New York Lawyer
October 22, 2002

Q:
After graduating from a Top 5 law school in 1996, I worked for a Top 10 law firm for four years before moving into a technology practice in a boutique firm. There I was sexually harassed by the partner I worked with, and he was was fired. After I was there a year, I and several associates were let go; I entered into a settlement agreement with the firm. I moved to an in-house position with a technology company, which went out of business one year after I joined. How do I explain all these moves? How do I explain not moving with the harassing partner to his new firm?

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A:

When "telling the tale" to a potential employer, focus first on the concerns they may have about any potential hire: Did this person choose to leave or was he/she asked to leave? Is there any evidence that they were incompetent? Is there any evidence that they were immature or lacked judgment? Is there any evidence that they couldn't fit in or that the lacked interpersonal skills? If there have been multiple moves, why? Can't hold a job? Too opportunistic or autonomous? Doesn't have clear career direction or focus?

All employers are afraid that they might buy a pig in a poke, so anything negative in one's career history tends to be given disproportionate weight. This means that you have the burden of persuasion of showing that you do not constitute a risky hire or that you are not bouncing around in your career like a loose cannon on a wet deck. You don't have to be defensive about it; recognize that these are legitimate employer concerns and respond accordingly.

First the good news: your education and career communicate some strong positives without your ever having to articulate them:

1) You are smart (Top 5 school, smart enough to be hired by a Top 10 firm).

2) You have enough polish and poise to be hired by a demanding Top 10 firm.

3) You were competent enough to be retained by that firm for four years, so you are not a per se incompetent who had to be fired immediately.

The move to the boutique is not alarming, so you don't have to explain it much: you found an area of specialization that suited you and moved to a specialized setting in which to practice it (you might also want to emphasize the better opportunities for mentoring and/or attractiveness of a smaller, more collegial culture). So far, no problem (unless you wanted to go back to a large firm; a change in one's choice of setting usually suggests the prior setting didn't appeal to/motivate you).

I would not mention the harassment issue or the settlement with the boutique unless it comes up -- it demands that someone play Solomon on a moral issue, and that's unpleasant territory (you "won," because they fired the partner, but this still is disagreeable best left unvoiced). It will be enough to say that the firm -- like almost all law firms in the last couple of years, particularly those tied to technology -- suffered a decline in business.

Sincerely,
Douglas B. Richardson
President, The Richardson Group