Did you receive a bad review? Are you unhappy in your practice? Did you get asked to leave the law firm in which you are practicing law? Were you fired from a firm in which you were the sole partner? If you answered yes to any of the foregoing, you are an attorney in transition. Whatever the reasons for being in transition, it may feel like you’ve been punched in the gut and you feel demoralized. You may not have dusted off your resume or interviewed since graduating law school, and panic begins to set in as you contemplate the next steps in your career path (or you’re thinking early retirement).
Career Move
As an attorney in transition, you will need to decide whether to continue practicing law either at another firm or in a different specialty area. Some lawyers express a desire to leave the practice of law and want to use their analytical, communication, writing, and persuasiveness skills in a different avocation, such as in business or fund raising activities. Other attorneys in transition choose to remain in law or a law-related field and change firms. Lawyers that stay in the law may find it more satisfying to: (1) move to an office with a different culture; (2) work in a different area of law; or (3) work for a different type of client. Some attorneys in transition have successfully left law firms to work as in-house counsel, in a business venture, or in a nonprofit organization. Of course, there are attorneys who no longer want to practice law. Those people will continue to draw upon the skills they developed in their practice because those abilities, analytical thinking, as well as writing and verbal communication expertise, are useful and transferable to another workplace.
1. Where Do You Begin?
First, identify your interests, values, and skills. You can perform this self-assessment on you own or work with a legal career counselor, such as susan@susanbsilvermanconsulting.com. In either case, you should make a list of every paid or volunteer job that you have held and examine the list to see if there are any common themes to the positions, such as the type of work, litigious and confrontational verses transactional and cooperative assignments, and the environment, small or large offices. Additionally, you could take one or more self-assessment tools, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) and the Strong Interest Inventory® (Strong). These assessments can provide valuable insight when making a career change or dealing with a change in your personal or professional life. The MBTI assessment will help you understand your own personal work style and what type of work will make you happy. It will also help you better understand how to interact effectively with your colleagues in the workplace. Whereas the Strong helps to identify specific work content that will inspire you and keep you motivated, and provides detailed suggestions of jobs that are likely to provide you with a high degree of professional satisfaction. In combination, these two assessments can provide unparalleled insight into the process of a career change.
2. Work History
The next step of your transition would be to discuss with a career counselor or write down, if you are not working with a counselor, the pros and cons of your current position. Then working in reverse chronological order, describe the responsibilities you liked and disliked in your previous positions. This narrative of work history will help guide your next move on your career path to career satisfaction.
3. Stay or Go
Some lawyers express a desire to leave the practice of law and use their analytical thinking, and their verbal and written communication skills in a different avocation, such a business or fund raising activities. Other attorneys in transition choose to remain in law or a law-related field. Lawyers that stay in the law may find it more satisfying to move to an office with a different culture, a different area of law, or a different type of client. Lawyers that stay in the law may find it more satisfying to move to an office with a difference in culture, a different area of law, or a different type of client. Other attorneys leave law firms to work as in-house counsel or in a nonprofit organization. Those who leave the law find that the abilities learned in law school and the practice of law are transferable skills in another workplace.
4. Marketing Tools
If you are an attorney in transition, you should use three critical marketing tools to sell yourself to a potential employer. The tools are your: (A) Resume; (B) LinkedIn Profile; and (C) Biography.
A. Resume
Your resume will be the primary instrument used to introduce, define, and market yourself to potential employers. You should add your current position to your most recent resume if you have not already done it. Review and revise your resume so that it is error free. Note that 61% of recruiters automatically dismiss a resume if it contains typos or misspelled words.
An effective resume:
- Highlights your academic and work experience
- Presents relevant skills and achievements
- Demonstrates good organizational and writing ability
- Is aesthetically appealing
If your resume needs a full overhaul, you should consider retaining a legal career counselor to help update and revise your resume. This article will not expand upon all of the necessary elements of a legal resume because the topic regarding how to draft a legal resume is detailed and lengthy on its’ own. For further information regarding drafting legal resumes, please contact susan@susanbsilvermanconsulting.com.
B. LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is your online resume. Take your resume and insert it on your profile, and then expand it by adding more details. Whether your profile is used to network, acquire clients, or job search, it should convey what you do and the services you offer. If you have a professional photo, use it so people can attach a name with a face. Use LinkedIn to professional network. It can also be used to acquire introductions to someone you want to meet so long as you are within a few connections of them.
C. Attorney Biography
Your biography or “About” page is important and one of the most viewed pages in the firm or lawyer’s website. It is a significant marketing tool for new business and/or employment and should be outstanding. Your bio should tell a story. The first sentence should be an attention grabber and summarize what makes you unique from other attorneys, such as your ability to explain a problem simply and resolve it quickly. Then, describe the type of legal issues you handle. Next, you could describe any news worthy issues that you took on and how you solved it. It is important to let the reader get to know you – the areas of law that you are passionate about, why you practice law, and the type of clients with whom you enjoy to represent. This information will help build rapport and form a connection with the reader.
Like LinkedIn, post a picture in the your biography in which you are smiling to convey friendliness, approachability, and confidence.
In conclusion, an attorney in transition needs to decide whether to continue practicing, change firms, change the type law practiced, or leave the law. To answer one or more of those questions, the attorney needs to be introspective and/or use one or more self-assessment tools to identify his interests, values, and skills. Thereafter, he will have a clearer direction for career satisfaction and happiness. The attorney in transition can then update his marketing tools and engage in an effective targeted job search. Good luck on your career path! If you would like further information about this subject matter, please contact me at susan@susanbsilvermanconsulting.com.