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Who’s Training New Lawyers Continued from page 7 are typically paid $20-$28 an hour with no benefits. Many of these attorneys seek my career counseling services, looking for help to find permanent employment in law. In rare instances, clients call me from cold, dirty warehouses where they are working with only a foot or two of personal space between attorneys. Notwithstanding these few occasions, in my view, these short-term discovery projects can usually work well for all concerned. For the new grads hired as contract attorneys, they feel fortunate that at least they are getting paid to do actual legal work. They are doing aspects of the work that they went to law school to do. Hopefully, too, they are receiving good training about how to use a particular tech firm’s software and how to ascertain relevant documents in the litigation. That’s all mostly good. It’s all different, though, too. Are we senior lawyers complacent to allow an emerging industry of e-discovery tech firms and temporary staffing agencies train our new lawyers? Should we worry that new attorneys may become pegged in the e-discovery industry and may not be trained to practice? I think it would be easy to agree that this not the most effective way to transition law students to the practice of law. C. The Back Credenza Model Even though law students and new grads will look at me quizzically when I advise them to create breathing space in their tight schedules, perhaps over a school break, I dare go one step further. I suggest they reach out to attorneys in a desired practice area and offer their services for free. I know that most lawyers have enormous, bulging files on their back credenzas—files they just can’t seem to get to. These might be cases involving a difficult client or perhaps poor fact patterns that are not supported by governing state law. The credenza may even hold a file that has already reached its maximum billing amount. There may be an article back there that is waiting to be written. Practitioners, perhaps a new attorney who has approached you Page 8 for guidance or even a job might entertain an opportunity to handle a file or two on your back credenza with no charge in exchange for your guidance and training. Not in every matter, but in many, two problems of our industry could be solved simultaneously. In fact, the Illinois Supreme Court recently inaugurated a Lawyer Mentoring Program through its Commission on Professionalism. Supreme Court Rule 795(d)(12), adopted in October 2010, outlines the requirements necessary for mentors and mentees to receive CLE credit for this type of teaching arrangement. III. New training methods for the legal community to consider A. The South Carolina Model It has been suggested that law schools should take on the responsibility of opening law firms where new graduates could be trained in the practice of law. This is essentially an extension of law clinics that already exist at many schools. These firms would be run and mentored by seasoned practitioners. As the clients who retain new attorneys’ legal services would be paying something for these services, the new grads would also receive salaries in this venture. “What If Law Schools Opened Their Own Law Firms?” Karen Sloan, The National Law Journal, August 17, 2011. University of Maryland School of Law Professor Robert Rhee and Brooklyn Law School Professor Bradley Borden write, “[Junior attorneys] will be expected to do client work but will also learn how to be successful attorneys. They will learn how to develop a book of business and make contacts in the community that will benefit them as practicing attorneys.” More on this “South Carolina Model” will be presented in a forthcoming issue of the South Carolina Law Review. While this is a new concept with some kinks in the armor, we need to seriously consider this training model for the profession. B. A private trainer Perhaps private trainers, like the tech firms, should train our legal graduates. These private companies are springing up, providing trainings for new lawyers, ranging from one to three- day long seminars. Some law firms are paying these new companies to do their associates’ training. Job seekers are also participating to gain an edge on the competition. Similar to the other suggestions raised in this article, hiring a private trainer also has its drawbacks. Chiefly, committing to a private trainer can be a considerable financial undertaking. Fees typically start around $900.00. New attorneys would have to determine whether any competitive edge from this training would outweigh the cost. C. The Show and Tell Model Maybe we lawyers should adopt the model of “Show and Tell.” Here, firm elders actually hire recent grads and pay them a reasonable sum. This model wouldn’t cost firms any extra financial outlays in the long run. Firm would be able to hire more attorneys, show them how to practice law and tell them about winning methodologies in their respective practice areas. Show and Tell: Feeling Much Better. The medical profession plays this game well. Medical programs transition students from medical school to medical practice. Depending on the area of specialty that the doctor wants to practice, training programs can run from three to six years. As a result of this transition period medical students have a clear understanding of what the future holds for them; they know what they are getting into, how long their training will take, and what their salary expectations should be before they are accepted into medical programs. These students enter the medical profession knowing they will work ridiculously hard for three or more years, depending on their specialty. They also know that they will be well-trained to practice medicine after they finish their programs. Show and Tell for Lawyers. Law firms that wanted to adopt the medical internship model to train new associates would start by adjusting the Continued on next page
