The Boutique Alternative

Undoubtedly, most of my conversations with candidates involve whether or not they will be able to find a job in 2010 — and how today’s market compares to 2009/2008.  The going commentary is that the first 8 weeks of 2010 have been markedly more active than 2009 (which was essentially a flat-line on the associate hiring side of the coin).  While this bit of information should lift some eyebrows and produce chants of joy, I find more and more candidates have become disillusioned with the job market and disgruntled with New York Big Law in general — leading to feelings of “leaving the practice,” “moving away,” or “taking time off until Big Law starts hiring again.” 

All of this confuses me and here is why:  Big Law is not the only game in town.  That’s a fact!  It’s a fact that bears repeating:  BIG LAW IS NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN. 

Big Law occupies only a small percentage of the overall law firm populace.  In fact, outside of that small percentage, you can find boutique firms, middle market firms, small firms, solo practitioners, virtual law practices, and any number of other “opportunities.”  However, people forget this fact, and we all need to be reminded of what truly exists out there.  Granted, it may not be where you saw yourself upon graduating from law school.  However, these often overlooked places offer real jobs, real opportunities, and real experience.

For anyone who grew up in small town America (that would be me) in the late 70s/early 80s when the steel mills were closing, we saw our parents and our friends’ parents lose their pensions and their livelihood when the steel mills shut down.  What else did we see?  We saw those same parents finding other jobs…anywhere they could.  Some left their professional jobs with corporations for solo practices as consultants.  Some left their career-inspired jobs to do free-lance writing or dedicate their 9 to 5 to other income-producing pursuits.  Others stayed in the professional world but in entirely different professional roles.  The bottom line here is that people did whatever they could to keep moving forward, and a little while later when the economy evened out and jobs were hopping again, some of them moved back into the roles they had originally but with different employers.  Some of them enjoyed their new work too much to make a change backward.  All of the above-referenced parents retired with professional accolades and a pension at the end of the day.  A friend of mine described this single-mindedness as follows (and as told to him by his father):  When you don’t know what to do, DO SOMETHING. 

What does this mean for lawyers right now?  It means that Big Law isn’t the only game in town, and if Big Law is hiring selectively and slowly right now, that’s okay.  Other opportunities exist so be mindful of them, look for them, interview for them, stay connected, involved, committed to your career.  Be flexible, open-minded, and see yourself in the larger picture.  Hopefully, the legal job market will continue to make careful steps toward improvement and hiring, but, until then, you cannot put your life or career on hold.  As they say, the character of a man or woman is not measured by success, but by adversity.  I believe that to be true, and it also bears repeating.

Finding Your Area of the Law–the How and When!

Build Your Book, Build Your Stable Future

What’s On Your Facebook Page?

The National Law Journal recently published an article (http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202423725315&pos=ataglance) which discussed the fact that jury consultants and trial lawyers are now researching social networking sites and personal blogs to assist them in the voir dire process. Conducting Internet research has proven very useful by providing trial lawyers with valuable insight about potential jurors that is not readily apparent through voir dire. It appears that what people post on their MySpace or Facebook pages is far different from what they state on their jury questionnaires. For example, the article mentions a case where the defense successfully had a juror dismissed after discovering that the juror had lied on her questionnaire through an Internet search.

Jury consultants and trial lawyers are not the only ones who are using Internet research in this manner. Law firms often use the Internet as well to conduct informal background searches on potential lateral candidates. More and more firms are searching the Internet, especially social networking sites and personal blogs, to gain better insight into a potential candidate. Thus, before you start your job search, it is very important that the public information on your Facebook or MySpace page does not contain anything that you would not want a potential employer to know. After all, you never know who may be googling your name next.

Too Many Transitions Without Ever Having Moved–

But what do you do when your law firm has transitioned while you have literally “stayed put?” This dilemma came to mind today when I received an updated v-card from a very skilled senior associate. The only change from his previous contact information was the name of the firm and the email domain. Same address. Same phone. Same fax. And this was the third time this had happened in the last four years.

The Bay Area market may be at the forefront of this phenomena. It seems every week a new out of state firm is setting up shop in the Silicon Valley, usually by acquiring practice groups or taking on a another firm’s regional office that was unable to reach critical mass. When presenting resumes to Silicon Valley hiring personnel, especially in the areas of corporate practice and IP, there is some forgiveness for many “apparent transitions” if the “merger or acquisition” between firms is still relatively fresh in everyone’s mind. Candidates have developed the asterisk technique on resumes to label the current firm and then in a footnote name the prior firm who was acquired. Unfortunately, the “chain of title” on some of these resumes is getting long and the footnotes are beginning to distract.

What do you do if you are in this position? First, make sure you are aligned with strong senior attorneys in your group. Is there a reason for this lack of stability? What is the personality of your supervising partner? Why has the group been vulnerable to takeover? A multitude of factors can help you decide whether you are still on a positive career trajectory or whether the dynamics may cause this to repeat and repeat. You can get advice from many people in this regard, including your legal recruiter who is familiar with the “word on the street.”

Dependents’ Day

It is ironic to me that just days after we celebrated our nation’s independence, I got a call from the parent of a young lawyer. Sadly, this isn’t unusual, it happens more often than you might imagine. I’m really terribly ambivalent about telephone calls that start “my son/daughter just graduated from law school and….” I’m ambivalent because who can criticize a well-meaning parent who is genuinely hoping to help their kid by gathering career advice? On the other hand, for those of us on the receiving end of the phone call, it can really undermine your child’s credibility. Er, I mean, your adult son or daughter’s credibility.

Also, it’s unprofessional.

On a cranky day, my instinct is just to say “tell them to call me directly” and hang up the phone. I’ve never been cranky enough to do it. I just try as best I can to answer their (the parents’) questions and send them in the right direction. I usually point out that it would *really* be better if their son or daughter was doing this work on their own behalf. I hear two responses. First I hear “oh well he or she is sooo busy.” Second, I hear that the parent is just trying to give them a kick in the pants to push them forward in their career. Neither of these excuses dull the absurdity, in my opinion. It certainly highlights the possibility that if your parents are doing the work of managing your legal career, you have more significant issues to overcome than time management.