How much do hot practice areas vary from state to state?

Hot practice areas typically differ quite dramatically from state to state. However, there are consistencies which are generally always present in most geographical areas. These consistencies are generally applicable across most time periods in most geographic areas. While this sort of question I would love to “write a book” about, for purposes of brevity I will be brief and highlight only one or two areas that are very busy generally in major geographic areas.

As a general rule, the most in demand practice area at all points in time is always litigation. Litigation is always occurring and this is the case at almost all points in time—regardless of the economy. One way I have always explained this to my candidates is that when the economy is good people have money to hire attorneys and sue and when the economy is bad people sue people to get money they lost when the economy was good. In all my years in this profession I have never seen litigation slow down. Law firms are always seeking litigators at most points in time and the demand is pretty incessant. Litigation is virtually always the busiest and “hottest” practice area in the following markets:

-MOST NON URBAN AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES

-MOST CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES BELOW 2,000,000 PEOPLE

-TEXAS (THE ENTIRE STATE)

-SEATTLE

-PORTLAND

-DETROIT

-CLEVELAND

-NEWARK

-CHICAGO

-WISCONSIN

-SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (LOS ANGELES, ORANGE COUNTY, SAN DIEGO)

-MINNEAPOLIS

There are some small exceptions to these rules: (1) Minneapolis has a very active intellectual property and patent prosecution base and these practice areas are generally quite active there; (2) Chicago has strong intellectual property, real estate and corporate demands but these are quite steady (except for real estate recently); (3) Newark has a very consistent base of corporate work but litigation still dominates.

In fact, in most cities of the United States litigation simply dominates the hiring and is always “hot?” in some respects because there is always considerable demand for litigators. Beneath litigators in terms of demands is then generally corporate and other departments such as insurance, intellectual property, tax and so forth. For example, despite its reputation as the center of governmental activity in the United States, the most active practice area in the Washington, DC region is most generally not government contracts or some other government sounding practice area. The most active practice area is generally litigation—I mention Washington, DC because it is “litigation with a twist” compared to other markets.

Litigation is an active practice area in the Washington, DC area and is generally very active at most points in time. An important fact to understand about litigation is that attorneys who work in the litigation field can research, write about and interpret a great deal of policy and other information–and not just marching into court as litigators in smaller markets might do.

Below is a discussion of a few areas that continually have a good deal of activity in practice areas other than litigation.

NEW YORK CITY

New York City typically has the majority of work in the financial field due the heavy concentration of banks and other financial institutions in this market. Accordingly, at most points in time the corporate practice area would be considered the “hot” practice area here. While this differs from time to time this is generally consistent.

After the dot com bust and September 11^th, for example, there was noticeably less corporate work generally in New York City than previously. The corporate work has subsequently “fallen off the face of the earth” with the recent financial meltdown. Corporate work in New York seems to go in boom and bust cycles.

Nothwithstanding, as a proportion of work nationally compared to other practice areas New York stayed very busy. In addition, there is always a lot of corporate work in New York because there is so much financial work there—regardless of the state of the economy. New York City also continually has lots of work in the tax and insurance fields. In terms of hiring the most attorneys the main and largest practice area is always corporate because it interrelates with so many other fields. A law student desiring to work in New York would be best suited pursuing corporate work.

FLORIDA

Real estate has traditionally been the area where there is the most activity in Florida. This has now died as well. Across most points in time there has been a strong demand for talented real estate attorneys in Florida. This is likely due to lots of speculative construction and the fact that seniors and others seem to be moving to this state in great droves. There is also a strong demand for litigators in Florida, however, this demand is always fairly constant and never has reached the fever pitch that the demand for real estate attorneys seems to be consistently at.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Due to its proximity to Silicon Valley, the hottest practice area at all points in time in Northern California tends to be intellectual property litigation and also patent prosecution. As the United States increasingly moves towards an information economy, companies put an increasing emphasis on insuring they are doing everything possible to protect their intellectual property assets. Over the last several years the intellectual property-related practice areas have never really abated in terms of how busy they have been.

