Trump, before he was elected president the second time, was tried as a felon and had all these charges brought against him. Regardless of whether you believe he deserved it, imagine if something like that happened to me, I would be very upset. It would make you withdraw. The more successful you get, the more people are going to line up and not like you.
 

The Importance of Having a Mission

What do winners do and what do people that are the most successful do?. They are able to push through criticism, proceed, don't give up, and continue moving forward. They don't allow others to push them down or say negative things. Because they have that perseverance, they usually do better and better. Winners don't worry about whether they're going to be criticized. People that are very successful usually are on a mission.

• I was talking to this guy that is extremely successful and rolling up these companies, getting efficiency of scale. He has a mission.

• Politicians that are very successful are on missions.

• Elon Musk is on a mission.

People that are on missions don't worry about criticism. They believe in what they're doing, and that's what makes people successful. If you don't have a mission in your career, in your life, that's a problem. Anyone that started a great law firm has a mission. A mission makes a major difference to what is in your soul and your heart when you get up and do something. Religious leaders, successful politicians, business people, and the most successful attorneys are on missions.

Most attorneys are not on missions. They're just working for someone else. Even successful partners are just making sure they have enough business to stay employed, but they're not on a mission to be the best IP practitioner in the world or make sure they never lose a case. If you don't have a mission, then you're going to lose to people that have missions. I was looking at a law firm yesterday, and it said firm owner, then partners, and then associates. The firm owner is on a mission. He just doesn't want any other owners. The most successful people in any profession are on missions, and you have to be on a mission.
 

Taking Action and Pushing Through Failure

You have to take action. Taking action means if there's something you believe in that you're afraid to do because you're worried about being criticized, that's a problem. Sometimes it could be quitting the job and not practicing law anymore. Sometimes it could be moving into a larger market. Practicing a certain type of law. Taking action means you make a decision to do something, and then you do it. That's the most important thing in the world.

I remember in high school, I went to this school where there were wealthy kids of auto company executives driving brand new cars. I was driving a Yugo, the cheapest car of all time. I didn't like not having a nice car, not taking expensive vacations, not living in a nice house. Once I got there, I felt pushed down. The summer graduating from college, everyone had internships in auto companies and advertising agencies. I said, I'm not going to just sit around. I studied different businesses, read self-improvement books, and started an asphalt company not even knowing anything about how to do asphalt work. I took major action.

Because I didn't know what I was doing, I made terrible mistakes. I did bad work. If it rains, the street stains, you have to do the work again, buy materials. Tons of criticism, calls for refunds, people angry with me. People at my school were making fun of me for starting a blue collar business. I took that huge risk doing something other people thought was crazy. I kept getting criticized, doing horrible work, bouncing checks because there wasn't enough money. But I kept pushing forward and doing my best.

At one point in the summer, I stopped working for a while because I couldn't handle the criticism. I actually became a garbage man. But I decided I have to go back and fix these jobs. In the course of that, I met someone that needed their parking lot done, helped them, and they hired me. Good things happened, but I kept going. Because I didn't allow other people to criticize me and I didn't give up, at the end of the summer, I made a lot of money. I put myself through college and law school doing it, paying all my living expenses and tuition. I learned how to start businesses.

It's the same thing with what I do now. I was practicing law at a major law firm with very good income, a mortgage, and not a lot of savings. I quit and started doing this on my own. Incredible amounts of criticism from my wife at the time and people in my law firm who thought I was crazy. When you go through and do what you believe in, and everything I did was in my heart, I was on a mission. Same thing about what I'm doing now. I didn't like being in an office every day. I didn't like the ambiguity of becoming a partner. When I found out about this, it became a mission. You need to do what you believe, be on a mission, and you're going to experience pushback. If a company tries to please everyone, it's going to fail. Trying to please everyone puts you in a position where you're a slave to others' opinions.
 

Perseverance and Reaching Your Full Potential

Anytime you try to succeed at anything, typically you will experience a lot of failures before something actually hits. You will try to do something, have limited success, fail, fail again, but people that succeed just keep pushing through and don't give up.

• I started recruiting in late 1999 or early 2000.

• I went four or five months before I placed anyone.

• I was almost out of money, wasn't going to have enough to pay my mortgage.

• My wife thought I was crazy.

• Everything looked like it was over, I thought I was not succeeding.

