Good Idea:  Going to the law library.
 
Bad Idea:  Going to the law library when you are former student and adjunct that is banned from the campus.  Oh yeah, it's also not a good idea to walk through the law library with two handguns and fifty-three rounds of ammunition.  Sheesh.
 

By Brian Malcom 

We have written about how Twitter can get you fired.  We have written about how Twitter can get you hired.  Now, we are going to tell you about companies using social media to solicit applications and recruit candidates. 

CNNMoney.com discussed this new trend in a recent article.  The article tells the tale of companies using social media to advertise open positions and communicate with potential candidates, in lieu of more traditional means of advertising a job opening.  "Posting ads on job search sites like Monster.com could mean spending hundreds of dollars -- and precious hours poring over resumes. In contrast, social media tools are mostly free and offer added value: Candidates bring their own online networks, blog content and references, which speeds up the interview process." 

If you haven't already switched over to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Craigslist to search for job listings, or if you haven't seen something shiny off in the distance and become otherwise distracted, let's discuss how this might affect young lawyers or law students.  In honor of Twitter, I will try to do so in 140 characters or less. Here goes:

Firms may use web 2.0 to find legal talent. Toss the classifieds. Get a laptop and PDA. Follow firms on web 2.0 sites, and look for job listings. Times are changing.

By Robert Chapski 

LinkedIn is a great networking tool but one blogger at at the Legal Blog Watch questions the extent to which judges should participate in the professional networking site. Several judges have already jumped aboard.  The article is yet another reminder of how much our social, personal and professional lives are blurring together.  Be careful out there. 

By Brian Malcom 

What do you do when Rome is burning?  Honestly, I'm not sure.  I do know what you should not do: sit in the middle of the Pantheon with a cup of water.  Instead, I would suggest getting the heck out of Rome.

Harvard Law School might agree.  According to Law.com, Harvard recently advised its law students to "cast a wider net."  In other words, apply for jobs and clerkships outside of major metropolitan areas.

Rachel Breitman for Law.com writes, "Considering law firms outside major metropolitan areas might be a smart way to stay in the game, according to the school, which recommended students consider mid-Atlantic cities like Baltimore and Richmond, or Midwestern cities like Milwaukee."

Maybe ivy league law students should take a look at midsize firms while they are at it.  Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that midsize firms are picking up clients that are tired of paying BigLaw's hourly rates. "[T]o cut costs during the recession, U.S. businesses increasingly are handing work to less expensive small and midsize firms, typically those with fewer than 200 attorneys. And while their larger counterparts are laying off lawyers, some smaller firms are hiring attorneys to keep up with new business."

Perhaps American law is in the middle of a race to the middle.  No longer is the goal to work in the largest firm in the largest city with the largest compensation package.  The goal for young lawyers has become strikingly simple: to find a good job in a fair-sized market with a stable firm that pays well.

Priorities are fickle little things.

By Kathleen Pearson

Welcome back to school and Fall Recruiting!  Some schools have already started their early interview process while others are putting the final touches on interview schedules.  Before you know it, we (or at least some of us) will be coming on campus to interview you for our 2010 summer class. 

Here are a few tips to help you make a good impression and hopefully get a call back: 

1.  Do dress your best.  Please remember this is a formal interview and the very first impression is important.  It should go without saying, but brush your hair, shave, make sure your clothes are pressed.  Seems like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how many students miss this step . . .  

2.  Do your homework.  All of us have websites with copious amounts of information about our firms.  Be sure you do your research and know some basic information about us – location, type of practice, etc.  You should be able to answer the question: “Why would you like to move to X city to work?” 

3.  Do have questions for us.  This should be an introductory dialogue and we expect you to have some questions about our firm, practice, city, what it’s like to be an associate, size of summer program, historic number of offers.  Don’t make the interviewers do all of the work. 

