Sign In
Need help? Call 800-298-6440
The Standard in Attorney Search and Placement
Minimum years of experience
Primary area of practice
Firm type
When this candidate first came to me looking for help with his job search it was in response to an email I had sent him regarding a bankruptcy position in a small market outside of the DC area. I sent him this email because he had indicated that he was a bankruptcy attorney. In fact, he was not a bankruptcy attorney but had peripherally worked on a matter related to bankruptcy and told me he wanted to work on bankruptcy matters. Truth be told, he most likely only said he wanted to do bankruptcy work because he thought that with the pandemic bankruptcy was going to be a hot practice area. READ MORE >
My candidate contacted BCG Attorney Search for assistance after she tried to find a job on her own. She tried unsuccessfully for several months to find an adequate placement. This candidate had ended her federal clerkship and first targeted the city of Atlanta on her own. She said she applied to the major law firms on her own without any success. She then gave up on Atlanta firms and contacted BCG for help. She said she was open to positions at major law firms in Texas. She had conducted some research on the cost of living in Texas, she had friends who lived there and enjoyed living there, and she visited the state and enjoyed what she saw. After our conversation, we decided to target Dallas and Houston. READ MORE >
This litigation candidate reached out to BCG and submitted his resume, and I was eventually assigned to work with him. He had an amazing resume and graduated from a top ten university and a top ten law school. He had decided to go work for an AmLaw 100 firm after law school in Washington, D.C. After working for a few years there, he and his wife decided to move back to the wife's hometown of Minneapolis. They have many family members that live there and wanted to have more of a support network. He then transitioned and worked for the government for a year to get court experience. It was a highly regarded government position. It was at this point in his career that he reached out to BCG to get help to move back to a law firm. He had tried applying for a few months on his own but was not having much luck. I called him and discussed what kind of law he wanted to practice, where he wanted to practice, and what size firm he wanted to target. I went straight to work with his wish list and started sending him firms to approve. After a few weeks of submitting him, he informed me that he was willing to expand his search and move back to Washington, D.C. or New York for the right job. I started sending him jobs in those cities for him to approve and then began submitting him to firms in three cities: Minneapolis, D.C., and New York. He understood that the wider you can cast your net, the more chances you are to get placed. READ MORE >
This first year candidate had only started working at his firm in October of 2019 but by June of 2020 he had already contacted me to see if I could help him find a new job. He was currently working at one of the best international law firms (also an Am Law 100 firm) in their New York City office. He had gone to an average law school on the west coast and one that this particular firm probably has never hired from before. In fact, I was shocked that he had even landed a job at this prestigious firm, coming from this law school, despite having stellar law school grades. This candidate however was a people person, charming, funny and quick-witted. He had landed the position through a personal connection. READ MORE >
I had the pleasure of working with a really wonderful candidate. She went to a really fantastic law school, in the top 10, which definitely helped bolster her chances, as she had no firm experience prior to this search. READ MORE >
This candidate was referred to me through a prior candidate, and I am always so appreciative of referrals, since I know it means people enjoyed working with me and BCG. She is absolutely lovely, and everything I like to see in candidates I work with. She as on the junior side, and she did not graduate from a top of the top law school. The other thing that made her search but difficult and easier - if that is possible - is she wanted a niche market. She had moved back to be near her family in this niche area, and that was where she was looking to remain. READ MORE >
Law students and summer associates are encouraged to think broadly about their careers and the type of law they want to practice. This is the time for legal career and practice area "exploration." Do you want to be a transactional lawyer or a litigator? Are you going to represent big businesses in antitrust disputes or indigent defendants accused of crimes? Are you going to parlay your scientific background into patent law? And if so, are you best suited to writing patents or advocating in court? If you are eyeing corporate law, will you follow a path to capital markets or bank lending or financial regulation? READ MORE >
I recently placed an exceptional Class of 2013 Complex General Litigation Associate candidate, who is located in SF, at an elite plaintiff-side litigation boutique in the OC. This candidate approached my company because he wanted to either make a switch from Big Law to inhouse, or from Big Law to a boutique firm at which he could settle down long-term. In terms of his background, he is the cream of the crop as litigation candidates go. He is licensed to practice in both CA and NY (the two most difficult bar licenses to obtain), attended Willamette University for his undergraduate studies (not a particularly well-known school), went to a strong law school in LA and did quite well there, although not cum laude or summa sum laude. What makes this candidate truly exceptional is that he's been at only two firms for his entire legal career, and both are top Am Law 100 firms. He started in NYC, summering at his first Am Law 100 firm, and then he ended up joining the firm post-graduation, spending five years there as an antitrust, government investigations and general commercial litigation Associate. He then decided to relocate to the Bay Area, and joined the Silicon Valley office of another prestigious Am Law 100 firm, where he has worked as an Associate from October 2018 to the present, for two and a half years. His current practice centers around commercial litigation, including trade secret misappropriation, securities fraud, and other state and federal tort claims. READ MORE >
