Avenue Blog

This month marks the longest recession since the 1930s , and the worst legal job market in decades. It’s scary out there, but Sheila Nielsen, a Chicago law career consultant and former federal prosecutor, has some suggestions for the newly unemployed. Nielsen spoke at a recent Chicago Bar Association event, and we present a few excerpts from that presentation:

“… There is no question that the economic crisis is having a huge impact on the legal workplace. Big firms, especially the aspiring global players, are doing some heavy pruning. Cutting away lawyers in less productive practice groups, and all of them trying to land jobs at other firms with the same slow practice areas.

So how do you find a job in this incredibly difficult legal market:

You’ve got to be your own recruiter. Direct your search efforts to places in the market where there is work to do right now or there will be work coming along soon. How do you know what practice areas are hot or will be hot? Stay current. Read the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the local business and legal trades, the law blogs. This way, you learn about mega trends and local trends, and any local gossip that might help make educated predictions about what trends could be fertile ground for a job search, and how to position yourself. This is especially important if you want – or need – to move to the counter-cyclical side of the market. For example, if your practice area was real estate deals, you would want to try to move into workouts. If you practiced in corporate finance, go for liquidations and bankruptcies.

In January, some of the hot pockets for lawyers were intellectual property, patent, benefits, bankruptcy, work outs, liquidations, advising banks on TARP funds, and health care. Last month, more hot practice areas opened up, including litigation, class actions, and white collar crime. And still more are predicted to heat up, among them compliance, estate planning/asset management, and government. Some large cases are said to be in the works at the SEC and the US Attorney’s Offices. That’s likely to generate work for lawyers who do white collar crime, but may also indicate the need for contract (temp) lawyers for document review as well. As large firms shed lawyers, they may well find that when the market heats up again they will need to restock the practice areas, but are likely to be uncertain about the future and reluctant to hire laterals who would be on track for partnership. Many large firms and corporations will want to limit their obligations to their lawyers and to stay agile in a quickly shifting market. Again, that would indicate a proclivity to utilize staff attorneys and/or contract lawyers especially if they are well credentialed.

Network now as if your life depended on it. That means creating and building many, many relationships. It’s this networking “net” that will save you if (or when) your job or your law firm vaporizes … if it hasn’t already. These networking relationships don’t have to be deep or long-standing. But they do require you interact with many people, and that you have an authentic interest and concern for others. A true networker actively works to help others in many little ways. Such as helping a contact out with a referral to a good moving company or nanny service or a lawyer for their son’s DUI. If you take the time to learn something about your contact person, you have an opportunity to engage in small but meaningful good deeds. Good will is hard to quantify, but after more than 30 years in this business, I can say for a fact that what goes around comes around.

Be careful how you use the “J” word. Everyone – recruiters, career services, vocational counselors; even the career section of the Sunday paper – advises job-seekers to network. What they don’t say is to how to network effectively. The conventional wisdom is to talk with everyone you can, tell them you are looking for work, and ask them to let you know if they hear of anything. In my opinion, that’s counter-productive. The moment you utter what I call the “J” word – Job – all your contact wants to do is get off the phone as quickly as possible. My advice to clients is to not even to use the “J” word when they begin to network. When you do, you limit the extent of information you will get in that interaction. Your contact will probably say something like, “Well, I don’t know of anything, but if I hear of something I will call you.” By using the “J” word, you inadvertently cut the conversation short. You don’t learn anything about the market; what’s hot and what’s not. You don’t learn anything about which new law firm in has captured a bankruptcy group that needs to staff up. You don’t learn that one of the associates in that group is a friend of your contact, and who would probably be glad to meet with you.

These days, in this market, you have to be your own recruiter. That’s your job right now. And once you begin, no one will do it as well as you because no one is as motivated as you to get you a job.”

– Sheila Nielsen (www.nielsencareerconsulting.com) is a Chicago-based law career consultant with a national practice. Excerpts used with permission.