CHARLOTTE

Charlotte has been getting a very busy banking and corporate practice over the past several years and corporate and banking work has become increasingly important in this region. This has also died recently, however, with the implosion in the financial sector. I believe that Charlotte is in trouble.

LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas at one point simply could not hire real estate attorneys fast enough. Despite its desert location this area had been demanding an increasingly large amount of real estate attorneys for several years. Even with the weakening of the housing market in Las Vegas and unsold condominiums and cancelled projects, the demand for attorneys in Las Vegas in the real estate practice area has been slightly active. It is dying off very fast, however. Expect litigation to continue to pick up.

Conclusions

During the fallout from the dotcom boom in 2001 and in the next ensuing couple of years the importance of practice areas geographically become critically obvious. Because law firms, corporation and other are all businesses, they shed attorneys in practice areas that were nonproductive just as fast as they could and absorbed attorneys in practice areas that made money just as fast as they could.

This same pattern has repeated itself in 2009.

The discussion above highlights practice areas which have stood the test of time consistently in these geographic regions over the past several years. It is extremely important to understand that practice areas that stand the test of time are likely to always have jobs in these regions and those that do not may be part of boom and bust cycles.

The World is (Sort of) Coming to an End for Attorneys

I have been a recruiter for 11 years now and I think this is one of the craziest weeks I have ever seen in my opinion. The drama of layoffs, a leading attorney arrested for possible embezzlement and impersonation, holiday parties cancelled, bonuses cancelled–the news just keeps getting worse and worse. Law schools are also starting to report massively reduced hiring of their students–even the best law schools.

What is going on in the legal field?

I have a lot of opinions about that; however, the short answer is that a lot of stuff is going on and it is out of control. For more than a couple of decades the United States has benefited from a virtual monopoly in many fields. In finance, telecommunication, computers and other fields the United States has been a leader and this has created a great deal of wealth in the United States. What we are now facing, in my opinion, is a “perfect storm” of sorts.

The issues, as I see it, are two fold. Firstly, there are not a lot of new innovations in the pipeline that are driving investment and enthusiasm in the markets. Secondly, the ability of the financial markets to stimulate the economy has run its course, for the time being.

Innovation Has Largely Slowed Down
In 2000 and 2001 when there was a recession this was largely the result of the fact that a great deal of irrational investment had flowed into the Internet and cell phones. People saw the incredible value that these were bringing to the world, how they would change commerce, how we invested in commerce, and how we poured investment into them. When people realized much of this investment was misplaced and overly exuberant, a lot of the money that was flowing into the market was rapidly pulled back. Eventually, money started flowing back starting in 2002 and the economy recovered.

The issue we are facing now, however, is that all of this new technology has largely been adopted by most people so there are few opportunities around the United States for companies to rapidly expand this technology. Most people now use cell phones. Most people now have computers and computers are lasting longer. In addition, as computers spread around the United States this created many productivity enhancements inside companies. Documents could be processed faster and this created many opportunities.

The fact that innovation and productivity enhancements have slowed down so much is a huge problem. This is a very serious concern. The fact that there is nothing in the pipeline right now makes me very nervous indeed. While the prospect of new forms of energy is something that is in the pipeline, this is not necessarily something that is booming. It appears, however, to hold promise for propping up the economy the way the Internet and telecommunications and productivity enhancements from computers did.

As these new technologies fanned out across the world and America they created massive amounts of legal work here. Practice areas like intellectual property have thrived. Corporate transactional work thrived as companies grew and issued stock and often combined. All of what occurred with these companies generated by new technology, computers and the productivity enhancements served to create a massive amount of legal work.

The Ability of the Financial Markets to Stimulate the Economy Has Run its Course for Now.
After September 11, 2001, the Federal Reserve starting slashing interest rates like crazy. This started making housing more affordable for everyone because of the fact that people could afford more “house” for less payment. This also stimulated a great deal of lending to corporations, private equity activity and more.

