Monthly Archives: November 2009

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

A colleague received a job offer this week for a position she has been pursuing for two years. The offer came from a law firm where she worked as a clerk during law school. Her perseverance finally paid off. Her satisfaction is profound.

This situation is a reflection of the current economy and of the career difficulties that lawyers, like everyone else, are going through. But it reminds me that you have to go after what you want with unflagging fortitude. I know, those sound like solemn words for just a job search, but they are apt words.

My colleague had a positive work record with the law firm as a clerk before applying for work there as an associate. She knew the managers and her peers well. She knew the processes and rules of the place. When she applied for a permanent position at an on campus interview as a third year, she was told there was not a position for her at that time, but that she should keep in contact. It took fortitude to overcome her discouragement at being told every couple of months since then that there was still no position for her and to keep trying.

My friend had specifically decided to be a “court lawyer like Jack McCoy” from a very young age and this position was exactly what she wanted. In fact, it was the only position she wanted. The words, “stay in contact” were all she needed to hear. And she did that for two years. She stayed in contact while she tended bar, worked as a waitress and did contract document review work, sometimes concurrently.

There were low times, when she forgot about wanting to be a lawyer, rued going to law school and generally put the whole lawyer thing out of her mind. But, curiously, doing document review work reminded her of what she really wanted and she drew new energy from that mundane task. Her efforts paid off this week and a newly energized attorney will be out there, pursuing her career desire. I am pretty sure her strong desire will impel her to make things a little bit better while she does so.

Take heed of the moral of this story. Keep at it, keep pushing, don’t give up, use your contacts, use the phone, use the mail, but don’t be robbed of what or who, you really want to be. There are many stories like this one out there, and yours could be one of them.

Sandra J. Bishop, president of Executive Solutions, is an executive coach and career strategist.

Now you have gotten closer to the end game and received a job offer.  What next?  The next make-or-break step is to furnish your prospective employer with a great set of references.

For most attorneys, most of the time, references are not a problem.  It is great to be well thought of.  I bet you are — almost all of the time — and are by everyone!  But, when you are being “referenced,” you want to make absolutely sure that your colleagues are giving the right impression of you.

When you begin a job search under typical conditions, one of the first things to do is get your references in line.  On this sheet of paper, include the full name proper spelling of each name, the person’s title, complete contact information, your relationship to this person and the dates you have worked for or with this individual.  Your references can be past or present.  If you take some effort, you will quickly develop a list of pertinent professionals whose enthusiasm you have tested and re-stimulated either in person or by phone.

Remember to ask for a references and not a job.

If you screen the list of potentials, you will quickly find out who is in your corner, and who is indifferent.  It’s fair to say from the start you will know precisely who you want prospective employers to speak with.  Do not accompany your resume with a list of references.  It simply is not done that way.  When you are very close to getting a job offer, or have the offer in hand, you will be asked for your references.  You will generally be asked for three to five references, one is personal – the remaining of which are professional.

Remember, your references will appreciate you teeing them up with a specific description of the company and position you have been offered, what the responsibilities will be, what are your greatest strengths, why you are a good fit for the job and finally what weaknesses you may have.

Please, thoroughly prepare references using the above paragraphs as a guide for specific conversation points.  When it comes to weaknesses, a great response is always that you “work too hard,” you are a “perfectionist” in your work, or that you set “too high expectations” for yourself.

Remember, the people you have chosen as references really feel enthusiastic the first or second time you use them.  If they are called upon more and more, their enthusiasm wanes and they become almost apathetic.  They also start to wonder (shame on them) why you have not landed a job sooner.  A way around this dilemma is to have a reasonably lengthy list of references teed up to extol your praises!

Remember, your perspective employer wants to know how great you are today; not how fabulous you were yesterday!

Good luck!

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

I had forgotten how important it is to focus and to persevere when you are on a job search.  Some people pick out a group of law firms, companies, or government organizations where they think they could put their talents and experience to best use, and target them exclusively in their job search plan.  If you are doing a more expedient approach and are answering want ads, you still have to develop and stay with your plan. Once you have set up your plan, whatever it is, you have to work it in a disciplined and persistent manner.

