Bankruptcy Jobs for Unemployed Attorneys

High school students are routinely told that the path to success runs through colleges and universities.  College students are told graduate and professional schools are also on the path towards success.  In short, one is told that the more education you have the more successful one will become.  While that was undoubtedly true for people born in the middle to earlier part of the 20th Century, some are questioning whether that is still true today. 

The above strategy didn't contemplate the increasingly heavy burden of student loan debt.  The burden is even heavier for students who seek advanced degrees, such as law degrees.  The ABA Journal reported that the student loan of some law school graduates exceeds $90,000.  I was once told never to buy a home valued at more than $50,000; now many vehicles cost that much.  Some commentators have equated student loan burdens with that of a non-dischargeable house mortgage...something to be paid over decades.

Nevertheless, some students eagerly accepted the student loan burden with visions of financial riches dancing in their head.  However, the reality of the current economic climate has been a cold slap in the face to some recent law students.  Ok, those law students didn't notice when the factories were closing and the employees being laid off.  Most of the law students didn't observe that the secretarial pools were drying up. 

But, unemployed law school graduates never imagined unemployment for a person who worked hard for 11 years of schooling, having excelled in high school, succeeded in college, thrived in law school, and passed the bar exam.  As one person has said "It's as if some unspoken intergenerational contract has been broken."

So where should an unemployed attorney turn?  I suggest trying bankruptcy.  It's a booming market with plenty of growth potential.  You can gain exceptional training from the National Bankruptcy College ( go to http://www.nationalbankruptcycollege.com/) and clients can be obtained by referrals from http://www.nbcattorneynetwork.com/ or you can consider joining a law firm.  I suggest you consider looking at www.schallerlawfirm.com/employment.html.

Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Unemployment for Law Graduates

Unemployment is a real issue for law school graduates. Please read the article below authored by Debra Cassens Weiss that I found in the ABA Journal entitled "Columnist Laments Unemployed Law Grads and Broken Unspoken Contract" Here is the article:

"As factories closed and the economy changed, young people were repeatedly told that the way to succeed was to get an education.

But that advice hasn’t helped many of today's law and college graduates, according to columnist Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. It’s the No. 1 topic of conversation among people his age, he says. McClellan’s daughter and a lawyer friend both told him of difficult times for law graduates, who are saddled with student debt on graduation.

“It's bad enough that the factories are closed, bad enough that the secretarial pools have gone dry,” he writes. “But that has been happening for some time now. This other thing is newer—unemployed college graduates, unemployed law school graduates. It's as if some unspoken intergenerational contract has been broken.”

McClellan says he wasn’t a particularly dedicated journalism student, and he left Arizona State University before getting a degree. Still, he got a job. “That was a good thing about those days,” he writes. “You didn't have to set the world on fire to get a job.”

“Today even good students are having a difficult time getting jobs. Even good students from good schools are having trouble.”"
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Associates Path to Partnership in a State of Flux

Employment opportunities are changing in the legal profession. Many of the old standards are in a state of flux. Here is an interesting article written by Amanda Royal entitled "Reed Smith the Latest Big Firm to Drop Associate Lockstep." Enjoy and pondering the future.  Now read the article:

"Reed Smith on Tuesday joined a handful of Am Law 100 firms that have dumped lockstep associate promotion and launched a new focus on associate training.

The new program will divide associates into three tiers: junior, midlevel and senior. To advance, associates will need to meet a set of competencies. Courses will be available to help associates advance, and partners will be matched with associates to serve as career advisers.

San Francisco managing partner David Thompson said the firm wants to create strong business people as well as strong lawyers. "The point is to differentiate ourselves," Thompson said. "We think our training is good now, but our goal is to improve it and deliver on a higher level of execution and tailoring."

"This provides a real road map for associates to understand what is required of them at every step along the way," said Nicky Dingemans, who helped create the program as the head of human resources at Reed Smith.

The firm has not decided yet how compensation will change, she said.

The firm's Web site lists 673 associates, 98 in California, with all but six in the San Francisco or Los Angeles offices.

Several firms this year have announced a move away from lockstep and toward more merit-based promotion and compensation. The firms include Howrey, Bingham McCutchen, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Townsend and Townsend and Crew.

Reed Smith said it started working on the program 18 months ago, and it was not a response to the recession.

The program covers four main areas -- legal skills, citizenship, business skills and clients -- and nine core competencies. Some of those competencies include mastering fundamental legal skills, support of the firm's culture, demonstration of leadership and business skills, and understanding and effectively managing client needs.

An internal team developed the program with input from partners and associates from throughout the firm, Dingemans said.

"There's somewhat of a disconnect when you are in law school, and when you get in the law firm environment and what's expected of you as a litigator," said R. Euna Kim, a senior associate in San Francisco. "I think this is a wonderful tool to bridge that gap."

Each of the three associate levels will be tied to an "academy." The firm will continue its "Reed Smith University," which already offers 140 in-house courses. The program will help reduce associate attrition and create higher client satisfaction, a firm statement said.

Dingeman said the focus will be on creating strong business people as well as strong lawyers.

"Being a great lawyer today is not just about having those great legal skills," Dingemans said.

As part of the program, junior associates will study a "mini-MBA" course that will focus on the quantitative and accounting side of the business. More senior associates will learn about matter management, client development and the more strategic aspects of a business degree, Dingemans said.

The firm has placed first- and second-year associates into the junior class, third- through fifth-year associates into the midlevel class, and sixth-year associates and above into the senior class. There is no set time for each associate to move through the ranks.

Dingemans said the adviser program is less like a traditional mentoring program and more a way for the associates to have someone to help explain how to navigate through the new system. "


Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Associates Fear Rainmaking? WSJ Ponders Question

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article entitled "Do Law Firm Associates Fear Rainmaking?" That's an intriguing question. As the article suggests, law schools don't train law students how to get clients. If they are lucky, new minted lawyers will join a firm which will train them to get bankrutpcy clients or some other clients.


Enjoy the following article:

"It's not every day that a Thomas Friedman column in the NYT mentions lawyers and law firms. But it did today.

In talking about the challenges facing U.S. workers - and why the educational system that produces them needs a big upgrade - Friedman breaks into a discussion of the types of workers that are succeeding in today's challenging marketplace. He writes:

A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn't there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.