Small law firms, and other privately held companies, face another threat in this struggling economy: rising employee fraud. According to James Ratley, president of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, employee fraud – from billing and expense fraud to skimming and check tampering – tends to rise during tough economic times.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Ratley says employee fraud tends to rise during tough economic times, when workers are feeling financial pressure in their personal lives. And small companies are especially vulnerable because they often lack stringent internal controls to prevent fraud. Sometimes, management at affected companies attribute lost funds to lower revenue … never even suspecting foul play.

“A lot of times a small business will close its doors,” says Ratley, “And never know they were defrauded; that the problem wasn’t the declining economy but that (one or more) employees were stealing.”

In a recent two-year survey of more than 300 small companies, the six employee fraud schemes centered most frequently on billing, check tampering, skimming, expense reimbursement, payroll, and fraudulent financial statements.

Business owners were advised to be alert to employees who seem to live a lifestyle beyond their means, and who guarded access to the firm’s accounting software. In addition, business owners should review every canceled check (including the signature on the back), and they should review bank statements each month and check for unusual transfers.

First, the good news: Cobra health coverage just got easier for some of the more than 8,000 lawyers – and millions of other Americans – laid off since last September. As part of the economic-stimulus package Congress signed into law last week, the Fed will provide a nine-month subsidy covering 65 percent of the Cobra premium for people who qualify. The bad news, of course, is that for those more than 7,000 lawyers fired since last September – and the lawyers who haven’t yet received a pink slip – the current legal job market is the worst in decades.

Now for the details: The new Cobra subsidy applies to employees involuntarily terminated between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009, and applies individuals with a maximum adjusted gross income of $125,000, and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.

According to the New York Times, fewer than one in 10 eligible workers applied for Cobra insurance coverage in 2007. The reason for the low rate is that workers must pay the entire premium – plus a two percent administrative fee. The average cost of Cobra coverage for a family is $13,000 a year. The new law should make it easier for people to protect themselves from ruinous medical bills, but also from the inability to get new insurance due to a pre-existing medical condition.

For more information about your health insurance options, go to www.coverageforall.org, and www.nahu.org, two nonprofit, industry-sponsored sites that lay out many private and public insurance programs. In addition, you can compare individual health plans at sites like www.ehealthinsurance.com, an online insurance broker licensed in 50 states.

Wall Street Journal columnist Sue Shellenbarger writes that economic downturns leave enduring marks on the career prospects and aspirations of children. Some youngsters will face lasting setbacks, while others will emerge more focused and motivated, based on studies of past recessions. The outcome, she writes, depends partly on a child’s age, on the example set by parents, and on whether young people can be empowered somehow to help their families through the crisis.

Shellenbarger, writing in a recent Journal column, cited the research of sociology professor Dr. Glen Elder, author of “Children of the Great Depression.”

She says Dr. Elder found in studies of the Great Depression that the self-image of small children of 1930s was shaped by the morale of their same-sex parent. Young boys suffered most, seeing their fathers deprived of work and a sense of identity. Preschoolers and pre-teens too young to understand the causes of the downturn, or to help out financially, suffered, too; they risked growing up with “a lack of initiative, of confidence, or self-efficacy.”

According to Dr. Elder’s findings, those who fared best were Depression-era teenagers old enough to help out by working. But they also paid a price: Depression-era hardships led youths from hard-hit families to grow up faster, and many of them committed to a vocation shortly after high school, earlier than offspring of more prosperous families.

Shellenbarger’s column concluded that “what’s past isn’t necessarily prologue.” The children of the Crash of ‘09 may ultimately experience the downturn differently than what occurred in the 1930s. But even if the new generation wanted to help their families financially, teen employment opportunities are at record lows.

Dating often begins with hearts, flowers, and Valentine Day cards, but it’s been known to end with harassment, retaliation claims … even jury trials. To protect themselves against lawsuits, a growing number of law firms and other employers are asking dating co-workers to sign so-called “love contracts” that define the nature of their relationship as consensual and to restate the company’s harassment policies.

While love contracts are proliferating, they are not new. The National Law Journal reports that the idea seems to have originated nearly 10 years ago by a San Francisco law firm whose client wanted protection from claims of sexual harassment.

