Full Disclosure » candid advice for navigating [the awkward moments of] your career

Many years ago, when a good friend of mine was in the first year of his MBA program at NYU’s Stern School of Business, I found myself floored by his bad luck as he described one of the members of his small group as lazy and irresponsible.  As you may know, many leading business schools in the country require their students to work in “teams” or “small groups” as they undertake and complete academic projects and presentations.  These teams share the same grade regardless of each individual’s contribution and as difficult as it may be to believe, these teams are configured randomly; one could easily get stuck with the smelly guy, or in my friend’s case, the lazy guy.  Project after project, my friend complained about this “jerk” dragging everyone else down and grumbled about how much harder everyone on the team worked to compensate for this person’s deficiencies.  “It isn’t fair,” he would say, and objectively, it really wasn’t.  But he was stuck and the professor wouldn’t hear any complaints or excuses; for the rest of the year, my friend simply had to learn to accommodate the group dynamic or risk going down in flames.  The group-minus-one pulled together and figured out what the lazy guy’s natural skills were, what he would probably be willing to do on each project and what they could reasonably compel him to do on each project and well, they made it work.

I’ve often wondered whether our nation’s business schools better prepare their graduates for professional life by forcing them to confront true-to-life work conflict in the safe haven of school than our nation’s law schools.  After all, young lawyers – particularly those with little to no professional experience before attending law school – would also greatly benefit from completing a course with compulsory team building aspects to its syllabus.  Whether you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a banker, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, professional conflicts will emerge with colleagues or clients or vendors at some point in your career.  And like my friend studying for his MBA, you’ve got to acknowledge the conflict, do everything you can to work through it and find your way to the other side of it.  It’s a big part of the professional development process.

Nobody prepares you in college or law school for how to deal with a jerky boss, a cut-throat colleague or a free-loader on your team that always takes the credit.  And nothing prepares you for the ache in your belly or the heat flush across your body as you hear, for the first time in your life, that somebody doesn’t like you or your work.  The good news is, you’ve lived through it and while you might have reacted differently, you have survived and you’re smart enough to know that you should do something about it.

Don’t run away.  Make it work.

There’s never a simple answer, is there?  Here are a few pointers. First, look within your own firm.  Are there former colleagues who’ve successfully transitioned into roles with your firm’s clients?  Are there opportunities to be seconded to any of the firm’s clients?  Many young lawyers I’ve counseled have confessed fear about telling partners of their secret ambition to go in-house and that’s certainly understandable.  However, I assure you that if you are valued by your partners for your work product and professional contributions, these same partners will be happier with your decision to leave them for a law firm client rather than one of their law firm competitors.  Law firm partners are acutely aware of the economics of their business which necessarily dictate that a select few will be promoted to partnership and that attrition is often an organic consequence of this reality.  Many firms are committed to helping associates who have contributed meaningfully to their bottom lines for many years but who have determined, for professional and personal reasons, that a legal position in-house would be more suitable.  If you’re still too nervous to tell your partners about your desire to move in-house, have a candid discussion, in confidence, with the professional development professional of your firm (if there is one) or better yet, pick up the phone and call your former colleague that joined the legal group of your firm’s client and solicit his/her advice.

Apropos of picking up the phone, here’s another tip.  Talk to headhunters.  That’s right, I’m telling you to answer your phone when a recruiter calls.  Legal recruiters can be extraordinarily important allies in this process as they are often the gatekeepers to the best opportunities in corporate America.  While many law firm practitioners assume too readily that the headhunters who call with promises of the “perfect job” are charlatans who are more interested in a quick and easy placement fee than their long-term professional satisfaction, the reality is that many corporations and financial institutions engage legal recruiters to identify and qualify the thousands of lawyers that they simply don’t have time to recruit themselves.  And if you are truly interested in getting on the radar of employers seeking in-house lawyers, it is in your best interest to get to know the better recruiters in town.  A headhunter will only know that he/she is calling you with a “perfect job” if you’ve taken the time to tell him/her what your perfect job actually looks like in advance.  I am, most assuredly, NOT suggesting that you send your resume to every Tom, Dick or Harriet who calls you.  What I am proposing is that you start opening lines of dialogue with these gatekeepers who are motivated to familiarize themselves with your professional goals and career ambitions.  Competition for these opportunities is fierce and you are one of potentially hundreds of attorneys that could be interviewed for these jobs.  But this statistic won’t even apply to you if you don’t pick up the phone.

I should also point out that picking up your phone doesn’t mean that you have to wait for the headhunter’s call.  If you’re ready to make a move, be proactive about commencing your search.  Peruse a copy of the American Lawyer or browse through a directory of recruiters or ask your friends/colleagues for referrals to recruiters with track records of successful in-house placements.  Pick up the phone and call a few recruiters.  Introduce yourself and tell these recruiters what you’re looking for and why you’re qualified for such a position.  Ask them to consider you for these opportunities should they arise.  They will.  You can trust that any recruiter with a job to fill will call an attorney they already know and have vetted before cold calling a total stranger.

Next, network your heart out.  Many of the most professionally fulfilled in-house lawyers I know are people I never placed.  Instead, they secured their jobs through contacts.  After all, what do people always say?  It’s all about who you know.  You have to be at the right place at the right time.  Don’t forget to keep your ear to the ground.  Leave no stone unturned.  Carpe diem!  Someone, please stop me.  There are terrific resources available to you if you’re really committed to this move.  Talk to the alumni director of your law school’s placement office.  Ask them for contact information of school mates who have moved into professional positions that you would like to learn more about.  In keeping with the “alumni” theme, you might know that many law firms have annual reunions of their own “alumni” who have pursued different career paths.  Attend the reunions of your law firm’s alumni.  Heck, attend the reunions of the alumni at your friends’ firms.  Sign up for different programs at your local city bar association and bring lots of business cards with you when you go.  Talk to the panelists on the program.  Talk to the organizers of the program.  Talk to your friends, talk to your friends’ friends, talk to your family’s friends.  Don’t stop talking and don’t stop listening.   Before you offer up your protest that you’re too busy with work to network, allow me to empathize.  It is often true that finding a job is a full-time job in and of itself.  But the delicious aroma of that perfect in-house job awaits you and you can’t expect to have your cake and eat it too without paying something for it, right?

