Monthly Archives: August 2011

J. Nick Augustine J.D., “The Law Publicist,” is the principal of Law Publicist Communications, an ALR/PRA, Inc. agency. Nick advises and assists attorneys in transition in legal marketing, public relations, and practice management. Nick shares career growth experience and tips for legal job seekers.

Today one of my frequent radio show contributors, Dr. Leah Jackman-Wheitner, the career consultant for lawyers, suggested an upcoming LawTalkRadio episode: How to choose a practice area niche. In the same conversation, we talked about the communities where solos are finding clients and referral partners. Below are a few of my thoughts.

Definition: com·mu·ni·ty: noun, communities, plural. 1) A group of people living together in one place, esp. once practicing common ownership ( – a community of nuns); 2) All the people living in a particular area or place ( – local communities); …6) A group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common ( – Rhode Island’s Japanese community; – the scientific community).

Our communities are wider than we realize. The first community you likely consider is the area immediately surrounding your home or work. Let us expand our definitions and make a list of our communities. Think about your parents and their neighbors. Your parents might not live on the same street where you played as a child; they still jump at the chance to tell the neighbor their kid is a lawyer. Your parents are like referral partners. If they know what you do, they can tell others. You never know when Bob from across the street needs someone and you can help. Make a list of your communities and attend to them.

What do the people in our communities need? Depending on the type of community, members could need to hire a lawyer, know about a lawyer who is hiring and growing a practice, or ask for confidential attorney contact, you know, “for a friend.” Overall, what community members really need, if you ask me, is to communicate with other community members. Tell members of your communities about what you do as a lawyer.

How will you serve the members of your communities? We all know someone who participates in their local civic activities to attract clients. This person may be the local bankruptcy or traffic lawyer – nobody talks about hiring this person – everybody wants to know this person. Consider my friend, the patent attorney, who follows the word on the street regarding “patent trolling” and writes articles for other patent lawyers. My friend is adding value to his patent lawyer community. Get out there and serve the members of your communities. When you’re done, find more communities and repeat.

 Jill Rorem, Esq., is senior manager, legal staffing at Blackman Kallick (www.blackmanstaffing.com). Jill oversees the successful recruitment of attorneys, paralegals and contract legal professionals. Jill (and the Blackman team) staffs document reviews using qualified contract attorneys and thus, works with attorneys-in-transition daily. You can follow her at twitter.com/roremlegalstaff.

I may just be the queen of nontraditional attorney careers. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was not meant to practice law. When I worked as a lawyer, I dreamt of doing anything and everything else. I tried lots of different paths until I discovered staffing—a perfect fit.

So—how did I wind up on this nontraditional route? I began as a labor and employment attorney and practiced for two years for a few boutique firms. Frankly, I felt that I was living in someone else’s body as a practicing lawyer. I spent a lot of lonely days and nights writing, researching, agonizing and ultimately crying, whining and coming apart. So I made a huge change and moved to Los Angeles.

During law school, I found great happiness working at The Second City Theater as a waitress. In addition to enjoying the party that never seemed to end with friends who continue to be in my life (I even met my husband there), I gained an appreciation of the arts and entertainment. With a law degree, a business mind and no real acting talent, I moved to L.A. and landed a job at one of the top three talent agencies: ICM.  There, I worked in their highly coveted Agent Training Program. Talk about nontraditional—I traded my law license for a mail cart! There are piles of stories for other blog entries here but needless to say, I left the program and moved back to Chicago. Though the experience was exciting and enriching and riddled with celebrity sightings, I ultimately planned to get married and hoped for a lifestyle that was less meant for a perpetual adolescent and more meant for a woman on the verge of a family.

And so eight years ago, I began as a legal recruiter at an agency with a D.C. office that was looking for a director in their satellite Chicago location. There, I placed attorneys and paralegals into positions that they hopefully found more fulfilling than I did my past attorney jobs. This was terrific for me. After spending time in two careers where I regularly worked until dawn, it was nice to leave at five and have the flexibility to come and go as I pleased. I loved being able to close deals in line at a winery in Napa or while buying diapers at Costco.

I left that agency after 18 months of being heavily recruited by my current boss at Blackman Kallick (also, another entry for another day possibly titled: “How to find a great job at a garage sale”). Almost seven years later, I am still with BK and I have never looked back. I have continued with direct hire placement of legal professionals and then built, with the help of a solid team, a large temporary legal staffing business. My days are spent assisting attorneys-in-transition with their cash flow by placing them on document review projects while they soul search, interview and contemplate the next move in their careers. This career will most certainly be food for fodder in my future posts.