May 2009

I Started Legal Authority to Get More Attorneys Jobs.

One day I was sitting in front of my computer at BCG Attorney Search office and a resume came over email from a student of mine who I had taught law. While the law school I had taught at was ABA-approved, it was fourth tier and not considered the best law school in the United States. This student was at the top of his class and, like many other students in his law school, had been unsuccessful in securing a position with a law firm when he graduated. I was frustrated because, as a legal recruiter, I knew I could not help him. I was also frustrated because I knew that he had worked hard in law school, showed potential to be a good attorney, and deserved a chance. If someone does well enough in college to get into law school, completes law school, and wants to work as an attorney, he/she deserves a chance.

I called this student and invited him in anyway. I rewrote his resume for him and helped him write a cover letter. Then I allowed him to send his documents out to the 300 or so law firms in the BCG Attorney Search database that were in Los Angeles. Prior to this point, this student had simply applied to the law firms in the NALP guide and also had applied to the occasional listing in his law school’s career services office. All that had ever resulted from this was an interview with a two-person law firm.

Out of the 300 applications he sent out, this student got several interviews and secured a position with a mid-sized law firm where he made close to $100,000 in his first year. I am sure his salary was among the highest of any student in his graduating class. He is enjoying an excellent career today.

Around this same time, the economy was beginning to go into a tailspin. Many of the corporate attorneys I had placed during the boom began to get laid off and, remembering the lesson of the law student, I started inviting them into my office and helping them redo their resumes and cover letters as well. Because there were so few corporate openings (and law firms simply would not pay recruiting fees for corporate attorneys), I helped these same attorneys send out their documents to the firms in the BCG database at no cost.

All of these attorneys got jobs.

Word soon spread that I was helping corporate attorneys do this and corporate attorneys and others sought out my service to such an extent that I soon had no time for legal recruiting. We ran a “war room” of sorts out of BCG’s Los Angeles offices and attorneys came in and assisted each other in building a massive database of every legal employer in California. Things were really crazy and we were operating 24 hours a day out of that office helping attorneys get jobs. The printers were going like crazy all the time.

What ended up happening, though, was that it all became too much, a lot of it due to the overwhelming costs involved. Soon, this mailing service was getting calls for help even though no formal business had been organized. In fact, I was spending thousands of dollars each week out of my own pocket to support this effort.

With the help of some really dedicated people, I soon started Legal Authority. Legal Authority is the embodiment of my goal to get the most attorneys jobs. To date, Legal Authority has gotten thousands of attorneys and law students jobs and gets more attorneys jobs than any other similar service in the United States.

Unlike job boards or legal recruiters, Legal Authority helps attorneys find both open positions and jobs where none may exist. Firms often actually create jobs for attorneys once the attorney has expressed interest in potential employment by simply sending a resume and well crafted letter. Legal Authority is truly an outstanding service and if there is one thing I have done in my life to “make a difference,” this is it. The success stories from this business are nothing less than remarkable.

In order to run a business like Legal Authority, you need a lot of people. There are currently over 40 people working here, updating our data literally 24 hours a day. Legal Authority has contact information (we know exactly who is in charge of hiring) for virtually every American legal employer.

While personal stories may not have a role in my discussion of Legal Authority, I can tell you that starting this business almost destroyed me financially and personally. For over the first year Legal Authority was in existence, I worked 15+ hours a day on it virtually every day of the week. My wife divorced me and I came very close to going out of business for financial reasons several times. The debt I accumulated to start the business was nothing short of astonishing. In the first year of running Legal Authority, I was often losing in excess of $20,000 per week in order to do something I believed was a higher calling.

I do not resent starting Legal Authority at all. Everything that is good in this world and every positive change is not easy. Each new challenge with Legal Authority has only motivated me further. I know that there are numerous, numerous lives of people everywhere that have been bettered through our efforts. I am sure you can say the same for your work. This is something that gives both of us lives of substance and meaning.

I gave Legal Authority everything I had because I knew I was doing something meaningful for the world.

The problem with Legal Authority, though, is that the cost is expensive; and it is therefore quite exclusive and high end. While the attorneys who counsel people on their job search consider their work to be like public interest work (and are paid similarly), the costs of gathering data, rewriting resumes and cover letters, printing, shipping, and so forth are substantial. Accordingly, from an attorney and law student’s perspective, the cost of Legal Authority can be expensive. In most cases, attorneys spend over $500 (often more) to get a position through the service. It is not a lot of money to get several jobs; however, it is still a lot of money to most people.

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Each and every day, there are hundreds of attorneys asking themselves the same question: Why wasn’t I hired?…I thought I was well-qualified and answered all of their questions. Maybe so, however, there lies a plethora of reasons why one may not be the right candidate. Other candidates, for example, could have more experience and successfully demonstrated to the firm that he/she was the best fit for the position. While that may be so, you should take note of the following red flags that can hinder your job search.

While this cannot be stressed enough, a flawless resume and cover letter are must in your pursuit of landing that ideal position. All of your contact information should be current. In most cases, this document should rarely exceed one page. Most importantly, there should be as little or no employment gaps within your work history. This will inevitably catch the hiring authority’s eye and prompt you to explain the reasons for this. Moreover, having five different positions in seven years will also do the same. If these were clerkships, etc this is understood; however, if you have jumped from firm to firm, be prepared to answer why.

