Do Not Let Others Control Your Access to Information & Opportunities

Transcript

[00:00:00] This presentation is called, do not allow others to control your access to information and opportunities, but a better name for could also be, why you shouldn't rely on recruiters, job sites and sort of other people when you're doing your search for a position and. This is, despite the title of this presentation, it's an extremely important want, it doesn't, it may not sound that interesting, but if you understand what this about, it's really going to make a major difference in your career.

[00:00:33]So I've been in the legal placement business for about over 20 years. And in October of 2000, there was a massive crash in the legal market. And what had happened is there was a the there'd been a lot of money that had gone into a lot of internet startups and that finance suddenly went away because the markets realized that they were putting money into things that, were unproven business models.

[00:00:57] And in many cases, companies that. Hadn't been [00:01:00] generating revenue or worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And so w when the startups of those companies, there was all sorts of work being done and generated. And when that work went away law firms lost a ton of legal work that they'd built up.

[00:01:15] And they stopped hiring attorneys and they started really laying them off in maps. And the worst affected were at the corporate attorneys, but. There've been so much business and stuff that was coming out of the the, all these, internet companies that it really did a lot of damage to law firms.

[00:01:31] And there were, tons and tons of layouts all over the country and, in New York and and lots of people lost their jobs and starting classes, different. Work warrants, to get started. So they canceled their summer classes. They canceled their, summer associate programs for the next year.

[00:01:46]It was really bad. And a lot of people may not remember it, but in some extent it's similar, to what happens, when there's a pandemic, like you've seen, so it was very bad. And and I started speaking with all these attorneys that were having all these kinds of [00:02:00] sad stories and I found it very distressing.

[00:02:01] And when people were, moving back in with their parents, giving up on their legal careers and and I hired, several people actually in my office to be recruiters that had lost their jobs and that I've known from when I was practicing. At BCG. What I had done is the company had started and the late 1999 or, around them.

[00:02:22] And and I had a massive database of law firms that I'd spent over a year developing and just in Los Angeles there were over 2,500 law firms that that identified to use in terms of they had. Different practice areas and you shouldn't understand that every legal market in the country whether it's Los Angeles or New York or Chicago, or Philadelphia, all big cities have thousands of law firms and people don't see that.

[00:02:49] And they think of, certain large law firms. And I think that's all there is, but honestly, there may be, high pain. Major law firms, but there's also a lot of [00:03:00] smaller law firms that are breaking off from those large law firms all over the country on a daily basis. And then they're paying the associates that they bring with them and they hire a high market rates as well.

[00:03:11]It's very important that you understand that, the market is huge and the number of opportunities out there are huge, but all you're seeing many attorneys are seen are the well-branded law firms. And so what happened to me was. I realized, when all these people were losing jobs that, something about only about 20 of these 2,500 law firms were clients the recruiting firm and maybe it was a little bit more, after a year, but it wasn't very large.

[00:03:37] So if you think of 20, 1% of 2,500 law firms, Is about 20, 25 law firms. Literally a recruiting firm is representing the biggest, firms, some in the city. And this was the company at the time. We obviously are much different now, that's 1% and that's pretty much what you get when you talk to most recruiting firms.

[00:03:58] Is, they have a very, unless they're a [00:04:00] large kind of national firm, they have a very limited number of places that they can send you to. So you have to think about what this meant. So all these people were coming to me begging for jobs, and I needed a placement. And and out of that, those 2,500 law firms just in Los Angeles and then it's all over the country.

[00:04:18] I could only help them with maybe 20. So what happens when you go to most recruiting firms is if they don't have jobs, whatever, that limited number of people. That they represent, they can't help you. And it's very important to understand that, if you're using recruiters or a lot of methods, search jobs you're really getting the limited understanding of the market.

[00:04:37]Two decades later, my, that this company has over 150 employees and, and that number in Los Angeles is probably close to 800 or a thousand law firms or something like that. We're getting a lot more at the same time. That was the result of those people were only able, I was only able to help them with those 20 firms.

[00:04:54] And because those 20 firms didn't have jobs. People that came to me were out of luck and they made me feel very bad. [00:05:00] So what happened is, those firms would be absent from the search and and that obviously it wasn't a good thing. So you have to think about it also new York's even larger.

[00:05:11]There may be 4,000 and firms and the thing I understood instinctively was. Even though all these law firms were laying people off the firms where most of the activity was happening were in the large law firms. And I knew that, you know that with all these law firms in every city, there had to be opportunities.

[00:05:30]It's impossible that that just because work stops in large law firms that when people are laying people off that no one else is hiring. And, when you're looking for  an opportunity in the market, lots of attorneys will look around and they'll see that, that there's not jobs or when they talk to people there, they are recruiters and other people, they could very discouraging news and they conclude.

[00:05:53] That wow. This market's bad. I can't find any position. And and that, in, in my opinion as [00:06:00] I'm going to talk about in a few minutes is absolutely insane because, and every single market, there's always lots and lots of opportunities. There are opportunities right now. And knowing what I know now, our company is, making placements almost every day.

[00:06:14]Do you know in getting interviews several interns, we use a day because it doesn't matter what the market's and right now happens to be a bad market, the worst it's ever been properly. But we're still getting lots and lots of interviews because we realized that, business is still going on in a lot of small firms and a lot of medium firms and even in large firms in certain practice areas.

[00:06:35] So concluding that, not a lot of, there's not a lot of opportunities is really a very a horrible mistake and lots of people end up making that mistake in their search and in, in, in their careers because they're talking to the wrong people and they're using the wrong sources to try to find positions and the way, the sense they're getting of the market.