On a more sophisticated financial side, another thing happened at the same time. It was the boom of the securities market. What was happening was that mortgages that were being issued were being packaged up and sold as groups of mortgages. Because interest rates were going down so fast, people could afford more “house” and prices of real estate appreciated rapidly. Very few of these mortgages were being foreclosed upon because if someone was not able to make their payments they were simply selling their house because it was most often worth much more than they had paid. Because so few mortgages were defaulting, the demand for these securities became overwhelming and even the riskiest securities instruments were very valuable.

I was involved in this to some extent because I also ran a student loan business at the time. The loans that this company was doing were also packaged and made into securities. I remember last year travelling to London to meet with investors in these securities. Most of the people purchasing these securities were from overseas. Places like Luxembourg, for example. They all lost a lot of money as well. Now all of these people who lost so much money are unlikely to buy stuff from American financial institutions like they did before for some time into the future.

As everyone knows, this whole “house of cards” started crashing down when interest rates started to rise. Once this occurred, banks were left with toxic securities that lost massive amount of value. The financial crisis as we know it had begun.

The issue with this, and what has confused politicians so much, is that they do not have a tool to do this again. There is no tool that I am aware of (or that politicians are aware of) that can be used to prop up the economy again.

Real estate was a booming practice area for attorneys for many years during this time. No more. In addition, the work created in securities was also plentiful. This work has also gone away. The field has been literally leveled.

None of this takes into account all of the money that was coming into the financial system from people refinancing buildings and homes. In addition, because borrowing costs were so low for a long time private equity companies were putting incredible amounts of money into companies as well. All of the money coming into the financial system was also generating a great deal of work for attorneys.

The legal world always does fine and there are always bright spots even when things are collapsing. But what we saw this week was more of an example of what is coming due to all of this. In addition, on Friday of this week the government released new payroll numbers showing that the job market has lost more jobs than any time in the past 35 years. Things are getting really, really bad and the problem is, there’s not much that can be done right now.

What I Have Learned About Interviewing In Law Firms

What are the most important rules of thumb for attorneys to remember about job interviews?
- Dress for success.
- Give concise answers. Long rambling answers will always negatively affect your chances of landing the job. Let the interviewers draw their own conclusions.
- Don’t get into detail about previous work. Revealing too much about old jobs, clients, or cases will make you seem untrustworthy.
- Be aware of your body language. You can say a lot without opening your mouth, so remain conscious of it.
- Be honest. You’re not expected to be superhuman, so stretching the truth can only get you into trouble.
- Be prepared. Come into the interview knowing what you want to get across and ready to take on some tough questions. Know what’s on your resume. Getting caught off guard by something on your own resume reflects poorly on you.

What is the best way to develop a rapport with the interviewer?
- A job interview is like a blind date in that both sides are a feel a little nervous and forced.
- Standard blind date rules apply: nice handshake, maintain eye contact, smile when appropriate, and always listen!
- Listening is the most crucial part. It can be difficult for attorneys to get out of talking mode, but the interviewer should do about 80% of the talking.
- Paraphrase what the interviewer says back to him or her to show you are paying attention.

Is there a decent way to answer the dreaded question “Tell me a little about yourself”
- Most people are uncomfortable with it, but it’s really a great opportunity to make an impression.
- Treat it like an essay in school and think about it before hand.
- Draw a correlation between how you describe yourself and the job description, be subtle, but connect your personality with the firm’s work.

“What do you know about our firm?” How can this question be best handled?
- If you’re using a recruiter, they will do the necessary research and tell you everything you need to know before hand.
- If not, always do your research. Use the Internet.
- Learn about the firm’s philosophy, successes, and history.

Can you recommend any particular resources for doing research on a firm prior to the interview?
- Most firms now have their own web pages. Try finding the firm on Google.
- Judged.com has law firm profiles, salary information and reviews from the attorneys who work there

What if you’re asked to address your personal weaknesses?
- This can be turned into a positive as well; say you’re a workaholic, that you can’t let a problem go until it is resolved.
- It’s best to keep everything positive, that way you create a positive association in the interviewer’s mind.