The interviewing process is not just an hour or two of your time; you need to research the firm thoroughly, be well-prepared with detailed questions and, in turn, have well-thought out answers. Your answers should be consistent and reflected within your resume. It is also important to demonstrate some of your noteworthy qualities (i.e., strong work ethic, pay close attention to detail) during the interview. Furthermore, always have a list of several references on hand, as this will ultimately be asked from you. For the most part, these should include professional relationships, preferably from your most recent employers.

While you may find it hard to resist saying negative things about your previous employer, don’t! This will only reflect negatively on you. Of course, there were flaws at your last position; this is why you are currently interviewing. By turning these negatives into positives, this will only make you a stronger candidate in the long run. There are several ways to communicate these circumstances during the interviewing process and this will ultimately shed positive light into the depth of your character and desire to succeed. One’s ability to convey difficult situations as a stepping stone and not an obstacle, will allow the employer to gain a much deeper perspective into your ambition and willingness to overcome any impediment along the way.

Finding your ideal position is certainly not an easy task. Being well-prepared cannot be over-emphasized enough. One’s job search can be overwhelming at times, and you must continue to have confidence in yourself first and foremost. By doing so, this will inevitably make you a stronger candidate. From a flawless resume to a firm handshake, one must cover all the bases to make sure you’ll hit that homerun!

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Targeted Mailing Is the Best Way to Get a Legal Job!

In today’s legal market, over 85% of all available attorney positions are never publicized. The most efficient way to get these positions is through targeted mailing. Legal search firms fill less than 5% of all available positions. We have heard over and over again that “networking” is simply not the most effective approach.

We are not a recruiting firm or a job posting board. Simply put, we are YOUR direct link to employers. At Legal Authority’s core is our strategy of allowing individuals to apply to legal jobs on their own, which drives our capabilities into a one-of-a-kind employment continuum, with our database at its center. This is accomplished through Legal Authority’s design and production of high-impact resumes, personalized cover letters, and their distribution to legal employers. Legal Authority is the means by which legal employers and candidates are connected in the fastest and most efficient manner. We can cover any given market more efficiently, cost-effectively, and in less time than any source, anywhere.

Delay at Your Own Cost!

With salaries for most attorneys exceeding $50,000, delay can be extremely costly. At an annual salary of $120,000, for example, you are losing $10,000 each month you are not working. This does not even reflect the amount of money you are losing in benefits and other employer-sponsored perks. If you are unhappy with your current position, or your organization is in trouble, the emotional costs of remaining with an employer can be even more severe. Whether you are a partner at an AmLaw 100 law firm, the General Counsel of an important corporation, or a law student, we have the resources to help you get where you want to be.

Choose Legal Authority!

All we do is assist attorneys in getting positions. We are empathetic with each attorney’s particular circumstances and we will do our absolute best to assist you. We have the largest database of legal employers anywhere. However you are going about your job search, getting your resume in front of the decision makers is what it is all about. We can help you get your information in front of the people you need in order to get the jobs you want.

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Employers Want to Hire You

Think about it. When an employer takes the time to line attorneys up to interview you and bring you in to speak with them they must be pretty eager to hire someone. Most employers that are interviewing people are very eager to hire them. Exceptionally eager. Here is what happens, however. Most people go into interviews and throw off all of the wrong signals and end up not getting the job. It happens to everyone. You do not get the job because you throw off the wrong signals and the employer thinks you do not want the job, do not have the confidence or charisma for the position or cannot handle the position.

Every interview you are going on the employer is wishing and hoping from the bottom of their heart that you are the perfect person for the position. The employer wants you to go in and say all of the right things and do all of the right things. When you go into an interview you should assume the employer is enthusiastic about hiring you. Many people, however, end up psyching themselves out and thinking something else is going on. They go into the interviews with a bad attitude and an attitude that prevents them from getting the job of their dreams. Do not let this person be you. Remember that every interview you go into the employer is really enthusiastic about hiring you.

If an employer takes the time to put an advertisement somewhere the chances are they really need someone. It costs $500 or more to post a job on many websites. If an employer takes the time to pick up the phone and call you and bring you in for an interview the chances are that they are really interested. They may have had hundreds of applications for just your spot.

Employers interviewing you are excited. They want you to be exactly the person they are hoping you will be and the sort of person advertised. Go in to each interview ready to seize the day. Take the job you are entitled to and deserve.

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Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he’d sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.

The moral: “Slow and steady wins the race.”

This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with.

THE STORY DOESN’T END HERE. There are few more interesting things. It continues as follows…

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral: “Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. It’s good to be slow and steady; but it’s better to be fast and reliable.”

THE STORY DOESN’T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there’s no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral: “First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.”

THE STORY STILL HASN’T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time. They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they’d felt earlier.

The moral: “It’s good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you’re able to work in a team and harness each other’s core competencies, you’ll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you’ll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could.”

In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both. The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise has much to say:

• fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
• work to your competencies;
• pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers;
• never give up when faced with failure; and finally
• compete against the situation - not against a rival

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THE FIRST BORN PHENOMENON

●Two-thirds of all entrepreneurs are firstborns

●Twenty-one of the first twenty-three astronauts were firstborns

●Firstborns are twice as likely as laterborns to become CEOs

●Fifty-five percent of all supreme court justices have been firstborns

●Over half of U.S. Presidents have been firstborns

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THIS PHENOMENON?

