As a legal recruiter and the founder of BCG Attorney Search, I have the opportunity to meet many attorneys and law students on a daily basis. Some lawyers have been more successful in practicing law and seek out our recruiting firm to further their legal careers and get into better work environments. Other attorneys are not among the most successful people and struggle in their practice settings or fail to get new potential clients and need help in finding success. By working with both types of lawyers, I have been able to notice the difference
Recently, I was approached by two lawyers looking for a job at BCG Attorney Search. Both were very self-confident and had every reason to be successful. They attended top law schools, did well, had a positive attitude, got jobs in prestigious law firms right out of law school. But recently lost their large law firm jobs - one was fired, and the other one quit. This happens quite a lot in legal careers. Both had made similar mistakes in their careers but in different ways. The attorney who was fired tactically approached his job and not strategically. The attorney who quit approached his career strategically but not tactically. To become part of the top 5% of best attorneys, you have to combine both of these approaches. Find out how and why below.
The Tactical Approach of Lawyers in Law Firms
Tactical attorneys usually do things related to the way people see them and believe that these tactics will get them ahead in the legal industry. Tactical lawyers typically work really hard to get the best results and often excel academically, being at the top of their class. However, their downfall comes with the lack of strategy.
What Lack of Strategy Looks Like in a Law Firm
This exact thing happened with the tactical attorney mentioned in the introduction. He belonged to the top of his class in one of the best law schools in the country and was hired by a very prestigious law firm in New York after graduating. It seemed like he was on a path to a really successful legal career. He worked very hard and diligently on all of his assignments, but he noticed and questioned some decisions made by the senior associates and partners at the firm. Maybe he did it because he was a smart man and thought about everything a little too much, or he might have thought that he is fulfilling his ethical duties.
He pointed out that some of the tasks he had been assigned were unnecessary, not helpful to the clients, or a waste of the clients’ money. But the problem is that the people in many top law firms that are assigning you your work want the things to work in a certain way. Maybe they do it because they want to feel powerful, want to increase their paying bills, or it just the best way to get the desired outcome. It could be for many reasons, but still, it is happening at many law firms. So, after this incident, the attorney got his first performance review and was given a few months to find a new job before leaving the law firm.
And that is what he was doing and that is why he approached BCG Attorney Search. But besides that, he was also going into the office every day and wondering what happened. He felt hurt because he was right, the law firm was wrong. He could not understand why he did so well at a good law school and why this was happening to him in his legal career. He thought that he would automatically be a successful attorney.
Strategic Options For a Tactical Attorney
Because this young attorney had only six months of experience, I recommended that he start looking for a judicial clerkship. It would be difficult for him to find a new job at a major law firm as his first one out of law school ended within the first six months. That would alert any recruiting manager at major law firms. So, I thought that suggesting a clerkship was actually a pretty good idea for his legal career prospects. But he responded that he wanted to stay in big law, and that was really all he wanted. He was concerned about making more money.
I decided to talk to him about what he was doing wrong. I told him that he should have been doing what was asked of him and explained the importance of being a soldier as a starting lawyer. Firms need someone who does the work and does not ask about the type of work that is being done. I also told him that the senior partners at his law firm assigning him tasks are being paid based on how much work they and the junior associates are doing, so it is important to do the job in a certain way. It was not really his responsibility to question the assignments or billing rates because he essentially prevented the law firm from making money.
Trying To Help a Lawyer Who Employs Only Tactics in a Major Law Firm
The attorney seemed to understand everything, so I sent him jobs all over the country from various large law firms as well as small firms and told him how important it was for the attorney's career to act now. He said what many lawyers think when they are in trouble - that he wanted to think about it. He also wanted to inspect every law firm meticulously because of his good academic record at law school and hopeful prospects. He thought that because he has been so successful previously, the only way for him was to find other great firms that hire attorneys like he was when he got out of law school. In the end, he found a reason why each of the law firms was not suitable.
I realized an important thing about this attorney. He lacked the strategy to become a successful lawyer. My strategy was to keep him employed and keep his career in the legal industry on track, which is why I recommended a clerkship. He disagreed, so my next strategy was to have him look in other markets where his skills would be more valued, and people would be willing to overlook the lack of experience.
But he was a tactician. What he wanted to do was make sure that he stayed at a large law firm in a large city, such as New York, and continued making as much money as possible. He did not think about what happens in the next few years. Or in 10, 20, or 40 years.
If he had had a strategy and positive attitude, he would have realized you have to keep your head down before you can become a successful lawyer or a partner in a law firm. But, instead, he had loose tactics, and if you have loose tactics, you will make all sorts of mistakes, like this attorney. The consequences can be serious – long-term unemployment, feelings of dissatisfaction with the legal profession, giving up on practicing law entirely, and being unhappy.
The Strategic Approach of Attorneys in Law Firms
On the other hand, the attorney that quit his job was a strategist. He knew exactly what he wanted and went after his desired outcome. A lot of people go into law firms with a strategy. For instance, if a strategist really wants to work at a U.S. Attorney’s office, they will work as closely as possible with an attorney who has ever worked there to get closer to their goal.
What Lack of Tactics Looks Like in a Firm
The attorney that approached me looking for a job wanted to advance to a partner really rapidly. He was not interested in anything else. Just as the tactical attorney, he had also gone to a top law school, not done quite as well as the first one, but believed that he was entitled to work in a good law firm and be a partner. He based all his decisions around the goal of going to a firm where he could make new partners. He joined a top law firm right out of law school but soon realized that it would be hard for him to advance quickly there. So, his strategy was to quit and find another job where this goal would be possible right away.
