Legally Speaking – Legal Recruiter Blog

It’s the eternal question. Should I do what I love, money be darned, or should I go for the big bucks, idealism be darned? Just how much should money factor into your career decision? It’s a big question, one that you can’t be expected to have a ready answer for right out of school. And it’s an ever-evolving question, the answer to which will likely change throughout different stages of your life. The answer isn’t easy, but, as always, there are both practical and personal things to consider.

Choose Your Field

Different fields have different compensation standards; research average salaries for careers in your field. Typically, for example, someone in a technical or engineering field can realistically expect to make more than someone in an arts or service field. But also keep in mind that where you start doesn’t necessarily determine where you’ll finish. Your field doesn’t have to limit you. There’s creativity to be found in utilizing your individual skills to create your own unique niche. The maxim “Do what you love and the money will follow” is often true.

Leverage Your Skills

You can also leverage your skill set and passions in different ways. If you’re an English major, a future in teaching or publishing isn’t set in stone; you could use your writing skills in the communications or public relations department of a big company. If art is your passion, consider a commercially viable creative path such as graphic design. Every industry you can think of needs a whole team of people with different skill sets behind it.

Intangibles vs. Tangibles

No matter what, there are two tangible aspects of your life to which your work is undeniably tied: money and time. What you do does determine how much you earn, and how much you earn reasonably affects other aspects of your life, like how much time it will take to pay off student loans, how much you can save, how much you can afford to spend on essentials like rent and groceries, and how much you have left over for luxuries and fun. Living on less isn’t impossible, but will involve some budgeting and prioritizing. You might have to look into free or cheap fun things to do and (gasp!) learn how to cook. In terms of time, different fields require different time commitments from their employees. An investment banker far out-earns an editorial assistant, but makes up for that money working double the hours. Are you willing to put in all the hours required in a demanding position, or would you rather spend fewer hours at work and have more free time to yourself? There’s a reason they say “time is money.” If anything, time is more important than money. No one lies on their deathbed wishing they had more money, but everyone wishes they had more time.

On the other hand, there is a huge intangible aspect of your work, the importance of which is equal to or greater than that of the tangible aspects: job satisfaction. Do you find fulfillment in your work? Do you wake up every morning dreading the day to come, or do you wake up in the morning in anticipation of it? Do the hours at the office drag or do they fly by? Hours spent at the office don’t seem like a burden if you enjoy every second.

Read the rest…

Ed Burke

The Am Law Daily

04-04-2013

Here’s a logic problem with practical consequences: Given that a firm’s survival depends on revenue; that revenue comes from sales; that lawyers are the ones charged with bringing in revenue; and that most lawyers can’t sell and don’t want to, which of the following should law firms do?

A) Keep depending on a handful of rainmakers with portable business.
B) Continue spending millions on marketing to support people who can’t sell.
C) Fire the CMO—again.
D) Scrap the existing compensation plan for one that truly provides a motivation for selling.
E) Teach the lawyers how to sell in a way they’ll accept.

If you doubt that the last answer is the best, consider one major law firm’s experience.

In the second session of a sales training program, several of the firm’s partners abruptly announced they had to opt out to respond to an urgent over-the-transom beauty contest. They were persuaded to stay and use the session to prepare for the pitch, so that all the participants could see the program in action.

The team garnered one of the largest antitrust cases of the decade. The astonished head of litigation, an initial skeptic, later wrote in a memo that the two things the client noted in its decision were the very two things (revolutionary for the time) that the session had stressed—gaining the prospect’s trust and showing that the lawyers knew the company. In a different pitch, the head of litigation added, there was an “unmistakable” difference between those who’d been trained and those who hadn’t.

Seldom do marketing programs produce such a “smoking gun.”

You’d think that in the ensuing 19 years, word would have leaked out about the potential of sales training. But a recent survey by The American Lawyer’s research arm found that the biggest complaint raised by young partners is that their firms don’t sufficiently prepare them to develop business.

Instead, firms have collectively spent literally billions of dollars and decades of time on an endless succession of dubious flavor-of-the-month marketing programs that don’t generate revenue.  Why? Because these programs are dictated more by what the partners will do within their comfort zones than by what works.  And then marketing—the process or the department—is blamed.

