Career Advice for Attorneys

• For better or worse, the world of law relies on the precedence that attorneys will always want to ascend to large and prestigious law firms.
• Even partners who have been at firms for decades seek to move up to more notable firms.
• This article demonstrates how moving to a prestigious firm is not beyond the grasp of most attorneys who are currently practicing law.

If I was to call any attorney in Los Angeles practicing at a "lesser firm" and tell them Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher was interested in interviewing them, most of these attorneys, regardless of their friends in their current law firm, regardless of loyalty issues, and regardless of salary issues, would agree to go on an interview. It would not matter if they were a partner or an associate. READ MORE >

• Many attorneys seem to choose the prestige of a law firm without considering the practice area in which they will be working.
• This is why a large number of attorneys find themselves in the wrong practice area.
• While switching practice areas can be difficult, it is not entirely impossible.
• Changing practice areas will entail academic and work-related qualifications.

So You Want to Switch Your Practice Area?

In a lot of respects, the path attorneys take to joining a particular practice area is nothing short of insane. Most attorneys interview for summer-associate jobs, take the best summer job in the field of law they can get, and join a particular firm without much thought as to what practice area they will be in. Given that people spend a significant amount of their life at work, enjoying the work they do is especially vital, and the process attorneys undertake to choose a practice area seems nonsensical in a lot of respects. It is not surprising then that many attorneys call our offices on a daily basis seeking to switch practice areas. READ MORE >

One of the most persistent problems attorneys practicing law have is their failure to collaborate and learn from the other attorneys they are practicing law with. There are several factors that are essential for success in the practice of law and advancing in your career. Being well-liked and collaborating are two of the more important ones. READ MORE >

For many attorneys, especially those in large law firms, life as an attorney can seem pretty solitary. There are, of course, the subtle and entertaining email exchanges with your peers, as well as meetings with other attorneys and clients. There is the occasional CLE event, firm retreat, or maybe even a firm social event here and there. Nevertheless, many attorneys rarely venture too far out of the office and into the legal community. Time away from work is family or recreation time-something to be cherished and certainly not time you would want to spend with other lawyers. READ MORE >

• One of the main issues people don’t understand about law is that law is a business.
• Furthermore, some lawyers tend to not understand that their legal careers are also businesses.
• Find out why you should treat your law career as a business in order to succeed.

At the outset, it is important to realize that much of what I am saying goes against the "traditional" view of the law as a profession. Obviously, the law is a profession. Notwithstanding the use of the word "profession," though, you can still get fired, not advance, or find yourself in a dead end job. Your skills or specialty can quickly become irrelevant in the marketplace. You can also find yourself in a geographic location where there is no work (i.e., "business"). READ MORE >

One thing that many attorneys do not know is that the most successful attorneys are networked. Attorneys who do not network often fail over time because of this fact alone. READ MORE >

• In the law practice, it is important for an associate to show his or her superiors that their job is more than just a job.
• It instead is almost a lifestyle.
• This is why attorneys who want to prove their capability, as well as that their work is more than just a job, work on weekends and holidays.

To be clear, this article is going to deal with, and encourage, some rather inhumane truths about practicing law in law firms. I cannot tell you how many associate careers I have seen ruined by the wrong attitude when it comes to working weekends and holidays. While you may consider working in a law firm ''just a job,'' if you telegraph that message to your superiors, you will be in trouble quite quickly. In order to really thrive in a law firm, your work must be far, far more than just a job. There is no better way to let your superiors know that your work is more than just a job than working on the weekend and working during the holidays. To get ahead, you must do this. You certainly do not need to work every weekend and holiday. Nevertheless, working on Saturdays and Sundays should not be something you make a major effort to avoid. READ MORE >

At the outset, it is important to realize that much of what I am saying goes against the traditional view of the law as a profession. Obviously, the law is a profession. Notwithstanding the use of the word "profession," though, you can still get fired, not advance, or find yourself in a dead-end job. Your skills or specialty can quickly become irrelevant in the marketplace. You can also find yourself in a geographic location where there is no work (i.e., business). READ MORE >

One of the most persistent mistakes legal professionals make is to not understand the importance of fitting in their work environments. Indeed, fitting in is something that enables you to both get and keep a job. In terms of what it takes to succeed in the practice of law over the long term, fitting in may actually be more important than your skill level. READ MORE >

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. READ MORE >

• Even if you’ve landed your dream job, giving notice at your current job might be an awkward and unpleasant experience.
• You might experience guilt or feel as if you’re betraying your current employer.
• Well, it’s time you get over that, especially as your dream job waits for you.

