Jill Backer, associate dean for professional development and alumni affairs at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, recognizes that cover letters work as a necessary evil. Backer believes that most lawyers have the wrong approach to cover letters.

“Cover letters are the bane of their existence for anyone who works in career services,” she writes. “Few people, from the most senior partners in firms to first-year law students, are good at writing a cover letter.”

Backer works on cover letters with law students and law school alumni, and tells them her mantra: “Your resume is your facts; your cover letter is your analysis.”

“In other words, your resume is what you have accomplished, and your cover letter is your chance to tell the employer why you are the match for the job,” Backer writes. “Also, when writing a cover letter, you must write from the point of view of what you can do for the employer rather than what they can do for you.”

Keep the header of your cover letter uniform with your resume, and research the appropriate person the cover letter should be addressed to. Target the majority of your cover letter to the desired position. The applicant should focus on the attributes and skills they possess that would be most relevant to the job. 

Are you interested in learning more about writing cover letters? Read more in this law.com article.

Gartner’s recent study found that in-house generalist roles are being replaced by the rise of automation, specialized applications and more non-lawyer employees, leading to more in-house counsel looking into specialization as a means to job security.

Depending on where an attorney is in their career, this new trend may be difficult to navigate as younger attorneys in smaller legal departments might not have enough roles to support specialists. However, the general counsel role, often the most high-paying legal job at an in-house department, is a generalist position.

“Corporate generalists are definitely in a position to prepare themselves for a juicy role in the future because of the depth and breadth of experience that they have,” said John Gilmore, founder and managing partner of the legal recruiting firm BarkerGilmore.

In addition, the Gartner study estimated that 50 percent of the work associated with major corporate transactions will be automated by 2024.

Automation will be tasked with responding to simpler questions from business units, reviewing simple forms of accuracy and reviewing large sets of corporate documents or data for anomalies. 

Since AI is likely to fulfill tasks without a skillset, in-house counsel looking for more job security may be interested in increasing their specific skill sets or expertise. 

Are you interested in learning more about what companies are looking for in their GCs? Read more in this law.com article.

Linda Sugin, a professor at Fordham Law School, writes that she believes the mental health crisis for legal professionals begins in law school. Citing a recent survey, she writes that half of students reported feeling depressed, and three-fourths reported feeling anxious. Female and nonbinary students, and students of color, reported higher numbers of depression and anxiety. 

As the former academic dean, Sugin focused on counteracting these statistics this by fostering students, developing paper mentorship, establishing an Office of Professionalism and nurturing collaboration. Sugin did not focus on those who were thriving, since they didn’t need additional help, but focused on those students who felt overlooked or invisible. She currently serves as faculty director at Fordham’s Office of Professionalism, which sponsors mental health first aid training, self-care programs and teaching coping skills to students.

Sugin’s experience led her to believe that seven sources cause law students the most personal and professional grief: 

• Competition
• Loneliness
• Lack of Preparation
• Spiritual Alienation
• Curricular Rigidity
• Faculty Distraction
• Cost

She advises that law schools focus on these seven items on this list to help students deal with the pressures of law school. Her three-part series on this issue will investigate the causes and symptoms of these items, and provide solutions. 

Are you interested in learning more about mental health in the legal profession? Read more in this law.com article.

Kayla Mosquera of Ball Janik writes about changes brought about by the pandemic – the Great Resignation and the Great Return. Lawyers are leaving their jobs in the Great Resignation, and lawyers are also returning to in-office work in the Great Return. 

“The pandemic altered the legal industry by bringing out remote work and virtual court proceedings,” Mosquera writes.  This consequently has affected how the younger generation of attorneys approach their career goals and work-life balance.

The prestige of working at a top law firm soon show drawbacks such as intense pressure, long hours, and high stakes that lead to burnout. Traditional law firms may be less flexible about the younger generation’s desire for autonomy, remote work and balance. 

While remote work has given many attorneys flexibility, it also has led to feelings of disconnection or young associates starting out at a firm. 

“Many young lawyers are eager to return to their offices, particularly those who feel that remote work has negatively impacted their career development and workplace culture,” Mosquera writes. Virtual court proceedings bring about new challenges of making it more difficult to find mentors or establish connections in a law firm for a new associate.

Are you interested in learning more about the Great Resignation and the Great Return? Read more in this law.com article.

Motion days have changed in previous years, with most motions taking place over the phone or via video conference. 

“Back decades ago when I was a newly admitted member of the bar, which somehow seems simultaneously forever ago but just yesterday, biweekly motion days were a vibrant thing,” recalled Michael Brooke Fisher, a former Cumberland County Superior Court judge. 

Fisher writes that motion days presented an opportunity for young attorneys to meet and socialize with senior attorneys outside the courtroom. Attending motion days helped shape Fisher’s career as a lawyer, judge and mediator. He would observe senior attorneys and learn from their mistakes. 