If a worker keeps blaming his tools for his failure, you don’t keep giving him more expensive tools. You teach him how to build.

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Sara Randazzo

The Am Law Daily
The legal sector added 2,000 jobs in March, according to preliminary data released Friday from the U.S. Department of Labor, the highest single-month gain in nearly a year, and the first addition of jobs in the industry since 2013 began.

Initial reports from the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 200-job boost in the legal services industry in February based on seasonally adjusted figures, but revised data now shows that 700 jobs were lost that month. An additional 2,400 jobs were lost in January, though all data from 2013 is still considered preliminary.

The number employed in the industry as of March—1,126,900—is 9,000 higher than in March of last year. The figures have yet to rebound from their prerecession peak of 1.18 million.

Overall, the nation added an underwhelming 88,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, The New York Times reports, half of what economists expected. The unemployment rate remained nearly unchanged at 7.6 percent.

Last month, frequent Am Law Daily contributor Matt Leichter concluded that the legal sector has not benefited from what he calls the greater economy’s upward slog. Read Leichter’s full analysis here.

We all know today’s legal market continues to evolve and it certainly presents unique challenges. With the uncertainly still looming over the financial markets, many law firms continue to streamline their ranks and trim compensation for partners whose business has fallen off. It is not uncommon to push partners into early retirement or into counsel positions for those who are no longer producing at an acceptable partner level.

So…in light of these not so attractive elements, how do you stay nimble and place yourself in a position to exact the most benefit from the current market situation? How do you maintain a vital position and keep your firm enamored with you?

Answer: Do some soul-searching and ask yourself these thought-provoking questions. If you answer them honestly, they will help you determine if you should stay the course with your current firm or start to look for new digs.

1. Are you satisfied with your firm’s reputation in the legal and business communities?
2. Is your firm well managed?
3. Are you optimistic when it comes to the financial health of your firm? Do you believe management is making the right decisions regarding the firm’s future?
4. Does your firm provide the platform you require for building your practice? Does your practice coincide with the strategic vision of the firm?
5. Is the firm committed to marketing? Does the firm provide you with the resources you need to successfully market your practice?
6. Are firm billing rates compatible with your specialty and your clients and has your firm adopted a flexible billing program?
7. Do you have the opportunity to participate in important departmental or practice decisions? If you desire a leadership role in the firm, is that a real possibility?
8. Do you feel you are compensated fairly when compared with your peers at your current firm and with those at similar firms?
9. Is your firm a good cultural fit? Do your peers share your views of work/life balance and superior client service and reputable character?
10. Does the firm’s physical surroundings provide an atmosphere where you can be productive?
11. Do you feel respected and valued by your peers? Do you respect and value your colleagues’ legal work? Are you comfortable referring your clients’ matters to them?
12. Do you receive adequate support from other partners, associates, paralegals and support staff in order to get work done in a timely fashion?
13. Is the firm committed to pro bono work and community service in a way that coincides with your values and beliefs?
14. Does the firm have a fair policy for recognizing cross-marketing and service to yours and others clients? Is there equality regarding how much work you receive from others as opposed to how much work to you throw off to others?

Article as seen on Law.com – By Gina Passarella of The Legal Intelligencer – March 14th, 2013

As the final pieces of the America Invents Act are about to go into effect March 16, intellectual property lawyers are scrambling to get thousands of last-minute patent filings in before the old rules expire Friday.

And with firms inundated by clients’ interest in updating their patent filings before the country moves from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file patent system Saturday, those lawyers expressed concern that the servers at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may not be able to handle the surge in online filings.

Attorney Kenneth N. Nigon of intellectual property boutique RatnerPrestia in Valley Forge, Pa., said his firm has been asking clients to file in advance of March 15. He said a number of clients were looking to file last week and this week. The firm — which Nigon pointed out is just one of hundreds of patent firms across the country — has more than 120 applications currently waiting to be filed before Saturday.

“Because of that we also are kind of wary and think the patent office electronic filing system may not be able to handle it,” Nigon said. “We’ve also prepared our in-house staff to do paper filings if need be.”

Aside from the Saturday date for implementation of the new patent system, Nigon said he would expect another round of increased filings in advance of March 19, when filing fees are set to increase.

