Graduate recruiting

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Local and national statistics show that law firms in the state are hiring at a higher-than-average rate and law schools are showing a modest revving up of resume requests and scheduled fall campus interviews.

No one is saying the heyday of a few years ago is back, but it appears the tight-fisted law job market is loosening a little.

"My sense is while it’s not a torrid and wonderful market the way it was five or six years ago," said Jane Heyman, assistant dean for career services at the University of Wisconsin Law School. "It’s not as bad this spring as it was last spring and there’s sort of optimism about next year as well. It’s still not easy and it varies from region to region and city to city."

Nationally, markets are mobilizing a bit too, according to James G. Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement, whose group, in part, keeps track of the ebb and flow on hiring and recruitment in the legal landscape.

"In Milwaukee 55.6 percent of all offices reporting indicated they had increased entry-level hiring," he said. "Nationwide the average was 41.1 percent, so Milwaukee was ahead of the pack. I’d say, very cautiously, things are looking up."

The economy and globalization of the profession has forced U.S. firms to re-think management practices, Leipold says.

"Law firms are really trying to manage their profit margin and labor costs; in part it was a lesson learned from the dot-com bust," he said. "Also, there is an increasing layer of non-attorney professional managers at firms now who have taken their cues from MBA schools and the business world. Historically, law firms have been managed as these unwieldy partnerships and have not necessarily been shrewd business entities. That ethos is changing."

As a result of this emerging economic-based approach to hiring, recruiting practices have also changed. As a market observer, Leipold says, new lawyers — and lawyers in training — don’t have the discretion they once did.

"Students are not expected to know what practice area they want to go into and law firms actually want, particularly when they take summer associates, them raw and unformed," he said. "When I was a summer associate in the early 90s you could pick and choose. Now, they plug you into a spot in a particular practice group and at the end of the summer it’s that or nothing. It may or may not match your interest or background. Law firms are going to plug you into a profit center where they have work and they’re not necessarily going to give you a choice in the matter."

However, that’s only partly true at one large Wisconsin firm. Joyce M. Nordman, recruitment coordinator for the Milwaukee office of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP said they do have practice group needs in mind when they hire summer associates — they’ve got 23 lined up for this summer which is up from the 16 they employed last summer — but the assignments aren’t cemented in stone to start with.

"About mid-summer we like them to start honing in on a couple practice groups they have an interest in and we try to match them with where we have a need for the remainder of the summer so both sides get to know each other," she said.

The only practice group that does lend itself to water-testing is intellectual property Nordman said, since virtually all those folks — unless they are trademark or copyright counselors — need to also have engineering degrees.

The 236-member firm used to distinguish that group even further by offering higher pay to starting IP associates. However, Nordman said they decided to abolish that practice and now all associates start with the same salary. Starting in September associates will earn $105,000 a year, which represents a $10,000 bump.

Intellectual property for the past several years has been the hot spot in terms of specialties and Nordman said it remains the number one need at her firm. But new lawyers need not dismay if they haven’t engaged in engineering training.

According to Marquette University Assistant Professor Eric Goldman — who co-runs the IP and Technology law program — engineering is really a regional requirement.

"There are plenty of jobs where a technical background is not required and firms are willing to look at people with no technical background for those spots, particularly IP litigation," Goldman said. "It’s region specific. In California, for example, law firms are organized differently. When I was there, there were a whole bunch of different practice areas under the IP area where a technical background is not required and wasn’t even important."

Now let’s say you’re not one of the fortunate few who have already locked a legal job? Leipold says you’re in the majority.

"Only 36 percent of all law school graduates are getting their jobs through that on-campus interview process. The majority of students get their job the old fashioned way through cold calling, self-initiated contacts and often that unfolds well after graduation and well after bar passage," he said. "I think we focus disproportionately on folks joining the large law firms and what’s happening there. It’s not the whole picture and I think students are misled into thinking that if they don’t succeed in that arena, they are not going end up with a job and that’s just not true."

He said the legal profession has been a very stable one and for the past seven years the average hiring rate has remained at around 89 percent. In addition to people landing permanent gigs, he said graduates shouldn’t eschew the temporary legal agencies. That cottage industry has grown 200 percent in the past 18 months.

One of the leading legal temp firms, Special Counsel, has offices in 28 cities around the country. The Chicago office handles many clients in Wisconsin, says Executive Director Ginger Wilson. The rent-a-lawyer field is booming in large part because it’s more economical for law firms and businesses to perform document searches and other discovery duties using these people rather than their higher paid permanent staff.

Wilson said her agency is a good option for new graduates who have leaden loans to bear and no immediate ripe permanent prospects. Pay ranges from $16 per hour for paralegal-type projects all the way up $25-$30 an hour. Projects can last a day or, in some cases, years. Although temps rarely get meaty assignments, Wilson said, at least your foot isn’t wedged in a door.

"Being in the law firm environment can be very beneficial to young lawyers, because they are learning how to navigate within a law firm or a corporate legal department," she said, adding that although it is not commonplace, some of these projects can turn permanent.

But the temp track isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, so some hiring honchos have some words of wisdom. Nordman says don’t lock yourself into the law firm option, consider other arenas such has judicial clerkships. They aren’t as plentiful but they are prestigious.

Leipold encourages students to join local bar associations and other arenas where you are likely to run into other lawyers. Also, take advantage of all your law school’s career counseling tips and advice.

Goldman says don’t just shotgun firms with your resume; pound the pavement and get out and meet people.

Also, says Matthew Dregne, the hiring partner at the Madison firm Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, your homework days are just beginning.

"They are going to have to identify what their strengths are and they are going to have to try and find an employment opportunity that matches up well with their strengths," he said. "They are going to have to get educated on what their opportunities are and they have to do their homework. Everybody’s situation is going to be different in terms of their background and experience."

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Stafford is looking for new talent, Dregne said, and they have hired new attorneys, but they usually prefer someone who has a few years experience.

Meanwhile, at another Madison shop, Axley Brynelson, LLP, Guy DeBeau says if you get the interview, don’t die on the vine by trying make yourself fit what you might think is the mold.

"Be yourself. I’ve interviewed so many people over the years and I’ve found people will interview with an anticipation they should behave one certain way. It almost seems to be an effort to remove your own personality from the process," he said. "They seem very anxious to get any job and they care less about what the job is or who they’re going to be working with, they just want to get that offer. This striving towards what’s expected, it doesn’t really give a good perspective of who they are.

Firms have personalities. Are they going to hire a person who is going to fit in with this group of people? If you don’t give the person interviewing you the chance to see who you are, you’re not going to get very far."