November 2008

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said: “To be able to transform with the enemy is what is meant by ’spiritlike’.”

What Sun Tzu meant is that groups who win in war have no fixed form; instead, they manifest themselves in whatever way required to attain victory. They take shape in response to what obstacles they are presented with.

One of the exciting things about being an attorney is that your skills are transferable. For example, a litigator can become a construction defect attorney, a corporate attorney can practice law in Cleveland or Dubai and an intellectual property attorney can move from Texas to Pittsburgh. The fact is there are options everywhere if you know how to look and you know how to search.

One of the best uses of your talents is to expand your options and take advantage of opportunities outside your current geographic area. In the legal field, you have opportunities available to you in other cities and other markets and even other practice areas. The sky is the limit for what you can achieve.

When the economy changes, you need to be ready and willing to adapt. You need to “transform” in response to the obstacles ahead. This is what the best job seekers do. Follow their lead.

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The market for labor and employment attorneys is “hot” at the moment. People are losing their jobs at a record pace in the United States as layoffs and other economic downsizing starts taking effect. When people lose their jobs, many decide to sue their employers and this results in extra work. In addition, the new Obama regime is very likely to sign pending legislation that is extremely pro union. This pro union legislation will create even more work for labor and employment attorneys. Companies are already preparing for this legislation to be signed.

As an attorney seeking a job, you should go where forests are the greenest. You need to be where people want you. The demand I am seeing for labor and employment attorneys is very high.

When people talk about the legal market being poor, I know it is a gross generalization. Certain practice areas in the legal market are poor–the whole legal market is not poor. When you look at the economic performance of law firms in good and bad times, there really is never much difference– total revenue numbers are generally pretty stable. The reason for the stability of revenues is because work simply shifts between practice areas. Corporate work may grind to a standstill, while labor and employment work goes through the roof. I have seen this pattern for years.

If you are looking for a legal job in this market, I highly recommend you look closely at labor and employment.

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One of the questions we often receive at Legal Authority is why would you possibly want to send your application materials to a law firm without openings? This question doesn’t take into account the business model of most law firms or their internal economics.

Law firms typically bill out by the hour for their services. Lawyers can only work a certain number of hours per day. If a law firm has more work than it can handle, or could be billing more to cases and matters, the work simply doesn’t get done and the law firm loses money.

When you send out resumes in an unsolicited manner, you are essentially presenting law firms with a business proposition. If they have work you can do, they can bill out your work. The amount a law firm bills for generally exceeds what the law firm pays you and the law firm makes money.

Law firms often get so busy that they don’t even take the time to advertise their jobs. If they see your resume when they’re busy, they’ll often choose to bring you in because they can make money from hiring you. When you mail your resume to a law firm, you’re more likely to stand out and catch their attention. Letters are personally delivered, have to be opened, and generally people are flattered and like to receive mail. This is especially true in today’s day and age when people are emailing resumes and applying through databases.

Simply stated: Law firms will hire in response to an unsolicited resume, because they can make money from your work.

Companies are the same. Companies rarely receive unsolicited resumes from attorneys. Companies typically pay outside counsel very high legal fees. The average law firm charges over $300 an hour. The law firm also charges for faxing, photocopying, research, paralegal support and more. The result of hiring outside counsel can be extremely expensive for law firms.

When you apply to a company, the first thought that crosses their mind is can you help them save money. In today’s economy, companies are extremely interested in saving money and bringing in an attorney can help. Companies are also very inexperienced in their ability to recruit attorneys and many don’t know where to start–they’re concerned about the business they’re in. They may be experts in hiring engineers or executives, but don’t know the first thing about hiring attorneys. I have seen numerous attorneys get some pretty incredible positions due to this knowledge gap.

Both law firms and companies LOVE unsolicited resumes. This is an incredibly effective way to get a job. They like it for business reasons that have nothing to do with whether they have openings or not. One of the best ways to get a legal job is just to be there at the right time. This is what we help you do at Legal Authority.

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At Legal Authority, this is the exact type of economy where we thrive. We are getting attorneys and law students jobs like crazy! In fact, the number of testimonials we are seeing at Legal Authority is at an all time high.

The best thing about this economy is the results our clients are getting. While our clients’ classmates, peers and others are not getting jobs, our clients are going out for interviews and getting jobs. This is because our service works.

The fact is that targeted mass mailing works. It provides the absolute best market coverage and the best results of any job finding method. There are a lot of people out there who will try and tell you the opposite; however, you need to simply think about targeted mailing in a rational and logical way.

First, there are a limited number of employers in a given city. At any one time, these employers could be advertising on any one of thousands and thousands of websites, newspapers and other publications. No matter how diligent you are in searching for these openings, there is a good chance you are not going to find them all. When you use Legal Authority, you track down these openings by mailing letters and ensuring that you are approaching all the correct employers at one time.

Second, many employers do not advertise their openings. Many openings in the legal field especially are spread by word of mouth, for example. When you are approaching these employers, you are applying for positions that are also not advertised.

Third, many employers make hiring decisions simply by seeing a good candidate cross their desk. In the legal field, you can get jobs whether or not employers have openings. There is a reason you can get hired when there are no openings: Law firms charge by the hour. If a law firm has more work than it can do, they are losing money. By bringing you in to do the work, they can bill out at a lot more than they are paying you and make money. This is one reason that Legal Authority is so effective–law firms are opportunists like any business and you represent a business opportunity for them.

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