Beyond Biglaw: A Good Start

No matter where you are in your career, taking advantage of whatever inspiration the new year affords you can be rejuvenating.

There is value in treating the new year as a reset button, literally and figuratively. When I was in Biglaw, the start of the new year had a very significant effect: my hours, and while I was a partner, my collections, were reset to zero. “Making your numbers” has to start somewhere, and it was always important to try and get off to a good start — at least on the billable hours front.

Collections was and remains a different story, considering how much emphasis firms place on year-end collections. Many clients prefer to close out their legal budgets at year-end as well. So bringing in significant collections in January as opposed to year-end was usually disfavored, and an indication that the clients were either late or there was some other billing hiccup that led to the delay.

As an owner of a boutique firm nowadays, year-end was more significant for tax purposes than anything else — especially since we were successful in keeping the engagements we handled based on billable hours to a minimum last year. We have every intention of continuing along those lines in the future. Once you get used to getting rewarded more for results than for effort, the traditional billable model quickly loses its luster. But a new year helps us start thinking about our revenues and expenses, so from a fiscal perspective at least, it is an important starting point.

No matter where you are in your career, taking advantage of whatever inspiration the new year affords you can be rejuvenating. But it is not always so easy to do. First off, not everyone had a good year last year. There are definitely lawyers out there whose 2014 was one of challenge, and it is not like the industry is humming along on all fronts so as to guarantee anyone that 2015 will be any better. And even lawyers who had productive and successful times in 2014 probably have loose ends that need to be attended to in early 2015. Because of the year-end rush to close deals or settle cases, as well as the holidays, there are often projects that need to be picked up in earnest once everyone gets back to work. What is important is to try and avoid having these potential sources of anxiety deflate your initiative before the year even gets going.

It helps of course to have some concrete goals in mind. Here, it is important to remember that not every worthwhile goal needs to be world-changing in order to be worth pursuing. For most of us, advancing our careers in some measure can be enough of a goal to spur positive momentum. Everyone will have a different set of goals, with a correspondingly different set of plausible steps to take towards advancing those goals.

For example, if you are a partner at a Biglaw firm or boutique, you may decide that a good start to your year would include lining up a speaking engagement, or securing publication of an article to demonstrate your expertise. Or you may think it is important to set up a few in-person client meetings, in order to get constructive feedback on last year’s efforts, while also hoping to secure some projects for the coming year. If you are an associate? You might want to take “inventory” of your current workload — and the sources of that work. If you are happy with the amount of work you have assigned or where it is originating from, great. If not, start developing an action plan towards generating new sources of work. Don’t just sit and “take it,” because you will likely not last long in this hyper-competitive industry if your approach to your career is so passive.

The latter advice is particularly germane to aspiring partners, whether they are at Biglaw firms or boutiques. Especially if they are within range of being “up” for partnership. Yes, you can take your chance that you will get elected on merit without playing the political game. Or you can take a more proactive approach, and use the beginning quarter of the year to gently let your target audience know that you take the position you are in seriously, and are committed to putting your best foot forward during the consideration process. That means setting up meetings with your group leader, any members of the firm executive committee that you know well, and the partners who are the source of most of your work. And being prepared to discuss concrete performance targets for the upcoming year, while soliciting their suggestions as to how best to maximize your candidacy. I admittedly favor an activist approach, but it is something to consider even if you are inclined to take a more passive one. At least make a conscious decision one way or another as to how aggressive you want to be pursuing partnership.

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No matter where you are in your legal career, the point is to get something under your belt and start the year with an accomplishment. Once that is done, move right along to the next thing on your list. A good rule of thumb is to try and do one career-advancing thing each quarter — other than just doing your “regular” work well. It is easy to think that if you accomplish the latter, you will be set. But that is not the way things work. Start strong, and hopefully 2015 will lead to great success.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.


Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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