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S4 | Monday, august 17, 2015 | Law Schools
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Career
Harness the Experience of Attorneys
Returning to the Legal Profession
By lucia chiocchio
For the most part, law firms hire summer associates while they are in law school and from that group, employ them as first-year associates. Those first-year associ- ates with ability and ambition work their way up the law firm “chain” to become partner. Some law firms do have interim positions between associate and partner, such as senior associate, and some distinguish between two levels of partner (equity and non-equity). even fewer include one or two “of counsel” and “special counsel” positions in their firm models. Law schools are generally complicit in this model, offering classes, training and career placement services that suit this track.
While this traditional model has served
LUCIA ChIOCChIO is partner at Cuddy & Feder and is the immediate past president of the Westchester Women’s Bar Association.
many firms well in the past, its limitations may hinder future success by neglecting the talented attorneys whose careers do not cor- respond to this limited model. In the same way that individual lawyers must find creative strategies to address their clients’ needs in a changing legal landscape, so must firms be flexible and open to new models when building their legal teams.
In general, the legal profession is reticent to change and this reluctance to embrace alternative legal staffing models may result in a lost opportunity for firms to add valuable legal talent to their staff. For example, many firms overlook the pool of older talented attor- neys who don’t necessarily fit the traditional law firm career trajectory. With the rapidly changing legal marketplace, successful law firms will adapt to changes by considering attorneys who may not have started with them as first-year associates just out of law school to address clients’ ever changing legal needs. This is an area where law schools can help both law firms and this untapped group
of experienced attorneys by offering informa- tion and training for these lawyers and by identifying them as a source of experienced legal talent for law firms
The Non-Traditional Legal Career
Some attorneys began their careers in the traditional method—summer associate while in law school and then hired as a first-year associate. Then, at some point in their career, they decided to take a sabbatical from their practice for various reasons. This group of attorneys is almost exclusively women who decide to leave the practice of law for a period of time to raise children or take care of family members. This group also includes often highly successful lawyers who suspend their careers for health issues or in pursuit of other interests. other lawyers who don’t fit the traditional law firm model are those who took up the practice of law as a second career after dappling in other professional fields such as medicine or engineering.
Very often, when these attorneys seek to either revive their legal careers or start their second careers as lawyers, they face many obstacles. In general, law firms will not con- sider them for their legal teams because they don’t “fit” in the traditional law firm model. By overlooking this pool of attorneys, law firms are losing an opportunity to add value and experience to their legal teams.
Returning to the Practice of Law
attorneys who decide to return to their legal careers after taking time off to raise fami- lies or care for others encounter some chal- lenges as well. according to a 2005 study con- ducted by the Center for Work-Life Policy in 2005 (Sylvia ann hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Peggy Shiller, and Sandra Southwell, “The hid- den Brain Drain: off-Ramps and on-Ramps in Women’s Careers,” Cambridge, massachu- setts: harvard Business School Publishing, 2005), 42 percent of women lawyers stopped working in their career for a period of time, and of them, only two-thirds returned to the workforce.1 however, these challenges can be overcome. With rapid advances in technology and the attendant access to information 24/7, it seems as if the legal landscape is changing every minute and clients’ expectations are increasing exponentially. Thus, if an attorney has not kept pace because of other life pri- orities, returning to the practice of law can be intimidating. In addition to learning the current law in a given field, they must also learn the latest advancements in technology. Then, add to that learning curve the new ways to network and job-seek. Fortunately, the needs of this group of lawyers and their importance to the legal community have not gone unnoticed.
one excellent example of a program that addresses the needs of these attorneys is the New Directions for attorneys program at Pace Law School in White Plains. This innovative program is conducted in collabo- ration with the Westchester Women’s Bar association (WWBa), one of 18 chapters of the Women’s Bar association of New York (WBaSNY). The program includes substan- tive law classes, legal research and writing and career counseling over a five-month period. The program is designed to meet the needs of attorneys who left legal prac- tice for a period of time to raise families or pursue other careers, for attorneys seeking to change their area of practice or for those seeking an alternative legal career.
one of the many successful aspects of this program is its collaboration with the WWBa. By coordinating with a local bar association, the New Directions program has a pool of lec-
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