We don't know if Freidman's totally right on this point - we're not sure that hiring partners went through rosters of associates and put checkmarks next to those who lacked “the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work.” We suspect it was much more haphazard and scattershot than that at many firms. Still, the general point strikes us as correct: that those law-firm lawyers who can bring in the biz - in addition to doing the work handed them - are those who are going to thrive, regardless of the economic situation.

But that's not what BigLaw lawyers are trained to do, is it? We daresay not. In fact, we're inclined to agree with a recent column out in the UK's Legal Week, which goes so far as to say that associates “fear” the prospect of having to make rain.

Writes author Alex Novarese:

On one hand, associates want early access to clients; indeed, they resent law firms that don't give them that access. But the idea of bringing in clients doesn't seem to be one that drives young lawyers, at least those at large commercial law firms. In some cases an ambivalence about partnership appears to be strongly connected with the belief that the role comes with an expectation of rainmaking prowess. A considerable number of aspiring lawyers fear they'll hit five years . . . bump up to senior associate and then find themselves unequipped for a world in which they must hunt what they eat.

What explains this ambivalence? Continues Navarese:

I guess this is part of the institutionalism of young lawyers. At the best firms, they are the top performers in academic institutions, before moving on to well-established providers of vocational education and then into corporate law firms - which are themselves highly structured institutions. Little wonder these young workers are not programmed for a world of risk. Such sentiments are also a reminder that - for all the talk of law firms becoming businesses, the mindset of lawyers remains, to a considerable extent, that of a profession.

So what about rainmaking - or “client development” in the more antiseptic law-firm parlance - is so risky? We're not entirely sure. But here's a thought: Bringing in business - at least in its rawest form - involves a bit of gladhanding and salesmanship, which, yes, isn't always going to work. So the risk is that such efforts will fail, something that lots of lawyers just don't have the stomach for."
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Attorney Commits Suicide After Being Terminated

The Wall Street Journal reported on the tragic death of a once prominent attorney who may have committed suicide after being terminated from his firm. It is worth your time to read:
"On the Tragic Story of Kilpatrick Stockton’s Mark Levy

The law firm layoffs that have swept the nation over the last 18 months or so have been a source of great pain - not only to those laid off, but to their families and friends as well. Arguably, however, no single office has felt the shockwaves of it layoffs as acutely as has the D.C. office of Kilpatrick Stockton.

It was there that on the morning of April 30, partner and Supreme Court litigator Mark Levy put a loaded handgun to his head and pulled the trigger. Levy was 59.

We wrote several posts on the tragedy (here, here and here), but, as is so often the case, didn't even come close to capturing the deeper motives behind Levy's final act.

The likelihood is that the world will never unravel the core of the mystery. But in the November issue of the ABA Journal, freelancer Richard Schmitt comes as close as anyone, in this gripping 3000-word article.

Schmitt's opening is chilling:

Mark Levy began his last day at Kilpatrick Stockton like he'd begun countless others.

He pulled his Jaguar into the garage at the law firm two blocks from the White House just before 5:30 and took the elevator up to the 11th floor.

Always an early riser, he enjoyed getting a jump on the news of the day and sharing it with friends and colleagues. His were often the first e-mails they received-a pitch to attend a Democratic fundraiser, a pat on the back for a well-written article, or his take on the latest from the U.S. Supreme Court.

But this particular Thursday morning something was different. Levy had cleared his calendar, coyly dodging the reason when he canceled lunch the day before with a longtime friend.

"He said something had come up, and that I'd be able to read about it in the papers," the friend says.

"I thought he'd gotten a big case. I was happy for him."

. . .

[But e]ven his closest professional colleagues had no inkling-and they certainly had no idea that he would sit down in his office chair the morning of April 30 and, with a .38-caliber handgun, fire a bullet into the right side of his head.

So what happened? According to Schmitt, a former legal reporter at the Wall Street Journal and LA Times: some of the answer likely lay in the fact that Levy had days earlier been asked to leave the firm.

Writes Schmitt:

Just days before he killed himself, he found out that he was being let go by Kilpatrick in a round of cost-cutting driven by the unraveling economy. He had been one of 24 lawyers nationwide laid off by the 500-lawyer firm.

Measured against massive firings elsewhere, Kilpatrick's cutbacks were unremarkable-except to those no longer employed. In many cases, layoffs have become so routine that even the gentlest protocols have been abandoned.

Levy, for instance, had asked the firm whether he could keep his office while he figured out his next move, according to his cousin Leslee Gilhooley. Even just five years before, that had been a common way to cushion the blow for senior lawyers at major firms. But not in this recession.

"When they wanted him gone, they wanted him gone," Gilhooley says.

Kilpatrick declined to comment to Schmitt, beyond a prepared statement: "We are deeply saddened by the death of Mark Levy earlier this year and our condolences continue to go out to his entire family, friends and colleagues," said Bill Dorris, the firm's co-managing partner. "Mark made such a positive impact on so many people during his life and career. He was highly respected in the legal and business communities for his numerous successful appearances before the Supreme Court of the United States. Out of respect for his family, we will not offer additional comment."

According to Schmitt, Levy “loved the practice of law, but he struggled with the business of law.” And as an appellate litigator “without a firm stable of paying clients, he grew vulnerable in a world where rainmaking is often valued over skill and judgment. For all his prestige, he had little real power behind his formidable stature.”

"He was not interested in compromising to make law a business. His pleasures in practicing law were largely intellectual and professional," says Herbert Zarov of Mayer Brown in Chicago, who worked with Levy there in the 1980s. "I suspect that change in the profession, given Mark's temperament and commitment to values, hit him real hard."

Others quoted in Schmitt's story see Levy's suicide as an indictment of the legal profession. Said one Washington lawyer who knew Levy for years: “none of us should have our self-worth tied up in our professional existence as lawyers. It is a fool's errand to do that because it is a profession that is very hard on people even when they are succeeding."

Ruth Wedgwood, a law school classmate of Levy's who is the director of the program on inter­national law and orga­nizations at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, sees his death in a broader context. "If someone like him cannot prosper in law practice, you wonder what law practice has become."
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Reduced Compensation, Layoffs, Deferred Start Dates

More problems for young lawyers: deferred start dates, layoffs, reduction in income, etc. The employment situation for new associates continues to get worse.  Below is an article written by Brian Baxter identifying the problem at one large firm:

"Changes at Squire Sanders: Deferrals, Layoffs, New Management


Deferred associates, possible layoffs, a shuffle in upper management: things are happening at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey.

