Date Night

This topic has been covered many times, but it bears repeating. Marketing is key, and you need to get started early. I say “get started early” not because, as a first-year associate, you really have much to market. I remember sitting in these marketing meetings that my first firm forced the associates to attend and thinking, how do I market my “practice”? At that point, my “practice” consisted of document review, and, strangely, I didn’t view this talent as very marketable. Naturally, it wasn’t.

So if you technically have little to market, why should you get started early? Well, because “marketing” is really less daunting than it sounds. You don’t have to start scheduling dinners with the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Not yet, anyway. In the early years, marketing can be as simple as forcing yourself to eat lunch away from your desk. Invite your law school friends to join you for lunch. These law school chums may very well advance to a General Counsel position with a company whose business you would like to acquire. Also, you can simply get involved in your community. What interests you? Art? Dogs? Well, then maybe you should get involved at your local museum or humane society. Attend their functions. Meet people. There are always a wealth of business people and lawyers who share your interests and, also, view such events as networking opportunities.

It doesn’t so much matter what you do, but you need to step away from the desk and put yourself out there. As my wise partner mentor told me, he would work to target a particular client and, in the process, meet other people that he wasn’t directly targeting who would later give him business. Marketing, he said, is like dating. It is hard to say exactly how you should go about meeting people, but the one thing that doesn’t work is staying at home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best wishes for a very happy Thanksgiving from all of the recruiters at BCG Attorney Search. Even in challenging economic times, we all have so much for which to be grateful.

Enjoy the holiday!

Boutique Firms Better Positioned?

Are firms with lower overhead, cheaper billing rates and less associate leverage better equipped to weather the current downturn? That is the premise of an article in today’s NLJ. The article quotes Jose Astigarraga, chairman of a litigation boutique in Miami who says that the difference between boutiques and big law firms is basically the difference between driving a Lincoln Towncar and a Ferrari.

“When you’re in the Lincoln Towncar [a big law firm] and you go over a bump in the road, you don’t really feel it that much,” he said. “In turn, boutiques are the Ferrari. When you hit a bump, you really feel it. But you can also turn on a dime, which you can’t do in the Towncar.”

I’m not sure that the analogy is a perfect one. The lawyers in the “Towncars” are certainly feeling the bumps right now. But it is true that smaller firms can be more nimble and can adapt more quickly than large bureaucratic firms.

Tips for Holiday Networking

There are many networking opportunities during the holiday season! You need to take advantage of these opportunities.

Laura Hill, founder of Careers in Motion and career coach extraordinaire, has put together a quick list of tips for holiday networking:

‘Tis the season to be merry, and even though we may not be feeling as cheerful as usual, it’s still the best time of year to build your professional network. If you’re in a job search, take advantage of this time to build momentum going into the New Year. If you’re not conducting a job search, this is the perfect time to further existing connections and make new ones before you need them.

Here are a few tips for holiday networking which I hope you will find useful.

1. Have your answer to “What do you do?” ready at all times – this is your elevator pitch. Provide your function (human resources, chemical engineering), context (your company name, industry or sub-specialty) and something unique or memorable about what you do. Modify your pitch for the situation and practice it out loud beforehand.
2. If you’re in a job search, tell everyone – and I mean everyone – your dentist, hairstylist, accountant, relatives, and neighbors. Give them your elevator pitch and include “I’m interested in companies such as ABC, XYZ, and DEF.” They may have another client who works at one of your targets!
3. Contact former colleagues and old friends: “How’s your schedule for catching a drink to toast the holidays?” or “With things a little slower due to the holidays, I thought this might be a good time to catch up over lunch.”
4. A holiday greeting card or e-mail letter is a great way to keep your name top-of-mind with your networking contacts. Include recruiters you know who work in your field and your professional network.
5. Arrive on time and stay late at a function to allow ample time to meet as many people as possible. Briefly greet and make plans to follow up with people you already know so you can focus on meeting new people.
6. Volunteer: not-for-profit organizations need more helping hands during the holidays. It’s a great way to meet people outside your usual network and it will lift your spirits.

Financial Due Dilligence for Partners

Lateral partner candidates are starting to ask more questions before accepting an offer from a competing firm. According to Law.com:

Reed Smith partner Jack Nelson said that a couple of years ago, interviewees asked for a description of the capital requirements and a summary of the firm’s borrowing positions, including term debt. Now, candidates want to know more about leases, personal liability and the firm’s plans for capital and debt, “something that you rarely heard a couple of years ago,” he said. And they want to know that information earlier, long before an offer has been made, Nelson said. Today’s laterals seem to be using the information to weed firms out of consideration, rather than to make a final decision on a particular firm.

If you think about it, it is pretty astonishing that partners have historically made moves without doing more financial due diligence. In my mind, it is simply a case of “the shoemaker’s children having no shoes”. Simply put, an M&A lawyer would never allow a client to merge with another company without carefully reviewing that company’s financial obligations, balance sheet, cash flow statement, etc. So why would a law firm partner move a large book of business to another firm without first learning everything he or she could about the economics of the new entity?

Separating the Message from the Messenger

When times are good, law firms are less inclined to use performance reviews to terminate associates; but that was then and this is now. At BCG offices across the country, we are receiving a growing number of phone calls from associates who have been let go for performance reasons.

