Career Advancement for Lawyers

Overview

No matter what you see on television, the life of real lawyers is difficult. After many years of education and the rigors of law school, most attorneys get their first jobs only to find that they must market their own legal services. In short, lawyers must learn to sell themselves and their firms to potential clients. This basic fact of life in the legal community comes as a surprise to many new lawyers. And it deeply affects the three career tracks for lawyers.

Step 1

Choose from the three basic tracks for career advancement as an attorney: partnership track, hired gun track and self-employment track. Success in all three tracks depends on the attorney's ability to find and keep clients. However, each track has specific advantages and disadvantages involving time commitment, salary, competition and prestige.

Step 2

Consider the following factors: how much time you are willing to invest, how much money you want to make, how much you like or dislike competition and how much prestige matters to you.

Step 3

Decide how much time you are willing to invest. Each career track requires that you spend a specific amount of time at work as an attorney. In some tracks, you can determine how much time you will spend. In other tracks, your firm's partners or senior associates will determine how much time you will spend.

Step 4

Determine how much money you want to make. If you want to make a large salary, one track will appeal to you more than others. If money is not as important or necessary for you, you have many more options available.

Step 5

Think about how much you are willing to fight for what you want. For two of the three career tracks, it is necessary to compete with other lawyers for what you want. If you enjoy this sort of contest, you will be able to succeed.

Step 6

Consider how much other people's opinions of you matter. If you want others in your profession to admire you, one particular career track will appeal to you. However, if your own opinion of yourself is what's important to you, you will have multiple options.

Step 1

Expect to work long hours during the week and over the weekend. Newly hired associates put in anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week, depending on their specialty. Litigation attorneys may put in more hours if they are involved in a case, while transactional attorneys may work a bit less. Attorneys on the partnership track routinely take work home, especially on the weekends.

Step 2

Negotiate with your firm for excellent compensation for your work. The salary for a beginning associate is often in the range of $100,000 per year, depending on the law school attended, rank in law school, honors earned in law school and legal specialty. The salary does not take into consideration some of the perquisites of life in the law firm, such as dinners and taxi fare for late nights at the office.

Step 3

Consider every single assignment as a challenge to your skill and determination. Competition for positions on the partnership track are fierce. Not every new associate hired by a firm will make partner, and excellent legal skills are expected.

Step 4

Decide to make a name for yourself in your legal specialty. The partnership track has the most prestige of all the lawyer options. Senior partners get corner offices, expense accounts, company cars and respect from their fellow attorneys. In addition, senior partners are the ones selected to head practice groups, serve on the management committee of the firm and hire the young attorneys.

Step 1

Understand the history of this career track. Back when the legal profession was mostly male, every single young attorney was supposed to aim for partner. Those who were not selected became the de facto hired guns, also know as junior partners. These attorneys did the work that the senior partners brought in while the senior partners met with clients on the golf course.

Step 2

Determine how many hours you are willing to work per day and per week. Many attorneys choose the hired gun track because of the flexibility of the hours and time commitment. In some circles, this option is also called the "mommy track" because female associates often leave the partnership track to raise a family and then return to legal practice later.

Step 3

Negotiate your best hourly rate with the law firm, based on your background and experience. Some firms hire these attorneys outright, but the firm and the lawyer agree to a certain number of work hours a week. Attorneys who bring in a few clients of their own can do very well in this type of track because they are paid an hourly fee and then may get a percentage of the total billings of their clients.

Step 4

Consider how much fighting you are willing to do to get clients. Competition for this track is much less than for the partnership track. Law firms need a number of attorneys to do the work that the senior partners bring in, so these jobs can be plentiful, depending on the economy.

Step 5

Decide what really matters to you. While much of the world determines your worth by what you do for a living and how much money you make, you can ignore all that. This career track has the least amount of prestige. Lawyers who are hired guns do not get corner offices, expense accounts or company cars. However, the trade-off is that they have much more time in their lives for family and friends.

Step 1

Understand the opportunities available to you as an entrepreneur. Attorneys in this track may start out by working for a law firm, but they end by starting their own firm or by working as a solo practitioner.

Step 2

Determine how much time you can devote to marketing yourself. The time commitment for this track is variable. Lawyers who start their own firms tend to work many hours as they are building their businesses and fewer hours after they have been in business for a while.

Step 3

Decide if you can deal with not having a steady salary. The salary for self-employed attorneys is variable. The advantage is that the lawyer is not paid a salary and is able to keep all the money earned, less business expenses, of course. The disadvantage is that self-employed attorneys do not get a paycheck that they can count on every 2 weeks.

Step 4

Expect to sell yourself and your services to potential clients. The competition to be self-employed is not serious among attorneys. Most attorneys prefer to work for an established law firm. However, the competition for new business can be fierce since newly established law firms go after many of the same clients as the big firms.

Step 5

Determine if an outward display of wealth or importance matters to you. The prestige of the self-employed attorney is not as high as that of the partner but also not as low as the hired gun. Self-employed lawyers are their own bosses and can give themselves a corner office, an expense account and a company car. Of course, the self-employed attorney has to go out and get the clients to pay for all those perks, as well.

Career Advancement for Lawyers by locumprofessionals.com