The benefit of narrowing down the list of places where you want to work is that you can conduct more thorough research about the respective organization and make contacts that will eventually get you in the door.  Once you do get an interview, you will be more knowledgeable about the organization and its values and will be able to speak convincingly about why you want to work there.

At one time I identified a particular company I thought would be the very best place to work, to apply and grow my skills.  A mutual friend arranged an introduction to one of the vice presidents of the company.  The executive told me that I could contact her about possible positions there, even though they had no appropriate job open at the time.

I sent in my resume, letter and work sample.  For the next 18 months I called her intermittently, often being able to talk only to her assistant and gatekeeper, Dottie.  Dottie became a good friend over the telephone.  I was always careful to be polite and very sensitive to her time pressures.  She was kind and professional, but as we got to know each other we discussed many things, her work, my work, our families and what her boss was working on.

After a year and a half, one day Dottie put me through to the executive I had been contacting.  She gave me wonderful news.  Come in to talk about working with her, not necessarily in a permanent position, but for a special assignment, I assumed to test my abilities.

Soon I was given that special assignment to work on.  The project involved a reworking of the organizational structure. No headcount had been allocated for the project and the re-structuring was not popular with the people working there but it had a huge span of contacts, as it required coordination among several key executives and divisions.

Following the implementation of the project, I was hired on a permanent basis and went on to have a very long and successful run at that Fortune 500 company.  Dottie and I stayed friends, talking occasionally.  To this day I believe I owe that great career job to her patience, luck and my persistence.

Sandra J. Bishop, president of Executive Solutions, is an executive coach and career strategist.

Last time, we did a deep dive on chronological resumes.

This week we will cover the functional resume.  If you are considering switching professions or industries, re-entering after a work gap, or have just received a degree in an area that you have never had any work experience, the functional resume is for you!

Why?  If developed correctly, it will identify and aggregate those skills, functions or experience that you want to highlight as you transition anew.

The functional resume will focus on skills specific to the type of position desired.  This resume is designed to convince the prospective employer that you possess those skills that will be useful in the career and position you are applying for.  Past work experiences may be viewed by prospective employers as irrelevant, unless your transferable skills are clearly identified and transition well into the new position.

The style of a functional resume is below:

First begin with a career summary.  This  summary should run no longer than 100 words and describes your industry, experience, expertise, personal strengths, any distinctive qualities and education.  (See my last blog.)

Secondly, an objective is essential.  State emphatically the type of position you are looking for.

The next section is perhaps the most important part of the functional resume.  State your area of expertise (i.e. contract law, medical malpractice, divorce law, child custody, general litigation, investment banking, corporate finance, etc.).  Under each  header, you list your most successful accomplishments in each area quantifying (when possible)  using a $, % or #.  As you will notice, dates are not used in this section.

For example:

Employment Law

• Litigated employment discrimination cases in federal/state court, including winning, as second chair, age-discrimination federal case brought by six prosecutors against Aurora, CO, District Attorney.

• Prosecuted employee-discipline cases in union-heavy city with 26,000 employees, interacting with management to maintain integrity of workplace by ensuring that discipline sticks.

• Dispensed advice on employee counseling, discipline, terminations and wage issues.

Management/ Leadership

• Supervised junior attorneys and paralegal; previously supervised junior attorneys and investigators.

• Enlisted community involvement regarding concerns of families, women and children as Commissioner.

• Aurora, CO Commission on the Status of Women; facilitated community “speak ups” as committee member.

• Established Courtroom Advocate Program for victims of sexual assault as member of Association for Women Attorneys,  Denver, CO.

Follow the above with a brief section on professional history.   List name(s) of your company and positions held, with dates of employment.

After education is listed, you can end by stating any significant professional associations, all legal licenses and military service.

The functional resume may come off confusing and may make the employer suspicious of your intentions, but if done correctly, it can really pack a punch!  Don’t be afraid if it serves your purposes well.  While it is not commonly used, it can be just as effective — especially in the current environment — where many employers are becoming more open to change.

See you next time!

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

A new test developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners is gaining traction. By 2011, 10 states are expected to adopt the Uniform Bar Exam.  Illinois is not one of them, but as many as 22 other states are considering adopting it.

I am hopeful that the test will become universal across the states.  Law school graduates taking this test would be able to transport their scores to other jurisdictions and not have to sit for bar exams everywhere they decided to practice.