In honor of Valentine’s Day this week, LawyerAvenue went in search of “love contracts” and found these excerpts …

“ The undersigned have entered into a romantic relationship. Both (subordinate and manager) understand and acknowledge that neither party wants their relationship with each other to affect their jobs or the Firm in any way. So, we, the undersigned parties, agree as follows:

“We desire to engage in a personal, romantic relationship, and this personal relationship is entirely voluntary, welcome, and consensual.

“We agree we will each make every effort not to allow our personal relationship to impact our work, and agree that if despite our best efforts the Firm concludes our personal relationship has a negative impact on our work, the Firm may address such negative impact as the Firm deems appropriate, including but not limited to discipline and/or discharge of either or both of us.

“We agree not to engage in any romantic or sexual behavior in the workplace. The personal aspect of our relationship shall remain outside the workplace and work-related functions.

“(Partner) will not supervise (associate) at any time during the relationship or after the relationship if the relationship ends while we are both employed with the Firm.

“We agree that, if the relationship ends, either of us may choose to date others and that we will not react with jealousy, spite, reprisal, retaliation or in any manner that is less than professional with respect to the other person’s decisions or actions.”

What’s in your “love contract”?

The risk factors for heart disease are well-established: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, abdominal obesity, and sedentary living. Earlier this year, though, New York Times health columnist Jane Brody reported that researchers are unraveling the biochemical reasons for most heart attacks, and the advice for avoiding them is changing … and may surprise you.

Brody reports that a relatively new factor has emerged that may be even more important as a cause of heart attacks than, say, high blood levels of artery-damaging cholesterol. That factor is C-reactive protein, or CRP. She writes that it is a blood-borne marker of inflammation that, along with coagulation factors, is now increasingly recognized as the driving force behind clots that block blood flow to the heart.

The Times columnist reports that the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet is especially effective at reducing CRP, and that among the most helpful foods are cold-water fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel), flax seed, walnuts, canola oil, and canola-based margarine. Other aspects of the Mediterranean diet – vegetables, fruits, and red wine (or purple grape juice) are helpful as well.

Brody quoted Dr. Michael Ozner, medical director of the Cardiovascular Prevention Institute of South Florida, as saying, “When the diet is stripped of lots of processed floods, you ratchet down inflammation”, the driving force behind clots that block flood flow to the heart.

In fact, one study found that within four years, the so-called Mediterranean approach reduced the rates of heart disease recurrence and cardiac death by 50 to 70 percent when compared with the traditional heart association diet.

By Dr. Fiona Travis

In recent years, some of America’s most popular TV programs and films depicted lawyers winning in court but losing in love. A distortion of reality, or do lawyers really have problems building and sustaining relationships? Regrettably, the image is accurate.

It’s not that lawyers lack relationship-building skills. But, overworked, overburdened and squeezed by time – and now, the worst downturn in two decades – lawyers do exhibit communication and intimacy breakdowns peculiar to their education, their professional training and work environment.

More to the point, the same traits that bring lawyers success in the workplace also interfere with their achieving meaningful, intimate relationships in the home. And the profession works a special hardship on women lawyers. According to an ABA study, a third of all women lawyers have never married as compared to eight percent of male lawyers, and nearly half of the women lawyers report being unmarried, compared to 15 percent of the men. Furthermore, compared to female physicians and college professors, women lawyers are less likely to be married, have children, remarry after divorce and are significantly more likely to become divorced.

As a psychologist who has counseled lawyers and their families for more than 20 years, it seems to me that lawyer marriages are in trouble … perhaps even more trouble than other professional couples.

There is no one explanation, but when one combines the lawyer personality with the lessons learned in law school, the combination makes for great courtroom drama … but is also counter-productive in an intimate interaction with one’s spouse. The biggest obstacle is the so-called lawyer personality.

Individual lawyers may not have all the characteristics, but – when they’re honest – they will recognize that they possess such marriage-straining attributes as ambition, narcissism, skepticism, defensiveness, perfectionism and the need to be in control. Furthermore, on personality tests, most lawyers score high on the “thinking” scales and low on the “feeling” scales. And it’s not something that happens only after a lawyer passes the bar. It goes all the way back to law school, where one learns to argue, cross examine, stonewall, delay, outwit, and avoid showing weakness to opposing counsel.