How do you address inappropriate questions, like are you married, or questions about politics?
- If you’re uncomfortable answering a question, and it is indeed inappropriate, just ask how it is related to the job.
- Be polite even if you think it’s inappropriate.

The adversarial nature of lawyers, does it work against attorneys in a job interview situation?
- A job interview is not a test of wills, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate that you can think, listen, and articulate.
-Coming off as pushy or arrogant is a turn-off. Even if the job requires aggressiveness, you don’t want to seem like someone who is difficult to deal with.

What’s the best way to summarize your entire background? Even for law students and young attorneys it can be difficult to encapsulate their whole history in a few sentences. For experienced attorneys, it can be a nightmare.
- Stick to what’s relevant for the job you’re applying to.
- Refer to the resume; make it easier for the interviewer.
- Bring a list of representative casework.

What about underqualified attorneys? How can they address a question about their background?
- The interviewer may have already made up their mind about whether you’re over or under-qualified, but you can make up for a lack of experience by expressing a personality match with the firm.

How about after the interview… thank you letter or no thank you letter?
- The cons of the thank you letter outrank the potential benefits.
- Even the most gracious and classy thank you letters can backfire.
- They can make you seem desperate like you have no other options.
- Its best to leave on a high note and thank you notes give you an extra opportunity to screw up.

What’s the best way to handle a bad interview?
- Put it behind you.
- Don’t let it get you down because everybody has bad interviews.
- The most important thing is to always appear enthusiastic. After a bad interview, be sure not to let it show in the next interview. Lawyers need to be “up” when appearing in front of judges or clients, so it is crucial to show that you have an upbeat personality.
- Getting rejected after an interview is usually not your fault. Internal firm politics and issues of personal chemistry generally play a very heavy role in employment decision-making.
How can a qualified attorney screw up in the interview?
- Showing up late is a sign of disrespect.
- Criticizing your last job is a major red flag.
- Lack of preparation will always make you look bad.
- It’s important to be confident, but don’t be arrogant or act like loose cannon. Never appear as though the job isn’t important to you.
- Don’t lie! Getting caught in a lie is the worst way to spoil an interview.

“Why are you leaving your present position?” or “Why did you leave your present position?” — how do you address this? What if you parted on bad terms?
- You never want to say anything negative about your old firm.
- You don’t want to seem like a gossip. They will think you might badmouth them if they hire you.
- Turn it into a positive. Say that you want increased responsibility with a firm that offers growth or a firm that is a match with your personality and skills.

What about “How did you do in law school?” Can you honestly answer the question if you didn’t do well in law school or went to a bad school?
- Be honest. If you had good grades or went to a good school, it’s a plus.
- If you don’t want to mention the grades, steer the conversation to something worthwhile you did in law school (extracurriculars).
- Don’t be embarrassed of “ok” grades; grades aren’t everything especially if you’ve been out of school for a while.

How important are the clothes you wear?
- Clothes aren’t the most important factor, but they can’t be underestimated.
- No one ever got a job for dressing nicely, but people have lost out on jobs for not dressing nicely.
- Always go for a more conservative style of dress:
-  Men: suit, tie, leather shoes
-  Women: business skirt, low-heeled conservative shoes; avoid perfume and flashy jewelry.
- Even if the firm is more casual, dress conservative for the interview.

Any advice for the shy? How do you appear to be confident when nervous?
- Rehearse! Write up practice questions and answers.
- Do it in front of the mirror.
- Have a friend or relative ask you questions.
- Be thoroughly prepared for every possible question. Its better to be over-prepared than to be caught off guard.
- Be conscious of the telltale signs of nervous behavior, fidgeting, stammering, saying “you know”
- Try to relax, but don’t get too relaxed. Revealing too many personal details, taking off your shoes, or treating the interviewer like one of your pals can make you look like a crazy person.

What are the differences in interviewing with a big firm vs. a small or mid-sized firm?
- Many big firms have a set of procedures for interviews and things are more rigid. They will often have callback interviews, which is not a guarantee that you will get an offer.
- Smaller firm interviews can be less formal sometimes, but you should always appear conservative even if the interview is less formal.