Then one Monday I got up, the phone was ringing, a law firm made an offer to my candidate. Over the next four or five days, I got four or five more people jobs. Within one week, I made more money than I made in an entire year practicing law. It came just at the very precipice of having failed.

The same thing happened with my asphalt business. I had failed, lost money, and spent the summer trying to accumulate enough money working as a garbage man. I went back and learned all this stuff failing at asphalt. I learned the right way to prep a surface, take care of cracks, and mix the tar. I went back to fix a job where I hadn't done a good job. I was in a hardware store and a guy was trying to make decisions about seal coating for a parking lot. I talked to him, gave him free advice for 45 minutes. He asked me to tell him how much he should be spending to hire a company. I went there, measured the giant condominium complex, and calculated the surface area. He called me and said, you're the only person that seems to really know what they're doing, I'd love you to do the job. It cost me maybe $1,500 in materials, I did the work, quit my garbage man job, and made $10,000 to $11,000. It took me two days. The guy whose driveway I fixed called me and said, I'm so impressed, please call me when you get out of college, I'd love to offer you a job.

These things can happen if you believe in what you're doing and push through negative feedback. So many careers are derailed because people worry about what other people are going to think, and when negative things happen, they don't push through. Attorneys especially worry about how things will look to others and their law school classmates. Because of this, they stop making bold decisions and opportunities disappear. People limit what they could attempt and never reach their full potential.
 

The Cost of Fearing Judgment

I was working with a very successful partner that had been at a major American law firm for most of his career. When I became a recruiter, he contacted me. His career had been extremely successful. He went to an Ivy League college, Ivy League law school, had significant clients, and had a very good reputation. He was losing his job. When you need a job, it can be very scary because you don't know what you're going to do. Friends often won't help you.

He ended up only allowing me to approach a couple of law firms on his behalf. Those law firms were not anywhere near the prestige level he probably could have gotten. Out of all the law firms he could have worked in Los Angeles, maybe a hundred really good ones, he chose to allow me to apply to only two of the smaller ones that he didn't know very well because he was afraid of what other people would think of him if they knew he needed a job. Because of that, he ended up making much less money, working in a smaller firm, and couldn't work on the same caliber of clients. I've seen that happen to so many people. The higher you are in the profession, the market becomes contracting if you want to stay at a high level.

I have seen attorneys in major law firms become partners, but they are unhappy and want something less stressful. Then they say, I don't know what people would think if I went to smaller firms. I can think of a couple very sad examples of people that stayed unhappy, couldn't leave, and then died in their early forties of heart attacks. Nothing about this profession or job is worth dying for. You don't want to die because you're doing what you think other people expect of you.
 

Strategies for an Effective Job Search

If you're looking for a job, it's one of the most important events you will experience in your career. If you choose the wrong job or firm, things can go very poorly. To find the best jobs, the most important thing you can do is you have to not care what other people say and not worry about being judged. You need to be doing whatever's in your power to find the right job for you. If you land in the right place, you can be happy, successful, get the work you want, and feel good about yourself.

When you're applying for a job, what do you do?. You don't just apply to jobs. You reach out to every single firm you possibly can think of that does what you do in your practice area.

• I had Trust and Estates attorneys, and I said let's target all the small firms with Trust and Estates practices.

• We reached out to maybe 150 or 200 Trust and Estates firms in the markets they were interested in.

• Four or five of them got offers from firms run by older attorneys who were retiring in less than two years and needed someone to step in and take over a multimillion dollar book of business.

• They allowed me to approach all the firms, even if they didn't have openings, and they didn't care about getting rejected.

You need to put yourself in a position where you're getting noticed. Visibility means there's going to be rejection. If you apply to a thousand places instead of a hundred, a lot of people won't care, but a lot of people will, and you're going to get much better results. If you believe in what you're doing, you shouldn't care what people think. Criticism is usually jealousy or fear of whatever you're doing. You just can't run your life around worrying about being criticized. You have to do what makes you happy, not what makes others happy. Ultimately the only person you're responsible for and should care about is yourself.

 

Conclusion

The people who succeed in job searches and in life are rarely the ones who avoid criticism. They are the ones who continue forward despite it. They understand that if you are doing something meaningful, visible, and ambitious, not everyone will approve. That is normal. That is part of growth.

A job search is one of the most important moments in a professional life because it forces you to confront yourself. It reveals whether you are willing to do what is necessary or whether you are more committed to protecting your image than improving your future.