●People have higher expectations for first borns

●First borns are given more responsibility

●First borns get more encouragement, feedback and attentions

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Statistics indicate approximately 85% of all legal employment positions in the United States are filled via self-initiated contact with employers. Self-initiated contact generally requires (1) researching who the contacts are in various organizations, and (2) preparing cover letters to the organizations that match your interests. Despite the fact that an employer may not advertise or engage a recruiter to fill a position, many employers have never advertised openings and simply fill positions and create openings from the people that approach them. In a market as small as Los Angeles, California, for example, there are over 2,000 legal employers and we would estimate that well over 25% are always on the look out for good attorneys. On our end, we use probably in excess of 25 sources to identify employers. Not all firms list themselves in Martindale Hubble due to costs considerations and only a small percentage of legal hiring organizations list themselves with the National Association of Law Placement. Accordingly, the resources of recruiters and job posting boards and others who collect this information and initiate contact with the employers can be extremely beneficial.

Prominent job posting boards and recruiting firms have an incentive to have the best information possible. Good legal recruiters specialize in information gathering and the larger ones even have entire departments that do nothing but gather information. Similarly, good classified ad sections of legal newspapers specialize in information gathering and selling of ads to employers. The larger organizations are usually able to compile the most information.

Due to the sharp downturn in the job market, self-initiated contact with employers may well become even more prominent as legal hiring organizations seek to cope with a decrease in demand for legal services. This is true whether you are seeking a position with a law firm, in-house legal department, or public interest organization. If you have tried other methods to find a job and have not been pleased with them, self-initiated contact may be a good option.

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“When Law Firms Turn Mean”

At Legal Authority, some of our Employment Advocates are former legal recruiters and they look upon the current recession-like conditions in the legal community as nothing new. One of the more interesting aspects of the current slowdown in the legal market is the fact that many firms have become increasingly meaner to their associates and partners. This is not to say that all firms are mean—they are not all mean. It is to say, however, that attorneys need to be astute to the conditions within their law firms in order to evaluate them. As this article will demonstrate, firms that are doing well economically are often not mean.

In the Year 2008 there were numerous associate layoffs throughout the United States. This, of course, contrasts with the fact that there was a massive hiring binge at firms in the Years 2003 through the first part of 2008. It is interesting to contrast these two points in time to try and gain an understanding of why law firms turn mean.

When Firms Were Nice

During the time that firms were experiencing a hiring binge, most attorneys who worked in these firms did not believe the firms were mean at all. In fact, in order to try and get associates to stay so they could do all the work, firms tended to be extremely lenient in performance reviews. Interviews were often quite casual and not too stressful. Bonuses were large. Firm perks were abundant. For many associates practicing at large firms, their biggest complaint was often that they had far too much work to do. Nevertheless, associates with strong credentials could without too much difficulty switch firms if they thought their firms was not a pleasant place to work.

For associates working at nice firms during the period between 2003 and early 2008, they often believed they could do no wrong. When looking for positions, associates were often very arrogant about the number of opportunities they had. In associate interviews, many law students associates would often grill partners and associates about what the firm could do for them. Things were very good for associates.

When Firms Turned Mean

In the Year 2008, many large law firms became extremely unpleasant places to work in. Performance reviews suddenly turned into far from casual affairs. In fact, at many performance reviews associates were outright fired. Other associates were simply laid off. For many attorneys, such as corporate associates seeking to lateral into another law firm—in contrast to what occurred in the “boom years”—there were virtually no recruiter opportunities. With respect to the few interviews many of these associates received, the firms grilled them aggressively. Bonuses? At many firms there were no bonuses. Perks were cancelled or dramatically scaled back. And as for complaints about too much work, many associates were complaining about the exact opposite.

For many associates working in law firms since middle 2008, they often believed that they could do no right. Firms were not at all happy places to work for many associates.

“What the Mean vs. Nice Dichotomy Means”

The obvious meaning of all this is that, when times are good, associates can make firms a great deal of money and are treated well. When times are bad, associates may cost firms money. What all this means, then, is that economic forces beyond an attorney’s immediate control often shape their futures.

However, for all of the criticisms of firms during bad times, the fact of the matter is that attorneys at all levels working in law firms do have control over their destiny’s and how they can confront the situations the economy creates for them. For example, even during the worst of economic times there are firms which continue to do extremely well and post high profits. Many of these firms never turn mean. Even during the worst of times, there are firms that are aggressively hiring attorneys who approach them for positions.

When attorneys are in law school, they never really know what to look for in a firm. For example, during the boom years of 1988 to 2001 (another boom time) one of the most attractive law firms to many associates in the United States was Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley. This firm was one which essentially took one aspect of a law firm’s corporate department and built it into a law firm that does nothing but a certain type of corporate work. Conversely, a firm which has been around for over 100 years, such as New York’s Sullivan & Cromwell, has survived so long because it has numerous departments which complement each other and help sustain one another through good times and bad. Incidently, Venture Law Group is a firm that “became mean” during the economic slowdown. This firm eventually disappeared, of course.

The essence of becoming a client of Legal Authority is that it can give you the ability to distinguish good firms from the mean ones—especially in a bad economic climate. By allowing you to survey the market for all of the opportunities that match what you are seeking to do, Legal Authority empowers you to find firms which are hiring in a bad economic climate. If you are a corporate associate, or practicing in an area of the law that is not in demand in a good economic climate, then finding the firms that are hiring is an extremely significant thing: You have found a firm that is likely to be in even better shape when the economy turns around.

