Legal Career Development

One of the striking things about law practice is our “sink-or-swim” mentality when it comes to junior associates. They do their law studies, we recruit them through various mechanisms, and then we basically just leave them to it. Then comes ...

Two coaching situations recently occurred in close proximity to each other and the contrast was striking. In the first, Attorney A, a partner, was interested in building a niche practice in an industry in which his largest client operates. We ...

The legal world really is starting to work differently. And while the path is uncertain, change is certainly creating opportunities for new career directions. For our "New Math, New Money" download, legal careers expert Wendy Werner asked a few ...

We don’t know about you, but we are beginning to hear things might be looking up a teensy bit in the job market for lawyers. So if you had become so discouraged you tucked the old resume away in your hope chest for future generations ...

I always emphasize the importance of remaining optimistic when coaching lawyers on the topic of job hunting. And, lawyers being lawyers, I always need to provide some reason why they should remain upbeat. I have a simple answer: The job ...

You don’t need to be reminded what a tough market it has been these past few years. But while it’s been bad out in the trenches, imagine how discouraging it’s been for law students slogging their way through torts and contracts and civ pro ...

I appreciate a nice, tidy “to-do” list — and how moving through the list can offer clarity of purpose, digestible milestones and a sense of accomplishment. But when it comes to mapping out their career paths, lawyers can find a to-do list is ...

Some years back, I worked with the very smart managing partner of an AmLaw 200 law firm. He was an extraordinary lawyer and a strong, thoughtful leader. But he had this thing about making his firm bigger. More accurately, he wanted it to be the ...

Every year, law schools crank out twice as many baby lawyers as there are job openings, and every year we hear that the traditional market for lawyers is shrinking. The United States already has more than 1.2 million attorneys, and somewhere ...

Meet this month's Enterprising Lawyer, solo appellate specialist Walter Sargent. In 1996, Walter left the Colorado Springs office of a large Denver-based law firm to start his own solo practice focused entirely on appeals. The ...