Some attorneys considering a career transition choose to relocate to another state. Perhaps because they perceive professional opportunities there are better, or family needs require the move.  Others may simply wish to live elsewhere.

Under the current legal education system and the legal license granting structure, moving to another jurisdiction and being able to make a living in our chosen profession is a harrowing ordeal.

Few states have any kind of reciprocity regarding law licenses.  In order to practice law in another state we have to sit for another bar exam.  And, should you be unlucky enough to move again, you have to take yet another bar exam, ad nauseam.  The time, energy and expense involved in this process is disheartening.

I am convinced that several states with busy legal markets and high interstate immigration rates manipulate the exam scoring so as to keep the number of lawyers in their states below some predetermined number.

As the bar exams exist now, while states devote a portion of the exam to state law, the majority of the test material is the same from state to state, including the MPRE and the MBE.  Even if you have just taken and passed a bar exam in one jurisdiction, you have to take the whole thing again if you move.  This system is perplexing.

Along with working hard to obtain a professional degree, and paying large amounts of money, or owing large amounts of money, we all hope and expect to have the freedom to practice that profession where we want.  Part of that freedom involves being to able to move to another state to live and work to support our families.  Instituting a uniform bar exam would put lawyers on a par with other professions, who can choose to live and work where they please.

Chris Small has been practicing law for five years, primarily in the areas of criminal defense and eminent domain.  After moving from  Lawrence, Kan.,  to Seattle in November 2008, Chris was finally able to realize his dream of opening his own practice.

CMS Law Firm opened  on June 1, 2009.  To chronicle his journey, and help others who decide to make the leap into starting a law firm, Chris started How to Start a Law Firm (http://startingalawfirm.blogspot.com), a legal blog.

1.  What is the main challenge in running a small firm?

This one is easy — time management.  As the owner of a small law firm, and right now as a solo law firm, I am responsible for all of the tasks of the firm.  That means on any given day I wear the hat of business owner, attorney, paralegal, receptionist, marketing manager, finance manager and office supply manager, just to name a few.  If there is a fire there is no one to put it out but me, which means on any given day the tasks I set out to do at the beginning of the day are pushed farther and farther back until they get pushed over to the next day.

To combat these problems, and to make life as easy as possible, I’ve put together systems for handling as many of the tasks I know I will be facing on a day-to-day basis. This makes it much easier to work on a daily basis and prevents fires from rising up on a regular basis.  For example, I have a specific way every client is handled from when they view my website or call our office for the first time through case resolution.  There are forms and protocols set up so that at any given time I know the exact status of each of my cases and what needs to be done on them next.  Organization is the key to running a successful small law firm.  It saves a lot of time and wasted effort that you can use on other things, like marketing.

2.  What advice do you have for those considering opening their own firm?

Don’t just jump into it.  Have a plan.  Imagine what your firm will look like on a day-to-day basis and put together an action plan for handling all of the things that will come your way.  Although it is possible to throw yourself out there and hit the ground running (and it may be the only choice you have), the more time and thought you can put into your business and what you want out of your business the better.

For example, one of the things I’ve found to be most important in opening my firm is my story.  What makes my firm different from any other firm out there?  Why should people call my office instead of someone else’s office?  Your story doesn’t have to appeal to everyone (and if it does I bet it’s a boring story), but should make enough people engaged with your firm that they pick up the phone and call you.  My story is about second chances.  I do criminal defense, and when people ask me what I do, I tell them “I give people second chances.”  When I tell them that they always ask what I mean and then I’m off, explaining how we help normal people who have made one bad decision put that bad decision behind them so they can continue to lead the productive life they always have.

Bottom line, don’t think like a lawyer.  Think like someone who owns a business.  To have a successful business you need direction.  To have direction you need a plan.

3.  What made you  decide to open your own firm?

There are two primary reasons I decided to open my own firm: first, I’m interested in the  entrepreneurial aspect of it; and second, I think I can do it better than everyone else.

I’m probably going to admit something that not many people will openly.  I like money.  I like the idea of making a lot of it.  And I like the idea of building a brand and a business where I get to receive most, if not all, of the benefit of my work (monetary and otherwise).  I didn’t start out on my own.  I worked for several firms before going out on my own.  I wanted the experience.  And everywhere I went I saw the same thing — the people that owned the firm always did much better than the people that worked for the firm.  I wanted to be one of the people that owned the firm.

