Laid-Off Biglaw Attorneys

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

I agree pp likely isn’t getting more time, but how do you propose he improve his skills now to find something else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

Sorry that you're going through this. Just ask. Even though it's a true layoff, they should want you to land well. Also ask to use their executive coach and career counselor to help you with interviewing and resumes. And, no matter what, ask them to keep you on the website until you have a new job, even if it takes longer than 3 months. It's so hard to find a job if it looks like you are currently unemployed.

But then what do you do when the interviewer asks you what your current employment is, and when they check your references and find out that you were terminated even though you're still on the website? Won't that dishonesty be worse?

If it were business as usual then maybe. But right now because of the pandemic? I think any new employer will understand that someone doing a job search right now is doing it for a furlough or termination reason.

Nope. The legal field is uniquely oversaturated, unforgiving and prestige-driven. No one wants to hire an unemployed lawyer. They think if you were a star, you would never have been laid off. If you weren't a star, they don't want you.

Sadly very true.

If you are worried, put out feelers. Line up something else now, while you still have a job, if you think you’ll get laid off. At the same time, make yourself invaluable where you are. Do everything you can to be a go-to.

The legal industry is so snobby about what it perceives as “damaged goods.” This happened in 2008.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

I agree pp likely isn’t getting more time, but how do you propose he improve his skills now to find something else?

Look at what sectors are growing. Build skills in those as much as you can. Many firms are doing bankruptcy training. Complex litigation practice will only grow after this. Health law. Areas of the federal government are hiring (go research).

No need to be smug. It will prevent you from thinking about possible adjustments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

I agree pp likely isn’t getting more time, but how do you propose he improve his skills now to find something else?

Look at what sectors are growing. Build skills in those as much as you can. Many firms are doing bankruptcy training. Complex litigation practice will only grow after this. Health law. Areas of the federal government are hiring (go research).

No need to be smug. It will prevent you from thinking about possible adjustments.

Not smug, just realistic. You think someone taking a few PLIs is going to make himself marketable as a bankruptcy attorney, etc? This is especially true for people who are more senior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

troll

No, not a troll. I wish I were. He was hungry and disheveled. That's Big Law, April 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

I agree pp likely isn’t getting more time, but how do you propose he improve his skills now to find something else?

Look at what sectors are growing. Build skills in those as much as you can. Many firms are doing bankruptcy training. Complex litigation practice will only grow after this. Health law. Areas of the federal government are hiring (go research).

No need to be smug. It will prevent you from thinking about possible adjustments.

Not smug, just realistic. You think someone taking a few PLIs is going to make himself marketable as a bankruptcy attorney, etc? This is especially true for people who are more senior.

No, a senior lawyer won't become a bankruptcy expert after a few PLI courses. However, s/he can draft a resume that highlights bankruptcy experience, coupled to general litigation work (court appearances, depo work, motions drafting, etc...) In many cases, firms with an overflow of work just want someone who understands the terminology and has a good understanding of the concepts. If you're smart, you can pick up a lot of substantive knowledge within 3-6 months, especially if you do a lot of supplemental reading.

The problem is that many lawyers who specialized in an area don't want to "throw away" years (or a decade-plus) of experience in one area, and have to start from almost scratch in a new area. Piece of advice - put your ego aside and decide if you want a job or not. If it's any comfort, I've met a few physicians who had to retrain from one type of medicine to another, doing locum tenum (that's "temp work" for doctors) while they got the requisite knowledge and experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

I agree pp likely isn’t getting more time, but how do you propose he improve his skills now to find something else?

Look at what sectors are growing. Build skills in those as much as you can. Many firms are doing bankruptcy training. Complex litigation practice will only grow after this. Health law. Areas of the federal government are hiring (go research).

No need to be smug. It will prevent you from thinking about possible adjustments.

Not smug, just realistic. You think someone taking a few PLIs is going to make himself marketable as a bankruptcy attorney, etc? This is especially true for people who are more senior.

No, a senior lawyer won't become a bankruptcy expert after a few PLI courses. However, s/he can draft a resume that highlights bankruptcy experience, coupled to general litigation work (court appearances, depo work, motions drafting, etc...) In many cases, firms with an overflow of work just want someone who understands the terminology and has a good understanding of the concepts. If you're smart, you can pick up a lot of substantive knowledge within 3-6 months, especially if you do a lot of supplemental reading.

The problem is that many lawyers who specialized in an area don't want to "throw away" years (or a decade-plus) of experience in one area, and have to start from almost scratch in a new area. Piece of advice - put your ego aside and decide if you want a job or not. If it's any comfort, I've met a few physicians who had to retrain from one type of medicine to another, doing locum tenum (that's "temp work" for doctors) while they got the requisite knowledge and experience.

Also, let me add to this that lawyers in DC might have to set their egos aside and take a gig that's a fair distance away, or even in another city, to keep employed.

[Anonymous]

Also, let me add to this that lawyers in DC might have to set their egos aside and take a gig that's a fair distance away, or even in another city, to keep employed.

The need for food, any kind of food at all, is already driving this migration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also, let me add to this that lawyers in DC might have to set their egos aside and take a gig that's a fair distance away, or even in another city, to keep employed.

The need for food, any kind of food at all, is already driving this migration.

Facetious, but with a kernel of truth. You sometimes have to move for a new/better job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

They gave you three months. You need to improve your skills and find something else.

3 months isn't a lot of time, even in great times. It took me 9 months in 2017/2018 to go from big law to in-house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

Terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

Terrible.

District taco has good trash

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

troll

No, not a troll. I wish I were. He was hungry and disheveled. That's Big Law, April 2020.

I do not believe you. I do not think anyone who is educated would do that now, not to mention a highly educated big law attorney, because he knows picking through a garage can will increase his chance of coronavirus exponentially. You are still a troll.

[Anonymous]

You have a law degree. hang out at court and take cases of people who need rep.

hang up your shingle, work from your home.