The Careerist blog had an interesting post with some advice for lawyers who have been out of the workforce for awhile (perhaps to help raise a family) and want to re-enter.
Passage of Dodd-Frank Bill Will Increase SEC Enforcement Activities
Today’s Recorder contains an article written by a partner in Covington & Burling’s SF office who predicts that the SEC will ramp up its enforcement activities as a result of new powers conferred by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Unfortunately, the article is password-protected, so you will need to get the print […]
Legal Employer Survey: Some Expect An Increase in Hiring Levels
A brief article appearing in the Recorder and on the Legal Pad blog (via law.com) reports on a survey commissioned by one of the major legal staffing companies, Robert Half International. 100 lawyers (at firms with 20 or more employees) and 100 in-house lawyers (at companies with at least 1000 employees) were surveyed. 59% expect no change […]
New System of Law Firm Rankings
Two commercial enterprises, U.S. News and Best Lawyers, have released a set of rankings of over 8,000 law firms. Rather than assigning a numerical rank to each, they divide specific practice areas of firms into one of 3 tiers. They actually assign each practice area both a local and a national tier ranking. 81 different practice areas are included […]
Networking and Emotional Intelligence More Important Than Ever
There’s some great advice in a recent posting in lawjobs.com by Ari Kaplan, a former BIGLAW attorney who wrote a great book on networking (“The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development.”) The posting stresses the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) to legal employers. In a recovering market, they will be focussing […]
More Data Re: Firm Financial Performance Jan. to June 2010
The American Lawyer (via law.com) has a piece (ominously titled “Law Firms ‘Shrinking Toward Profit Growth’”) reporting on midyear data gathered by Citibank’s Private Banking Group. We’ve blogged about Citibank’s Law Firm Group before (here). The source of their data was: 87 Am Law 100 firms, 50 Second Hundred firms, and 50 other firms. Citibank’s latest findings […]
NLJ’s Midsize “Hot List”
The National Law Journal recently released its 2010 list of 20 midsize firms (i.e., firms with between 50 and 150 lawyers) that “have thrived amid the downturn … [and] experienced a string of successes and that showed innovative ways to run their operations despite the economy.” UPDATE: The article apparently can only be accessed by NLJ “premium subscribers.” We […]
Q-2 Numbers Are In: Demand For Legal Services Remains Flat
The well-known legal business consulting firm Hildebrandt Baker Robbins just published a report of its Peer Monitor Index, which includes information about key law firm business metrics for April – June of 2010. You can read a summary of the report here. You can read the whole thing here. Among other things, the report concludes that there has been […]
Temporary Downturn or “Fundamental Reordering” Of The Legal Industry
Great article in NALP’s most recent bulletin addressing the ongoing debate as to whether the changes we are experiencing in law firm hiring patterns are merely temporary (and will revert to what they were when the economy improves) or whether they are reflective of a burgeoning fundamental restructuring of the way law firms do business. The author, […]
Practical Networking Advice
This short list of practical networking advice from a recent New York Law Journal article is not only useful in and of itself, but serves as a useful reminder of the importance of networking in any job search.