According to a memo the firm sent to Above the Law, Squire Sanders is indefinitely deferring half of its incoming 2009 associate class and planning to let go of an additional 20 to 25 "timekeepers" firmwide.

Squire Sanders already had deferred incoming associates until January 2010. Should the firm carry through with its plan to reduce head count, it would be the fourth round of cutbacks in the past year.
The firm cut 32 lawyers in May and slashed first-year associate pay by 10 percent. In January, nine support staff employees were let go in the firm's Miami office. That came on the heels of a cull of 30 associates and paralegals in November 2008."


Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Too Many Attorneys?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a new law school is in the works.  Here is an interesting article concerning the glut of attorneys.

"Brace yourselves, young attorneys and law students: you may soon face more competition in the job market.


The University of Massachusetts is pushing to open a new public law school. Strange timing, huh, given that this is perhaps the worst job market for lawyers since, well,

ever?

The Globe has a report today on the law-school plan, which was first introduced ─ and rejected ─ four years ago by the state Board of Higher Education.

The revived plan calls for UMass-Dartmouth to take over the private Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth.

"Law is a missing piece of the UMass curriculum," said Jean MacCormack, chancellor of UMass-Dartmouth. "This would fill in that gap."

We admit they seem to have a fairly strong case give that Mass has no public law school.

Still, the proposed new law school would be no bargain: $24,000 a year in tuition, fees and books. That is, of course, more affordable than many law schools. But given the glut of lawyers in the foreseeable future ─ along with recent past ─ that's still a fair amount of debt to take on. Perhaps, on the other hand, a UMass public law school would not be much bigger than the existing law school it would acquire.

The stiffest opponents in the past of the plan, the Globe reports, were Suffolk Law School, New England School of Law, and Western New England School of Law in Springfield. They argued at the time that the new school would cost taxpayers millions while burdening the state with more law schools and lawyers than it needs."
 
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Informational Interviews for Bankruptcy Jobs?

Here is an article by Alyssa Dragnich that I found on Law.com entitled "Use Informational Interviews to Help Your Job Search." I thought you would be interested.  Should these attorneys/law students consider a career in bankruptcy law?  Here is the article:


"Mention "networking" to a law student and watch her cringe. Suggest an informational interview and prepare for her eyes to glaze over. Law students are told frequently about the value of these activities but generally find the idea of an informational interview intimidating and overly time-consuming. Why should I bother? What should I ask? How do I arrange one? How do I prepare? This article will answer those questions.

WHY SHOULD I BOTHER WITH INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS?

Despite their seemingly intangible benefits and the daunting task of approaching strangers for advice, informational interviews can be invaluable in a job search. For example, one student looking for career advice talked to five different attorneys in his practice area of interest. He initially planned to speak with only two, but each of them gave him additional names to contact. These advisers gave him tips on how to tailor his resume and cover letter specifically for jobs in this practice area. Furthermore, he was able to use the names of some of these contacts in his cover letters. Tailoring his application materials led to interviews, during which he was able to display a deeper knowledge of the field than most entry-level candidates. When it came time to negotiate his offer, he was armed with current information on the state of the market and salary standards.

Think of informational interviews as a long-term investment, not one where you expect an immediate return. You are not meeting with Attorney X to ask if his firm has a job opening or if he knows of job openings elsewhere. You are meeting with Attorney X to ask specific questions about his practice, his career and career path, and steps you should be taking along your career path.

WHAT SHOULD I ASK?

Many advisers tell students not to expect an informational interview to lead to a job offer -- but that it may. Even this may give students the wrong impression. You should pursue informational interviews to obtain information. Interviews are not just clever ways to wrangle a meeting with an attorney: They are goals in and of themselves. In order to make effective use of an informational interview, you must be clear about what you want to accomplish. Throw away the list of generic informational interview questions that you found online and develop a list of topics that apply to your situation.

Are you trying to decide between two cities? Then your questions might focus on that. "Partner X, if I hope to pursue a career in environmental regulatory law, is the highest volume/most interesting work in Washington, D.C.?" If Partner X practices environmental law in Phoenix, ask whether her practice deals more with federal or state agencies. Ask her how often she travels to Washington for hearings and meetings. Does she collaborate with a Washington-based firm for some of her cases?

Are you hoping to learn more about a particular practice area? Let's pretend you are considering a career in bankruptcy law. "Associate Q, do you feel a clerkship with a bankruptcy judge is essential for beginning a career in this field? Would a clerkship in a non-bankruptcy court be of value to employers? I see that you represent creditors exclusively; how did you decide to focus on a creditor practice and how does it differ from a debtor-side practice?"

There are also some standard questions that can be asked of almost anyone. Are there particular courses that you recommend I take in school? Are there internships or clinical opportunities that would be particularly tailored for my career path? How has the economy affected your practice (practice area, geographic location, etc.)? Do you expect this practice area to grow, shrink or remain stable in the next five years?

HOW DO I ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW?

Now that you are (hopefully) persuaded of the value of informational interviews, how do you actually go about getting one? Your law school's alumni network is an excellent place to start. You can of course request a meeting with anyone, but attorneys with whom you have some connection, such as an alma mater, are the most likely to be helpful.

Your initial contact should be made through e-mail, which allows the recipient a few days to think about the request. E-mail also allows you to say a bit about yourself and what you are seeking, which can be difficult in a voicemail or initial telephone call. In your e-mail, indicate that you will follow up by phone in two or three days and then make that call. Do not be concerned that calling is being "pushy." It's not. If, however, you don't receive a reply to an e-mail and two voicemail messages, accept that the attorney is probably not able or interested in speaking with you at this time. Don't be discouraged, just continue on to your next contact.

Your e-mail query should be brief but clear about who you are and what you seek. Here is a sample query:

Dear Ms. Attorney:

I am currently a second-year student at the McDonald School of Law and am considering a career in tax law. As a fellow McDonald alumna, I wonder if you might be willing to meet with me briefly to discuss your practice? I would be happy to come to your office or meet you for coffee, whichever you prefer.

I will take the liberty of phoning your office to follow up on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

Thank you,

Sally Student

In-person meetings are the best way to conduct these conversations because people are generally more candid than in a telephone or e-mail dialogue. If you are seeking meetings with attorneys in locations other than where you attend school, try to set up several meetings while you are in the area, perhaps over spring break or winter break. Your e-mail query could then say something like "I will be in Los Angeles the week of March 13-16 and would love to meet with you in person. If this is not practical for you, I would be happy to telephone you at a convenient time."

