Associates often wonder when the best time in their careers is to make a move. There is no definitive answer to this question but there are important things to be considered. If an associate has been at a firm for two years and they are generally happy with their chosen area of practice but are finding that the firm is not the right fit, this is an excellent time to look around and explore other options. We often hear that “all firms are the same,” but having worked at three Am Law 100 firms I have seen how different the firm cultures can be. An associates’ fourth or fifth year is a great time to start evaluating their career path at their current firm. If the odds of making partner are stacked against him this is an opportune time to make a move. You want to be at a firm for long enough to establish yourself before you are considered for partner. Lastly – if you take the leap of faith and stick with one firm, just be sure that you have gotten great experience and built a resume that will allow you to stay in the drivers’ seat of your career.
The best news is that 2011 is off to a great start and there is a significant increase in opportunities for associates looking to make a move!
Interested in learning about new opportunities? Contact Lori Black
Blog Archive
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Interviewing Tips from Desiree
Often at the end of an interview, the interviewer will ask you if you have any questions for them. I have stumbled in this situation myself because there were times when I genuinely didn’t have any questions that had not already been addressed and answered or that I had not already learned during my pre-interview research of the firm. However, I have learned that it is always best to ask a question; it shows you are engaged in the process and interested in the firm.
The question doesn’t have to be tricky or elaborate, in fact, it’s better to keep it simple and general; you don’t want to stump the interviewer or cause them to have to go look something up. Some good questions can be as simple as “What do you like about working for this firm?” or “What do you find most challenging about this position?”. Your inquiry will leave the interviewer with a sense that you have a genuine interest in them and in the firm and that’s always a great note to end an interview on.
Want other tips on interviewing? Email Desiree
The question doesn’t have to be tricky or elaborate, in fact, it’s better to keep it simple and general; you don’t want to stump the interviewer or cause them to have to go look something up. Some good questions can be as simple as “What do you like about working for this firm?” or “What do you find most challenging about this position?”. Your inquiry will leave the interviewer with a sense that you have a genuine interest in them and in the firm and that’s always a great note to end an interview on.
Want other tips on interviewing? Email Desiree
Sunday, January 9, 2011
New Year, New Economy, New Job
Over the last two years, we have heard nothing but negative news about the state of our economy regarding companies making continual layoffs as well as the unemployment rate for our country continue to creep towards 10%. Towards the end of 2010, Warren Recruiting started to see a sharp increase in the number of open jobs we had from our clients. We began to receive calls from clients that hadn’t hired in over a year, letting us know that deal flow had picked up and they need more people.
Across the nation, companies are beginning to add new employees to their workforce. In a recent USAToday article published 1/6/2011, “Through 2011, employers will add 183,000 jobs a month — vs. 94,000 a month in 2010, according to the average forecast of 28 economists surveyed by USA TODAY.” If you have been sitting and waiting for things to improve before you make your next career move, stop procrastinating because things are finally getting better and it’s a new year and time for a new opportunity!
Across the nation, companies are beginning to add new employees to their workforce. In a recent USAToday article published 1/6/2011, “Through 2011, employers will add 183,000 jobs a month — vs. 94,000 a month in 2010, according to the average forecast of 28 economists surveyed by USA TODAY.” If you have been sitting and waiting for things to improve before you make your next career move, stop procrastinating because things are finally getting better and it’s a new year and time for a new opportunity!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Legal Sector Gained 1000 New Jobs in August
The Bureau of Labor Statistics's monthly employment report for August was released early Friday and the news was still a bit glum overall--the U.S. economy lost a total of 54,000 jobs. But the news for lawyers and legal industry employees was a bit brighter.
The legal sector handed out 1,000 jobs last month, marking the second straight month of improved numbers for the industry.
BLS originally reported that the field lost 800 jobs in July, but that number has since been readjusted to show an increase of 300 positions. While those numbers lag behind reports from August 2009 by more than 14,000 jobs, they still represent an improvement over the previous two months. In June and May combined, legal services positions declined by almost 4,000. (See our jobs reports for July, June, and May.)
The country's overall unemployment rate inched up, from 9.5 to 9.6 percent. Despite modest improvement in the private sector--which had 67,000 new hires--the overall employment numbers took a hit, in large part, due to the evaporation of government jobs. In August, government employment dropped by 121,000, as 114,000 of the remaining temporary U.S. Census workers completed their duties.