[00:06:57]You know what you need to do.  Th the [00:07:00] day, the greatest danger that you're going to face when you're looking for a job is believing that there's not positions out there and allowing others to influence what you think and what you believe. Because most attorneys and other people will only apply to a limited number of places and have access to a limited number of opportunities because they really.

[00:07:21]They, they don't understand the number of opportunities out there and,  just, so you get a sense of the way the market works what happens in every large recession or any changing market is work, will move from. Larger firms to smaller and medium sized firms where the billing rates are lower.

[00:07:42] And so those firms will start hiring a lot of people. And in addition, that work will also move to markets larger markets will, the work will move from larger markets to smaller markets. So there'll be opportunities there. So every time something bad happens and the market gets bad.

[00:08:00] [00:07:59] There's always going to be opportunities and different types of things. Firms and firms with higher overhead, which are larger firms typically have to keep paying that overhead. They have tension sometimes and all sorts of things that they're paying. And so it's much harder for them to start rehiring.

[00:08:18]When the economy's bad. So you can't, listen  to other people, many times in your job search. What I'm going to try to stress to you and explain to you today is, how to find information that's out there, where to look and find information about jobs and then how to really know what's going on.

[00:08:37]When an attorney is in law school as a perfect example,  they may only be exposed to the firms that are doing on campus interviews at their school. And, an example would be like, if you go to school, say in Michigan and say you go to a local law school in Michigan  don't know Wayne state, which is a, it's a good law school.

[00:08:56]I know people that have gone there, what's going to happen is you're going to be exposed [00:09:00] to. Law firms that are local to Detroit and Michigan and that like the school and have alumni that went there and you're going to be exposed to on campus and they're going to have relationships with those firms.

[00:09:12] And so you're going to literally be limited to, whatever is going on, the Detroit geographic area, maybe some, areas outside of there. But, in reality, if you have done welfare or you have, I have a specialized skill, like maybe you have science background and you could be a patent attorney and all sorts of things.

[00:09:30] The whole country's open to you. And maybe the Detroit economy is depressed when you're looking for jobs. And so they're literally, the whole country is open and it's an ABA approved law school and there's all sorts of things you can do, but you may conclude that the market's bad.

[00:09:43] Based on what you're seeing in Detroit and you really need to understand that, the conducting extensive searches and understanding kind of all  what the market's like out there is crazy. And in Michigan, for example, you might go to university of Michigan and in that case, [00:10:00] all sorts of.

[00:10:00]National places are applying, but still, you may only be exposed to the largest employers and not the smaller ones.  The idea of any type of search and finding information is to know where the opportunities are and how to go after them. So I want to tell you a quick story and I'm going to tell you several stories today.

[00:10:21] I'll to make this point. But a few years ago I was working with a graduate of a top, probably three law school. And he was fired from a position and, he lost his job because he felt that I think he was right based on what he told me. That his law firm had been overbilling a client and where they were asking him to do unnecessary work.

[00:10:44] I guess there was a solution to a problem. He found it very quickly, but they kept asking him to look at something that was unrelated and basically to drive up the bill and he confronted the attorney with it and they decided that this person wouldn't play the game. [00:11:00] He lost his job and, that's one thing too, about working in a law firm, whether, you're regardless of your level most law firms if you don't have business, they want you to be a soldier and just do what you're told and not question it and so that's a piece of job search advice, you will, you have to, unless something completely unethical is happening.

[00:11:17] And when you really have to let the law firm make the decisions or the employer, but regardless of what kind of employer about what you're doing, So this recruiter and this attorney ended up calling attorneys all over okay. He ended up calling attorneys all over.  Why are recruiters all over Washington, DC and every single one of those recruiters told him that they didn't have any openings.

[00:11:42] He was only six months out of law school. He didn't have any formal experience and he was, he felt terrible and, he had a very limited amount of experience and very confused. And, the fact is that, most law firms are not actually seeking attorneys with only six months of experience.

[00:11:59] So [00:12:00] recruiters are all telling him that he was out of luck. And despite the fact that there are thousands of law firms in Washington, DC, he really had no way of getting a position and was very discouraged by what he was hearing. So I told this attorney that I didn't see any issues with him getting a position.

[00:12:19]But I would need to look at a lot of law firms for him. And I told him that, we had to shop this candidacy around and we had to find places where where he could, he could apply the didn't have openings, but that would value, his law school and the limited amount of experience he had.

[00:12:35]I put together a list of probably, over 50 law firms and. And I went out and I marketed to them and within a few weeks I got him position and several interviews. And w yeah, the interview I got was that in the job was probably the top law firm, the type of work he did in Washington, DC.

[00:12:54]He ended up getting a really good position and, before he found me, he was [00:13:00] actually. Thinking about giving up on the practice of law and  and very discouraged. And so the idea here was he was listening to recruiters telling him they didn't have any opportunities.

[00:13:10] He was discouraged thinking about giving up on the practice law because he was fired six months into it. Just practice. And by looking at a lot of firms that didn't have openings for an attorney was six months. He was able to get into one of the best law firms in Washington, DC and other recruiters would not talk to him and told them they couldn't help him because they were under the belief that.

[00:13:35]Anybody with six months of experience, can't get a job. And I just might as well tell you right now, because it is important. At BCG, we get people with no experience jobs and offers. We get, all sorts of people because the market is fluid. There's always someone that's going to be interested in you and want to hire you.