4.  Don’t name drop.  While it is good to mention how you have a connection to the firm (i.e. friends with a partner or client, etc.), you should mention it and move on.  DO NOT continue to name drop over and over again.  It is annoying. 

5.  Don’t be late.  Here again, this is a no brainer.  You have a very limited amount of time to make a good impression.  Don’t waste the first 10 minutes because you can’t manage your time.  If you are in an interview that is running over (let’s face it, some interviewers like to hear themselves talk), try your best to steer the conversation to a close and say you are looking forward to hearing back from them and hope to visit the firm soon.  Which leads me to . . . 

6.  Don’t end the interview by saying you have to go because X firm down the hall is waiting on you.  We know you are meeting with a lot of other firms.  Just don’t mention it to us.  It hurts our ego . . . and makes you look disinterested.   

These are just a few tips to get you started.  Feel free to add more in the comment section and check back.  I might add a few more as we move through the Fall!

By Frances Fenelon 

"Anything - just write about anything," entreated my partner, Eileen.  " For example, tell us about your first mistake."  So many.  Too many:  

• 37 days past service of Requests for Admission is too late to respond;
• Franklin, TN and Franklin County, TN are not one and the same, and are, in fact, many miles apart; and
• For pete's sake, do not appear at a docket call before Judge Maddux for a Judge Turnbull case.

Nothing, nothing reddens my ears more, however, than the memory of drinking a whiskey and Coke in front of the senior partners.  "If you don't like the taste of whiskey, don't drink it,"  they told me.  I tried whiskey and  Sprite but was soon discovered and outed with the feeling of shame just above showing up au naturel.  And so, I graduated to whiskey and water then on to whiskey straight - a feat admired by family and friends, a parlor trick, but one that I cannot easily forsake.  It is part of me, and now my preference.  Now I am set apart.  I am an attorney.  Lawyer.  Esquire.  Counselor.  I am an Officer of the Court, in heels, with a Jameson, on the rocks.

By Brian Malcom

And the observant and seemingly prophetic song about suburban life goes . . . "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, . . . And there's doctors and there's lawyers, And business executives, And they're all made out of ticky-tacky, And they all look just the same."

Well, suburbia, if you thought there were lawyers before, wait until they hear that some suburban law firms are prospering in this recession.  According to the ABA Journal, "location, practice areas, flexibility and lower rates are some of the reasons why" some smaller and suburban law firms are seeing more growth in this recession than their big law colleagues.  Although, this author seems to think the latter two reasons are the true reasons for the recent success of suburban law firms.

Some former big law lawyers are trading in their swanky loft apartments for a house in the suburbs.  According to the ABA article, suburban law firms are taking business away from the big firms and, in some cases, lawyers with ample books of business.

Think of it like this:

• BigLaw is a tractor trailer package delivery service.  BigLaw needs more fuel.  BigLaw costs more to maintain. BigLaw is more intimidating on the road.  BigLaw can handle large shipments and large packages with ease, and you may begin to see some economies of scale with a significant volume of business.  Although, BigLaw may be overkill and overpriced to run a document across town.
• SuburbanLaw is, appropriately, a minivan package delivery service.  SuburbanLaw needs less fuel.  SuburbanLaw costs less to maintain.  However, SuburbanLaw usually does not intimidate those it encounters along the way.  Also, SuburbanLaw is not equipped to handle large shipments or large packages.  Nonetheless, SuburbanLaw shines with its cost-efficiency for routine shipments of average-size shipments with average-size packaging.
• Both get the package from point A to point B, but they have very different methods and models for doing so. 

To continue the metaphor, fuel ("revenue") is short in this recession.  Overhead costs make larger law firms less flexible in their billing.  While a tractor trailer is nice when there is no shortage of fuel, maybe a minivan is better when fuel is scarce.  In these times, clients do not want to pay to fill up an eighteen-wheeler when a minivan will do the job just fine.

Big firms are clunkers in definite need of cash.