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Career Center: Advice for Midlevel Associates (Part 1)

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Welcome to the latest article in the Ask The Experts series, brought to you by the ATL Career Center, powered by Lateral Link. This week’s experts include Morgan Chu of Irell & Manella, Mike Woronoff of Proskauer Rose, and Vivian Yang, General Counsel at Citysearch, who served as panelists on the Career Center’s Professional Development panel for mid-level associates on long-term career planning, partnership prospects and in-house careers. The panelists shared a lot of valuable information, so we’re making this a two-part article.
This week we highlight the panelists’ advice to mid-level associates on general career development, such as how to find mentors and use the people you already know to build a network. Next week, we’ll be back with Part Two of the article, with advice on the specific steps that associates who want to make partner or move in-house need to take.
Part One, after the jump.


Charting Your Course – Part 1
The Career Center’s Professional Development panel was held in Los Angeles on November 17, 2009, and hosted by Lateral Link and Proskauer Rose .  The following Q&A summarizes each panelist’s key pieces of advice, so that all ATL readers and Lateral Link members can benefit from their insights.   
Q: What is the most important thing associates should be aware of when planning their careers, whether at a firm, in-house or even outside of the legal profession?
Morgan Chu: Building a successful career is first and foremost hard work.  Larry Bird and Tiger Woods were the best players in their respective games, not only because they were naturally blessed with basketball and golf skills, but because they constantly practiced those skills to ensure that they stayed at the top of their game.  No matter how good you are at any particular lawyering skill – writing, negotiation, analysis – there are always other people out there who are better than you.  Even if you have enormous talent, if you don’t work hard, you will not be successful.  A successful career also requires that you be proactive.  Being proactive means always learning.  Associates should be astute observers and watch their peers and superiors to see what techniques are successful and what ones are not.  Observe yourself as well: take stock of your strengths and build on them; explore your weaknesses and take steps to improve those areas. 
Mike Woronoff: Most attorneys think of law as a profession on a higher plane, but the truth is, lawyers have a product and a customer, and good lawyers are good salespeople.  It is important that the product – whether a reply brief or a purchase agreement – be high quality, but the client usually has no way to immediately determine the quality of the product.  What the customer can judge is whether you return their phone calls, whether you send documents when you say you will, whether you follow through on your promises.  If you are diligent and responsive to the customer on these types of things, they will trust that you are also diligent and responsive on the substantive legal work.  And remember – for partners, the customer is the client, but for junior associates, the customer is the partner or senior associate you are working for.
Vivian Yang: Most firms encourage junior associates to be generalists who are good at any legal task that is set before them.  But to advance professionally – and especially to advance into an in-house position – associates need to not just to be good, but to be "good at something."  There are a lot of very good lawyers in the world, but the lawyers who are great lawyers are experts in a particular field. 
Q: How should associates approach finding mentors?
Morgan Chu: Mentors fulfill several different roles.  That means your "mentor" can be more than one person.  A mentor’s roles include being a role model, a sounding board, a coach and a good friend.  Different people can fill these different roles and together provide a mentoring experience.  A role model might be someone you don’t even know, who you look to for inspiration and guidance.  A sounding board might be a friend or family member, who can give you useful feedback about choices you make.  Despite what most law firms seem to think, you can’t choose a mentor; a mentoring relationship usually grows naturally out of who you work with.
Mike Woronoff: The best way to find a mentor is to think of it from the mentor’s point of view.  Everyone working at a firm or company is very busy and is looking for other people to help take the weight off their shoulders.  If you become valuable to someone, and help make their job easier by doing good work, they will almost invariably make the effort to mentor you.  Mentoring relationships that develop this way are much more likely to stick than firm-appointed mentoring systems.
Q: Is it ever a good idea for an associate to discuss potential career moves with the partners he or she currently works for?
Morgan Chu: Your network is probably bigger than you think.  Associates should talk with partners at their firm about their career choices.  Partners understand that the majority of associates move on from the firm at some point and they will not be offended that you are considering leaving; most of the time, they will just want to learn more about the reason you want to go.  Partners regularly learn about job openings and trends in the market and they can be a very useful resource for junior associates who want to make a career move.  It is understandable that associates might be wary about telling partners at their firm that they are looking for a new job, but if associates keep open communication lines with partners, they can gain valuable information.  For example, an associate who wants to move to a smaller firm that specializes in IP could get advice from partners at their current firm about what local firms would be the best fit for them. 
Mike Woronoff: Associates should almost always discuss their career plans with the people they currently work for.  At most firms, partners are more than happy to see associates move in-house, since that means a connection with a current or potential future client.  And partners also understand that associates may want to move to a smaller firm or a different location or a non-legal position, and they can help with those transitions.  The only time that associates might not want to discuss their career plans is if they are considering a move to a firm that is very similar (in location, size, practice areas) to the firm they are currently at.   
Vivian Yang: Associates should cast a wide net and let colleagues and friends know that they are looking for a new job, particularly if they are looking for an in-house position.  Even if you are not looking to make a move right now, you can let partners and senior associates that you work with know that you are happy at the firm for now, but you might someday be interested moving in-house.  They are likely to be among the first to know which in-house clients are hiring.   
Q: What other steps should associates take if they are considering a career change?
Morgan Chu: Associates need to think about how they are going to present themselves.  You are no longer a second-year law student interviewing for a summer associate position.  You should update your resume with specifics about what you actually do at your job.  You should update your answers to potential interview questions.  You should update your references and, if you can, ask partners or clients who you currently work for to serve as references.  Even if you aren’t currently considering a career change, you should do a self-assessment annually – or more frequently.  Often, law students unthinkingly start down a certain road, taking a job a prestigious big firm because that is what their law school colleagues are doing.  They then stay on that path without ever asking themselves if it’s really where they want to be going.  You should ask yourself, "Where am I?  Where am I going?  What do I want to do next year?  In five years?  Am I happy doing what I’m doing?"  If you’re not sure about any of the answers, you should explore the issue further. 
You can read the full article and view other career-related articles in the Resources section of the Career Center. If you have tips or questions that you would like covered in future Ask The Experts columns, please email careercenter@abovethelaw.com.

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