What are the differences between interviews with associates and junior partners and interviews with senior associates and partners?
- Junior partners and associates are still “gunners” who are often in competition with the rest of the attorneys. Do not act too competitive or they might see you as a threat. Act friendly.
- Older partners aren’t usually caught up in competition with the rest of the staff. They will want to see a competitive edge. They will also be more concerned with things like grades. Act hard working and determined.

How should an attorney handle an interview in an unconventional situation? Law firms will often take you out to lunch or for drinks to get to know you.
- The worst mistake is to get drunk. If the interviewer is drinking, have the same thing and take it very easy.
- Eat at the same pace as the interviewer and only order the basics. Don’t order an appetizer or desert if the interviewer doesn’t, etc. This ties right into the whole notion of appearing conservative at all times.
- Mind your manners and always treat your servers with respect. The same goes for receptionists in the office. No one wants to work with a jerk, so always be courteous to everyone in the entire job interview process.
- Don’t let your guard down. Unconventional interviews like this test mainly your small talk skills, but you should approach them with the same level of respect and enthusiasm as any other interview.

What about videoconference interviews?
- Technology is advancing and videoconferencing is becoming more and more common.
- It’s a great way to look for a job during a lunch break without battling traffic, etc.
- Don’t forget that they can see you. No nose picking, yawning, looking around the room.

How important is it to ask questions?
- It shows you’re paying attention and capable of critical thinking.
- Ask for more details about job responsibilities, how work is assigned, possibilities for advancement, and possibilities for independent decision-making.

What questions should be avoided?
- Don’t ask about salary, vacation time, working hours, start date.
- Don’t appear overanxious to get the job.
- Don’t express reservations about taking the job. If you have reservations, deal with them later. During the interview, your goal is to make a positive impression.

A quick way to tell if somebody is not telling the truth during an interview

I see the good in people and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, unless it is obvious that they are being deceptive. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you see it) I have become adept at noticing certain patterns of behavior that reveal when people are trying to shade the truth. This is not limited to candidates; partners in law firms do the same things. As a recruiter, part of the value I add is to do my best to find out the truth and cut through the bull – this way, candidates and law firms can make the best, most informed decisions and minimize the chances of making bad choices during the lateral hiring process.

When I first started recruiting, I used to beat around the bush regarding difficult questions. I was reluctant to ask somebody if they were laid off, so I’d circle around the question such as, “How were your reviews?” As I became more experienced and comfortable recruiting, I started being much more blunt (in the most respectful way) and figured out numerous interesting patterns.

Here’s one particular strategy you can use – it’s called narrow-pause (yes, I made that up). When you ask somebody a narrow question that requires a yes or no answer (for example, “Were you asked to leave your firm?”), if the person pauses right after you ask the question, this often indicates they are processing the question to determine whether the honest answer will help or hurt their goal. For example, if I ask a candidate, “Were you asked to leave your firm?” and they reply with, “Was I asked to leave?” or “What do you mean?” this is essentially a pause that buys them time to figure out how to answer the question. If they immediately answer a narrow question with a “yes” or “no”, this is most likely to be a truthful response. This can also be used by candidates with law firms: if you ask a partner a narrow question such as “Do you like practicing here?” and the partner responds with, “Wow, that’s a great question”, the partner is grasping for a pause to enable a second to process how to best answer the question in the most politically correct fashion.

If you think this type of stuff is interesting (especially litigators who do a lot of investigation-type of work), check out Janine Driver, an expert on deception techniques: http://www.lyintamer.com/.

A great tool to organize multi-step projects – MindManager

Almost every project you are going to work on involves multiple steps.  The better you can organize and manage these multi-step projects, the more efficient and effective you will be.  In this post, I want to share a very cool program I’ve been using for a number of years.

When I was practicing law, I used to work with a partner who organized all of his cases on one MS Word document.  Whether it was a client opinion letter or a huge litigation, each project had one document and he would go through and write all of the steps on a different line.  Once each step/task was completed, he would write a small “x” to the right of the task.

