Prospective Attorney Colleagues — Positive Traits to Lookout For
Making a career move can be overwhelming, at first — whether you’re transitioning from a position you hate or a position you love, the thought of landing up at a firm or in-house legal department where you are forced to deal with cynical, frustrating, and incompatible colleagues is a frightening prospect.
For an insider perspective of what the culture and work environment is like at your target firms and in-house departments, consider speaking with an experienced California legal recruiter here at Garb Jaffe & Associates. Our legal recruiters have developed extensive networks of contacts at top law firms and in-house departments throughout the state of California, and will help paint a picture of what to expect.
Your job transition is meant to be an improvement! So, how can you ensure that your transition will be positive? It’s important to keep on the lookout for certain personality traits among the attorneys and partners at target firms and in-house departments as you navigate the recruitment process.
Consider the following traits that make for a great colleague.
Collaborative, Not Competitive
All too often, attorneys working in Big Law and working in the legal departments of prominent companies have a competitive mindset. A competitive mindset is not an absolute negative in every context, of course — when competing for clients or when litigating a case, your team will benefit from competitively-minded individuals — but from an internal teams perspective, collaboratively-minded individuals are much more pleasant to work with overall.
Though it may seem like a rather specific quality and difficult to identify, collaborative individuals tend to be drawn to firms and in-house departments which encourage a collaborative work culture. Legal recruiters are well aware of these firms and companies and their reputation. If you are specifically interested in landing at a firm or in-house department with a more collaborative culture, then our legal recruiters can help you identify those target companies with positive reputations and avoid those with negative reputations in that regard.
Informal Flexibility
In both the Big Law and in-house corporate world, formal flexi-work arrangements are more common than ever before. Still, many attorneys are — perhaps justifiably — concerned about entering into formal flexi-work arrangements, in part because doing so might interfere with their potential career growth and might undermine future opportunities at the firm. Further, not all attorneys require an arrangement involving consistent flexibility every week.
Informal flexibility is critical for attorneys looking for health work-life balance. Whereas a flexi-work arrangement setups up a consistently flexible schedule on a week-by-week basis, informal flexibility in the workplace enables an attorney to go about their normal schedule and request time off or flexibility when necessary.
If your supervising attorneys are not flexible, then they are unlikely to grant your requests on an informal basis. As such, if informal flexibility is important to you, then it’s absolutely critical that you seek out colleagues and supervisors who are willing to entertain such requests.
Actively and Personally Engaged
If you’re the sort of attorney who prizes a friendly work environment, then it’s worth keeping an eye out for firms and in-house departments with attorneys who are truly amiable — not merely polite, but actively engaged with others in the workplace. In work environments with actively-engaged and friendly attorneys, conflicts can be resolved without resorting to the aggression typical of many Big Law firms with poor internal reputations. Though it may seem relatively unimportant at this juncture (as you begin the recruitment process), identifying and targeting work environments that are “friendly” and “engaged” can pay off later on.
Humility — Ability to Accept Responsibility
Humility is perhaps the most underrated trait in the workplace, particularly in prestigious Big Law and in-house work environments. Oftentimes, skilled attorneys act with confidence that can be both advantageous and disadvantageous, depending on the context. Though an overconfident transactional attorney might effectively negotiate contract terms in a competitive, tense atmosphere, that same overconfidence can make the work environment a nightmare for their colleagues. For example, a humble attorney can accept responsibility over mistakes that they made, whereas an overconfident and egotistical attorney may force an associate to accept responsibility, even when the mistake was made through no fault of their own.
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Are you a California attorney looking to make a career move to a new firm or to a new in-house department at a prominent corporation?
Launching a successful job transition can lead to more opportunities for leadership and career progression, improvements in compensation, and a better-fit in the workplace, but to ensure that your transition to a new position hits all the right notes, you’ll have to pay close attention to the culture, reputation, and attorney experiences at your target firms. Experienced California legal recruiters — such as those here at Garb Jaffe & Associates — have contacts at most major Big Law firms and in-house departments across the state of California, and can give you the inside scoop on what to expect.
Call (310) 207-0727 for a consultation with one of our San Francisco legal recruiters today.