Conclusions

When firms turn mean, they usually do so based upon economic forces which are affecting them. Different firms are set up different ways and as they evolve make many economic decisions which will have a significant effect on them in both good and bad economies. Finding the firms that are set up to whether economic storms is no easy task. The firm could be a very large law firm, or it could just as easily be a smaller one. One of the essences of becoming a client of Legal Authority is that we can assist you in finding the firms that are set up to weather—and perhaps even prosper–in economic storms. By contacting all of the firms in a given city that match precisely what you are seeking to, you can identify those firms which are hiring and then speak with them. While results typically differ for many of Legal Authority clients, it is not uncommon for many of our clients.

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A HISTORY OF FINDING ATTORNEYS POSITIONS AT EVERY LEVEL OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Legal Authority came about because of attorneys’ need for a service that would actually get them the specific types of jobs they want. Being an attorney is among the very most prestigious professions in the United States. The people who choose careers as attorneys are highly intelligent, motivated and capable of great things. The public relies upon attorneys to perform an extremely important service and the work of attorneys has a profound impact on society.

In fact, attorneys are held in such high regard by society that most outsiders simply assume they will always be in the type of job they want. The fact is that every member of the legal profession—from law students, to associates and partners at small AmLaw 100 law firms, to General Counsels of Fortune 100 companies, to public interest and government attorneys–may need access to all of the potential positions matching their interests is something that is virtually ignored by law schools, headhunters and job posting boards.

HOW LEGAL AUTHORITY CAME ABOUT

The founder of Legal Authority is a former law student, practicing attorney, legal recruiter and law professor. It was his understanding gained from these three experiences and the inefficiencies he saw in terms of how most attorneys have traditionally gone about getting legal jobs that led to the founding of Legal Authority.

WHAT THE FORMER LAW STUDENT SAW

As a law student he could not understand why he had to apply to only the firms his career services office told him about. This made absolutely no sense to him. They ran the whole show. He went to a Top 10 law school and saw lots of attorneys who did not have jobs by the time they graduated and others only got offers from firms in areas of the country they did not really want to work, or with firms they knew they would be unhappy working for, or with firms where they would practice in an area of law they flatly did not want to practice in. Other students tried applying to all the firms in the NALP Guide or a few of the better looking ones in Martindale—all to no avail in finding the type of job they wanted.

With so many attorneys practicing throughout the United States, this did not make any sense to him either. He was confident there was the perfect job in the city of the choosing of the attorney. This was something he was sure of. Several years later, he learned that many of the attorneys who had made the wrong choices while in law school were no longer practicing law. This did not surprise him. Some of the law students who did not have jobs when they graduated simply gave up hope of ever being an attorney after graduating from law school. The former law student believed this was an enormous tragedy and did not make a tremendous amount of sense.

WHAT THE LEGAL RECRUITER SAW

In his role as the head of a legal recruiting firm, he saw that too many good attorneys were not getting jobs. During the slowdown in the market for corporate associates virtually no corporate associate with less than 5 years of experience was employable in a major law firm in the United States—regardless of their qualifications. Oftentimes he would invite these stellar attorneys into his offices and assist them in sending unsolicited applications to 300-400 firms in his recruiting firms database (not under the legal recruiting firm’s letterhead).

A funny thing happened. All of these attorneys got jobs. Lot of jobs. Jobs a recruiter could not have gotten them.

Everyday this recruiter would personally review every resume of an attorney who approached his placement firm. Then, after reviewing each resume, he would respond personally to each resume. With several recruiters working for him, he would refer out the best resumes to his recruiters. Then, he would reject several people a day and send them a short note thanking them for contacting his firm. This was something that he believed was very unfortunate. Many of the attorneys would respond to his rejection emails that they were going to simply give up. He knew they were giving up.

With so much effort put into these people becoming attorneys he felt disgruntled. On the weekends he would often invite in the candidates who were most persistent in seeking out the recruiting firms services—regardless of their qualifications. He would help them apply to a couple hundred of law firms on their own (without using a recruiting firm—just the firm’s contacts). Regardless of these attorneys qualifications, the vast, vast majority got positions this way.

WHAT THE FORMER LAW PROFESSOR SAW

One hot Saturday July afternoon, the recruiter received a telephone call from one of his former law students who was getting ready to take the bar exam at the end of July. This law student had been one of his students at the Fourth Tier law school he taught at. This student had graduated second in his class and yet had never received an interview with a firm composed of more than one attorneys in his three years of looking for a job. As a law student, the individual had tried everything his career services office offered, applied to every firm in the NALP Guide and every firm he could find that looked good in Martindale. All to no avail.

Since this individual had been one of the recruiter’s students, he knew that he had to do something to help him because he knew this individual would one day be an outstanding attorney. He spent three full days helping the student prepare and revise letters to send to several hundred firms and this student received several offers. In fact, this student wound up practicing for one of the top firms in the city of his choosing. Incidentally, it was a firm that had not listed itself in any of the so called “traditional sources”.

WHAT THE FORMER ATTORNEY SAW

As an attorney, this individual had known scores of other practicing attorneys who had been searching for the perfect in house or law firm position for years. All to no avail. Many of these individuals had stellar qualifications. One day one of the attorney’s best friends was laid off. In fact, he had been laid off for months by the time he called his friend who was a recruiter. The attorney had just recently purchased a house and had a second child on the way. In addition, he was near the limit on his credit cards. The recruiter felt that he really had to do something and so he took action.