According to Susan Daicoff, author of Lawyer, Know Thyself, “Some of the traits compromising the lawyer personality appear long before law school, suggesting that those who are suited to practice law self-select into the profession.”

In short, a disproportionate number of people who are less emotionally astute gravitate into the legal profession. Ironically, it is this same personality type that creates great lawyers.

Let me repeat, the same qualities that persuade juries and win cases can also work like acid on marital relations.

For example, a prosecutor or defense attorney comes home on Friday nights all hyped up and argumentative, as if they were still in court. Or a corporate or real estate lawyer engaged in intense negotiations finds it hard to switch to a different mindset at the end of the work-week. But regardless of the environment in which lawyers work, the demands on their time put even the strongest marriage to the test. In the words of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, “ … Lawyers who work harder (to make partner, to earn more money), and then tell themselves they don’t have time now for family and friends, are on a very slippery slope. They may think they are only postponing the opportunity (to be a better parent, a more loving spouse), but in fact they are sacrificing that opportunity.”

Non-lawyer spouses have their tasks, too. They must learn to deal with the sacrifices of time and intimacy that the spouse’s law practice demands. Such sacrifices may include cancelled or postponed vacations, time spent with the children and involvement in child-rearing decisions, minimal emotional support, lack of deep conversations about feelings, and little patience for working through emotional problems. Of course, another major threat to lawyer marriages is substance abuse, and many an attorney’s filial difficulties begin with after-hours drinking with colleagues. It’s a lawyer’s way of dealing with the high stress, but the practice also creates more stress for spouses.

Lawyers who choose not to become aware of how their work interferes with having a healthy intimate relationship at home are at a higher risk for becoming a divorce statistic.

So, how can lawyers be better spouses?

– Listen with interest and without interruption. Don’t be a lawyer at home. Marriage should not be adversarial. It is not about “win at all cost” and “hardball ultimatums.”

– Become aware of your style of argumentation. You do not have to win at home. Take note if your critique of spouse and children comes across as if your belief is the only truth, and there is no other way to view the issue at hand.

– Make room for emotional support (especially if your spouse is a non-lawyer). Most lawyers are great problem-solvers, and they tend to rush in to solve family problems without considering their spouse’s feelings. This results in a disservice to the spouse, who feels that he or she hasn’t been heard or understood.

So, how do you leave certain behavior patterns in the office and adopt a more conciliatory behavior at home? To begin, it would be helpful to acknowledge that certain lawyerly goals and techniques are at cross-purposes with the behaviors that foster good marriages – for example, win (compromise), doubt (trust), cross-examine (discuss), argue (admit error), attack (accept fallibility in self and others), avoid vulnerability (concede), think for others (respect partner’s opinions and ideas), deny weakness (allow for vulnerability), hinder and delay (cooperate).

Lawyers, take note: Be aware that the adversarial, argumentative style that works at the office and in court works against you if used with your spouse and children. Awareness is the first step to successful change. So, practice taking a deep breath at the midway point between home and office, and as you exhale, let go of that lawyer style until you inhale it back again tomorrow on your way back to work. You are good at practicing law, try practicing love!

Dr. Fiona Travis, who practices in Ohio and is married to a former prosecutor, is the author of Should You Marry a Lawyer: A Couple’s Guide to Balancing Work, Love & Ambition. To order a copy, go to www.LawyerAvenue.com, and click on Bookstore.

Professional women typically make up 30% of the class at top MBA programs, and 40% in part-time programs. But it’s a different story when it comes to executive MBA programs.

EMBA programs usually require a nearly two-year commitment of two long weekends on campus. For these programs, women make up less than 20%, and as low as 5% at some programs! The problems are three-fold: EMBA programs interfere with raising a family, women have a tougher time securing company sponsorship for the costly degree, and women often believe the degree won’t help them break through the glass ceiling.

Now, some leading business schools are reaching out to professional women by offering courses specifically for them. This week (Jan. 21), the Wall Street Journal this week identified six such programs:

– Executive Program for Women Leaders. A five-day program launched in 2008 by Stanford University (www.gsb.stanford.edu). Cost: $9,200.

