Unmasking the Secrets of the Legal Profession - Finding a Balance between Prestige & Personal Life

Summary

There has long been a culture of secrecy among lawyers, but the question is why? The legal profession has always maintained a strict code of confidentiality, in which lawyers must protect the private information of their clients. This is an ethical obligation, but there may be some other underlying reasons for the secretive nature of the legal profession.


The first reason for the secrecy of lawyers is that it helps protect the interests of their clients. By withholding private information, lawyers can help ensure that their clients can receive a fair trial based on facts and evidence, not hearsay or conjecture. It also prevents the opposition from getting an unfair advantage.

The second reason for the secrecy of lawyers is to protect the status of their profession. By keeping confidential information within the realm of their profession, lawyers can maintain a certain level of respect and integrity. This is especially important in today's world, where access to information is so easy that it can be used to gain an unfair advantage over other professionals.

Finally, the secretive nature of lawyers can help protect the reputation of the legal profession. By keeping client information private, lawyers can avoid being associated with cases that could reflect poorly on the profession. This is an important consideration, especially in a highly competitive world where reputation can be the deciding factor in success or failure.

In conclusion, the culture of secrecy among lawyers is an important part of the legal profession and serves many purposes. It helps protect the interests of clients, the status of the profession, and the reputation of the legal profession as a whole. As such, it is an ethical obligation that lawyers should adhere to in order to maintain the highest standards of practice.

Questions Answered In This Article

 

Why do some prestigious law firms not talk to media like LawCrossing?

Some prestigious law firms may not want to talk to media outlets like LawCrossing because they do not want to discourage associates at other firms or law students from joining the fold. Additionally, these firms may want to avoid setting expectations of success that they may be unable to fulfill.
 

What is a "lifestyle firm"?

A lifestyle firm is a law firm that promotes the idea of having both a successful legal career and family life simultaneously. It suggests that attorneys can succeed in their professional lives and still find time to spend with their families.
 

How might talking with the media be a good marketing opportunity for prestigious law firms?

Talking with media outlets like LawCrossing can be a good marketing opportunity for prestigious law firms because it allows them to show potential new hires that they are more than just high-powered legal machines. It humanizes the firm and may make them more attractive to prospective hires.
 

What might Harvard Law School graduates consider when choosing between top-tier firms?

Harvard Law School graduates may consider which firm offers the most awareness of family leave and other benefits when choosing between top-tier firms. Although all law firms are focused on success at work, some may be more sensitive to the needs of their attorneys and allow more flexibility with family life.
 

What could prestigious law firms do to attract the best and brightest from top-tier law schools?

Prestigious law firms can promote their human sides to attract the best and brightest from top-tier law schools. By showing that they are more than just a legal machine, these firms may be more attractive to prospective hires who want a successful family life. Recently, we set out to write a story profiling partners at prestigious New York City law firms. We wanted to speak to a few of these successful attorneys, ask them how they got where they are today, and what tips they might offer to those of you who want to snare that coveted associate spot and rise within the ranks to partner.

We contacted firms. We contacted partners. There seemed to be interest. It looked like it was going to happen. And then - nothing. Several polite but firm ''No's.''

And this leads us to ask: Why? Why wouldn't a firm be eager to have its partners talk with us for about half an hour to tell us about what their careers are like, and how they got where they are?

Since the firms aren't talking, we turned to our own in-house experts to examine this question, and to see if this closed-door policy among prestigious firms should be something that you consider in your career planning.

To answer the last question first (does this matter to your career?): the answers are yes, and no.

No, it doesn't matter, because if you are really on track to becoming an associate at a large prestigious law firm, you may know all of the upcoming information already, and you probably have decided that it's ok with you. You get it, you are on your way, you accept the nature of this beast, and you want to be a part of it anyway.

On the other hand, yes, it does matter. If you are already an associate at one of these firms, and you are questioning whether you should move on or stay, whether things will change for you, whether your firm is different from all the rest, whether making partner will make things different than they are now - then you should read on.

We are here to let you know that you are not crazy, that yes, things really are as they seem, and no, they are not going to change.

If, knowing this, you decide to stay - good for you, forge ahead with your eyes open. And if you find out that you are not alone and decide to move on to smaller and better things, and go in a different career direction, then that's good too.

What we're doing, overall, is openly talking about what these firms want to keep quiet - no matter how many people already know about it.

The ''secrets...''

…are actually not secrets at all, they are just facts that prestigious law firms do not want law students, associates or partners to think about too much. Since we do want you to think about your career, we are laying the cards out on the table so that you at least know what the game is before you decide whether or not to keep playing.

These unspoken facts pertain to top-tier law firms based in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, almost all of which are doing corporate and banking law. These facts may or may not hold for firms in smaller metropolitan regions with lower profiles; but, according to our insiders, they are true for the vast majority of the major players.


 

• ''A hundred percent'' of your time is the firm's time says Peter Wilkniss, COO of LawCrossing, BCG Attorney Search, and Legal Authority. Wilkniss graduated from Columbia Law School and was an associate for two years at Wachtell, Lipton, Rose & Katz before deciding the job was not for him. ''I had other things I wanted to do in my life,'' he says.

If you want to be a successful lawyer at one of the top-tier firms, you have to be working all the time. You have to be available to your clients twenty-four-seven in order to command such high fees from them. Also, many of the time-sensitive matters these firms deal with - corporate mergers, government investigations - actually do require this level of attention, says Wilkniss. You have to be there, or be available no matter what time it is or where you are or what is happening in your life.