This attorney was interested in both in-house and law firm positions. The attorney had been working with recruiters for months and searching job boards and replying to classified listings. The attorney also had been laid off from a top firm and had outstanding qualifications.

The recruiter took drastic action to help his friend who was interested in a very small section of the United States. He assisted him in applying to every potential in-house and law firm position using a database that he developed with his friend and a staff of 5 temporary workers he hired for this very purpose. The recruiter used his own personal funds. He purchased every source of information he could find and for over a month he worked with his friend and five other people to assist him in gathering contact information for this area of the United States. The information was not complete; however, when the letters were sent out he knew his friend would find a position. In fact, by the time he accepted an offer he had already received over 15 interviews and had six job offers.

LEGAL AUTHORITY WAS BORN

The recruiter realized that attorneys all over the United States could benefit from this type of service. The five individuals were asked to stay on and more people were added. At a cost of over $1,000,000 a database was built. First for law firm positions, then in house positions, then for public interest positions, then for government positions. We worked for over six months building a database before launching Legal Authority. Since that time, the staff has grown to over 40 people gathering contacts and assisting individuals and Legal Authority now assists hundreds of attorneys each month.

JOB BOARDS, RECRUITERS AND CLASSIFIED ADS CANNOT POSSIBLY COMPETE WITH LEGAL AUTHORITY

There are a lot of sources out there which will distract you from your central goal of getting the job you want. Headhunters, job boards and classified ads cannot possibly compete with Legal Authority. Legal Authority actually has all the potential jobs and allows you to (1) apply for positions where there are not hundreds of people competing for the same position, and (2) apply for positions without attaching a $20,000+ fee an employer will have to pay if they hire you. Legal Authority puts you in control of your job search so you can actually get the job you want.

Traditional Legal Recruiting Firms Cannot Compare to Our Effectiveness

Put a Price on Hiring You (If You Want)

Legal recruiting firms charge hiring organizations a fee which is generally 25-30% of an attorney’s annual salary if they hire an attorney. Who would you hire if you were a hiring organization???

Candidate A: Cost if hired through a recruiter: $25,000+

Candidate B: Approaches firm because has identified this firm as a place they would like to work. Cost to firm $0.00

Not all hiring organizations are willing to pay these fees and hiring organizations—who are businesses—obviously prefer candidates not coming through recruiting firms.

The Vast Majority of Companies Do Not Use Legal Recruiters

The vast majority of companies do not use legal recruiters. Legal recruiters are used when a company is having an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. However, it is very rare that a corporation has an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. A great number of attorneys dream of going in-house and find these positions by using a service like Legal Authority. The other positions are generally filled by companies drawing in attorneys from their own law firms. Call a legal recruiting firm in any major city and ask them how many in-house opportunities they have for you. Chances are they will be able to list them off on one hand. Does this make much sense to you? There are thousands of companies in most major cities that employ attorneys of different backgrounds.

In addition, the only law firms which are likely to use recruiters to fill positions are those that cannot fill these positions on their own. The best and most prestigious law firms are frequently approached by attorneys on their own and do not need to do a lot of proactive recruiting. In addition, smaller to mid sized law firms often cannot afford the fees legal recruiters charge. Why vastly limit your universe of opportunities when you can use Legal Authority?

Hope (And Pray) Your Legal Recruiter Knows What Is Out There

The amount of work required to learn of all the available positions in a market is profound. Most legal recruiting firms are made up of a few individuals with relationships with a limited number of employers. In addition, it is a little known fact that law firms and corporations often will not do business with recruiters (or ever see their candidates) who are recruiting from their firms or corporations (and firms and corporations do find out). Accordingly, you may be limiting yourself to a very limited number of potential employers.

Other legal recruiters may send your materials to firms they have never even spoken with and then demand set fees. Legal Authority can connect you with every employer that matches what you are seeking to do without a middleman or a fee hanging over an employer’s head.

Job Boards and Classified Ads Cannot Compare to Our Effectiveness
There are literally hundreds of job boards for attorneys and job students. No attorney could possibly find all of the job boards. Even when opportunities are located on job boards, you are simply putting yourself into competition with the thousands of other attorneys that have an email account. In addition, many hiring organizations do not advertise open positions. Accordingly, by using job boards you may be missing a substantial number of positions on an ongoing basis.

In addition, many job boards charge employers $500 or more to post a single classified listing on their site. Many employers do not want to pay these fees either (and that even assumes they are being proactive enough to search out job boards). Another lesser known fact is that many job boards pride themselves on having the most positions. This may sound like a good thing; however, to get all those jobs the job boards may run ads on their sites for 60 days or more (long after the position has even been filled).

ATTORNEYS IN THE KNOW USE LEGAL AUTHORITY

Attorneys in the know use Legal Authority because it works. We have assisted attorneys from virtually every top law school and AmLaw 100 law firm in the United States get their next position. We have also assisted numerous General Counsels of Fortune 500 corporations. Our service is quick, cost effective and works. If there is a suitable attorney position that matches your interests available, the odds are almost certain we can put you in touch with the employer with the position. Many attorneys we have assisted have tried other methods in their job search for months or even years before contacting Legal Authority and successfully landing the position they have been seeking.