– Moving From Managing to Leading: The Women’s Program at Babson College. A five-day program for women who are ready to transition into leadership roles or who are looking for added responsibility within their company. Cost: 5,9950. Babson (www.babson.edu) is located in Wellesley MA.

– Women’s Director Development Program. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu) has one of the few programs in the country preparing women who want to serve on boards of directors. A 2 1/2-day program; cost $5,500.

– Strategic Leadership for Women. Launched more than six years ago by Switzerland’s IMD (www.IMD.ch), the first European business school to offer an executive program for women. A four-day program; cost $8,972.

– Global Leaders Program for Women. Sponsored by the Smith/Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business (www.tuck.dartmouth.edu). The New Hampshire-based program provides an international perspective for women seeking to move up the corporate ladder. Cost: $8,200.

– A New Path. Taught by Harvard Business School faculty, the program provides career-development help for senior professional women who are rethinking their careers or who are eager to return to the workplace. A week-long program; cost, $5,000. For details, go to www.exed.hbs.edu.

What are the greatest lawyer movies of all time? In online discussions recently, the legal community achieved consensus on 20 that we list here in alphabetic order (and one of our personal favorites, #21). Curiously, the 1950s and 60s produced nearly half of the “greatest lawyer movies”, including two cinematic giants in 1957 — Witness for the Prosecution and 12 Angry Men. So, if you need a movie fix this weekend, look no further than these legal dramas:

1. A Civil Action (1998) – John Travolta
2. A Few Good Men (1992) – Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise
3. Anatomy of a Murder (1959) – James Stewart, George C. Scott
4. And Justice for All (1979) — Al Pacino
5. A Time to Kill (1996; Grisham adaptation) — Samuel L. Jackson
6. Devil’s Advocate ( 1997) – Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves
7. Erin Brockovich (2000) – Julia Roberts, Albert Finney
8. Inherit the Wind (1960) – Spencer Tracy, Frederick March
9. I Want to Live (1958) - Susan Hayward
10. My Cousin Vinny (1992) – Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei
11. Philadelphia (1994) - Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington
12. The Firm (1993; Grisham adaptation) – Tom Cruise
13. The Verdict (1982) – Paul Newman
14. The Wrong Man (1956) - Henry Fonda
15. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – Gregory Peck
16. True Believer (1989) - James Woods, Robert Downey Jr.
17. 12 Angry Men (1957) – Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb
18. The Caine Mutiny (1954) – Humphrey Bogart
19. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) – James Stewart, John Wayne
20. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton
and …
21. Michael Clayton (2007) - George Clooney, Sydney Pollack

By Sheila Nielsen, JD/MSW

What are the two words you don’t want to hear in the worst economy since the 1930s?

“You’re fired.”

Let’s face it, though: More than at any time in recent memory, that’s the reality for associates in practice groups without enough work, for associates and partners whose contract position is not being renewed, and for partners without portables.

But all is not lost. After all, your firm’s professional development person did say something about outplacement options. Which means you can choose to work with a career or outplacement counselor. But which counselor is best for you? What’s more, how do you conduct a productive job search with a job market in deep freeze?

Here are eight points to consider:

1. Your Counselor Should Help You Talk About What You’re Going Through

Maybe “outplacement” sounds nicer than being fired or being let go, but it hurts just as much.

Most attorneys asked to leave their firms after working long hours and doing their best to succeed, feel a justifiable combination of betrayal, embarrassment, anger, and/or depression. In fact, some lawyers can become clinically depressed from job loss. To the point where it’s hard to get up in the morning, and harder still to take the steps necessary to conduct a job search. In fact, some lawyers I’ve worked with feel such a sense of shame that they cannot tell anyone that they are looking for a new job. And others are so adrift they turn to alcohol or drugs.

A good outplacement counselor should encourage you to vent about whatever discomfort you are experiencing, including anger, frustration, sadness, self-doubt, and/or embarrassment. It helps to air your feelings, and to express yourself outside of the confines of the law firm. If your counselor is a trained therapist, all the better; if not, your counselor must at least be capable of identifying a clinical depression and help you to get medical attention for that condition if it does occur.

