Firm's Ongoing Education: Key Questions for Assessing Commitment

Description

• Assessing Law Firms' Education Commitment: Harrison discusses key aspects in evaluating a law firm's ongoing education policies.
• Caution in Questioning: Advises caution in questions during interviews that may highlight firm weaknesses or priorities not aligned with the firm's goals.
• Avoiding 'Wrong' Questions: Warns against asking about non-billable aspects like pro bono, remote work, or leave policies during interviews.
• Impact on Job Prospects: Shares experiences of candidates not securing jobs due to mismatched questions or resumes highlighting irrelevant details.
• Focus on Work Dedication: Emphasizes the importance of portraying oneself solely dedicated to legal work to secure positions.
• The 'Mystery' Approach: Recommends maintaining ambiguity about personal beliefs, affiliations, or non-work-related preferences to avoid potential biases.
• Careful Resume Crafting: Highlights the need to tone down resumes, avoiding unnecessary details that might conflict with a firm's culture or expectations.
• Career Caution: Urges job seekers to be mindful of what they present on resumes and the questions they ask during interviews to prevent hindering job prospects.

Transcript

Firm's Ongoing Education: Key Questions for Assessing Commitment
 
Okay. This is a good question, but most law firms do that, too. California Bars must take a certain amount of continuing education each year. So this is just an example. A lot of firms will not have that. I don't know. Some firms will allow you to take CLE credits during work.
 
Others won't. You can certainly ask questions about that. But the problem with asking questions like that, and I just think this is a good question for a lot of reasons, any question that highlights something, highlights a billion dollars that the law firm is not good at; the law firm is not good at, is a wrong question, or is often a lousy question.
 
What does that mean? That means that you have to be very careful about the questions you ask. I have seen so many people not get jobs or lose jobs by Going into law firms and asking questions that highlight not billing hours or something that the law firm needs to improve at. So what does that mean?
 
So that means you first go in and start asking about pro bono, how much pro bono is allowed. You start asking about things like paternity leave. I'm sorry. Turn to leave vacation policy, not. I'm not working, I'm sorry, working remotely, all these sorts of things. If you ask about it, I've seen many people go into interviews and lose jobs by asking about pro bono.
 
If you ask about pro bono, that will show the firm that there's nothing wrong with going into the firm and doing pro bono. It's a good thing. And you can often learn a lot and become a better attorney. But if you go on an interview and ask about that, the law firm will not.
 
Think that you're going to want to work all the time. They need people; just put it yourself, it's a firm choice. Would you choose someone for your firm, someone who wants to work with someone who wants to work a lot of hours and commit themselves, sorry, someone who wants to commit themselves to you, commit themselves to work, or someone who wants to do pro bono, and I'm just, this is the typical question. Still, it's essential, so I'm bringing it up.
 
So people ask to do pro bono; people ask this kind of question all the time. They think these are good questions. They think that asking about pro bono is something that, and again, people think this is important. I'm saying that doing pro bono work is optional, but I want to bring this up because it matches many questions people ask.
 
People go to law schools, almost, I don't, I think every single one of them, some of them are like 98 percent democratic and when there's, I'm not saying that one or the other, but people learn that's what's expected of them, that they should, that this is the best thing when they're in law school, taught by people from backgrounds that, but the problem is when you get out in the business world, the law firm just wants you to bill hours and dedicate yourself to them.
 
And if you start talking and asking questions about things like this, yeah. It's going to give the opposite impression. So what does that mean exactly? So, I see resumes of people who simply need jobs all the time. And the reason that they need to get jobs is straightforward. They're going in and doing things like listing things on their resume.
 
That has absolutely nothing to do with what the law firm wants. And if you, so people, here's what they'll do. I see people from Columbia, Harvard, all these great laws, and NYU who need help getting positions and saying they're applying to the right places.
 
They're using good recruiters and doing all sorts of things that should make it very easy for them to get positions. And yet, here they are. Nothing positive has happened to them, and they're not getting jobs. So what's going on? Why no jobs? So what they will do, these people that aren't getting jobs, unemployed people, not getting jobs, it's, they will have things on their resume.
 
And again, I'm just telling you what happens. I'm not judging this. I'm not on either side of this issue. I don't care. I don't care. I just want people to get jobs. So what are they doing? So they will do things like they will list. They will list, they will say. Did pro bonos, then we're going to be a corporate attorney.
 
