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Wisconsin Lawyer
Vol. 82, No. 4
April 2009
“Especially in a slow economy, staying connected with people
and building social capital is a low-cost way to invest
in your future by contributing to the success of other people.”
Changes in the legal industry combined with widespread uncertainty about our economic future make developing effective solutions to keeping jobs, getting enough work, or finding new employment difficult. Although paralysis is the least effective way to cope, you’d be in good company if you found yourself responding this way. So many lawyers feel like they just don’t know what to do. The old rules don’t seem to apply. Recruiters have little to offer associates. Partners struggle to get work from businesses that are loathe to spend money or have declared bankruptcy. In the absence of a clear path, it’s easy to freeze in place. |
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New York Law Journal
February 23, 2009
At a diversity and inclusion training session at a New York law firm, a group of senior and junior attorneys and staff were discussing a hypothetical: a woman lawyer who had just returned from maternity leave on a reduced-hours schedule was requesting more challenging assignments. Participants literally laughed at the notion that a new mother might experience any change in the quality of her work assignments. The outlook reflected by the participants was that perhaps lawyers in other, less enlightened offices might imagine that a new mother was less able or committed, but not in New York. |
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New York Law Journal Magazine
December 2008
I am a female mid-level associate at a large law firm and a graduate, Order of the Coif, from a top tier law school where I was on Law Review. I’ve been at this firm since graduation and have always received positive reviews, especially about my diligence and writing skills. I was thus stunned when, during this year’s formal review, I was informed that several partners saw me as lacking in confidence and needing to behave “more professionally.” A woman partner with whom I’ve become close has advised me that negative impressions are impossible to overcome so I’d better start contacting recruiters. Especially given the economy, I’m panicked. Am I really likely to get fired after so much positive feedback about my work product? |
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The Complete Lawyer
November 2008
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
~ Maya Angelou
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
~ Dale Carnegie
As a new associate in a law firm, you’re undoubtedly trying to determine the most crucial survival rules. The message to meet your billable-hours requirements, triple-check your work and cultivate your legal skills are emblazoned in your brain. But if you heed only that advice, you’ll spend endless hours at your desk and fail at one of the two most important tasks you need to master to ensure a successful career. Second only to developing your technical expertise, you need to build your social capital. |
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Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
October 2008
As an executive/career coach for women attorneys, the issue about which I’m most often asked is work/life balance. In fact, balance seems to be the most sought after yet elusive goal of the majority of lawyers these days. The increasingly competitive and global business environment, lean staffing, and the indestructible billable hour have changed the practice of law from a “jealous mistress” to an insatiable monster. And the omnipresent Blackberry has made the boundary between work and the rest of life indistinct, if not invisible.
What’s a woman attorney trying to have a life to do? |
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New York Lawyer
October 23, 2008
I am four months pregnant, have been at my current firm one year, and would like help figuring out the best way to try to make use of the firm's much-touted but little-used part-time policy when I return from maternity leave.
I wonder how your firm's part-time policy has received so much publicity without being utilized. In fact, Joan Williams and Cynthia Calvert of the Project for Attorney Retention (www.pardc.org) are adamant that a part-time or "balanced-hours" policy be evaluated based upon its usability; a low utilization rate may indicate that the policy is not very user-friendly or effective. |
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New York Law Journal Magazine
Volume 7, Number 4
September 2008
I am a fourth year corporate associate in a top Wall Street firm. I enjoy my practice and my firm but am concerned about the future. First, although I get great evaluations and have been told that I'm "partner material," our practice group is so top heavy I'm not sure that anything I do will be enough for me to make partner here. Also, my wife and I hope to start a family and I'm wondering if partnership at this firm is compatible with family life.
Maybe I should be looking for an inhouse position? I don't want to be one of the unhappy lawyers I'm always reading about. What should I do now in order to be a happy one in the future? |
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Women Lawyer's Journal
(a publication of the National Association of Women Lawyers)
Volume 93, Number 1
Fall/Winter 2008
In coaching women to develop business, there's a particular obstacle that I frequently encounter: It's the concern that relationship-building eeorts will look "smarmy," sleazy and insincere. During a recent coaching session, my client, a woman attorney, expressed concern about the potential fallout from some reorganizations going on at a company for which she serves as outside counsel. Changes in corporate structure were beginning to result in personnel changes throughout the company, including the legal department. She'd worked hard to develop relationships which were beginning to provide a how of work. What if her work sources chose to leave the company or were replaced? |
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Oregon Attorney Assistance Program "In Sight"
Issue Number 70
June 2008
Much of an associate's world revolves around completing assigned projects, striving to meet law firm expectations, and navigating the steep learning curve of practicing law. This busy time in a lawyer's career frequently coincides with raising a family, often leaving little time for career and life planning. These early years of law practice experience often help to clarify your values, interests, and talents. |
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New York Law Journal Magazine
Volume 7, Number 3
June 2008
I am a non-equity litigation partner in a large New York firm. Due to its attrition problems it is very difficult for me to find associates to do my work. The majority of them are first or second years; all the mid-levels have left.
No sooner do I train one associate than he or she is asked by a more senior partner to work on his matter and I need to train someone else. Even worse, these young lawyers don't seem to proof their work and they react to the expectation that they will work as long as it takes to finish an assignment as if it were slave labor. I am so tired of the poor work ethic and the turnover, it's easier to just do the work myself. But because I'm doing more of this I'm working later, sleeping less and becoming exhausted. |
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