But this strategy was wrong, too, because he did not have the tactics to help his strategy work out and make him a successful attorney. He knew what he wanted to do in the long run, but he did not employ the proper tactics to get there. He did not try to put in the time to figure out what his steps as an attorney should be to make his strategy successful.
If he had tactics, he would know that you have to become an indispensable expert in your practice area after going to a good school and doing well. Only after that can you become a partner, often a non-equity partner at first. A partner with shares in a major firm is a long career path that does not happen just like that. Long-term dedication, hard work, giving credit to more senior lawyers, and making sure that the clients are satisfied are what a young attorney has to focus on first, thinking about becoming a partner comes only after that.
Combining Strategy and Tactics To Get the Desired Outcome
What we try to teach all lawyers that seek help at BCG Attorney Search is that the interplay of strategy and tactics is critical in getting where you want to be career-wise. Both of these processes have their own aspects which, when combined, can make the career of any attorney practicing law much more successful.
- Strategy is the process of figuring out where you want to go. For figuring out the strategy, you really have to look inside yourself and realize whether you want to be a partner in a major law firm, an influential politician, get to the U.S. Attorney’s office, start your own firm, work as an in-house counsel in a huge company, work only with high-profile clients, or anything else you might want to do.
- Tactics are how you are going to get there. It is figuring out how you can achieve your goal and what steps you need to take to get you into a position where you would consider yourself a successful lawyer. It might be things, such as, working hard on tasks assigned to you as well as trying to get additional assignments, constantly taking positions that bring you closer to your goal, getting close to certain clients that you know can help you in your future, surrounding yourself with successful people from your practice area, etc.
What do you want to do with your career? That is a question that everyone should be asking themselves reasonably early on in their professional life. Think of who you consider to be a successful lawyer and try to imagine yourself in the same position. Is that something you want? If not, think of a different lawyer you consider accomplished and ask yourself the same questions. Once you understand that, you know where you are going and can implement the right tactics to get you there. On the other hand, if you do not know where you are going, even the best tactics cannot take you closer to this non-existent goal.
If the first attorney really knew what he wanted to do, for instance, become a partner in the big law firm he was working at, he would have done things differently. He definitely would not have questioned the assignments. And he could have gone far in that place, but he lacked strategy.
On the other hand, if the second attorney were not all strategy and would have stopped for a minute and thought about getting to his goal, he would have understood that it takes time and a lot of work to get to the top.
How To Combine Strategy and Tactics as Lawyers
Now to show how a person can implement both strategy and tactics, look at the following examples.
Tactics
Attorney 1, Mr. Tactics, wants to be a lawyer, so he goes to a great school and does really well. He starts in a big, well-established firm right out of the school, puts his head down, and works really hard on any and every assignment he gets. He quietly hopes that with this behavior, he can become a partner within the next ten years but he does not really tell anyone that he would be interested in something like this and does not do anything else to get him in that position. He does not even really insist on becoming a partner; he could also do something else.This is how many lawyers we work with at BCG Attorney Search approach their careers, probably even more than half of them. They work hard, the hardest they can, and just let it flow hoping they will get somewhere. So, let us see what happens.
Tactics and Strategy
Attorney 2 decides to do things a bit differently. He employs both tactics and strategy. He really thinks about what he wants from his career and sets a goal. He REALLY wants to be a partner. So, he makes sure that he learns about the markets, the firms in the market, people they need to know, how many hours he will have to get where he wants to go. He found out that he would have a better chance of making a partner in a younger firm that is still establishing itself on the market.After that, he figured out which metrics are essential and can help someone partner in that particular firm. For example, are hours worked more important than business or vice-versa? After finding out all of this information, he was ready to work with this in mind.
Which one do you think made partner first? The answer is pretty straightforward, I think.
Why You Need To Combine Tactics and Strategy For Success in Major Law Firms
When you do not combine strategy and tactics, you often jump from one position to another or work somewhere where you are unhappy, wasting away your best years in a position that will not help you in the long run. And when you then interview for a position that would actually be a good fit for you, the employers see the loose tactics that have been a part of your career until now. They see that you jumped from one firm to another, from one practice area to something different, and this inconsistency can tell them that you are not really committed to practicing law. With loose tactics, you can never reach your full potential.
But now you know what you have to do to get ahead. It is rarely too late to change. You can give your ship a course it can sail toward. You have to do the thing that only the top 5% of the most successful lawyers do – combine strategy and tactics to get you where you want to be in your career.
Conclusions
If you are like most attorneys, you are just showing up to work every day doing your job the best as you can. But this type of work will never get you on top. It lacks strategy. To really get ahead of your colleagues and fulfill all your career goals, you have to supplement the hard work with clear goals and a strategy to make sure that you are not wasting your energy with something that does not get you closer to what you want.
See also:
- Guidelines On Reciprocity Or "Admission On Motion" Among The States As Per American Bar Association.
- To-Do Lists, Tactics, Strategies, and Going to the Moon.
- Use the Power of a Motivating Force and Routine to Drive You Forward.
- Two Things the Most Successful 5% of Attorneys Do That the Rest Do Not: Ignore this Career Advice at Your Own Peril.
- Production Assistants-and Assessing Your Employer’s Needs.
