Don't Do What Most People Do - Don't Give Up
Description
Don't Do What Most People Do -- Don't Give Up
[00:00:00] I want to move up in my career to larger firms. I am just only starting, but I already feel boxed in. I'm at a top 10 law school but didn't end up with a large firm this summer.
That's okay.
Nevertheless, I was able to get a summer associate with a law firm in the nick of time doing commercial litigation work. I'm from New York. I feel like I missed the boat. I know a federal clerkship can help, but even at my top 10, it seems like clerkships are only available, even in smaller markets like Maryland and Connecticut...
No.
I don't know how I can distinguish myself from a large New York firm coming from a smaller firm. What are the steps I can take to get ahead? I know there may be benefits to working in a smaller firm, but the driving motivator for me in even going to the law was to hopefully work at one of these large firms...
Okay. Yeah. So you need to think about what your goals are. One of the problems with the top 10 law schools or with any top law school is the goal. The goal is to work at a large law firm. You have to ask yourself if that is the best idea.
I don't know, but if your goal is to work at a large law firm and why has that's been your goal since Cornell law school? I don't know why that's your goal and that would only be for you to answer. But what I would submit to [00:01:00] you as your goal should be in the best attorney you're capable of being, and everything else falls from that.
It doesn't have to be at a large law firm. The problem is if the goal of being the best attorney you're capable of being, versus the goal of working in the largest law firm, those two may not be compatible because a large law firm isn't necessarily going to make you the best attorney you're capable of being. It may, but it may not.
If you want to get a federal clerkship, I don't think that you have to be the top 10, 20% of your students. Judges can hire whoever they want. And there are 600 or seven. I don't know what the number is these days, but there are hundreds of federal district court judges.
You don't have to be at the top of your class to get a job with any of them. They hire who they like. Each of them has individual hiring standards that can be in a large market or a small market. You can work there.
In terms of the firms, you can work in a big market or a small market. It doesn't matter where the large law firm is. Typically the most sophisticated cases do go to attorneys in big markets. So the large law firms in the largest markets [00:02:00] typically take the biggest cases. So if there's a very significant company in Indianapolis and they get sued, that will probably have a firm in New York or Chicago or someone works on it as opposed to a local firm because the perception is to have the best attorneys.
You can define jobs in a major New York law firm coming from a smaller firm. One of the things that you should try to do is you should try to get a federal clerkship. You should also, try to get, If possible--
The best grades this year and next.
I would try to get the clerkships.
I would do mass mailings to New York firms in the summer.
In the next year, I would do on-campus interviewing.
You may be surprised but you can probably get things throughout campus interviewing as well--
Interview the firms that do not mass email.
I would contact the alumni for inforeallyrmational interviews, if possible.
The biggest thing I would do. And this is going to be contrary to what you want to hear, but I'm going to tell you this anyway. The biggest thing I would do is --
I would work my [00:03:00] ass off in my summer job.
You want to go in there and you want to work hard. You want to be appreciative, whatever you can to impress everyone. Forget you're not working in a large firm.
Everyone, I'll tell you a couple of quick stories.
Most of the people that I know would become very famous in Hollywood are just very nice people. They were nice people before they became famous. They were nice people after they became famous.
I'm trying to think. One example would be Bradley Cooper. He came and rented my house one year over Christmas while I was out of town. This was before he became successful. What's the nicest, you can imagine. He came and only stayed for a couple of nights. He left a case of champagne. And I was not the kind of person that would have anything to do with his career, but he was just very memorable and very nice. This is how people behave that become very successful. They do a very good job wherever they go, regardless of what's happening to them, they're appreciative. They're nice. They're easy to work with. They give everything that they have to whatever they're doing and they're memorable. So you [00:04:00] need to make the best possible impression you can on the people you work with this summer. You need to be grateful for what you have and you need to be excited about what you're doing.
I'm not on one that's rehashing this gratitude crap, because I hear so much about it. It's just pickiness. But gratitude is important from the standpoint when you positively approach people.
Forge people in circumstances positively. It makes a big difference. So that, being very happy with that. Showing your grades are improving if you work reall hard and you come across, so that sort of enthusiasm in your job, when you interview, for clerkships, you will do better. And everything will fall into place.
You'll learn what things to say in interviews. How to behave. You'll learn. Things will go in your direction.
And the other thing I would just do is what's called a manifestation exercise. You can just spend maybe, and I don't do enough of it, but spend 15 minutes a day, 10 to 15 minutes a day. Imagine what you want your life and career to be like.
In your case, in New York, [00:05:00] working for a big law firm. Just keep imagining all this stuff. And if you do that, everything's gonna fall into place. You will get it.
If you're going to a top 10 law school and you want to do all this stuff, then you will get these jobs.
There's a great book it's called, "Think and Grow Rich". You can get it for free online. I would read it from cover to cover. This book talks about all sorts of things. You need to want something.
The first chapter is desire. I try to read it once per year. I remember Tony Robbins said that he knows a guy that reads it once a year, is successful. He knows another guy that reads it two or three times a year is even more successful. He knows a guy who reads it five times a year. It was 10 times six. It tells you how to set goals and imagine, things will happen. And anybody that wants to get ahead, you just need to really imagine things and take all the right actions and really be seen as a person that people want to and so you're never boxed.
If you're 10 years out and you want to work in a larger firm, you can do it, but you need to have the goal and the drive because most people lose their ambition. I think one of the things that I talked about in this webinar today is, most people leave large [00:06:00] law firms, they get psyched out.
Most people, get psyched out. And the only people that end up getting where they want to go is persistence.
Persistence is the most important thing there is. If you persist then you'll get to where you want to. And it happens all the time. You just can't give up. People who didn't give up are the ones that went ahead.
I have a funny story to tell about giving up.
I remember there was this guy, this is kind of a funny story. I think he's a professional gambler now, but his name is Tom.
When I was in college in the nineties, I was in Chicago, he was there, all these ads on television of him, like on these boats, like driving around with these girls in bikinis. It was very funny.
I don't know. I might even be able to show you guys. It's very funny.
This ad was so funny. The greatest ad ever is here. Yeah.
Verbose is about to become the backdrop for forgettable Make-A-Wish, but not that you will learn at my seminar will make you financially independent for the rest of your life. One of my recent ones is the best race of your life. Come to my [00:07:00] seminars, using the TAMU techniques...
Anyway, I saw this ad and basically, he had the seminar where you can go downtown. And, so I went and you go downtown. If you come down, you're going to hear three words and these three words will change your whole life and everything.
And so I was like, all right. And so I went down with my friend on a Saturday morning and he was giving a seminar. He'd come over from Vietnam then had worked as a busboy in a country club and a very rich guy came in that everyone said was very nice. And he said, can you tell me three words that made you successful? And the guy said, yes, there are three words. And you said, the three words are don't give up. And so what happens is almost everyone gives up, man. And that's what I got out of Tom's seminar. I guess you had to pay to attend a seminar after going to this pre-seminar, but I saw that commercial on TV. And I never forgot that because that's the mistake that most people make is they give up. So you just can't give up. You need to keep pursuing whatever you're trying to do.
