Pick Your Practice Area Wisely

As we are riding the roller-coaster ride that is the US economy, it seems to be a great time to revisit practice areas selection for associates. There are two types of practice areas – those that thrive in “up” markets and those that thrive in “down” markets. Right now, the market is as down as it can be.

Who’s busy?
Bankruptcy
Litigation (slightly busy, and we are expecting more hours out of you litigation associates this year)

Who’s not busy?
M&A
Capital Markets/Finance
Real Estate

There are certain practices that are able to exist in both “up” and “down” markets:
Tax and other specialty practices
Intellectual Property

Why? Tax supports many of a firm’s practice areas and, thus, has a slight “internal hedge” against a down market. Intellectual property involves different types of work as well. Even though IP transactional work has slowed to a crawl, patent prosecution and IP litigation are still rolling along.

My advice? When selecting a practice area in your early career, know whether or not your practice is an up or down market practice. It will allow you to plan to ride the roller-coaster more enjoyably – e.g. if you chose to become a bankruptcy associate in a top firm, expect that you will be slammed when all of your attorney friends are slow and on the hunt for work.

The Downside of the Internet

Here’s a little secret: one of the first things a future employer will do is “Google” you. A good recruiter will Google you first – before the firm has a chance to do so. What is out there about you?

• Last week, I was recently speaking to an attorney who was interested in working with BCG on his job search. He is working at a big firm and was looking to make a lateral move. In our preliminary conversation, he mentioned that he had worked at two firms. After our conversation, I wanted to see what was out there about him – and I found that he had worked at a third firm as well. When I asked him about it, he asked me how I had heard about that. He was shocked when I said a ten second Google search. If I found it, any potential employer can find it as well. Be honest. Full disclosure.
• Yesterday, David Lat from Above the Law highlighted another unfortunate case. A 21 year old who is scheduled to begin Fordham Law School this fall was featured in The Horny Issue of Time Out New York. This information will come up on the Internet for years to come. This girl has already hurt her law career – and she hasn’t even begun law school or signed on the dotted line of her law school loans. Why would she want to handicap her future career prospects? Query whether a firm like Davis Polk would be interested in someone who has appeared in The Horny Issue or whether Fordham Law would want someone with such poor judgment. All types of people work at law firms – some with interesting and fascinating “hobbies.” What you do is your business – but it is better to keep it on the down-low.
• Recently, a candidate came to us and noted that he was gay, but that he didn’t want to advertise that fact to potential employers. (Note to job hunters: the vast majority of firms don’t care if you are gay.) Of course there isn’t any obligation for you to disclose your sexual orientation. It’s your business. Guess what? A super fast Google search. His sexual orientation disclosed to one and all. So, although he had intended to keep his orientation a secret, he really hadn’t.
• I am not going to even address the countless law students who have inappropriate photos and language on their MySpace or Facebook pages and other social networking sites. There are stories about those jobless people all the time.

Moral of the story? Always know what is out there about you! Do your best to control that information. If you don’t, you’ll be doing extensive damage control for a long time to come.

Life in the Real World

When I speak with candidates, I really believe that honesty is paramount. After a conversation with a recruiter, a candidate should know his/her chances of success in the market and should have an assessment of the timing of the search, etc. Sometimes it is hard for candidates to hear the truth.

I was recently speaking with a first year litigation associate who had excellent credentials. The potential candidate came to me in her second month of practice and said that she had to leave her firm. She couldn’t stand it. Really. I am sure it wouldn’t surprise you to know that looking for a new position in the second month of your first year might set off a few red flags in a law firm’s recruiting department. Even though I had explained every one of the associate’s “negatives” to her, she insisted upon a job search against my admonition.

Fast forward a few months. I was right. This associate doesn’t have a new position. Why not? Well, the associate couldn’t understand the reality of the situation – the overall economy, her lack of experience, the non-existent litigation market. It was a confluence of many negative factors. According to the candidate:

I should have been marketable on the basis of my credentials alone, no matter what my seniority or the state of the economy.

That statement might be accurate when you are interviewing for a summer associate position but it is very different in the lateral hiring context. Some associates get the wrong idea about lateral hiring because their only experience involves interviewing for a summer position as a law student. It’s not like that in the “real world” – the post-graduation, first year associate world. I had a teacher in high school who would always reference a utopia called “the land of the bunnies.” Would that all job searchers could live there!

If only this associate could accept the reality of her situation. Some factors are beyond anyone’s – even an associate with excellent credentials – control. Sometimes it is best to wait on a job search until those factors lessen a bit.

All I Wanted Was A Vacation….

I recently had a firm ask to revisit a candidate that they had passed on several months ago. Their first question, logically, was whether or not the candidate was still on the market. “Are they still interviewing?” To my chagrin, I had to tell the firm that while this candidate was still on the market, she was no longer with her firm. Unfortunately, now the firm has decided to hold off bringing her in for an interview so that they can look at some other candidates.

