As The Lawyer Recession Continues, Learn Basic Lawyering

As BigLaw layoffs slow, lawyers stupidly are starting to think that "things are getting better."

Ever heard of a hurricane? It's a storm with what's called an "eye." The first part of a hurricane is a terrible storm, followed by the eye, where there is total calm, and then the "back side," which is sometimes worse than the initial storm.

We're in the eye.

BigLaw layoffs have slowed to a crawl because once you shave someone's head, you can't cut anymore until the hair comes back.

But let's be real.

What's most important here is the client mindset. This recession is doing one thing to everyone - causing us to re-think spending.

There will always be some form of BigLaw. Big companies can't have the law firm of You and Your Partner, P.A. handling the hundreds of legal matters that they face. But what will change, is that Big Company will no longer tolerate BigLaw's big billing and the use of one too many associate on their matter.

The winners here are solo and small firm lawyers, if they play it right and get back to basics:

[1] Clients are looking for legal services to resolve their issues. They are not impressed with how many hours you can bill.

[2] While you may not be able to "bill the shit out of this file," (that's lawyer speak for, well, it's pretty obvious), doing what the client wants, in less time than he thought, will get you more cases. If you don't understand that, you're part of the problem and I can't help you.

[3] Get to know your client.

I know, it's a client, with a file. But it's also a client, with a wife, family, hobby, fear, interest. Ask a few more questions.

[4] Screw the billable hour.

I laugh every time a civil lawyer tells me they got a small retainer and never got paid the rest. Payment plans are non-payment plans. Sending monthly bills is like sending a letter to the President and hoping for a real response.

Charge a flat fee, up front. Get the money out of the way and concentrate on the case. And don't tell me you can't do that. You can, you just don't want to do it.

[5] Learn about your clients.

I don't care what your client does, owns, or sells. Learn everything about whatever it is your client does, and not just his case.

[6] Figure out how to do better what you are doing now.

There's so much shit on the internet, free shit, funny shit. I'm not talking about the "how to make 10 million dollars with a blog," or "how a Facebook fan page will change your life," or "how I'm no longer practicing law but can tell you how to make a ton of money practicing law."

I'm talking about sites like these:

MyShingle.com
BitterLawyer.com
Lawyerist.com

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. Please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com

A Message To Young Lawyers As The Recession Worsens: A Time To Kill

I have to laugh every time I hear that the "recession may end sometime this year." A "recession" is a period of time when there is "a period of negative growth, usually during two consecutive quarters."

So when there is two consecutive quarters of growth, or no "negative" growth, we are technically out of a recession.

But this economy is done, for a while. A long while. It's comical but true that many people believe the "end of the recession" means that things will "go back" to the way they were.

They won't.

Life in America has changed, it's just waiting for people to catch up

Young lawyers need to catch up, quick.

Based on my unscientific study, i.e. reading things like the ABA Journal and talking to recent graduates, there are no jobs.

BigLaw is deferring start dates (read: here's some money because we feel bad we can't afford to actually hire you, and will officially kick you to the curb in a few months when we come to terms with reality), government agencies (prosecutor and public defender offices) are on extended hiring freezes, and small firms are picking up lawyers who have a "book of business" and don't need any training.

This is a terrible time to be graduating law school, and it is to those that I write this post.

The disillusionment must be painful. Those that actually went to law school due to some corny passion (that I had) to be a "lawyer," must be wondering what the hell you're going to do. Those that went to collect that $150,000 BigLaw salary at the end of the "rainbow" that you were "promised," well, you're having a different kind of pain.

To those that truly want to be "lawyers," meaning you want to represent clients, think about this: assume you won't get a job. If this is the case, what are you going to do? Sit home? Send out resumes? Hope?

How about making yourself available to a lawyer in the field you want to go in to? Make a list of the best lawyers in your desired field, meet them (find a way to meet them in a social setting) and offer yourself to work for them. Yes, for free. (BigLaw rejects please don't throw up on your monitor).

Do it for a month, two months. See where it gets you. Will the experience hurt your chances to get a job?

Exactly.

I mentioned this to a newly minted lawyer by saying "Find a lawyer, not a job." He responded by asking if I had any openings. Wrong response. None of these lawyers have any "openings." Create the opening.

Ever see "A Time to Kill?" If not, rent it, and watch the scene when Sandra Bullock is trying to latch on to a job working with Matthew McConaughey. She is relentless. It's exactly what I am talking about.

And to you BigLaws who are figuratively, or maybe literally thinking of who to sue for lack of receiving your entitled job churning billable hours? Go find a job selling Amway or Mary Kay. It was all about the money anyway, why concern yourself with how you make it?

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. Please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com

There's A Positive Side Of The Lawyer Recession?

I don't wonder how lawyers went from respected members of society to just above used car salesman, or is it below?

I may be wrong, but I believe the demise of lawyers came with the attraction to the profession by money hungry college students. Laugh if you will, but the popularity of LA Law drove thousands of applications to law schools around the country. Three years of school, BigLaw job, BigLaw office, mahogany furniture, BigLaw artwork, swank restaurants, exciting clients and office politics, and a ton of cash. Oh yeah, and some research, work, and sweat. But I digress.

Throw in advertising with the thousands of lawyers in the practice today that see law as a means to cash, and you get cut throat competition, stupid lawsuits, bad press, and other reports of lawyers doing idiotic things.

I went to law school during this "LA Law" time, the early nineties. Thankfully none of the BigLaw recruiters would schedule me for an interview, and I "had" to fulfill my desire to be a criminal defense lawyer by going to the public defender's office.

So I look at this recession. I read daily about the "lawyers" at BigLaw being laid off. The solo real estate lawyers and other small firm lawyers who find themselves with a non-paying client list, are going away quietly, or working on matters they know little about.

I cannot imagine being a lawyer, going through a total of 19 years of education, being plucked out of school for a plum job, and a few years, or 10 years, or at any time, being told "goodbye."

Obviously the first thought is to get a job. Bills, have to be paid.

The troubling thought most often with BigLaw layoffs is "what can I do?"

Working on pieces of cases, sitting on westlaw or lexis, outlining depositions, do not make a practitioner. A practitioner takes a client and handles their case from start to finish. BigLaw avoids teaching that process. When you have 4 lawyers on a case, it's hard to understand the whole picture.

In my opinion, the positive side of this lawyer recession is that those that entered the profession without any desire to be a "lawyer," may leave.

I say go, do something else.

If you're only desire is to make money, make it elsewhere. Start a business. Let's see if a clearing out of non-committed tools (and maybe many of them didn't strive to be that in the first place, but let it happen) helps raise the image of lawyers a bit.

Law is a business, now, because it has become that. It used to be a profession, with professionals committed to justice, individual rights, and resolving disputes.

Maybe we can get back to that.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. Please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com