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A Professional Development panel discussing career development for mid-level associates was held in Los Angeles on November 17, 2009. Panelists included Morgan Chu of Irell & Manella, Mike Woronoff of Proskauer Rose, and Vivian Yang,
General Counsel at Citysearch.
The following Q&A summarizes the panelist's key pieces of advice on long-term career planning, partnership prospects and in-house careers.
Q: What is the most important thing associates should be aware of when planning their careers, whether at a firm, in-house or even outside of the legal profession?
Morgan Chu: Building a successful career is first and foremost hard work. Larry Bird and Tiger Woods were the best players in their respective games, not only because they were naturally blessed with basketball and golf skills, but because they constantly practiced those skills to ensure that they stayed at the top of their game. No matter how good you are at any particular lawyering skill - writing, negotiation, analysis - there are always other people out there who are better than you. Even if you have enormous talent, if you don't work hard, you will not be successful. A successful career also requires that you be proactive. Being proactive means always learning. Associates should be astute observers and watch their peers and superiors to see what techniques are successful and what ones are not. Observe yourself as well: take stock of your strengths and build on them; explore your weaknesses and take steps to improve those areas.
Mike Woronoff: Most attorneys think of law as a profession on a higher plane, but the truth is, lawyers have a product and a customer, and good lawyers are good salespeople. It is important that the product - whether a reply brief or a purchase agreement - be high quality, but the client usually has no way to immediately determine the quality of the product. What the customer can judge is whether you return their phone calls, whether you send documents when you say you will, whether you follow through on your promises. If you are diligent and responsive to the customer on these types of things, they will trust that you are also diligent and responsive on the substantive legal work. And remember - for partners, the customer is the client, but for junior associates, the customer is the partner or senior associate you are working for.
Vivian Yang: Most firms encourage junior associates to be generalists who are good at any legal task that is set before them. But to advance professionally - and especially to advance into an in-house position - associates need to not just to be good, but to be "good at something." There are a lot of very good lawyers in the world, but the lawyers who are great lawyers are experts in a particular field.
Q: How should associates approach finding mentors?
Morgan Chu: Mentors fulfill several different roles. That means your "mentor" can be more than one person. A mentor's roles include being a role model, a sounding board, a coach and a good friend. Different people can fill these different roles and together provide a mentoring experience. A role model might be someone you don't even know, who you look to for inspiration and guidance. A sounding board might be a friend or family member, who can give you useful feedback about choices you make. Despite what most law firms seem to think, you can't choose a mentor; a mentoring relationship usually grows naturally out of who you work with.
Mike Woronoff: The best way to find a mentor is to think of it from the mentor's point of view. Everyone working at a firm or company is very busy and is looking for other people to help take the weight off their shoulders. If you become valuable to someone, and help make their job easier by doing good work, they will almost invariably make the effort to mentor you. Mentoring relationships that develop this way are much more likely to stick than firm-appointed mentoring systems.
Q: Is it ever a good idea for an associate to discuss potential career moves with the partners he or she currently works for?
Morgan Chu: Your network is probably bigger than you think. Associates should talk with partners at their firm about their career choices. Partners understand that the majority of associates move on from the firm at some point and they will not be offended that you are considering leaving; most of the time, they will just want to learn more about the reason you want to go. Partners regularly learn about job openings and trends in the market and they can be a very useful resource for junior associates who want to make a career move. It is understandable that associates might be wary about telling partners at their firm that they are looking for a new job, but if associates keep open communication lines with partners, they can gain valuable information. For example, an associate who wants to move to a smaller firm that specializes in IP could get advice from partners at their current firm about what local firms would be the best fit for them.
Mike Woronoff: Associates should almost always discuss their career plans with the people they currently work for. At most firms, partners are more than happy to see associates move in-house, since that means a connection with a current or potential future client. And partners also understand that associates may want to move to a smaller firm or a different location or a non-legal position, and they can help with those transitions. The only time that associates might not want to discuss their career plans is if they are considering a move to a firm that is very similar (in location, size, practice areas) to the firm they are currently at.
Vivian Yang: Associates should cast a wide net and let colleagues and friends know that they are looking for a new job, particularly if they are looking for an in-house position. Even if you are not looking to make a move right now, you can let partners and senior associates that you work with know that you are happy at the firm for now, but you might someday be interested moving in-house. They are likely to be among the first to know which in-house clients are hiring.
Q: What other steps should associates take if they are considering a career change?
Morgan Chu: Associates need to think about how they are going to present themselves. You are no longer a second-year law student interviewing for a summer associate position. You should update your resume with specifics about what you actually do at your job. You should update your answers to potential interview questions. You should update your references and, if you can, ask partners or clients who you currently work for to serve as references. Even if you aren't currently considering a career change, you should do a self-assessment annually - or more frequently. Often, law students unthinkingly start down a certain road, taking a job a prestigious big firm because that is what their law school colleagues are doing. They then stay on that path without ever asking themselves if it's really where they want to be going. You should ask yourself, "Where am I? Where am I going? What do I want to do next year? In five years? Am I happy doing what I'm doing?" If you're not sure about any of the answers, you should explore the issue further.