2. Your Counselor Should Help You Improve Your Game

One of the most important things you want to learn from outplacement is why you might have been let go in the first place, and how to avoid the same fate later.

Your outplacement counselor should help you find out why your workplace targeted you, what made you vulnerable, and to help you recognize and overcome whatever problem(s) might have led to your loss of this job. An employer will rarely if ever tell you this directly.

I have worked with associates who, fairly or not, did not have the partners’ trust to work at their class level. As a result, the associate was passed over, and the partner(s) used associates they believed to be more capable. Perhaps the associate made too many mistakes, perhaps they expressed uncertainty about their ability to handle matters, perhaps they were slow to turn the work around, perhaps they performed with too many errors. Or, perhaps the associate asked a few too many questions, leading the partners to use another associate who performed more efficiently.

A good outplacement counselor is able to read between the lines when given somewhat “coded” information about the outplaced associate or partner. A good counselor will work with that lawyer to improve his or her game as well as to demystify the often-opaque reviews that sound reasonably good but actually reflect an individual’s shortcomings.

The kiss of death for many partners is their lack of business origination.

I have worked with many partners who were let go because they did not know – nor want to know – how to develop business. Unfortunately, many of today’s more senior partners entered the workplace before business development became a requirement for job security. They never learned how to build practice, and some would like to avoid business development in the future as well. But, depending on one’s practice area, client-development has become a necessity. When appropriate, a good outplacement counselor should do some basic client-development training. In the event you need to develop business, you will know more about what to do, and, better yet, you can start laying the groundwork for future business once you begin your new job.

A good outplacement experience includes coaching to learn more productive ways to deal with workplace situations that are problematic for you, and ways to manage or cope with such problems as procrastination or organization and time management. If you get nothing else out of your outplacement experience, this knowledge about how to change your game for the better is worth its weight in gold.

3. Your Counselor Should Help You Assess Whether to Leave the Law and How to Make That Transition

Another question that may need addressing is whether law is even the right game for you.

After being let go, it’s only natural you would wonder if your choice of a legal career was a mistake. After all, practicing law does not meet everyone’s needs. Some lawyers who are outplaced say they have not been enjoying their jobs, and maybe it showed. I have worked with disappointed lawyers who tell me their dream had always been to do something to make the world a better place. But in most law firms lawyers rarely have a mission that satisfies that wish, and pro bono work is hard to manage when you are an overworked associate or partner.

Doubts about a career in the law also arise from other common sources of dissatisfaction: long hours, billable hours, lack of a work/life balance, difficult partners, demanding clients, lack of interest in the law itself, and the workplace culture itself. Many of these stressful concerns will prompt soul-searching about whether to continue as a lawyer. Outplacement can be an opportunity to look at other prospects for a future career and identify a more meaningful direction.

Careers work best when you get to do more of what comes naturally to you. And in the course of outplacement, you will want to look for a career that allows you to be immersed in the work, and that you enjoy what you are thinking about and doing for much of the day. You want a career that maximizes your aptitudes, interests, skill set, and provides the lifestyle you need to be satisfied.

Not all outplacement counselors know how to assess the issue of career-change effectively. Done well, self-assessment work is a mixture of vocational counseling and insight-oriented work. And yes, it can at times even border on therapy! Your counselor should be able to guide you through a process that includes a work history and personal history, as well as a series of exercises that allow you to think outside the box about work that would be a better fit. If you are considering a new career direction, you will benefit from a counselor who has worked with many lawyers and helped many of them to launch new careers or change their practice area or move into a different sector of the field of law such as government, not-for-profit, or trade associations.

Recently, I worked with a conflict-avoidant litigator. He’s bright, soft-spoken, studious, thoughtful … and shied away from confrontation most of his life. It was as though conflict-avoidance was hardwired into his DNA. And this failure to confront, argue, and aggressively litigate was seen as a serious weakness, of course, and he was eventually outplaced by his firm. Recruiters tried to interest him in similar positions, which is only natural for a recruiter to do since they earn their fee by finding jobs that fit the current skill set of a candidate. Fortunately, this lawyer took the time to do some self-assessment and wisely decided against pursuing another litigation position. Had he accepted one, it’s likely he would have failed again.

