Five years ago (heaven help me), I explained in this space why everyone wants to hire himself.
The guy who nearly flunked out of Yale Law School doesn’t think grades make any difference: “The whole question is where you went to law school. I don’t care how well you did in law school, as long as you went to a great one. When I’m interviewing candidates for jobs, I’m looking for people attending schools ranked in the top five.”
The guy who ripped the cover off the ball at Podunk State Law School views things differently: “I think the very top students at all law schools are basically equivalent. If you were the top student at a lower-ranked school, you probably would’ve been in the top few anywhere. Deeper in the class, maybe it makes a difference where you went to school, but the outstanding students are basically all really gifted. I’m looking for the top students in the class; I’m not an elitist about where they attended school.”
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I’m not trying to be cynical here; I’m trying to be realistic. I’m trying to describe accurately things that I’ve witnessed over time.
The more I think about it, my thesis — that you respect, more than anything else, you — carries far beyond the hiring process. Ask a rainmaker at your firm what attribute matters most in a lawyer: “Any idiot can do decent legal work. We’ve got scores of service partners here who can handle our cases. But what keeps the lights on at this joint? Business! We should richly reward rainmakers, because, without them, there’s no law firm at all.”
Walk next door and ask the best technical lawyer at your firm (who’s not a rainmaker) to identify valuable attributes: “I don’t understand why clients aren’t smarter about hiring lawyers. Who do they think is doing the work, anyway? Clients think that the smooth-talking, glad-handing blowhard is the lawyer they want, but that guy couldn’t actually do the work on his best day. Without truly gifted technical lawyers handling the legal work, clients wouldn’t hire us (for repeat business, anyway). Our reputation would collapse, and we’d be out of business. We should richly reward the most technically competent lawyers, because, without them, we’re toast.”
Starting to sense a theme here?
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You respect you!
Think about the managing partner of the office at your law firm (or the head of your in-house legal division). Does the managing partner stroll the halls, chat with the associates and secretaries, and do no legal work? Ask that person the meaning of leadership. Dollars to donuts says this is what you’ll hear: “The job of a leader is to maintain the employees’ morale. The manager has to see and be seen, know everyone’s name, and make everyone feel like the workplace is their home. Can you imagine us having an office managing partner who sat in her office doing legal work instead of walking the halls? That would be a disaster! A manager’s duty is to think about our people; that’s what motivates our people to do their best work.”
Or is your managing partner the more studious type, still taking depositions and revising briefs in his early 60’s, and calling his wife to say that he’ll be home for dinner tonight “at the usual time — maybe 9 or 9:30.” Ask that managing partner the meaning of leadership, and you’ll hear an entirely different story: “There’s only one way to lead — by example. I work harder than everyone else in this office; I do top-notch work; I bring in my fair share of business. That’s what we’re striving for here, and that’s the example that the leaders must set. I don’t have time to stroll the halls chatting with people; my job is to lead, and I can lead only by showing our other lawyers what it means to be a successful partner at this firm.”
Do you see the same thing in junior lawyers? I have: I had a buddy in law school who had played varsity golf (at Stanford, which had quite a team at the time), but was in the bottom half of our law school class. He’d walk into interviews for jobs and explain: “People with good grades are a dime a dozen; ten percent of the students in this class are in the top ten percent. But I may be the only person in this class with a one handicap. I’d be happy to golf with you — or your clients, or potential clients — whenever you like.”
I don’t think the editor-in-chief of our law review was making the same pitch.
Who do you respect?
You!
Put that insight to use when you’re seeking a job, and guard against that bias when you’re evaluating others. There just might be a couple of talented folks in the world who aren’t your spitting image. (Click through that link; it educated me, so I naturally assume that it will educate you, too.)
Mark Herrmann is Vice President and Deputy General Counsel – Litigation and Employment at Aon, the world’s leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital and management consulting. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].