If you allow fear of criticism to dictate your actions, your search will shrink, your options will narrow, and your career will suffer. If you stop worrying so much about what other people may say and focus instead on doing what is necessary, your results can change dramatically.

The difference between winning and losing is often very simple. Winners act. Losers wait. Winners move through discomfort. Losers organize their lives around avoiding it. If you want to win your job search, you must be willing to be seen, willing to be judged, and willing to keep going anyway.

The attorneys who get the best jobs are not always the smartest or the most credentialed. They are often the ones who refuse to let fear stop them.
 

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Questions and Answers

Navigating Passive-Aggressive Co-workers

Question: I'm a new hire. How do I navigate working with a lawyer of the same rank as me who is passive aggressive? She does this in her emails with staff. The partners are aware, and one told me not to treat staff the way she does.

You're going to run into coworkers that are mean, difficult superiors, clients, and judges. That's just part of a job. You have to be able to control your psychology and how you interpret it. If you're a partner, other partners know your compensation and potentially try to tear you down. If you're an associate, it's the same thing. You have to learn social skills not to allow things to affect you and push through.
 

Job Security When Covering Maternity Leave

Question: I'm a new hire and I recently learned that I was hired because an attorney is going on maternity leave. I'm worried that I'll be let go when the attorney comes back. Other attorneys make comments that they're unhappy that I joined because I'm taking work that they intend to return. How do I protect myself?

Try to get work from as many other partners or people as you can. Do a good job, work harder, be more enthusiastic, follow direction well, and have good interpersonal relationships. If you're providing a lot more value than the person you're replacing, the law firm is going to really want to keep you. Law firms are businesses; if they have enough work, they're never going to let you go. You want to create work by finding extra work that can be done for clients. You don't want to worry about other people.
 

Career Paths at Boutique Law Firms

Question: What are the most common career paths for attorneys working at a boutique law firm?

You're much more likely to be able to get clients because boutique law firms are less expensive and represent smaller clients. Most attorneys that work at boutique law firms end up staying in law firms for the rest of their career. It's easier to become a partner, bring in clients, and advance even if you don't have clients. It's often less stressful and there's fewer hours.
 

Securing Legal Internships and Entry-Level Jobs

Question: What should law students do if they're not getting interviews for legal internships or entry level legal jobs?

Just apply to enough places. There are over a hundred thousand law firms and over a million and a half practicing attorneys. You can apply to solo practitioners and law firms everywhere. Reach out to people that don't necessarily have jobs advertised. Create your own job and tell people you'll work for free if you need to. It's extremely important to get experience working in a law firm during your second summer because it shows you want to work in a law firm and have learned what it's like.
 

Suspecting Your Law Firm is Pushing You Out

Question: What do I do if I suspect my law firm is pushing me out?

You can try to stick around, work your hardest and overcome that. If they're trying to push you out, there are probably reasons for that. You have to aggressively find a new job. Apply to any place that has an opening and make your job search a significant priority. Use Law Crossing because it looks at firms that have positions on their websites that aren't advertised on other sites. Do the best work you possibly can while you're there and look the hardest.
 

Pivoting When Your Practice Area is Impacted

Question: Any advice on people having to pivot because of forces beyond their control (e.g., practice area impacted politically)?

Do a more exhaustive job search all over the country. Try to refocus your resume on something that could make you employable somewhere else. Make your resume seem focused on a practice area that is marketable and downplay stuff that may not be as marketable.
 

Sending Your Resume in a Small Market

Question: What are the steps to take your resume to hundreds of firms in a small market such as Tennessee?

You must have a practice area match. You have to give reasons why you are applying and why you want to move to Memphis. You can't just apply to firms without some connection or reason to be there (e.g., spouse moving, family, friends). Research the firms and find the people to apply to, either HR, the hiring partner, or someone that does your type of work.
 

Maximizing Job Offers with Recruiters

Question: How can a young attorney maximize job offers when working with recruiters applying to law firms?

Young attorneys should usually have about two years of experience before using a recruiter is in their best interest. Recruiters can help when they have access to jobs and relationships with existing firms, and can sell you to HR. You need a relationship with a recruiter that can help you get in the door.
 

Finding a Mentor in Your Law Firm

Question: How can I find a mentor in my law firm to help advance my legal career?