[00:13:53]So that too what happened in 2000? So the legions of, later and people [00:14:00] started piling up around me and and I saw, so many people were calling. It was like, it was literally like, you'd hang down the phone, that'd be another call and another call.

[00:14:08] And another call we had, I, made me just a few recruiters in the office and. So what happened is I decided that the only way to get these attorney's jobs was if I was able to go and build, list of these firms for these attorneys and help them contact these people. And so what I did is I invited everybody into my office.

[00:14:28] It was looking for a job. And I ended up helping them send out their their resumes to to, most, all the firms in each city they wanted to work in that had firms in their matching practice area and and told them that was the best way for them to get a position.

[00:14:45] And it actually worked very well and people were able to almost, all those people that contacted lots and lots of firms got positions. It didn't matter what practice area they were in, even though corporate was in bad shape. It [00:15:00] didn't matter what, law school they went to.

[00:15:02] If they went to a third of fourth year law school, that didn't matter, everybody got positioned and something you need to understand. Is that the legal market is a market and there's always going to be someone who is interested in hiring you and and giving you opportunities because law firms need people in order to make money and different law firms have different amount of work.

[00:15:25] Different companies have different amount of work. Those mailings that we did were not just the law firms. We also did them too. Companies and government offices and. But the idea is if you know how to market yourself and you just get out there and market yourself, you're going to get lots and lots of interviews and offers everybody that ever does this does.

[00:15:45] And it's extremely important. What I saw when this happened was a really cool thing. People that had been. Formerly depressed and sad about the prospects of, became empowered and they all these other methods to get jobs they'd [00:16:00] they'd network, they they'd use job sites, they'd use recruiters.

[00:16:04]They'd done everything they could and suddenly their lives have been changed by contacting tons and tons of employers that didn't even have openings. It made a huge and a major difference. And, there's nothing more dangerous to your success as an attorney than limiting the number of opportunities that are out there.

[00:16:23]You need to understand and have access to everything that's out there. And the only way that you can do that is by proactively marketing yourself and learning how to do that in every economy. There's lots and lots of busy law firms. The largest law firms are not always busy.

[00:16:41]Sometimes they are if the economy is terrible what happens generally is, things like litigation will pick up a corporate work. We'll go to. A lot of smaller firms and, and even in that economy is what happens is companies that are having issues may have to sell or merge or issue [00:17:00] debt.

[00:17:00]You probably, in a bad economy, you'll see. Headlines every single day about this company raises the amount of money. This company took a loan for this amount of money and what's happening is there are attorneys doing that work? In many cases the law firms want to save money, but  and give it to other people.

[00:17:16] But at the same time  the, the, sorry, the companies want to save money and give it to smaller law firms, but, the work does move to smaller law firms and it does move to, to smaller markets many times, but not always. But the point is that there's always going to be work and depending on the market regardless now one thing that's also important to understand is that, most people that are looking for jobs.

[00:17:40]They seem to believe that  the law firms are going to be able to put their jobs out there. Companies will always put their jobs out there if they have the work. And those are the only places where they should be looking for. And it's very important to understand that with, thousands of law firms and most major cities.

[00:17:58]Law firms, not all [00:18:00] of those law firms and majority of them don't have in-house recruiting departments. And they, don't not going to spend a lot of time looking for attorneys, even when they need them. Their expertise is in practicing law. It's not in recruiting and, an attorney that's billing out $750 an hour, maybe consider themselves too busy to even look at resumes or to post ads online or to.

[00:18:22] To call recruiters, looking for people.  They're in the middle of, very stressful cases that are, work or transactions that are consuming their time and that are bringing in revenue to the firms. And then the last thing in the world they want to do is, worry about recruiting.

[00:18:38] And, but the thing is this law firms have so much work coming in that th they often don't take the work they have because they don't have the people, so they may have. Work that they could do, but they just aren't doing it. They're just, it's not, it's going undone. And so what I realized that when I did all this work is I extended.

[00:18:58]Also if you think [00:19:00] about the number of companies also in a market, there's typically, three times as many companies that hire attorneys. As there are companies that hire law firms have hire attorneys. Th they may not hire as many attorneys, but there's that many, there's that many more.

[00:19:15] So there's huge numbers of government offices, nonprofits public interest organizations and other people that also hire attorneys and, the list of people that need attorneys to work for them is. Absolutely, huge.  It's practically endless. And  just, when I'm out, regardless of where I am, I could be at the beach or who knows.

[00:19:35]I meet people that need attorneys to work for them. On an ongoing basis, company owners very wealthy people with, home offices people running small businesses, lots and lots of people need attorneys and they need them on an ongoing basis. So there's so many people interested in hiring you, you have to wonder why most attorneys only, get one job when they're looking [00:20:00] for a law students, hardly get, most of them, don't get a lot of jobs.

[00:20:03] You have to wonder why it's difficult to find jobs for most people. And and why a search can take a long time because the thing you need to understand that when you're looking for a job is there's all sorts of people that can hold you back from actually getting the jobs you want and, job site, they're going to control the flow of information for you, which I'll tell you about in a little bit, but.

[00:20:27]The main thing to understand about job sites is job sites are only showing you jobs that the employers are paying to post there. That's a very limited number of employers that means that, and I'm going to show you today. I'll also show you a list of how many jobs sites there are where there's job postings.

[00:20:45] But the number is just huge.  It's absolutely loony how many job sites.  There's thousands of them. A lot crossing. We look at over 4,000 job sites to find attorney jobs and just think about that 4,000 job [00:21:00] sites have attorney jobs on them.