And if you are doubting that this is the life you want to live, and you are an associate at one of these firms or on track to become one, then you might want to reconsider your career path. Wilkniss did, deciding to leave Wachtell Lipton in 2000 to help start a software company, later moving on to his current position.


 

• There is still a deep belief among some firms and attorneys that law is a profession and not a business. This belief leads to a disdain for anything perceived as publicizing or advertising attorney services (see more on this point, below).
   
• The concept of ''profession'' can also lead to some rough encounters with the business side for lawyers who don't expect it. One legal recruiter who we spoke with, alum of Georgetown Law who asked that we not give his name, was the third-most senior associate at an AmLaw top ten law firm when someone came into his office one day and said that Monday was his last day, goodbye.

Of course, that's life, and you can get fired from any job at any time. But - there is a myth that, because the law is a 'profession' and not a business, that these sorts of sudden, financially-motivated firings won't happen. There is a party line, in some firms, that the firm will take care of the lawyers it hires, and that if the lawyers work and give their all, that they will be cared for and rewarded. The idea is that you are leaving your family to join the family of the firm.

This idea of tenure-track law jobs, if it ever was true, is not any longer. 'Once you're in, you're in' can no longer be said of these positions. And the level of care that a firm has for its lawyers depends entirely on the corporate culture of the firm. Whether the practice of law is, in itself, a profession or a business will remain debatable. There is no question, however, that law firms themselves are businesses, and will act like them.


 

• As for corporate cultures, they do differ. The firm that fired our source is known, says Peter Wilkniss, for not caring a bit about any of their lawyers' lives.

In contrast, Wilkniss's former firm, Wachtell Lipton, was not a cold-hearted place; it's just that the people who succeeded there did not really want to put their own personal lives before their legal lives. In some cases ''it's just self-selection,'' says Wilkniss. The lawyers at Wachtell Lipton, and at many firms like it, don't even think about having ''lives,'' because their lives are the law.

So how do you make partner at one of the top firms? Simple, says our unnamed recruiter. Go to one of the best schools, be the top of your class, get the job as an associate and bill 2500 or more hours a year, ''forget your life, you'll do nothing else,'' teach, write articles, network within the firm to try to find a mentor who can take you under his wing.

Or, you could simply be one of the few out there who are truly brilliant at the law, and you will still have to work like crazy anyway.

So, why so secretive?

First of all, when representatives from one of these firms told us that the firm only wanted to comment publicly on issues pertaining to cases, they definitely were not talking about their own cases, says Peter Wilkniss.

What prestigious firms do like to comment on is other firms' cases - the more prominent the better. So when reporters do stories on Enron, or talk about the latest Supreme Court ruling, high-level firms want their partners to comment publicly on those issues. The thinking is that this kind of exposure gives the kind of publicity that brings in elite clients, says Wilkniss.

So, one of the reasons these firms' lips are sealed: since potential clients of these firms do not read LawCrossing (presumably), then there is no perceived need to have their names touted on this site, and in similar media.

Some other reasons could be that they do not want to discourage associates at other firms or law students from coming into the fold, says Robert Gibbs, an attorney recruiter with BCG Attorney Search, and an alumnus of Columbia Law.

Possibly, the way that the current partners made it to the top is no longer viable, says Gibbs. Maybe the chances of making partner at some of these firms are not as good as they were ten years ago when the current partners were starting out from law school.

So, firms would not want their current partners talking about how they made it, because they don't want to create expectations of a system that is no longer in place. Forms do not want to set a standard for success that they cannot fulfill any longer. ''The blueprint doesn't always work,'' says Gibbs.

Also, some firms that position themselves as ''lifestyle firms,'' meaning that you will have a family life as well as swimming with the biggest legal fish out there, may not want you to really have concrete information on exactly what that phrase means. You may be able to have a baby, or be with your partner while she is having one, but you will still have to work your fingers to the bone.

Then, there is the more image-conscious reason for not wanting to talk with a web site. It is the belief, says Wilkniss, that law firm advertising and marketing is déclassé - and partners' talking about their jobs with LawCrossing is wedged into that ''advertising'' category. This may not be a truly accurate classification, says Wilkniss.

So here's our side of it.

Talking with media like LawCrossing is a chance for a prestigious firm to show potential new hires an actual gentler, easier face, says Wilkniss, and could be a good marketing opportunity for drawing in the best and the brightest. (This idea was even expressed to us by one representative from a firm; although it seemed as though she was later overruled by higher-ups.)

Of course, the best firms will always attract excellent attorneys. And yet, given the choice between working at a top ten firm that allows time for family leave and one that does not, a highly accomplished Harvard Law student might opt for the firm with more awareness of family life. Note: we said ''more awareness.'' Even the most sensitive top ten firms are far less sensitive than many people are willing to accept, as we noted above.

But, for those who seek nothing else but to be a partner at one of these firms, but are still modern enough to want to see their families on a semi-regular basis, firms would do well, says Wilkniss, to promote their human sides in order to attract the best and brightest who want to have kids and see them too.

If he had stayed in law practice, Wilkniss says, he would be asking this question: where can I ply my trade on a high level but still have a personal life?

For those firms that actually do pay some attention to their lawyers' personal lives, showing this human side could serve as a recruiting tool for prestigious firms as they vie for the top prospects coming out of the best law schools - or as they try to keep the lawyers they have.