Fisher also observed that each judge would have their own quirks. From observing other judges in the courtroom, Fisher decided early on that he would announce his ruling then explain his reasoning. 

“(Motion days) were opportunities to see lawyers and judges at their best and worst,” Fisher writes. “Watching lawyers argue meaningful summary judgment or other types of substantive motions every other week was as good or better a learning opportunity as any single class or lecture one could attend… What is important that somehow lawyers, young lawyers and lawyers-to-be ultimately have the same biweekly opportunity to learn their own lessons in a filled courtroom in the future as we did in the past.”

Are you interested in learning more about motion days? Read more in this law.com article.

If you feel like your salary increase this year did not outpace inflation, you’re not alone. Many inside counsel feel as though they are underpaid in 2023.  Whether they actually are underpaid depends on their role.

Mike Evers, a legal recruiter at Evers Legal, writes that compensation culture centers around a desire to pay the “at market” price of the role. Leadership will review data to confirm that the company’s salaries remain competitive, but the benchmarking data often paints an incomplete picture. Salary data becomes outdated the moment it is published, and is often based on small sample sizes.

Evers advises that employees do their own research and discuss salaries with recruiters. They could even confidentially discuss compensation with other in-house counsel peers to gather their own data points. Since it’s a difficult question to ask, Evers recommends offering your own compensation as information to exchange. The information gathered will help an employee negotiate their own raise, or it might help them learn that their pay is adequate or higher than the typical salary in their position.

Are you interested in learning more about compensation at law companies? Read more in this law.com article.

Daniel Pierson of Pond Lehocky Giordano remembers his first deposition as a new attorney, the first time a lawyer presents a witness in court. In the post-pandemic world, depositions have increasingly been remote depositions, but key principles still apply to a successful deposition.

Pierson advises young attorneys on five key steps in preparing for a deposition:

Identifying the Goals of the Deposition

Keeping in mind what the deposition seeks to accomplish from all parties involved. For example: If you’re defending a worker’s entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits, you’ll need the worker’s testimony of her symptoms from her medical provider.

Preparing Your Witness

To establish control of the witness from the start, an attorney needs to prepare the witness for questions in the direct examination and cross examination. An attorney should take note of whether the witness is nervous or too chatty and adjust their demeanor when questioning the witness accordingly. 

Maintaining Decorum Within the Deposition

If you’re presenting a witness against a more experienced adversarial attorney, you’ll still need to maintain control of yourself and your witness regardless.  

Pierson also goes more into depth on these tips as well as advice on the following:

-Active Listening During Cross Exam

–Applying the Deposition Within the Case Context

Are you interested in learning more tips for a successful deposition? Read more in this law.com article.

The last three years changed how law firm leaders view associate development and mentorship. With the pandemic shifting many positions previously in the office to remote work, associate development and interpersonal relationships were affected at law firms. Whether the effect on mentorship has affected the level of expertise within law firms remains to be seen.

When junior partners were asked in a mid-2022 survey if they can get quality work from associates, they responded that associate attitude and production fell during the pandemic. The task of remote mentorship also fell to junior partners.

“I’d like to learn to motivate associates beyond traditional fear tactics,” says one junior partner. “Certain associates are very motivated and submit high-quality work product. Others need a lot of training. Remote work has made training more difficult because it has to be more deliberate.”

Developing a specific skill set may help associates whose professional development was hindered by the pandemic, though sometimes firm leaders disagree on whether remote work and isolation hindered professional growth for new associates. The disagreement revolved around training in the office prior to the pandemic compared to training over screens.

“The way most of us were taught was that you were given an assignment with some guidance, then after you finished, a good mentor would redline with a pen everything that needed to be reworked and then we would talk it through,” says Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough litigation partner Francisco Armada. 

Are you interested in learning more about the expertise crisis in law? Read more in this law.com article.

Keanna Seabrooks, an associate at Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby, shares that she quickly became the go-to person in her network for career advice. Her main tips to aspiring attorneys include:

Getting involved

Finding ways to work through the issue becomes crucial. Seabrooks mentions working on pro bono activities while pursuing work in law school.

Finding a mentor

Having an adviser or mentor to provide guidance in your career helps a young attorney’s growth in their career. A mentor can serve as a “source of knowledge” for the mentee. Seabrooks now helps mentees as well, but still has mentors as part of her support system.

Network

“Networking is critical in building one’s reputation and making meaningful connections, especially in a day and age when we have ostensible electronic access to vast social networks at our fingertips,” Seabrooks writes. The time and dedication is worth the benefits and rewards of networking. She also advises that the workplace is the best environment for networking, and also mentions events and law conferences as a good place to build a young attorney’s network.

Are you interested in learning more about navigating a law career? Read more in this law.com article.