All of us who worked with this partner considered ourselves very fortunate to have the luxury of working with a partner who actually had a document that contained all of the steps.  Unlike working with other litigation partners–many who simply had the entire litigation process in their head and didn’t feel the need to reduce it to paper–the benefit of having a map of the case on a single document was tremendously helpful.

This was in 2003, and technology has come a long way since.

Over the past few years, I have been relying heavily on a fantastic software program called MindManager (made by MindJet), which allows you to “map” (similar to the process of diagramming/branching) multi-step projects onto a very user-friendly software program.  (If you’re interested in this type of thing, check out www.mindjet.com).

It allows you to modify and change these maps in so many ways that make it easy to “see” what most people try to store in their heads.  The process of mind mapping is becoming extremely popular because it engages both the analytical side and visual side of the brain.  It’s hard to explain, but if you try it, you will quickly understand how it adds a completely new dimension to the way you view your projects.  I have tried many project management software programs, and MindJet is liberating in a way I have never experienced.  It

Had the partner I worked with a few years ago used something like this, our dinky case management documents would have been taken to a whole new level.  We would have been able to collaborate, highlight, add tasks, color code, delegate more easily, and have fun with a whole bunch of other features.

But it goes much beyond organizing multi-step projects.  You can also use it to brainstorm, give presentations, manage your to-do list in a visual manner, and simploy “dump” everything that is lingering in your head that you need to get down on paper.

Since I am no longer working in a law firm, I don’t know if this type of software has yet caught on.  But it’s only a matter of time before it does because it makes complex, multi-step projects much more manageable.  For lawyers that spend much of their days managing multi-step projects, this could truly be a lifesaver if you are the type of person who likes to see everything laid out in front of you.

I have only used MIndManager and recently learned that they have a number of other programs (such as online collaboration tools, which could be good for multi-office collaboration), which I hope to try soon.  But if this intrigues you, check it out – they have free trial downloads.

Do NOT Pass Up an Interview Just Because the Firm is Not Footing the Bill

We all know this is a very tough job market for attorneys.  There have been countless law firm layoffs and fewer openings for lateral hires at the firms.  As such, the competition has gotten out of control.  In fact, it is not unusual for a firm to interview upwards of ten attorneys for a single position.  Gone are the days in which associates are confident that they “have it in the bag” if they are invited back to a firm for a second round of interviews.  Instead, I am seeing attorneys invited back for third rounds, asked for a writing sample and references, only to be turned down in favor of another candidate.

While the competition is tough, the only way to obtain a new job is to actually get before prospective employers in an interview setting.  And in this market, it may require you to shell out a few dollars to do so.  For example, a few weeks ago I submitted a fantastic candidate, currently practicing in New York, to a firm here in Chicago.  The firm responded by letting me know that they liked the candidate’s resume and asking if I knew whether this candidate had any plans to be in Chicago in the next month.  If so, the firm would like to interview her, but the firm was not willing to pay for the candidate to fly into Chicago for the interview.

Knowing that my candidate had no immediate plans to come to Chicago, I called her and told her to book the first flight out here to meet with the firm.  While she was excited at the prospect of doing so, she pushed back at my suggestion because, as she put it “my [current] firm pays me next to nothing, and I cannot afford to pay for my own flight.”

While I felt badly for this candidate, I spent the next few minutes explaining to her that in this market, firms have plenty of candidates to choose from, so if she didn’t fly in for the interview, the firm was going to find other candidates who would.  Thankfully, it clicked with my candidate, and $350 later, she was on her way to Chicago and ready to meet with the firm.

Thankfully, the interview went very well.  In fact, the partner with whom she met liked her so much that he invited her back on the spot for another round of interviews while she was in town.  This time, the firm would pay for her to change her return flight so that she could stay in town for the interview.

This full round of interview took place yesterday, and while we have not yet heard whether she is going to be given an offer from the firm, the point of the story is that she would never have found herself in this position if she hadn’t taken the chance and come out, on her own dime, for the interview.

