Monthly Archives: March 2010

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

When I learn that someone has gone on an interview I do an intensive debriefing on what it was like: How many interviewers there were? Was the person interviewed by them all at once (a panel interview) or sequentially, meeting with one interviewer at a time? What type of questions were they asked? How did they feel their answers went over? I pass this information along for the benefit those of us who might be interviewing.

The last colleague who was kind enough to share information received one offer last week and might have received two, but he told the second firm he had accepted the first offer, so we’ll never know if he might have had two offers to pick from. How great is that?

Obviously he aced the interviews. He was told that 250 attorneys had applied for the position he finally landed. Curiously, I was told that same number by another attorney who applied for a judge’s clerk position recently. As we all know, the competition is fierce out there.

My friend was surprised by the great number of behavioral questions he was asked. We discussed the possible reasons for that at some length. We concluded that law firms and corporations are receiving applications from so many highly qualified candidates for each open position that they are desperately trying to somehow narrow the field.

One way to eliminate candidates is by asking questions regarding his or her work style, personality, morals, ability to get along with others, etc. Applicants who don’t give a satisfactory answer or who are momentarily stumped by the question can quickly be sent on their way.

Here are some of the questions he was asked:

How would you deliver bad news to a client?

How would you respond if someone betrayed your trust and you still had to work with them?

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to develop trust and how would you do that?

Have you ever had to work with a difficult person and how did you manage that relationship?

What are your core values and principles, those that you would not compromise?

How do you propose to create value for a client?

Give me three examples when you encountered unpredictable events and how you handled them?

How do you see yourself performing in a team?

What adverse situations have you encountered and how did you deal with them?

Give me an example of a time when you tried to accomplish something and failed.

My two personal favorites are: Why did you go to law school?

And, my all time favorite: Describe the color red to a blind person. Several years later I still haven’t come up with a good answer to this last one.

There are numerous Web sites that have extensive lists of behavioral questions and some that also help you with the answers. Studying these lists and doing some mock interviewing specifically on this type of question to develop your own best personalized response would be time well spent during your interview preparation.

Good luck!

Tiffany Farber is a solo practitioner who has been practicing law since 2008. As someone who has been through transition in her career, she understands the challenges lawyers in this situation face.

When you’re in transition, you tend to get creative when it comes to bringing in the dough.  Job searching day-in and day-out can get a bit tiring after a while.  If you’re looking for a permanent position, but you need to fill your cash gap in the meantime, I would recommend doing contract work or “doc review” as the kids are calling it.

For those of you who haven’t heard of document review, I’ll give you the general idea.  Many law firms and other companies often need extra eyes to go through documents in order to respond to discovery requests. These firms place their trust in legal staffing agencies to find attorneys who are willing and able to do the work.  When a recruiter at a legal staffing agency finds out about a project, she reviews the resumes of attorneys who have registered with her agency and submits to the firm the ones she feels are a good fit.

During the project, attorneys are expected to use computer programs that are designed for document review.  Often times, the attorney will receive training on the software first, but some agencies require that an attorney already have experience using these programs.

Depending on the complexity of the project, document review jobs can last for several months, or they can last a week.  I was on a project that was supposed to last for a weekend but was extended and lasted a week.  Some staffing agencies offer benefits like health insurance if you work with them for a certain period of time, which can be helpful for an attorney in transition.

Document review isn’t for everyone.  Depending on the project you are assigned to, it can involve long hours behind a computer screen.  Let’s face it though, most of us already spend our days that way.  I think doc review can be a great experience.  You can meet a lot of other attorneys, especially if you are placed on a large project.  I met some really great people from various backgrounds that way.  Most of them were in transition too, and they pointed me in the direction of staffing companies I didn’t know about.

In addition to meeting some great new people, these projects give you a break from the solitude of endless job searching at your desk.  Instead, you are surrounded by other attorneys to network with, you are using your brain and you are bringing home some money.   Depending on the agency, you can make $25 an hour and up, as well as overtime.

So, how do you get a doc review gig?  First, you need to register with as many legal staffing agencies as possible.  Even if you are a solo with a small practice you should register with these agencies.  You never know when you will have a dry spell, and you can always tell the staffing agency that you are only interested in short-term projects.  These types of projects can really help supplement your income.

Off the top of my head, I can suggest that you contact Hudson Legal, Synergy Legal Professionals, Special Counsel, and Legal People.  There are tons of other agencies, and you can find them by doing a simple Google search.  Call the agency and ask where to send your resume, and then try to schedule an interview with a recruiter.  The recruiter will talk with you briefly about your experiences and what types of opportunities you are looking for.  Be honest with him or her and keep in touch often.  Projects open up all the time.

This week’s challenge is to register with a staffing agency or two.  It doesn’t cost anything, and it may lead to some money in your pocket.

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

John “Rock star” Todd Jr. is an attorney who has made a wonderful career, and he is just getting started. He arrived at his current position through a series of serendipitous events, with some challenges mixed in. Many of us do not take the traditional legal career route and still forge satisfying and sometimes exciting careers out of our law degree.

John Todd’s career is not on a linear track. It has delightful and exciting twists and turns I thought you might enjoy reading about.

John did not start out, like some of us, “always” wanting to be a lawyer. He was playing around with ideology and scholarly arguments at Swarthmore, majoring in political science, when he decided to go to law school. He reasoned that having a law degree would be an advantage. As he tells it, episodes of L.A. Law fueled his inspiration. A hard-to-refuse scholarship package also served as an incentive.

John happened to know the first runner-up of the 1996 Miss America pageant, Erika Schwarz, a former Miss Louisiana, who subsequently became an associate at a law firm in New Orleans. Erika invited him to practice entertainment litigation with her legal team. (There’s a networking success!) Some time later, when Erika decided to leave the law firm and work for an entertainment management company with the well-known entertainment manager, Johnny Wright, she invited John to come along and be part of their team.

During this heady time, John performed a variety of duties, from drafting the company business plan, to scouting talent, to drafting contracts, in short, a whirlwind of celebrity activities with artists like *NSYNC and Britney Spears. Unfortunately, the music styles fell out of popularity and the clients eventually disappeared. John decided to try his luck in Chicago.

After only a four-and-a-half-week search, he landed a job with the Warner Bros. TV show, “Judge Mathis” that incorporated his legal and creative experience. But a year and a half of that work convinced John that it was not for him and he quit without having locked in another position. Something job coaches warn against!

Back again to the practice of law, John spent a couple of years as a contract attorney, all the while writing (placing in some television writing competitions and pitching for TV shows) and making contacts as he went along. He became a prolific contributor to the website Yelp (hence the Rock star appellation) and, lo and behold, is now the Chicago community manager for the site. John says it is a wonderful job. He organizes events, does the marketing, samples all types of restaurants, venues, performances and does a million other things for this website that to date has had 9 million reviews posted and boasts 30 million users.

Asked whether he regrets having gone to law school, John remarks that, had it not been for law school and starting out as a lawyer, he never would have had the wonderful ride he has experienced so far. He probably would not have walked the red carpet at The Grammys and flown in *NSYNC’s private jet, etc. Besides, per John, being happy with things you have done rather than regretting them is important. With this attitude this man will be happy and successful for a long time to come.

So what I get out of John’s story is — Develop your desires and talents, work at them, make lots of friends, don’t be rigid, take chances, and hope for a little bit of luck.