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alt.legal 3-On-3: The New You Of 2015!

What new 'X-factor' skills should associates look to gain to improve their odds of making partner in 2015?

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All three of us wish you a Happy New Year.  We sincerely hope you’re not under piles of closing sets or briefs today, but if you are doing some navel-gazing and thinking about your career future in 2015, this one’s for you.  We’re experimenting with a 3 questions for 3 authors format today.

We also welcome your questions for a future mailbag post.  Email any of us (Ed Sohn, Joe Borstein, Leigh M. Abramson) and if somewhat SFW, we’ll respond.

  • What new “X-factor” skills should associates look to gain to improve their odds of making partner in 2015?

Joe:  First, let me wish, but in no way guarantee, that you have a very happy and lawyerly New Year.  As for how to add to get-alt to help you make partner . . . while I bailed on an awesome firm three years before I was up, I do think that the stories in these columns can help you can make a big splash at your firms without a big effort.

I highly recommend that you invest a small amount of time each month to understanding the new services and technologies out there in the world of alt.legal.  If you are an associate — or simply grew up in the internet age — these new tools will be easy for you to pick up and roll out to your firm.  Doing so will make you look like an absolute hero to your team, and especially the more senior partners (think of the pain of explaining Facebook, or Uber, or Tinder to your parents).

And don’t be a hero — reach out to experts and mentors who already know how to navigate these worlds.  When I got to Pangea3, I found the most successful business people in the company, made them my friends for life, and humbly asked their opinions with regularity as to how I could be better at my new role.

Oh, and try to be a really really excellent lawyer, OK?

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Leigh: I feel a bit like George Costanza answering this one because I want to say, “Do the exact opposite of what I would do!” I was never partner material, mainly because when I was given a task, while I wanted to do a competent job, I wanted it to be finished as easily and quickly as possibly. A lot of my work at the law firm felt like something I just had to endure, like a root canal. Because I wasn’t invested, I was never going to be that good at being a lawyer.

So I don’t presume to be an expert, but I think the most important thing for succeeding at a firm (or in anything else) is to really care about what you are doing. When your work means something to you, when it’s tied to your own sense of self-worth, you are going to do a good job. If it isn’t, it’s always going to just feel like work, something you want to finish as quickly as possible so you can move on to the things you do care about.

If being partner is your goal, I’d say find some way to really care about that pile of documents or that motion in limine.

Ed: I honestly have no idea how one makes (equity) partner anymore, but I agree generally with Joe and Leigh: be amazing at what you do, but also measure how passionate and motivated you are.  You have to not only to be able (which most of you associates are, as long as you’re still employed there), but willing — and passionate, hopefully.

In terms of other pragmatic skills, it may help to learn about the changing business of legal practice.  Get to know the big shifts in the industry, the “new normal” of the law firm landscape, how equity partners can be rewarded or punished, the differences between a capped AFA and a collared one.  Understand how in-house counsel are changing the way they are driving efficiency with legal spend and where they are starting to really innovate.  Finally, it seems that everyone I know that made partner seemed to “get it” about being partner.  You can whine about your hours or your non-market bonus, but if you make it a “them against us,” then you’ll always be the “us” and never join the “them.”

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And if you don’t give a crap about any of this stuff, then I echo Leigh: you probably don’t care about what you do, at least not at the partner level.

  • What areas are ripe for lawyers looking to enter the alternative legal services industry in 2015?

Ed:  Now is a fantastic time to get into the alternative legal field.  There’s a wealth of startups, and apparently there will be many more on the horizon, as legal is still one of the last industries due for a technology makeover.  There’s also highly different law firm models, including virtual firms, and there’s always alternative managed legal services in areas of e-discovery, compliance, and transactional management.  On top of that, as evidenced by the fact that we’re writing on this blog, there are definitely opportunities for covering the legal industry through journalism or professional writing.

Working at a law firm is sometimes — but not always — like The Karate Kid (the original).  Paint the fence, wax the car, sand the floor… seemingly inane tasks that are backbreaking and appear to impart only benefits to the sensei.  But with every motion, you are mastering new skills that will help you in an entirely different environment.  You may not see it now, because you’re too busy slammed with fences to paint and cars to wax, but when you step out, you’re nearly a black belt in areas you didn’t even know.  So get out there and explore!

Joe:  I have little to improve upon that Karate Kid reference, other than that a better analogy might be feeling like you just had your leg swept.  That said, you are learning amazing skills and work ethic, and now is an insane time to use those skills and connections to makes moves into some awesome startup tech and services companies looking to change the game in the legal field.  Not to mention, some more established companies (ahem, Pangea3) who are still growing gangbusters in what has continued to be a relatively flat legal market.

