In-house Counsel Want More

In-house counsel are using fewer law firms and investing more time in managing their relationships with outside counsel. In addition, more than half of in-house counsel have terminated at least one relationship with outside counsel in the past year. These are some of the findings of a recent survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Counsel.

This study tells me that opportunities abound for lawyers looking to pick up corporate work. There are a lot of lawyers out there who still don't get "customer service". In-house counsel are paying far too much to outside lawyers to put up with poor service. So go forth and market! Meet GC's. Listen. Follow through on your promises. You may not be a better lawyer, but over time, you will win the business that is being squandered by lawyers with poor interpersonal skills.

Baseball as a Metaphor for Life

As my children have moved through grade school, I've rediscovered one of my own childhood interests, baseball. And being a resident of Massachusetts, it's hard not to love the Boston Red Sox, especially today, as we celebrate our second World Series victory in four years. I've also come to appreciate how much we can all learn by following America's pastime.

Baseball teaches us that losing is the norm. A batter who gets a hit one out of every three times he is up at the plate is considered a superstar. A team that wins ten games in a row is on fire. Winners are not individuals who "win" all the time. Winners are individuals who know how to get past failure.

The World Champion Boston Red Sox were down three games to one in the ALCS playoff and came back to win the next three games. The Colorado Rockies, who were declared "out of it" long before the end of the baseball season (so much so that Major League Baseball did not even let them sell post-season tickets in August), did the unthinkable and won 13 of their last 14 regular season games only to clinch a playoff spot in a special playoff.

What this teaches us is that even champion teams fail. Even the best athletes have bad days. No one is successful all the time. So what have you failed at lately? How have you made your comeback? How have you turned losing into winning? Go Sox!

Money Won't Buy You Happiness

Stated more eloquently in today's Career Journal.

Ten Things I Hate About You

Looking for resources on marketing your law practice? Here is a nice book of articles that just came to my in-box. On a quick read, it looks like a good primer on how to build positive relationships which can lead to referral business. It is also a good reminder that publishing is an excellent way to let others know about your expertise. Give away content for free and know that in the long run, it will help generate billable work.

Can You Have Your Cake and Eat it Too?

What if you could work with big firm lawyers, get good work and come home for dinner most nights? That seems to be what many young associates want today; but it is not really one of the options for most lawyers who work for large firms.

In Law.Com today, I read an article about Gen Y lawyers heading to boutique firms whose founders came from biglaw. These associates are billing 1600 hours on sophisticated matters and trading a chunk of salary in order to have time in their lives for other pursuits. Recruiters quoted in this article describe it as a new phenomenon.

Actually, I think the basic business model has been around for a while (i.e. leave a large firm with a few partners, cut your size and overhead, lower your rates somewhat and let associates work livable hours--oh and pay them less.) There are a lot of smart associates out there who would be happy to earn less and work less. I certainly meet a lot of them. Is the trend picking up?

Good Networking is Relational, Not Transactional

A lot has been written on the subject of networking. I've written a few articles myself (e.g. here, here , here and here.) But someone can always come up with a new angle and most of us can use the help. So here is another good piece on the subject. This author points out that many lawyers view networking as a transactional activity (i.e. you meet once and it is over and done with.) But effective networking is really the opposite. Good networking takes place over time and has no end point. There is no closing.

And while I am on the subject, I continue to get invitations to join people in their LinkedIn network. I must confess that I have yet to make use of my 24 LinkedIn contacts, though I keep accepting the invitations. But Linked In is a tool that can help us find introductions to potential clients and employers and it is on my "to do" list to spend more time on the site. I was prompted to think more critically about this by reading this article. It seems to contain some excellent recommendations about how to get the most from LinkedIn. And make sure you understand the etiquette of this medium!

Is There Life After Law?