[00:21:01]First of all, you don't have the time to look at all those, the reason there's 4,000 is because there's 4,000 different businesses. Out there trying to get employers to pay to post jobs. And most employers, aren't going to push their jobs in 4,000 job sites and they post them month one or two, they're not always posting jobs.

[00:21:17] They're just a lot of times they'll just post them on their own website. Recruiters are controlling the flow of information for you. Recruiters have to have a relationship with a law firm in order for them to send you there. So that, to some extent may limit the number of law firms you ended up looking at if you network.

[00:21:35]The strength of your network's going to control the flow of information here.  Did a presentation last week about networking and how important it is, but something to understand about networking is that, your ability to get information is only is dependent on how large and how significant your network is.

[00:21:54] And so you, whenever you can. To control in the house a [00:22:00] large network, if you don't, then that's going to hurt you. Another thing that controls your information for you is, rumors and speculation among peers and others. They're going to control the flow of information for you.

[00:22:12] So you may simply believe that the market's very bad. And and not go out and seek information because you believe that, the market's bad. And that's bad. Organizations will control the flow of information to you. There may be jobs, where you're working or,  you may have, you just don't know.

[00:22:29]Your relationship with various organizations, but I'm not saying you should go about this being a paranoid, but what I am saying. Is there's lots and lots of information out there. It's just that you don't have access to all of it. And my advice in terms of the best way to get it is, to contact employers obviously, and, with, mass mailing and other targeted methods to find that information.

[00:22:51] But you're just not going to get, if you're using a job site to run your search, you're not going to get all the information. If you're using most recruiting firms. [00:23:00] They're not legal placement for a BCG is a legal placement firm, but most recruiting firms only have a limited number of relationships and that's controlling the flow of information.

[00:23:08] So you need to always be aware that, you need to be very careful in terms of the amount of information you're looking at. Job sites are only showing you the jobs that employers are willing to pay hundreds of dollars and. And so you just need to, really understand them and what where that information is coming from.

[00:23:26] And same thing with recruiters, that's going to limit things and, and that most recruiters will only work with large law firms. I hate to say it, but it also takes a lot of work. In order for us to BCG, for example, to have. As many opportunities we have in, it takes over 150 people to find that information.

[00:23:44] That's a lot of organization and it's a lot of expense. It's a lot of research and it's the ability to even do that research, which I have since I'm an attorney and the people working here are, but not everybody wants to put in that sort of effort. And like I said [00:24:00] earlier, your network's going to control the flow of information.

[00:24:03]And you may not have the time to have developed a good network. That's an important thing. And and in terms of your network, networks are an interesting thing, many networks will people in your network may or tell you about the information or they may not, so you have to, build up Goodwill time to get into information about opportunities.

[00:24:22] And and like I said earlier many times rumors and speculation. Are also going to control the flow of information to you. And this belief is going to severely limit the number of opportunities you have. Many people have are very, closed off and they get psyched out and they're impressionable and most of us are to some extent, but, if you surround yourself with people that are thinking negatively about the market, that's going to have a negative impact.

[00:24:50]And you have to understand the power also of information is extremely important, so if you look at organizations like Facebook, [00:25:00] Google, and LinkedIn, the reason that they're so powerful is because they control information. Facebook stands in the middle.

[00:25:08]It controls how you communicate with your friends, groups and others. And and it becomes an advertiser sponsored event in the same thing. But Google, Google controls, what sort of information and same thing with LinkedIn.  Those organizations don't like you, or they don't like the kind of information you're putting out or you don't do whatever.

[00:25:24] They will ban sites, Google will ban sites from its platform and. Facebook will ban people and there's just all sorts of things about information. So it's important. I would understand that, if you're relying on others for information, you're never going to have access to all the opportunities and you need to really understand.

[00:25:46]Where that information there is how to find it and how to go after it. And  and just really realizing that no matter where you are, consider the store. I told you earlier about, student at Wayne state and just being limited by what's [00:26:00] going on in that market.

[00:26:00] It's not that the school is doing anything wrong. But it's just that's how most people end up conducting their searches. So I want to tell you a funny, personal story and it's somewhat related to this, but it really relates to getting access to information and understanding, once you do get access to that information what that information will mean and how it can change how you see yourself.

[00:26:24]Not too long ago, I was speaking with a partner who is in a major law firm in Texas. And and it was about, potentially moving firms and that sort of thing. And he'd been an unhappy marriage for some time. And and mentioned that to me. And I mentioned that I was also going through a divorce and,  back when I was growing up, at least, about people tended to.

[00:26:46]Get married very young and especially in Texas, and he'd got married at the age of 19 and had never been exposed to really dating sites or other ways to find people accept. I think he met his wife [00:27:00] when he was in, freshmen in college or something.

[00:27:02] And and I pretty much been have been single since I was about never been single since I was about 19 years old. He told me he'd been very depressed when this divorce had started and believed that it was going to be tough for him to meet people that, he didn't have a lot of time to kick out network, he wasn't at school anymore, and he'd been in this kind of unhappy relationship where he'd been, just talked to very negatively for, for, a few decades and made to feel.

[00:27:31]That he was undesirable and not a good person, didn't make enough money and work too much. And, and just all these kind of criticisms that he received and he, and it made him feel very upset about himself and depressed and. He didn't really know what he was going to do, but he didn't think he had as much worth as he really did have.

[00:27:51]And that's the thing too when you're not getting positive feedback from the legal market, when you're applying to jobs and so forth, you may believe that you don't have enough [00:28:00] worth, but the point is you may be going about things in the wrong way. And this particular guy was living in a suburb outside of valves, I believe.