In prior economic downturns, I have witnessed the devastating effect that these terminations can have on a lawyer. Whether someone is a partner or an associate, being told that you don’t have what it takesto succeed at a firm is a terrible blow to the ego.

In some instances, these terminations are truly unfair and may be serving as a smoke screen for law firms who do not want to send the message that they have hit hard financial times. But in most cases, there is something to be learned from the dismissal.

The takeaway, if you are in this unfortunate position, is to listen carefully to the review. There may be something you can learn that will be helpful to you in your next position. It is hard to listen objectively when you believe you are being treated unfairly. But there may be some truths that can help you be more successful in your next job.

Creative Ways to Increase Employee Departures

As we deal with a challenging economy, both law firms and companies are
not experiencing the expected annual departures from their ranks. Each
year, a law firm can count on a percentage of associates heading to
greener pastures. But, as there have been fewer opportunities for
associates this year, many have chosen to hunker down and ride out the economic storm at
their current firm. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really mesh well with
law firms’ business models. Imagine if no one left your firm and the
firm continued to bring in sizable summer classes? That would be a lot
of people on line in the lawyers’ dining room (a nod to my old firm and
its lovely cafeteria.)

The obvious way of forcing attrition is
layoffs. Many firms have utilized this method lately. But other law
firms and companies have become much more creative. For example:

1. Announce to your company’s employees that, at
some indefinite time in the next year, 53,000 of them will be without a
job. Citigroup announced this plan on November 17th, and a flood of
resumes hit the street.

2. Announce to your firm’s non-equity
partners that they must contribute a sum of money (rumored to be
$150,000) to the firm and become equity partners who generate business. DLA Piper announced this yesterday to a decidedly mixed response.

3. Announce to your firm’s associates that, not only are their bonuses for 2008 lower than they would like, but that they should not expect bonuses
for 2009. Cravath announced this tonight, and we’ll expect to see
resumes trickling out of Cravath in the next few months as management
no doubt hopes.

All of these are creative ways to cut headcount. I expect that we will see more creativity in the upcoming months!

Bonuses Going Down at Skadden

Bob Sheehan, the executive partner of Skadden, sent an email to every associate and partner in the firm today discussing his plans to pay bonuses similar to 1997 levels without the addition of a special bonus:

“We will pay the year-end discretionary bonus at the same levels by class seniority which associates received in 2007 and 2006. However, we do not think it is appropriate to repeat the “special” supplemental bonus that was instituted last year. That bonus reflected a strong and growing economy that contributed to a record level of profitability.”

I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot more of this as other firms follow suit. Things are getting very scary in the legal market for many attorneys and the level of people being asked to leave firms for economic reasons is the highest I have ever seen. I am surprised many firms are paying bonuses at all.

I know of a small firm that several years ago wanted to pay Christmas bonuses but had no money. They decided to fire an associate they did not like and then paid every associate in the firm a $2000 bonus representing the fired attorney’s annual salary divided by the number of lawyers in the firm. Let’s hope this does not happen at many firms this Christmas!

Vetting Partner Candidates

The Wall Street Journal posted an article this week about the increased strictness with which corporations are vetting their new hires. While focusing on corporate environments, in particular, the messages set forth in this article are of particular importance in the law firm sector as law firms move away from their traditional “law firm business models” and toward a more “corporate business model.”
Simply put, we are seeing more and more firms adopting a strictly business, bottom-line approach to things. This includes hiring.

To that end, the message we are seeing is that a candidate’s materials (particularly candidates at the executive or partner level) are being looked at much more closely. There is no leeway in resumes for inaccuracies, inadvertent omissions, vagueness, or mistakes. Likewise, in business plans, there is no leeway for promises in lieuof proof of actual business and potential future business.

This is incredibly important for partner candidates who may rely, to their detriment, on old business plans or non-updated resumes during their job search. As firms direct a more focused eye on partner candidates’ materials to set candidates apart, it goes without saying that the most important weapon a partner can have in his or her arsenal right now is a stellar resume and business plan. Any partner that is aware of this fact and takes a few extra days before beginning their search to get their resume, deal sheet and business plan in top form will rise above the pack. For some this is par for the course, for others it’s not, and it warrants repeating.

The National Law Journal seconded The Wall Street Journal article referenced above with some careful words of their own on November 17th. The short message to a long story: The lateral vetting process has become tougher in the down economy as firms want to ensure that they are picking up attorneys at the top of the scale.

Be aware of this fact and respond accordingly. The rules of the game are changing at every level. It’s important to understand the nature of the field you are playing on in 2008 and going into 2009.

Income Partners to Get a Piece of the Pie?

The National Law Journal reports today that DLA Piper may be asking non-equity partners to make a capital contribution to the firm. In return says Frank Burch, DLA Joint Chief Executive Officer, they will get a limited stake in the firm’s profits.

Traditionally, non-equity partners are paid a salary and don’t get to share in the profits. This move, which is yet another sign that things are changing quickly in the legal profession, is an effort to reduce the firm’s reliance on bank financing. Keeping debt low through larger capital contributions is nothing new. There are a number of AmLaw firms that already manage themselves with this philosophy. What is new here is trying to spread the burden to a lower tier of partner. While DLA says the move is preemptive (i.e. they still enjoy relatively favorable interest terms in the credit markets) I suspect other firms will follow if credit remains tight for the next year.