The following
posting is made with permission from the State Bar of Wisconsin who originally
printed it as an article with the same name included in Young Lawyer
Division News, State Bar of Wisconsin, January 2014, Vol. No. 17, Issue No.
1:
One of the
primary reasons I ran for a position on the board of the Young Lawyers Division
of the State Bar of Wisconsin was that I knew it would provide me with
opportunities to help young attorneys struggling in this economy. Since I graduated from law school in
2005, I have had six legal jobs, seventeen different bosses, and I have sent
over 700 emails regarding possible employment. Before you immediately assume that I am an opportunist
jumping to continually greener pastures: two jobs were temporary, two firms
split up, and the sole owner of my last firm died from brain cancer six months
after I left his firm.
Nevertheless, I consider myself lucky because I know that many others
have had and are having a much tougher time. With the recent release of the Challenges Facing New Lawyers
Task Force Report and Recommendation, it seems like an opportune time to offer
some thoughts on career searching.
I should start
by saying that this article is not being offered as advice. I don’t pretend to be an expert in
career counseling, and I am not delusional enough to think that everyone else
should want to follow my career path… “Oh, I thought you did something wrong
and were being banned to Siberia” was the quip one Green Bay colleague made,
after learning that I was from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and that that is
why I accepted a position at Kendricks Bordeau in Marquette. However, I have always found that
listening to others and what worked for them was a good way to help me work
through some of my own difficult decisions with respect to career choices. So maybe my story can do the same for
others.
I can be a
little more forthright than I would have dared to in the past because I was
recently promoted to shareholder and have no plans to go anywhere. Quite simply, I love my job, and my
colleagues tolerate me. With that,
here are some things that I think I have learned:
I started by asking for too much money. Early in my career when I interviewed
for jobs and the money discussion came up, I usually asked for way too much
money. Several factors contributed
to this mistake.
First, like
many, I have a large law school debt, so I thought (1) I needed more money and
(2) I deserved to be paid “like a lawyer” because I am paying to be a lawyer. After being out of law school for
almost nine years, I realize that I can live on less than I thought even with
the loans. Not everyone has large
loans. It is not any employer’s
fault that I have these loans or their responsibility to pay me more than the
market will bear. If other
attorneys with equal qualifications are willing to take a job for less money,
then they will likely get the job.
If other attorneys with greater qualifications are willing to take the
job for less money, then they will almost certainly get the job.
Second, I went
to school in the Washington DC area, and the salary figures I was hearing from
my friends getting jobs in that area or in other major cities did not apply to
the legal market in the Detroit area, or later the Fox River Valley, where I
was seeking employment. I should
have been trying to get a more realistic idea of what young attorneys were
making in the markets where I was seeking employment.
Lastly, and most
importantly, I was asking for too much money because all the career advice that
I was reading online was saying things to the effect of, “be careful not to ask
for too little.” I thought if I
asked for too little it would show how little I knew. It’s actually quite the opposite. Asking for a reasonable salary shows that you understand the
market you are entering, which is huge if the employer is looking for a future
partner rather than simply an employee.
One of the more senior shareholders in my firm still gets ribbed for
asking if there was a signing bonus when he got hired as a young lawyer.
I learned to focus on mentorship. The Challenges Facing New Lawyers Task
Force Report and Recommendations raises ideas like forming a state bar
sponsored law firm and a legal residence program so that young lawyers can get
the experience, training, and mentorship they need. I mentioned this to a colleague and his response was,
“that’s what associates are.” I
completely agree that is what it should be like to be an associate, but, sadly,
that is not always the case.
One thing I feel
I did correctly several times in my career was to approach a job transition as
an opportunity to get better opportunities for mentorship rather than a better
salary. I did this twice by leaving
one job for another that paid me the exact same salary. Both times I told the employer what my
wage was at my current job and said that I did not need to make more money to
switch jobs because I believed the job I was applying for was better because of
the things I would learn in that position and from that employer. The last time I took this approach I
not only did not ask for a raise to leave my job, I offered to take a 1/3 pay
cut. Going from a more urban area
to a more rural market also influenced the size of this pay cut, but I viewed
it as making up in mentorship far more than I was giving up in salary.
I have never
regretted these decisions as each time I did in fact gain valuable
mentors. You know the saying, “if
you give a person a fish they eat for a day. If you teach a person to fish, they eat for a
lifetime.” Well, that is exactly
why you need a mentor. What I gave
up in salary today by chasing mentorship, I believe I will gain in salary
tomorrow because I gained more marketable skills than I would have if I simply
went after salary.
One of the great
things about being an attorney is that, with the right experiences, you can
learn how to be dependent on no one.
I would probably never open my own firm because I enjoy working with
other attorneys and bouncing ideas off of them. However, gaining the skills necessary to open your own firm
if necessary provides a certain security and freedom even if you never intend
to do that. Great mentors not only
teach you how to work in your chosen practice areas, but they also teach you
how to run a law practice.
I underestimated the work available in
rural areas. I have never been
adverse to rural employment; however, I thought that I could not afford to work
in a rural setting. I thought the
pay would be too low. The pay is
lower—mostly—but the cost of living is usually lower too. I say the pay is mostly lower because
not all firms in a larger area pay alike.
The spectrum of salaries in large cities is wide. If you are going to be on the low end
of the spectrum in a larger city, you might find a more appealing job in a
smaller city with the same or greater pay.