As a Recruiter, I really enjoy helping friends from college, friends from law school and non-traditional candidates. I have worked with and placed several friends that I went to both college and law school with. Interestingly enough, two of these were plaintiff-side Labor & Employment candidates. One was a plaintiff-side Labor & Employment attorney who had worked at two plaintiff-side Labor & Employment firms in New York City, and I was able to place her at a defense-side general complex litigation boutique in Silicon Valley, where she ended up doing both general commercial litigation and labor & employment / employment litigation. She eventually landed at Hunton Andrews Kurth, a national, multi-office Am Law 100 firm. This is particularly impressive, given that she started on the plaintiff-side, and at such small firms. The other is, as mentioned, also a plaintiff-side Labor & Employment, and perhaps less impressively or less uniquely, I placed him at another plaintiff-side Labor & Employment firm in DC. However, his background is quite un-traditional, so in that sense it was still a unique placement. READ MORE >
During the pandemic, we have found that niche practice areas and smaller as well as more regional markets are doing particularly well. In terms of niche practice areas, some that we have seen a surprising amount of activity in are bankruptcy, taxation, trusts & estates (especially estate planning) and family law. In the case of these last two, this is of course because, very sadly, thousands of people in this country are getting sick and dying from COVID-19 every day, and I imagine that a lot of people and especially older people are taking the opportunity to get their estates in order. In terms of family law, I'm sure that a much larger percentage of married couples than usual are having marital problems and are considering divorce, due to the general stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic as well as family members being stuck working from home together. As a result, we have seen a lot of activity in terms of trusts & estates (both estate planning and trusts and estates litigation) and family law this year, in terms of interviews and placements, in all regions - the West Coast, East Coast, Midwest and South. READ MORE >
Labor & Employment and Employment Litigation is a very hot practice area in California. There are almost always a healthy number of opportunities in this practice area for both defense and management-side attorneys and plaintiff-side attorneys. In terms of defense-side, there are opportunities at firms of all sizes, from Big Law to mid-sized to smaller, whereas on the plaintiff side, the opportunities tend to almost exclusively be at small plaintiff-side Labor & Employment / Employment Litigation shops, with a very few larger plaintiff-side firms thrown into the mix as well. While plaintiff-side Labor & Employment attorneys can be very marketable, especially if they have wage and hour class action experience, I especially like working with defense-side Labor & Employment attorneys, especially ones at smaller and mid-sized firms who are trying to make an upwards lateral move in their legal career. That is exactly the sort of attorney that I just worked with, and was able to quickly place at an Am Law 100 firm in LA. READ MORE >
Mid-level to more senior litigators, even very highly-qualified ones, can have a tough time when it comes to lateral firm searches. I have found that general litigators are the most marketable between their second and fifth year of practice. After the fifth or sixth year, unless the candidate has a portable book of business that he or she will bring with him or her to the next firm, a lot of firms won't be interested, especially Big Law and more national firms. I have had the most success placing Big Law mid-level to senior general litigators at boutique firms. Boutique firms care less about the candidate's class year and more about his or her pre-litigation and any trial experience. While boutiques, like all firms, would love to see a portable book of business, they don't expect it, most of the time. READ MORE >
The pandemic has caused the legal hiring market to change quite substantially. Before March, at least in California, some of the hottest practice areas were general corporate, general finance, tech transactions, real estate transactions and real estate finance and labor & employment. However, come March, general corporate, general finance, real estate transactions and real estate finance essentially died (transactions-based practice areas), and even labor & employment, generally a consistently very strong practice area in California, temporarily died. The only practice area that has been steady throughout the pandemic has been general litigation. The vast majority of my placements in California this year have been in general litigation, and have been in all sorts of sub-specialties within litigation, ranging from lemon law litigation to personal injury to general commercial litigation to product liability and mass torts. The placement that I just made was the latter - a very senior general litigator who specializes in product liability and mass torts. While the most marketable litigators will have around two to five years of experience, and litigators who have more than five years of experience and don't have portable business are generally hard to place, there are always exceptions, and this candidate has 18 years of litigation experience! READ MORE >
This candidate came to me directly, as the recruiter she worked with was extremely important to her. She wanted to work with someone with strong legal credentials like she had, but also someone who understood the market and had made a lot of placements, so she sought me out directly. She also wanted to work with someone who understand and was open-minded about her career path, which is always the case with me. READ MORE >
I was really excited to work with this candidate. He had amazing credentials that I do not see very often, and he had chosen to spend the last 12 years of his legal career working on the prosecution side for the government in a major city. He graduated from a top-14 law school, and certainly had the credentials and background to land the large paying big law job, but he wanted to give back to the community, and he decided to take time to work for the government. He had only intended to stay for a couple of years, but was so successful and enjoyed the work so much, before he knew it many years had passed by. READ MORE >