[00:28:08] And. Certainly didn't have a large network of people and wasn't meeting people and really thought he would be single for a long time. And he thought that maybe he would be meeting people at the church or friends. It could take a while. And he just didn't know. So someone he knew or he met for some somewhere.

[00:28:29]I told him that maybe he should look at some dating sites. And and he did, he joined few and I guess one was particularly good. I don't remember what it was, but within a few weeks  he started realizing that that there were just tons and tons of people that were interested in him.

[00:28:46] And he started going out on all these dates and there were so many, he was going out on so many dates and people were proactively contacting him. That he started finding reasons not to go out with people, and just eliminate them because there would, he had so many people [00:29:00] so interested in and the more he got to know people, and the more he saw that there were people out there in the market, the more he realized that he was, worthwhile that he was someone that.

[00:29:10]People liked and could like, and he also realized that he got married very young and had never really been that compatible with his wife. And and that, he actually had access to countless opportunities to find someone and be happy with them. And So it actually changed his whole kind of outlook.

[00:29:31] He became instead of depressed and, like feeling, battle by himself he became very happy and you realize the value and he didn't have to tolerate being treated poorly or taken for granted or, feeling sorry for himself. And having access to all this information about people that were interested in him personally made him.

[00:29:51]Feel very good.  Work, in other countries. And so I as well as the U S and so I was going to India on a trip for work, and I was in the middle of the [00:30:00] divorce and he told me this story a day before I got on a plane. So I was in an airport. Just in the lounge waiting and on my laptop and didn't really know what to do.

[00:30:09] And and I was checking email and I got an email from my thought of him. So I downloaded a dating app out of curiosity. And and then I uploaded a picture and wrote a little bit and and then I forgot about it. Literally, I got on my plane like, half hour later and got on this, 15 hour flight to Dubai.

[00:30:27]Where I was standing for a two day stopover. So I got off in Dubai and I, it was, I dunno, it's early in the morning there and I turned on my phone and or no, it was later, it was about 10 o'clock. And and I hadn't been there for more than 30 minutes and I started getting all these messages from people that were based there as play stewardesses and all sorts of things.

[00:30:48] Like I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that I could, if I wanted to, I would have been able to. Meet someone who by there was somebody called geo-targeting I think, on the dating sites or not. And I just couldn't believe that. I think I must've [00:31:00] received like, 25 messages within 30 minutes, and and I guess, those must be a real act of a dating scene there in Dubai, which I certainly never what a thought, but but had I been living in Dubai I probably would have. Decided, the best way for me to meet people would be to join some organizations, maybe I would have joined a tennis club or a gym and and maybe some business like legal organizations and gone to events and and made friends with most likely made friends with males.

[00:31:31] And then and then that people through them, and it would have taken months to meet so many people. And the people that I met would have been very limited. It was in a very limited pool and it might not have been someone that I was actually compatible with. If I joined a legal organization or attorneys from the U S and Dubai, it might've been there.

[00:31:50] Might've been, three or four eligible women that I would have. It's just, and I would have had to rely on the organization schedule and. I would have had to join several [00:32:00] organizations and I meant, never met people. It could have taken me years. So if you think about that, I never really would have met people.

[00:32:07] I never would have realized how much value I had and it would have been not a great thing. So it's like this with law students and attorneys, they may not be in a situation somewhere to attach this, turning myself in a person life. But they really may not realize, and you may not realize you are desirability.

[00:32:25] And the, how desirable you really are. You may exist in a, in this sort of paradigm where  you think that because you're applying to certain types of employers in certain places, You know that you're not going to, you're not desirable and that's insane.

[00:32:41] That means, if a recruiter can't help you, that's just because the recruiter may not have enough opportunities. If a an employer and a job sites, not higher than you. That's just maybe because, there could be multiple reasons. They could've already gotten plenty of applicants or you may not be qualified enough or who knows.

[00:32:58]But that doesn't mean that [00:33:00] there's not a lot of opportunities. Most attorneys and law students they see a very limited amount of information. That's available to them what they can achieve. And you absolutely need to understand. Like I understood when I land in Dubai or, when like I understood when I saw all these attorneys that did these mailings.

[00:33:22] Get physicians, you absolutely need to understand that there's way more opportunities out there than you can possibly ever be aware of. And th there's just tons and tons of opportunities. And and I'm going to tell you a little bit about how to find them.   One of the things I want to talk about just very briefly is the difference between legal recruiters and legal placement and, typical legal recruiting firm, like I said, is going to have.

[00:33:49]Only the largest law firms with openings, and these are going to be the firms that everybody has heard of. And they may have a few relationships with a few smaller firms and they'll send you to those firms. But for the most [00:34:00] part, if they're only going to have relationships with the largest law firms and that means that, like I told you earlier out of 2,500 law firms in a city like Los Angeles, They may only be 2020 opportunities or 30 opportunities.

[00:34:15]It's just too much work to monitor all the potential openings in the market. And because of that the typical attorney using an illegal Kearney firm is only going to be exposed to the largest law firms that everyone knows about anyway. And if the recruiting firm doesn't have.

[00:34:32]Those openings and the candidates going to be out of luck. And that limitation is one reason that the kind of the practice of legal recruiting isn't something that I like, what I like is legal placement. And that means that everybody  comes to BCG, for example, we'll you know, we typically have at least six people researching and finding opportunities, updating databases.

[00:34:54]For every recruiter in the company. So you know that there's at least six people at all times [00:35:00] assigned to do research and stuff for each recruiter. So there's no reason that most people can't do that same research themselves. And you certainly can. But you know what I've realized over two decades of doing this is that that if you do research and find opportunities, you're going to, really uncover a lot of stuff out there and it's going to change your career and your life.