The
competition for jobs in rural areas is usually not as great as it is in the
city. Having lived back in the UP
for almost two years now, I have heard a few different times about attorneys
complaining about not being able to find young attorneys willing to live in
certain parts of the UP. I imagine
that certain parts of Wisconsin have the same problem.
More
important than the pay or location though is the experience that can be gained
in a more rural setting. Some
would consider Green Bay a small town.
Having lived in Washington DC and Detroit areas, I certainly did. However, my last and longest job in
Green Bay was of the big city variety.
For almost four
years (at two firms), I specialized in CERCLA litigation. Our firm had one client who gave us
something like 99% of our business in the form of two lawsuits concerning the
PCB cleanup of the Lower Fox River, which is the largest environmental cleanup
of its kind in the United States and is projected to cost over a billion
dollars. While this was a great
learning experience in high stakes civil litigation, if I planned to make a
career beyond that particular dispute, then I needed to learn how to handle
smaller matters. I was the rare
small town civil litigator with tons of federal court experience, but hardly
any state court experience. I had
handled many depositions, drafted lengthy briefs, and responded to plenty of
discovery, but I had very limited experience with client intake. I had no portable book of
business. I did not just specialize
in litigation; it was all I did.
Further, I was not, as I call myself now, a juggler. If my client asked me to focus all my
time and effort on one project, the client knew its other project was on the
back burner and there basically were no other clients to worry about. The point is that I was highly
specialized.
By going to a
more general practice in a more rural setting I have gained immensely more
transferrable skills. I still
focus on litigation, but I have done more transactional and real estate work
then I would have likely done had I stayed in Green Bay. Further, the litigation I take in is
much more diverse. I have cases
with millions of dollars at stake, and I have cases in the District Court. I have had several trials in the
probate court. I have an appellate
matter. I have had numerous federal cases, and I even take some misdemeanor
criminal matters. Moreover, my
previous experience compliments my current litigation practice more than I
would have thought because it helps clients build trust in me.
Marquette has a
population of only around 20,000 people, which makes it the most populated city
in all of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
My firm is the largest in the UP, which means we have 10 attorneys. Hearing those things you might assume,
as a colleague used to joke, that, “I would need to specialize in bar fight law
to make a career there.” Nothing
could be further from the truth.
We draw clients who have matters all over the UP, and because the UP is
a playground for people from all across the United States, our clients come
from all over the United States.
I, personally, have clients from California, Oregon, Kansas City,
Chicago, Las Vegas, Florida, and Washington. I have matters all across the UP and a couple matters in
Lower Michigan. My firm currently
represents the City of Marquette, the County of Marquette, the Board of Light
& Power, numerous school districts, a major university, and some of the
biggest private employers in the UP.
Even if the dollar amounts at issue tend to be lower than the amounts at
issue in similar matters in major cities, our clients face the same legal
issues as the clients of Big Law firms.
The point of all of this is that, as for breadth of experience, I sort
of feel like I found a diamond in the rough; however, at the same time, I
realize there are firms similar to mine all around the country.
Moreover, the
small town life comes with perks you are not likely to find in a bigger
city. On most nights, I leave work
before 6 pm… my wife still gets mad at me if I show up later than that and have
not called first. On most
weekends, I don’t work. Now I am
not saying that I never have to work late or on weekends, but it is also not
the norm. It probably will be the
norm someday when my kids are old but that will be my choice as opposed to just
part of the job.
I should have gotten more involved sooner. Do something to distinguish
yourself. My first experience in
post law school extracurricular activity—okay that might not make sense, but
you know what I mean—was with the Brown County Young Lawyers Association. I took the position of President of the
YLA for a while, which basically meant I picked the bar where the YLA would
meet, paid the tab and sought reimbursement from the county bar. I would say, “I’m the President of the
YLA.” My colleague would say, “I’m the President of my backyard.” While we joked, I now view the
experience as very valuable because of the relationships I formed with other
attorneys in the Green Bay area through the YLA.
The YLA
eventually led to me being more involved with the Brown County Bar Association
and the Honorable Robert J. Parins Inn of Court. So much so that I felt I could have ended up on the
executive counsel of either of those organizations if I had simply said, “I’ll
do it,” when leadership recruitment was being discussed around me. I did not speak up and I regret that
now. I did, however, finally take a
suggestion that was posed to me by another YLA member: “why don’t you get
involved with the YLD?”
Getting involved
in the YLD led to me attending a CLE on blogging and meeting more lawyers who
blog, which led to me starting my own blog, www.ThatsMyArgument.com. My experience on the YLD Board and with
blogging led to me being asked to be an author for the next edition of The Law of Damages, a widely used
publication of the State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE®. All of these experiences beefed up my resume for my recent
election to the Council of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Michigan
and my appointment to the board of the YMCA of Marquette County (Michigan). Non-paid work leads to more non-paid
work, but I highly recommend it.
If you would
have told me two years ago that in two years you will be on the Board of the
YLD, will have your own blog, will be on the Council of the Michigan Litigation
Section, will be on the Board of the Marquette YMCA, and will be a shareholder
at Kendricks Bordeau—a firm that I had been pursing since the beginning of law
school—I would have thought you were nuts. If I believed you, I would have been completely
overwhelmed. Take your time, and
focus on one thing at a time.
There is a definite snowball effect and it will come together.
So that’s my
story and what I think I have learned from my many years as a struggling young
attorney. I hope someone finds it
useful, and I encourage you to tell your story. Please contact me or another board member of the YLD to do
so.
© January 2014 Brandon J. Evans
© January 2014 Brandon J. Evans
