A Foolish Thing That Smart (Young) Lawyers Do

// Did you do well in high school? If so, how did you do that? Well, you were pretty smart, and you worked super hard. Then you managed to be at the top of your class. You competed with your high school class and you won!  Now what?

Well, of course that means you went to a good college. And maybe a very good college. Who else is at that college? Well, people just like you, right? The winners of their own high school derbies. So the competition is harder now, isn’t it?

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But you buckle down — even harder — and you still manage to be near the top of the class in college. Woohoo! So what now?

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Well, you don’t need me to tell you. You go to a top law school. Probably one of the top 10 law schools, right? And you probably see where I am going here don’t you?  The competition is brutal at this point, isn’t it? You are now competing with the smartest and hardest-working high schoolers — who were the smartest and hardest working at their top colleges. Yikes! It’s going to be quite a slog.

But you are incredibly driven, aren’t you? And we already know how smart you are, so once again you manage to scrap and claw your way to the top of the heap.  I am ignoring the attempt by many law schools to hide grades. So you are at the top. You stretch your arms out. Your reward is nigh. And that is of course a job at one of the top 10 or 20 law firms at the biggest and most prestigious law market in the world, namely, New York City. You are in so-called Biglaw!!!!

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Finally, the world is your oyster isn’t it?

Ummm, for someone so smart you did something pretty dumb didn’t you?

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You just put yourself in competition with the smartest, most talented, hardest-working people on the planet for a limited number of partnership or other career opportunities.

Why on Earth would you do this?

It makes no sense at all, does it?

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As an aside, it was exactly what I did.  I worked my ….. off in high school. I got to Tufts University (because I couldn’t get into an Ivy League school). Then I worked even harder to get into Harvard Law School. Then I got several jobs in Biglaw in New York City and eventually was not only passed over for partner at Latham & Watkins, I was ignominiously fired along with close to 200 other associates when they didn’t need me. Boy, was that a comeuppance. I wish I knew then what I know now.

Back to you. This career path does make some sense if you are just going to stay at Biglaw for a few years and add that prestige to your resume plus some sophisticated training. Thereafter, I advocate that you take control of your career.

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And how would you take control of your career?

The answer is that you define where you are going instead of letting Biglaw define it. And the way to do this — in my view — is to create a Power Niche for your career.

If you read my other writings on Power Niches, you will understand that a Power Niche for a lawyer is NOT legal in nature. It is industry specific. And it is not something you find, it is something you create.

There is not enough space here to really go into this, so to learn more you can visit my website that as further explanation of what a Power Niche is.

Now my articles for ATL are supposed to be about the Law Firms of the Future, and you might wonder what this pontification to young lawyers has to do with that. And the answer is easy. The Law Firm of the Future would have as its mission to be a place where its young lawyers create their own Power Niches. As their Power Niches develop, they either stay at the firm and grow it there, or they leave the firm and become part of the firm’s ecosystem in its industry (possibly even moving to the business side).

If I were a young man or a young woman seeking an incredible career in law, boy would I want to be at a law firm like that. And since the name of the game is all about attracting, training, and retaining talent, I would think a Law Firm of the Future would want to do exactly this.

Bruce Stachenfeld is the chairman of Duval & Stachenfeld LLP, an approximately 50-lawyer law firm based in midtown Manhattan. The firm is known as “The Pure Play in Real Estate Law” because all of its practice areas are focused around real estate. With almost 50 full-time real estate lawyers, the firm is one of the largest real estate law practices in New York City. You can contact Bruce by email at [email protected]. Bruce also writes The Real Estate Philosopher™, which contains applications of Bruce’s eclectic, insightful, and outside-the-box thinking to the real estate world. If you would like to read previous articles or subscribe, please click here.

Topics

Biglaw, Bruce Stachenfeld