The health care and construction industries showed more progress than most, with 28,000 and 19,000 new jobs, respectively.
For more information about jobs in your area, visit www.WarrenRecruiting.com
source: AM Law Daily
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Welcome Lori Black
Warren Recruiting is proud to announce the addition of Lori Black to our Firm.
Lori brings nearly a decade of legal industry experience and perspective to the search process. Prior to working with Warren Recruiting, Lori worked in law firm business development for over eight years. She has particular expertise in the legal Energy arena, having supported the strategy and growth of the Energy practices of two Am Law 100 firms. Lori brings a unique perspective to legal recruiting, having helped with the integration and business development plans of nearly one-hundred lateral partners.
Lori was most recently at Haynes and Boone, serving as the business development manager for the corporate, energy and international practice areas. Prior to that she did business development for Jones Day and Akin, Gump, Straus, Hauer and Feld. After completing her Masters of Business Administration, Lori worked in trading and structured finance for TXU Energy Services and then Dynegy, Inc.
Lori holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Jesse H. Jones School of Business at Rice University and has an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Lori is a native Houstonian and actively involved in the legal marketing community. Lori founded the Legal Marketing Association Southeast in Houston in 2006. She and her husband Robert, a third generation lawyer, are the proud parents of a six year old boy, a four year old girl, a dog and a cat. The family loves to spend time outdoors, particularly near the ocean.
Lori can be reached at Lori@WarrenRecruiting.com
Lori brings nearly a decade of legal industry experience and perspective to the search process. Prior to working with Warren Recruiting, Lori worked in law firm business development for over eight years. She has particular expertise in the legal Energy arena, having supported the strategy and growth of the Energy practices of two Am Law 100 firms. Lori brings a unique perspective to legal recruiting, having helped with the integration and business development plans of nearly one-hundred lateral partners.
Lori was most recently at Haynes and Boone, serving as the business development manager for the corporate, energy and international practice areas. Prior to that she did business development for Jones Day and Akin, Gump, Straus, Hauer and Feld. After completing her Masters of Business Administration, Lori worked in trading and structured finance for TXU Energy Services and then Dynegy, Inc.
Lori holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Jesse H. Jones School of Business at Rice University and has an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Lori is a native Houstonian and actively involved in the legal marketing community. Lori founded the Legal Marketing Association Southeast in Houston in 2006. She and her husband Robert, a third generation lawyer, are the proud parents of a six year old boy, a four year old girl, a dog and a cat. The family loves to spend time outdoors, particularly near the ocean.
Lori can be reached at Lori@WarrenRecruiting.com
Friday, May 7, 2010
Bar Raised for Law-Grad Jobs
Employment Prospects Dim as Firms Retrench, Derailing Career Paths for Many
By NATHAN KOPPEL of the WSJ
Fabian Ronisky thought he was on track last summer to become a high-powered corporate lawyer. He was an intern at a leading firm in Los Angeles, earning about $3,000 weekly. But the firm didn't offer him a permanent job.
Alexis Smith, top, and Fabian Ronisky both are about to enter one of the worst job markets for attorneys in decades. Neither has a lawyer job lined up.
So Mr. Ronisky, a 25-year-old student at Chicago's Northwestern University School of Law, spent the fall sending 50 resumes to law firms and government agencies, to no avail. Now, just days shy of graduation and with $150,000 of student loans, he plans to move back to his parents' home in San Diego and sell music and movies online.
"I wanted to use my education," he said. "But times change."
Mr. Ronisky is one of about 40,000 law-school students who will graduate this spring and enter one of the worst job markets for attorneys in decades. This year's classes have it particularly bad, according to lawyers and industry experts. Though hiring was down last year as well, they said 2009 graduates applied for jobs before law firms had felt the full brunt of the downturn.
The situation is so bleak that some students and industry experts are rethinking the value of a law degree, long considered a ticket to financial security. If students performed well, particularly at top-tier law schools, they could count on jobs at corporate firms where annual pay starts as high as $160,000 and can top out well north of $1 million. While plenty of graduates are still set to embark on that career path, many others have had their dreams upended.