Finally, there’s the possibility that all these tips won’t pan out for you.  It’s possible (but unlikely) that your firm will not tolerate any of its lawyers moving in-house to any of their clients and that after a considerable period of time, your befriending of recruiters and aggressive palm-pressing at cocktail parties will not have resulted in the corporate job of your dreams.  In that case, I should point out that as you’ve already offered up your belief that you won’t be elected to the partnership of your present firm, you would benefit from a well-conceived “Plan B.”  This often takes the shape of another law firm with a different corporate client base where you can seek out significant client contact with the hope that your new law firm’s clients will “tap you” to join their in-house legal team some day.  If you elect to explore this Plan B, carefully and diligently study the client base of your potential new firm.  Make sure that you are genuinely passionate about the kind of work that you’ll be taking on at your new firm as your sincere interest will invariably translate to the quality of your work and your visibility factor to this firm’s clients.  This two-step process of joining a new firm in order to go in-house one day is an option that many young lawyers do ultimately avail themselves of and it might be worth considering if you feel that you’ve exhausted your other options.   Only you would know but it’s worth thinking about.

The illustrious, elusive and coveted in-house legal job.  There are aspects of an in-house legal position that are compelling to any law firm lawyer:  guidelines to what time you will arrive at work and what time you will depart for home; a clear sense of the interests you protect (i.e., the one and only client); the opportunity to serve as a strategic advisor and work closely with the company’s leaders in various market undertakings; and best of all, no more billable hours.  Ah, breathe it in.  It smells delicious, doesn’t it?  No wonder you want to become an in-house lawyer.

BUT, allow me to point out that these particularly dreamy qualities of a corporate legal job aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.  Too often, young lawyers who make the transition from a law firm to an in-house legal department find themselves questioning their decisions to leave law firm practice behind.  Many young in-house lawyers realize – too late – that in their desperation to get away from billing requirements and to get their social accountability back (actually honoring an 8 o’clock dinner reservation, for example), that they might have jumped a little too quickly at the offer of “a better lifestyle” and the promise of relatively “easy” work.  Attorneys who make the move in-house without consideration to factors such as quality of work (will it continue to challenge you many months and years from now?), professional mobility (how many people are ahead of you on that corporate ladder of promotion?), employer’s market presence (is your new employer ripe for acquisition or merger?) or the business value of lawyers in this corporate landscape (are lawyers viewed as crucial allies to the business people, i.e., tied to revenue, or as necessary professionals who are less expensive than outside counsel, i.e., tied to overhead?) might find themselves sorely disappointed once the realities of their new professional settings emerge.  At the risk of alienating my audience, I offer up a tough-love stance:  The primary motivation for a career shift must be an upgrade in the quality of your professional life, not just your personal life.  Of course, your overall quality of life is affected by what you do outside of work.  But, if you make a professional decision solely with the goal of improving your personal life, you’re playing a dangerous game with your career development and long-term prospects.

I’m not suggesting that terrific opportunities don’t exist outside of a law firm setting.  They do. What makes them “terrific” however, isn’t the promise of a solid and predictable nine to ten hour work day, nor is it the absence of the law firm trifecta of authority (a.k.a. known as the assigning partner in your group, the partner on your deal and the senior associate who rubs your nose in his/her power).  A truly great in-house opportunity is a professional development opportunity where you are genuinely interested in the subject matter, where you are challenged and continue to cultivate your analytical skills, where you are viewed as valuable and integral to the bottom line and where you have career options beyond the next two years.  Now, to answer your question.  How to find them?  Tune in next week.

Often attorneys on the receiving end of a cold call about a particular opportunity get the impression that recruiters have exclusive or pseudo-exclusive relationships with certain firms.  Upon hearing an intriguing cold call “pitch,” are you left thinking that only that particular headhunter can get you in through that particular door?  At the risk of tearing away some mystery from my own profession, it is almost never the case.  In the lateral associate market, most job opportunities are listed on law firm web pages and made readily available to search firms who request listings.  A boutique firm may, on rare occasion, choose to work with only one search firm, but this is the exception and not the rule.  The strength of a recruiter’s actual relationships with potential employers is what will provide you with more ready access or superior intelligence about a firm and you owe it to yourself to explore a potential recruiter’s experience and familiarity with particular firms before pledging your devotion to a voice on the phone.  You should not submit your resume to any recruiter who simply cold calls you and tells you about an opportunity; the act of cold calling you with a particular opportunity does not (and should never) create an expectation of loyalty.  “Loyalty” is an inappropriate relational value because that’s right, no relationship exists.  So, the next time your phone rings and a recruiter you’ve never met tells you about an opportunity that sounds worthwhile, put a date on the calendar to sit down with the recruiter and learn more about him, his company and his network of relationships.  If he deserves your trust and loyalty, you’ll sense it quickly and chances are, his relationships with potential employers will be real and meaningful.  If, on the other hand, he makes you uncomfortable and you find him unimpressive, it’s likely that potential employers feel the same way and that his so-called relationships are just that, “so-called.”  You’ve worked hard to get where you are, you deserve more.