LEGAL AUTHORITY IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO GET A LEGAL POSITION

It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contract with a particular legal employer. Using Legal Authority, you can apply to any type of legal employer that matches what you are seeking to do. Those who use Legal Authority have the satisfaction of knowing that they have reached every single employer that matches what they are seeking to do. Legal Authority is, hands down, the most effective way to get a legal position. In addition, our Attorney Employment Advocates and Attorney Writers will assist you making the best possible impact with your resume and cover letter.

“It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contact with a particular legal employer.”

“IT’S HOW ATTORNEYS GET JOBS”

Compared to job boards, legal recruiters, classified ads, networking, outplacement firms or career services offices, no other means of finding your next legal job even comes close to Legal Authority. At Legal Authority, we assist attorneys and law students apply directly to law firms, corporations, public interest organizations, state and federal clerkships—you name it.

Our database contains more legal hiring contacts than any other source on Earth and we have a staff of over 40 attorneys and researchers working 24 hours a day to drive the careers of our attorney candidates forward. Our service is focused, discrete, confidential and enormously effective when you consider your next legal job is already in our database.

WE ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO GET YOUR NEXT LEGAL JOB. PERIOD.

Using Legal Authority, hundreds of attorneys each month ensure they (1) are considered for every possible type of job opportunity they are interested in, (2) receive the highest possible compensation, and (3) work in a place they will enjoy working. Legal Authority is the best and most effective way to get a legal job. By assisting you in compiling a list of employers where you are almost certain to be working in your next job,

A HISTORY OF FINDING ATTORNEYS POSITIONS AT EVERY LEVEL OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Legal Authority came about because of attorneys’ need for a service that would actually get them the specific types of jobs they want. Being an attorney is among the very most prestigious professions in the United States. The people who choose careers as attorneys are highly intelligent, motivated and capable of great things. The public relies upon attorneys to perform an extremely important service and the work of attorneys has a profound impact on society.

In fact, attorneys are held in such high regard by society that most outsiders simply assume they will always be in the type of job they want. The fact is that every member of the legal profession—from law students, to associates and partners at small AmLaw 100 law firms, to General Counsels of Fortune 100 companies, to public interest and government attorneys–may need access to all of the potential positions matching their interests is something that is virtually ignored by law schools, headhunters and job posting boards.

HOW LEGAL AUTHORITY CAME ABOUT

The founder of Legal Authority is a former law student, practicing attorney, legal recruiter and law professor. It was his understanding gained from these three experiences and the inefficiencies he saw in terms of how most attorneys have traditionally gone about getting legal jobs that led to the founding of Legal Authority.

WHAT THE FORMER LAW STUDENT SAW

As a law student he could not understand why he had to apply to only the firms his career services office told him about. This made absolutely no sense to him. They ran the whole show. He went to a Top 10 law school and saw lots of attorneys who did not have jobs by the time they graduated and others only got offers from firms in areas of the country they did not really want to work, or with firms they knew they would be unhappy working for, or with firms where they would practice in an area of law they flatly did not want to practice in. Other students tried applying to all the firms in the NALP Guide or a few of the better looking ones in Martindale—all to no avail in finding the type of job they wanted.

With so many attorneys practicing throughout the United States, this did not make any sense to him either. He was confident there was the perfect job in the city of the choosing of the attorney. This was something he was sure of. Several years later, he learned that many of the attorneys who had made the wrong choices while in law school were no longer practicing law. This did not surprise him. Some of the law students who did not have jobs when they graduated simply gave up hope of ever being an attorney after graduating from law school. The former law student believed this was an enormous tragedy and did not make a tremendous amount of sense.

WHAT THE LEGAL RECRUITER SAW

In his role as the head of a legal recruiting firm, he saw that too many good attorneys were not getting jobs. During the slowdown in the market for corporate associates virtually no corporate associate with less than 5 years of experience was employable in a major law firm in the United States—regardless of their qualifications. Oftentimes he would invite these stellar attorneys into his offices and assist them in sending unsolicited applications to 300-400 firms in his recruiting firms database (not under the legal recruiting firm’s letterhead).

A funny thing happened. All of these attorneys got jobs. Lot of jobs. Jobs a recruiter could not have gotten them.

Everyday this recruiter would personally review every resume of an attorney who approached his placement firm. Then, after reviewing each resume, he would respond personally to each resume. With several recruiters working for him, he would refer out the best resumes to his recruiters. Then, he would reject several people a day and send them a short note thanking them for contacting his firm. This was something that he believed was very unfortunate. Many of the attorneys would respond to his rejection emails that they were going to simply give up. He knew they were giving up.

With so much effort put into these people becoming attorneys he felt disgruntled. On the weekends he would often invite in the candidates who were most persistent in seeking out the recruiting firms services—regardless of their qualifications. He would help them apply to a couple hundred of law firms on their own (without using a recruiting firm—just the firm’s contacts). Regardless of these attorneys qualifications, the vast, vast majority got positions this way.

WHAT THE FORMER LAW PROFESSOR SAW

One hot Saturday July afternoon, the recruiter received a telephone call from one of his former law students who was getting ready to take the bar exam at the end of July. This law student had been one of his students at the Fourth Tier law school he taught at. This student had graduated second in his class and yet had never received an interview with a firm composed of more than one attorneys in his three years of looking for a job. As a law student, the individual had tried everything his career services office offered, applied to every firm in the NALP Guide and every firm he could find that looked good in Martindale. All to no avail.