People cannot radically change a major personality trait. No amount of exhorting, even by Dr. Phil, will do the trick. Far better to help a lawyer move to a job where he can be a stand out for being himself.

A good outplacement coach ought to help an attorney with a case of severe career mismatch to identify likely places in the field of law where doing an excellent job does not require a personality lobotomy, and where the move is realistically possible to accomplish. This particular client left litigation for a government job where his strengths in investigation, research, and writing are all called into play. He enjoys his work, and is likely to be very successful.

4. Your Counselor Should Be Psychologically Astute & Realistic

Some vocational counselors will stop their work with a prospective career changer at the point when that person has identified a career direction that seems to be a better fit. But there is still more work to be done. The new career direction has to be something that is “doable” and realistic given the person’s situation. Would this career change necessitate re-credentialing. If so, can and will the person do that? What is his or her financial situation and home situation? Is the person motivated enough to make this change? These are just a few of the questions that the counselor should be assessing.

Many people say they want to change their careers but are ambivalent to the point of being incapable of making the change they desire. The psychology of ambivalence is complex. For example, some people dream about a new career but won’t take steps to further their dream. In fact the dream itself sustains them, and if it is challenged, or removed, the person may become depressed. Motivation to change can also be dampened by a fear of failure or lack of self-esteem. A good outplacement counselor should be able to recognize these and similar psychological issues, and help the lawyer work through his or her roadblock, develop a longer term plan for career change, accept that s/he is wedded to the status quo, or help them to add satisfaction through activities outside of work.

And even if the career-changer is motivated enough and can launch a viable effort to make a career direction change, most people need some form of continued coaching or guidance to leave the law and successfully transition into the new field. Without that support, many lawyers end up falling back into a job that might be undesirable for them but will pay the bills. Their doubts about the law often linger, and undermine long-term career satisfaction.

Many lawyers who take the time to assess the “rightness” of their legal career discover that, in fact, the law is a good avocation after all. That the grass is not always greener.

If you are unhappy at work, it might seem as if you need to get out of the law. But your dissatisfaction might vanish if you are able to work with a more compatible group of people, or lose the boss-from-hell, or work fewer hours. Some lawyers who take the time to assess their career direction will decide to stay in the law, but the difference is that they know more about what they need from the next legal job, and they make a well-thought out choice to stay. Not all legal workplaces are alike, and it is unfair to paint them with too broad a brush. An outplacement counselor should understand the legal work world as distinct from the business work world in order to guide a lawyer to a better-fitting job in the law.

5. Your Counselor Should Know How to Coach Your Job Interview

Doubts about being a lawyer are important to address if for no other reason than this: a good interview cannot be faked. People are too good at reading credibility for you to try to pretend you are thrilled at the prospect of working at a particular place when you really could care less. If you are not interested, your demeanor and body language subtly convey that disinterest, which has a negative impact on the interviewer. Even ambivalence can usually be detected by an astute interviewer unless you are a really good actor or actress.

Your outplacement counselor can help you to perfect your interview approach by doing a mock interview and asking you all the questions that usually get asked in a standard interview as well as any you are afraid a potential employer might decide to ask you. Your counselor should be able to help you answer all questions honestly, and with the strongest response possible as well as provide feedback on your demeanor and dress.

You should also be helped to craft a strong statement of advocacy punctuated by anecdotal evidence that supports your contention that you would be a good match for this job and why. The counselor should provide a framework for interviewing, and that framework should be shaped to the job for which you are interviewing.

6. Your Counselor Should Understand the Legal Market

It is possible that a different practice area, or a switch to government or another sector of the field of law, might satisfy more of your workplace needs, be a better match for your personality, and maximize your chances to land a job even in the current market. If so, you will need to understand how to make that switch. The success of such an attempted move may hinge on whether you can convince the next employer that it is a good idea to hire you even if your skill set is not a perfect match. What should you say to advocate for yourself? What should you say or not say about why you want to make this move? A good outplacement coach should be able to help you, and not simply insist that you stay in the same practice area.