Should You Work With Recruiters Who Offer You Bribes or Kickbacks to Take Jobs?

At BCG Attorney Search we do not bribe candidates to take jobs and we cannot possibly understand why anyone would possibly offer a kick back to a candidate for taking a job. We do not do this. Working with a recruiting firm that offers kickbacks is one of the most harmful possible things you could do for your career. Notwithstanding, we can understand both points of view in terms of why people would want to get kickbacks from recruiters and why recruiters would offer them.

You should understand that there are business and other implications of recruiting firms that do this and also, candidates that take these kickbacks. Finally, you should be aware of some of the ultimate penalties and benefits to your career that could come about from your taking kickbacks from recruiters.

We can understand why a candidate would want to use a recruiting firm that gives them $10,000.00 or whatever it is when they place them. That’s a lot of money anywhere. It would be a lot of money to me. When you get that $10,000.00 it’s almost like a justification for moving. It’s a bonus of sorts from the firm that is hiring you. It makes you feel important. It does all sorts of positive things. So I understand why people would want to work with a recruiting firm that does that.

Likewise, I understand why recruiting firms would want to offer it. It is a great way to drum up business; especially if you advertise it. You can advertise that you pay money to people when they are placed. That’s something that certainly will draw in lots and lots and lots of candidates. People are attracted to money – even if the prospect of taking this money means they are taking a huge risk with the course of their lives. For example, people become actresses in pornography movies and prostitutes – most often for money. They do not realize that this one simple decision to do either of these things could have devastating implications for them for the rest of their lives.

There are essentially two issues with taking kickbacks from recruiters if they place you. One of them is a business issue. The other one is an ethical issue–sort of a baggage that you are going to have to carry with you when you walk into a law firm and the partners and everybody there will know what you did. Also, the firms that are interviewing you may base part of what they know about you on the fact that you work with a recruiting firm that pays kickbacks.

The first thing is from a business standpoint. I really think you need to understand that running a solid, research-oriented recruiting firm, for example like BCG Attorney Search, takes an incredible amount of money. It’s more than a significant portion of the placement fee. It’s a heck of a lot of money.

We have costs of research. We have programmers. We have data bases monitoring firm openings. We have researchers monitoring firm openings. We have proofreaders going over letters from us making sure we are making a good impression on our clients. We are going to conferences. We’re holding meetings and conferences with each other to talk about the legal recruiting industry. We’re doing lots and lots of things. We’re entertaining law firms consistently and on an ongoing basis. We have managers that are managing the process and overseeing. We’re providing reviews. We’re screening recruiters.

It’s probably not millions, but thousands of things that are done to run a recruiting firm–a solid recruiting firm that endures. The issue is that running a recruiting firm that endures takes a lot more than a small amount of money. It takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of money to subscribe to all the legal publications and to make sure we are on top of the jobs that are advertised in there and on top of the news that is happening with law firms. That is a significant, significant thing when you are working with a recruiting firm; all that work that is done behind the scenes.

If you take a $40,000.00 placement fee, and out of that placement fee $10,000.00 goes to the candidate that doesn’t leave the recruiting firm with a lot of money to pay its recruiters. More importantly, it hardly leaves it any profit margin if it is operating itself effectively. If it’s a fly-by-night operation or an operation that is not emphasizing those things then it doesn’t matter. For the most part, 10% is 25% of $40,000.00. Very few businesses in this world have 25% profit margins; hardly any of them do. Maybe some software businesses do but very few that involve humans doing research and work have 25% profit margins.

So that is something for you to think about when you are using a recruiting firm that is paying you a kickback–the money to run the firm is coming from you. You are paying for the work that normally would be done by not having the work done because you are really sacrificing something. That is a very, very important thing. Every candidate wants to know what is in the market. There are small firms that pay huge salaries and there are big firms that pay huge salaries. But you need access to every single one of them and that’s extremely important. Being on top of that information is extremely important. Having quality control in a placement firm is extremely important. All of this stuff iswhat makes a solid recruiting firm. That’s why our firm has made thousands and thousands of placements. That’s why it endures as an institution is because the work that we do is very, very good.