Since this individual had been one of the recruiter’s students, he knew that he had to do something to help him because he knew this individual would one day be an outstanding attorney. He spent three full days helping the student prepare and revise letters to send to several hundred firms and this student received several offers. In fact, this student wound up practicing for one of the top firms in the city of his choosing. Incidentally, it was a firm that had not listed itself in any of the so called “traditional sources”.

WHAT THE FORMER ATTORNEY SAW

As an attorney, this individual had known scores of other practicing attorneys who had been searching for the perfect in house or law firm position for years. All to no avail. Many of these individuals had stellar qualifications. One day one of the attorney’s best friends was laid off. In fact, he had been laid off for months by the time he called his friend who was a recruiter. The attorney had just recently purchased a house and had a second child on the way. In addition, he was near the limit on his credit cards. The recruiter felt that he really had to do something and so he took action.

This attorney was interested in both in-house and law firm positions. The attorney had been working with recruiters for months and searching job boards and replying to classified listings. The attorney also had been laid off from a top firm and had outstanding qualifications.

The recruiter took drastic action to help his friend who was interested in a very small section of the United States. He assisted him in applying to every potential in-house and law firm position using a database that he developed with his friend and a staff of 5 temporary workers he hired for this very purpose. The recruiter used his own personal funds. He purchased every source of information he could find and for over a month he worked with his friend and five other people to assist him in gathering contact information for this area of the United States. The information was not complete; however, when the letters were sent out he knew his friend would find a position. In fact, by the time he accepted an offer he had already received over 15 interviews and had six job offers.

LEGAL AUTHORITY WAS BORN

The recruiter realized that attorneys all over the United States could benefit from this type of service. The five individuals were asked to stay on and more people were added. At a cost of over $1,000,000 a database was built. First for law firm positions, then in house positions, then for public interest positions, then for government positions. We worked for over six months building a database before launching Legal Authority. Since that time, the staff has grown to over 40 people gathering contacts and assisting individuals and Legal Authority now assists hundreds of attorneys each month.

JOB BOARDS, RECRUITERS AND CLASSIFIED ADS CANNOT POSSIBLY COMPETE WITH LEGAL AUTHORITY

There are a lot of sources out there which will distract you from your central goal of getting the job you want. Headhunters, job boards and classified ads cannot possibly compete with Legal Authority. Legal Authority actually has all the potential jobs and allows you to (1) apply for positions where there are not hundreds of people competing for the same position, and (2) apply for positions without attaching a $20,000+ fee an employer will have to pay if they hire you. Legal Authority puts you in control of your job search so you can actually get the job you want.

Traditional Legal Recruiting Firms Cannot Compare to Our Effectiveness

Put a Price on Hiring You (If You Want)

Legal recruiting firms charge hiring organizations a fee which is generally 25-30% of an attorney’s annual salary if they hire an attorney. Who would you hire if you were a hiring organization???

Candidate A: Cost if hired through a recruiter: $25,000+

Candidate B: Approaches firm because has identified this firm as a place they would like to work. Cost to firm $0.00

Not all hiring organizations are willing to pay these fees and hiring organizations—who are businesses—obviously prefer candidates not coming through recruiting firms.

The Vast Majority of Companies Do Not Use Legal Recruiters

The vast majority of companies do not use legal recruiters. Legal recruiters are used when a company is having an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. However, it is very rare that a corporation has an exceedingly difficult time filling a position. A great number of attorneys dream of going in-house and find these positions by using a service like Legal Authority. The other positions are generally filled by companies drawing in attorneys from their own law firms. Call a legal recruiting firm in any major city and ask them how many in-house opportunities they have for you. Chances are they will be able to list them off on one hand. Does this make much sense to you? There are thousands of companies in most major cities that employ attorneys of different backgrounds.

In addition, the only law firms which are likely to use recruiters to fill positions are those that cannot fill these positions on their own. The best and most prestigious law firms are frequently approached by attorneys on their own and do not need to do a lot of proactive recruiting. In addition, smaller to mid sized law firms often cannot afford the fees legal recruiters charge. Why vastly limit your universe of opportunities when you can use Legal Authority?

Hope (And Pray) Your Legal Recruiter Knows What Is Out There

The amount of work required to learn of all the available positions in a market is profound. Most legal recruiting firms are made up of a few individuals with relationships with a limited number of employers. In addition, it is a little known fact that law firms and corporations often will not do business with recruiters (or ever see their candidates) who are recruiting from their firms or corporations (and firms and corporations do find out). Accordingly, you may be limiting yourself to a very limited number of potential employers.

Other legal recruiters may send your materials to firms they have never even spoken with and then demand set fees. Legal Authority can connect you with every employer that matches what you are seeking to do without a middleman or a fee hanging over an employer’s head.

Job Boards and Classified Ads Cannot Compare to Our Effectiveness
There are literally hundreds of job boards for attorneys and job students. No attorney could possibly find all of the job boards. Even when opportunities are located on job boards, you are simply putting yourself into competition with the thousands of other attorneys that have an email account. In addition, many hiring organizations do not advertise open positions. Accordingly, by using job boards you may be missing a substantial number of positions on an ongoing basis.