The truth is that this candidate left her job willingly and happily and did so because “she had enough money to last a while and wanted some time off.” You work hard and deserve to take some time off. However, I can not stress to you enough to take the time off AFTER you secure employment.

I once wrote an article geared toward law students regarding the importance of how they spend their summers and how it can speak volumes to a law firm. Firms want to know their junior associates are focused, goal oriented and are going to be long-term hires. One way to gauge that focus is by looking at how they choose to spend their summers. Backpacking in Europe or billing hours at Skadden Arps?

The same goes for a candidate’s judgment when it comes to leaving one job before securing another. It is rare that a firm’s needs are so urgent that they are willing to walk away from an ideal candidate because they have asked to take a few weeks for some much needed rest.

While every situation is unique, I urge you to talk to your recruiter before taking that walk down the hall and giving your two weeks notice. Otherwise, you may be taking a much longer vacation than you had anticipated!

Choosing a Recruiter for Your Lateral Partner Search

BCG does quite a bit of work with partner candidates. The market continues to be strong for lateral partners nationwide.

Partner searches are different from associate searches, and it is important to find a recruiter who understands your objectives. I recently wrote an article on Choosing a Recruiter for Your Lateral Partner Search, highlighting important qualifications in a recruiter on partner searches. If you have a talented recruiter on your side, then your search will be much more pleasant and (hopefully) successful.

Online Job Boards Help Job Seekers

Try as we might, recruiters cannot help everyone. There are many unemployed professionals who are looking for their next position. The Wall Street Journal recently featured an article about online job boards, For the Jobless, Web Sites Offer More Options. Online job boards can definitely help job-seekers find their right match!

BCG’s parent company, EmploymentScape, has a job board custom-tailored for the needs of attorney job hunters: LawCrossing, the largest legal job portal in the United States. I have been a long-time LawCrossing subscriber – for many more years than I have been employed by this company – and definitely think that it is a phenomenal site for legal positions. I always recommend it to my job-searching friends. Check it out at www.lawcrossing.com.

Legal Career Advice: Keep Your Eyes Open!

Last week, I had the opportunity to revisit my law school days at my 10th law school reunion (go Fordham!) It is incredible to see how diverse the career paths of my classmates have been. Sure – there are those who joined a firm in 1998 and have now made partner there. But the vast majority have tried two or more law firms, before going in-house or on to another venture – either law or non-law related.

For many junior attorneys, partnership is the ultimate goal. That changes for many people as they gain seniority and realize that there are many other options for them. Some turn down partnership because they are more intrigued by another path.

In my class, we have spread like the diaspora around the country and the world. We are in so many different industries and are partners, counsel and associate at law firms big and small.

Here are some examples:
- partners at BigLaw firm in U.S.
- partners at BigLaw firms outside of the U.S.
- partners at smaller firms in NY and in smaller legal markets
- general counsel at a publicly-traded corporation
- general counsel at an investment firm
- solo practitioners
- in-house counsel
- government employees
- one (very) happy staff attorney
- one (very, very) happy legal recruiter!

You’ll have so many options throughout your career. Your career path has to work for you. Believe me – very few of my colleagues would have chosen to become a legal recruiter. But it completely works for me.

My advice for today: Work hard, be well-regarded among your colleagues and periodically assess your options.

My BCG Attorney Search colleagues and I are always here to discuss the legal market!

Do We Really Need More Law Schools?

Plans for three new law schools in New York were recently announced. There are additional law schools being started around the country. The National Law Journal has an article on the “deluge of law schools” today. For the article, click here. More law schools – is that necessary? There are so many law schools producing lawyers, but not enough jobs to go around.

Many students think that a law degree will lead them to a $160K job in BigLaw. So they attend law school. Unfortunately, graduates of lower tier law schools have an incredibly hard time securing legal employment after graduation. Some of these newly-minted lawyers have crushing law school debts and no chance of the $160K job (or, in some cases, a job at all!) Graduates of non-accredited law schools are really behind the eight ball upon graduation.

If you go to a law school outside of the top 20, make sure that you graduate in the top 10% – otherwise you will have a very difficult time trying to recoup your law school investment.

Math for Lateral Partners

The lateral partner market is a flurry of activity right now. We are currently working with a number of lateral partner candidates. The most frequent concern among partners conducting a search? How to value their book of business in strange economic times. My colleague, Dan Binstock, just wrote a fabulous article on this very issue. In We Were Told You’d Bring Billables, Dan addresses the most effective way to value your book so that you are representing yourself in an honest, accurate and marketable way.

Is the Versatility of a Law Degree Just a Myth?

How easy is it to use your law degree to secure a position in an alternate field? Ever wondered just how versatile your law degree will be? Steven Seckler, managing director of BCG Attorney Search, notes that a law degree might not be as flexible as one might hope in Is the Versatility of a Law Degree Just a Myth?, a National Law Journal article.