Job Seekers

The hiring season is fast approaching for soon to be law graduates. As law students begin the interviewing process, what should they be studying up on to catch a law firms attention?

Entering the workforce after graduation is never easy. Especially if you are trying to make it in the law field—unless you are the class of 2018! Last year’s law school graduates were fortunate enough to hit the pavement in what was considered the “strongest job market in a decade.”

What is a Fractional General Counsel you ask? A Fractional GC delivers an experienced legal executive for a fixed fee, filling the need for business-focused and operationally-oriented legal help while controlling the legal budget. Big law is continuing to increase starting salaries and raise hourly rates, plus total compensation and benefits for in-house lawyers to continue to grow.
Between this rock and hard place are businesses looking for ways to reduce cost and meet demands for legal advice and counsel in an increasingly complex legal and regulatory environment. Unless change is made, the “Rock” of high outside counsel costs for anything other than highly specialized work will continue to force companies to search for ways to reduce or at least control legal costs. The Hard Place, the logical response, is the continued growth of in-house legal departments, but therein lies the rub.
Want to learn more about this soft landing between a “rock” and “hard place?” Read more here in this law.com article!

Law firms all over surprisingly view real estate as “second best” in comparison to the heavy hitters of corporate and private equity work when in the process of trying to increase their profitability. This is a huge missed opportunity for firms and some New York City law firms are proving just that!
A strong real estate practice matters, even though New York is best known for their corporate legal work. Despite modest declines over the past few years, the New York City real estate market is solid and is even improving. Non-New York firms are starting to take notice of the incline in real estate and have even hopped on the train to add significant groups to their real estate practice in New York in the last 18 months.
Do you want to be a powerhouse in real estate? Are you a real estate partner or interested in real estate law? Then be sure to check out this law.com article!
Author:
Victoria Ostrander
Assistant Editor
The American Lawyer | National Law Journal | Corporate Counsel
Email: [email protected]
ALM Media Properties LLC

Ah yes, the hot button topic of the law firm generation gap between millennials and baby boomers. Lawyers who are just starting out or are long-time veterans view things differently on how a law firm should be ran in today’s world. Young lawyers are challenging the status quo to improve on the dynamic and structure of big law firms. “The business model is broken,” says Kristen Corpin, a young Miami lawyer. She says in order to keep young talent, partners need to have more respect for their young associate, not the concept of “you make a paycheck, just be grateful.”

Retirement . . . are you kicking back and enjoying your grandchildren? Are you sitting by the pool or playing golf? What is on your bucket list? Skydiving! Are you looking to ease into retirement now? Considering a firm with more than one location. Live in NYC but want to spend time in Florida?

Who doesn’t love a virtual reality tour? Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has introduced a new guided virtual reality tour of its Dallas and New York offices online. Why you ask? This is a new way for the firm to have recruiters and law students look around their offices and see what it would be like to work for them.

The path to making partner is not for the faint of heart. For lawyers, becoming partner is end-game and what most fail to realize while on this track is that becoming partner is a “slow and steady” concept. Let me explain, in order for associates to become partner they must put in their dues by pleasing their partners and clients and fulfilling billable hours. However, what they fail to realize is that there are other things that contribute to becoming partner. Young associates tend to forget these things while attempting to keep up with the “hefty billable hour requirements” requested of them within a 168 hour week.

One of the wonderful things about being a legal search consultant is that, even after over 30 years in the trenches, I learn something new almost every day. Today, I learned something from a candidate that I want to share, since it’s so good. This candidate, a mid-level associate, is wise beyond his years.

By Keith Fall and Ross Weil