Cozen O’Connor intellectual property attorney Kyle Vos Strache said in a typical week he may personally file a handful of applications. This week, Vos Strache said, he anticipates filing dozens.

“I imagine the patent office is going to be incredibly busy come Thursday and Friday,” Vos Strache said. “We’ve really been pushing clients to get us responses to our drafts in the last two or so weeks and not this week. It’s hard to say whether the servers at the patent offices will be able to handle it.”

Vos Strache said he is trying to be proactive and avoid filing anything Friday. He said there is “truly that potential for something to go wrong” in this situation. To avoid that as best as it can, Cozen O’Connor has approved its attorneys and staff to work late all this week to get everything done, he said.

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney‘s intellectual property group co-chairman, Michael L. Dever, said there will most likely be a “huge spike” in application filings Friday. That is something the USPTO had been preparing for, he said.

The USPTO is not expecting a problem this week. The office said it “has deployed sufficient server capacity to support any potential surge.”

Read the rest…

Originally seen:  Law.com – March 8th, 2013 – By: Tom Huddleston, Jr.

Legal hiring rebounded slightly last month after suffering a major drop-off in January, with the industry adding 200 jobs, according to seasonally adjusted preliminary employment data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The initial estimate of February’s modest gains comes a month after the BLS reported that the legal industry had shed 2,400 positions in January.  The positive news contained in Friday’s report was, however, offset by a revision to the preliminary January figures that pushed that month’s estimated job losses up to 3,500. (Friday’s report showed the agency’s December estimate holding steady at 1,900 jobs gained for the month.)

Factoring in Friday’s hiring estimates, the legal sector now employs 5,000 more people than it did at this point last year and roughly 1.125 million people overall—about 50,000 fewer than it did at its prerecession peak in 2007.

Overall, the U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 236,000 jobs in February, according to The New York Times. The uptick dropped the unemployment rate to 7.7 percent, the lowest it’s been since December 2008.

The National Law Journal reports that as of mid-January there was a 20 percent decline in applicants for seats in American Bar Association-accredited law schools, and the AM Law Daily speaks of the recent British law firm lay-offs and poses the question: Will U.S. firms be next? From massive firm lay-offs and talks of restructuring legal departments to an immense decline in the number of law school applicants, the handwriting is definitely on the wall – the legal industry is changing. So I ask you: Are you prepared to change with it? Are you ready for the new “normal”? While it can be difficult to determine what to do in this new market, it is crucial that you explore creative solutions and determine which options will best suit your goals, personality and skill set. There are many options, but doing nothing isn’t one of them (check out our blog post to learn why).

An up-and-coming trend you may want to consider with endless rewards and possibilities is contract work. An independent contractor (IC), as it relates to the legal industry, is a lawyer who, instead of being a salaried employee with a particular law firm, is “contracted” to work on particular cases or for a designated time period for one or several law firms. Working as a contract attorney could be your safety net until you determine which direction you’d like to go in your career.

You are only as good as the people you know in today’s job market. One of the benefits of contract work is that it provides you the opportunity to make connections and get your foot in the door of many notable firms. Making these connections with recruitment coordinators and partners may be just what it takes to give you an edge when it comes time to recruit new lawyers. It doesn’t hurt that the employer gets to see a few samples of your legal work, either.

Besides helping you make connections, another perk contract work offers is flexibility. You control how much time you spend working on projects and how many projects you take on. Contract work can be used to supplement the income you are already receiving at your current firm or you can make a full-time job of it. It is also flexible in that it allows you to work on projects from any location – the office, from home, the hotel while on vacation or while visiting your mother.

You may be thinking, “OK, I’m listening. So how do I even get started working on projects for these law firms?” Fortunately, I have the answer for that. GLI/Global Legal Recruiting network has a sister company called GTS that has potential projects in 30 different locations in the U.S. as well as in more than 77 countries, which means we anticipate a continuous, steady stream of interesting projects. If you are interested in working on projects or have any questions regarding available opportunities or contract work in general, I would be happy to be of assistance. The legal world is changing – wouldn’t it be more savvy if, instead of getting wiped out by the title wave, to instead be prepared to ride the wave in the sea of change. Isn’t it great to have choices!