Part of the problem is supply and demand. Law-school enrollment has held steady in recent years while law firms, judges, the government and other employers have drastically cut hiring in the economic downturn.
Large corporate law firms have been hit particularly hard. The nation's 100 highest-grossing corporate firms last year reported an average revenue decline of 3.4%, the first overall drop in more than 20 years, according to the May issue of The American Lawyer magazine.
Morrison & Foerster LLP, a 1,000-lawyer San Francisco-based firm, hired about 30% fewer graduates this year than in the prior year. "It would not surprise me if all firms cut back on hiring law graduates for a couple of years," said Keith Wetmore, its chairman. Saul Ewing LLP, a 250-lawyer Philadelphia firm, cut hiring of law graduates this year by about two-thirds.
Law firms of all sizes have suffered as clients have curbed work on real-estate acquisitions, mergers, public offerings and other staples of corporate practice. They have had to fire lawyers, reduce hiring and defer the start dates of the law graduates who did receive job offers.
Many 2009 law graduates who were offered jobs just started work this year. And many graduates hired in 2010 won't start until 2011. So even when the economy picks up, firms would first have to absorb their backlog of recent hires.
It is too early to get a comprehensive view of the employment rate for the 2010 class, but there are plenty of troubling indicators.
Law firms had an average of 16 summer internship positions to offer this year, about half the number of the previous year, according to a March report by the National Association for Law Placement Inc.
Employers last year offered 69% of summer interns a full-time job, down from about 90% in the previous five years.
The University of Texas School of Law, long regarded as among the nation's top 20, estimates the employment rate for 2010 graduates is down about 10% to 15% from last year.
"I've been at this for 23 years, and this is the worst job market I've ever seen," said Karen Klouda, head of career services at the University of Iowa College of Law.
Those considering law school might want to reconsider, said Allan Tanenbaum, chairman of an American Bar Association commission studying the impact of the economic crisis on the profession. Students take on average law-school debt of about $100,000 and, given the job market, many "have no foreseeable way to pay that back," he said.
Thomas Reddy, a second-year student at Brooklyn Law School, hasn't landed a summer internship yet after sending resumes to more than 50 law firms. He is taking on about $70,000 of debt each year of the three-year program to earn his degree, but said he may be fortunate to make $80,000 a year in a lawyer job after graduating. "That is less than what I was making before I went to law school," he said.
Many graduating students remained optimistic and determined to find legal jobs, according to interviews with students and career counselors. And many have secured good positions.
But it is bad form on campuses to bask in one's success, said Sue Landsittel, a Northwestern law student who will clerk at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle and join a top corporate firm after that. "You want to celebrate your own good fortune, but you have to remember it's a delicate issue."
By NATHAN KOPPEL of the WSJ
Fabian Ronisky thought he was on track last summer to become a high-powered corporate lawyer. He was an intern at a leading firm in Los Angeles, earning about $3,000 weekly. But the firm didn't offer him a permanent job.
Alexis Smith, top, and Fabian Ronisky both are about to enter one of the worst job markets for attorneys in decades. Neither has a lawyer job lined up.
So Mr. Ronisky, a 25-year-old student at Chicago's Northwestern University School of Law, spent the fall sending 50 resumes to law firms and government agencies, to no avail. Now, just days shy of graduation and with $150,000 of student loans, he plans to move back to his parents' home in San Diego and sell music and movies online.
"I wanted to use my education," he said. "But times change."
Mr. Ronisky is one of about 40,000 law-school students who will graduate this spring and enter one of the worst job markets for attorneys in decades. This year's classes have it particularly bad, according to lawyers and industry experts. Though hiring was down last year as well, they said 2009 graduates applied for jobs before law firms had felt the full brunt of the downturn.
The situation is so bleak that some students and industry experts are rethinking the value of a law degree, long considered a ticket to financial security. If students performed well, particularly at top-tier law schools, they could count on jobs at corporate firms where annual pay starts as high as $160,000 and can top out well north of $1 million. While plenty of graduates are still set to embark on that career path, many others have had their dreams upended.
Part of the problem is supply and demand. Law-school enrollment has held steady in recent years while law firms, judges, the government and other employers have drastically cut hiring in the economic downturn.
