Navigating the Legal Job Market: How to Secure Your Ideal Law Firm Position The legal job market is a highly competitive arena where aspiring attorneys seek to secure their foothold in prestigious law firms and establish fulfilling careers. This introduction sets the stage for our exploration of strategies to navigate this challenging landscape, emphasizing the significance of securing an ideal law firm position and providing an overview of the... (23 views)
Preparing for Your Career: How to Build Your Legal Career While Still in Law School Many law students aim to secure a job after graduation leading to a successful legal career. However, a successful legal career requires more than just obtaining a law degree. It involves preparing for your career while still in law school. (38 views)
What to Do If You Hate Being an Attorney If you're an attorney and you're feeling unhappy in your job, it's important to take the time to reflect on the root causes of your dissatisfaction and consider your options. Some things you might consider include taking a break, switching to a different area of law, finding ways to make your work more meaningful, seeking out a mentor or coach, and seeking support from... (112 views)
The Best Career Advice Attorneys Never Receive Being an attorney is a rewarding but also extremely difficult profession. Succeeding in the legal industry is not easy, and very few people get to the top. As a legal recruiter and founder of a legal recruiting firm BCG Attorney Search, I contact famous and successful attorneys and those who struggle to find success. I have seen what helped the successful ones get to the... (109 views)
Maintaining Connections with Your Alma Mater: What Alumni Associations Do On graduation day, misty-eyed students say their goodbyes to friends, professors, and some long, hard years of law school. While many dissapear into the workforce, others choose to stay close to their schools through alumni associations and find that participation often leads to better business networks, avenues to pursue pro bono and other community activities, and ways... (117 views)
How to Decide Whether to Stay or Leave Your Current Job - Insights From a Recruiter In the first of a two-part series, Claudia Spielman, BCG Attorney Search recruiter, uses her own experience to guide young attorneys (though the advice applies to anyone in or contemplating a career in the legal industry) on how to evaluate whether to stay at a law firm. (115 views)
Strategies to Streamline Your Personal Finances and Avoid Tedious Drudgery There's so much unpleasantness involved in keeping financial house — receipts that multiply like bunnies, the incessant parade of bills, ever-changing tax laws, retirement account acronyms, and a forest's worth of ''consumer agreements'' that become obsolete before trash pickup. I'm not sure which is more stressful: Trying to make smart money decisions or getting through... (4 views)
Accepting a Job Offer in a Legal Firm: What to Know After You Say 'Yes' If you are like most people, you will be excited when a law firm or other legal employer extends you an offer for a job. Especially if it's your first offer, your only offer, or the offer you were hoping for the most, the inclination is to accept immediately. Even if you are not that excited about the opportunity, you might be inclined to accept on the spot because you are... (21 views)
The Art of Working as a Successful General Counsel: Julie Getzels' Advice On a typical day at the office, Julie Getzels might stroll past a few Renoirs, Georges Seurat's ''A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,'' or Grant Wood's ''American Gothic'' on her way to a board meeting. (250 views)
How to Handle a Poor Performance Review: Proven Strategies (Part 2) Part I of this piece examined the growth of performance reviews at law firms and detailed the rationale behind them. In Part II, LawCrossing gives advice on how to handle the review process. (912 views)
Top Tips for Acing Your Performance Review: What to Do After a Subpar Performance (Part 1) Many lawyers and professional legal staff prefer to think of themselves as in business for themselves, merely using a group to provide office space, support services, and occasional camaraderie. (1769 views)
How to Become a Lawyer: An Inside Look at Working Behind the Bar Page 4 How is the exam structured? With a few exceptions (like the aforementioned California and Texas), most states' bar exams consist of two days of testing: the Wednesday MBE and a Tuesday or Thursday state-specific exam. (1521 views)
Careers in Law: A Walk on the Wild Side - Advice for Prospective Attorneys Put on your khaki shorts, load your film, and pack your bug spray. You're about to embark upon the adventure of a lifetime on an African safari! (9 views)
How to Achieve a Hole in One in Golf: Tips & Techniques for Achieving the Perfect Shot There's nothing like skipping the afternoon meeting and heading out to the driving range. But aren't those country club membership rates a little too low for your standards? Then buy your own golf course and charge whatever you want. (28 views)