Q:
If you are a mid-level or senior associate who wants to work as an
in-house counsel, what are the steps you should take to position
yourself for an in-house move?
Vivian Yang: You are probably
already doing some of the things that will help you move in-house. For
example, build relationships with both clients and colleagues who can
bring you in-house with them if an opportunity arises. Creating
networks is important for all career planning, but particularly if you
want to move in house: she got her first in-house position through
attorneys she had worked with at her firm, who brought her along with
them when they moved in-house. Also, don't be afraid to let people
know that you are looking for an in-house position. In-house jobs are
out there, but the openings are usually filled through word-of-mouth,
so you need to be on the radar of people, usually colleagues or
clients, who hear about in-house openings. Another way to position
yourself is to consider what industries are prominent in the area in
which you live and focus your practice and your networking in those
areas. For example, in Los Angeles, entertainment studios have large
in-house staffs, so someone interested in working in-house in Los
Angeles might focus their practice on media or IP and develop a network
of people who work in or with studios.
Q: What specific skills are you looking for when hiring someone for an in-house counsel position?
Vivian
Yang: General counsel want to hire people who are experts at
something. If you learn about an in-house opening that you are
interested in but you are not sure if you're an exact fit, consider how
your background and skills could fulfill the job requirements. Then
package yourself in a way that shows you do have the skills to meet the
general counsel's needs. In addition to looking for experts, general
counsel want to hire people with good judgment. In-house attorneys
make decisions all day long without any back-stop; they need to be able
to communicate to the company's business staff what the risk is of a
particular decision is and what the other options are. The last thing
a general counsel wants to see from an attorney is a legal memorandum
with a 50-state analysis of an issue; they just want to know what they
can and cannot do. An attorney who can't answer the question, "What
should I do?" is an attorney who does not understand the law or the
business enough to trust their own judgment. That attorney is not an
good in-house candidate.
Q: What do firms look for when promoting associates to partnership?
Morgan
Chu: Judgment is definitely at the top of the list. Good analytical
skills are also very important but attorneys who have developed strong,
multi-faceted judgment will do the best in their careers, whether they
make partner or choose another path. There is no school to teach you
good judgment but you can learn aspects of it by observing what other
people do in difficult situations, whether legal, business or
personal. Ask yourself whether that person is exercising good judgment
- are they adapting, are they taking into account changed
circumstances, are they considering every possibility?
Mike
Woronoff: Positioning can also be important - consider where the need
is greatest at your firm, and make yourself an expert in that
practice.
Q: Do associates need to bring clients the firm to
make partner? How should mid-level and senior associates develop a
book of business?
Mike Woronoff: Associates at most firms do not
need to bring clients to the firm to make partner, although there may
be firms out there that do require that. Realistically, since the
deals in many practice areas are multi-million dollar transactions,
there is no way that firms could expect that rising partners have
access to that kind of business. However, mid-level and senior
associates can take concrete steps to develop clients. Focus on
developing relationships with your peers, either other associates at
your level or with the junior business staff at your client. Get to
know these people at an early stage, when none of you are in a position
to make decisions. Then stay in touch as you progress in your
careers. The pay-off is unlikely to be immediately, but five, six, or
seven years later, these will be the people who are in the position to
make decisions.
Morgan
Chu: Associates at his firm definitely do not need to bring a client
to the firm in order to make partner. Regarding prospective business
development, take steps to make people remember you. For example, if a
client talks with you about his love of the Brooklyn Dodgers and you
see an article or book about them, send him a email about it or chalk
the book up to client development and buy it for him. Develop
relationships with clients or colleagues based on your common humanity,
not just on the terms of, "I am a lawyer and I provide services for
your company." Develop these relationships and be patient - it may
take years for a collegial relationship to produce business development
results.
Q: What advice do you have for mid-level or senior associates whose practice area has shriveled or disappeared?
Morgan
Chu: The current economic downturn is not the first time practice areas
have disappeared. Every few years, there are practice areas that
experience a boom, and then a few years later, a bust. There are
always shifts occurring in the law and attorneys need to try to stay
ahead of the curve. Associates who find that their practice area has
dried up simply need to find a new specialty, since it is difficult to
sell your skills if those skills no longer apply to any viable
practice.
Vivian
Yang: Try to "fake it": apply what you do know and translate it into
another practice area. Be flexible and build on your skill set to
develop the tools to move onto what you want to do next. Sometimes
this means you will have to take a position that is a step down from
what you were doing before. If people question why you want to pursue
a job that doesn't exactly fit with your background or that you seem
overqualified for, explain that you are very interested in learning
about that practice and you are are willing to take a temporary step
backward in order to eventually take three steps forward.
Mike
Woronoff: Segue into another practice that is related to the one you
are leaving. It can be difficult to reinvent yourself entirely
mid-career - for example, transitioning from litigation to
transactional work as a 5th-year associate - and most people he has
observed do not succeed at that kind of radical transition.
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