You can't just ask someone to be your mentor. Typically you do work for somebody, they like you, and help guide you. Find someone who is the equivalent of a sponsor who will stick up for you and help you become a partner. The best sponsors are people with large books of business because they have influence over the firm. Ask honest, positive questions about how to improve and what they think.
 

Switching Between Litigation and Transactional Law

Question: How difficult is it for an attorney to switch from litigation to transactional law or vice versa?

It's actually pretty difficult. If you have two years of experience as a litigator and start transactional law, you're essentially starting over because it's completely different. Litigators like reading, writing, and arguing; transactional attorneys like math, science, and details. It's difficult to switch at a firm that's at the same prestige level. The easiest way is within your own firm, but they're not always happy to do that if they hired you for a specific practice area. Usually, you have to move to a firm that's not as prestigious.
 

Handling Public Criticism

Question: How do you accept criticism when it's in your face coming from all directions and platforms?

It depends on the criticism. If you're doing something that doesn't benefit anyone and everyone's mad, maybe pay attention to it. If you're doing something you believe in that benefits society and you're getting criticized, don't worry about it. If the criticism is valid, then adjust what you're doing.
 

Avoiding Discouragement from Rejections

Question: How can I avoid getting discouraged when I receive multiple rejections for legal internships or entry level positions?

You shouldn't get discouraged. That just means someone else applied, they don't have an opening, or someone was better. Just keep applying to places. Businesses advertise on television and not everyone uses the business, but they aren't discouraged. The more places you reach out to, the more you're likely to succeed.
 

Staying Focused Amidst Repeated Rejections

Question: How can I stay focused on my job search as an attorney when repeated rejections start making me doubt my qualifications?

It shouldn't make you doubt your qualifications. Law firms are businesses and they will hire the best person they can. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with your qualifications; they might not have work or a job. You just need to apply to more places. Look at your resume and cover letter to make sure you're putting your best foot forward. Applying to large law firms in major markets will usually result in more rejection than applying to smaller law firms.

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About Harrison Barnes

The Architect of the Hidden Legal Job Market

For most lawyers, an attorney job search begins with public job postings, law firm websites, and job boards. Harrison Barnes knows that the best opportunities are often found elsewhere—in the hidden legal job market, where confidential firm needs, quiet practice expansions, and customized roles are never publicly advertised.

As the Founder and CEO of BCG Attorney Search, Harrison has spent more than 25 years helping attorneys access opportunities before they reach the public market. He understands that law firms often hire strategically and confidentially, especially when seeking highly marketable lateral talent, replacing underperformers, or expanding key practice areas.

Harrison’s insight into law firm recruiting comes from firsthand legal experience. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, a former federal law clerk, and a former associate at Quinn Emanuel. Early in his career, he saw that traditional legal recruiting was often reactive and overly dependent on posted openings.

To change that, Harrison built BCG Attorney Search into one of the most comprehensive legal recruiting platforms in the country. Over the past two and a half decades, he has invested heavily in proprietary law firm intelligence, attorney market data, and a nationwide recruiting team. This infrastructure helps identify legal career opportunities before they become visible to most candidates.

Harrison and his team do more than match resumes to job descriptions. They help attorneys understand their legal career options, improve their marketability, and position themselves as solutions to a law firm’s specific needs. Whether advising a junior associate, a senior associate, counsel, or a partner, Harrison focuses on aligning each attorney’s strengths with the right firm, platform, and long-term career path.

Through this approach, Harrison has helped place attorneys in thousands of law firms nationwide, from Am Law 100 firms to specialized boutiques and growing regional practices. His work has helped attorneys make career moves that many believed were impossible.

Today, Harrison Barnes is recognized as one of the legal industry’s leading recruiters and career strategists. His legal career advice, articles, webinars, podcasts, and resources such as The Legal Career Insider Substack are followed by attorneys across the country.

Harrison believes the best legal careers are built by finding doors others cannot see. Through BCG Attorney Search, he gives attorneys access to the hidden market—and helps them move toward the career they truly want.

This breadth of placements is unheard of in the legal recruiting industry and is a testament to his extraordinary ability to connect attorneys with the right firms, regardless of market size or practice area.

Proven Success at All Levels

With over 25 years of experience, Harrison has successfully placed attorneys at over 1,000 law firms, including:

• Top Am Law 100 firms such including Sullivan and Cromwell, and almost every AmLaw 100 and AmLaw 200 law firm.
• Elite boutique firms with specialized practices
• Mid-sized firms looking to expand their practice areas
• Growing firms in small and rural markets

He has also placed hundreds of law firm partners and has worked on firm and practice area mergers, helping law firms strategically grow their teams.

