Description
- Overcome setbacks: Despite challenges, your age and the length of your career ahead offer ample time for growth and success.
- Career resilience: Starting in smaller firms doesn't hinder your future. It's an opportunity to learn and build expertise.
- Market opportunities: Multiple firms in various markets are always seeking talent. Your brand isn't damaged; it's about finding the right fit.
- Skill development: Embrace learning from smaller firms, witnessing how they generate business and specialize. Build a strong foundation.
- Long-term prospects: Patience is key. Just like patent attorneys, gaining experience opens doors to bigger opportunities later in your career.
- Branding and networking: Dive deep into your chosen field, attend conferences, write articles, or start a podcast to establish yourself as an expert.
Transcript:
Okay. My brand should be good, but it needs to be. I graduated from a top 10 law school but did not get to knock at this, not getting into the big law firm as a summer associate job. I started at a smaller market as a summer associate and returned after graduation, only to lose my job a few months after the firm cut my practice.
I went to a giant firm that specialized in labor and employment. And then I lost my job again, just six months in, when a partner threw me under the bus. I'm not ready to give up working in a law firm, but it's been a rocky start working and getting barred in a nearby state. I want to return to the horse but feel discouraged and damaged.
What do you recommend? Okay, it's a couple of points, but you're 26, maybe you're 27 years old, or you can run for president at the age of Biden or president at 81 or whatever he has, President 81. So you, I've seen, I've placed attorneys in their late 80s. You're 27; you have 55 years left in your career.
So at least 55 plus years, let's say 55 plus. So that's a pretty long time. So once you get started, you can work in labor and employment or whatever you want. It sounds like that's what you want to do. Then you'll be just fine. You will have, you can make plenty of mistakes.
If you make them for ten years, you'll still have them. Thirty years or 40 or whatever years are left in your career. So you're fine. There's nothing, absolutely nothing to worry about. You might be in pretty good shape because many people go into labor employment at big firms, and then they need to advance.
So many of them do, but a lot don't, and they have to start on the ground floor like you are. So here are some options you have which you can do very well. You can make a lot of money, learn how to do it, and have a defense. And it sounds like you want to learn from a more prominent firm, which is fine.
That's what you want to do. Large firms typically do the most prominent firms do class action defense. There's a lot of money with that and smaller firms. Smaller firms to defend small employers, whatever. But I'm going to get back to your brand. So you do not need to go to another market to get a job.
You don't need to worry about whatever's happened to you so far because you have a long career. It doesn't matter that. You went to a top-10 law school. All that says is that you're smart but need to learn how to market yourself. It doesn't mean you're a failure because you didn't get a job in a big firm like everyone else.
You're not damaged goods, but you need to not worry about this stuff and just start working. I don't care what market you're in. Let's see, you said you got a. You start in a smaller market and then return after graduation only to learn you lose your job a few months into the firm after they cut your practice area.
That's fine. So let's say Google, I'm not, no, I have no idea where you are, but let's say you're in San Antonio, go here and you'll see all of these different firms doing this work, they just go on and on, you do not. And just because these are Littler, Mendelson, or Jackson Lewis, they are the right places to work.
Look at how many there are in San Antonio; by the way, it is a small market by any stretch of the imagination. You have all of these places where you could work that say they do. That's not, I don't know if they all do, but there are plenty of places to apply to in every fricking market. It doesn't matter.
There are lots of places. None of these places are getting applicants from people just showing they're just, and then you have all these lists. You have super lawyers, you have acceptable law, and you have BCG of expertise. You've got just, yeah, you've got, and then you've got the totally Ricky, which is pretty firm.
And you've got all these places just. Showing up on the search results. You're looking at all these places. You are not damaged goods. You can get a position. Look at this. I love this stuff. You can get a position in many places without worrying about it. You have so many opportunities where it doesn't matter where you are.
The last thing in the freaking world you need to do is go to another state. Do you want a more giant firm? That's fine, but that doesn't mean That a big firm will hire you. They'll hire you once you go someplace, get three or four years of experience, and show some stability, but get that in; you need to get in the door.
All that means you need to start somewhere small. By the way, we looked at some attorneys from these small firms earlier. They went to Yale, they went to top law schools, and they're good people to teach you. But another thing I just want everyone to understand: when you go to a smaller firm, you get to watch how that person or those people generate business and how they survive.
You get to learn how to serve certain types of clients. You learned a business you can repeat and do yourself if you want. Or you just become very qualified in that area of the law, and you move up later. An exciting thing happens, and this is different from how everyone understands how it works when you're trying to market yourself and move to more prominent firms and move up.
Patent attorneys. So, patent attorneys are clever. So, patent attorneys, this is related to you, but it's moving up a bit. So, patent attorneys typically have poor grades in college because they're taking these spirits and graduating with excellent college grades. After all, there are these sparkers, and they're majoring in engineering.
I don't know. They often don't. Then they work as engineers and don't work part-time or whatever while going to law school because they make good money. And they often do not do well in law school. That great. Their first jobs are with small firms rather than with big firms.
Why do they not have excellent grades because they want to hire them with their grades? They're also working as engineers, making 150,000 a year. So the first job is with small firms. And then what happens is almost invariably, after they get a few years of experience, they are suddenly marketable, they pass the patent bar and everything, and then they get hired by big firms.
You do not need to start your career with a big firm. After you get out and you get experience, you can do anything. You can; I've seen corporate attorneys working at five-person law firms in the suburbs of New Jersey. Get positions at these incredible law firms after a couple of years of experience.
Assuming that they're doing something marketable. But no one comes out and thinks their brand is tainted. Your brand will only happen for a while. If I were you, I would get all in on labor and employment. I would go to conferences. I would write articles. I would start up. Podcast. I don't know. But that's what I would do because then you will have a brand and look like someone who's gung ho compared to someone who's just doing this work and not really into it.
