Large Texas company seeks experienced transactions attorneys (ideally in the 5-7 year range) for temporary assignments in Austin. Candidates must have experience handling federal, state and local government sales or procurement transactions. Local candidates preferred, but not required. This opportunity has the potential to become permanent. Please send salary / rate requirements to csapire@sapiresearch.com.
There was a time when lawyers spent an entire career in one particular practice area. For an increasing number of attorneys, those days are over. With practice areas becoming more cyclical and a heavy emphasis on maintaining profitability, lawyers are feeling the pressure to re-tool. I recently had an opportunity to speak at the Association of Legal Administrators Conference in St. Louis regarding this topic and wanted to share some initial highlights of the discussion below:
A legal career used to be very stable. After about eight years as an associate, you made partner, and continued your career at the same firm. However, as competition in the legal marketplace has increased, law firms have begun to operate more like businesses with heavy attention to profitability, measured by profits per partner. Beginning about five years ago, firms began to reduce the number of equity partners being made each year by either adopting two-tiered partnership models and/or deferring partnership for some associates. Companies have drastically cut legal budgets.
Since September 2008, the legal industry has lost about 34,000 jobs. Firms started reducing associate salaries, deferring start dates for incoming associate classes and eliminating lock-step pay. A dean of one of the top law schools in the country said that as of September 1, 40% of the class of 2009 did not have a job. The previous year it had been 4%.
Now, more than ever, law firms are more business-oriented in how they operate, and companies are heavily focused on cost containment and doing more with less. Efficiency is one way to ensure survival, which is why the business case can be made for practice area re-tooling. Among the many changes in law practice management over the last 10-15 years is the growing acceptance of attorneys who change specialties. An associate, junior partner, or in-house counsel with a good track record and institutional knowledge of the organization’s culture and its client base has a good chance of being given time to climb the learning curve. In many cases, the ideal scenario for both the firm/company and the re-tooling lawyer is to make the transition within the organization.
In my next blog posting, we will continue the discussion including the following topics:
- Obstacles to overcome
- How to prepare for a transition
- High-growth practice areas
Austin company seeks 10-15 year attorney with corporate and securities experience. This position will support operations and finance, including reviewing and preparing 1934 Act filings, supporting the investor relations team, coordinating debt offerings, and other finance-related functions. The ideal candidate has experience handling securities compliance matters, strong analytical and problem-solving skills, attention to detail, strong communication and presentation abilities, an ability to work confidently with executive management and extremely strong skills in negotiation and drafting.
Other responsibilities include: providing regulatory and compliance advice, training finance teams to assure legal compliance and adherence to company policies and procedures, and risk management.
The compensation package is attractive, and includes a highly competitive base salary, significant bonus opportunity, equity participation and excellent career advancement potential.
National law firm seeks litigation attorneys for immediate contract assignment in Atlanta. Experience handling employment litigation matters is desirable. The work is substantive and requires thoughtful analysis and discretion. Great resume-building experience and opportunity to work with a firm in growth mode. Please e-mail resume and contract rate to csapire@sapiresearch.com.
Corporate legal departments are keeping more work in-house these days to reduce costs. For many, this means more work and fewer people to do it. To that end, many companies are taking advantage of the high quality of talent on the market now by increasing the use of contract attorneys.
While using outside counsel is still a necessity for certain highly specialized work, many corporate law departments are re-evaluating and increasing the work can be done internally. Often, that work consists of routine matters, such as patent applications, document reviews, low-level litigation and contract administration. However, as law departments lean more heavily on temporary legal professionals, the project work is not always routine. With increased federal regulation, more companies are turning to contract attorneys to handle large projects, such as corporate investigations and transactional due diligence. When the project is completed, the contract lawyers are released.
“Our company has seen a dramatic increase in the use of temporary attorneys and paralegals by corporate clients,” says Joe Freedman, Chairman of AMERICAN Legal Search, LLC, a national legal search firm and recruiting industry leader. “The talent pool is better than it’s ever been, and our clients are taking advantage of it.” Freedman added.
As the work product quality generated by contract lawyers increases, temporary legal teams may play a bigger role in corporate law departments. With a continued emphasis on cost-minimization, this may be a catalyst that changes the legal industry.
Large company seeks commercial contracts negotiators to review, analyze and negotiate domestic and international sales agreements. Position responsibilities include:
· Leading negotiations for the sale of information technology projects and services
· Interacting with senior management as both an advisor and business leader
· Collaborating with sales, operations, finance, legal, tax, and risk management to ensure that agreements adequately protect company’s interests
· Reviewing and providing input on terms and conditions contained in RFP & and sales proposals
Requirements:
· Heavy experience dealing with international business practices, antitrust laws, intellectual property, resellers, leasing companies, and commercial contract law
· Minimum of 8 years of domestic and international sales negotiation, transactional, and/or in-house corporate legal experience
· Extensive knowledge of the information technology industry and detailed knowledge of commercial contracts terms
We have multiple opportunities with energy companies in the New England area for lawyers with federal and state energy regulatory experience. This is an exciting time to work in the electric power industry and participate in shaping energy policy and regulations.
Our clients seek attorneys with 3 - 7 years of FERC or state regulatory experience and excellent writing skills. These are busy departments that offer cutting-edge work, along with competitive salaries and benefits, and career stability.
If interested, please contact sharon@sapiresearch.com .
In today’s economic world, marketing is more important than ever. The people who are bringing in business are the ones who are going after it. Here’s a great opportunity: for the next 48 hours only, my colleague Paula Black is offering a collection of free bonus gifts to anyone who purchases her latest book: “The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide To Creating A Marketing Habit in 21 Days.” Designed to help lawyers integrate marketing into their daily lives, this book is quick, easy and inspirational. By purchasing it within the next 48 hours, you’ll receive special access to information and resources from more than 30 industry experts. A compilation of advice from some of the most sought-after experts in the legal arena, “The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit” gives you instant admittance to an incredible collection of tips and information. Click here for details.
Legal Week recently launched a group for in-house lawyers. Established last month by Legal Week conference editor Anthony Parker, the group enables law department attorneys to to exchange information and build working relationships. The 500-member group is growing fast.
Members include in-house counsel from JP Morgan, Dubai International Capital, Virgin, Nomura, UBS, 3i, Carillion, Chevron, Barclays and IBM. Access to the group provides links to features and analysis from Legal Week and its US sister titles, the latest news stories relating to in-house counsel and corporate legal departments, discussion boards, and information about upcoming events.
To join, click here.
Downsizing almost always destabilizes a corporate law department, leaving in its wake uncertainty and doubts about the future in the minds of those not affected by the layoffs. If you’re among the ranks of those left standing, you might be thinking it’s a good time to start exploring other opportunities. Networking and reaching out to former colleagues is first step.
If you’ve been with the same firm or company for several years, your contacts may be out of date, especially if networking has taken a back seat to the demands of work and family life. Here are some tips to start reconnecting:
- If you’re not using online business and social networking tools, join now. These really work. LinkedIn is the leading online business networking site and has a very user-friendly interface. Spoke and ZoomInfo are also fairly useful, although the information can be outdated. Facebook is even crossing over to the business arena.
- If you’re already a member of an online network, make sure to update all your current job and contact information. Join alumni groups and those that relate to your area of specialty.
- Bar association websites are also great resources to find former colleagues. Most states have online searchable attorney databases.
- The Association of Corporate Counsel is also an excellent resource and the contact information for its members is almost always current.
- Finally, Twitter is gaining ground as a way for business people – including lawyers – to self-promote and find colleagues. You can search for contacts and follow them, which can be a great way to re-establish a relationship.
