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Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

CAREER CONSULT

By Stephen E. Seckler
More Career Consult Articles

Following is the first in a series of columns providing career advice for lawyers.

Q. I am interested in a junior corporate position. Although my experience is primarily in trusts and estates, I am looking to change fields to corporate and believe that the areas do overlap to some degree. Please let me know if I would fit in anywhere.

A. The question you pose is a familiar one. I am not sure what your motivation is for wanting to make this change (e.g. a desire to try something new, a loss of interest in trusts and estates, a wish to better position yourself for an in-house job or just a sudden epiphany).

Whatever your motivation, it is very important to do a thorough assessment of your current situation and pursue your next step with intentional purpose. Your next job is likely to lead you to the one after that, etc.

The knee-jerk reaction is to open the want ads and look to see who is hiring. While this is one of several ways to help you assess the overall demand for lawyers in this practice area, if you lack experience, then most likely this is not a good use of your energy.

If you do try sending your resume in response to one of these ads (whether the ad was placed by a firm or a recruiter), you are likely to receive either a rejection letter or no response at all.

Instead, here are some things to think about:

You need to demonstrate that you have credibility. We live in a world of specialization and the legal profession is no different. In general, legal employers are looking to hire individuals with prior experience in the stated practice area.

If a law firm has need for a lateral, then it wants someone who can get right to work. Most law firms are not eager to hire a lateral associate who will need training.

Perhaps this sounds like a Catch-22 (how to get the needed experience if no one will hire you due to a lack of experience).

In fact, it is the failure to acknowledge this need for obtaining experience that is the stumbling block for most attorneys who wish to make a career change.

Lacking experience in a practice area translates into a lack of credibility. If you happen to have outstanding academic credentials, experience in a top law firm and are relatively junior, then you may get hired because you are considered to be a decent risk and "quick study."

But if you do not fall under this very narrow exception, you need to find a way to establish credibility.

There are a number of ways to build credibility. If you want to switch to corporate practice, the first thing to do is to show some active interest in doing corporate work.

It is nice to say that you have an interest, but have you handled any corporate matters? Have you attended any CLE courses on the subject? Do you attend bar association meetings for any of the corporate committees? Coursework in law school is relevant but much less important than real world experience.

One way to get the experience you lack is to volunteer your time to do pro bono work. This may seem unrealistic if you are hoping to represent corporations rather than indigent individuals (how does representing a tenant in an eviction case teach you about commercial leasing?).

But with a little creative thought, it may be possible to do pro bono work that helps you to develop more business-oriented skills.

Perhaps you can get some of this experience when negotiating contracts on behalf of a non-profit organization. Maybe one of your friends is setting up a start-up company and does not have the money to pay a lawyer.

Just make sure to find a mentor to look over your work and give you some guidance so that you can learn from your experiences.

An excellent way to gain corporate experience is to seek out the work at your current firm (assuming that your firm has some of this work).

This may mean doubling up on your responsibilities for a period of time. It may also mean that you cannot bill these hours. Think of this as a professional investment and it will pay off in the long run.

I am aware of several associates who have made the switch from litigation to corporate practice by taking on non-litigation matters. Even though they lacked corporate experience, they had credibility because partners at their firms were familiar with their work.

Authoring an article on some aspect of corporate practice is another way to establish some credibility. Try finding someone recognized in the field to be your co-author (you do most of the work and they get to take credit with you). While you are out networking, you can ask practitioners to suggest writing topics.

If doing corporate work is not feasible at your current job (e.g. because the firm does not have any of this work or you think it is too risky to ask for it), you may want to consider leaving your job so that you can take on corporate work on a project basis.

If this is not realistic for you because you need a full-time job with benefits, you can also see if your firm will let you handle a project on the side for another firm.

Once you have begun to establish a track record of interest as well as experience, opportunities will become more available to you. You will still want to minimize the time that you spend perusing the want ads and instead maximizing the time you spend networking.

Changing practice areas may take some time and may involve a series of steps. But if you are genuinely interested and persistent, it is still an achievable goal even in a job market that favors prior experience.