[00:35:21]Because there's so much out there and you, you just don't want to be hold, held back by, job sites or. Recruiting firms or, anybody that's trying to control the amount of information or give you the sense that there's not a lot of information out there.

[00:35:37]And this happens to so many people in the course of their job search. So I got an interesting story about. When I was younger I worked for an attorney that apparently had never lost a case. That's what a secretary told me and other people in the firm seven, he was very he didn't brag about it or anything.

[00:35:55] He was just more academic than anything. And he had, very famous clients [00:36:00] and a lot of times they'd be. He would be called when they were accused of doing bad things or something very bad happened. Some, just something that would make that lines and and then they would personally be sued.

[00:36:10] And and so what you would do is he would get these back patterns and and  and he would just start researching. And I worked with him once on one particular case for, several weeks and. I was just writing all these memos and doing all this research. And I had all these piles of like research around my office.

[00:36:29] And it was crazy like how much research and work was going into these cases. And and, we wouldn't just look at what the case law said. We'd look at the law and like what the legislature is, we're debating in terms of what the law meant when they were enacting it.

[00:36:45] So we could see argued that the case law was wrong or. Or whatever. And we interview people and that was just, it was so much work that went into it. And there was always like a limitless budget, cause this was very bad stuff. But what would happen [00:37:00] is every time I worked on the case with this guy something would happen where we would always find like a very small point or something in the case where you know, that the research would uncover something where we lent.

[00:37:14] Or whatever. The reason that we were being sued was there was always some angle or some sort of way of looking at it. If you did enough research and worked hard enough you, you could always, win cases. And that, to me, it was incredible. I realized that the more work you did on something the more yeah.

[00:37:31]The better it was as a litigator. And so when I got done working with him and I'd spent. Just looking at the minutia of, of a case, you just go so deep most people will get a case and they'll just respond flexibly, but this is the law. This has been, and that's.

[00:37:46] That's how most attorneys practice law, but if you're like a extremely good litigator or an extremely good researcher and stuff, you will look at things in a lot of detail and you'll understand every angle of the case [00:38:00] and and everything about it. There was a, there's a famous story of a, an attorney in Chicago and instill core boy.

[00:38:07] And he and I interviewed him when I was in law school. And, but what he used to do is he take every paper in a case and he would have a secretary and everybody dumping in a jacuzzi and his department. And Watertown place. And then he would go through every, he would pick out every paper that was even if it was mixed up and he would read it and then he would figure out where it went and make sure he understood.

[00:38:30] And the idea was he wanted to understand every case inside out.  The idea with you looking for a job is, you need to be able to do research, to find places that you can work. You need to be able to understand. You know that the more research you do, the better off you're going to be.

[00:38:48] And like I said earlier, small law firms are breaking off from big law firms almost every day around the United States and need people. Attorneys are joining firms every day and those firms need to [00:39:00] hire people to work for them. And, small law firms need people without business or medium firms do.

[00:39:06] And it's just that people are leaving firms and vacancies every day. And the market is so dynamic. I just. Just take the idea of 4,000 law firms in New York at 4,000 law firms in New York every week, people are leaving and getting hired and new work is coming in. So think if you take but 4,000 and say three or four things, maybe say 10 things happen in the law firm every week.

[00:39:29]10 new types of, some new work comes in. So I'm gonna believe someone's hired. So at that has happened in say 10 things are happening at each of those 4,000 law firms. Some more than others. That's 40,000 things that are happening in those 40,000 law firms every week they could impact whether or not they need people and you have absolutely no way of understanding that you can read all the news periodicals you want and look at all the job sites, but you're not going to understand that unless you affirmatively reach out and contact those employers, the other [00:40:00] thing too, is every sessions work well.

[00:40:02]Law firms or companies, a lot of times they'll bring work in house instead of giving it to. Law firms to save money and maybe they'll hire people. So there's such an astonishing amount of work in the market that, it's, you can find that if you have the skill, but if you don't, look for that work and just, you look the normal way that people look, you're not going to find it.

[00:40:21] So you have to do research and you have to use. Sources out there, some sources would just be BCG realist firms. So we certainly don't list every law firm at LA cross team and list a lot of firms, but we certainly don't list every law firm Martindale lists firms. But they don't list every law firm.

[00:40:38]They Martindale will list the people that pay to be there, which is. Fewer and fewer people and BCG, we only list like the best law firms and LA crossing. We listed a lot of firms. We certainly don't list every firm there either, so you have to be using and looking at lots and lots of resources for firms.

[00:40:57] You can find firms by doing searches on [00:41:00] Google. So in an example of a search would be, top. Litigation boutiques in,  Palo Alto. If you want to work in Palo Alto or top litigation firms or litigation firms in Palo Alto, just sometimes even just Google can pull up a lot of results.

[00:41:14] Fine. Law has lots of jobs. Now, after this, I'm going to be posting a list of her attorney directories, and I'm also going to be posting a list of places where you can you know bar associations and other places that will have jobs. And I'll also post a list of 4,000 job sites.

[00:41:31] I don't expect you to look at all the job sites. I don't expect you to look at all of the bar associations, except ones that are local to you, but you need to, and I'll also post the list of other associations for you as well, but you need to get out there and look at every type of source.

[00:41:47] Of jobs you possibly can. And it's not just going to be places that are listed, you need to do research to find. And, presumably most people on the go to law school, learn [00:42:00] to have you get legal skills in law school.  You learn to do research and you learn to find information and.