Unmatched Commitment to Attorney Success - The Story of BCG Attorney Search

Harrison Barnes is not just the most effective legal recruiter in the country, he is also the founder of BCG Attorney Search, a recruiting powerhouse that has helped thousands of attorneys transform their careers. His vision for BCG goes beyond just job placement; it is built on a mission to provide attorneys with opportunities they would never have access to otherwise. Unlike traditional recruiting firms, BCG Attorney Search operates as a career partner, not just a placement service. The firm's unparalleled resources, including a team of over 150 employees, enable it to offer customized job searches, direct outreach to firms, and market intelligence that no other legal recruiting service provides. Attorneys working with Harrison and BCG gain access to hidden opportunities, real-time insights on firm hiring trends, and guidance from a team that truly understands the legal market. You can read more about how BCG Attorney Search revolutionizes legal recruiting here: The Story of BCG Attorney Search and What We Do for You.

The Most Trusted Career Advisor for Attorneys

Harrison's legal career insights are the most widely followed in the profession.

• His articles on BCG Search alone are read by over 150,000 attorneys per month, making his guidance the most sought-after in the legal field. Read his latest insights here.
• He has conducted hundreds of hours of career development webinars, available here: Harrison Barnes Webinar Replays.
• His placement success is unmatched-see examples here: Harrison Barnes' Attorney Placements.
• He has created numerous comprehensive career development courses, including BigLaw Breakthrough, designed to help attorneys land positions at elite law firms.

Submit Your Resume to Work with Harrison Barnes

If you are serious about advancing your legal career and want access to the most sought-after law firm opportunities, Harrison Barnes is the most powerful recruiter to have on your side.

Submit your resume today to start working with him: Submit Resume Here

With an unmatched track record of success, a vast team of over 150 dedicated employees, and a reach into every market and practice area, Harrison Barnes is the recruiter who makes career transformations happen and has the talent and resources behind him to make this happen.

A Relentless Commitment to Attorney Success

Unlike most recruiters who work with only a narrow subset of attorneys, Harrison Barnes works with lawyers at all stages of their careers, from junior associates to senior partners, in every practice area imaginable. His placements are not limited to only those with "elite" credentials-he has helped thousands of attorneys, including those who thought it was impossible to move firms, find their next great opportunity.

Harrison's work is backed by a team of over 150 professionals who work around the clock to uncover hidden job opportunities at law firms across the country. His team:

• Finds and creates job openings that aren't publicly listed, giving attorneys access to exclusive opportunities.
• Works closely with candidates to ensure their resumes and applications stand out.
• Provides ongoing guidance and career coaching to help attorneys navigate interviews, negotiations, and transitions successfully.

This level of dedicated support is unmatched in the legal recruiting industry.

A Legal Recruiter Who Changes Lives

Harrison believes that every attorney-no matter their background, law school, or previous experience-has the potential to find success in the right law firm environment. Many attorneys come to him feeling stuck in their careers, underpaid, or unsure of their next steps. Through his unique ability to identify the right opportunities, he helps attorneys transform their careers in ways they never thought possible.

He has worked with:

• Attorneys making below-market salaries who went on to double or triple their earnings at new firms.
• Senior attorneys who believed they were "too experienced" to make a move and found better roles with firms eager for their expertise.
• Attorneys in small or remote markets who assumed they had no options-only to be placed at strong firms they never knew existed.
• Partners looking for a better platform or more autonomy who successfully transitioned to firms where they could grow their practice.

For attorneys who think their options are limited, Harrison Barnes has proven time and time again that opportunities exist-often in places they never expected.

Submit Your Resume Today - Start Your Career Transformation

If you want to explore new career opportunities, Harrison Barnes and BCG Attorney Search are your best resources. Whether you are looking for a BigLaw position, a boutique firm, or a move to a better work environment, Harrison's expertise will help you take control of your future.

👉 Submit Your Resume Here to get started with Harrison Barnes today.

Harrison's reach, experience, and proven results make him the best legal recruiter in the industry. Don't settle for an average recruiter-work with the one who has changed the careers of thousands of attorneys and can do the same for you.

About BCG Attorney Search

BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive, while achieving results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.