Frank Kimball

Advice for Summer Associates: Don’t Cost Law Firms More Than You Have To

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Welcome to the joys of the billable hour.

Jerry Maguire made a memorable plea to retain his client: “Help me, help you. Help me, help you.” As a summer clerk, you are very expensive for the law firm — in addition to your salary and entertainment expenses, firms spend hundreds of attorney hours monitoring your work and keeping you interested. You do not want to add more to that expense if it can be avoided, especially if it involves simply following firm policies and procedures. While we have already covered how summer associates should act in social settings in and outside the firm, summer associates must learn how to properly manage their work and conduct research on their day-to-day work assignments.

The following tips on time entry are brought to you by Frank Kimball of Lateral Link, an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner. Please note that these are general guidelines a summer associate should adhere to — be sure to check with your firm to determine what the firm’s actual policies are.

Now on to the tips….

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Is Your Summer Clerkship Too Boring for a TV Show? Good!

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Your summer associateship should be unfit for television (reality TV or otherwise).

What you do during your summer clerkship should not be viewed as a potential plot line in a TV series — or your future at the firm will last as long as The Deep End. From your fashion prowess to your social interactions, you should really be remembered for your work ethic and social competence. When you are being considered for a permanent position at summer’s end, you don’t want to be known as “Jäger Boy” or “Cleavage Girl.”

It only takes one momentary lapse in judgment to derail your future at the firm. Read these tips, brought to you by Frank Kimball of Lateral Link, an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner.…

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Career Center: A Social Events Guide for Summer Associates

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Party responsibly, summer associates.

Summer associates are inundated by invitations to lunches, dinners, in-firm programs, and social activities outside the firm. Particularly in a summer when the economic outlook is still a bit uncertain, summer associates must act with care and discretion at firm-sponsored social events.

Almost invariably misconduct involves excessive late-night drinking. Someone once said “nothing good happens after midnight.” They were right. The following tips, brought to you by Frank Kimball of Lateral Link, will help you navigate the social scene this summer.…

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Career Center: Essential Reading for the Summer Associate (Because You Don’t Read Enough Already)

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If Oprah had a book club for summer associates, you can bet the following reading materials would be on that list (in addition to Above the Law). While I am sure extra reading is the last thing you want to do after long days (and nights) of working and schmoozing at the firm, the items identified below provide great insight into subjects a savvy summer associate should be on top of.

For extra credit, consider forming a summer book club with your classmates and/or fellow summer associates, read some of the material suggested below, and take some time to discuss. The following reading recommendations are brought to you by Lateral Link’s Frank Kimball, an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner.

Now on to the reading….

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Career Center: Summer Associate Speed Dating (aka Splitting Your Summer)

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A split can be delicious -- or dangerous....

Today’s Career Center tips for summer associates focus on how you can successfully split your summer between firms. Obtaining a summer clerkship at one firm is great, so splitting the summer with another firm is even better, right? Not necessarily.

In some cities, such as Dallas and Houston, the split summer has been a fact of life for decades, and summer associates often divide the summer into two, three, or more parts. But even in markets where split summers are the rule rather than the exception, a summer associate must take each firm seriously. Like speed dating, you are going to have to bring your “A-game” the entire time you are with each firm if you hope to land a “long-term relationship” with either firm.

On the one hand, you are going to have to make the firm you are currently summering at feel special — like they are the only firm that matters. On the other hand, both you and the firm know that you are “seeing other firms” and are not quite ready to make your employment status official on Facebook.

Let’s consider the risks here — and how to manage and minimize them, if you’re a summer associate who’s doing a split.

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Career Center: Tips for Summer Associates

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The Career Center is featuring a special series this summer for law students who want to excel as summer associates and ultimately secure permanent offers. Starting today and continuing throughout the summer, we will feature tips to help you manage your assignments, juggle conflicting demands, account for your time, handle feedback and criticism, and much more. These tips, focused on helping you navigate your law firm and summer associate internship, are provided by Frank Kimball, a principal of the Kimball Partner Group – a Lateral Link company, and an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner.

Today’s tips focus on how to maintain an attitude that will help you win over the partners at your firm and put you on the fast track to success. While not known for offering useful legal guidance, Elle Woods from Legally Blonde: The Musical offers great advice to summer associates: “Be positive.” You have already passed the first test, by initially securing the summer associate clerkship. Now you need to show off your dazzling personality — or at least demonstrate that you are at least tolerable during late-night doc review projects that await your future.

Keep the following tips in mind, whether you are working on a legal memo or hanging out at a partner’s summer house in the Hamptons….

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Non-Sequiturs: 01.26.11

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A jabot is great for catching drool.

* Yes, she was a cheerleader in high school — but this is probably the first time Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has ever been called a “Hot Slut.” [Dlisted]

* Yale law professor Amy Chua went on The Colbert Report to promote her controversial new book — and seemed to charm Stephen Colbert with her Type A (for Asian?) ways. [Gawker TV]

* A satirical post imagining Obama declaring martial law over Chicago? How did this wind up on HuffPo? [Huffington Post]

Dennis Kucinich's $150,000 smile.

* Rep. Dennis Kucinich sues the House of Representatives cafeteria after suffering dental damage: “Said sandwich wrap was unwholesome and unfit for human consumption in that it was presented to contain pitted olives, yet unknown to plaintiff, contained an unpitted olive or olives which plaintiff did not reasonably expect.” [Salon / Alex Pareene]

* Frank Kimball, who’s busy with a new venture (see final link), also finds time to blog for Ms. JD. Check out his latest post, profiling ten fabulous females in law. [Ms. JD]

* What the heck is the “flawgosphere”? A Round Tuit has the answer. [Infamy or Praise]

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Non-Sequiturs: 01.11.11

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* Lady Kaga issues her first single: a ruling against a Chapter 13 debtor, in favor of his credit card issuer, affirming the Ninth Circuit by a vote of 8-1. The lone dissenter: Justice Scalia. Weird, huh? [WSJ Law Blog; ABA Journal]

* “How do you spark a bonobo orgy?” [Andrew Sullivan]

* How do you prosecute a deaf, mute, illiterate man? Please, please, please let the answer include pinball. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Should law school final exams use made-up hypotheticals or real-life cases? Professor Howard Wasserman assesses pros and cons. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Illinois State Senate takes a syringe stab at repealing the death penalty. [Reuters]

* Guns used to shoot off penises > Guns used to shoot at attackers. [Gawker]

* Congratulations to the 13 new partners at Bingham McCutchen. [Bingham]

* Lateral Link is teaming up with Frank Kimball, the former McDermott Will hiring partner who founded Kimball Professional Management, to focus on partner placements. (Disclosure: Lateral Link is an ATL advertiser.) [Am Law Daily; Lateral Link (press release)]

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