[00:42:07] This particular type of information, if you think about, the thousands of hours you've spent in the libraries. So for doing research and looking up case law, I don't know that information is going to change your wife, but if you learn how to do research, find law firms in different markets or companies in your market you can.

[00:42:26] You'll find an astonishing number of places that you can work. I go to law libraries at least once a year, and I look at all of the directories there and sometimes I just, it's almost cause I love information so much. I almost get to the point where I'm like hyperventilating, you need to sit down because there's directors of in-house attorneys, there's directors of associations.

[00:42:47] There's directories of. Counsel of patent. There's so many different types of directories and sources of information up there that for me to just list them would be it would take, kind of time and there's new ones all the time. [00:43:00] One, one I do like actually now is Google and you can find a lot of things on there.

[00:43:04] They do a very good job doing that. And I certainly have, we spend. A ton of time building our database at BCG because it's and lacrosse team, because it's a, it's a business, but at the same time, there's so many things out there and, you need to know also how to, as an attorney, make a case for yourself.

[00:43:23] Now I will be talking in subsequent modules about how to package yourself and how to, do it. And I'll, we're been talking about the past, several weeks as we've been talking about. You know how to find this information because information really, in my opinion, is the most important thing for you in terms of looking for a job and finding the information of opportunities out there.

[00:43:45] Because once you have access to information you can get out there in, in regardless of your interviewing skills and stuff. Things are generally going to work out. Cause you're going to find the right person that matches the kind of person you are, the right kind of group, but at the same time, we will cover that [00:44:00] other stuff and information.

[00:44:01]Yeah, what's the most important thing you need to use your research skills and what do attorneys do? The most basic thing that attorneys law school is how to write an appellate brief and appellate brief is going and doing all the research. And then and then you also argue the appellate brief and then making an argument for whatever the side of the case it is.

[00:44:19] That's what you need to do with yourself. That's the most basic skill. Every attorney has a, but you need to get out there and you need to research all of the firms in the given market to do what you want. I like Martindale either way because of the way they break down practice areas. But I don't like the fact that that they're also limited in the information.

[00:44:36] Martindale is only showing the people that are paying to be there. Okay. And, same thing with fine laws, same thing with a lot of, job sites, all these people out there you need to understand are giving you bias. Now you lose it. Now that's also people that are paying to be there. If you're interviewing only on campus, your law school law firms need to pay to interview on campus.

[00:44:58] All these things are limiting your [00:45:00] information and.  Don't like it. I understand business is business. Recruiters eliminated your information by the only showing you jobs are the clients job sites are limiting your information by only showing you places that are paying to be there.

[00:45:14] Newspapers are by the same thing. So all these people are limited in your information. I want you to think, just put yourself in the, in the shoes of actually being, and if you've gone to law school you've been taught how to represent people and are being taught and that's what attorneys do.

[00:45:31]You're, being taught to represent people and get them results. Think about if someone came to you and you're just an attorney. And, but instead of it being an attorney, telling them about, whatever your practice area is, environmental law or something and getting them resolved, you're, you have to get them a result in terms of the job market.

[00:45:49] You have to really show them what's out there and you have to you're representing them and taking them under your wings, your client, you have to get them a job. Would you send them just a few openings? If you're getting paid for your [00:46:00] job or would you go time or would you go. And research every possible place that could work every possible directory where there's information would you go and do all the work and the research needed to, and the thing is, since you wouldn't do that research and you would do it as an attorney because it was necessary.

[00:46:17] And you would do it because you needed to guarantee that the person was going to get a result. You would find every possible place to make that work. And you would be as thorough as possible in repair report. And it would have all that information. And when you had it, all that information, the person would get a result.

[00:46:32] And that's exactly what that I do at BCG. And what we've been doing for over 20 years is we use our research skills. As attorneys to get people to identify every possible law firm, every possible place the person could work.  And do, a very good job. And the only thing that was holding you back from getting the position that you want or getting any attorney to get in the position they want is honestly, it's just.

[00:46:59] Not [00:47:00] looking at more places, not putting yourself out there. Absolutely insane. Not doing more research and not  really understanding what's out there in the market. Yeah. Attorneys are making in their careers, all sorts of assumptions that limit them. They believe that only large law firms pay well.

[00:47:17] So that's where they need to apply. Not true. Lots and lots of small law firms pay even better than major law firms. In many cities, they hear bonuses that are more, they they pay people in different manners than they pay them. By the hour I had an attorney once that was talking to a firm and she thought the firm by the looks of it would pay 60 or $70,000 a year.

[00:47:37] It turned out she was billing. They w they were giving her half of whatever she built out for. And she built out a $500 an hour. So he was making $250 an hour. And our first year there, she worked over 2000 hours. You honestly, you cannot take any of this stuff. It's a value  there's going to be opportunities and small law firms that are going to pay just as much as large law firms.

[00:47:57]Many people believe that law [00:48:00] firms were not considered them if they apply there and there's no openings. That is also insane. Okay. Because a law firm is a business say that you say, just put yourself in the shoes of a law firm or an attorney running a law firm. Say you have a law firm and it's just, you're sitting there and you have all these clients coming in that need you to help them get financing.

[00:48:22]Because their businesses are crashing because there's a pandemic again.  And so you have to go get them financing and they're happy to pay you, $750 an hour to do it. But you simply don't have the time to do all this work. Now, if I, if you get a letter in the mail from an attorney that says, hello, I have a lot of experience doing financing.