If it is simply not possible for you to meet with an attorney in person, do not worry. You can still have a productive discussion on the telephone or perhaps with video-conference equipment, if your school offers it.

HOW DO I PREPARE?

Assemble your list of questions and topic areas in advance but be prepared to go with the flow of the discussion. If your attorney is the chatty type and is off and running with the advice, go with it. If your attorney seems to be waiting for you to prompt him with questions, you will be happy you prepared your list in advance.

Students often ask if they should take notes during these meetings. I see nothing wrong with taking notes -- on paper. Do not bring your laptop and take notes on it! Taking notes telegraphs your interest and desire to retain the advice the attorney is offering. Be careful not to write constantly, however; maintain sufficient eye contact.

After your meeting, send a thank you note immediately (within 24 hours). This need not be lengthy, just something to thank the attorney for her time. Try to add one mention of something specific you discussed to keep the note from being too generic. For example, "Your advice on the Poverty Law Clinic was especially useful; I will be contacting Professor Smith as you suggested." If the attorney was especially friendly or helpful to you, keep in touch. Send him an e-mail when you land a fantastic summer internship or your first job. Before you know it, you have a professional network."


Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Lawyer Recruiting: A New Vision?

Below is an interesting article authored by Ashish Nanda with The American Laywer entitled "Lawyers Should Be Recruited Like Doctors." Has the time come to change the interviewing/hiring process? Read Ashish Nanda's article and consider its ideas. Here's the article


"The current oversupply of new associates has sent law firms scrambling to implement short-term adjustments, such as secondments and deferrals. But the legal profession needs more than temporary half-measures. The new-associate recruitment market is fundamentally broken, and it has been for some time. Incremental changes are not going to address its underlying problems. The market needs a structural fix -- a centralized matching authority, like the one that the medical profession has been using for more than half a century.

Firms make most of their new-associate offers to their summer interns. Thus, associate recruitment mostly happens at the intern-selection level. Summer internships operate as a bilateral matching market, in which law firms rank the candidates they interview and the candidates rank firms with which they wish to intern. The labor market "clears" in a decentralized manner. Law firms choose schools from which to interview, interested students at those schools apply to particular firms, the interviewing firms offer summer internship positions to specific students, and the students decide whether to accept the offers.

This decentralized clearing of the labor market leads to predictable inefficiencies, to the detriment of both firms and students. First, it creates bad matches. A firm waits for a top-ranked candidate to decline its offer before making an offer to a second-ranked candidate, who by then has gone elsewhere, perhaps to their second-ranked firm. The same dynamic occurs on the other side of the market: A candidate who is wait-listed by their first-ranked firm risks that forgoing a second-ranked firm could leave them without an offer from either. Candidates hoard offers, and firms make "exploding offers" that push candidates to decide very soon after receiving them.

Second, the job market can "unravel." A second-tier firm tries to preempt first-tier firms by approaching students earlier and making them time-bound offers. First-tier firms respond by also moving their recruitment dates up. This spurs second-tier firms to move their recruitment dates further up. The same dynamic occurs among law schools. A second-tier school opens its campus recruitment window just a little earlier than first-tier schools, hoping to encourage firms to make more internship offers to its students than they would otherwise. Recognizing that they are being preempted, first-tier schools also move up their recruitment windows, encouraging a second-tier school to move still earlier.

The consequence is that recruitment occurs long before jobs begin. Currently students are recruited at the beginning of their second year of law school, almost two years before starting their jobs. This situation causes three main problems deleterious to both the firms and the candidates: Firms have to recruit based on limited information, the labor market becomes inflexible and summer internships lose meaning.

At recruitment time, students have been through only one year of graduate school. Many have no full-time work experience. Other than from the interviews themselves, firms judge candidates' abilities principally through extrapolation from the reputation of their law schools and their first-year grades. Since these are exceedingly important determinants of where the students will get their first jobs, both law school admission and first-year academic performance become even more stressful and laden with meaning for law students. Over the next two years of law school, students will learn their strengths and weaknesses, interests and passions. But neither the students nor the hiring firms are able to use those insights and information; job assignments have already been made. Instead, many of the students, secure in the knowledge of where they will go upon graduation, pay less attention to second- and third-year courses.

As demonstrated by law firms' current predicament, recruiting two years before jobs begin introduces rigidity into the labor market. If the economic environment changes dramatically, firms, unable to easily adjust their new associate numbers, face a supply-demand imbalance: undercapacity, if times are better than expected; overcapacity, if times are worse (as is the case now). In difficult times, firms have to renege on implicit commitments to new hires (such as reducing the ratio of summer candidates to whom they make job offers or postponing start dates) or force current junior and midlevel associates to bear the brunt of the stress (such as through layoffs).

In the current system, internships lose their value. Properly conducted, internships are opportunities for firms and prospective associates to try out one another, evaluate such soft elements as the firm's work environment and culture and the intern's work ethic and collegiality, and eventually gauge the fit between the firm and the intern.

Law firm summer internships currently do not perform this filtering function. If a firm considers not offering a position to an intern, it likely no longer has access to second- or third-ranked choices, since they would probably have been offered jobs in the firms at which they interned. Thus, a firm will choose to extend an offer even to a less-than-ideal intern. Similarly, a student may not be happy at the firm with which they interned but hesitates to reject an offer because they will be forced to interview only with firms that have not been able to fill their job openings with interns. Thus, summer internships have become formalities. Firms try to not cause prospective associates to worry too much about their jobs and interns try not to create unnecessary waves.

These problems can be addressed by creation of a centralized matching authority. Under such a system, participating firms would still interview candidates for summer placement. At these interviews, candidates and firms would still be free to discuss any aspects of the internships. But the firms would not make offers directly to students, nor would students finalize placement at the time of the interview. Instead, firms would give the matching authority their preference ranking of candidates, along with the number of seats they have available. Students would give the matching authority their preference ranking of firms. On a preannounced date, the matching authority would match the firms with the candidates, taking into account both sides' preferences.