The average placement fee that a recruiter charges is typically 25% of your annual salary. However, in some cases law firms that are not as selective with candidates will negotiate this fee downward. If the law firm negotiates enough and if a recruiting firm is offering you a $10,000 kickback, there may be nothing left at the end of the day (or hardly anything left) for the placement firm. This means, essentially, that the firm offering you a kickback will not be able to get you a job at the firm because there will not be enough money involved.

There is another point we’d like to bring to your attention. That is the fact that when you are taking these kickbacks from firms, think about the fact that the firm that is getting a resume from a placement firm that does that knows that if they hire you they are giving you a kickback in order to hire you. That raises serious, serious ethical concerns.

We are in the legal profession. The legal profession is very staid. It is changing certainly, and there are firms that aren’t staid like that. But for the most part it’s very staid. Because the legal profession is so staid, you have to understand that when a firm gets a resume from a recruiter that is giving a kickback to you, that makes a lot of them very, very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that they may not be willing to hire you or they might not be willing to interview you. That’s a major thing. I would say that more than half of the firms know that and are uncomfortable with it; almost all of them know it.

Think about the fact that when you are going to work in a new firm or trying to interview with a new firm, you may have a harder time getting an interview if you are working with a recruiter that doesn’t necessarily have resources to go out and spend time with the firm, or who is paying you a portion of the placement fee because the firm may not like the fact that you are getting that. So you may get fewer interviews; think about that.

On the BCG Attorney Search website we have hundreds if not thousands of law firms that we made placements at. That placement number iswhat it is for a reason. The placement number is as high as it is because we go out and do a lot of work; we develop relationships. When a firm is seeing our candidates, they are seeing someone that they know is coming to them because they have chosen their firm. They know that our firm has provided them research and done lots and lots of work. So, that is just another thing.

Just think about that when you’re in the firm, you’ve probably gotten a kickback. That’s something that is going to raise serious concerns. That may actually lose you the interview. Frankly, I don’t care how good the market is; even if the market is on fire, you are still not going to get a lot of interviews in places you should or could. If the market is poor, that is going to hurt you even more. Many of the best attorneys out there may want to work at one or two firms. If those one or two firms aren’t going to use you because they view what you are doing as an ethical problem, you have a serious concern..

Now, there is another issue that we need to bring up that is very important: When you take these kickbacks from the recruiters, you are putting yourself in a situation where you’ll go into a firm and they may think, “Well, this person will leave for a little bit of money, $10,000 or $15,000.00. This person will take this amount of money in order to leave.”

That’s a lot of money. Don’t think that isn’t, and don’t believe the firms don’t think it is. That raises serious concerns too. It raises concerns about your loyalty.. It raises concerns about your judgment. Those kinds of concerns are the ones that prevent you, in a lot of cases from making partner or may foreclose that altogether if firms have loyalty concerns. If you can be prodded away for $10,000.00, or whatever the amount is, that is a major, major concern..

So, in summary, we do not believe it is a good idea for anyone to take kickbacks from recruiters and especially recruiters that go out there and advertise the fact that they are doing it. You are short changing yourself. You are making a deal with the devil. You are probably going to get interviews with fewer firms than you possibly could because a lot of firms will think it is unethical and won’t interview you or hire you.

Also, you are going to go into the firm with the idea that you could be prodded away shortly with a short amount of money and it’s going to raise questions about your loyalty. You have a career that is potentially worth millions and millions over the course of your career. Maybe even tens of millions of dollars if you do it right; probably tens of millions of dollars and that is a serious concern. All these things raise major concerns about using a recruiter that takes and gives kickbacks. You probably won’t even know there are jobs out there because they won’t have resources to do it.

We urge you. Use your head and think about these things. It’s not in your best interest and not being in your best interest, why would you risk your career and aspects of your career that are potentially worth tens of millions of dollars for a little short blip on the radar of 10 or 5 or whatever thousands it is? Don’t make that mistake. You could end up penalizing your career forever.