You have just landed a job, and you are experiencing the elation of finally achieving your goal to get the perfect position at an exciting firm. Suddenly, you feel the onset of anxiety upon realizing that you face new challenges, excitement, and uncertainty. The one immediate challenge is that you still have to tell your present employer that you are leaving. You may feel guilty, deceitful, and disloyal. You may feel like a spouse who cheats, like a trusted confidant who reveals secrets, like a dependable accountant who doctors the books, or like a faithful deacon who dips his hands into the Sunday donation basket. Enough already! You have been concentrating on getting the position you were seeking, so much that you have postponed planning your exit. Get past the guilt, and strategize as to whom, how, and when you will give notice that you are leaving. READ MORE >

• Why do some attorneys decide to quit their law firm instead of taking some time off to recharge themselves?
• This is because, according to some attorneys, law firms frown on their attorneys taking large chunks of time off for anything other than a life-changing event.
• This is also true for attorneys who take a hiatus from their entire law practice.
• If you do this, you might find it difficult to get another law firm job.

It is becoming increasingly common for attorneys desiring more than a few weeks off from the practice of law to simply quit their current jobs and take a hiatus from practicing law. Unlike some other professions, most law firms do not look favorably upon attorneys' taking more than a few weeks off unless they are involved in "a major life event." In the calculus of most law firms, a "major life event" is primarily limited to such circumstances as the death of a close family member (usually a spouse), a life-threatening illness, or the birth of a child (only if you are a woman). Accordingly, practicing attorneys without such explanations often simply quit, explaining to flabbergasted partners that they want to take some time off for travel or reflection—they need a hiatus from practicing law. The logic most attorneys follow in quitting is that if they take significant time off from their current firm under any guise other than one of these life-changing events, they will harm their chances for advancement in their current firm's eyes, and therefore, they need to quit completely and find a new law firm once they are ready to return to legal practice. Given the way that law firm politics generally work, that logic is pretty accurate. READ MORE >

Introduction

As a legal recruiter, I am often quite surprised by the differences among attorneys in their receptiveness of information presented to them. When associates are called by a recruiter out of the blue, they are often extremely suspicious, declare they are not interested in speaking with the recruiter at all, brag about how happy they are, and then get off the phone as quickly as possible. Successful partners and associates tend to do the opposite. An event of a couple of weeks ago comes to mind. READ MORE >

• Opinions vary as to whether an attorney should or should not go in-house.
• Some attorneys believe going in-house was the best decision of their career, while others strongly disagree.
• This is why going in-house is the most important move one can make in their legal career.

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to provide you with insight as to whether or not you should go in-house. Many attorneys claim that going in-house was their best career move. Conversely, some attorneys claim it was their biggest career mistake. In the end, going in-house is entirely up to you. You need to understand, however, that the decision to go in-house is one of the most significant career decisions you will ever make as an attorney. READ MORE >

''Can you be trusted?''

Beyond any other single question—regardless of how motivated you are, where you went to law school, or your work history—if you slip up on an issue of credibility, you might as well forget about a successful career in the law. Certainly, there are many people who get ahead by playing fast and loose with the rules. I have seen more examples of this over the course of my career than I can count. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, no matter how far untrustworthy people get, they almost always come crashing down. When these crashes occur, they are not normally bumps in the road. Legal careers end. READ MORE >

Most attorneys from large firms move at least once or twice during their first three to five years of practice. However, if you are looking at your third or fourth firm in your second year of practice, something is wrong. Several times a day, we see resumes of attorneys attempting to do this, and for the most part, we cannot help them. "Firm hopping" is taken into account by firms assessing your qualifications. Moving several times in a short time span can, in fact, hurt your ability to get a job because it leads law firms to question your loyalty and long-term commitment to the practice of law. In addition, moving several times in a short time span gives firms the impression that you may have moved because your work was not valued at your former firm. None of this is to say that any of the above factors may be relevant to your reasons for moving in the past. Yet, it is important to realize what firms are thinking and that their preconceived notions of an attorney that moves firms too often may negatively influence their ultimate decisions to interview you. READ MORE >

• Even as some law firms state they do not bill unfairly, other firms may fall short of that ethic.
• From law firm to law firm that ethic may vary.
• How a law firm bills its clients depends upon the law firm’s culture.

The notion that a partner or associate must produce 2,000 or 2,400 hours of billable work yearly virtually assures that some clients will be overbilled. READ MORE >

Question

How should an attorney choose law firms? READ MORE >

When you turn down an offer you need to make the party you are turning down the offer from think it is the hardest decision you have ever made. READ MORE >

If there is one thing that can assist you in ruining your legal career in the most rapid way possible it is to make the mistake of choosing the wrong friends at work. READ MORE >

If you are looking for a job then one of the most important things you can do is see opportunities where others see huge obstacles. READ MORE >

You are a partner at a solid firm where you generate a respectable book of business on an annual basis. You feel your career at your current firm is heading toward a perpetual stagnation. READ MORE >

We regularly read and hear that 'jobs for life' are disappearing, to be replaced by a pattern of consecutive jobs and unpredictable career dislocations. READ MORE >