The matches would be made through an algorithm. These have long been in use and shown to work well in other settings. The best-known is the algorithm employed by the national medical residents matching program. Since 1952, a centralized matching bureau has annually assigned medical school graduates to their first jobs as residents. The algorithm, with some modifications, remains in use to this day, with very high levels of voluntary participation from both sides of the market, placing 20,000 graduating physicians in their jobs every year.

Careful studies of the matches have demonstrated that the algorithm does not favor either side of the market and allows few possibilities for strategic behavior by participants. An antitrust case that argued that centralized matching depressed resident salaries was dismissed by a federal district court in August 2004. Also in 2004, Congress passed legislation clarifying that the matching program does not violate antitrust laws. With use, the matching algorithm has become increasingly sophisticated, allowing the matching bureau to take into account considerations such as paired geographical preferences of couples who enter the labor market at the same time.

For centralized matching to be effective in the legal profession, major schools and firms must sign on. Once major schools and firms have agreed to centralized matching, other schools and firms can choose to join the regime, or, if they stay away, risk signaling lower quality to the market. Nonparticipation can be reduced if participating schools and firms commit to giving priority to other participating firms and schools.

It is crucial that members of the matching authority understand the concerns of both sides of the labor market but be independent of each. The matching authority should have the right to investigate allegations of cheating and punish those who it finds to have broken the rules. To retain independence, the matching authority should be financially self-sufficient, funded by fees from member firms and small fees from candidates who request matches.

Because matching would be done by a centralized authority on a particular date, problems associated with decentralized matching would disappear. Inefficient matches would be avoided. If a candidate or a law firm is unable to get its first-rank choice, they can seek a second-rank choice before moving further down their preference ranking. Market unraveling would be prevented by the matching authority disciplining schools or firms that encourage or make offers ahead of the match date. Rule-breakers could be fined or suspended from the matching regime.

Once unraveling is prevented, recruitment could be rolled back to dates closer to the summer internships. Firms would have more information on candidates. Students would focus on learning in the early part of the second year and develop a deeper appreciation of their own interests and strengths before recruitment begins.

If centralized matching is beneficial to market participants on both sides and addresses most of the problems of decentralized matching, why has such a system not emerged already in the legal profession? There are three reasons: concern with centralization of power, the challenge of instituting collective action and resistance to change.

Some market participants recoil from the idea of centralized matching because they conflate centralized markets with centralization of power. Centralized matching does not take choice away from individual students or firms. Instead, it provides a common platform for the labor market to function efficiently. In that regard, it is akin to a stock exchange, which allows people to execute trades according to their individual preferences but within the ambit of explicit rules that increase the efficiency and robustness of trading.

Centralized matching requires collective action. Most of the major market participants have to agree to a centralized matching regime to make it work. Individual schools and firms feel unable to move to such a system on their own. Because of this inertia, the existing system prevails, even though individual market participants have to live with its inefficiencies.

Replacing the current system with centralized matching might make recruitment officers at firms and placement officers at schools feel threatened, even though it would allow both recruitment offices and placement offices to focus on what their primary goals ought to be -- for the former, finding and ranking the best candidates and encouraging them to choose their firm, and for the latter, advising students on application and interview strategies and prioritization of preferences. However, because centralized matching obviates the need for their involvement in the match process itself, individual recruitment officers or placement officers might perceive it as diminishing their roles and resist its introduction.

A transition to centralized matching, therefore, is unlikely to be triggered by a bottom-up process or through the initiative of individual law schools or law firms. It requires the shared commitment of leaders of law schools and law firms. Centralized matching will become a reality only if they concur that it is superior to decentralized matching and are prepared to establish a matching authority with the requisite capability and authority. Is it time to institute this radical but much-needed change?"
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Laid Off Associate Finds Job Outside of Law Firm

Let's face it.  The legal job market is tough--- real tough.  Many associates have been laid-off or down-sized not because of poor performance. Rather, these associates were let go because of a reduction in business and simply not enought work to keep the associates busy and profitable.

Some laid-off attorneys have retooled by learning bankruptcy law and then found work in a hot market.  Other attorneys have quit the law altogether.  Below is an interesting article how one laid-off associate found a job outside the normal law firm route. This article is written by Francesca Heintz:

After a Year, Laid-Off Associate Finds New Job Outside a Law Firm


By: Francesca Heintz

The American Lawyer

October 09, 2009

Nearly a year after Lynne Zagami was laid off from Brown Rudnick, she's back to work. After the third-year corporate associate was let go in a round of firings at the Boston-based firm last November, she spent 11 months scrambling to find a new job. (Zagami's job search efforts were chronicled in a story in The American Lawyer's August issue and also in this video.)

On Monday, Zagami began her new job as the director of client strategic processes at Brightleaf Corp., a startup company based outside of Boston. Brightleaf's six employees in Massachusetts and 30 employees in India are developing software to streamline document production in law firms and in-house legal departments.

Although Zagami won't be practicing law, she will be using her legal expertise to create software for lawyers who are. We spoke with Zagami about her new job, why she thinks the big firm model is broken, and whether she'd ever go back.

Q: How did your job search lead you to Brightleaf?

A: I had been interviewing with three companies that were vastly different opportunities. One was a junior role at a midsize financial services company doing a lot of public company work. Another was at a more entrepreneurial company where I would be doing contracts. And then there was Brightleaf, which was totally different, and would be a step away from practicing. It is a company that is trying to capitalize on a lot of problems that exist in larger law firms.

Q: What is Brightleaf doing to solve problems at larger firms?

A: When you are a first- or second-year associate at a big firm you do a lot of document editing. It ends up being very mundane. It's also risky because the document is only as good as the person who is editing it. The document doesn't prompt you and say if you make this change here, than you should probably change it there. Brightleaf is developing technology that would automate this process so there is less margin of error.

Q: Would it also mean there would be fewer associates doing document review?

A: Big firms operate in a triangular model where they have a small number of partners and a huge number of associates. When the economy went sour and profits per partner took a dip, firms couldn't support all of the associates at the bottom. It would be wiser to use technology to free up junior lawyers from word processing to do actual legal work.

Q: Throughout your job search you were looking at jobs at firms or in-house legal departments. When did you make the decision to stop practicing law?

A: I was under the impression that I needed to continue practicing, at least for a while, to really develop my career. But in my first conversation with Luke O'Brien, who is our VP of strategy (and a former lawyer), I was so excited when I hung up the phone. I realized that all of the things I loved about my work had nothing to do with practicing law.

