Survey on Job Interviewing Etiquette

Vault has some interesting findings. Sounds like everyone should send thank you notes by e-mail.

Legal and Accounting Malpractice--Growth Areas?

According to the NLJ, lawyers and accountants are increasingly being sued by bankruptcy trustees for malpractice (in connection with misrepresenting a bankrupt company's true financial position.) In Boston, we are still waiting for a wave of bankruptcy and litigation to replace the heavy deal flow that was fueling law firm profits for the past several years. It hasn't happened yet, though bankruptcy practice is on the rise in New York. Could this signal a new wave of litigation?

Risky Business for In-House Counsel?

I've written in the past about the pro's and con's of leaving private practice for a corporate job. Overall, GC's seem to have a high level of career satisfaction. Here is more evidence of that. But GC jobs can be less secure than law firm jobs because partners have a more diversified portfolio of clients.

Corporate mergers are a risk for GC's but there are others. For example, the backdating scandal highlights additional risks for lawyers who decide that life might be better on the inside.

Dress for Success

A partner at Womble Carlyle believes that lawyers should dress like lawyers. Personally, I rarely find myself wearing a tie or sport coat. It has been over 10 years since I worked in a job where I was expected to put on a suit every day and frankly, I don't find them that comfortable; but I think this partner is on to something.

Maybe what matters is that you have a suit in your office so that you can dress "appropriately" when you are with clients. We all expect our doctors and dentists to wear lab coats or scrubs. Don't clients who are paying several hundred dollars an hour expect to see their clients dressed in the appropriate uniform?

Which Way is Your Elevator Moving?

Assuming you are reasonably intelligent, success in law school is largely determined by effort. If you do the work, the grades will follow. In the real world, effort matters too; but once you are in practice, there are many other variables that affect your overall success. In the real world, showing up and doing a good job are no guarantees that you will advance.

In a law firm, your ability to originate work can have a big impact on your standing. You may be doing great legal work and providing great customer service. You may be putting in a tremendous effort to be a great lawyer; but that may not be enough in order to advance to partnership.

Furthermore, even if you are putting in a lot of effort to generate work, in the short run, your business development activities may not yield fruit. Put another way, if you have 10 business prospects, in all likelihood, 9 of them will fizzle. How you recover from that failure will affect your longterm success at generating work.

It is easy to get discouraged when a hot business lead goes nowhere; or worse, when one of your competitors wins the business and you know you would do a better job. When this happens, it is easy to step onto the "down elevator". Your confidence is challenged and you unconsciously communicate this to your remaining prospects. In sharp contrast, when you "win business", you step triumphantly onto the "up elevator". You feel confident about being retained to handle a piece of complex litigation or an interesting business transaction. You project this confidence and this in turn raises your rate of success.

So what is the career advice? Only be successful? Of course not. But network like crazy on the heels of a success. Stay on the "up elevator" as long as you can.

In the face of "failure", find a way to get off the down elevator. Here are some suggestions on how to reverse your momentum:

1. Do a great job on a client matter that you have on your plate. While this won't necessarily give you more work, if the client is happy and praises your work, this will help remind you that you are a good lawyer.
2. Look to your personal life for successes. Vigorously pursue accomplishment in sports, music, volunteer work or child rearing.
3. Circle back to the prospective client who awarded the work elsewhere and let him or her know that you would still be very interested in being a resource.
4. Do something fun for yourself (go to the gym, see a movie, get a massage, go out to dinner with a friend.)

I could go on; but you get the idea.

Measuring Success

Success is much more than the money in your bank account. While it’s nice to be well compensated for your work, there are many other important variables in measuring your success as a professional. Is the work you do challenging? Do you find it engaging and do you get good results? Do you like your clients? Are you respected by your colleagues and lawyers in the legal community at large? Are your personal and professional lives in balance?

As a recruiter, I actually score pretty high with respect to these intangibles. But because some of the other recruiters in my organization generate larger fees than me, I often have to remind myself that I am also a success.

The other night, for example, I was talking to a lawyer at a party. I described what I do and then added that I’ll never be the most “successful” legal recruiter. (I further explained that there are headhunters who generate three to four times as much as me in any given year.) To this he responded “Well I guess that depends on how you measure success.” And he was right! While I could make more money as a recruiter if I spent more time on the phone with “hot” prospects, I choose to spend a portion of my time writing articles, speaking on career issues, blogging and even counseling lawyers who I cannot place. Earlier this Winter, the ABA Journal named this blog to its Blawg100 (the top 100 blogs by lawyers, for lawyers.) To me, that was a huge measure of success (though it didn’t generate any fees.)

So how “successful are you”? Aside from the compensation you earn, how much respect do you earn from other associates? From partners? From clients? Are you a "good" lawyer?