Monthly Archives: April 2009

Cliff Scott-Rudnick, a visiting professor and director of Continuing Education and Professionalism at The John Marshall Law School, will be participating in the May 8 panel discussion at the Attorneys in Transition event. Here are his answers to a few questions regarding his participation in the panel.

What are your top three pieces of advice for a lawyer looking for his or her next job?

He suggests asking yourself:

What do you really want to do? What are your passions for the law?  How much money do you need?

How should lawyers keep busy while they look for a job?

Network. Volunteer. Exercise.

What do you hope those who attend the event will take away from or learn from the panel discussion?

You are not alone.  It is not the end of the world or your career.  Things will get better.

Another member of the May 8 Attorneys in Transition panel will be Leonard F. Amari.

He has been a private practitioner for 40 years, and is president of The John Marshall Law School Board of Trustees.

What are your top three pieces of advice for a lawyer looking for his or her next job?
– Be aggressive, as aggressive in finding a job as doing a job, 9 to 5, every day;
– Recognize that most Chicagoland lawyers are small firm and solo practitioners without a hiring policy, game plan, or mid-to-long range career plan. They hire who is at their office door when they need to hire, or, as was my case, when someone pointed out to me how valuable they would be if I hired them even though it was not on the agenda;
– Network, network, network.

How should lawyers keep busy while they look for a job?
See the answer above and exhaust the suggestions they’ll receive at this seminar.

What do you hope those who attend the event will take away from or learn from the panel discussion?
That they are not alone, that the legal profession is a mentoring profession, that they shouldn’t hesitate to reach out for help, career guidance, (networking, networking…).

We’d like you to meet another member of the May 8 panel. David S. Glynn is director of research and product development for the Law Bulletin, and has been there 15 years. Prior to that he was a human resources manager at a mid-sized Chicago law firm. He also has a background in litigation support as he use to be in the courthouse trenches.

What are your top three pieces of advice for a lawyer looking for his or her next job?

Network, network and network.

• Face-to-face networking — Just the act of networking will help to drum up employment. This can be done in a variety of ways, but in-person, face-to-face connections are important. Get one contact to give you five more contacts. It’s who you know, or who you’re connected to that will help you find a job. Keep these face-to-face meetings short, give them your elevator speech outlining your valuable qualities/skills, ask for some contacts who can help and follow up with a thank you note. Meeting with business people through mutual contacts may result in them having a personal stake in getting you re-employed.
• Virtual networking — Use professional networking services like the Chicago Lawyer Network and Linked-In to make virtual connections and locate connections you currently have.  It will also help you reconnect with contacts with whom you’ve been out of touch. Visit your contacts pages and their connections will remind you of people you know and with whom you can directly connect. Follow up on these connections to get in-person meetings that will lead to more contacts.
• Presentation and Grooming — Fine tune your resume and customize it appropriately to fit the job. With the advent of word processors, you can organize/customize your qualifications to fit the job for which your are applying more accurately. A resume is a billboard to get you an interview. Once you’re in the door you have completed a major accomplishment. Get your suits cleaned and get your hair cut/done before an interview. The better you look, the more likely you’ll make a good first impression. Continue reading →

We’d like you to meet another one of the panel members who will be participating in the Attorneys in Transition event on May 8 at The John Marshall Law School.

Alexis Reed is an attorney search director with Special Counsel. She has been in legal recruiting with the company for two years. Prior to joining Special Counsel, she was a practicing attorney with Nisen & Elliott, focusing on commercial litigation and bankruptcy. Continue reading →

By Lisa Solomon

For many, the term “contract lawyer” refers to an attorney who is hired by a staffing agency to peform relatively low-level work (such as document review), related to a major litigation or transaction, for a large firm or corporation. But there is another path for contract lawyers, one that comes with intellectually fulfilling work, excellent working conditions and a comfortable living. I’m referring to becoming an independent contract lawyer.

Independent contract lawyers are a small but growing cadre of solo practitioners who, enabled by technology, work on a project-by-project basis for other lawyers. Contract lawyers perform various tasks, including making court appearances, conducting depositions, and researching and writing briefs.

Getting Started as a Contract Lawyer

Contract lawyering is well-suited to the needs of attorneys in transition because it takes advantage of their existing professional networks. As a contract lawyer, you have a ready pool of potential clients, including your former law school classmates, the colleagues you meet though bar association activities, and even former employers (who may not have enough extra work to justify hiring a permanent full- or part-time employee, but may have a periodic need to have more hands on deck). Continue reading →

Amy McCormack, co-president of McCormack Schreiber Legal Search Inc., offers the following tips for lawyers looking for their next position:

• Whether you are employed or have been laid off keep a good working resume. It should be a fluid document that gets tailored to the positions that arise. Some firms receive hundreds of resumes and look for the buzzwords that set candidates apart from each other.
• Don’t forget to network. Don’t leave any stone unturned. Touch base with college friends, law school friends, family, and colleagues from past jobs. Use social networking sites because many businesses look at profiles when looking for employees.
• Look outside the box. Don’t go to the same job sites time and again; check out sites you wouldn’t think would have jobs. If you always go to acc.com, also check out Career Builder. Don’t forget specialty legal publications that are geared to your practice area.
• Don’t rule out contract and temporary work, because many people land good positions through that work. At the same time, the work will help you make money.
• Volunteer. McCormack says she knows of a number of job candidates who do pro bono work or volunteer in their communities. They often stumble across job and business development opportunities while volunteering.
• Be flexible and open-minded. Some candidates have this mindset that they don’t want to take the first job opportunity after being laid off and they become too picky, McCormack said.

“We are in a whole new world, and you cannot evaluate new job opportunities right now as you might have evaluated them two years ago,” she said. “It’s just not necessarily realistic.”

Look at every opportunity very carefully because they will come along far less frequently than you would hope.