As a legal placement professional, I interface with attorneys across the country who are facing all sort of ups and downs in their careers. No surprise, a fair share of my candidates come to me looking for new legal jobs because they have been let go from their current firms. This has been especially true in the era of the coronavirus, as many firms across the country, large and small, instituted furloughs and lay-offs of attorneys as a result of covid-19. READ MORE >
In this case, I worked with an in-house attorney to get back to a law firm. There are many people who say it is not possible to make the switch back to a law firm after working inhouse. It is not as common, but it is definitely possible. READ MORE >
During the current COVID-19 crisis and pandemic, the candidates that are having the hardest time by far are the Class of 2019 candidates who have recently been laid off. My heart really breaks for these candidates. They of course only just graduated from law school in May 2019 or so, and only started practicing law in September or October 2019 at the earliest. I currently have at least five Class of 2019 candidates who have been laid off at any point between March and last month. Of these, two are real estate transactional associates in LA, and were at at top Am Law 100 firms before they were laid off in April and August respectively. Another is a tech transactions associate who was laid off from a respectable boutique to mid-sized firm in Seattle. Fortunately for this latter candidate, she obtained an offer with a small insurance defense firm in Las Vegas through a friend, and had actually accepted the offer before I obtained an amazing interview for her with the tech transactions group of an Am Law 100 firm in Seattle. I think that this candidate got interest even after she was laid off because it is very hard to find candidates with sophisticated tech transactions experience. Admittedly, the candidate had worked at her firm since the spring semester of 3L doing tech transactions work, so she had more experience than the average Class of 2019er. She also had amazing academics and had summered at another Big Law firm. So these things certainly helped. READ MORE >
This candidate is an example of how a strong candidate can fare much better in one market over another and just how strong the Boston lateral hiring market was in 2019. I do not think that as a 5th year, we would have had the same success in New York but in Boston, the candidate was able to do the picking. In 2019, we saw Boston firms willing to entertain more candidates' applications, meet with them, and ultimately hire more laterals and quicker than in other markets, and particularly so with litigators. READ MORE >
This candidate is a returning candidate to me and BCG, who I worked with in his placement two years earlier. It is always a huge compliment when a candidate comes back to work with us, and he was such a pleasure to work with the first time, I looked forward to it this time as well! He really enjoyed the firm we placed him at, but unfortunately the firm was hit hard by the coronavirus, and since he was one of the recent hires, they had to lay him off. READ MORE >
This placement involved a very unique candidate who practiced in the niche area of sports law. Though he was practicing in North Carolina when I started working with him, he was open to relocation to another jurisdiction, and he ended up being placed with a terrific firm in his preferred location of Texas doing sports law. READ MORE >
Due to COVID-19, the market has changed dramatically in the last six months. Whereas before March, practice areas like general corporate, general finance and real estate transactional and real estate finance where very active, these practice area now dead, and firms nationwide are barely hiring in the transactional space. Tech transactions and data privacy were very, very active before March, and while data privacy continues to be active, tech transactions is not as active. Niche practice areas like tax, bankruptcy and trusts & estates are now doing well, and small markets are very active, which markets were not as active before the pandemic. For example, I normally get the most activity in California, in particular LA, in terms of interviews, offers and placements, but recently, I have been seeing a great deal of activity at small litigation firms in Seattle, Las Vegas and Denver. I even have a junior corporate candidate interviewing in Honolulu! READ MORE >
In general, firms do not want to hire lateral attorneys who have less than two years of law firm experience. In fact, the ideal time to make an initial lateral law firm move is when you have at least three to five years of experience. There are two main reasons for this. For starters, law firms want you to come to them with experience in your practice area so that they do not need to train you from the ground up. For their beginning attorneys, they hire first years out of law school, who in many cases already have at least some experience from spending a summer at that firm or a comparable firm. READ MORE >
Non-traditional firms are an often-overlooked option for experienced attorneys who do not fit the mold of a big law partner. Rather than go it alone as a solo attorney, experienced attorneys with a book of business can choose a firm with an "eat what you kill" model, an online firm, or a combination of the two. These firms are popping up locally, nationally, and internationally as technology develops. They hire attorneys with business who can manage clients on their own. They provide many of the benefits of a big law firm, without some of the drawbacks. READ MORE >
While insurance defense firms may not be viewed as the most prestigious jobs, these firms do have a reputation of training their litigation attorneys well. Some may say it is baptism by fire, but most insurance defense attorneys are able to get way more hands-on experience than their colleagues at Big Law firms. From my experience, young associates at insurance defense firms are given a lot more responsibility early on. For example, junior associates are able to take and defend depositions (both party expert depositions), they are able to argue motions in court, and will even sit and second chair a trial, which is something some Big Law associates will never have the opportunity to do. READ MORE >
MORE RESOURCES
Call 800-298-6440
Social Share
Download Apps
Submit Your Resume for Review
Register for Unlimited Access to BCG
Sign-up to receive the latest articles and alerts
Already a subscriber? Sign in here.