Another thing I found constantly at my law firm jobs was I always thought there were better ways to do things.  And I was always told no.  I thought of ways to make the firms I worked for a lot of money and save them a lot of money at the same time, but rarely were my ideas accepted or implemented.  I wanted a place where I could implement my ideas, reap the benefits of my hard work, and show those other law firms that there are better ways to do things than the old way.  So I made one.

In the end, I also like the idea of throwing myself out there and seeing what I can do.  It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of  resolve and a little bit of luck, but opening your own law firm is definitely possible.  Half the battle is deciding to start and committing to doing what you are going to do.  From there, everything else will fall into place.

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

Your references are precious.  References are the coin of the realm, in fact, the gold coin of the realm.  Every time you seek a job, even a temporary job, you are asked to list two or three, sometimes more, references.

You have to have credible people of good will who are ready to vouch for you.  It is simply not feasible to operate in today’s job market without this valuable resource.  But this resource has to be protected.  If any of your references are called too often or in a frivolous manner, they may not be available next time you need them.

When you are asked for references, it is very tempting to provide them immediately, neatly listed for the prospective employer’s convenience. The problem is, once you hand over your references, with all their contact information, you have lost control over the reference checking process and any little control you might have over the hiring process.

You will not know when the prospective employer will be reaching out to the person whose contact information you gave.  On the other hand, your reference may not know anything about the job you are applying for unless you can get to them before the interviewer does.

The person vouching for you may unwittingly provide a glowing recommendation that could scuttle your chances of getting that job.  For example, say you have applied for a job as a litigator in some highly contentious setting.  Your reference, attempting to be as helpful as possible, highly recommends you as someone who is very easy to get along with, highly cooperative and the salt of the earth.  All wonderful qualities. Not so wonderful for a powerful litigator position.

To keep control of the reference checking process, especially when applying online, you can write, “References to follow,” or in person, say, “May I send you my references shortly, I have to confirm an email address.”  You can ask if you can provide the reference list once the interviewer has determined that you are probably a good fit for the job.  You could also request that the prospective employer notify you prior to contacting the references. You get the point.

I try to make sure I have contacted my precious references each time I give out their names. I describe the position I am applying for, what organization and who will likely be contacting them (a staff or line person or an HR person), and what I would appreciate they say about me!

The person providing the reference is at that point much better prepared for the conversation. He or she will feel more confident about the recommendation and will probably give a better accounting of your skills and special talents with that particular position in mind.

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

Last week I wrote about polling a number of attorneys regarding what advice they would give someone considering going to law school now.  The responses were  positive.

Almost everyone I asked said they consider a legal education one of the best.  If, in spite of current economic conditions, someone wanted to study law and forge the path to being a lawyer, they would support that effort.  The poll respondents had some qualifications, but were pretty much of one mind with their positive outlook on the subject.

Last week I continued my poll and got three resounding no’s.  They all came from new  graduates who recently passed the bar.  These individuals have not yet practiced law and  are struggling  to find jobs as attorneys.

Their attitude was very different: they regretted spending the time it took to go to law school and to sit for the bar; they felt that, had they taken up some different career four years ago, they would now be well past entry level  in that career; and lastly, they were quite bitter about the burden of debt, which they are now facing.

Actually, who can argue with that last issue?

It saddened me to hear their stories and to witness their current suffering, but I do believe their attitudes will change as we slowly put this financial debacle behind us.  Some time in the next few years they will have a chance to practice law in some fashion, and they will change their minds.

Once they experience the practice of law, they will look at the whole experience with different eyes. The cost may never seem justified, but they will revel in the inherent intellectual satisfaction that “thinking like a lawyer” brings. The new lawyers, like the rest of us, have to get by these difficult times as best they can and be prepared for better times to come.

After practicing for a couple of years, some new attorneys will decide a career in law is not for them.  But I am willing to bet even they will not consider their legal education a waste of time and money.  I intend to keep track of as many as I can and see if my prediction comes true.  If I am still writing this blog then, I will share their stories with you!