Sara Randazzo

The Am Law Daily

01-25-2013

Law firm layoff news ran rampant this week overseas, with Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, and Eversheds all confirming office closures and other structural overhauls affecting lawyers and staff.

At Eversheds, up to 166 positions worldwide—made up of 82 lawyers, including partners, as well as 84 staff—could be eliminated as part of a new three-year strategic plan, according to a statement from the firm.

The cuts come as Eversheds, which does not have any offices in the United States, shuffles management in Asia, closes its Denmark office, and changes the way it structures business functions in the United Kingdom. The firm’s real estate practice, among others, is also being closely scrutinized. “Our view is that some markets in which we operate have undergone fundamental change, rendering our current structure unsustainable,” Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes said in the statement.

Allen & Overy, meanwhile, is ramping up efforts to outsource support services to a back office in Belfast. A total of 43 roles will move to the Northern Ireland city, including positions currently held by employees in the U.S. and in European offices such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Paris. The firm said in a release that it will offer relocation packages to those affected, and that no lawyers are included in the changes.

The firm’s Belfast operation, which launched in fall 2011, is akin to those of U.S. firms including Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s Wheeling, West Virginia, back office; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman’s Nashville location; and Bingham McCutchen’s soon-to-open Lexington office.

“With low economic growth across many developed markets, we must ensure we are operating in a way that will deliver the cost efficiencies our clients expect of us, so that we may protect the long-term competitiveness of our business,” Wim Dejonghe, the global managing partner for Allen & Overy, said in a statement.

Lastly, a DLA Piper spokesperson confirmed reports in the British legal press that the firm is closing its Glasgow office, shedding its insurance defense practice, and consolidating its document production unit. Of the 85 people currently in Glasgow, 45 jobs will be lost, according to the firm.

The changes are similar to efforts being made by Am Law 200 firms, says Zeughauser Group consultant Kent Zimmermann, though so far in 2013 none domestically have garnered such high-profile attention.

“These are not outliers. They’re not anomalies,” Zimmerman says of the recent layoffs. “It is something that’s happening quietly in many, many firms in the industry.” Zimmermann says he’s spoken with three managing partners of major firms in the past week, each of whom said they plan to make cuts in the first half of the year. (He declined to identify the three firms.)

With so many staff and associate reductions made over the past few years in an attempt to cut costs during the recession, Zimmermann says that he thinks the next round of layoffs will more negatively affect partners.

The American Lawyer’s most recent survey of law firm leaders, published in November, backed up that sentiment. Among the respondents, 45.5 percent said they had deequitized partners in the past year, which is often the first step toward asking a partner to leave. Roughly the same percent said they expected to do so in 2013.

Staffs were certainly not immune from layoffs over the past year. Dorsey & Whitney, for instance, trimmed 20 support staff from its ranks last summer, while Greenberg Traurig laid off staff to achieve a four-to-one attorney-to-secretary ratio, according to sibling publication the Daily Business Review.

Reuters reported in August on staff layoffs at Fish & Richardson and Fulbright & Jaworski, the latter of which was announced in a November merger with London-based legal giant Norton Rose. Legal blog Above the Law also noted potential stealth layoffs at Dickstein Shapiro and Winston & Strawn.

A few Am Law 200 firms also decided to shut offices last year, either as the result of partner losses or a strategic shift away from a given market. Baker & McKenzie announced the closure of its San Diego office in March; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman exited the Orange County, California, market in June; and Nixon Peabody closed its Paris office in December. (The news wasn’t all bad, however; The Am Law Daily has covered dozens of office openings in the past year.)

The collection of changes, in Zimmermann’s opinion, all point to a similar cause: “As pricing pressure from clients continues, firms have become less tolerant of chronically underperforming lawyers, practice areas, and offices. That’s resulting in more cuts.”

Brian Baxter contributed reporting.

Copyright 2013. ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved

Hello!  I’m Nancy Grimes.  In today’s workplace, we find many people who are unhappy in their current work situations.  There is a smorgasbord of reasons for their unhappiness: the work is not challenging, there’s no room for advancement, the work atmosphere or office culture is not conducive to producing a top work product, they don’t like the supervisor or their co-workers…  The list goes on and on.  However, after assisting thousands of people with their careers, I’ve discovered that these reasons are a “smokescreen” for what I feel are the foundational reasons for discontent with jobs – the employee has not acknowledged or uncovered their core career goals and objectives.

