How Do I Get My Own Law Firm Without Starting My Own Law Firm?

Dear Lawcrossing,

I am currently clerking at a large personal injury firm in Washington, D.C. I want to be a trial lawyer, but if I start my career here, I will just be shuffling hundreds of worker's comp files. I don't really want to hang out my own shingle. Instead, I've been thinking that I would like to find a job with a senior lawyer who wants to slowly wind down his or her practice, and wants to handle big cases but is looking for a 'mentee' to try the smaller cases. What do you think is the best way to accomplish this seemingly impossible task? I feel like I am trying to locate a needle in a haystack.


DH, MaryUuui

DEAR DH,

Impossible? Needles? Haystacks? Why, this is exactly the kind of quagmire in which the Job Goddess loves to wallow. Your goal is actually very much easier to attain than you think, DH. And on top of that, LawCrossing applauds you for seeking a job which is likely to bring you a great deal of happiness. There are several methods for finding the retiring lawyers you seek. There are two direct routes which are likely to bear fruit most quickly. One is to go to local bar association meetings, make a point of introducing yourself to people, and tell everyone whose ear you can bend exactly what it is that you want. Make a special effort to meet the head of the litigation section of your local bar, since it's trial work that you want to do.

Along the same lines, go to the local courthouse whenever you can, taking a morning or afternoon off work, if need be. Introduce yourself to the court clerk, bailiffs, judges, and tell them what you're looking for. After all, they're going to know every trial attorney, and will certainly be able to identify the ones who are golf course bound. On top of that, they'll be a great source for weeding out the good eggs from the bad ones, since they've seen local trial lawyers operate first hand!

With either of these direct methods, DH, be sure that you impress every person you meet, even though they will not be your ultimate employer. Smile. Seem enthusiastic. Stress your willingness to work hard in return for soaking up knowledge from an experienced lawyer. Your first impression on the people you meet will have a dramatic effect on their willingness to help you-and what they'll tell the senior lawyers they know!

A somewhat less direct route, but one not to be over-looked, is to go to the career services office at your law school, talk to the director, and explain your goal. Most law students do not appreciate what a gold mine of information their career services directors really are- they do so much more than organize on-campus interviews! So it may be that you need go no further than your own law school. Or your own law firm, for that matter-if you don't mind the people you work with knowing that you're looking elsewhere, tell your colleagues about your goal. The benefit here is that because the lawyers at your firm are familiar with your work and know what it's like to work with you, they'll tend to think of people for whom you'd be a good work and personality fit.

If you insist on taking an initial step that doesn't involve talking with people, there are a couple of fertile resources you can use. One is to let your fingers do the walking-check the Yellow Pages! Look up the names of sole practitioners who are litigators (the Yellow Pages will mention their specialties), and then look them up in Martindale-Hubbell. (You can find Mar-Hub on-line, at http://lawyers.martindale.com/marhub). Look at their graduation dates, and when you find ones that are about 30 years ago, you've got a potential target audience for your letters. LawCrossing would tell you what to say in those letters, DH, except that this simple column would become 50 pages long. Instead, she encourages you to borrow-or, dare she suggest it, buy-a copy of her runaway bestseller, a well-know legal job search book, and read the chapter entitled "Correspondence-Making Your Letters Sing."

You might also consider getting on-line. You can go to a chat room or enroll in a LISTSERV for your state and/or local bar association; more and more state bar associations have such facilities, and LawCrossing knows of enterprising students who have gone to these chat rooms and LISTSERVs, waited for an opportune moment, and pitched their services to the members- with glorious results. To find out the web addresses for these resources, call the relevant bar association.

You may even want to consider doing a reverse job ad. That is, run an ad looking for a practice. What you'll want to do is to put an ad in the classifieds section of a publication that goes to your target audience, like your local or state bar journal or even a newspaper. In your ad, don't just state what you're looking for; emphasize your willingness and desire to work hard.
No matter which route you choose, DH, remember the nature of your quest. When a sole practitioner hires someone on, the relationship resembles a marriage more than a traditional partner-associate connection. The personal relationship you develop is of paramount importance. So be sure to look for someone who is on your wavelength, and don't be discouraged if you and any one lawyer don't "click"-if you do as LawCrossing advises, there will be plenty of fish in your