I don't care. They'll say corporate; then we'll talk about all the pro bono they did at their previous job. And then sometimes the list, they will, this is wild. They will list two or three lines about pro bono before they even start. This is very common; I just wanted to make everyone aware that this is very common, but I think it's wild.
 
Two or three lines. About their pro bono work. And then we'll say also assigned to corporate and the general corporate workers, but insane. They will do this when they're looking for a job. That could pay 280,000 a year. This is what they're doing. And these people, it doesn't matter.
 
No one cares about their schools. No one cares about where they're from. They just know that this person is a freaking bad deal because they are not going to be committed. And the firm has a choice. They have a choice of someone who wants nothing to do but practice law and someone who wants something else.
 
And they will choose the person who wants to do nothing but practice law. Every single time. And why did they do that? Because they're businesses. So, I'm not saying there's Anything wrong with wanting to do this. A business can also do good in the community and pro bono. But someone that looks like that's all they want to do is freaking toast.
 
Or if they make that first. Or if they even list that they, did it on their resume. Or they ask questions about this. They're toast. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work. Sometimes, people list all sorts of stuff about affinity or whatever on their resume. They'll say this and this and this and won't get jobs, and they won't know why.
 
You could sit there, and you could Talk all about Democrats or talk all about whatever and every job that you have. And if you're not, if you're interviewing with a firm that's different from that, it will hurt you. So you have to be very careful. You have to look like someone there to do work, someone who isn't on the side of one issue or another, and that's it.
 
You have to be careful. I'm just telling everyone that if you learn this one thing, it could save your career. No one's going to tell you, by the way. Listing all this stuff on your resume will hurt you because they don't want to be on the wrong side of something and make people mad. But you just have to be very careful.
 
I will tell you a quick story. I'm not going to take it. Don't judge this. I don't. I'm not on the side of this issue. I'm not calling law firms Anything. After September 11th, 2000, I had a candidate looking for a job in New York City. He was; he went to a great law school. I am trying to remember what it was, Stanford or whatever.
 
He had been working at an incredible law firm, one of the top law firms, and he decided to look for a position. He had all sorts of stuff on his resume, and he was all over that talked about stuff that was not involved at the time, being part of a group that was not involved. I don't want to say it because I don't want to get in trouble.
 
Meaning that people were suspicious of him and all. Whatever. And no single interview. Other people who didn't have that had worse qualifications for getting an interview. So, you just have to be very careful about what you're putting in your resume. If you think it's going to get a job, if you're applying to positions in very conserved parts of South Carolina and have all sorts of stuff in your resume, it won't hurt you.
 
So you just need to be very aware of this. I'm telling people this because you need to; everything needs to be toned down. No. What a talk. Being just in polo, you want to avoid discussing things that will take much of your time. You just have to be very careful. So, paternity leave, I've seen people, and again, I'm not judging this.
 
I'm not on one side of the issue. I've seen people at significant law firms listing that going in or taking paternity leave and coming back and suddenly being frozen out of work. No one wants to work with them anymore. I've seen attorneys. I have asked him, but there's an interview that could be a better good job.
 
I'm asking about vacations. Not a good idea. It shows you want to be doing other things. I'm asking about working remotely when you have no idea how the, what the firm thinks about that is a fricking bad idea showing you don't want to come into the office. So all these things, man, you just need to; I'm warning everyone that you must be very careful about asking these questions.
 
It will make you toast, and you won't know why you'll think, why does the law firm not like me? I, or why am I not getting jobs? You don't; you make your resume and your questions, and your resume and the questions you ask should make you a mystery. Like they should not, they shouldn't, unless the firms like that, they should make you a mystery.
 
People do not know your feelings about pro bono. People need to learn your political leanings. People do not know Anything; you do not know your religion unless you want to go with this stuff, you do not put this on your fricking resume, you do not ask questions about it, and again, I'm not on the side of one of these issues or not, I'm not, I don't care, all I want you to do is to get a job, and if you do this stuff, it can hurt you, I'm just telling you why that is, I'm not saying I'll make you a mystery, I'm not saying that I believe in it, I'm not saying Anything, all I'm saying is that you must be very careful because it is potentially going to make one-third of the people like you and the third necessarily.