Who’s Training New Lawyers Continued from page 7 pay of first year associates to reflect the training period. First year associates at firms offerering training would be offered perhaps $45,000 a year. Paying this salary would allow the firms to hire nearly four times more associates. That’s also four times more new associates being trained in the practice of law, all at roughly the same cost that is paid to one top associate today. In addition, after investing the firm’s time and effort into associate recruiting and training, the firm has the opportunity to increase its chances of retaining talent. Hypothetically, if new grads can be billed out at a reasonable rate, say $100 - $125 an hour, our cherished clients might not mind footing the bill for their training. What a concept! Think of it this way: if you were ever in the hospital, did you receive a visit from the residents or the interns? You may or may not have liked their services to you, but did you ever quibble about their charges? I’m guessing you didn’t. I’m guessing that you accepted those charges as fair and reasonable, as a price of being admitted to a teaching hospital. Perhaps part of you, too, may have accepted those charges as part of something bigger, the importance of training new doctors. There is another advantage to the Show and Tell Model. We all know that good grades in school do not necessarily transfer to the skills actually needed in the practice of law. The showing and telling paradigm might cut out the class warfare that permeates our law school classrooms. It could provide opportunities to new attorneys with great potential but more limited exposure than their more wellheeled colleagues. If new attorneys start their training on a relatively level financial playing field, each can succeed on his or her own merit, earning a growing salary based on performance. Overall, the hiring and training model utilized in the medical industry could be effective in the legal profession as well. Creating internships and residencies for new lawyers would be extremely helpful for them, relieving their many pressures about their Page 9 unknown futures. Law firms engaging in this training practice would not have the risks associated with hiring untrained associates, or poorly trained associates. IV. How do we achieve balance? In the post-2008 legal world, new lawyers’ training is getting lost in the shuffle. Especially for inexperienced lawyers who want to apply for available lateral positions for which they are not yet qualified, the challenge of finding threshold training is substantial. Perhaps by the time the corner office folks are looking to hire new talent (because the trained attorneys are burned out, no longer care about the money and have left the practice), the pool of trained attorneys will be meager. The attorneys eager to work in law firms simply won’t be qualified. In order to preserve the quality of services, law firms will have to develop a solution to attorney training. I hope we will create a way to take care of our own. I hope we will soon stop cringing and retreating into our safe, comfortable, corner offices when we hear about new attorneys’ outstanding debt and their lack of health insurance. Perhaps the hiring freezes will thaw somewhat when our very own children and grandchildren come knocking on our corner office doors, wanting to follow in our professional footsteps. “Sorry, honey. We’re not hiring.” Nancy Mackevich Glazer is founder and manager of Legal Launch. She founded Legal Launch to help law students, recent law school graduates, and attorneys land rewarding traditional and non-traditional careers. She can be contacted at nancy@legallaunch.net or (847) 650-1535. Alliance Committee Chairs To participate in an Alliance committee, please contact one of the chairs Domestic Violence Task Force/Advocacy Margot Klein margot.klein@comcast.net Jennifer Escalante jce@case.org Annual Awards Luncheon Cheryl Dancey Balough cbalough@balough.com Emily Masalski emasalski@yahoo.com Cross-Career Networking Danielle Kays DKays@gradypilgrim.com Kristen Prinz kprinz@prinz-lawfirm.com Holiday Party Liz Epstein esepstein@gmail.com Membership Stacey Austin staceyaustin@wkalegal.com Jennifer Kobayashi jenkobayashi@wkalegal.com Sasha Reyes sasha.reyes@bakermckenzie.com Mentoring Circles Mary Curry marykcurry@gmail.com Rachael Pontikes RGPontikes@duanemorris.com Programming Esther Chang esther.chang@bakermckenzie.com Rachel Fleischmann rfleischmann@atg.state.il.us Women’s Leadership Institute Michele Jochner mjochner@gmail.com Sandy Morris smorris@chiconunes.com Girl Scouts Legal Track Maureen Aidasani maureen.aidasani@us.gt.com Monica Weed monica.weed@navigant.com Legislative Liaison Madeleine Podesta mspodesta@gmail.com Newsletter Susan Pipal spipal@sbcglobal.net Jill Russell jrussell97@gmail.com Cindy Van Ort cynthia.van-ort@harrisbank.com
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