Q: Do you think your experience as a big firm associate will be helpful in your new role?

A: Yes, they really wanted to bring in someone like me because I sat there for three years doing this kind of work. I know exactly what the problems are and how firms will expect to use this tool.

Q: Do you think you will practice again?

A: I don't think anyone can plan more than five years out. But it's my first week of work and I'm happy getting into the car, which is something I've never experienced before. It's the difference between "Oh sure no problem" if I have to work late as opposed to "Oh jeez, here we go."




Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Bar Exam Results

Dear bloggers:


The Chicago Tribune published the following article about how eager law students were in discovering whether they had passed the bar exam. I still remember almost 24 years ago when I was in the same position.   However, I wonder how many of these new lawyers will consider becoming bankruptcy attorneys.  Bankruptcy is booming and some say there is room for more bankruptcy attorneys.

The Tribune reports as follows:

"The results for the Illinois bar exam were released Thursday and for the second year in a row lawyers complained that there were delays in learning whether they passed.

The lawyers said they had problems logging into a web site run by the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar, which administers the exam, that posted the scores. They tried logging in so many times that the agency's Web address, www.ibaby.org, was one of the most searched terms on Google yesterday. Yes, I know, the acronym sounds like an application for the iPhone.

Lawrence Hill, who serves on the board of the organization, acknowledged that some of the test takers experienced difficulties with the web site. But they have no one to blame but themselves, Hill said.

He explained that the applicants were supposed to wait until they received an email that there score was posted on the Web site before logging in. Instead, many overanxious applicants checked the Web site at the same time, once word started filtering that some had received their scores. The influx made it harder for those who had received email notification to check their results.

"Everyone who has gotten a message to check their scores has received them," Hill said Thursday evening. "But some applicants are not using the system in the way it was designed to be used."

About 2,700 people took the bar exam in July.

The state board decided to release the results in small increments to avoid a repeat of last year when its Web site crashed because it could not handle the influx of people. The agency also quadrupled the number of servers that support its Web site, Hill said.

Every lawyer says that waiting to see whether you passed the bar exam is one of the most tense periods in your life but how hard is it to follow directions?"
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Bankruptcy May Be the Answer for Small and Family Businesses

Fellow bloggers:

Many small and family owned businesses are experiencing financial problems.  Some of these businesses are staring at bankruptcy.  These businesses would never have dreamed that bankruptcy was a possibility prior to the recession.  But, now, their dreams could be shattered. Bankruptcy is looming.


Consequently, I though you would be interested in the following article written by DANA MATTIOLI of the Wall Street Journal:

"Siblings Georgia, Jimmy and John Roussos have spent most of their lives working in the kitchen of the restaurant their father opened in 1954. The eatery managed to survive a hurricane and other setbacks, but it wasn't until this August that the recession took its toll, forcing Roussos Restaurant in Daphne, Ala., to permanently shut its doors.

After months of slow sales, family businesses are being forced to close, ending legacies and leaving behind a wake of sad customers and loyal employees. "Some family businesses that were just hanging on have said it's time to get out," says Dann Van Der Vliet, director of the Vermont Family Business Initiative at the University of Vermont.

An estimated 90% of U.S. businesses are family-owned or controlled, from traditional small businesses to a third of Fortune 500 firms, according to the Small Business Administration. Hard data are hard to come by on the number of small family-controlled enterprises that have closed in this recession, but experts say the prolonged slump has hurt a significant number. About 4.3 million businesses with 19 or fewer employees closed during the fourth quarter of 2007 through the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These businesses, often steeped in tradition and not as flexible to change, tend not to have formal plans in place to respond to crisis. "They've seen reductions in top line revenue that they just can't react fast enough to," says Beth Wood, assistant vice president of market development and family-business advocacy with MassMutual. Problems securing credit in this recession have also prevented some family businesses from getting the funding they need, she adds.

The economic downturn is really just the latest setback for family-run businesses. In the 1970s and '80s, exorbitant income taxes and estate taxes forced many to close, says John Ward, professor of family enterprise with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Before that, the anti-establishment movement during and after the Vietnam War made many children reluctant to take over the family business, he says.

Jimmy Roussos, 60 years old, says the financial meltdown last fall caused business at Roussos Restaurant to drop in half practically overnight.

The restaurant, which claims to have served the likes of Elvis Presley and Jimmy Buffett, began offering specials to help drive traffic, but the attempts ate into its bottom line. "You had to discount so heavily to get someone in the door that it just wasn't profitable anymore," says Georgia Roussos, 53.

After months of being unprofitable, the siblings made the difficult decision to close shop, leaving their 55 employees -- many who have worked there for more than 35 years -- out of work. The siblings say it was emotional not only for them, but for their workers and loyal customers.

Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, a family-run chain of four small bookstores in Milwaukee, had to shut its doors in March. The shops, started in 1927, were a fixture in the community, known for author visits, children's story time and ability to bud romances. Carol Grossmeyer, former president of the shops, says she met her late husband David Schwartz at one of the locations when she applied for a job and he hired her.

Mr. Schwartz passed away in 2004 and Ms. Grossmeyer eventually took over. Already the book business was suffering, with customers gravitating toward online orders and larger chains eating into sales. The economy's rapid decline in the last year put an even bigger dent in sales, 5%. and Ms. Grossmeyer says she realized she couldn't remain in business.

"It was really hard because you're closing your family legacy," says Ms. Grossmeyer. "I cried for a month before it happened and a month after."

To be sure, there are many family businesses that are holding their own, better equipped to survive a downturn because they usually hold less debt than public companies and can turn to older family members who have navigated other recessions.

But for those who couldn't shake the current lapse, losing a legacy is particularly difficult.

"To shutter an enterprise that often has a family's name above the door is a horrible experience to go through; there is grief and loss associated with it," says Drew Mendoza, managing principle of The Family Business Consulting Group Inc.

It can also be a curveball for would-be heirs. Austin Blankenbeckler, 27, grew up on his family's car lot in Waxahachie, Texas. As a child he washed cars at Carlisle Chevrolet and always expected he would one day run the business like his grandfather and father. Now, the General Motors Co. dealership that has been around since 1926 and managed to survive the Great Depression and World War II, is faced with closing.

Mr. Blankenbeckler worries about his career options. "I actually never really thought about doing anything else," he says."
 
Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


Your Bankruptcy Advisor Blog
By: Attorney Robert Schaller (Bob's bio) of the Schaller Law Firm

Bob is a member of the National Bankruptcy College Attorney Network, American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by completing the box to the right of this post so you will automatically receive future blog postings. Next, you can review past and future blogs at any time by clicking the "archive" link in the column to the right of this posting. Plus, you are invited to submit a question by utilizing the "question" box in the column to the right of this posting.


For information about Chapter 7 bankruptcy Click Here

For information about Chapter 13 bankruptcy Click Here

You are invited to contact Attorney Schaller at 630-655-1233 or visit his website at http://www.schallerlawfirm.com/to learn about how the bankruptcy laws can help you.

NOTE: Robert Schaller looks forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your legal issues. But please remember that all information on this blog is for advertising and general informational purposes only. Please read Bob's disclaimer.

I recommend that you review a few other blogs that may be of interest to you. These blogs are identified in the right column and are set forth below: bankruptcy issues blog; bankruptcy and family law issues blog; bankruptcy and employment issues blog; and bankruptcy and student loan issues blog.

Compensation for Young Attorneys Changed by Recession

Here is an interesting article from Tamara Loomis of The American Lawyer. Loomis reports as follows:


"Believe it: The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has hit law firms hard. Historically, the legal sector has weathered recessions better than many other sectors have, buoyed by the attendant surges in litigation and bankruptcy work. That's what's happened, for instance, amid the wave of corporate scandals -- the so-called Enron era -- that followed the bursting of the high-tech bubble. Not this time. Big firms are hurting, their profit margins squeezed by both sagging demand and record-high expenses. The result: the now familiar litany of mass layoffs, salary freezes and cuts, deferred start dates for first-year associates, and canceled or downsized summer programs.

Given all that, the $160,000 question now is, what happens when the economy recovers? Will things go back to how they were?

The answer, according to law firm and law school leaders, is no. They say that the recession and events leading up to it have permanently changed the way business is done in the legal industry. The recent boom -- with its eye-popping billing rates of $1,000 per hour, first-year associate salaries of $160,000, and bloated ranks of junior associates -- is over. In its place, for now at least, is a new era in which law firms are expected to focus on being more cost-efficient. For the law student looking to join an Am Law 100 firm, that means smaller classes, more competition and lower pay.

The Am Law 100 itself is looking less monolithic these days. While some firms haven't dropped the $160,000 starting salary, and won't, others, even the largest and most profitable, are set to forge a new path. At some firms, starting salaries, associate pay structures, training programs and promotion schemes are already starting to split from the pack. Those trends will continue postrecession, says James Leipold, the executive director of NALP. "Firms today are less worried about what their rivals are doing," he says. "I don't think everything is going to coalesce around a new normal."

To understand what's going on, it's worth going back in time. The past 17 years were a period of unprecedented prosperity for the industry. Toward the end of that era, law firm expenses -- driven by pricey real estate and rising associate salaries -- rose by an average of 10.1 percent each year from 2000 to 2007, according to the 2008 Annual Survey of Law Firm Financial Performance by Citi Private Bank.

Firms didn't mind writing the checks when demand -- measured by gross billable hours -- was exploding. But then demand began to dry up. On the transactional side, the falloff in work began with the unfolding of the credit market crisis at the start of 2008. On the litigation side, it's been building for a few years, with clients increasingly pushing for their firms to outsource work and manage matters better. A case that demanded eight lawyers a decade ago now may pull in half as many, because clients don't want to pay for associates to wade through documents, says Wally Martinez, managing partner of Hunton & Williams. Instead, many clients generally want routine work handled by contract lawyers, he says.

Corporate counsel -- feeling internal pressure to cut costs -- are also getting stingier about paying for litigation that isn't "bet-the-company." And budget management software is helping in-house lawyers review bills and track matters more closely than ever before.

The recession has accelerated these trends, Leipold says. Desperate to stop hemorrhaging profits, law firms have resorted to layoffs -- according to The American Lawyer, the number stands at more than 2,900 associates since the start of 2008. Another sign of contraction in the industry: smaller summer classes. Among the 131 firms that responded to the The American Lawyer's summer hiring survey, the average class size was 20 percent smaller this year than it was last year, dropping from about 58 to 45. And of those summers who have gotten offers from Am Law 100 firms, all but a handful are looking at delayed start dates.

Most firms have also cut back sharply on on-campus recruiting for next summer; at least nine firms, including Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, have canceled their 2010 summer programs in all or some offices. Many associates still working have seen their compensation frozen or cut, typically by about 10 percent, or from $160,000 to $145,000 for first-year associates in major cities. Even when the economy picks up, don't expect law firms to return anytime soon to prerecession associate staffing levels. The work that's been outsourced isn't coming back, Martinez says.

As for salaries, "Not everyone is going to retreat from $160,000," Leipold says, adding that "over the long haul, attorney salaries will continue to drift upward." But in the short term, Leipold doesn't think the salary structure that firms had moved to before the recession is supportable: "Clients are saying they are paying too much, and in particular too much for the newest talent, who are not fully trained lawyers."

To make matters worse, last year's recruiting season produced a very high yield. At the time, firms didn't understand the depth of the recession, says David Van Zandt, dean of Northwestern Law School. As a result, their summer classes are much bigger than they need, he says. With far fewer spots to fill, firms have become choosier. "During the boom years, firms just needed bodies," he says. "Now they're looking for students who not only can draft briefs and review documents but can also work well with clients and other lawyers." Van Zandt says firms are also starting to look more closely at a candidate's basic project-management and communication skills. This means that students who try to tailor their abilities through class choices, internships and work experience can help to make themselves more attractive to prospective employers, he says.

Law firms are also starting to take a more rigorous approach to their end of the recruiting process. "We're seeing better-prepared interviewers, more senior people" coming on campus, says Bruce Elvin, director of career and professional development at Duke University Law School.

As for the interview itself, it's no longer about whether you like the same sports teams, at least not at places like Vinson & Elkins and McKenna Long & Aldridge. These firms are using behavioral interviewing techniques, in conjunction with law school rankings and grade point averages, to evaluate candidates. The idea behind behavioral interviewing -- used by consulting and other professional service firms for decades but fairly new to the legal industry -- is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance in specific situations. Interviewers are trained to ask questions such as "Tell me about a time when you had a setback and how you dealt with it," or "Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split-second decision." Vinson & Elkins hiring partner Thomas Leatherbury predicts that behavioral interviewing will be more common in the years to come. "It's much more substantive," he says.