Do you believe in an afterlife? Are you wondering if lawyers can do anything but practice law after spending 5 years as an associate? Well stop wondering. Evidence of a legal afterlife is all around you. Many law school faculty and administrators once practiced law. Many legal recruiters like myself were once practitioners (while I actually skipped that step, most of my BCG colleagues spent several years in practice.) There are lawyers who launch business ventures, become teachers, enter politics or run non-profit organizations (for example.)

Although I can’t prove to you conclusively that there is in fact an “afterlife” in store for you, I can recommend a good blog to look to for inspiration, JD Bliss Blog. I am actually a guest blogger for JD Bliss and I recently posted about a corporate lawyer who became a general counsel and now works on leadership development at his company. Going in-house can be a good stepping stone to leaving the practice of law. But don't necessarily expect the change to happen quickly. Build your reputation first as being someone who knows how to get things done. If you do, your options will undoubtedly increase.

Are Brighter Days Ahead for Litigators?

The American Lawyer is reporting signs of a slow down in corporate work. The sub-prime mortgage crisis is having a direct impact on securitization work and private equity deals are starting to slow down as well. These deals, which are largely the domain of large firms, require armies of associates who at least until this summer, were burning the midnight oil on a regular basis.

At the same time, the SEC is hard at work investigating some of the shadier mortgage lending practices that lead to the spike in foreclosures. Could these mean better times for litigators? Amercian Lawyer seems to think so.

More on the Have's and Have Not's

A few weeks ago, I posted on the great divide in the legal profession. It seems that what is going on in the law is simply a microcosm of the economy at large (where demand for highly skilled service professionals and low wage service workers remains high, but the middle is losing out.)

While it is hard to say what the longterm impact will be on law firms, one thing remains clear: competition for the top talent is only increasing. In turn, partner movement is unlikely to abate any time soon as firms increase salaries to lure away superstars.

Have Law Firm Salary Hikes Spread to In-House?

According to Altman Weil, the answer is yes. Of course, one should be very wary of studies like these. There are a lot of factors that are taken into consideration when corporations set salaries for attorneys. I wrote an article about this a few years ago. My data is a little dated, but the general parameters are still applicable.

The actual study (which accounts for regional differences) is quite pricey. You might want to check with your law school career services office or law library to see if they have a copy (or might be willing to buy one.)

Should you send thank you notes after a law firm interview?

On average, roughly half of my candidates will ask me about the appropriateness and best method of sending thank you notes after finishing an interview. I was having the discussion so often that I decided it would be an excellent topic for an article, which is posted here.

I'm an adopted Southerner, and I feel pretty strongly that thank you notes are a professional courtesy that should always be extended. I believe thank you notes show respect for the individuals that spent their precious time to interview you. I also believe they are a nice opportunity for networking.

What is problematic, however, is the execution of the thank you note. Many attorneys make errors when drafting the note and a bad thank you note is worse than one that is never sent.

There is more detail in my article, but a few important points regarding thank you notes are:

1. E-mail is an acceptable method for a thank you note.

2. Even if you are handwriting your notes, type it up and run spell check/grammar check to make sure the note is error-free!

3. Do NOT send the same note to every person.

4. Even if you don't have time to write to every person with whom you met, you should send a note to the hiring partner or the person who spent the most time with you.

Paying Attention to Relationships Will Pay Big Dividends

If you have a lot of work on your plate, it is easy to become a slave to the billable hour. If you are at a large firm, that's probably what you are being told to do. But increasingly, success in the legal profession means having the ability to generate work and the best place to look for work in the future is by keeping up the relationship with existing clients today.

Of course you have to be sensitive to politics. If the client sends work to the firm because of a strong relationship with a partner, be careful about working too hard at cultivating the relationship. On the other hand, if you have become the primary client contact, there is nothing wrong with showing the client some appreciation through meals, sporting events or whatever seems appropriate. Even if the partner will "own" the relationship forever, if you do a good job for the client, you may be able to generate referrals.

For a good article on the subject, click here and wherever you see the word "consultant", insert the word "lawyer".