Large corporate law firms have been hit particularly hard. The nation's 100 highest-grossing corporate firms last year reported an average revenue decline of 3.4%, the first overall drop in more than 20 years, according to the May issue of The American Lawyer magazine.
Morrison & Foerster LLP, a 1,000-lawyer San Francisco-based firm, hired about 30% fewer graduates this year than in the prior year. "It would not surprise me if all firms cut back on hiring law graduates for a couple of years," said Keith Wetmore, its chairman. Saul Ewing LLP, a 250-lawyer Philadelphia firm, cut hiring of law graduates this year by about two-thirds.
Law firms of all sizes have suffered as clients have curbed work on real-estate acquisitions, mergers, public offerings and other staples of corporate practice. They have had to fire lawyers, reduce hiring and defer the start dates of the law graduates who did receive job offers.
Many 2009 law graduates who were offered jobs just started work this year. And many graduates hired in 2010 won't start until 2011. So even when the economy picks up, firms would first have to absorb their backlog of recent hires.
It is too early to get a comprehensive view of the employment rate for the 2010 class, but there are plenty of troubling indicators.
Law firms had an average of 16 summer internship positions to offer this year, about half the number of the previous year, according to a March report by the National Association for Law Placement Inc.
Employers last year offered 69% of summer interns a full-time job, down from about 90% in the previous five years.
The University of Texas School of Law, long regarded as among the nation's top 20, estimates the employment rate for 2010 graduates is down about 10% to 15% from last year.
"I've been at this for 23 years, and this is the worst job market I've ever seen," said Karen Klouda, head of career services at the University of Iowa College of Law.
Those considering law school might want to reconsider, said Allan Tanenbaum, chairman of an American Bar Association commission studying the impact of the economic crisis on the profession. Students take on average law-school debt of about $100,000 and, given the job market, many "have no foreseeable way to pay that back," he said.
Thomas Reddy, a second-year student at Brooklyn Law School, hasn't landed a summer internship yet after sending resumes to more than 50 law firms. He is taking on about $70,000 of debt each year of the three-year program to earn his degree, but said he may be fortunate to make $80,000 a year in a lawyer job after graduating. "That is less than what I was making before I went to law school," he said.
Many graduating students remained optimistic and determined to find legal jobs, according to interviews with students and career counselors. And many have secured good positions.
But it is bad form on campuses to bask in one's success, said Sue Landsittel, a Northwestern law student who will clerk at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle and join a top corporate firm after that. "You want to celebrate your own good fortune, but you have to remember it's a delicate issue."
Monday, April 19, 2010
What goes down must go up – salaries on the rise
DLA Piper on Thursday became the latest firm to raise associate salaries pack to pre-2008 levels, according to the National Law Journal, an Am Law Daily sibling publication. The firm cut salaries in June of 2009 at the same time it announced plans to implement a broader merit-based pay system for associates, according the NLJ.
The skinny is this: Associates in major markets will have starting salaries pushed back up to $160,000 after the firm cut them back to $145,000, the NLJ says, citing an internal memo sent out Thursday. The firm had boosted starting salaries in New York back to the $160,000 mark in January, but Thursday's memo means that move will now extend to the firm's other key offices. Starting salaries for associates in secondary markets, such as Phoenix, Tampa Bay and Sacramento, will jump back up to $145,000 from $130,000, the NLJ reports.
The goal of the raise is to retain mid-level associates, but the firm decided to raise salaries for all associates at once rather doing so in steps, the NLJ says. Terry O'Malley, the firm's U.S. managing partner, stressed that the firm did not decide on the raises because of job market pressures.
Source - ALM Daily
The skinny is this: Associates in major markets will have starting salaries pushed back up to $160,000 after the firm cut them back to $145,000, the NLJ says, citing an internal memo sent out Thursday. The firm had boosted starting salaries in New York back to the $160,000 mark in January, but Thursday's memo means that move will now extend to the firm's other key offices. Starting salaries for associates in secondary markets, such as Phoenix, Tampa Bay and Sacramento, will jump back up to $145,000 from $130,000, the NLJ reports.
The goal of the raise is to retain mid-level associates, but the firm decided to raise salaries for all associates at once rather doing so in steps, the NLJ says. Terry O'Malley, the firm's U.S. managing partner, stressed that the firm did not decide on the raises because of job market pressures.
Source - ALM Daily
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