Small Law Firms

Shaping The Course Of Your Practice

What a decade at the same firm has taught me about #goals. 

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Last month marked the 10-year anniversary of my tenure with my current law firm. Although it was not where I began my legal career, it is certainly where I have spent the bulk of my career thus far. When I mentioned this anniversary to friends and colleagues, I was met mostly with shock. Truth be told, I was shocked by the shock.

I grew up seeing many friends’ parents spend 10, 20, even 30 years at the same company. But times have changed, and I have noticed over the years that the majority of my friends and colleagues moved from firm to firm, from company to company, every few years. I hadn’t realized this at first. Perhaps I was preoccupied with my cases, the next motion deadline, the next round of edits to an agreement, that I didn’t notice this shift for a while. Eventually, however, I looked around me and realized my tenure at my firm had surpassed those of the people around me.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2020, the median tenure with a current employer was 4.1 years. My assumption that this was a generational trend was correct, as the same data showed that the older the worker, the longer the tenure. The median tenure of workers ages 55 to 64 (9.9 years) in January 2020 was more than triple than that of workers ages 25 to 34 (2.8 years).

Is it an old school mentality of loyalty to your employer that contributes to these numbers? Have the younger generations become disillusioned by those expectations and crave an opportunity to try something new? I asked some former law school classmates, friends, and professional colleagues for their take on this shift. Some felt they could not receive the substantial salary increase they were seeking without moving to a new firm or company. Some pointed to a desired change in scenery and relocation to a new part of the country or state. Many cited a need for a better work life balance, including remote or hybrid work environments as the reason younger people often seek new opportunities.

Others pointed out that in the less than 15 years we have been part of the workforce, we have been faced with several significant recessions and a global pandemic. Certainly, the economic climate contributes to the numbers. Many people lost their jobs in the years following the financial crisis of 2008.

The answer I heard more often than others was a variation of “I wanted to do something different.” Most of the people I spoke to expressed a disinterest or boredom with the work they were doing, and attributed their career moves to this feeling. “I couldn’t work on one more case dealing with X” or “I hated practicing X law and wanted to do more work in Y law.”

I get it. I can quickly rattle off many practice areas I would be bored by or have no interest in. The list of practice areas that do interest me is far shorter. I graduated right before our entire economy essentially crumbled and watched people around me scramble to find a job, any job, so as to start paying off those hefty law school loans. For many, finding their preferred niche took more than one move. It is rare to go from medical malpractice to art law or from real estate law to criminal defense. The law someone had dreamt of practicing prior to and during law school was likely going to take multiple stepping stones to reach. But do you always have to leave to find something new, or do you just need to approach your current situation differently?

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Like my friends, I didn’t start off practicing the law I found most interesting, but I have ultimately taken a different path to get there. In the beginning, my career at a different firm was in one area of law without much deviation or variety. Then, 10 years and one month ago, I joined my current firm where attorneys had their hands in a variety of practice areas. It was there that I was able to shape the course of my practice.

In my first few years at this firm, I worked on various cases, involving real estate, partnership disputes, corporate and commercial matters, and — particularly exciting to me — defamation cases. After several years of successful outcomes and established client relationships, I began to take on more and more defamation cases but was also presented with potential cases in adjacent areas of law. A defamation case led to a licensing dispute, which led to a copyright matter, which led to a cyberbullying case. At some point I made a conscious decision to seek out clients and cases in areas of law that interested me. This meant saying yes to people who asked me if I was interested in talking to their friend about a script they were shopping around or an acquaintance who asked for guidance on a startup they were exploring. Engaging in those conversations and being willing to take on smaller matters concerning topics I enjoyed would eventually lead to much more. My eagerness to explore and handle cases in the areas of law I found fascinating — dealing with First Amendment protections, privacy and public rights, media, and technology — was coupled with my firm’s willingness to let its attorneys explore new types of cases. It was this approach that gave me the leeway to shift the focus of my practice without moving from firm to firm.

I am cognizant of the fact that not all firms or companies are as willing to stray from their comfort zone, and sometimes jumping ship is the only way to attain your career goals. However, although you may think your current employer will not let you do the work you want to do, the only way to find out is by pushing against (or at least nudging) the status quo. I was fortunate to be in an environment that supported innovation and expansion. Much like parents sometimes need to step back and let their children forge their own paths, employers may need to give their employees some room to take risks and try new things. Michael Phelps would have never won a thousand gold metals if his mom told him not to get too close to the water. (It’s me. I’m Michael Phelps in this analogy.)

When I started at my firm or first began my legal career, I never thought I would someday work on the matters I now handle. I have gotten the chance to do the type of work that I had on my bucket list back in law school, but it took one interesting unfamiliar type of case to springboard to the next.

If your reason for seeking a new job is location, compensation, benefits, or lifestyle, by all means go forth and prosper. But if what drives you to scroll through job listings is a desire to practice a different area of law, talk to your employer about expanding your practice or bring in one case that feels a bit different. Once you’ve (competently) handled that one case, your employer may be more willing to allow you to build relationships with potential clients in new uncharted territories. Sometimes a little bit of creativity, coupled with some relationship-building and confidence, can be the key to forging your own career path.

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Diana Warshow is Senior Counsel at Nesenoff & Miltenberg, LLP in New York, NY. Practicing law since 2008, Diana’s work focuses on defamation and Title IX law. She represents clients in libel and slander claims against media companies, written publications, tech companies, blogs, and social media sites. She also represents students in disciplinary proceedings at high schools, colleges, and post-graduate institutions around the country. You can reach her by email at [email protected] and connect with her on LinkedIn.

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