I hope you all remember that we chatted with founders of a few of these startups in this column here, and here, and I happen to know some are hiring!  Finally, we hope to be creating a community here at alt.legal, so feel free to email us directly if you’re interested in joining the revolution.

Leigh:  When I stopped being a lawyer, I wanted nothing to do with anything remotely having to do with law. After a few months, when the law firm memories had faded a bit, I realized that I had a niche skill that few other freelance writers did. I started to embrace my former life as a lawyer, which led me to some really terrific writing projects, including this one. Having insight into the legal world is a valuable skill; don’t be afraid to use it.

  • Finally, what are some serious steps one can take if seeking a totally different career in 2015?

Leigh: I think the most important thing is to identify exactly what it is you want to do, and make sure that you aren’t falling into the trap of “anything would be better than being at a law firm.” Shop around. Make sure that your next career is truly the right fit, otherwise you’ll end up in the same predicament again (and probably making a lot less money).  Once you decide on your next career, it’s just a matter of execution. Ask people in your chosen field for coffee or drinks — you’d be surprised how willing people are to talk about what they do and to be of help. So many positive things happened for me as a writer because I simply reached out to people. Use those lawyerly skills to do research, build up a network, advocate for yourself, and be persistent.

And before you leave the firm, hoard office supplies. You’d be surprised how annoying it is to procure these things in the outside world.

Ed: I totally agree with the above, although I am not against making a move to the “anything is better than the firm.”  Sometimes it takes a little time just to get reoriented to a sane working lifestyle, on a normal schedule with self-care and all that.  Sometimes the forest appears when you dislodge your head from the bark of a tree.  But an exit option is certainly not always a long-term career.

One other option that I’d throw out there, even while acknowledging it’s overrated: consider going back to school.  Collecting more degrees doesn’t necessarily help, but grad school offers networks and internships and career services.  If you’ve ever spent time Googling job opportunities, you’ve learned that there are a lot of opportunities to crack an industry available only to students.

Also, totally true about the office supplies.  Collect Uni-balls and legal pads and Swingline staplers and those cool clear folders, as many as your conscience allots.

Joe:  I get asked this question a lot, and unfortunately don’t have a clear answer.  I was recruited to Pangea3 by an exceptional friend from my old firm who had moved to India and had helped build the company. Over an undisclosed number of cocktails, she told me — with confidence — that I was coming with her on an adventure in legal outsourcing.

That was four years ago.  Two weeks ago, as my US-based team and I swerved through traffic on the highway from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal in Agra (desperately trying to keep our sleepy driver awake with blaring country music), I was reminded that the adventure she promised is very much alive.  The only teachable lesson from this story, and many I have heard like it, is that it’s important to keep a great web of friends and professional connections who know your skills and dreams.

If you can follow Leigh and figure out “exactly what it is you want to do,” then mazel tov, but until then, the best you can hope for is people in the market to know you and your skills, and bring you into a dream job.

Ed Sohn is a Global Director at Thomson Reuters’ award-winning legal outsourcing company, Pangea3, which employs approximately 1,000 full-time attorneys globally. After five and a half years as a Biglaw litigation associate, Ed spent over two years in New Delhi, India, managing hundreds of Indian attorneys and professionals in delivering high-value managed legal services. He now focuses on developing integrated technology and outsourced legal solutions. You can contact Ed about e-discovery, managed legal services, theology, chess, Star Trek The Next Generation, or the Chicago Bulls at edward.sohn@thomsonreuters.com.

Joe Borstein is a Global Director at Thomson Reuters’ award-winning legal outsourcing company, Pangea3, which employs over 1,000 full-time attorneys across the globe. He and his co-author Ed Sohn each spent over half a decade as associates in Biglaw and were classmates at Penn Law.

Joe manages a global team dedicated to counseling law firm and corporate clients on how to best leverage Pangea3’s full-time attorneys to improve legal results, cut costs, raise profits, and have a social life. He is a frequent speaker on global trends in the legal industry and, specifically, how law firms are leveraging those trends to become more profitable. If you are interested in entrepreneurship and the delivery of legal services, please reach out to Joe directly at joe.borstein@thomsonreuters.com.

Leigh McMullan Abramson is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Town & Country, Real Simple and Tablet Magazine. She attended Penn Law before working for several years in Biglaw and clerking in the Southern District of New York. Leigh is currently toiling away on a novel set in — you guessed it — a law firm. She can be reached at leigh.mcmullan@gmail.com.

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