Of course your coach also needs to help you to assess whether this career move is realistic given all the variables: the ability to transfer your skills, how well you can make the case for yourself, the economic climate, etc. You may need to shift your career in stages, developing a new direction by attending conferences, joining committees, doing pro bono work in your area of interest, or returning to school to improve your credentials for a new career direction.

Part of self-assessment is about “market need”.

For example, think of the job market in terms of “appetite”. When a particular market expands, it is very hungry and needy, and a transition into that market is easier. During the dot.com era, lawyers without perfect credentials moved into that rapidly expanding field in a fairly wide variety of roles from in-house to business side to IT. At the moment, we have a legal job market many of whose practice areas have little or no “appetite”. Which means that career transitions will be limited and employers will be very picky. There may still be need, however, in bankruptcy, benefits, IP, and litigation, and markets in Asia may still be hungry for lawyers in certain practice areas that reflect continued growth rather than contraction.

But because we are in a recession (and edging towards what some economists say is a depression), a radical career transition that might have been possible before may have to be worked on for a longer time, and even landing a job in the same practice area could be a challenge requiring job search strategies that might not have been so crucial to success before this meltdown began. And by search strategies, I mean strategies that go beyond mailed resumes, answering ads, and the usual networking tropes.

In the economic climate we now face, companies and law firms will be less likely to use recruiters if and when they have a need. To be successful in this extraordinary market, a job seeker must use more advanced techniques and strategies for networking and will usually need more close coaching from the outplacement counselor as well.

Not every outplacement counselor understands how to teach attorneys more sophisticated networking search techniques. I base that comment on the numbers of lawyers I work with who report their prior or even current outplacement experiences to me, and say that they do not have a grasp of the kinds of more advanced networking strategies I am alluding to. As part of a more sophisticated networking search, for example, you need to tell a consistent story to the potential employer by utilizing informal interviews which are supported by your resume or bio.

7. Your Counselor Should Know How to Help You Tell Your Story

Your resume is your particular way of telling your story. There are few hard and fast rules about how to construct your resume, and it can be challenging for the job seeker to craft a resume that he or she feels confident about.

A resume needs to be crafted based on the particular job one is interviewing for, which means that the resume will usually highlight particular parts of your background depending on the position you seek. A resume might also have a different look depending on whether the job seeker is trying to land the same kind of job or is trying to move into a different field or practice area. Close attention needs to be paid to the transferable skills that a potential employer will need to see in order to give the job seeker a shot at an interview. The resume must be just right when it has the potential to get you into the pool of applicants that will be vetted for the job. A standard business-style resume is not always the best approach for a lawyer, and sometimes outplacement groups do not seem to know that. Your counselor should know that some law firms are more comfortable with a very readable chronological resume with an attached deal sheet, for example, and help you to craft that version of your background if you are shooting for that market rather than in-house.

8. Your Counselor Should Suggest Knowledgeable Legal Recruiters When Appropriate

If you create a relationship with a recruiter, it is important to tell him or her about any other search efforts you are engaged in so that they are not stepping on anyone’s toes. Good recruiters have to guard their good reputations because their livelihoods depend on the trust of their employers, namely, law firms and corporations. So you need to be honest with your recruiter. If you were let go because you were dealing drugs in the office lunch room, don’t say you were let go because your group was slow. On the other hand, if you need to move on because you blew a crucial deadline, and the sole partner you work with went ballistic and vowed never to give you work again in this lifetime, but your background is stellar in every other way, you should tell your recruiter about this aberration and see what she or he says about it.

Last Thoughts

Outplacement could be your best chance to get your career right Spend the time to vet your outplacement counselor. It is well worth the effort. Done the right way, your outplacement could assist you to avoid the dreaded pink slip ever again and set you on a course for a better future career.

– Sheila Nielsen, JD/MSW (www.nielsencareerconsulting.com), is a leader in the field of law career consulting, and has counseled more than 2,500 law clients over nearly 20 years. She is a trained social worker and former state and federal criminal prosecutor. Reprinted with permission.