In addition, many job boards charge employers $500 or more to post a single classified listing on their site. Many employers do not want to pay these fees either (and that even assumes they are being proactive enough to search out job boards). Another lesser known fact is that many job boards pride themselves on having the most positions. This may sound like a good thing; however, to get all those jobs the job boards may run ads on their sites for 60 days or more (long after the position has even been filled).

ATTORNEYS IN THE KNOW USE LEGAL AUTHORITY

Attorneys in the know use Legal Authority because it works. We have assisted attorneys from virtually every top law school and AmLaw 100 law firm in the United States get their next position. We have also assisted numerous General Counsels of Fortune 500 corporations. Our service is quick, cost effective and works. If there is a suitable attorney position that matches your interests available, the odds are almost certain we can put you in touch with the employer with the position. Many attorneys we have assisted have tried other methods in their job search for months or even years before contacting Legal Authority and successfully landing the position they have been seeking.

LEGAL AUTHORITY IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO GET A LEGAL POSITION

It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contract with a particular legal employer. Using Legal Authority, you can apply to any type of legal employer that matches what you are seeking to do. Those who use Legal Authority have the satisfaction of knowing that they have reached every single employer that matches what they are seeking to do. Legal Authority is, hands down, the most effective way to get a legal position. In addition, our Attorney Employment Advocates and Attorney Writers will assist you making the best possible impact with your resume and cover letter.

“It has been estimated that over 85% of attorney positions are filled through an attorney’s self-initiated contact with a particular legal employer.”

IF YOU USE LEGAL AUTHORITY

If you use Legal Authority you can rest assured that you are taking the most focused action possible in your job search. On an average week, we put in over 1,200 hours worth of work into our database. The cost of modifying our database runs well into the seven figures on an annual basis. There are literally over 50 sources we are using on an ongoing basis to update and modify our database. In terms of legal hiring contacts, there is no organization on Earth with more contacts. This is what we do and we are the absolute best in the business we are in.

Our Employment Advocates who assist you in compiling your list of employers are all seasoned legal professionals. With only one exception, each of our Employment Advocates are attorneys. In addition, our profession writers have the type of experience to help you create a resume and cover letter that has the best possible impact on employers. Out of the hundreds of attorneys we assist on a monthly basis, there are very few instances in recent memory when an attorney had a complaint that we did not provide the most effective job search for them possible. It is exceedingly rare that an attorney has ever contacted us and told us that our service did not work. In fact, this has occurred in less than 1 in 1000 attorneys we have ever assisted.

TAKE YOUR FUTURE INTO YOUR HANDS
Legal Authority allows you to choose the direction and expansiveness of your job search. Once you make the decision to work with Legal Authority, we will do our absolute best to ensure you find the position you are seeking—whether it is in a law firm, corporation, public interest organization, law school or government office. We are proud to make that promise to each of the attorneys we work with. All of our candidates and clients know that we mean business and take our jobs

“Legal Authority is, quite simply, the most effective way for attorneys to get the type of legal job they are seeking.”

THERE ARE CHEAPER ALTERNATIVES TO FINDING A LEGAL JOB THAN USING LEGAL AUTHORITY

True. There are also ways to ensure you get a legal job and ways that may ensure you do not. You can search job boards and hope that the perfect position comes along. You can also try and find a recruiter with the job you want. You could also subscribe to over 50 legal directories and publications and hire 40 people to update this information for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The later is what we do at Legal Authority. Because thousands of attorneys use our service, the cost is generally far cheaper than were you to do the work yourself.

In most instances, the cost of using Legal Authority is less than $2.00 per employer we help you contact and our search can be as expansive or narrow as you choose. In addition, we verify the information we have before providing it to you, rewrite your resume and cover letter, print it addressed to the specific employers you choose and ship this to you. We speak with attorneys on a daily basis who believe they can do all of the work themselves. If your time is worth less than $7.00 an hour (assuming it takes you 15 minutes to find each hiring contact, enter this information into a letter, proof each letter and then print each resume and letter) and a staff of 40 people, access to over 50 legal directories and $1,000,000 to just build a database, then you can do it yourself. A lot of attorneys think they are smarter than us or somehow have this figured out. If you are one of those attorneys, then go we cannot help you.

ABOUT US

Legal Authority is made up of attorneys, writers and researchers who bring a high degree of understanding, competence and a proven track record of achievement to your job search. Our team has attorneys supervising and working with the attorneys who use our service at every level of the search process.

“With hundreds of attorneys served each month, Legal Authority may very well get more attorneys jobs than any other single organization in the United States. By eliminating recruiters and job boards from the search criterion, Legal Authority empowers attorneys to take charge of their careers.”

OUR MISSION
Our mission is simple: To get attorneys jobs and be the very best at what we do. Anywhere. To that extent, we have developed the largest database of legal employers on Earth and a team of Attorney Employment Advocates who connect attorneys with the jobs which match their interest.

In the Year 2002, Legal Authority looks forward to counseling and enthusiastically represent attorneys and making meaningful differences in the quality of their lives and advancing thousands of more careers.

At Legal Authority, we firmly believe we are the most effective

means anywhere for attorneys and law students to locate their perfect legal position. We have assisted thousands of attorneys and Legal Authority can help you too: We maintain a staff of over 40 attorneys, researchers and writers and have the largest database of legal hiring contacts on Earth. Virtually every day of the week attorneys and law students get multiple legal positions using Legal Authority. No job board, placement firm or any other source can make this claim. What we do for attorneys works.

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