Until a person has a clear vision regarding his career goals and objectives, it is near impossible to realize maximum fulfillment from his job.  So, let’s delve into some basic career goals every employee should consider:

1. Expanded Skill set – Over time, your chosen career field will grow and change. In order to stay competitive, you must grow and change as well.  This may mean taking classes or attending seminars so you stay ahead of the curve.  For example, a doctor who doesn’t stay up on the latest techniques and medications will see his practice shrink over time.  In order to ensure you stay a marketable commodity, you must stay on top of the latest advancements.

2. Financial – Let’s face it.  This is one of the most important considerations.  If you feel you are underpaid, those feelings lead to your feeling undervalued, which snowballs into frustration that transfers into your work ethic and work product.  However, if an employee is overpaid, they may become lax and not as productive to the company as they were prior to their pay increase, which can lead to job loss.  So, there must be a balance where your pay is equal to what the work product is worth to the company.

3. Satisfaction – When you think about it, an activity that brings no satisfaction is an activity you rarely want to be involved in.   If you get no or little satisfaction from your job, you feel as if you’re trapped in a no-win situation.  For most of us, there is no amount of money you can substitute for job satisfaction.  Sooner or later, the money just isn’t worth it.

4. Variety – We spend 75% of our lives working.  It makes sense that we look at our careers not only to “get ahead” and provide for our families, but also to experience new challenges and expand our knowledge.  Look for ways to add different elements to your “standard, every day routine.”  This will stimulate your mind and help you keep a positive outlook.

If you’re feeling dissatisfied with your current job situation, it is imperative that you get a firm handle on the reasons why.  Often, if we take a good, hard look we’ll discover the primary problem is we don’t really know what we want to do – we just know what we’re doing isn’t it.  Until next time!   

Every day we make decisions; we choose a path…a course of action. Some are simple and take little thought, such as “What should I wear? What should I have for breakfast? Should I take the train or carpool? Should I grab takeout for dinner or make a quick stop at the grocers on the way home?” Not life-and-death choices, are they?

Unlike these decisions, sometimes we’re faced with heavyweight choices and those are often career and/or life-altering. Thomas J. Stanley, author of the book The Millionaire Mind wrote: “It is only when you exercise your right to choose, that you exercise your right to change.” As you, no doubt, have noted with technology, anything that isn’t consistently changing tends to fall by the wayside. For instance, the iPhone 4 was quickly abandoned when the “new and improved” iPhone 5 was unveiled. The same is true with your practice, and with the economy back on the rise, you must prepare yourself so you are not caught off guard. Below, I have compiled a list of thoughts you may need to consider if you are not quickly adapting to the new economic dynamics and getting ahead of the game:

1. While others are firing up their engines, anyone who is not adapting to the new economy will be left far behind. Although more cautiously than before, companies are still spending money when they see it’s a worthwhile investment. Are you that fresh opportunity?
2. How far behind are you now that the recovery is moving full-steam ahead? Will you be able to quickly adapt to the new landscape that is occurring? Or, will you be one of the many partners scrambling to regain your footing?
3. Perhaps your firm decided to freeze salaries and table bonuses this year. Don’t be surprised if the firm winds up investing that money (and then some) to replace those “valued” rainmakers who no longer feel appreciated by or connected to your organization.
4. Are your clients investigating innovative new programs and/or alternative means to meet their needs? If they took a close look at your practice, would they see the inventive ideas they are looking for, or are they left wanting?

So what is it going to be? Will you choose to stand in place and hope the winds of change don’t blow you away, or will you use the wind to help your practice move forward more swiftly? It’s all about the combination of the right timing and the right opportunity. At GLI, we’re always working on pivotal open positions in a wide variety of practice areas. We are creative, which gives us the ability to think differently and work outside of the boxes which constrain solutions for so many others. Our creativity allows us to see things others have not seen and thus show new directions and new possibilities to both clients and candidates alike. The most important question we can ask you is: “What if …?”

So, get the most out of 2013!  Enhance your performance with our tips. Check them out for free below.