[00:48:44] Oh. And I'm just got laid off from this huge law firm because they don't have any work. If I got on a resume like that, I would bring that person in a second and I would tell them. I can't believe we're making $200,000 a year, but I'll give you, whatever. Until [00:49:00] we get this done, you might even make more, that's great.

[00:49:02] That's how it works. So you just need to understand that there's opportunities out there like that, and you need to be at a state of mind where you can find it. And that attorney that, had all that, work, getting financing as an example, he may not know, or she may not know how to go out and find.

[00:49:19]Attorneys to do the work or have any idea, but if someone targets them and finds them by doing research of who does the kind of work I do in this city or market and approaches them, you're going to get a job. Many people believe that there's no more opportunities on the market. Right now the city of New York  is shut down.

[00:49:38]Because of the pandemic, nothing's going on, people aren't going into work and all sorts of things. And yet yesterday we made a placement of a litigator and we also made a placement of a banking attorney. This was just yesterday obese and U-turn search and those people are working from home.

[00:49:53] And we also got a couple other interviews. This is in the middle of a market and it's supposedly the [00:50:00] worst it's ever been and shut down. There are opportunities everywhere, no matter what the market is because firms have worked no matter what the market's and you can not say that there's no work in your market because there are attorneys doing work.

[00:50:14] If you drive around to the nicest neighborhoods in any city in the United States, There's going to be attorneys living there, and those attorneys have work. There's work everywhere. Okay. I just want you to make sure you understand that. Then I really knocked that in there's work everywhere. It doesn't matter.

[00:50:30]Many people believe that law firms only hire people that are more junior, more senior or with different backgrounds. Not true. Okay. , we place attorneys that don't have any experience. We placed the attorneys that are senior and don't have any business all the time. Why do attorneys hire, why do law firms hire attorneys that are senior without business?

[00:50:49] They hire them because they need senior people to do the work and they have more senior people work than they can do themselves. People hire all sorts of people. It's just, you have to use your research skills though, [00:51:00] to go after and find Those positions and the number of assumptions that are holding most attorneys back in their job search is just nothing short of amazing.

[00:51:09] And most careers are limited because people do not believe in what is possible and what happens when you get out there and market themselves.  Correctly and I'm, we're really trying to emphasize this as much as I possibly can, but I want you to understand there are tens of thousands of law firms in the United States.

[00:51:30] There are hundreds of thousands of companies, tens of thousands of government offices. There are so many possible place that you can work. It's astonishing. And I'm going to go over more of those because I don't want to take too much time and I'll go over those in subsequent weeks, you're holding yourself back.

[00:51:47]If you're not going out with that and you also need to be very smart and you need to realize how information is being controlled all around you. And you need to question, why am I getting [00:52:00] access to information in the way I am? Is this really true? And so forth. And  started my career to Watson Pokemon Emmanuel and I was speaking with a partner in that firm just a couple of days ago.

[00:52:12] And and he was telling me about something that bill Urquhart did. And bill Urquhart was one of the founders of the firm and very smart and was in charge of recruiting and business development. And he said that what happened at many of the law schools that Quinn wanted to interview out each year was that the schools, would rotate the best law school was like Harvard and, and so forth rotate when the firms community.

[00:52:35]One year they could interview in September, but then, and the next year we'll be October and the next year will be November. And then they will go back to September. And it might have been late August, September, October. I don't remember the exact months, but there were over three months.

[00:52:46] And obviously the benefit, if you interview first and you're going to be the best students and the ones that you want the most is you can make them offers and they'll accept. And then they're out of the market. And then the people that come in later get the people that are left over.

[00:52:58] Not necessarily the worst thing [00:53:00] but if you have access to the best attorneys, the best law students first, it's good. So for years, Quinn just went along a docile way. Being controlled by when that got access to students and just doing that and just kinda like lemmings and the way most people, get apps information.

[00:53:17] And then it occurred to bill our card that the only students who really wanted anyway, were students that had gotten on the law review. And or maybe gotten some, prizes their first year, which the school board announced. For the best academic performance. And so all they need to do is just go to the, online and see who was on my review and send letters to them at the larger office and then maybe contact them through LinkedIn and invite them to a a cocktail reception and a meeting and to do some interviews in the hotel.

[00:53:45] And so they would just interview them now, before any of the other firms even showed up on campus. Make their kids and get the best students every year and stop using on-campus interviews, which the schools charged thousands of dollars for which doesn't matter, worry of Quinn, but [00:54:00] stopped doing on-campus interviews entirely and got the best students.

[00:54:03] So using being very smart about information and realizing that. They weren't limited by, who the school so they can interview at what time they could just do whatever they wanted. And, and you can do the same thing. You can not allow others to control the access of information, your access to information.

[00:54:22] So what do you need to do? And I've said this before if you're in the market, you need to apply to places without openings. You need to do this.  You should not be controlled by the idea. That you need to apply to place that have openings. You need to do your research and, find every company, every law firm, every government office in your market that you want to work in whatever market and apply to them.

[00:54:49] And I've said this before, but I'll tell you again, if you're writing a company, you write to the CEO and the resume will always make it to the CEO. And if it doesn't [00:55:00] make it to the CEO, it will be given to we'll go to the CEO. And if the CEO doesn't look at it, it will be passed from the CEO's office to HR.

[00:55:09] And people will know it's from the CEO and will get looked at in this mysterious way. The other way you can apply as you, most law firms will list their HR contacts or who to send your resume to on their website. If they don't then send it to an attorney. That's the most senior attorney in your practice area that you want to work at?

[00:55:26] Or one of the f