Knowing When to Make Your Legal Job Transition
If you are a skilled attorney associate and are looking to make a transition to another firm (or to an in-house legal in the near future), then you would do well to reflect on the reasons for your departure. Making a legal job transition is a significant commitment, and you should carefully consider the direction of your legal recruitment process to ensure that you are actually moving forward and not running around in circles.
As you explore the possibilities afforded to you by legal recruitment services, take some time to objectively assess your existing position and how different aspects of the experience have affected your career. This assessment will almost certainly help you choose a firm or in-house department that is better attuned to your work preferences — after all, if you’re unsatisfied with your current position, you don’t want to risk a repeat experience!
So, what negative aspects of your current legal position truly indicate that a job transition — one that is simultaneously significant, carefully-considered, and filled to the brim with potential — is necessary?
Work-Life Balance is a Problem
The inability to strike a satisfactory balance between one’s work and one’s personal life is a common issue facing attorneys at private law firms. Understandably, the legal work cycle can be unpredictable, and it is not particularly nonstandard for a team of attorneys to be forced by unavoidable circumstances to work difficult hours — for at least a limited time. Some firms are perpetually short-staffed, however, leading to systemic issues with excessive work schedules. Other firms simply expect attorneys to sacrifice work-life balance. In these environments, failure to sacrifice one’s work-life balance may lead to interpersonal, administrative, and career trajectory issues.
Prioritizing your work-life balance may be impossible with your current employer. Before you set off on your legal recruitment journey, make sure to apprise yourself of any and all options to rebalance your workload in your existing position — if it is not possible without significant compromise (to your career trajectory, work relationships, etc.) then you should seriously consider transitioning to a new position.
The Work Itself is Uninteresting
Dissatisfaction with the subject matter of one’s existing and projected workload is another issue that commonly (and justifiably, for that matter!) leads to a decision to look for a position at a different firm or in-house legal department.
Attorneys seem to voice their concerns about two issues in particular: either 1) their practice area or industry is not keeping their interest, or 2) their past and future caseload at their current firm is simply uninteresting.
If you find your work uninteresting, then you may want to consider a practice area or industry shift. Many attorneys find that a transition to a new firm or in-house legal department gives them a clean slate with which to explore a new practice area or industry, even if their career trajectory slows down somewhat as a result.
If the problem lies in the caseload, specifically, then you may be able to fast-track your career trajectory and improve your caseload by seeking out firms with more engaging work (in the same practice area and industry). With the aid of a skilled legal recruiter, you can investigate the type of work you might be assigned and can help you target those employers with work most suitable to your preferences.
Career Trajectory is Limited
Many attorneys commit to a job transition once they objectively assess their position with their current employer and realize that their career trajectory is limited. For example, if you believe that you would not make partner at your current place of employment (whether driven by a failure to play workplace politics, various mistakes attributable to you over time, the lack of available partnership openings, or any other reason), then a lateral transition may put you in a position where you can start anew without the burden of your workplace reputation weighing you down.
Lack of Support Services
Adequate administrative support can be critical to thriving in a demanding legal work environment. These services include but are not limited to paralegal support, trainee and mentorship programs, team engagement, and e-discovery support. When firms cut back on costs, the administrative support budget tends to tighten first. Generally speaking, healthy firms spend generously on support services to keep their high-performing attorneys satisfied. If you feel that your firm or legal department’s attorney support systems are lacking, then that is almost certainly good cause to consider a move to a firm that is willing to invest more to ensure that its attorneys are happy and empowered.
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If you’re an attorney dissatisfied with your current job and looking for a new position, speak with a Los Angeles legal recruiter at Garb Jaffe & Associates. We have extensive experience placing attorneys with prestigious law firms and large corporations located across California, and will advise throughout the recruitment process so that you can secure an ideal placement.
Call us today at (310) 207-0727 for a free consultation.