What It Takes to Become a Successful Coffee Entrepreneur: Learn from Juan Valdez How does waking up to the sweet smell of coffee brewed from beans cultivated at your very own coffee bean plantation sound? If this is your idea of heaven, then LawCrossing Weekend has got your ticket. (31 views)
Tips for Building a Client Base to Grow Your Law Practice: Making Rain When John Ferrell, 47, first started out as a lawyer, he said getting and keeping those first few clients were the hardest parts. But that was back in 1990. Fast-forward to the present, and Ferrell ranks among the top rainmakers, serving as a founding partner of the Palo Alto-based Carr & Ferrell LLP, an intellectual property and corporate law firm in California. (117 views)
Chere B. Estrin: Career Coaching Expert | Best Tips to Reach Your Goals Thousands of paralegals, attorneys, and legal staff planning ways to get ahead in their careers look to Chere B. Estrin. She wrote the book - actually eight books - to guide legal staffers in their careers. LawCrossing talks with Estrin about her passion for training legal staff and her knack for building companies. (264 views)
Paralegal Pioneers: How to Blaze Your Own Trail in The Legal Professio One of the first paralegals in the country, Carole Bruno studied at the prestigious University of West Los Angeles School of Law Paralegal Program. She has worked in litigation and law firm marketing and recently started writing full time. Her fourth book on paralegals is due out early next year. LawCrossing talks with Ms. Bruno about the paralegal profession. (117 views)
Maximize Your Public Interest Salary: Strategies for Surviving on a Public Interest Salary In 2003 Congress reviewed a bill that would provide financial assistance to law school graduates who choose to accept employment in a public interest position. If ratified, this bill would become the ''Public Interest Lawyer Assistance and Relief Act.'' It has become abundantly clear to the government, employers, American Bar Association, law schools, and the students... (1633 views)
How to Land a Public Interest Job: Advice from Kelli Dunn Howard As a Legal Aid attorney in Austin, TX, Kelli Dunn Howard spends her days championing the rights of low-income tenants and the disabled. She can't imagine doing anything else. (158 views)
Leonard Van Slyke, Top Attorney: Get to Know His Professional Accomplishments and Achievements Not many attorneys specialize in both tax and media law. And few tax attorneys spend much time in courtrooms. LawCrossing speaks with Leonard D. Van Slyke, Jr., about his combined practice and about his media victory last week in a case involving reporters' access to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. (113 views)
Catherine Crier: The Anchor of Court TV - A Biography From the heat of Texas courtrooms to the bright lights of live TV, nobody takes charge like Catherine Crier. This week's multi-media Law Star and former Dallas judge lets her hair down with LawCrossing about her hot Court TV show, Catherine Crier Live, her sizzling bestselling book, The Case Against Lawyers, and what she's firing up next. (169 views)
Legal Staffing Advice: What Professional Staffers Say About Working in the Legal Industry Do you have a question about working in the legal profession? About LawCrossing? No matter the topic, + send us an e-mail and we'll be glad to answer it for you! (154 views)
Checklist for Handling Job References - A Comprehensive Guide for Job Seekers Reputable law firms WILL want to hear from your past employers. Our recruiters discuss how to avoid getting burned in what is often the last step of the hiring process. (29 views)
Discover Your Individual Strengths - An Essential Guide to Professional Success in the Legal World This career book offers insight into how we need to play up our strengths to find success and happiness in our careers. But what did our reviewer think of its message? (110 views)
Career Success for Attorneys: Alyssa Hammond is the Director of Career Services at New England School of Law Among other things, Alyssa Hammond offers tips on how evening law students should focus their job searches in order to get on an equal footing with full-time law students in the job market. (49 views)
How General Electric's Diverse Model Helps It Cement Its Place in the Marketplace With a roster of attorneys that would rival the largest law firms in the country, General Electric offers an interesting option for attorneys with excellent credentials who want out of law firm life. (1447 views)
How to Impress Employers with Effective Storytelling in an Interview Accomplishment storytelling appeals to the interviewer's imagination and is a powerful way to market skills when interviewing. (69 views)
Creating a Digital Resume: Tips & Best Practices from Legal Professionals You can easily develop an electronic resume and send it by e-mail, but there are caveats. (42 views)
Learn How Considering Your Career Alternatives Can Unlock New Opportunities Most attorneys have one thing in common - they don't want to be attorneys. Is the unhappiness that is rampant throughout the profession due to the profession itself or the attorneys getting in the wrong situations? (56 views)