Even in traditional interviews, Elvin says, law students can and should adopt a behavioral focus: "Students can benefit themselves by talking about challenges they've overcome, decisions they've made. It shows you are taking ownership."

Beyond making the right impression, students armed with certain skills will fare better than others, law school and law firm leaders say. The most sought-after students are those with a joint J.D./MBA degree, Van Zandt says. With four years of business and legal training, as well as an average of four years in the workforce, "these graduates have had no problem getting a job in this market," he says. (Northwestern actually prefers students who have gained work experience before entering law school.)

Students with specialized training can also tap into at least two hot practice areas: financial regulation and energy law. Sweeping changes in the first area mean that young lawyers who catch that wave, via jobs in or outside of government, will be well positioned for law firm jobs, says Arnold & Porter managing partner Thomas Milch. Energy law, propelled by climate change issues, is also booming -- good news for law students with a background in science, he says.

Even students who don't land an offer in the current recruiting season need not despair. "Speed is not necessarily anyone's friend in this economic cycle," Vinson & Elkins's Leatherbury says. At least two firms -- Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and DLA Piper -- skipped the August recruiting season, and plan to visit campuses in November instead. Some firms may even come back in the spring for a second recruiting cycle if they decide to increase the number of summer associates they'd like to hire, Leatherbury says. But he doesn't anticipate any permanent shifts in the recruiting season, at least for now.

Leatherbury would actually like to see recruiting pushed back to later in the school year, given the difficulties of predicting hiring needs two years into the future. In April, Leatherbury drafted a plan asking law schools to delay on-campus recruiting, but he says the idea didn't go over so well. "The general reaction was that if Harvard moved, then everyone else would move," he says. Harvard Law School did move, but in the wrong direction, in Leatherbury's view. Its recruiting program, which had been in late September, now takes place at the end of August, along with those of most other top law schools.

Once in the door, depending on where they land, students may well face an entirely new approach to associate pay, training and advancement. A handful of early adopters are abandoning lockstep compensation, in which each associate class is paid the same base salary, in favor of performance-based pay programs, in which associates are promoted -- and their billing rates raised -- as they master a range of competencies and skills. The pioneer of performance-based pay, the firm that Husch Blackwell Sanders grew out of, has used it for close to a decade. Other recent converts include McKenna Long & Aldridge, which switched over in the fall of 2007, and Howrey, which put the final touches on its new program in January 2009.

In the last few months, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe; DLA Piper; and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal all announced plans to replace lockstep associate compensation with performance-based programs. Laura Saklad, Orrick's chief lawyer development officer, says the firm's new pay program "recognizes that not all associates advance at the same pace, tenure is not a proxy for advancing skill, and clients should not bear the cost of training associates. In the end, our goal is to deploy the right lawyer or professional for the right task at the right cost."

Expect many more firms to follow suit. Peter Sloan, a partner in the Kansas City, Mo., office of Husch Blackwell who wrote the bible of performance-based associate pay, "From Lockstep to Levels, Classes to Competencies," says firms like McKenna and Howrey are just "the tip of the iceberg." After years of being virtually ignored by his industry peers, Sloan sees a surge of interest in merit-based pay. In July he led an online seminar on the subject that was cohosted by NALP and the American Law Institute-American Bar Association. The seminar drew more than 200 attendees from law firms, law schools and consulting firms.

Sloan says he has also been "quietly contacted" by firms that are actively planning to switch to performance-based pay, and hears "rumors" that other firms are telling associates that they, too, are moving to such systems. "This economic climate sends a clear signal that business as usual may no longer be a viable strategy," Sloan says. "I think we are close to a tipping point, with more and more firms taking a hard look at how they manage associates. Many of those firms may move to a merit-based compensation system."

(Before you throw in your lot with a pay-for-performance firm, you should know that merit-based pay does not immunize associates against layoffs in a recession: So far this year, Husch Blackwell has laid off 41 associates.)

Pay-for-performance programs vary but typically feature four or five performance-based tracks or levels along which associates advance. Compensation, billing rates, and progress toward partnership are tied to levels of competencies, rather than hiring class. Associates can also expect mutually agreed-upon goals set in advance, quarterly feedback and supervising attorneys who have actually been trained in mentoring and feedback. Jennifer Queen, McKenna's chief recruitment and development officer, says that with a merit-based pay system, associates know in advance what they need to do to make it. "The secret to success isn't a secret anymore," Queen says. She says clients like performance-based programs too. For one, it's how they pay their professionals. Plus, they know they are getting their money's worth, since an associate's billing rate is tied directly to his or her performance level.

Despite the merit-based pay's advantages, even its fans expect many firms to stick with the tried-and-true, at least for now. Lockstep compensation is familiar and easy -- two big selling points. "Just because you're breathing and it's another year, you get promoted," says McKenna's Queen. By comparison, a merit-based system can be quite labor-intensive, since moving from one level to the next requires an in-depth performance review.

Look to Howrey for another upheaval in the once-predictable world of associate training and advancement. Starting this fall, Howrey's first- and second-years will take part in a new apprenticeship program, going to classes, working on pro bono projects and shadowing partners at depositions, court appearances, client meetings and the like. The billable-hour requirement for participants has been cut from 1,950 to 700 hours. The program's final three months is a secondment, in which associates are embedded at client sites at a reduced billing rate. Despite a sharply lower starting salary of $100,000 (plus a $25,000 bonus earmarked, in most cases, for making student loan payments), Howrey partner Richard Ripley says all 23 associates who began in September signed on.

Will others follow suit? The program certainly has its appeal in a time when more and more clients refuse to let junior associates work on their matters. Ripley says "clients are thrilled with it, since we're giving our young associates the skills they need to bring value to our matters." Philadelphia's Drinker Biddle & Reath and Louisville, Ky.,'s Frost Brown Todd are also launching apprenticeship programs this fall.

Where does it leave today's law students? No question, they are headed into a job market sure to present significant challenges for some time to come. But these future lawyers may also be the first in years to have real choices, as even the largest firms begin to diverge on pay and promotions. As President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has said, a crisis presents opportunities "to do things you think you could not do before." Easy for him to say. He has a job. "


Warmest Regards,

Bob Schaller


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